CHRISTMAS 2010

We were sooo lucky to all be together for Christmas this year. Aimee and Shane and little Max, braved the sub zero temperatures to spend the best day of the year with us!!

Christmas Eve day we all left our own homes in our own cities to join Mom, Tucker, Nic, Troy and Duke in Ardrossan. By 5pm there were 7 adults, one 9 month old, one "minime on the way" and three dogs happily sharing laughs in Mom's kitchen! We dont' all get to be together at the same time very often, so the next few days were precious!

Mom was an amazing host, feeding us, entertaining us, cleaning up after us and giving us all comfy places to sleep. Nic and Troy also got to be hosts one day at their house near a golf course. They took us sledding, fed us a delicious steak dinner and served us home made ice cream cake!! Aim and Shane shared little Max and his flirtatious wink and cheek to cheek grin with us and Marty and I just took it all in, loving every minute of family time!

I have posted my favorite pics of the 4 days we spent together, makin' memories!

The happiest Grandma!!!

Auntie Dic and Max

Sooo happy to just hang together!

Christmas Eve Pyjamas-new ones!!! :)

The stockings were hung....one for everyone-both 2 legged and four legged creatures. No one gets left out at Mom's House!!!

New Bomber jacket!! Adorable!!

Mom and me in my new tuque, thanks, Aim!

Sooo fun having a "little one" around for Christmas!

Fun, new Christmas socks!

The boys and their silly, new Tees!

Merry Christmas to the animals too!!!!

Life is good when you get pulled around the block in your sleigh!!!

Time together!!!!

The Farns

The Coles

The Wrights

Okay, there are sooo many more favorites, but they'll have to wait until the next blog post...I gotta go get something productive done today.......

THIRD TRIMESTER

I have officially entered the third trimester. Here is what my favorite pregnancy book, "The Pregnancy Countdown Book," has to say about that:

"The third trimester ultimately serves one purpose: To make you so uncomfortable, so over it, so tired, so bitchy, so achy, so itchy, so freakishly huge, that you will do anything to get that baby out of you, including pushing it out of a place where a tampon once felt gigantic. This is Mother Nature's way of inspiring you at the end of your pregnancy..."

Ummm....maybe Marty should read this, so that he knows that the "tired, bitchy, itchy, achy, freakishly huge" stuff is NORMAL!!!!!

Max and I comparing "bellies." His belly may be way cuter but at least I don't have as much drool on my chin as he does, he he!

THE FLU

So, back in November at my monthly, maternity clinic appointment, the nurses convinced me to get the flu shot. I have never, not once gotten the flu shot.

I am a teacher, and yes, I am surrounded by a lot of germs all day, but because of that I have a pretty good immune system. I manage to escape many colds and flus, thanks to my immune system of steel. Unfortunately, sometimes I can be a carrier of these germs, spreading them to Marty, whose immune system is not built up to conquor the germs brought home from school. He has suffered a few colds thanks to my invisible gift!

Anyway, the nurses convinced me, that it would be best for "mini me" if I got the flu shot, so against my gut instict, I got it, then two days ago, I got the flu!!! I have not had the flu, that I can remember in my adult life and then, this year, the first year I get the flu shot, I get the flu!! Not just any flu, not the shaky, cold, shivering, achy, sore muscle kind of flu, but the puke your guts out in the middle of the night, write sub plans at midnight kind of flu!! Ewwwwwww! Puking might be one of the grossest things ever!!

Puking just makes me want my mom. I don't know why, but I just want her to come, lay me down on the couch with a towel and a bucket, brush my bangs back and just take care of me. Not that Marty didn't take care of me, he did. He inquired if I needed anything after I was done hurling for the second time, he brought me gingerale and rubbed my back. Scout also showed empathy. She was with me, her head in the toilett with mine every time I was there. She layed by the bed the whole day, Monday, while I slept, being very patient and not demanding at all!! But somehow, the only person I really wanted was my mommmmy!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHRISTMAS TREE HUNT

Now that we live in a place with livingroom big enough for a Christmas Tree, we had to go get one! I refuse to buy one from a lot. Not because I dont' like the trees in the lots, quite the opposite, those trees are always beautiful! I dont' want to go to a lot, because all of my happy, childhood Christmas Tree memories involve a "hunt" that ends with someone sawing down a tree. Those are memories I want to continue having!

Our family used to bundle up, head out into our "deep dark forest" (the back 40 of our pasture,) seek out the best tree Mother Nature could provide in the pairies, saw it down, tie ropes around it and haul it all the way back to the house. This was a tradition and it was one of my favorites. Our trees were rarely perfectly shaped the often had bare spots and frequently they had a terrible lean to them, but once decorated they were always glorious in their own way. We loved every tree because it was ours! I can remember years where the tree actually fell over, splashing water from the tree stand everywhere, smashing ornaments and cause squeals from us girls! I remember once or twice, Dad actually tied the tree to the stair railing with fishing line to keep it from leaning and falling over. I remember Dad drilling into the trunk to shove branches from other trees in the holes, creating the illusion of a very full tree. I remember the cussing that always accompanied the job of wrapping lights on the tree. I remember throwing loads of tinsle onto every branch we could reach, and the way the Angel was our topper of choice. Others may share similar memories of decorating, however if their tree came from a box, they missed out on one important thing....the adventure! The adventure that comes with finding a tree, the adventure that comes with untangling, and wrapping lights, the adventure that comes with strategically decorating in order to maximize branch capacity, the adventure that comes with going to bed never knowing if your tree will still be standing upright when you get up in the morning. I don't blame those who prefer not to partake in the "adventure" however, I for one, am not ready to leave it behind.

Our tree stands in our livingroom, bare spots to the wall, pinecones still attached, branches pointing awkwardly upwards, waiting to be decorated, to fulfill it's destiny as a 'CHRISTMAS TREE!"

Off to find the perfect tree out west!

We brought Scout and 5 of our good friends to share in the tradition.

Marty and Andrew cutting down our tree!

Dragging the tree out of the bush....

Time for hot chocolate by the bon fire!

Taking our prize home!

25 WEEKS

I am now 25 weeks pregnant and really starting to show!! According to the literature I have been reading, which honestly, isn't much, my uterus is the size of a soccer ball!! Looks like I am already a soccer mom!! Mini Me is the size of an eggplant, weighing it at approx 1.7lbs!

Me and "Mini Me"-25 weeks!

Scout, completely oblivious to how much her life is gonna change too, in 15 weeks!!!!

The guys in the green latex suits in this video clip are not the guys who sat behind Marty and I at the hockey game lastnight, but the guy who did, was dressed just like them....well after the fist period he was.

Marty and I were given amazing seats to the Calgary Flames game lastnight. Neither one of us are big Flames fans, but Marty is a huge Canucks fan and the Flames were playing them lastnight. A family at school has season's tickets to the Flames and they couldn't use the tickets lastnight, so they offered them to Marty and I. The seats were in the 4th row behind the goalie!! They gave us tickets one other time this year and damn, hockey sure is way more fun to watch that close up!!!!!!!!! Marty and I have gone to lots of games, but the tickets we get are in the very top rows of the Saddle Dome. We watch most of the game on the Jumbotron, but lastnight, we were almost as close as you can get!! I could see the string of spit the goalie horked out of his mouth after each period! There were a couple of fights, which are awesome to watch from that close and one big injury that left a huge pool of blood on the ice. I was close enough to see that pool of blood, close enough that the sight of it made me gag!!! They actually came out with shovels and scraped the blood off the ice! EWWW!!!

Behind us, in row 5 or 6 was a loud, skinny, obnoxious guy. He had a big voice that he could really project and he wasn't afraid to heckle the players. He was a Canuks fan, so he was not in good company in the Season's Tickets section. To be fair, there are a lot of Canuks fans in Calgary so he was not alone in the stadium in his loyalties, however he was one of the most annoying Canuks fans I could hear. It was like he had memorized everyone's salary on the Flames and his favorite thing to yell was something like, " Hey Kessler, (or any other flames player) why don't you earn that 1.5 mill (or whatever he had read their salary to be.) He didn't just yell this stupid line once or twice, he hollered it everytime a Flame touched the puck! He was rude and loud and no one was impressed, until the second period. He came back to his seat after the break with a beer, dressed head to toe in a one piece green latex suit. Apparently, the guys in the video clip, made the green onesie kinda famous, something Canucks fans do and this guy, had one! Suddenly, he went from being the obnoxious, irritating Canucks fan, to the Ultimate, superfan, the one people, including those dressed in Flames jersys, asked to have their pictures taken with! He continued to be loud, cracking his stupid salary heckles the entire game, but the green get up, made him tolerable, funny even!!!

The hockey game itself was great, for the Canuks fans, they beat Calgary by 5 goals, but the Green Suit guy was the real entertainment!!!

Here's to people brave enough to wear latex onesies in public!!!