Nov 13th

Do you realize that I started potty training on November 13th. 3 months later I have had it. I have begged, cried, threathened, bribed, celebrated, forced, raced, read to, waited, cleaned, reminded, chided and left alone. Today Lizzy is in a diaper. I had been threatening it all week and finally did it today. She giggled with joy. I am so tired of cleaning urine out of my couch. The couch that I saved for for over a year. If I wanted it to smell like pee I would buy a cat. I am about to give but people keep telling me that if I do it will only be harder. What can be worse than thinking it was a good day if I only had to wash and dry my couch once a day. Now she just sits there. then she gets up and says "mommy a pee a couch". ARGHHH I Hate potty training. I will pay, yes pay for someone to do it for me. I thought girls were suppose to be easy to potty train, I dread Sam. My Mom says I have to excpect some accidents. I think I am past that. I will ask here every five minutes, take her to the potty even. She won't go and then five minutes later..... dun dun dun. Never fails.

The Sam

Tomorrow is Sam's birthday. I can't believe it. He is so close to walking it is ridiculous. He laughs and plays. I am a little sad to let my little baby boy go, but I am so excited for this next year and everything it will bring.

The House

We are building this house, in this community. I don't want to say which lot because I am afraid of strangers. We changed the kitchen dramaticly. It is more like a giant L shape than an island. I wanter more counter space. We have an AMAZING backyard. Our posession date which we found out yesterday is May 13th. They said they could move it all the way up to the end of April but I chose mid may so I had a couple of weeks to get moved so it wouldn't be so panicked. We aren't due until September so I have plenty of time to get settled. Trevor has BIG plans for the basement. Lets say lifesize hockey players. And if he has it his way it will be fully developed within a month. LIzzy and Sam will have to share a room until the baby is big enough to share. but I don't think they will mind. It should be interesting though.

Can I just say I HATE POTTY TRAINING!! I can't even count the accidents anymore, at least one a day. I threaten to put her back in diapers when she wets herself and she cries now when I do because I did it one day. She just gets to distracted. Ughhh. will this NEVER end?

I WON I WON!!

I can't believe it. I actually won a contest. I won a $100 credit for family photos from a photography blog that I follow. I LOVE her pictures! I always look through them and ooo and awww wishing and hoping. Here is her blog. You are all jealous I know it!

Funny story. We took the neighbors kids to a Hitmen game because their mom got sick. It was so much fun. We ate pocketdogs and chocolate malts. anyways we were rushing back to our car after because it was FREEZING and came around the corner and there was a woman there relieving her bladder. She starts pulling up her pants and screaming. Shocked that she would be caught in her act in the middle of the parking lot after a hockey game at the saddle dome. What I want to know is if you have to go bad enough that you would go in the middle of a parking lot in -20 without toilet paper, why didn't she stop inside?!?!

Anyways I am excited about my win and can't wait to show you all the pictures, even though I am hoping she won't mind waiting until the new baby comes so I can have amazing pictures of all 3 of my babies.

Lost Slipper?

This slipper was apparently lost. I didn't know. But its owner must have been missing it very badly. We found it though. When Lizzy sneezed. It shot out of her nose with a big green boogie. How long was it in her nose? I have no idea.

The recession.

So I don't watch the news or read the paper. I don't really pay attention to outside world events. I guess I figure if they are that important someone will tell me about them.

I didn't hear about the crazy 8 baby lady until after she had the babies.

I do hear about the recession, but in the quiet bubble of my life I hadn't really noticed it. We spend the same as we would anyways. We still bought a house, and we are still planning on buying a second car in the next 6 months. It hit me the other day how hard it is getting for people out there.

Trevor has been stressed out at work recently because they have been doing firing. LOTS of firing. We are talking at least 20 guys a day for a couple of weeks. They have cut their workforce almost in half. I hadn't really thought about it until the other day when trevor told me this story.

He was going back to his work area after lunch and they had called a whole bunch of guys into the trailer where they do the big let down. Trevs foreman says hey Smith your suppose to be in there (Trevor curses under his breath) and heads on over to the trailer. When he gets there though the man doing the firing tells him to get out of there, (trevor curses the man who playing the prank). Then he said the thing that hit me. As he looked around that small room before he left he saw the scared look on all those mens faces.

That is what got to me. Those poor men. Those men who have to go home to their wives and children and explain that they no longer have a job. Those men with their mortgages and car ayments, food bills and field trip notices. Those poor men that are now out of work without notice and have to fight against not only all the other men who have been fired from this company, but also with all the men who have been sent home from the oil sands and other areas around the province for a few coveted postitions. Thinking of the stress that those men and their familyies now haave to face really hit me hard.

I am grateful for a husband who knows how to work hard and make a good impact on an employer. I am thankful for a husband that even if he was let go I know would find a job and a way to take care of us.

I hope this all ends soon.

Come Back HERE!

Elizabeth was sitting on the floor this morning, playing with some stickers. Sam was playing nearby and I was washing dishes. All of a sudden I hear a shriek and "HEY COME BACK HERE!!! YOU COME BACK HERE!!" I look over to see Sam had snatched the stickers and was hauling off with them. She chased him down and the wrestling matched ensued. Elizabeth won (which is surprising normally Sam puts up more of a fight). I just stood there and watched. I thought it was so funny. Sam is strong enough to win some of the times and I think it is good for them to solve it, anything past a tug of war I step in there is rules to our brawling. No biting (either), pushing (Lizzy)or hair pulling (Sam).

The cake

I saw this cake on the Bakerella blog I follow and had to try it.

It was very yummy and very rich. The baby didn't appriciate all the sugar late at night but I still ate it.

I just think these pictures are cute

A shout out to my brother in law Jacob who got engaged tonight!!

The floor

Lizzy likes to sleep on the floor. Last time we were at joel and glendas she slept on the floor in trevor and I's room and it has been a fad. I will go in in the morning and she will be on the floor with her pillow. The problem is that she moves in her sleep. She hits her head on the bed or kicks the dresser. She will end up with half her body under the bed and wake up at 2 am in a panic. I go in there when she cries and find her blankets and pillows around the room and put her back to bed. She is never fully awake so it isn't a problem. The funniest part is that our whole house is lino. She has a rug in her room but never sleeps on it, she always ends up on the cold lino.

Valentines Weekend.

Trevor and I are taking a weekend escape for Valentines Day. It will be our first trip with out the kids for more than 1 night. My Mom was kind enough to watch my kids in support of this. We are heading up to the Gondola Plaza.





I am so excited. Fred and Ashton are meeting us up there tomorrow. I am excited to play games, eat food, ski and MOST OF ALL SLEEP IN!! Trevor wants to get up and do first run of the day. I want to sleep in late and get up when I get up. lol. We have slightly different ideas of what sounds like the most fun.


We leave in a couple of hours and I haven't packed yet. Maybe I should get on that.

I forgot how much people ask you how you are doing when you are pregnant. I have my answer down. I squeamish smile, shrug of the shoulder and a "meh as well as can be expected". The truth is I also forgot how moody I am. I remembered that I didn't like being pregnant, but now I remember why. I was in for a temple recommend interview when the bishop even asked me the other day how I was doing. I gave my standard response then he caught me off guard. He asked me how Trevor was treating me. I bust up into tears, we are talking misty eyes, we are talking bawling, runny nose, people standing in the hall casting confused looks at the door. I then explained just how wonderful Trevor is to me. I can totally bite his head off, go from happy to depressed in the blink of an eye and he just loves me anyways. He tells me everyday how much he loves me. I couldn't ask for a better husband. I think true love from a husband is if he can still love you when you are a COMPLETE mess.

I love my man.

The source of the problem.

Here is a play by play of a section of my morning. It spans maybe 20 minutes.

E= Lizzy
M= Me
S=Sam

* The house is tidy I sit down on the couch with a yogurt for breakfast*

E~ "Mommy a want some."
M~ " Okay but YOU have to sit at the table" (A little un equeal I know but I can eat off a spoon without spilling)
M~ somthing smells funny, must be Sam.
Grab Lizzy a yogurt and set her up at the table to eat it.
Wrangle Sam out of his diaper, he has had a pretty bad diaper rash and the runs
lately which is what caused my next thought
~ maybe I will just let him crawl a round naked and get a break from the diaper.
Turn around to clean up wipes and diapers roll up soiled diaper.
Turn around to see hand and knee prints of poop crossing my carpet

"AHHHHH" Sam had pooped AGAIN!!! and sat in it, and crawled though it, and spread it around.

S~ hahahahaha
he thinks running away is a game
M~ Panic, where do I start, the prints, the original mess
no no no the spreader

I grab Sam and hose him off and promptly put the diaper back on. I head down stairs to grab the oxy clean to clean the carpet. I scrub my carpet Sam screaming all the while because I left him to go downstairs and I put a diaper back on him.

Scrub Scrub Scrub.

I go back into the kitchen glad that I have restored order, but WAIT. Lizzy has decided htat yogurt makes great finger paints on my table.

weep

I won't give you the details but we cleaned that up too and washed hands and faces.


Is it any wonder that we as Moms have a hard time keeping the house clean???

A clean rug, is a happy rug.

I listened to a lot of John Bytheway growing up. On one of his tapes he talks about helping your parents or something and he says to just vacuum the rug, and when your mom asks what you are doing reply "A clean rug is a happy rug".

Before I found out I was pregnant and thought I had the flu I fell off the cleaning wagon. Laundry has sat for weeks in various stages, unwashed, unfolded, in the basket folded but not put away. Vacuuming was scarce and only in select location. Instead of washing my floor regularly it had turned into spot washing spills. The house was a minor war zone. Today was the day of reckoning for the continually growing disaster. As I cleaned for nearly 10 hours I realized how excited I was to get my life back. I also decided that

a clean house is a happy wife
a happy wife is a happy spouse
happy parents mean happy kids
happy kids means a better life.

I am so glad that the war zone seems more like a distant nightmare now.


Over the past year I have become great friend with Ashton. She is Trevor's cousins daughter. Trevor has one cousin who actually has lived in the same stake as me for my whole life and she has a daughter who is about our age. Ashton. Ashton and her husband have 2 kids also who are right about my age. We swap babysitting, and have lots of play dates. Cookouts and family dinners. I feel relaxed around them as you should around family. I was suppose to go over there to play today and I called her this morning to announce my need for cleaning. She completely understood, and even came to pick Elizabeth up and took her to her house for most of the day. It was so nice to know that Lizzy was having a good day instead of sitting on the couch watching TV and otherwise being neglected. I am so grateful for her help.

The polish handyman and a picture update

By some small miracle Calgary housing sent someone to fix the holes in my roof and walls. Yesterday I had a massive drywall mess to clean up. Mopping, sweeping, vacuming. Nothing compared to today.

Yes this is a dust line on my pot of soup for supper. sick.

He is a really nice man, but honestly, couldn't he have kept the dust to one room. I asked my mom to send her shop vac over. She asked if the handyman had brought one because they do sometimes. That would be a biug negative. Besides if he was worried about clean up he probably would have brought some stuff to cover things up, like my couch, but no, my poor couch got the brunt on the mess. weep.

On happier notes

We celebrated Chinese New Years with Ryan and Angie in China town. It was a lot of fun to see the dragon dance and the karate demonstrations. They also had mini shops set up. We went for Dim Sum (spelling??) It was very yummy.

Sam is now a climbing machine.

The house is going well. They actually have the second floor on also but I haven't gotten over there with my camera to take pictures.

And of course a picture of my sweet Elizabeth.

hmm

Sam is feeling much better today. He puked quite a bit and I was up throughout the night with him, but he his happy playing and talking and back to his normal destructive self again. He isn't to happy with the diet of plain soda crackers and apple juice I have him on but that's life. I will be honest I kind of liked having a day of just cuddling.

One of my least favorite things about pregnancy is the unreliability of my feelings and my judgement. I get very emotional. I went to RS activity last night. I was feeling pretty good. It had been a long day but I was out of the house, dressed, make up on, excited to be there. One of the Ladies turned around and looked at me then said "Sister Smith you look very tired today" "uhhhhhh yeh". In my mind I wanted to say something like "well sister you look ......... today" enter any number of mean comments in the blank. Truth be told yes I was tired, but what mom isn't. Kinda hit just all wrong. I was so hurt and taken aback. I don't know how I would have felt if I was my normal self, but my pregnant hormonal self was angry.

Lets just add that the sister who made the comment is the same sister who asked me to do play group. Hormonal Ashley is all up in arms, but I am working on it. Blogging helps me vent and relax, look at it from different angles. You guys are my therapy.


Anyways I got up today, got showered and dressed. I am cleaning my house and have plans for baking. Today will be a good day.

If I was in doubt

I think I can "officially" be counted as a mom. lol. as if the two kids didn't qualify me. Sam is sick. This is the first time that one of my kids has been sick and it hasn't been related to teeth. He has been puking all day. and in true mom fashion I caught it isn my hand each time. ewwwwww. So there it is. My true momness. who else would try to catch puke.

The dilemma

Here is my conflict as of late.

A member of the relief society presidentcy has asked me to plan a play group for the young kids in the ward. I tried to say no but the guilt got to me and I agreed (groan). There was a sisiter in Sundance Ward who was asked to do it and I felt so bad for her and was VERY grateful that it wasn't me. Here are my problems.

-I wasn't planning on going to the play group anyways, I don't like being around and talking to people I don't know. It takes a lot out of me and stresses me out.

-I don't have a car to even get to the activities that I plan, so I would have to find a ride from one of these strangers, remember to get the car seats out of my car that morning, put them in there car load up and go and then undo it all later. It really isn't all that hard, but I have to do it for visiting teaching and I feel like such a dork.

-I can't seem to force myself to even call the women to talk to them about it.


Now it would be good for my kids to get out with other kids more often, but when we do go out it is to a cousins house.

I am feeling bad because I said I would do it, but...... yeh.

I don't know if I should just suck it up and suffer through or if I should call her back and tell her I just don't want to. (Both ideas kill me) .

What would you do?