My last post was a downer, but even now rereading it the post didn’t even capture the essence of what I was feeling. Thank you to those that read and commented. It really did help to know that I’m not alone in my frustrations.

I finally was able to talk to Orlund and we were both able to discuss our frustrations and clear the air some. Since then he’s been awesome. He tells me to ask him when I need help (I’m bad at that), especially when I’m doing something I shouldn’t be doing in my pregnant state. And I feel like we are moving forward and that makes me much happier. We are even wanting to go to bed early just to lay there and talk for hours, something we haven’t done in a long time. This year is starting to look up.

I honestly can’t remember what all I’ve blogged about or not. Sorry if I’m repeating myself (I’m to lazy to look back). Orlund finished building a part wall that has a built in desk on the other side (MY desk). We cleared out the old ‘tv room’ and it’s been transformed into our new office. We spent the last week after Christmas before Orlund started his new job busting our butts to try and get the office ready to move all our crap stuff in. Orlund bought some shelving units and put them together, as well as dismantling his desk, moving it then reassembling it. We only have a few remaining odds and ends in the old office (as well as the closet that is full of my material and sewing stuff). I hope to move all the remainder of my stuff over tomorrow (although I may need more boxes). After Orlund finishes moving the last few things of his over then the old office is ready for it’s make over. It’s going to be the girls new bedroom. They are very excited about it. Especially since they will both be getting ‘new’ beds! I’m very excited to set up their new room and finally move them downstairs (although it’d be nice if they slept through the night on a regular basis!).

My mom gave me a hand and we were able to get the toy room finally organized and cleaned up. It felt so good to get it decluttered and organized. I don’t know if you’ll understand this, but to me, whenever an area that hasn’t been cleaned in a while is finally cleaned and cleared out it’s so quiet. Like the clutter and mess were noise to my eyes.

Well I think that’s all I have to share at the moment
Hope you all have a wonderful week! Oh and if any of you have any recipes that are good for freezing I would greatly appreciate them… trying to stock up, unfortunately I don’t have many ideas…Thanks in advance

I’ve been ‘patiently’ waiting to hear from the Dr’s office if they knew where we would be going for our next Ultrasound (Vancouver or Kelowna). I gave them a week. Today I called, the receptionist said she would look into it and get back to me. By lunch I figured perhaps she knew the answer but hadn’t had a chance to call me. So I called her again. I found out some interesting information I hadn’t thought about… First we are going to go to Vancouver for the ultrasound. She knew that. I guess she called them, and they are usually quick at responding so I should know by the end of the day (thank goodness that’s 4pm!). However the things I learned ~ Apparently this is an ALL day affair! We also don’t get to pick which day it’ll be, Vancouver picks that. The appointment is usually from around 9am to 2pm. First we will meet with some Doctors, then have the detailed ultrasound (hope we get to watch, or at least see some), then we meet with the doctors again (with some counselors) and go over the results right then and there!! Which is nice because we’ll have answers quickly and not have to wait to come home and find out. She will call me sometime today and let me know what day it is that we will need to go. Also they will have a package of information for us to pick up at the office. Makes it sound scary, but I have faith in our God. Heck my little believer Joy prayed for baby to be okay, how can it not be? (I’ll blog about that next).

Here's our baby #3

However…. This means that we will have to leave our girls somewhere over night!! First time EVER! (Joy stayed at our house with my mom when Olivia was born but that’s the ONLY time). Sure we have family in Vancouver, that I’m sure I could ask to watch them for the day, however, Orlund’s Aunt has some beds for the girls that we need to bring home (and in order to fit them into the van we need all the seats out). Orlund had been planning a trip with his mom to go down and get the beds, however now since we will be going we can just pick them up. The receptionist told me that usually people go down the night before due to how early these appointments are (and you wouldn’t want to miss it!). So that is probably what we will be doing. I think this will be hard on me! Leaving my baby girls… I know they will be fine, it’s probably harder on me than anyone else. Guess we just wait for the phone call with the times and then see who is available for babysitting the cutest girls around

See ~ such cuties!

Our next stop was in Brandon.

On our 7hour trip there we stopped in Regina at a McDonald’s to let the girls play for around an hour. They loved it, and it was a nice break for us too.
In Brandon I have an Uncle Richard (whom we stayed with), Cousin Dan (wife Becky, and their two kids) and Orlund has his Baba, as well as an Uncle Nathaniel (wife Thaisa and cousin Danessa). So we had many family members to visit with. The day we arrived at Uncle Richard’s house we were introduced to his Girlfriend Nancy, she was very nice to meet. I haven’t seen my Uncle Richard since our last trip out that way (actually we haven’t seen anyone from Brandon since then) and it was nice to see him. He and my Dad were very close growing up and they look quite similar. We were off to bed at a ‘reasonable’ time that night.
The next day we spent the morning visiting with Richard (he was on holidays) and making plans with the rest of the families. Shortly after dinner we headed out to see Baba. She was over the moon with excitement in getting to meet our girls. They took to her as well. Lots of hugs and loves, and of course in tradition to her Ukrainian nationality she stuffed us with even more food! After our visit with her Joy had many heart felt (tired) tears and kept crying out for Baba. She fell asleep on our way to Orlund’s Aunt and Uncles house and continued with a little snooze while we were there. Olivia didn’t mind soaking up all the attention! It was a wonderful visit. Then after returning to Uncle Richards and getting the girls down we continued our tradition of staying up much to late. (of course really it may have been midnight there but that’s only 10pm our time! lol).
The second day there Orlund went to spend some time alone with his Baba while I stayed at Richards with the girls. Nancy and one of her daughter’s (Jenna) came for brunch. It was nice to visit with Nancy again and to meet her daughter. After brunch we just hung around (played in a playground) and then headed over to Orlund’s Aunt and Uncle’s house for visiting, dinner and well more visiting. We enjoyed a bit of a cooler day (finally) and in the evening even enjoyed a fire in their back yard (in a portable fire pit). It was wonderful and we didn’t want to head home but the girls needed to go to bed.

The next day we headed to Winnipeg. (but don’t worry Brandon isn’t done yet…we come back .)

(sorry I haven’t been blogging!) Back to our trip~

We drove to Saskatoon and the girls did fabulous again! This was only a 7hour trip and that seemed like just long/short enough that we didn’t kill one another Funny enough but I wrote out all the directions off Google. Orlund never looked at the map. To be completely honest the only time I felt stress on this wonderful trip was giving him the directions. If he sees a map at least once, he’s okay to boss around….if he doesn’t see that map, lets just say it makes it interesting. We arrived at my Auntie Pat and Uncle Rob’s house in time to enjoy a wonderful dinner, my cousin Stacey was there and cousin Chris, wife Ivy and baby girl Summer (11months) came over for a wonderful visit. It was my first time meeting both Ivy and Summer. Love them both. Auntie Pat is my mom’s little sister. Pat is very similar to both my mom and myself. I found myself watching her, enjoying her company and making me realize just how much she is like my mom. Made me miss mom even more, but at the same time made me feel like she was there with us too.
The next day we mostly hung around at the house, thought we’d go to the zoo. Unfortunately by the time we got there it would close in 2hours. We figured we would go in anyway as our Zoo passes should get us in there too. They said it didn’t. So instead we took the girls to a pet store (they had to see some animals). Did a little shopping and had ice cream. Headed back to the house to enjoy all the family for dinner again. Every night we stayed up much to late visiting with Pat and Rob. We get a long fabulously with them, and the girls went to bed easily.
The following day we decided to go to the zoo earlier in the day. First however we went out for lunch with Chris on his break. It was nice to get to visit with him (we had been close when he and I lived in Thailand). Then we headed over to the zoo. Again they said we had to pay, so we did. It was super hot, but a nice zoo none the less. We had a wonderful time, unfortunately the train wasn’t working (luckily it’s out of sight so Joy didn’t notice! phew!). After that we headed back to the house where I took a nap with Olivia. I had forgotten to take my night diclectin the night before so was feeling a bit queezy.  Again the whole family was there for another delicious dinner. We all just hung around visiting after and enjoyed watching the kids play. And of course once everyone had gone home and the girls were in bed we stayed up past all reasonable bedtimes visiting.
The next morning we loaded up and headed to Brandon.
Thank you Auntie Pat and Uncle Rob for letting us stay with you, we had a fabulous time

ps~ Joy’s eye slowly returned to normal during our Saskatoon visit.
pss~ Once we returned home I sent an email to our Zoo informing them that we were unable to get into the Saskatoon zoo. turns out we should have been able to and our Zoo is willing to reimburse us of the admission! And they are informing their staff at the Saskatoon Zoo to be better aware.

Sept 3rd we finally set off on our family trip. I’d been planning for most of the summer. I’d packed a week early and was happy to leave my house in good standing (clean!), and feel that we had everything we’d need. We sure did! Brought back at least 1/2 of the snacks we’d taken! lol.
It was nice to have all the room in the van. I was able to keep a large bag between Orlund and I which contained our directions, my camera, snacks, drinks, my neck pillow and a blanket for myself. Then just behind the bag was a bin containing the girls toys, a bag next to that contained their DVD player and movies. On the other side of the toy bin was Orlund’s camera. Everything nice and handy!
Just before we headed out on the highway we stopped to gas up. While Orlund ran inside to buy breakfast and coffee (A&W) a truck pulling a horse trailer pulled up. Joy pointed the horses out to me. The trailer pulled out before we did, and for the remainder of our trip, every 20minutes or so, Joy would ask “Daddy where horses? More horses?”. It was cute, and since they can see out the van windows we were able to point out the horses, cows and trains.
The girls did AMAZING traveling. Olivia slept on an off (more off than on), and whenever I could I’d take a nap as well. Whenever I’d finally get into a comfortable position (weird complaint but too much room in the van for easy napping), Joy would ask “mommy nap? Why mommy nap?”. lol. We stopped in Jasper for a quick lunch and stretch of the legs. The girls napped for the rest of Jasper and so did I. Well it’s a 10hour trip to Wetaskiwin, and the girls were getting tired! So we put a movie on for them, they watched it, however once it was over there was many fits had because they wanted to watch another! This was the only movie then ended up watching in the van the entire rest of the trip!

We arrived safe and sound and had a wonderful visit with Auntie Darla and Grandma Norstrom. Their house was as comforting and familiar as it was the last time, this time however with a pretty new floor We settled in quickly and got to visiting. One thing about Orlund’s Grandma that you’d realize after a short 15minute talk with her is she has a memory like I wish I had! She remembers everyone’s name, their spouse’s name, their kids names etc etc. I wish I could remember names like that!! We love listening to her tell us stories of her life, growing up, meeting/dating Grandpa (whom I never got the pleasure of meeting) and all the wonderful things she experienced. It was beautiful weather and we took advantage of it, playing outside in their gorgeous backyard, and going to the park by the lake. Auntie Darla helped show us around and was a great hostess. She also makes the most beautiful bead jewelry! She showed me some of the bare foot sandals she made and some anklets. She even let me choose an anklet to keep! I wore it every single day for our entire trip, and would still be wearing it unfortunately it broke the day we got home. (I told Orlund I guess I’ll have to get into beading now . lol). I have all the beads so it wont be too difficult to fix (I hope, or else Auntie Darla will be getting a special package in the mail…). The day we went to the park dusk set in and so did the mosquito’s. Olivia received about 3 bites on her face, they swelled a little but nothing major. Joy got a bite on her right eyebrow, the next morning it was swollen. We didn’t let her sore eye slow us as we went to the Reynold’s museum (old cars/airplanes). That evening Orlund’s Uncle Dallas and Auntie Fay came for dinner. Joy’s eye didn’t seem to be getting better and she was rubbing it (were giving her Benadryl). So Darla, myself and Joy loaded up to head to the hospital. We waiting 2 hours, Joy is such a good girl!! The doctor finally called our name and rushed us through a bunch of hallways, stopping at the end of one (it had a corner cubby with stock). “Sorry, but this is our privacy” he said as he picked Joy up and put her on a metal tray with wheels. He examined her eye told me to put eye drops in and keep giving the Benadryl, and sent us home.
After such a wonderful visit, and learning that our girls aren’t shy and like meeting new family members, it was time to go. Sept 6th time to head to Saskatoon! Joy’s eye was now swollen completely shut (poor girl). Thank you Auntie Darla and Grandma Norstrom for  your hospitality, and wonderful stories. God Bless you both! Hope we can come see you again sometime soon.

I have been (just slightly) stressing over our upcoming holiday. Trying to figure out what to pack, and trying to make it as light of a load as possible! I thought I would wait until Thursday to pack, however strongly feel I need to pack NOW. Don’t know if it’s the pregnancy, or God whispering, but I’m going to listen either way! So tomorrow, I’m going to pack most my clothes that I plan to take (other than the clothes I still need for this week), along with kids toys, movies and some of their clothes. I may have the boys for a few extra hours, or an entire extra day this week that is completely unexpected so perhaps I do need to pack now and stay on top of this just in case!
My belly is growing at a very quick rate! I can’t believe it!! Orlund took some pictures of me standing (ones that were later deleted, so I didn’t stand pretty) and WOW talk about looking pregnant already! I’m hoping Wednesday at my Doctors apt I’ll get to hear the little heart beat! (14weeks!).Well, during all this stressing, We did take some time out to have some fun! Check out Orlund’s latest blog entry for one picture. And here is another (not the best quality, but still fun to take!).

Hovering over Mommy! OH What fun!!

As you know we’ve been looking at vans as of late. With baby #3 arriving in February we needed to keep our eyes open for that perfect deal. We had looked at the Dodge Grand Caravan’s. Two different ones, Canada Value Package and the Stow-n-go. The only thing we didn’t like about the CVPackage was no rear air or tinted windows. The only thing about the SXT (stow-n-go) package was the price.
We met with our financial adviser and discovered we are doing better than we thought and could afford a bit better van (or bit more money). So we looked and discovered the two ‘best’ vans out there are the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna. The Honda starts above our budget, so we thought we’d go look at the Toyota. Their websites suck! I like the Dodge one, it shows every van they have in stock, and in transit. And all the different prices, features etc for each van. You can basically shop online, the Toyota and Honda websites aren’t anything in comparison.
Come today… Saturday. We decided it would be a good day to test drive the Toyota (and go look at it for the first time). We dropped the girls off at Grandma and Grandpa’s house at 10:30am. Once at the Toyota dealership a sales lady came out and showed us the van ‘she would want’. uh huh… Rear video, power sliding doors, 8 passenger, you name it, it had it! Yeah, we didn’t even ask the price on that one and asked to see a ‘base’ model. She didn’t have one as low of price as it showed online, however had one similar. We took it for a test drive. Very nice. Very. But once back at the office, the price…..well…. Lets just so not so nice. Once everything was totaled it blew our budget out of the water!!
It was only 20minutes to 12. “Want to go test drive a Dodge again?” Orlund asked. I figured might as well while we have the Toyota fresh in our minds….
Arrive at the Dodge dealer. (opposite side of town so like a 20minute drive). A sales guy comes out and we ask for our sales guy (I’ll call him John for the purpose of it’s easier than calling him ‘the sales guy’ LOL). Orlund mentioned before the sales guy went to get John that we had looked at a Toyota. A few minutes later John came out. I have to say he didn’t look all too impressed. But he started to tell us about the different features, prices etc again, and said they’d just got some new ones in so we started to walk over to look at them. He then mentioned while motioning to a red minivan, that it had just been traded in as the owners were upgrading. it had 67000Km’s on it (the price was under $20,000). It still sounded like an okay deal but he kept telling us about it. I couldn’t figure out why he was so excited about this red van. He then re-told us the information… No it didn’t have 67000Km’s it had 6100Km’s!!!!! GAME CHANGER! It was a 2010 Canada Value Package however with rear tinted windows. The papers were still being signed to hand it over, so we couldn’t even unlock the doors to look. We asked him to check the price with his boss. It was an AMAZING price. We said YES!
We went for lunch (to give them time to transfer the van over to the dealer). Came back and signed the papers…. we might have been silly but we didn’t get to look inside it (unlocked as in) until we were waiting for the insurance guy to come!! Our first test drive was driving it off the lot!!! CRAZY! I know! But even including taxes it didn’t come to $20,000 !! How could we pass it up! I guess another sales guy was taking photo’s while we were away at lunch and sending them to one of his clients trying to get them to buy it before us!! But we got it!!! So now I have a beautiful Red minivan in my driveway I couldn’t be happier….Okay I could… read on to find out….

After our purchase, which got us picking up our kids at 3pm. I was ill, I hadn’t planned to be out so long so hadn’t taken my Diclectin (anti-morning sickness pill). So when we got home I laid on the couch while the girls played around me. I awoke to find Joy sitting on the potty yelling she was done, no Orlund to be seen and an Olivia poking at me… Guess I was worn out! So after helping Joy I peaked out the window as Orlund was supposed to show his Civic to a guy at 5pm. I saw him out there showing the guy (I looked out our bathroom window). Then I came back to the living room and in a few minutes watched through the front window and Orlund and this guy took the car for a test drive…… But the guy stopped before even fully backing out. I was wondering why when I noticed that he’d backed into his own car!!! Yup broke our tail light and dented our bumper, he broke his side mirror (driver) and dented the middle of the drivers door!! He’s paying for repairs but not buying the car….him buying would have made me happy… THEN…..
(and John said we were so lucky we should have got a lottery ticket) ~ Orlund was cooking Chicken on the BBQ. I noticed a funny smell. So Orlund took a look outside… sure enough the BBQ was on fire again! He had to push the flaming BBQ away from the house as much as possible (its on our small upstairs deck), there is smoke damage to the side, which with any luck we will be able to scrub off. Orlund turned the propane off and I think just let it die out itself. So I called a Pizza place and got to drive my new fancy van to go pick up a pizza for dinner.
Well Orlund just informed me he IS ushering tomorrow and I need a shower so I’ll have to get up REALLY early. Good night all!

I was visiting with a girl friend of mine last night at Mom’s night out and she mentioned to me some struggles she deals with (in regards to house and kids, time really). And I told her about how I wish I could just get my house clean, and keep it clean. Why can’t I have what so many other people have? Umph as I call it. You’d think that if I’m not spending the time cleaning than perhaps I’m spending it playing with the kids. You’d think. I do play with them. I do clean. But I don’t feel like either is enough time put towards them. I think I’m spending it online. What a horrible thing. I blog (usually while kids are napping ~ or like now pretending to nap), I go on Facebook (feels like a connection to the world outside my house), I read other blogs (check them daily even 2x’s daily), and I have other websites I visit to read whatnot on. I try to do it all only while kids sleep. But the truth of the matter is, I’m addicted and I come online more often than not. NOT GOOD.
I have one friend who blogs regularly, almost daily. Today I just read that she is now stopping her blog. It’s gone as of tomorrow morning. Danica I will miss you!! You truly inspire me and help me be a better mom. I just wish I could write as beautifully as you do. Although I will miss her stories (even philosophy Fridays), I completely understand the desire to not put so much time into blogging. I have decided I do want to keep blogging. However I’m going to cut down on all my other online endeavors. I’m going to make myself have Umph, get the house the way I want it and spend that time with my kids. They are only little for a short time. I don’t want to look back and feel like I missed out on their childhood because I was online. That’s not why we decided I would stay home with them. We decided for me to stay home to raise them, and I want to raise them right.
So while Danica moves on to other things, I too have decided to move on. I have wanted to be a certain way since I got married. I keep getting there, or almost there, then falling back behind. But I’m going to just keep on trying! Flylady was working to help me reach my goals, and now I need to press on and get back into it. What is something you’ve been putting off doing? Or something you want to do?

Happy Father’s day to all you dad’s out there!! I hope you were spoiled rotten.. Orlund was. Before I get to what all we did this past weekend, I wanted to share a little ‘questionnaire’ that I did with Joy. She was SO cute when answering my questions and I hope you get as much of a kick out of it as I did~~

What is Daddy’s Name? Daddy
What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Eat eggs
What is Dad’s favorite thing to do? Go for walks with me
What is Dad’s favorite food? Cake
What does daddy always say? Daddy like baby, Daddy like Nemo (Nemo is our goldfish)
What is something special daddy does just with you? Go to Church
What is something you want to do with Daddy? Go for a walk to the park
How old is Daddy? 3
Why did Daddy marry Mommy? Want to so Mommy doesn’t cry
Why did Daddy name you Joy? Because I’m a girl

Isn’t she cute?

So on with our weekend. Saturday Morning I got up put coffee on and then made breakfast. A special breakfast, waffles with Strawberries, blackberries and whipping cream. I have to say, they were yummy! Then I got the girls ready and we went to Solomon’s 2nd Birthday party. Unfortunately it wasn’t the most beautiful day and I had figured it would be inside, oops nope. It was outside. And just as I was leaving the house I forgot to grab their jackets… So they both ended up wearing a sweater of Solomon’s. It was fun, but tiring. We came home for their naps. Once they woke up we headed out for dinner ( all you can eat Sushi!!!). Very yummy, very filling. Headed home for bedtime.
Sunday Morning we got up early and got ready for Church. 9am we got there for the Pancake breakfast~ yummy!! Had Church then headed to Orlund’s parents place for lunch ~ yummy!! Had a good visit and headed home a bit later than planned. We tidied the house and got ready for dinner while the girls napped. My dad arrived for dinner and we had a wonderful visit with him and again, yummy food

Well I guess I should get on with my day now… The boys are coming in 1hour and I’ve got lots to do before they arrive.. God Bless you and I hope you had a wonderful weekend as well!

As I sit here typing I am taking my second listen to a beautiful song that is on my friends blog…I don’t know how to do that fancy tagging but her blog is ~ dankasworld.wordpress.com Check it out

So Today I dropped Olivia off with Grandma Norstrom. It was her first time being left alone without at least one of us (as in Joy, Daddy or myself). She did great. I dropped her off as I had to take Joy to her hearing test. Babies have their hearing tested when they are first born before leaving the hospital. Joy’s test came back fine, however my Dad is deaf in one ear, so they like to retest later on. (9months and 3years ~ although that’s since changed and now it’s just at 3years old). I was so surprised at how grown up my ‘little’ girl is!! She did awesome during the check up. she knew what all the pictures were (they said the name she just pointed them out ~ didn’t know she knew what some of those things were!). Her hearing is awesome and she doesn’t need to go for another check up (Yippee!). Although I am going to take her in to meet with a speech therapist just to make sure she’s on track.

Then we went out for ice cream… which at 9:30am is harder than it sounds! DQ was closed. McDonald’s was cleaning their machines…. Joy wasn’t very happy at that, luckily Shell had some. We even had time to hit up the dollar store. Then Joy had a regular doctors apt (just to check on a funny toe nail she has). Then we went up to Grandma’s house. I still wanted to get some shopping done, so Grandma watched both the girls so I could run out and do the grocery shopping. Thanks Grandma!

Orlund is in Vancouver tonight. hence why I’m still up at 11pm! *Gasp* I find I have a hard time going to bed when he’s not home. I decided to tackle our office/craft room while he’s away (hope he doesn’t read this before coming home, although he rarely reads my blog). I put up a painting I got from my mom’s mom (she was the most talented woman I’ve ever met!). And a crafting shelf thingy (on the wall). I’m pretty proud of myself for doing that. Over the past few weeks I’ve slowly (very slowly) gone through my book shelf and boxed up the books I just really don’t need out. Tonight I took everything that doesn’t belong in that room out and organized in piles (garbage, to go into crawl space etc). I have about an hour of work left before the craft room will be done (on my side, I’m not touching Orlund’s stuff). I think Orlund will be happy to see the progress I’ve made. And of course I want the house all clean for when he gets home… but my time is going to be cut short tomorrow ~ hockey night! And I plan to go to my Dad’s house and watch the game with him and my brother.

I have also taken on a new task. I’m excited about it. Orlund thinks I’m crazy as it’s just something else to add to my to-do list. However it is only once in a while job. At our Church whenever someone has a new baby the mom’s get together and bring them meals for an entire week. It’s a HUGE blessing when you are on the receiving end. The two ladies that have been doing it aren’t wanting to anymore and they have been looking for someone to take it over for a while. I didn’t want to, however then I decided that it’s not that hard of a job, and I like the organizing possibilities. I now have a binder with papers all ready to be filled out~ Who’s baby, allergies, time for meal drop off, etc etc. I love lists and this just falls beautifully into my ‘addiction’ to having to write things out. (I find that if in the evening I don’t write anything down on paper, I feel like I’m missing something. I think it soothes me… weird I know). There are 4 babies I already know of coming to our Church in this year (okay one is at the start of January). I’m excited to give this a go!

Well my kitchen is messy, my laundry is still hanging in the living room, I’m surrounded by all my ‘organizational’ stuff, and I’m headed to bed! lol.Good night!