Jenn rambles on

I’m not usually a fan of poodles…but I think I’ll make and exception for this one

Answer: Fruit Loops, Pringles and Chocolate milk

These are events I should not admit to but these three little letters make me do strange things: P.M.S. Evil PMS too. It’s one of those days.

Don’t worry, I fed the children a healthy lunch…but not with a smile. I’m glad they are sleeping because I needed to re-group. Hopefully I can be more pleasant when they wake up. The tone of the house was set by me this morning and it’s not their fault they followed right along. I’m going to have to do fun things with them this afternoon to keep them entertained and myself distracted.

I have to try and smarten up before my parents arrive for supper. *Sigh*

I thought about using some of my new hard earned wages at Walmart on Saturday to buy this:
I know, I know, yard sale season is only a month or two away but sometimes I really want to load ‘em up and strap ‘em down and walk while they look at the sights of our fair town. The children in this wagon sure look happy and I’m sure mine and the ones I babysit would be happy too. But, why spend 60 bucks when I know I’ll find one (less shiny of course) for 10 bucks or less at a yard sale? Sometimes being sensible is annoying. So for now I will have to be content with the backyard. Which, I might add, is a welcome distraction from the living room. Especially when my nice neighbour and her children are outside

Adventures in Babywearing is hosting a photo tag. I like to check them out on Mondays but I’ve never posted one before. Since I am SO NOT a purse person, I decided to play along because the bag I have now is the only one I’ve owned that I’ve used longer than a couple weeks before I decided it was not cool anymore. I think this one’s cool I don’t always carry it since I am usually bringing along a diaper bag for Chloe but it’s a handy little bag with cool stripes. What’s not to like? So, chicks that read my blog, I know some of you have nice handbags you want to show off so play along, eh? Or not, whatev. Good times in the Maritimes…

For the benefit of the one reader I have that doesn’t know me (hey Alli), Michelle is my sister. She got thrown off her horse again. The new horse…the calm horse. I guess he got spooked and down she went. Seven months ago she broke her left hand when her other horse threw her…this time her right hand, not to mention a broken rib and a possible bruised kidney. She feels sort of embarrased (michelle if you’re reading this, don’t be mad) I mean, seasoned riders don’t get thrown this often. She’s been riding since she was…I don’t know, like 10 or something? Her odds of getting struck by lightning should have been better than breaking another bone from a horse fall.

When we were talking on the phone the night it happened, she wondered why it happened again and although I don’t have a clue how or why this happened again, I said something, that after I said it, may have been for me to hear as well. I told her that there is a reason for everything. Even the not-so-good stuff that happens, it’s still in God’s hands. I’ve been thinking about that alot since I said it. Not that I think it was brilliant or anything. I mean, it’s a pretty routine statement but I payed attention to it whether she did or not I guess it is a good reminder that goes along with the Bible reading I’ve been doing for BRF. In all the information and instruction that God gives us, He also always reminds us that HE is in control…that’s why we don’t have to worry so much about the things we can’t control. Which is a big issue for me. Control Freak is my first, middle, and last name.

Anyway, that’s my thought of the day as I wish my lil sis a speedy recovery.

*note: these are the things only Michelle will understand:
“How many Sundays has it been now?”
“It’s just like babysitting, eventually it will be over”
“happy, happy. Joy, joy.”
“I’ll just leave you a note in the trailer and mom will never know I went to the party.”
“Seeeeeeeee my vest, see my vest, made of real gorilla chest…”

There’s prolly a million more I am forgetting but don’t ya wish sometimes that we could lock ourselves in your room (because yours was bigger) and play crazy eights and sing to the music at the top of our lungs? Sometimes I do…if only for an hour or so.

Well it’s finally warm and dry enough so that we can play outside! Chloe is old enough now to negotiate the lumps in the yard and not trip every five seconds Here she is proudly holding onto a golf ball that she found. “Galf,” she says.

She looks so little in her layers of purple and pink…that probably has something to do with the fact that she IS indeed short. Apparently she is in the 50th percentile for her size at this age. Oh well, that’s no surprise to me.

I’m going to try and get my review up later today or this evening.

1. “I would hate for Smudge to miss out on getting spayed because I needed to pop out a baby.” -Erin

2. “Mommy. Mats and boobee” -Chloe (translation = Max and Ruby) (sorry if that was shocking to some if you:)

I’m sure there were more but I can’t remember any of the good ones that the two almost-three-year-olds said…there was alot of, “she took my - ” and “can I have that now?” and lots of pushing and pinching. But it really wasn’t that bad of a day. I guess if you expect the worst than anything else is better

Why is it that the second I put play-doh in front of Chloe she tried to take a bite? And if I were to hand her a bite of broccoli she would turn her nose up and say “done” before she even smelled it?

Today was her funeral. She was my primary teacher in school. Not only was she my very first school teacher but she was also a great Christian woman that attended the same church as my family when I was growing up. Her daughter Heather was my favorite babysitter when I was little so I think alot of this family. If any of you knew Mrs. Chisholm you would remember that she had the best laugh ever

I wasn’t sad today at the funeral. I feel bad for the family, she will be missed because she was only 68 when she died and her youngest grandchild isn’t old enough to have the great memories everyone else has of her. But even they didn’t seem sad because they know she is with Jesus now. I got to thinking about how blessed we are to be saved by grace. To know that even though I totally stink at living this earthly life, I have something awesome to look forward to. It made me think that I really need to focus more on eternity. I spend WAY too much time focusing on the piddly things of this world and being selfish. I really do, and it’s not worth it. I want to be like Mrs. Chisholm was when she was here…even in her last days when she was full of pain and could barely stand she was telling everyone about God’s grace and mercy.

My friend Darryl died a few years ago and he was my age. I try to imagine what it must be like for Mrs. Chisholm to get to heaven and see Darryl already there waiting for her and welcoming her too. They had a great teacher/student relationship both because of school and church. That’s the stuff that brings tears to my eyes as I sit here. I like to imagine what heaven is like. I love thinking about all the people that will be there when we get there. I wonder what questions I’ll ask them and what they’ll tell me about heaven. But most of all I wonder what it’ll be like to see Jesus there, waiting for me, welcoming me. It’s almost too much to think about. I can only imagine…(sing it, you know you want to)

I want to live a life more worthy of that free gift God gave me. And my real prayer tonight is that I wake up feeling this same way I do today. I have a nasty habit of letting the world make me forget…but I don’t want to forget.

Well Mrs. Chisholm, I’ll see you again someday and I will tell you how special you were to this little scared five year old on the very first day of school

Amy is doing some research, so I thought I would give my two cents.

How long have you been married? It’ll be six years in May

How long did you and your spouse really know each other before you married? We are high school sweet hearts so we knew eachother for seven years before we got hitched.

Looking back, how prepared do you feel you were for marriage? No one is prepared for marriage but we especially weren’t. Even though we knew eachother for so long, our relationship wasn’t great. we weren’t Christians until about three years into our marriage.

If you have kids, how long did you wait before starting your family? My husband made me wait four years

How many children do you have and what are their ages? We have one daughter so far and she’s 18 months old.

What challenges have you faced at this stage in your marriage? Spending any time together is a challenge lately. We have other challenges that result from this like communication “mishaps” and things of that nature.

If you have kids, has your relationship changed since you’ve added them to your family? Yes

If so, in what way(s)? I think we are happier and more goal oriented as a family now.

What resources or support systems do you have that benefit your marriage? The Bible, observing other Godly families and using them as examples of what to strive for in a family.

What advice do you have for young couples contemplating marriage and starting a family? Wow, well, make sure it is what the Lord wants. Marriage is SO HARD without the Lord and His Guidance. I’m glad we never have to be “alone” in our marriage again

AND THE BIGGY……What is/are the biggest need(s) that you have as a husband/wife at this stage in your marriage? Hmmm, you have forced me to think…ok, gonna be real honest here, I need my husband to be the spiritual leader in our family. I feel burdened. There, I said it. Now I might cry.

What a weekend! It always seems that I go from bored to having too much on my plate. If I had to choose, I’d pick full plate most of the time. I like to have things to do. But in my old age (tee hee) I seem to tire easily (isn’t that sad?)

A couple times a year a few of us from high school always try to get together when the majority of us are home. Well, the majority of us still live here in the valley or at least close by but there are a couple of the girls in Ontario. Anyway, we gathred at Erin Keddy’s on Sunday afternoon. All of us and all of our children. I won’t lie, it’s still weird to me that we all have kids now. There were 7 of us mommies and there were 9 children there between the ages of two months, to five years. When did we grow up? There are so many memories from high school that still seem like not that long ago - some I’d rather forget and some I hold onto. The best ones are of giggle fits and volleyball road trips. The worst ones are fights over boys and things I will leave in my “checkered past”

The visit was sort of chaotic (or maybe I just thought that since it was my kid who was soooo tired and did all the crying and clinging). We keep saying it’ll get easier to sit and chat when the kids get older but then there will be new children and less room for everyone to move around. I think we are going to meet at Roo’s in August. Then just maybe they will play and we can have uninterrupted conversations. Probably not, eh? Ok, maybe longer conversations.

Here are a couple of pics of the visit. I only got two because Chloe never left my hip and whenever she sees the camera all she wants to do is see pics of herself. How’d she get so vain?
The first one is Raina introducing herself to Chloe and then checking out her shoes. The second one is Chloe chillin with Kaylynn while Liam feeds her goldfish crackers. She had the life!

In other news, I started my adventure in babysitting today. I decided that when Erin finished I would contribute to the family income and take on one of her little chickens that she’s been looking after. You know, the day went better than I could have imagined. But, it is only the first day. Chloe thought “tay-ter” was hilarious and copyed everything she did including licking the TV. Who does that?