It is starting to feel more like Spring

With the grass poking through in my backyard and the sun shining it is really starting to feel like Spring might arrive very soon. I don't even mind if we get another cold snap, as we usually do, but I would really, really love the snow to melt in the backyard. Although Hubby did a doggy bomb clean up last weekend, as the snow melts more appear. We did great picking up almost every day, then got hit with a couple of storms so I am leary leaving the kids out to play. J is also asking if the snow is gone yet? Soon. I say if the weather keeps up we will have mostly grass in the back by next week.

A decided he was well enough to come over on Saturday. J was very happy. Today, J woke up with a cough and runny nose. Guess I shouldn't have let A play Lego.

On a fun note, my personal trainer is available once again to train me!!!! She has taken a hiatus from her other job until her daughter goes to school. She specializes in training pregnant women. And I am pregnant, so I am thrilled!!! We are going to start next week, so I have a week to find something to wear and psych myself up. YAY!

What do you do...

... when your 3.5 year old is bawling his eyes out because his big brother is too sick to come over tonight? I just don't know. It is making me cry myself.

Oh Joy, Oh Bliss

I can hardly contain myself. You are also probobly thinking this is pregnancy related bliss, but not exactly.

You see, we moved into our new house two years ago (tomorrow actually) and ever since, our next door neighbours have been waking J up at all hours of the night and morning. Mostly he is woken up at 4:50am with the door slamming on their way to competitve swimming. The last few weeks they haven't been going to swimming and boy have I enjoyed the extra hour and a half of sleeping I get when they stay home. Today was not one of those days.

In addition to the early morning swim practice, the husband works the night shift. Leaving at 10pm and arriving home anywhere between 2am and 4am (I know, must be nice to have four or five hour shifts). With his suped up Dodge pick up with the extra rumbling pipes if J is not in a deep sleep then, awake he is at those hours.

Add to that the teenage parties (complete with booze I might add) that go on most weekends and many evenings in the summer, the constant door slamming everytime they go in and out of the house and the smoke from the bbq that comes in our front windows, I am most happy to report... THEY ARE MOVING!!!! Yes, indeed I am shouting that from the rooftops!!! They have not been happy since the day they moved in, they really don't belong in this neighbourhood, with its young children and quiet evening type people living on the street. There are new babies all around us and the oldest kid (other than their two) on the street is probobly 10.

I knew that one day soon they would decide to give up the ghost and move back into an older neighbourhood with older kids and a smaller house. And yesterday I got the news. Ironically they are buying a house on a street that is very familiar to both myself and Hubby as it backs on to his Dad's old house that was one of the first houses every built in our community 42 years ago. And is just up the street from Hubby's best friends parents place (a place where I rented a room for a year or so).

Ahhh Hurray!!!! If all goes well, they will be gone by the end of April. There is only one thing though. Please think happy thoughts that the people that buy the house next door (I would buy it if I had the money) are wonderful quiet, non-night shift working people that don't slam their front door at all hours of the day and night. Just in time to add to our family, hurray, hurray!

Thank you.

Hubby returns

He is on his way home as we speak. And I can't believe I haven't posted since Wednesday. I still get kind of nauseous on the computer so I definately don't check in every day right now, but I guess I thought I had posted since then.

Thursday, first day without Hubby, was a long one as J decided to climb into bed with me at 3:30 while the snowplows were out clearing the streets from our mini-storm. He rolled over me until 5:00 when he announced it was time to get up. I made him stay put until 6:00 but it wasn't a restful sleep for sure.

My Mom stopped by on Thursday, ok, I invited her to stop by to help me tackle one of my To-Do's from my list. We started at 9:30am and finished at 2:00pm. We cleaned the Loft. It was item number 2 which actually was to finish setting up the proper office, except I couldn't do that until I cleaned it out. My Mom can't do one room at a time, so she tackled A's closet which was full of pretty much nothing. So together we got it all cleared out, cleaned out and ready to be an office once again. Hubby will die of shock for sure, that and the three bags of garbage and a bag of clothes that needs to go out.

J realized that we didn't make any Valentine's on Wednesday so I pulled out the craft supplies and we made a bunch of Valentine's to give to his cousins and Aunties.

Lego. Lego. And more Lego. I have made planes, boats, space ships, and have a huge headache from playing Lego. Or I should say from building with Lego. Why can't they make things that don't fall apart? You spend 2 hours making a ship and within minutes half of it has fallen apart. And if your kid is anything like mine he wants it fixed over and over and over again. Yikes. At least I got a reprieve yesterday when I hung out at my Mom's. My Dad, who has never owned Lego in his life, and has big hands not meant for Lego building, spent the afternoon playing Lego with J. Wow, that was a break for me.

Can't wait for Hubby. I need a nap and to run far, far away from the Lego!

Snow and Chocolate

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

And what a day it is. The snow is falling fast and although it looks very pretty, it is really sucky to drive in. The temperatures are just cold enough and the wind blowing just right that the snow is creating an icy surface for your tires to barely grab onto.

Hubby, wonderful Hubby, bought J and I each our very own box of chocolates. He usually isn't in to Valentine's day, but I guess with the fact that he is now sitting at the airport waiting to take off for Brussels, that he was feeling a bit guilty.

Yes, Brussels. That makes two exotic places I would love to see that Hubby has gone to (or is on his way to, if his planes all take-off on time). I just don't think I am cut out to have a husband that travels. It still doesn't make sense to me that he travels for 12 hours one way for an 8 hour meeting and then 12 hours back again. But, who am I to complain, I am snug as a bug here at home. And he is going to see wonderful Belgium, hope he brings me some real chocolate back. And for his sake I hope his planes all take-off and make their connections or he will be one unhappy Hubby.

So, that my friends is my Valentine's. A little chocolate, and an evening with J. I hope you all have a little more excitement lined up for you on this Valentine's day.

School

We did it! We registered J for school. It was actually very easy, but it still took an hour. I was hoping to be there first thing in the morning so I could get the morning class, but I did not have my immunization record, so I had to pick it up from our Doctor's office. By the time I got to the school it was almost 11am.

There were about six other families in front of me and it took almost an hour to get through them all. Finally, it was our turn. J wanted to go start his class right that minute, but thankfully the administrator was good at explaining that it will be a while before it all starts. I keep trying to tell him that until he has his number 4 birthday he won't be going to school, but since he and his cousin like to play birthday he is a bit confused about when his real birthday is.

I am hoping for the morning class, as we are morning people here in our house, but apparently everybody wants the morning class, so because I wasn't there early enough I may get relegated to the afternoon. If that happens we will just have to learn to adapt.

It is truly hard to believe that J is going to be 4 this summer and will be starting school this fall. It feels like yesterday that he was just born and I was trying to figure out how to get him to sleep through the night. And here we are now, trying to prepare him for school with other kids. It will be such a wonderful experience for him. We are planning to put him into French Immersion in senior kindergarten when he is 5 but for now he starts off in English. We are fortunate to have a wonderful school right around the corner from our house, I hope I don't cry too hard on his first day!

Another Sneak Peek

Today, I got another sneak peek at my little pea. I am 11 weeks along and last week had my first midwife appointment. At ten weeks we knew we might not hear the hearbeat, and we didn't. In order to eliminate any fears or anxiety I may have had my midwife, bless her heart, gave me a requisition for another ultrasound.

So, today I got to see my fully formed pea, swimming gracefully (a little too much for the tech) on the screen. The heartbeat was 169, same as it was for J the first time I heard it and measuring right on track at 11 weeks.

At the same time I got the extra confirmation that there was indeed only one living large in my uterus. A little tiny bit of me was holding out hope that a second was hiding behind the first, but nope, there is only one. My mother apparently thought the same thing as she had a dream last night that she was presented with twins. I told her to wait for next time ;).

I am still not 100%, although I am taking the meds and excercising, my nausea is still present and my back still hurts a bit (more when I am tired). But, I am determined to be in good shape for this little one, so I will keep at it in hopes that the back will regain its full stregnth and not cause me any more problems.

Happy Happy, Joy Joy!

We had a wonderful surprise visit from my Youngest Sister this weekend. The group she works with sent her and her friend/colleauge up to our wonderful city to attend a conference and promote the conference they are planning in Nashville.

As we don't usually get to see her between Christmas and summer it was a wonderful surprise. Her birthday is on Friday so we even got to have a pre-Birthday celebration for her complete with cake and Birthday hat (or flowers if you will). We did have to change our initial plans to go to the canal and skate but we can always do that next weekend. Instead we went downtown for a wonderful lunch on Saturday, and had our party on Sunday.

We just dropped them off at the airport to head back to warmer climates. Her girlfriend is from California and although she has mittens that she wears in North Carolina once in a while, she definately wasn't prepared for the frosty temperatures that greeted her this morning. The -21 before the windchill was definately the coldest she has ever been. It was fun to share with her our wonderful weather.

Although Youngest Sister is now on the airplane getting ready for take-off (oh, I hear it now going over the house! Yep, that was her plane) we already miss her and hope she will get sent up our way for conferences a little more often. At the same time we are thankful she made it up for a little taste of the family.

I have been nominated!

For a Blog Award. I must say I am a little shocked, but mostly honoured. This is the second year for the Share the Love Blog Awards and I am with great company.

I have been nominated for a Best Writing award. If you don't mind taking a minute to vote for me, I would greatly appreciated. The first level of voting is open from February 1st - 6th. The second level runs from February 7th - 13th.

Be sure to cast votes in the other categories, An Island Life was nominated for Happiest Blog. Dooce is up there for a couple, Best Humour and Best Site Design. Writing as Jo(e) is nominated for Blogger you'd most want to meet.

Thank you for the nomination (I think I know who you are), it means a lot to me.