# 25. Send Vicki's VERY late Christmas gift

Vicki was just here in Nfld for a week-long vacation. I was so happy to see her and got to visit with her a little. I didn't have to "send" her Christmas gift, I ashamedly gave it to her in person. Shame! Shame! Shame on me for being such a terrible friend!

Anyways, here's the gift - a print from Jasmine Becket-Griffith of "Kali", who reminded me so much of Vicki, I just couldn't resist! I personally think her sweet face looks very similar to Vicki. I love the contradiction of how she's all innocent and sweet and fairy-like but at the same time is dancing around a fire with skulls around her neck - and Yes, that did indeed remind me of my awesome friend!



If you'd like to check out Jasmine's amazing art, her website is www.strangeling.com

Happy 5th!

Today is the hubster and I's (that doesn't sound like proper English) 5th Wedding Anniversary! Happy Day to us!

We have no plans. Unfortunately, life is very busy. Hubster is off work today until 7pm. I'm working all day and off at 7. Go figure!

We started it all off with a beautiful beach wedding in PEI with a small group of wonderful family and friends. And I've been thinking about what we've done for 5 years since:

- We went camping and forgot our first anniversary until the day was half over.
- We vacationed together alone and realized we need to vacation in a group to maintain our sanity as our views on vacations are quite different!
- We vacationed with a group (Phew! That was better!)
- We bought our first house.
- We had our first baby.
- We bought a business.
- We moved our family back home to Newfoundland.
- We bought another house.
- We await baby #2.

And in between all of that:
- We have laughed and cried;
- We have snuggled on the couch or sat as far apart as possible;
- We have talked or kept silent;
- We have argued and then kissed and made up;
- We have shaken our heads at each other in both joy and annoyance;
- We have judged and understood;
- We have questioned and relied on the sanity of the other;
- We have shared happiness and sorrow;
- We have lost and gained;
- We have withheld and discovered;
- We have coldly folded our arms or warmly opened them to embrace;
- We have been frustrated and relieved;
- We have opened and closed doors;
- We have felt, depending on the day, that 5 years is short and long.

Through it all, I think Dave Matthews sums it up very well:
"The space between the tears we cry
Is the laughter keeps us coming back for more..."

Happy Anniversary Jamie! Here's hoping for many more years of all of the above, with enough of the good stuff to keep the scales tipped in our favour!

#88. Make Wedding Cake: Jason and Holly - Cupcakes

Congrats to Jason and Holly who were married this past weekend, July 10th, here in wonderful west coast Newfoundland.

Holly asked me to make her a cupcake cake and after some research, trial and error, here's what we came up with...didn't they turn out awesome?!




Photo Courtesy of Jason and Holly's wonderful and amazing photographer, Christa Hann...Thanks Christa!

Cupcake cake idea courtesy of Kylie Lambert at Le Cupcake.

Cupcake stand tutorial courtesy of Cake Journal.

For more info on how you can order your very own cupcakes (or other yummy stuff!) contact The Chocolate Moose Bakery and Cafe at 709-453-2262.

Author: Krista D. Ball

We met back in the early 90's, mid-teens, starting to experience glimpses of life outside the confines of a parents wing. I cannot say I remember where we met, under what circumstances, what we said.

What I do remember is the letters. I loved to write, she loved to write. We were instant penpals, scribbling frantically back and forth week after week, talking about boys and school and disagreements with our friends. I was the pristine penpal - excellent penmanship, floral stationary paper with matching envelopes, stamp placed perfectly square in the top right corner.

She, on the other hand, wrote as she thought - much too fast for her hand! She would start out in "proper" form with "Dear Myrna, Today I ...blah blah blah..." and then suddenly you could see her thoughts taking over with no care for aesthetics. There were circles of words, words written off the page, sentences run out of space and continuing down the outside, flipped over to the back of the page, upsidedown. Stationary and envelopes were often recycled before recycling was the "in" thing - it was crumpled brown wrapping paper posted in an envelope someone else had sent her, turned inside-out and taped back together.

I loved receiving those crazy letters - I looked forward to the mystery that was inside, piecing together the details of whatever fantastical highschool journey she had been on that week.

And so, I was not surprised in the least, when we "met" again on facebook after several years, and she was in the middle of working towards her first published novel, "Harvest Moon".

Let me introduce to you my friend, Krista D. Ball, in her debut blog tour interview:

A Writer's Essential Blog Tour Foods

Hello everyone! I’m Krista D. Ball, a science fiction and fantasy (SFF) writer from Edmonton, Alberta. Today begins my blog tour, which I’ve seriously named “Krista Taunts the Internet: The Officially Unofficial Blog Tour.” Between now and August, I’ll be visiting a number of different blogs all over the web and doing guest spots.

Now, blog touring is a lot of work and a girl has to keep up her strength. My emergency blog tour snack kit will include:

· (Canadian) Smarties
That’s right. Smarties are not the same the world over. This shocked me to discover on my first trip to the US. Then, people tried to convince me that our Smarties were like M&Ms. Oh heavens, no! For maximum blog touring energy, Smarties should be mixed with ice cream.

· Walker’s Shortbread
There are very few store bought cookies that are better than homemade. Walker’s Shortbread is at the top of that elite list. Leave it to the Scottish to make the best cookie on the planet. Do not purchase if you are on a diet.

· Poutine
French fries. Gravy. Cheese curds. It’s gooey heaven. One of the best things about cooking a turkey is that you can use the leftover gravy to make homemade poutine the next day. Yum!

· Newfie Screech
As a writer, I believe it is important for me to continue the stereotype that all writers are half-cut most of the time. Being a Newfoundland gal myself, I would be remiss if I didn’t have a 40 ouncer of Screech in the cupboard. In case of emergencies, of course. Not for 10 am drinking.

· The Spud’s Onion Rings
There are only 5000 or so people in the world lucky enough to have visited The Spud. It’s like a chip wagon, only in a building. They make onion rings so good that I have been known to arrive in Deer Lake, NF after a 10 hour flight and asked the cab driver to take me straight to The Spud, even if it’s 2am.

· Mc Lobster
There is something so awesome and terrifying about eating lobster at McDonald’s. Yet, every year, McDonald’s in the Eastern Provinces (and I’ve heard some US states) serves up its famous McLobster. It’s been a decade since I’ve had one, but I demand several to survive a summer tour.

With this group of foods, I’ll make it through this summer tour with flying colours!

A special thanks to Myrna for letting me kick off my tour on her awesome blog.

For more information on Krista or her upcoming novelette, Harvest Moon, check out her website at http://www.kristadball.com/

#55. Write Poem: Pregnant Miss Muffet?

A pregnant miss Myrna
Pinned her clothes on the line.
It started to rain
Before it was time.
She headed back out
The laundry to fetch,
And felt a soft tickle
Right there on her chest.
She pulled out her collar
And when she looked down -
There was miss spider
Walking around!
Well, pregnant miss Myrna
She shrieked and she danced,
She pulled off her shirt
She undid the clasp.
She flicked off poor spider
in 2 seconds flat
No thought to the fact
that her belly was fat!
Miss Myrna, she sighed,
with her hand to her cheek,
Oh dear! She'd forgotten
the neighbours might see!

The end.

Photo Update

Okay, okay, stop nagging already! lol. I know! I am the absolute worse at uploading photos! So here's the latest....

One of Sarah in all her sadness as she prepares for the VCUG at the Janeway. In this photo, she is specifically crying because she didn't want to take off her Dora shirt to put on the gown. As always, bear is in tow.

We had a fox in our backyard. It was the day we arrived back from St. John's and Jamie was busy unpacking the truck. We were suddenly alerted to the presence of Mr. Fox by Sarah, who playing outside, began hollerin' and screamin' such bloody murder that we thought the fox must have attacked her! Turns out she thought we might invite the fox to stay in the house and she didn't want that...I can't imagine why! It's not like I've ever allowed wildlife in our house before.

And here we are at 25 weeks. We meaning ME and Sarah and baby in da belly. I'm measuring about 23 cm's at the doctor but my ultrasound shows as being right on track with my own dates. So far, 14 lbs gain - most of that in the past month! And please excuse my gorgeous bed head hair and mish-mash old t-shirt/Charlie brown pant pj's - Sarah and I had just gotten up.
And here's a super cute pic of Sarah, last Sunday, playing outside. I know I may be slightly biased but isn't she just the cute-EST!
Last but not least, the cupcake wedding cake I made today...I'm quite pleased with it! Isn't it nice?

Thanks to Kylie Lambert at Le Cupcake for the idea...my imagination cannot take the credit.

(Holly, if you see this...this is similar to how your cupcake cake will look as well. Except you'll have lots more cupcakes on the table (I understand we're not adding more layers to the stand because you'll be on a potentially rocky BOAT...yay!) and you have chosen to have cupcakes as the top layer as well instead of the double-layer cake. And, yours will be black & white. It's gonna look great!)

Don't be surprised if my next uploads are not until about 6 weeks after baby arrives in September :)

Craving Cheese

Not literally.

This morning I got up and made my usual breakfast of toast and tea and a glass of milk. I set it all out on the table atop a Dora placemat. I pulled out the chair onto our (fake) hardwood floor..... nothin' but a big screeeeeeech and scrape!

"I need chair socks", is what I thought in my head, "those little ones Nan knit for the bottoms of her chair legs." No more screeching and scraping my floors. "I wonder who could knit 24 of those terribly intricate little things."

(there's even a free pattern online)

I sat down to eat and looked around at my efforts to be somewhat stylish and modern in my home decorating and thought, "Chair socks! My goodness Myrna, what are you thinking?! Could you crave something a little less cheesy next time?". It's seems pregnancy isn't always about the food.

The craving didn't pass. I've just arrived at the office and I'm still thinking of chair socks. I don't want the little felt circle thingies that go stuck (and hidden) on the bottom of the chair legs. I want the newfie hand-knit "what the heck were you thinking?" conversation-piece SOCKS! I want them...I want then now!

(I also sometimes find myself using a....um....plastic floral tablecloth!)

Do you ever crave this kind of cheese?

Back from St. John's

The hubster and I (accompanied by Grandma) had to drive to St. John's on the weekend to bring Sarah to her annual urologist appointment.

Some of you may remember past posts on Sarah's condition. Basically, she has reflux in her left kidney. Normally, if everything is functioning correctly, urine will flow from the kidneys through the ureters and into the bladder. However, Sarah has an obstruction in the ureter. This causes the flow of urine to be partially blocked, making it flow back into the kidney (reflux). This pushing back of urine into the kidneys can cause permanent damage if not closely monitored. At the moment, Sarah's left kidney is functioning at about 60% with a reflux level of about 3.

On the bright side:
- This is a treatable condition in most cases and is fairly common.
- Sarah's reflux could be worse - she is a level 3 (with 1 being best, 5 being worse)
- Many children will gradually "grow out of it"

On the negative:
- We have to take meds every day and Sarah hates taking medicine!
- Having a VCUG done every year is NOT fun at all! (especially when Mommy realized she wasn't allowed in the room this time being prego and all - xray...duh! Good thing we had Grandma cause Daddy is just no good at that stuff!)
- We have to drive 8 hours to St. John's every year to see the specialist as there isn't one in our area.
- Sarah's test results reveal her condition is slightly worsening every year.

Here's what the doctor thinks:
We still have some time to work with as Sarah is still only 3 years old. Studies at the moment show that 8-9 years of age is the cut-off for the condition to improve on its own without surgical intervention. So, we'll go back next year in May for our regular tests (VCUG and ultrasound) to check again on the development of the reflux. IF there is no improvement or if the condition has worsened again, then they will probably want to perform a day surgery procedure to dilate the obstructed area of the ureter. We will then have a follow up VCUG a few months later to check if the dilation is helping. Hopefully it will. Our option otherwise, a few years down the road, would be surgery to repair (with a stent?) or replace the ureter. I don't have the full details on how this surgery would work - I'll need to do more research.

So let's cross our fingers for little Sarah for improvement over the next year.

P.S. According to our ultrasound, it appears that baby#2 has all of its little kidney/bladder/ureter parts in tact :)

If any of you have to go to St. John's for medical testing or treatments, the place recommended to us (thanks Wendi!) for our stays has worked out very nicely and gives a discount with a copy of your doctor requisition. Click on Hillview Terrace Suites for more information. Rather than a hotel room, these are furnished apartments (at about the same cost of a hotel) with 1, 2, or 3 bedrooms and a fully stocked kitchen - ideal for an extended stay.

No. 24 and No. 28 - Sorting and Organizing Through one of THOSE days!

For me this long May 2-4 weekend was not about get-aways or camping (although those would be nice). Rather it was about trying to get some things done around the house.

Well, what a disaster that turned out to me. I didn't know I could have such emotional turmoil over attempting to finalize spring cleaning.

It started on Saturday morning. I awakened to the sound of the lawnmower outside. The hubster stayed home from the store to get some yard work done (much needed and appreciated - Thanks babe!). I got up, Sarah got up, and we had breakfast. Fine...so far so good.

I had planned to hang clothes on the line - much too windy, looked like rain. Disappointment #1.
I started to gather laundry - ALL manner of the hubsters clothing strewn on the floor on his side of the bed. Annoyance #1.
Thoughts of the long drive to St. John's this week for Sarah's dr's appointment - Worry #1.
Sarah decides she wants to watch Beauty and the Beast and the TV won't work. I reach behind the TV to check the plug-in, come up and hit my head HARD on the corner of the shelf above the TV - Hurt #1.

And then I started to cry. At any other time, I probably would have cursed a little (inside my head, of course) and gotten furious at my lack of spatial awareness regarding the shelf. On this day, I cried. And then I sat on the floor and cried. I got up and went to the bedroom, saw this disaster of clothing needing to be sorted in the closet and cried some more. Sat on the bed, started thinking of all the other stuff on my "to-do list" not getting done and literally sobbed. I don't know that I've ever felt so overwhelmed. It was crazy. I'm not usually like that.

#24 and #28. Sorting toys and clothes into bins/purging "give-away" items.
I spent the majority of the morning in fits of tears but managed to still sort a bunch of stuff - I gathered up a huge garbage bag of items for good will. I put away winter items and won't-fit-this-year summer items and took out all my maternity clothes. I told the hubster I was feeling very overwhelmed and unorganized. By the time I looked up, he was already headed back outside. I called him back to carry some bins for me. And then he left. And then I cried some more because he didn't even seem to hear what I had said. Urgh! But when he came back inside he brought a bunch of things up to the attic for storage so he was somewhat redeemed. We headed out to Deer Lake to run an errand for the store and I felt much better after getting dressed, putting on some makeup, and getting some air.

I had Sarah's toys nearly all sorted into bins already - one for dress up clothes, one for toy dishes and food, one for small-motor-play (aka Junkie little McDonald) toys. But I also got out the crayola bin and sorted all of the crayons (good vs. broken), markers, leds, stickers, paper, etc.

Phew! Glad that's over! I don't think I could handle being an overly emotional person. How does one ever get anything accomplished? How do you handle days like this?

Hope your weekend was better than mine. Happy Victoria Day!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister! Hope it was a great one!

Diaper Stash and Ultrasound Update

Doggy loves our new Jamtots Berry Plush Cloth Diaper!

Pros:

So far, the softest diaper we've tried - feels so smooshy and comfy.

Has a snap in liner for easy laundering.

The cover can be used separately with a prefold or fitted diaper.

Made in Canada! (I love that part)

Cons:

On the expensive side at approx. $28.50 each. I wouldn't have tried it at that price but I got a $10 off deal.

I don't think we'll be ordering more of these diapers. Unfortunately, the price is a little too high. But it's nice to have one of them in my stash for wee baby. And the one I have is a size small which should fit nicely from birth. Many of the one-sized diapers actually start fitting closer to about 12 lbs or so.

As of a few days ago, I think I now have enough diapers ordered. I know it's soon but I warned you - I'm obsessed!

(Thanks scrapbooking ladies for the gift ($) - which I used to finish purchasing my diapers)

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for deals and have gotten all of my diapers on sale! Bonus!

I even found a lady who made me a diaper for $9 out of my own "O Canada" flannel! Of course, as with any addiction, there are still some diapers I'd love to buy. Like these and these and these!

Lucky for me the hubster has been very patient with me. But I'm sorta thinkin I may be pushing it if I order more right now simply because they are "oh so cute!" But seriously, aren't they?

And what's even more exciting than cute colourful cloth diapers? Seeing baby for the first time, of course! Today was our ultrasound and we got to see baby's heartbeat, tiny little feet, and mouth opening and closing - absolutely fascinating!

At first the baby seemed to be sleeping - no movement at all and his/her hands were up covering his/her face so the ultrasound technician wasn't able to get the profile pic she needed. How cute is that?! Sarah always slept with her hands up by her face too. The old wives tale says this is a sign of a happy baby...I sure hope so!

After about 20 minutes or so, baby starting squirming all around and poking and prodding mommy everywhere. I tell ya, there's just no better feeling! I didn't realize I was crying until I felt a tear run down my cheek.

We were also happy to learn that this baby has a 3-vessel cord (normal) whereas Sarah only had 2-vessels which is most likely the cause of her kidney issues.

On the negative side, Newfoundland doesn't allow you to go home with a photo of baby from the ultrasound. I was very disappointed at this, especially after having about 8-9 u/s pics of Sarah. Quite frankly I think it's rather silly and I'd love to know why this is. The ultrasound tech had no idea. She said she thought I could "purchase" the photo from my doctor....huh?

Picture or no picture, it was a very happy day for us!

Jamie said "I think it looks like a boy". lol...I highly doubt it but I guess we'll see in about 4 months!