Happy New Year!!!

Wow, 2011.


I have a 7 week old baby boy, my husband is doing interviews for jobs in Vancouver, and that means the 5 of us will be south bound at some point in this year.


Wow.


The wheels of change, they are 'a turnin!'  


It's been a long time coming, and man, are we ever excited.  T leaves on Tuesday to head south and do a technical skills test/interview for one job, another left a voice mail while we were out of town that they wanted to set up an interview, so that will happen next week as well.... and the aim is to get as many interviews set up as possible while he's down there.  Kill as many birds with one stone as possible... and if he has to stay down there for a week, so be it.  


I'll have to get used to that, anyway... the whole being on my own with 3 kids thing.  o_O  Yeah... I don't envy single mums, or other mums that do their job with their partner away.  T and I are very much partners, and having him away is gonna be hella-hard.  But, I'll do it, and get through it, because we have to, and because in the long run, it's gonna be awesome.


I foresee doing one thing that I've ALWAYS had a hard time doing: accepting help.  We've had so many people offer (as I'm sure SO MANY people get as well, from their loved ones) to help - to take the bigger boys, to clean, to do stuff... but it's hard to accept, because you know they have their own lives to live, and helping me/us would take them away from their own lives... ya know?  But, I also know that I myself love to help (which I should try harder to do sometimes), so I also know that they are usually genuinely offering that help.  And with the situation changing in our lives as it will be, I am thinking that help is going to come in SUPER handy in the coming months.


Why?


Because after T lands a job, he will move south, and we will stay here.


Yes, we're crazy.


No, not really.  ;)  We have reasons for this decision.  


1. We want to make sure that he is in a job that he likes, and they like him, before we commit to that big move.  Especially when house-wise, we are super happy where we are; and money-wise, we're doing okay here (not great, which is why we're moving, but we're not grossly in the hole or anything, like we would be if we moved down there, and then T's new job didn't work out).


2. We'd like to save for our move, save to pay off debts, and get a new vehicle (ours was rear-ended the day after boxing day, and if we take the claim, it is a write-off).... all of which would be harder to do paying the higher rent that is characteristic of Greater Vancouver.


3. Before we move, I HAVE to go through the mountain of boxes in our basement and PURGE of unnecessary items.  ONE BOX PER NIGHT is my goal.  I've had that goal for ages, but I'm not so good with it.  I'm the type of person who wants to do too much, so I wind myself up into a tizzy, and then I get overwhelmed, and instead, procrastinate, when REALLY, one box is no biggie, would probably only take me, max, half an hour, and that's a BIG box, with LOTS of little, different things.  Some boxes may only take me 10 minutes!


This purging is necessary, because when we move, we're doubtful we'll land a place with storage as awesome as this place... so all the junk that I've accumulated must go.  Only needed junk is coming with us.  :D


So yeah, only 3 reasons, but 3 very valid reasons.


New vehicle... that's another wheel of change turning... I'm a smidge excited, because we're going to go new. After putting in 2 new transmissions into this vehicle, and it needing work, and now it being rear-ended (well, really, the corner was clipped, it was parked), we don't want to be nickel-and-dimed to death anymore.  Purchase planned?  Grand Caravan.  :)  Lots of space for 3 growing boys and car seats, road trips north to see family, and down the road, bikes, snowboarding equipment, hockey equipment and friends.... oh, and trips to crops for me with all my stampin' goodies.  :D


All right, time to go to bed.  Riley fell asleep about 1.15am, and now that it's been an hour, it's safe for me to go to bed now.... and I really should.  The holidays drain me.


Hope you and yours had a good one, and here's to the wheels of change in 2011!!!


Hugs,
Dinnae

A new bubba... Riley Morgan

Ahhhh, such a crazy crazy whirlwind the last 27 days has been... oh, and even the weeks, months, and dare I say it, YEAR before then too!


Friday, 12 November was an EPIC day for us - our newest little man, Riley Morgan, joined our family earthside at 2.22pm.

Riley Morgan - 10lb 13oz, 22" - 12/11/2010

My little monkey is 27 days old today, and surprise surprise, I'm madly in love with him.  He's a snuggle-bum, and sooo squishy... I'm addicted to newborn snuggles.  I wish we could bottle them and have them forever.


Life with a newborn, a toddler, and a pre-schooler is fun... hectic right now, since my newborn has baby gas, and life is tough for about 4 hours in the afternoon, and about 3 at night.... but we're getting into a routine.  I'm happy to say that I'm finished typing out Riley's birth story, and that I will post it here with a couple of pics in the weeks to come, along with Xavier's and Shannon's birth stories, as part of a series to depict my progression from a cascade of interventions (my first) to a natural hospital birth (second) to an unassisted home water birth (third).  But, being that I want to have them posted as a series, I will wait until I've finished typing up the other two as well.  I had hand-written both the other two in their journals, so I've managed to type out Shannon's, and I'm just tweaking it now... but Xavier's journal, book 1 (I'm on notebook #2), is somewhere... so I may have to type it anew... meaning that may take a bit longer than I'd anticipated.


For all my birth junkie friends: they will be worth the wait.


Love and hugs,
D.

Adding to the family

Today is 37 weeks and 5 days... and baby, has time FLOWN.  

Every day that goes by, I feel goes by quicker than the day before.  

It's 22 October, and holy hannah, it feels like we just rang in 2010 last week...  It feels like I just found out yesterday that I was expecting my 3rd child (March)...  It feels like just yesterday that I won a competition with my Stampin' Up! business that got me a "Workshop of  a Lifetime" with CEO Shelli Gardner (March)... It feels like just yesterday I finished up at work on early mat leave (May)... It feels like just yesterday my hubby and I celebrated 5 years of marriage (July)... It feels like just last week we got back from a week's vacation in the sunny, hot region of Okanagan, BC (July)... It feels like just yesterday that my dad was here visiting from Portugal (August)...

Where has 2010 gone????

And like the title of this post, we are adding to the family, soon, as baby is due in 2 weeks and 2 days, although could LITERALLY come at any day now, since boy #2 was born at 37w6d.

Is it a trait that comes with AGE, or with PARENTING, that time seems to fly at an unnatural pace?  That life seems to happen whether we're ready for it or not... that quote from John Lennon sums it up best:

"Life is what happens when you're busy making plans."

Oh YEAH.

So anyway.

We have plans.  We have BIG plans.  

- Baby is going to be born at HOME (oh how I've wanted this one for soooooooo long!!!!  Since boy #1!!!).... 

- Hubby's biz is going in a COMPLETELY different direction (very good though!  More details and a link, well, repeated links, to his site once it's up and running.)... 

- We won't be staying tooooo much longer in Small Town, BC (read: 12 to 24 months)... 

- Homeschooling starting next year (ok, this is kinda' scary, but so exciting - I BEGGED to be homeschooled as a kid!)... 

- And me?  As a STAY-AT-HOME-MUM???  (Man, I **LOVE** that title!!!!)  I have business plans.  Yes, in addition to getting back to running a house (haven't done *much* of that the last 6 months - this pregnancy has been tiring.), homeschooling, I also plan on maintaining my Stampin' Up! business (more as a hobby though, I just love being creative), and earnestly exploring two options for earning income from home - Melaleuca (a great company I've been a customer of for almost 12 years), and a publishing business (no name, as it's ALL MY IDEA, and I don't want to spoil it until I have it all planned out).

Will I have time for this?  I pray so.  If it's part of His plan for us, then the time will be there.  If not... well, we'll see, won't we.  ;)

Okay, off to bed... always seems that I go into labour in the middle of the night AFTER I've stayed up too late... (yes, both boy #1 and boy #2 started into our lives that way!)  I just wanted to post, since I've been so slack (yeah, 6 month gap is slack, you can say it), and I felt inspired for WHATEVER reason - I ain't gonna argue!

much luv,

D.

Win a copy of this book!

If you read my profile, you'll know that I'm a lactivist (breastfeeding activist), and I LOVE the saying: "If breastfeeding offends you, put a blanket over YOUR head!"

Well, there's a group on Crackbook with that same name, that now has their own blog.  :)  COOOOOOOL.

AND.

They are giving away TONS of stuff... and the one thing I am SO stoked about, is this new book by Elizabeth Pantley, called The No Cry Separation Anxiety Solution.  If you've ever had to deal with separation anxiety, well, you might understand why this book gets me giddy.  My big boy has almost never had issues with SA, but little one?  At times, he has a meltdown if I have to go pee.  It can get pretty annoying to have to do your business with a toddler sitting on your lap.  Yes, doing your biz is FINE, it's the WIPING with a toddler on your lap that gets difficult.  :P  Believe me, I KNOW - been there, done that, tooooooo many times to count.

If YOU want a copy of this book, enter to win here: THEIR BLOG .

And ya know what?  While you're at it, become a fan of Elizabeth's on Facebook HERE.