Update

Hey guys,
Just wanted to update quickly here from the library. Belle doesn't quite get the quiet zone yet so this will be quick. Nick approached the church about our money issue and they are either going to give us some from the benevolent fund or a advance on Nick's pay. But then we checked our bank balance today and I got paid double what I was expecting as my last paycheck and Nick's final pay came in two installments! Crazy. Anywho, I will be back on line Wendesday.

Jen, as far as using our moving company, I'd say you have a much better idea of an estimate than we did seeing as you just moved, and if they try to tell you it's more you have way more cahones than I do to fight them. I'm sure it will all work out.

Until wednesday Peace from the East!!

Trouble

Hey Y'all.
We made it to Georgetown alive. We didn't hit any bad weather and we didn't get stuck at the border for too long, all in all a nice trip.

Sadly that's where the niceness ends and I'd really love all your prayers. Our move cost about $1,000.00 more than anticipated and we currently don't even have the money to get our stuff off the truck. We're in a huge hole and have no where to turn. This sucks more than I have words to say or tears to cry. I'll let you know how it goes, but it's not looking good.

I may not write for a while as I'm not sure cardboard boxes have internet accesss.

Hope you all are well, can't wait until we can reconnect.

Comforting

Today at the zoo we spent some time listening to a zoo interpreter tell us about giraffes, ostriches and hippos.

Giraffes are pregnant for 15 months. Then at the end they give birth to a 6 foot tall 120 pound darling.

For some reason I find that comforting.

Winding Down, not Up

So things for the move are progressing. We are just doing the cleaning and have the stuff we're still using each day to pack. Not too bad. We are going to take a break and go to the zoo tomorrow as we need it now more than ever. My family has arrived to "help" us with the final tasks and we have a few scheduled get togethers to say good-bye and I only have to go to the office once more!! Things should feel like they're going great.

But then there's the reality side of moving. We took our car in for an oil change and highway safety check to make sure there wasn't anything that could leave us stranded in strage Minnesota. $500 later we'll be safe enough to drive. Then we started calling to hook up our utilities and because it's the first time we have utilities in Ontario we have to make hundreds of dollars in deposits, (this is not exasperated exaggeration either, each deposit is about $200 for three utilities), in order to have water and electricity when we move in. And then we got a great letter from our landlord, the usual stuff-this is how you clean and what's expected. No biggee right, except they mail your damage deposit to you after you move out. That was our gas money to move across the country.

Ugh. We planned and planned and did everything we could. We trusted and believed that God will provide all we need for this move. And up until Friday we had to the penny to cover our expenses. Funny how Monday changes everything.

So, say a prayer or two for us. We have to use the money to pay August's bills to move and hope that our last paychecks cover our regular expenses, (like life insurance and our car payment and what not). And that said paychecks get to us in time to pay said bills.

We are definitely stressed to the max right now. There are three extra adult bodies in our apartment. It is stinkin hot out.

Do you think it would be okay if I filled the bathtub with chocolate pudding and immersed myself in it, not to emerge until I had eaten the tub clean? That's all I want to do.

I don't know God's plan for this move and how it's all going to come together, and I'm quite freaked out about that. I've definately been knocked off my feet, I was just hoping not to land on my ass.

I'll try and post something a little cheerier after the zoo tomorrow, but if not this is me saying Goodbye and Goodnight until August 2.

28

I woke up this morning totally full of emotion. I just had this sense that something was wrong, very wrong with the baby. Wrong as in the sense that the little life inside of me was not doing so well and may in fact never see the light of day. I have no idea where this feeling came from and why it came on this particular morning, but it did. I just couldn't shake it. I just couldn't stop crying. I tried to tell myself to calm down. To just eat and drink a glass of cold water and wait, I would feel this little one move, if only I could calm down. I guess I did calm down because the next thing I know I am in a rush to get out the door to my doctor's appointment as I fell asleep. And so off I went with a brave face, waiting to hear the worst, but not wanting to give off a vibe for Belle as she was accompanying me this time around.

I got the Doctor's office a few minutes late and so had to join the mass of people in the waiting room and wait for my turn. I had also been double booked as at first I just made the appointment for my Rohgam shot, but then we decided to do one last visit before the move. I am so glad we did.

The nurse came in and we talked. I told her a bit about my anxiousness, and she explained to me that some babies are "kickers and punchers" while other babies are "rollers and grinders". Belle was the former, this baby is the latter. She said that the rollers are much harder to detect movement on and cause quite a bit of concern the entire length of pregnancy as the movements are hard to detect. But in fact, all those things that feel like someone kicking under water are in fact actual baby movements and the pressure that feels like someone expanding a water balloon under my ribs is also the baby. She then went on to "prescribe" a time of evening rest wherein after dinner I HAVE to sit with a cold glass of water and wait until I feel 10 individual movements before I can continue with my evening. I think I like that prescription. She then proceeded to jab me in the right hip with a needle, I don't know why but the Rogham shot always hurts me and gives me a headache. However, she did smile the whole time so I can forgive her.

Finally the doctor got around to seeing me and I asked if there was anything I needed to be on the look out for while driving for 40 hours and spending three days in a row sitting down, and about signs of baby dehydration,

(we went to a Stampede Breakfast on Sunday and a lady regalled me with her story of a stillborn child she had due to dehydration-and that was in Alberta, oh how her eyes widened when I told her I was moving to Ontario and her gentle encouragement turned to Fire and Brimstone if I did not heed her wisdom. )

After asking my questions I positioned myself on the table and Belle beside me so we could hear the heartbeat and do the measuring. Out came my favorite piece of technology, the Doppler. Almost immediately that tiny heart was beating away and I was so relieved. But the doctor kept on listening, one minute, two minutes, five minutes. A look of worry washed over my face and she smiled and said "I'm just waiting for this little one to calm down!".

WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?

Waiting for the baby to calm down? I haven't felt it move in 13 hours. What do you mean you have to wait for a 'resting' heart beat. This child is so still it's scary. But apparently not. With an active heart rate of 170 and a resting heart rate of 150 this child is gearing up for the Olympics in utero and I CAN'T FEEL A BLOODY THING!

And I have to wait how long until I can see this child?

Wanted

I am totally craving butter tarts today. I have the tart shells but can't find a recipe for the insides, anyone have one? And Nick has asked for lemon tarts, does anyone have a recipe for lemon filling that I can put in tarts?

My least favorite part.

My least favorite part of moving is the people that come to see your home so they can be the next renters/buyers. In our last place we had to be out of the house everytime someone came to see it because it was being sold and we had to have it spic and span. This time around our landlords are looking to rent so it's a little more laid back. I had planned on being out of the house but Belle had a rough night last night and we were just doing lunch when they came in. Since Belle had a rough night, so did I and I was still in my schlumpadink clothes, unshowered and looking rather haggard I'm sure. I had managed to tidy the whole house and give the bathroom a really good clean last night, so the only room not looking so good was the kitchen, (the floors need a good wash). I didn't think much of it, reminding myself they're here to rent the place not me. Our landlord came in and started talking to Belle and then the potential renters came in, three hot college guys!! Ohmigosh. Here I am looking like death warmed over watching Treehouse TV and feeding a toddler who never got dressed this morning. Not that I'm looking to rent a college guy or anything, but why oh why couldn't they have been nice old people looking to downsize? Note to self, shower before the next potential renters come by.

Lacking

Sorry for my lack of posting lately. I realized I'm on blogger all the time but not really posting much. I'm in a frenzy to get all these loose recipes onto the computer before the move so I spend a lot of time typing there. I'm at about 90 recipes right now, (and oh so many more), the organization is really lacking there and probably will be until after the move. But about 90% of these recipes I haven't even tried, so if you use one leave me a comment and let me know if it was any good!

Another weekend come and gone.

Another weekend has come and gone. For the last long while all my days have felt like the same thing over and over. There haven't really been any monumental events going on or anything incredible happening to us, just the hum drum of life. But this weekend I could see some changes. For example, Belle now walks up the stairs and out the door by herself. She will hold your hand to walk down the stairs or any crazy large steps. She is getting to be quite mobile and independant. This weekend she actually started running in excitement when Nick was chasing her.
She can almost get her shoe on her foot, and at least knows where it is. She keeps her hat on outside without being reminded, (except when she feels we're ignoring her and then she takes it off to get our attention.) On our walk around the neighborhood on Saturday she looked especially girl guide-ish and as she stopped to touch the ants, trees, and flowers, pick up all garbage, and every stick I thought for a minute about the possibility of sewing badges onto a brown sash. Yikes. She still likes to just sit in the grass or gravel at the park, we haven't moved onto equipment yet. Mostly because I'm so short and getting more immobile by the day which makes it hard for me to feel safe with her tearing around on high places. I'm sure it will happen soon enough though.
And while we were watching her play a bit during a rain storm on Sunday we realized how strong Belle is. I mean look at that muscle definition, it's going to take me months to catch her physique! She was picking up empty water bottles for our water cooler, the bins we use for grocery shopping, and everything she didn't feel was away and moving them all over the kitchen. She is a strong one.
And the personality. We'll have to call her our little ham. We were sitting on the couch watching "While you were Sleeping" and sharing a bowl of chips. There was a throw pillow behind her head and torso. I went to hand her a chip and instead of taking it she put her head on the pillow and started making pretend sleeping noises, with her eyes kinda closed but open enough to see me. Oh the laugh that gave her. During our bedtime routine we say prayers and then ask her for a hug and kiss which she gives. Usually we then place her in her crib and say good night. But recently she's started offering more and more kisses knowing we wont put her down while she's doing that. Her eyes just light up and she tries to be sneaky with her kisses too. It's adorable.

I can't believe how much she's already grown and how the changes happen everyday. I can hardly imagine what it will be like when there are two of them. In church on Sunday while the pastor was praying Nick just leaned over and put his hand on my bellly. I haven't been feeling very much movement thus far in this pregnancy, (although I'm told there's no reason to be alarmed), and I didn't realize until Sunday that it causes Nick as much stress as it does me. I remember how much we loved Belle before she was born and that's something that hasn't changed. Although now our love is evolving to accept another.

Isn't it weird how so much can change and yet nothing at all?

Oy Vay

There are times when I'm so funny I make myself laugh. Not funny in a "you should be a comedian kind of way", but funny in a 'oy vay' kind of way.

On Saturday I went all out for dinner. I was hungry and had energy I guess. So I cooked up a storm. We had homemade stuffing in a stuffed chicken, cauliflower, Double Stuffed Potatoes and I even made a dessert of Mini Cinnamon Twists. It was a delicious dinner and my tummy was happy.

Then on Sunday night we had peanut butter sandwiches for dinner.

See what I mean, funny.

Top Ten

Before Nick left for work today he brought in 5 empty boxes and declared, "I would not be sad at all if these were full when I got home from work.". See I asked for one box so I could put in some picture frames and begin the packing of things we use on a fairly regular basis. Nick would like it if we were all packed up today. Then he would drive me nuts going 'Can we move yet? Can we move yet?". I might pack up one or two of those boxes, but my plan was to bake for a while as I'm whittling down my pantry and then curl up with a few girlie movies and some scrapbooking to congratulate myself on making it through another week. I think those plans have been changed. In order to motivate myself I decided to write a Top Ten list of things I'm looking forward to in Ontario. These are in no particular order.

1. We will have a kids bathroom and a grown ups bathroom.

2. I'm pretty sure we can have a kitchen table, (although not totally sure as I haven't seen the place yet).

3. I'm not going to work for a whole year.

4. I will have a built in dishwasher for the first time ever!

5. I will not have to listen to my neighbors being "affectionate" at all hours of the night.

6. I will not have to listen to said neighbor's child cry for hours while being ignored.

7. We do not have another anticipated move date planned. That's right we're going to live somewhere indefinitely, (again for the first time since we got married).

8. My Aunt Shell and Uncle Jeff are amazing when it comes to anything culinary and I will live 20 minutes from their kitchen.

9. It doesn't take 2 hours to get across town.

10. We'll be in our new house and getting settled in only 24 days.

I better go pack those boxes, we move in only 13 sleeps!

I'm in Awe

I have started watching "So you think you can dance!". I started watching it with some friends from our Bible Study group who were really into it, and I got suckered in at the auditions. I have enough rhythym to clap to "We Will Rock You" and that's the end of my talent folks. To see these people dance blew me away.

Now I know that they have taken dance lessons, (well not Musa), but they are still only trained in one specific area and they have to do other areas. The two faces here are some of my favorites. Benji and Donyelle. They are partners. He's the child of the National Swing King and that's the kind of dancing he knows how to do. She does lyrical dance, which I don't understand or even appreciate but she makes it beautiful.

The first week they had to dance Hip Hop, and they blew me away. I will continue to watch, hoping that they win!

But the thing that "So you think you can dance!" has done for me is remind me of how unique we each are. My gifts and talents are in being creative. Now I'm sure that there will never be a reality tv show called "So you think you can scrapbook!", but someone needs to make those signs for the crowd to hold up. And someone needs to decorate the stage and make the costumes. For a long time I thought that because I have a gift that can be best used behind the scenes that I didn't have a gift at all. But watching all these dancers from different schools learn to work with each other and try new styles, I'm really learning that all of our gifts are needed to compliment each other!

It's probably a good thing there isn't a reality show for my talents, it wouldn't be fair to anyone else. (Just kidding, don't call me on that cuz I could enter contests which are like the same thing and I'm not ready to be called out).

Kindred Sprirts

These are my friends Richard and Sheri. I didn't post the wrong picture, you're right they are as old as my parents. Sheri and I met as we were both youth sponsors in St. Albert and neither one of us liked to pay attention at the meetings. We'd sit in the back getting in trouble, well at least getting those wicked looks from the keeners who want to know the perfect Bible Study formula for teens. (Little do they know there isn't one, (insert evil laughter)).

Sheri has two daughters who are my age and a son who is 16 or 17 I think. Her son Josh and Nick hit if off famously and did a lot of sound stuff together during Nick's internship. Sheri and I made fun of everything. We would spend evenings at their house eating and chilling. Sheri and her daugther Jocelyn were the first to find out I was pregnant with Isabella. She is just a great person.

Sheri never treats you like you're young. Perhaps it's because she is ten years younger than her husband and he doesn't treat her like a kid. She has such a heart for young people and mentoring and she isn't naive. I mean she knows that med parties and the oral sex epidemic aren't scare tactics to get you involved in your teenagers life. She has such a great influence on everyone and is so generous. She shares openly about her life and is just a great encouragement. And if you're bored and the room is full of people, there's probably someone who's not there and so deserves to have a "caper" pulled on them. Ah summer camp, it never dies.

Richard has to be the oldest kid on the block. Everytime I talk to him I learn something new. For example at the wedding this weekend I learned he used to be a dj and he told me all about how a dj targets a couple and plans his play list around keeping them on the floor. (You thought you were just paranoid didn't you?). Richard takes his faith very seriously and not just in word or in it being a list of rules to follow. Everytime we visit they thank us for the time we spent with the youth of their church and they let us know they are praying for us. The same way they pray for their own flesh and blood.

When I think of my relationship with Sheri and Richard, and their relationships with their children I know that that is what I want to be like. Totally relevant, but not trying to be 18 again and their child's best friend. So much fun to be with and yet you know you can come over and cry in a cup of coffee if you need to. I'm so blessed to have known them and I hope they don't mind that I want to grow up to be just like them!

A love a good wedding.

On Sunday we made a day trip to Edmonton for the wedding of our friends Jillene and Cody. It was a superb wedding. It was held at the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald and when I walked in the place I started to look around for my ball gown, feeling severely under the accepted income bracket. It's true that the families are well off, but there is nothing about them that makes you feel like money matters. It was nice to spend an evening living like the other half. The meal was a five course meal, (including a pallette cleanser sorbet just before the main course), and it was delectable. Nick and our friend Mark took turns eating what I left on my plate, it turned into quite the competition. It was a bitter sweet wedding for us as it will be the last time we see these people in a very long time, possibly ever. We left Isabella with our friends Cory and Ange who took her to a church picnic and had fun test driving two kids. Apparently she was an angel, which made the day even better.
Now I love weddings. All weddings. I wish I had the courage to be like the "Wedding Crashers", minus the promiscuity. Just attending weddings makes me a happy person. I've loved weddings where you can feel the love of the family, weddings where the horniness of the couple just oozes from the head table, weddings outside, weddings full of guests under the age of 5, I love all weddings. But at this wedding I experienced something brand new. It was incredible the respect that was held for this couple. Not just by their peers but by people twice their age. It was so neat to think that these two are beginning a life together already firmly seated on a pedestal that is well deserved and put to even better use shaping the lives of young people for Christ. They are truly amazing people and it was great to see them revered. I think that's something we truly don't do enough of.

Sadly this was our only wedding this summer, I'm sad it's over! But I'm glad to have been able to share the day with them!

Anybody need a date for a wedding?

More Knots?

WE GOT THE HOUSE!

I think I'm excited about that. I'm pretty sure I am. I know that it eases a lot of stress to have a new address and Nick will be very excited. But then there come up so many other things to take care of now. It's crazy. I don't know how I'm going to handle it! But we have a new home to move into on August 1, 2006. One major hurdle jumped. Now we need to continue living without worry that God will provide the money to set up the utilities and all that jazz and to be able to continue to afford it. One day at a time.

In knots

So, in my move update yesterday I let you all know about a house we were hoping to get. I got some more info on it and while it doesn't sound totally ideal, (as in the white picket fence that I decorated straight out of Amanda Stewart), it's a house and with all the "affection" going on above us we are sooooooo tired of living in shared accomodations.

When I say not ideal it's small. There are 3 storeys to this place, but no basement. So floor one is your common areas with a 2 piece bath and kitchen, no dining room and living room. The second floor is the master bedroom with en suite 4 piece bath and the top floor is two more bedrooms with a large bathroom. Each floor is approximately 500 square feet, so slightly smaller than where we are living right now per floor. The price is good compared to what we're finding online. There is another person looking at it as well and it's basically going to come down to who has the better credit score as to who it will be rented to.

We do not have a good credit score. It is small, I'll probably feel cramped, but it's a HOUSE with my own front door and all that jazz. There is however no back yard just a little patio and then a common area for all the tenants in the townhouse complex.

So now I'm torn. I'm not sure what to do. Do we go ahead and put in our application and most likely get rejected. Or do we say 'you know what, this just isn't good enough'. And wait for something else?

All the other properties we looked at previously are no longer available, but do I go for it out of fear of not having something at all?

It's such a rollar coaster. And the thing is I'm not looking to buy this property just rent it for a year or two but I feel like I'm making the biggest decision of my life, the stres oh the stress.

I just don't know. I have to of course talk it over with Nick who will be calling me on his lunch break in the next little bit. I just don't know how to live the most victoriously. Go for it and trust that God will provide, (whether that means getting this place or not because there's something else), or taking my personal power to say it's not good enough for me. I'm just not sure.

Just a small update on the move front.

I finally heard back from the Church regarding Nick's hours/commitment to them/pay and the pastor was super apologetic for taking so long to reply. The Church is going through some of that "God must be working because people are shifting" kinda stuff, and while June is usually a dead month in Churches, it does not seem to be that way in Georgetown from my experience.

Anyway. There hasn't been that "knock you off your feet blessing" I was hoping for, but much good. In Church on sunday the sermon was on Prov 3:9,10 which says basically give your first fruits to God and he will overflow your storehouses, and a lot of pastor's use this passage to convict everyone to give their 10% faithfully or swift judgement will come upon your head. Our pastor didn't, which I'm thankful for because I don't agree with that....but I digress.

The main point of the sermon was to stop living a life of worry and instead to live a life of gratitude. Instead of saying "I only have enough money for groceries this month." change your attitude so you can say each night with total genuine honesty "Thank you for this food!". It was a great challenge, and God sent such a feeling of peace on both Nick and I we walked out of church awoken from our worry induced stress once again looking forward to our new lives.

The night before we found our ideal living situation on line, and we decided after church we were going to take it should the details work out regardless of what the church said. We were going to chose to live "victory in Christ" by thriving and not merely surviving. So I got in touch with the person looking after the renting, (the people are doing it through a real estate agency) and sat back to see what would happen.

Then we got the email from the Church. We will arrive the last week of July and Nick will work full time for August running a drop in center type program. This is awesome as we live in such a way right now that the money we make in July will pay our bills in August and the money we make in August will pay our bills in September, so this means no disruption in our income just a shift. Then Nick will be doing part time at the church, finding a second job to begin September 1. The salary from the church will be enough to pay our rent and car lease payment-OUR TWO BIGGEST EXPENSES! How amazing is that. We were able to crunch the numbers to figure out what Nick needs to make at Job #2 in order for my benefits to be just that, benefits. Enabling us to pay down debt and save up for a car when our lease is up in May. So that is encouraging.

As far as the house we are now waiting on pins and needles to see if we can get it. It's a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath townhouse in the nice end of town. It's renting for the same price per month as every other main floor suite which is so cool. We're just waiting for the actual listing to be posted at the Real Estate Agency as the agent wont go further until it is. But I am hopeful. All we need to know is if it has washer/dryer/fridge/stove as we don't own these things and can't afford to purchase them. If it has them, we're going to get it! There is one hiccup, at the moment the possession date is August 15th. So we're going to ask if it's possible to get it for August 1, and if not we may look into storage for two weeks, which could get tricky yada yada.

So thanks for the prayers and we love them to continue over this last huge bump. Then we start finding the small details like a new doctor and health insurance, you know the easy part of moving, oy. Lol.

Here's hoping that you too are living victoriously today!

My opinion on names.

"To Name or not to Name, that is the question!" It seems like every other blog I read these days has a woman in the midst of a struggle of what to name their child. If you are looking for suggestions, I found this list of suggestions of baby's names. It's a list of lists, so things like popular names, actor's baby's names yada yada. Should you choose a name of that list you can send your Thank you donation to me at.......just kidding I'm sure every possible name is on that list somewhere. But sometimes it takes finding out that Robert Redford named his third dog such and such to make a name click, you know?

I am going to take a bit of a different approach on the name game today. For those of us who already have names! I found this site a bit ago, and yes it's controversial. It's called the Kablarian Philosophy and if you go to the site click "name meanings" in the blue index bar. There are all kinds of services on this site, like it will help you find your ideal job based on your name yada yada, but you have to pay for all that. You can get the idea just by doing the name meaning search.

When I found this it was totally eerie how well it described me. Now I wont sign up to find out what diseases I am prone to since my name is Amanda, but I like that someone who knows me not from a hole in the ground came up with a philosophy that describes me so well.

Check it out and see if it does the same for you!

And speaking of the "what to name your baby", I'm just curious what people think of Old Testament names. Not the regular OT names like Rebecca and Sara but the authentically OT ones like Malachi and Nahum. Do you think they carry more weight if they come from the Bible or that they should stay in the OT times? I just had a discussion that made me curious what more people think.

The Mysterious Mind of Men

The other day Nick and Isabella were playing in her bedroom while I did some work on the computer. All of a sudden Nick comes dashing out of the bedroom; "Quick, quick I need the camera!". I hand him the camera and decide to follow assuming that Belle is doing something incredibly cute that I have to see in person.

Instead this is what was so important. Nick had built this tower while Belle was reading books and wanted a picture of it before she knocked it over.

Boys will be boys.

And apparently so will men.

Monday Mayhem

At some point on Sundays I realize that it's the weekend and I should be a bit lazy. I mean I do have a week coming up and my weeks are always full. Amanda often writes me emails on Fridays and they always have the same sentiment, "I cannot believe where the week has gone!". So I take some time to slow down, however I have not done enough to warrant this slow down and so Monday's become quite chaotic. We've had a busy busy day so far, but somehow my to-do list has yet to shrink. Here is some Manic Monday cuteness for ya! My new favorite time of day. Belle gets up about 2 1/2 hours after me and I put her in her chair with breakfast and about 45 minutes of Blues Clues while I finish up work and get ready to switch gears. (This is a pic from snack hence the juice, she usually has milk for breakfast).

She has a fabulous soft chair which she greatly enjoys, but she will only sit on it where it is placed right now, you can't move it for her so she can sit in it and watch tv or anything else. Instead she chooses to climb into her booster seat, which ideally would be at a kitchen table, in order to eat, watch tv and relax. Yesterday she sat there for an hour reading recipes to an invisible audience. Can we say Rachel Ray?

Nick found these "great" sunglasses while he was away last weekend. They ended up in the lost and found and no one would claim them, so he took them. This has become Belle's newest thrill, putting on pa pa's glasses.

Hope your Monday sets a good tone for the week! I know mine will be more busy than I have energy for, but little moments with this one make it all pass by in fun!