Melanie ~ look at me with starry eyes...

Dinner turned out great, even Paxton loved it. The apple pie I made turned out more like a crisp than a pie (I switched to a different recipe), but it was pretty good. Actually Reagan made most of it. She measured all the ingredients, read the recipe, she even cut all the apples (after I peeled and cored them). I think she enjoyed herself.

Tim watched Paxton on the porch and I hauled branches for about half an hour. I managed to clean a lot of the yard and worked up a good sweat. A lot of those branches were like individual trees! It was nice to do the work, I felt like I needed to do something physical. I'll try to get out a few more times this week to finish it. We got a good price on the cutting of the trees, but that didn't include cleanup. Tim and I are talking about what would be worth the cost.. renting a chainsaw or buying a small one. We have a lot of branches that need to be cut smaller so we can sent them with our yard waste. We figure anything Billy or Dave (neighbours) want to cut up, they can have, since they both heat with wood. If they don't want it, craigslist it is.

We had a great weekend with Reagan. I went over her flashcards for math with her. Her attitude was awesome all weekend, she played with her brother and helped watch him when we needed. She did all her jobs plus some without complaining. She was just funny and sweet and silly. Made me sad for the weekend to end.

The baby has had a cough since the beginning of January. It's a bit wet, but as the doctor said, not in his lungs.

I like to go for walks with him, I bundle him up. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to take him out in the cold, but she didn't have a definite reason, just said to avoid the walks till it was 50F out.

What would you do?

[Poll #1676719]


I know that when I worked in an infant center, we were outside daily regardless of weather or colds. I also know I need exercise.

Paxton and I went for a walk. I put him in the stroller, and it was way easier on my back so I walked for longer, walked for about 45 minutes. My lower back feels tight, but I can still move, an improvement after some walks.

He fell asleep about 10 minutes into the walk and is still asleep in his stroller an hour and a half later. woohoo

I paid a bunch of our medical bills and called the Birthing Inn people to find out why my account went to collections when I made a payment on it last month. Turns out I have TWO accounts, despite me asking if everything from Paxton and I was combined and them saying YES. The smaller one that I called to pay originally didn't get paid and got sent to collections. Effing Effers. Just add that to my list of bad experiences with the Loudoun Birthing Inn. Now I get to pay them each month PLUS a collection agency!

I called to pay the OBs who I hate (one swore at me, one told me that I'd never vbac, as he wheeled me in for my emergency c-section when he knew I wanted natural birth), and their payment people were the nicest! They told me that they would take any payment I could make, as small as I needed, as long as I kept paying them when I could. They are the ones who have a free clinic, and every time I went there no one in the waiting room spoke English but me, I think they have nice policies set up for their patients.

I'm going to try to get out for walks more often. Today is perfect, sunny and fairly warm but crisp. Good for Paxton and I. It's good for my mental health to have fresh air and sunshine. Good for my body. I probably will always be a fatter mom than I want to be, but I can be the fit mom that I want to be, if I work hard. Today as I walked I thought about Paxton and his first tricycle or push bike or whatever. Life is going to be so fun.


This one neighbour makes me laugh, they live on the road behind us and they have all these "protect our borders" signs up in their yard, but their three cars are covered with Redskins stickers and license plates. I want to laugh and ask them if they know who the Redskins were.. the people who first lived in this country who probably wished they did a better job of protecting their borders ;) It just seems so weird to me. Maybe my thinking is skewed because I'm an immigrant and I know how hard it is to immigrate.

ps. My family that used to live in Pennsylvania, years and years ago, were killed by Indians in the French Indian wars and my great great great something grandmother was taken and raised by first nations people along the St Lawrence River and that's how that part of the family became Canadian! There's a book written about it called The Medicine Maid. (And another called The Hooples of Hoople Creek and I'm the last person listed in the genealogy!)

Last weekend Reagan was bummed that she missed out riding her bike around the neighbourhood with Amelia and Sierra, our teenage neighbour. Today I suggested a walk, and of course it's raining, but we went anyway. Nice walk, around a few blocks. Gave us some ideas for our house, landscaping wise, with sheds, and I think I'll do brick face on our front porch area, instead of re-painting it. I love the look. Reagan jumped in puddles in her rain boots, and saved worms from puddles.

I made turkey vegetable soup this morning, full of onions, celery, leeks, carrots, corn, navy beans and kidney beans. The stock was probably the best stock I've ever made. I kept everything Christmas week, veggie peels, veggie tops, mushroom stems, onion skins and it cooked for days, along with turkey and bones from our dinner. I am not sure I'll be able to eat it, but I think Tim and Reagan will like it. Plus there is tons, so I can freeze it and have it for future weekends. We've actually used up all the soup I had frozen! We have some nice sourdough bread, so will have that rather than making biscuits.

Slowly getting caught up on laundry from Vegas, thanks to Tim. Made waffles for lunch. Snuggled with Tim on the couch this morning, or rather, he snuggled with me.

Reagan has been so funny this weekend, doing plays for us. She told us they were British plays, so she had a "British" accent. She sounded like the mouse from American Tale "wewease the swecwet weapon". Apparently accent = lisp to her. Yesterday I was almost crying, I was laughing so hard. Today I managed to keep it together.

All in all a nice weekend!

First memorial weekend ever.

We went and bought new sunscreen, a small grill (really inexpensive, but perfect for here!), and I'm so excited for summer.

The pool opened today, Tim and I had fun swimming around, Reagan was driving us nuts because she was being a wuss at the edge of the pool, refusing to go out past 2 feet. Finally I threatened her, and told her that we were going to return the pool passes if she didn't get in the water. Apparently this is year three of spending the entire summer in 1 feet of water, and we are getting over it ;)

She climbed on me and clung to my front. We hung out at 3 feet for a while and eventually worked over to 5 feet. She eventually had a lot of fun, which was a great step forward.

We were in the water for almost 2 hours!

Tim just made a bunch of kabobs and I made chocolate brownies, which we'll have with fresh strawberries. Yum.

I feel really grateful today, grateful for the sun, for a pool, for my family, for all the things I've been blessed with, like clean water and clean air, many people who love me.

I just taught Reagan how to do Chinese skipping rope. Is that name still politically correct?? Man, I loved that game when I was a kid. I did a few and realized I get winded a little faster than when I was a kid!! Luckily I was smart enough to show Reagan how you can play with two chairs, so I wasn't stuck with my legs in skipping rope for hours. I'll have to remember more of the skipping songs, and teach them to her, so she can teach her friends at school. We were intense, we used to even put the skipping rope up around our shoulders! I have no idea how I jumped that high.

She has been so well behaved all weekend, which just makes it so much more fun around here. She's doing math games with her dad right now, with an awesome attitude. I asked her to clean something and she just said "sure!" and jumped up and did it. I think kids are honestly happier when they have nice boundaries and expectations laid out for them.

Her cousins are running late, but the house is nice and clean and I have coffee buzzing through my veins, so I think I'm ready!! Woohoo! Sleep-over time! Too bad it's raining!!

I just realized that I can stream hundreds of exercise shows via xbox from netflicks.. including the DVD I just ordered from amazon. :./ Oh well! I've added tons to my instant queue, and will have some variety!!

I had such a great day today!

My ass is incredibly sore, but a great day.

I spent the day in an office, going through this stack of client profiles, and writing out forms for certain clients. I sat in with the bank manager for a bit, so he could teach me exactly what I needed to be doing, and so he could draw diagrams of how what I was doing was going to help the bank ;) I didn't really care how it helped, I just liked doing something different. The day went really fast! I'm doing it again tomorrow. I like having my own office.

After work, I ditched Ryan and went to the gym. I was just going to do the elliptical trainer, but I was dragged up to the step aerobics class again. Oh my. Just as brutal as last time, but I didn't feel like I was going to vomit this time. At one point we were doing lunges with weights across the floor, which was fine, but then each time she made them more difficult!! I have a feeling I'm going to be feeling it tomorrow (since I feel it already). We also ran 'laps' but she had four stations across the room. First one, you run to it, drop and do push-ups, run back to the wall. Run to the second one and do another exercise, repeat for third and fourth stations. Then we had to do jumping jacks till the last person arrived. I made sure I ran hard because I did not want to be the one everyone was waiting for. That was exhausting. I feel good now though (except for the ache...)

I'm barbequing some salmon, and am cooking some brown rice pasta and steaming some asparagus. It will not be cooked fast enough, I'm sure. I'm hungry!

If I keep up these classes, I might actually fit my September bridesmaid dress the way I want to!

and that was what I needed... a strong two hour hike with a friend. Most of it was along a river, which was raging! The snow in the mountains must finally be melting! The rapids were insane! I saw a kayaker flip over in front of me and flip himself back upright. Scary!!!

I went out to mow my lawn, and the grandfather in the front of the house came out and started the mower for me, and pushed it up the first hill in my yard for me, all without me asking. It was so sweet of him. The lawn was much easier to mow this time, but I can't find the 'house' weedeater.

I wandered around to the other side of the house, into my downstairs neighbour's yard to see if it was there. (for those who don't know, I live in a big old heritage house that has been turned into three suites, I live in the smallest one in the back, and we all have our own lovely separate yards). Her yard has this, for lack of a better word, courtyard. The ground is all pebbles, but it was full of weeds. She was going to be moving, but found out her mom has cancer, so she's staying in town to help take care of her. I remember when she first moved in, she was oohing and ahhing to her friends about her yard and how much she loved it... and I am sure she is so tired from taking care of her mom, so I weeded her whole yard for her. It looks so nice now. I'm not sure if she'll even notice, but I hope she can just go outside and sit in her courtyard and enjoy the peacefulness without having to think about chores that need to be done.

I'm not writing about it to be all 'oh I'm so nice', but rather because it felt good to do something for her, and sometimes I forget how nice it is to pass along kindness. (I think I'm allergic to one of the plants though, because my one arm is now covered in itchy welts)