Happier Things

Glass half empty: This stroller is $100 cheaper in the States. Not fare.

Glass Half Full ....Almost all the way full: I love it though.

It was not a display model so we almost missed it, but when I saw it I loved it. It is a little more forest green than the picture shows. It folds up pretty small compared to others. We can lay it in the trunk front to back as opposed to sideways so it only takes up half the trunk. Then there is the front swivel wheel which Rawley has already tried out and loved. We pushed Rawley's doll in it the other day. (yes my 7 year old boy still has a doll... and there is nothing wrong with that!!!!)

Back when I worked at The Royal Bank I got Rawley the holder for the Olympic coins and started his collection. That was just over 3 years ago...now it is almost complete. Tom brought over the loonie that Rawley was missing yesterday, now all he needs is the sledge hockey quarter. I have no idea why this one is so hard to find, but it is. Rawley is so proud of his coins and I know he will take good care of them for a long time.

The best news of all for today though is that I start my mini-holiday and Ryan's parents arrive at 1:15 this afternoon. I am done my cleaning and stressing and now I just get to enjoy 5 1/2 days off with my family.

Rawley's school was closed today because they have no power in Matsqui so by fluke he gets to come with me to the airport to pick them up. He is spending his morning with my dad and then coming to my work at 11:30ish. I am sure he is very excited to come to the airport with me and Grandma & Grandpa will be so shocked and happy to see him there I am sure.

Chances of me blogging in the next 5 days are not good. So

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!

Where The Fear of Clowns Originated

A few weeks ago my friend Lindsay and I went out shopping. We browsed the baby stuff at Walmart and came across a creepy clown toy for infants. As I looked at it I remembered this creepy clown I had as a child. Lindsay had mentioned she also had one. I think hers had something on the back that you wound up to make sing. On mine you grabbed his big red nose and spun it to wind it up and then it would play some melody. I cannot remember what the song was, where I received the clown or if I ever liked it.

I do know that it is a freaky thing and am pretty sure I only saved it because it was one of the creepiest toys I ever owned.

For those of you out there with a fear of clowns, did you happen to ever have a toy that looked like this?

Ups & Downs

Friday night was pretty much shot because I felt so ill all day. I spent the night on the couch ignoring my messy house.

Saturday morning Tom cam by to pick up Rawley. He wanted to take him to a horse show at ThinderBird Stadium where some of the horses from the stables where he works were competing. Rawley also got to see Tom's work and feed the miniature horses.

Someone had given them a tip that there was a fair in town and Rawley obviously thought it was a great idea. So the two of them went to the fair. Only after Tom called and asked for permission to take Rawley. What a sweetheart.

~The Fair~

~Rawley's skull bear he won at the dart toss~

~The big slide~

~Rawley & Tom on the train..I think~

Ryan and I took this time do some stroller/carseat shopping and to have lunch alone in peace. It was wonderful. We went to Red Robins and looked through our honeymoon pictures (that I finally got developed 7 months after the trip). We also found a stroller carseat combination at Zellers that we really liked. So we bought that too. Once Rawley returned we got his room ready for Grandma & Grandpa's visit.

Sunday was a blurr of me waking up on the wrong side of the bed, being stressed, cleaning, yelling and so forth. Every time we have company coming I get into this state of crazy stress and anger. Mind you the house does get a good clean each time so it isn't all bad. The boys just need to learn to shut up and help or flee the house.

By Sunday night I was feeling pretty calm, We went for dinner at Bamboo Palace with Tom & Jeannine and it was nice to be out of the house and spending time with friends.

Ryan's mom & dad get here tomorrow at 1:15. So we have one more night of final cleaning and tidying, then I will give up and let it be.

I need to take some pictures of the Stroller; then I will post more about it.

Thank You Dad!

Last night we had my dad over for dinner, which we try to do every Thursday. Ryan had made yummy Ranch Shake n' Bake chicken and started the potatoes. I mashed potatoes when I got home and started the veggies. Dad brought pies; one pumpkin & one cherry. It is nice to have him over on Thursday nights. Rawley especially enjoys having Papa over.

We have had to cancel out last few dinners because we have had plans or dad has been busy, but I have been saving a job for him. The beautiful bassinet that Ryan and I bought second hand off Craigslist had stopped working. It has a little light on it, vibrations and a few songs that it plays which all worked the day we bought it. I was so happy because they bassinet is $160 new and we got it for $60 used but in great condition. Last month sometime I put new batteries in it and it wouldn't work. We have had the thing apart a couple times, Ryan has tried fixing it but nothing we did worked. Last night I asked dad to have a look at it, but he couldn't get it to work either.

Last night my dad also stayed with Rawley after dinner so Ryan and I could go shopping. We had some baby stuff to look at and started a registry at Sears. I was really excited about a night out shopping without Rawley. We had already done a baby registry at Babies R'Us and Rawley was there for that. He had a ton of fun and was the sole operator of the scanner. I think we did pretty well at Babies R'Us but it was still exhausting to try to make desicions with Rawley there. Although Rawley did pick out half the stuff and it was all very cute, I was looking forward to doing it alone with Ryan this time at Sears.

Trouble was we didn't really find too much stuff we liked at Sears. They have a lot of stuff online but once you are in their store they do not have much. The options for things was quite small. So we did a little here and there and then just kind of gave up. The main reason we were there was to buy a CarSeat Stroller combo anyway. I had one picked out already from their website but upon actually seeing it, touching it, and trying it out I changed my mind. So we looked at a few of the other ones, but there was nothing that I liked enough to spend more than $300 on. We left without one.

I was not going to buy one in the first place, I was just going to buy a carseat and get a stroller second hand. Now I am not sure what we are going to do. It was kind of a bummer of a night. We had money and a mission and ended up coming home empty handed and exhausted. I still enjoyed my time out of the house shopping alone with Ryan though, but it would have been nice to find something we liked.

Upon arriving home Rawley yelled from his room, "Papa & I fixed the thing". Dad had fixed the bassinet after all. In the words of Rawley this is how it went.
"Papa tried to fix the thing again, and it just was not working at all, so he got mad. He slammed it down on the table and said, "what a stupid device". Then all of a sudden it started working. So we took the electric thing and put it back in the bassinet and guess what? It didn't work. So I said some magic words and we tried again, and tada...now it works. Isn't that great? Papa and I fixed it!"

After putting the electronic part back in the bassinet it wouldn't work again so dad smacked it. Then it started working. He took it part once more and all he can figure is when it was squished closed two of the wires touched and it shorted out. He pushed one of the wires out of the way and now it is working. Yay.

Thanks dad (and Rawley) for fixing by bassinet. I was so upset out that the bassinet was broken, then our shopping was unsuccessful.. so it really made my night.

Chilliwack Bruins

Yesterday at 3pm we received 3 free tickets to the Chilliwack Bruins game last night. When Rawley found out he was so excited. A few years ago we went to quite a few games. That was back when we were living with my dad. We didn't have to pay rent then or make my new car payments. We don't get to do much stuff like this anymore unless we win tickets or have nice people give them to us. So last night was a treat.

~ The guys warming up before the game~

~My cute little man in his Bruins T-shirt~

~Bruiser~

~Rawley sitting off by himself (we are not cool anymore)~


~Picture Rawley took~

~Rawley hanging out with all his new buddies~

The game was pretty bad for the most part. Bruins were not playing all that great. By the third period they it was 3-1 for Tri-City. With 5 minutes left a lot of people started to leave. I always hate it when people do that. If you bought the tickets you are wasting your money walking out before it is over. If you received the tickets free then you appear very ungrateful. I have and will never leave a game before it is over. Anyway, too bad for them. With 2 minutes left the bruins pulled their goalie but couldn't make anything happen. With 43 second left n the clock they called a time out. I turned to Ryan and said, "what is the point? they are not going to score twice in 43 seconds" I was wrong, they did. The arena was so loud it was hard to tell that 1/2 the fans had already left. Rawley and his little group of friends at the glass went nuts. They were so cute; all yelling and high fiving each other.

It was a great night and Rawley had so much fun. Thank you for the tickets!!!!!

On nights when Rawley is going to be out late we have tried giving him another 1/2 pill around 4:30-5pm. He usually has half at 7am, half around 11am or 12pm and then nothing for the rest of the day or he will not be able to sleep. Because his pills are a four hour release, by about 4pm he is not having such an easy time with control of his body. This is hard for us because we only see him during his worst time of the day. We first tried this 1/2 pill thing when we were in Seattle and having late nights with lots of outings. Then we tried it when he went to the Canuck's game last week with Uncle Dustin and we could not believe how good Rawley was. So, did it again last night and it is like being out with a totally different child. He is still spunky and fun loving, but controlled. We could see the difference in him. He was able to sit and watch the game without fiddling, getting up, kicking his legs, flailing his arms, spewing things out of his mouth before thinking. He was having a great time while not being overly obnoxious. Then we could actually see the transformation right at the four hour mark. He could not longer sit down, he was flailing his arms everywhere, raising his voice, speaking without thinking, not keeping his hands to himself, being the in your face type kid that has no control.

My one view of this is sad because it is so obviously clear how reliant he is on medication to be socially successful. On the other hand I am happy we have discovered this because it lets us know that we don't always have to cower at the thought of taking him out at night. We don't have to miss out on evening activities anymore, we just have to plan his medication around them. It usually means Rawley will not fall asleep any where close to 8pm, but by the time we get home he is tired and if he still struggles he can take a little bit of melatonin to assist his sleep.

Having a child with ADHD is a learning process everyday.

Of All The Things She Taught Me.......

....today this is my favorite:

French Fries dipped in Ice-Cream.

When I was 13 Bonnie and I were early to catch a bus. We were at the bus stop outside of Dairy Queen in Fleetwood so Bonnie suggested we get a snack while we wait. We left Dairy Queen with a large fry and a large ice-cream. And that was the first time I had French Fries dipped in ice-cream. It certainly has not been the last. Although Ryan finds this gross Rawley will share this simple pleasure with me occasionally.

That is what I hate for lunch today.

Thanks Bonnie!!!


Just for the record I had trail mix and a sandwich bag full or baby carrots for snack....just so you don't judge me too much. :)

Better Days Are Coming

The later part of my day was definitely better than the first half yesterday. Rawley & Ryan came to visit me at work. Ryan fixed the shelf in the photocopy room and Rawley sat at my desk and wrote me love note. With each love note he added a little word jumble for me. Later that night he learned that 'loves' does not have an apostrophe in it. I love my little notes and besides moving the one from in front of my keyboard I have left them up.

Rawley brought his report card with him yesterday when he came to see me. I was pretty happy with it. He got all threes & fours. Three is meets expectations and four is surpasses expectations. He did receive four twos though and they were all in behaviour related categories. This is an area of his life where he will always struggle and have to work hard. His reading is a little behind. I think he reads great but they say he reads a at an October level and he needs to be at a March level. I guess we will be working on that.

Last night I dyed my hair then watched Hockey and Curling with Ryan. Loungo did not impress me much but Jennifer Jones did. Go Jennifer! She has won all 7 of her games so far in the worlds. Top team right now.

Rawley and I did start out 'Thankful Books' last night. I have discovered it is very time consuming to have Rawley think of 10 things and write them down. Last night he did 6 and it took an hour. Tonight maybe I will write them down for him. Or he can write the first 2 then I will help. Two things that Rawley wrote that i really liked:

1. "I was not the one who threw the block today, I was the one that got hit"
This is sad for me because he got hit pretty hard and had to go to the medical room and get iced, but it is happy for me because it shows that Rawley is learning. He did not throw the block nor did he retaliate. It has been a long time that Rawley seem to always be in trouble. So for him to feel happy that he was not the one in the wrong shows he is learning. I am proud.

2. "Mom had a good day"
He did not know I didn't have a good at at work, as I didn't talk about it at all, but I let him read my list to help him get some ideas of how detailed or vague our lists could be. I wanted him to see what made me happy and that might help him find what made him happy. I love that what made him happy was that I had a good day. I felt the love!!!!!

Those were my 2 favorite ones, other included:
I got to play wii this morning with Jake
It was a gym day and I had fun
The Oilers are beating the Canucks...(that one hurts a bit)

Anyway, I think if we keep this up it may be a really good thing.

How Much Exercise Is Too Much?

Friday night I realized that it has become a chore just for me to walk to the video store and back. This is a walk we have done a lot, usually also going to the mall which is another 2 city blocks away. By the time we got home from renting videos I wasn't sure I had enough energy to stay up and watch one.
Rawley watched Pokemon till it was bedtime then Ryan and I watched The Informant. It was....weird. That's about all I can say..oh and it was long too.

Saturday morning I had a great idea that we should somehow figure out how to jam all our bikes in my trunk and head to Stanley Park. We tried and failed. My car is just too small and out bikes are just too big. When we first got bikes I looked into getting a bike rack, but they are so expensive ($100+), then I thought about asking for one for Christmas or my birthday, but it was cold and wet through winter and a bike rack was not the first thing on my mind.

Rawley was heart broken we were not going to go anywhere to ride but around Abbotsford. I know this because he whined about it all the way to Wal-mart. "This sucks", "We always ride in Abbotsford", "There is no where cool to go", "I don't even want to go." It was about this time I told him to be quiet or we will not do anything and he can spend the day in his room.

While at Wal-mart finding shirts that fit over my growing belly and a bike seat pad for Ryan's tender bum, we decided to look and see what they sell bike racks for. Hmm $39.00 on sale. After much humming and hawing over it we bought the bike rack, went home to get our bikes, packed our lunches and off we went to Stanley Park.

~Ryan, finishing off installation of rack & bikes~

We knew it would be busy at Stanley Park as it was Saturday, but it was the busiest I have ever seen it. There was no parking all the way around. We were directed into the middle of the park to get a spot. In total we rode about 11kms. I almost gave up twice. Bike riding is not the same when you are 6 months pregnant. You know how you when normal people pedal their legs pump up and down. Well I had the luxury of pedalling out then up & down. Which I mean is not so bad until you have to climb a hill. It is way easier to push hard when your knees are in line with your body not hanging out to the side like your are riding a horse.

~Olympics Rings~

~Beautiful Cherry Blossoms~


~Huge Ship passing under Lions Gate Bridge~

We did pack a lunch as to not spend anymore money, but I was hungry by the time we got to Second Beach so we shared a large order of Fries before Rawley went off to play at the park.

~waiting for Fries~

~The crazy thin slide at the park~

~Resting~

~going under the tunnel~

~more Cherry Blossoms~

~Another tunnel, Rawley's favorite part~

On our way home we stopped in to say 'Hi' to my grandma & grandpa. When we were in the states we bought grandma some PayDay chocolate bars. The peanut & Caramel ones have no chocolate in them so they are a treat for her because she is allergic to chocolate.

Sunday was more of a responsible boring day. Grocery shopping & Cleaning. Rawley had to clean his room. Ryan had take out garbage and recycling and I got to scrub the boys bathroom. Ryan's parents are coming to stay with us next week and I would rather die than have them see the boy's bathroom. It is clean enough now you can eat off the floor behind the toilet (yeah, that clean)... The boys have been threatened to keep it that way for at least 2 weeks or else......

Rounding Out

It appears that my belly is not the only thing getting rounder....my face had taken on a new much rounder form..

I guess I should just be happy that my bum has remained the same size and my hands and feet are not swollen.

We will be in our 3rd trimester by the end of this week and Nudge will be 13 inches long and weigh 2 pounds.

Quality Time in the Kitchen

In one of my previous posts I mentioned that Rawley loves to help in the kitchen but sadly I usually don't have the patience or time to deal with his help. I decided last night that I needed to make the time and force myself to have the patience for him to help. It is a great way to spend time together and he loves it.

So last night while Ryan was doing man things like playing tools and taking out the garbage Rawley and I made Grandma Pats' Potato Soup & her Banana Bread. He turned on some tunes and hung out for an hour and a half in the kitchen together.

~I peeled the potatoes & Rawley did the carrots~

~He even helped with cutting~

While the veggies were all cooking for the soup we started our Banana Bread. I always make the bread from frozen bananas. This is because there is always that lone banana that becomes too ripe and no one wants to eat it anymore.. so into the freezer it goes. I am sure I have more bananas than food in there so it was high time I actually made the bread. Sometimes I forget to take the bananas out early enough or I decide to do it on a whim and peeling frozen bananas is nearly impossible. So yesterday I ran them under hot waters for a minute and then it was super easy. It made them soft enough that the peel just came off right away. I said to Rawley, "They should give you that tip in the recipe books" and he got all excited and decided WE should write it in a recipe books and make money.

~mushing up the eggs, butter & Bananas with my Pastry blender~

~Stirring the batter~

Now that the bread was in the oven it was time to blend the veggies into a wonderful soup puree. When I brought out the machine Rawley was totally gung-ho to use it. Then he actually used it and decided that he did not want to do it anymore. He didn't like the vibrations it was putting in his arm.

~Finished products~

The soup was done with enough time for Rawley to try a bit before bed and he approved. The banana bread took a little longer so he has a banana bread muffin in his lunch. I have soup for lunch today and cannot wait until noon... Mmmmmm.

Then it will be Potato soup for dinner before Rawley heads off to Auntie Merry & Uncle Dustin's and Ryan & I head out to the Reba concert!

Seattle Part 5 - Sunday Afternoon

After the zoo we headed for our Argosy Boat Tour of Elliot Bay. I was looking forward to this attraction as it would not involve any walking. Right before we got on board Rawley became quite nervous. The dock was bouncing up and down with the waves and he was concerned about how rocky the boat would be. Poor guy.

~ Rawley & I waiting to set sail~

~Canadian Naval Ship docked in Seattle~

~Space Needle~

During the hour long cruise we had a tour guide telling us about all the different places and cool things in Seattle. He was quite funny and very knowledgeable. I really enjoyed learning about Seattle. Just past the Space needle is Queen Anne Hill. Rich people started to build houses up there to escape the city a bit and while building the houses they often came across graves. So instead of having people come and dig up the graves during the day when it could be witnessed they hired men to come in at night, dig up the graves and rebury the bodies elsewhere. This shift became known as the graveyard shift. That is where the term started. So anytime you are working the graveyard shift at work you will now know why it is called that.

~These are Loser California Sea Lions~

Loser Sea Lions. So down on the beaches in California the Sea Lions are very greedy and each male Sea Lions wants to have all the women Sea Lions on shore to himself. If another male Sea Lion tries to steal his one of his girlfriends he will beat them up. So these are are a group of smaller Sea Lions that cannot get a date without getting the tar beat out of them. So they swim up here to our very plentiful waters and eat as much salmon as they can to get big and strong so they can go back to California and get a girlfriend. Others just come here to hide, eat & be lazy.

~Beautiful Seattle Skyline from Elliot Bay~

The Harbour Tour was my favorite attraction. I loved being on the boat. I enjoyed learning all the cool things about Seattle that you would not learn anywhere else. And I really enjoyed the guy that was doing the talking. It was just a really nice relaxing enjoyable activity to do. I highly recommend going on one of these tours next time you are in Seattle.

We grabbed a quick bit after the harbour tour and headed to the Museum of Flight. Every time we are in Seattle Ryan always wants to go on the double deck highway. We have tried twice to get on but got lost both times. So it was very exciting when we ended up on it to get from McDonald's to The Museum.

When we got to the Museum we did the Outside Air Park part first because it closed before the rest and it was looking like it might rain. There were 2 planes in the air park that we could walk through and some others that we could walk around the outside of. One of the planes we were allowed to walk through was an old Air Force One. It was pretty cool to be inside one of the most important planes (of its time).

~Presidential Conference Room~

There was a sign posted telling us who added what to the President's room. I can't remember their names but one of them had a Cowboy Hat rack installed, another had a cup holder...and I forget the rest. In my defence I was very tired and sore by this time and only sort of half paid attention and we moved from exhibit to exhibit.

~Rawley & Ryan leaving Air Force One~

~Rawley & I standing below a huge engine~

~Part of the original Boeing Factory~

~Ryan sitting in the cockpit of a......~

The first 2 rooms we walked through went over everything from the beginning of flying to planes in WWI & WWII. We learned about Aircraft carriers and shooting down hot air balloons. It was quite educational and had I not been so tired I would have read more. I must admit that towards the end of the 3 hour tour at the Museum I had lost interest in almost everything. I was so tired and so sore. A few of the rooms I did not even walk around in. I walked in, found a chair and waited for the boys. Rawley got to see the space travel exhibit where he watched videos of shuttle launches and played games where he had to land on the moon without crashing. He would have stayed there all day.

We did not leave Seattle till 5pm and still had to stop in Bellvue and at Target. We got a little lost on the way to Bellvue because our Tom Tom did not know where Fred Myers was (we had to meet a friend there for Rawley's hat that he forgot the day before). Then we stopped in Everett to eat dinner at Denny's. We finally got to Target around 7:30pm but they did not have the baby stuff we had wanted to buy. By the time we crossed the border at Huntington it was 10:15pm.

It was a long, crazy, busy, tiring weekend. We had ups and downs throughout but I am so glad we did it. We managed to get so much done it such a short time. I know Rawley will remember this holiday for a long time. He has already said it was the best weekend ever which makes at all worth it. It is now Wednesday and I have not recovered yet though. I think relaxed quiet days are in the cards for this weekend.