Hard Workin' Man - Gratitude Saturday

As I've mentioned, we (okay, mostly Trevor) have been working hard - when we can - on our yard. It's been a slow process but there's finally visible results.

Our deck now has a railing and I don't have a heart attack every time Sierra ventures onto the deck.

This particular railing was priced at $25/foot at the store. The store sells it completely prepped so putting it together and up would have been a breeze. Well, as you saw in the above picture we have quite a large deck. So Trevor and my dad put their heads together and came up with a way to bring the cost dramatically down. The main cost reducer is the way they did the spindles. They are made of painted electrical conduit (pipe) bought in 12 foot lengths, cut down, sanded and painted. A lot more work, yes, but we saved over half the original store cost and the look is basically the same.

Our enormous back yard - one corner! Last weekend Trevor and my dad worked on trenching the sprinkler lines in. Trevor's been working on running the hoses all week and is now assembling the heads and such. Once again saving cost by doing it ourselves.

I've grateful for a husband with a great work ethic and motivation so we can have some extras like underground sprinklers. Grass in two weeks???

Toe Tale

On Saturday evening through a totally random, accidental circumstance Sierra got her big toe scratched by our cat. Well you'd think her leg was torn off the way she hollered and carried on until I finally made it all better with a Band Aid. She proceeded to favour that foot most of the evening, even limping around on only her heel.
The next day she'd pretty much forgot that it was supposed to hurt until she woke up from her nap.
The Band Aid had disappeared. Once again life was very traumatic. She needed her
"Bannee".
So I went and got another one and while Trevor held her I put the bandage on the offended toe.
With teary eyes and a sniff she said,
"Tanks mommy."

My heart melted.

Gratitude Friday - Energized!

I am thankful for an energy day today.

It has been a rough week in that department and last night when I went to bed I wasn't sure if I could face an entire day alone with Sierra while feeling like death warmed over. I slept terribly and Sierra decided to wake up and holler for me on her earlier side of wake up times.
Despite all that we have had a great day. I organized our closet, even Trevor's shelves of "folded" clothes because it was driving me crazy and if I left it up to him...well let's not go there. I also unpacked my maternity clothes and made room for them. Gulp! There's definitely a belly appearing but so far my clothes are still squeeze-in-able without being in any discomfort.
Then Sierra and I baked chocolate zucchini muffins. She got batter everywhere. I cleaned up and she helped - getting dishwater everywhere.
Sierra went down for her nap and I had a blissful one hour rest, ran on my treadmill and am now blogging. This evening holds plans of vacuuming and cleaning my floors and if I'm still going than the bathrooms!

Gratitude Sunday

I can't seem to get my stuff together on Fridays..so Sunday it is again!
It literally peed rain all week and was cold and unpleasant. I turned the furnace on and baked bread and muffins and cooked warm comfort meals. Not that those things are bad in themselves except....

IT"S AUGUST PEOPLE!!!!

August is supposed to be hot and we had plans to work on getting a deck railing built and the sprinkler lines in our dirt so that we can get grass and have a yard for Sierra to play in.

Nope.
Yesterday we had brunch with my family, I had a long nap, Trevor played with his new surround sound system, (the previous one crapped out and wasn't fixable but still under warranty so he got his money back and bought a different one elsewhere) we lazed on the couch and read books. We went out to friends Friday night, last night and will again tonight.

All great things I admit....for October/November!

I cannot believe our weather. Our dirt was literally a complete lake by the end of Saturday it rained so hard - and we have great drainage!

Oh well, a nice relaxing time I suppose. I enjoyed it all so other than the weather what's to complain about?
Here's to finding blessings in bad weather!

* We are supposed to get hot sunny temperatures again starting tomorrow.

News

This is the saying my mom got in a fortune cookie recently:
"A short stranger will soon enter your life with blessings to share"

How about somewhere around February 20, 2010?
Yes, I'm pregnant.
Whew I said it! I'm just over 12 weeks and it has been such a hard thing to keep a secret for so long.

That is the reason for my lack of presence 'round these parts lately. I am fatigued beyond fatigued and when I actually have a moment to myself to possibly blog it's all I can do to even push buttons on the TV remote. I am fortunate to not be plagued by spewing episodes in the Great White Throne but oh the tiredness! Mornings are mostly good, if I only had to function mornings I'd be doing just dandy. But no, 12:30 or so hits and I feel like a truck ran over me. It is all I can do to get to nap time (Sierra's that is) and then I flop myself into bed and pass out for an hour. I'm often grumpy and scuzzed out from noon on and simply cannot motivate myself to do anything. It sucks.

Ah and the hormones! My poor husband and daughter. It's not simply a matter of being tired it's seeing all the stuff' that needs to be done and not being able to drag my butt off the couch to do it. Seriously, I'm sure it's glued there some days and that is some good glue! I get annoyed with myself because just playing with Sierra some days nearly kills me. Feeling sluggish brings irritability, lack of patience and reason, and then the tears because men and toddlers just can't understand!

My back and other parts have also begun paining me. This really doesn't help in the area of sleep, funny how one thing is related to another. I feel like an 80 year old when I get up at times - all hunched over and groaning as my body unfolds itself and I limp to the bathroom. I love my bathroom. I'm there so often now, it's great.

There you have it. I am desperately hoping that as I am moving into the second trimester the fatigue ebbs. I know that with that many other unpleasant factors related to being pregant will also lesson. I really want to enjoy this pregnancy. With Sierra it was so foreign and I was very self conscious of my expanding body and I just wanted it over with. Since Trevor is convinced this is our last (me not so much yet) I want to cherish this time of growing a child inside of me.
Bear with me as I get myself out of my slump and back into what I feel is more inspired blogging. It's coming.

*I worked on this post for awhile so it was dated way back when I initially posted it. I re-posted so it would have a current date, if you're seeing it twice that's why.

Gratitude Sunday

These past two weekends have been spent camping with my extended family and Fridays have consisted of madly trying to pack everything so I've been a bit lacking in the Gratitude Friday area.
They were two wonderful weekends of enjoying nature, being away from life, and appreciating one another. We expressed several times to each other how special it is that we have are close enough as an extended family to be able to do things like that together without tearing each others hair out or rewriting our wills at the end.
The first weekend was a long one here in Canada so we drove for four hours to a place called Wasa Lake. It was so hot that we were either melting in the shade while Sierra napped or in the lake trying to keep our blood from boiling. (Okay it was only like 35 C which is around 95 F and I know it gets much hotter for some of you but those temperatures are less common around here so we're not used to them) Sierra had the most fun of all, you would think that the beach was Disneyland!

She had sand in ever possible crack and once she realized that the water wasn't so scary had a whale of time in her little 'boat.'

On the Saturday evening we were hit with a wicked thunderstorm, the rain was so loud that Trevor and I had to yell at each other in our tent in order to be heard. My dad tried explaining to a scared Sierra that the thunder was the clouds laughing - they were gaffawing so hard the ground shook! We unfortunately discovered that our tent does not appreciate torrential down pours and subsequently gave up on repelling the water in certain places. We didn't get wet or anything thankfully and the next day returned to sunny, hot, bliss.
We returned home on Monday to a night of thunderstorms. Most people didn't sleep between 2 and 3 am and we had an awesome amount of rain. Than it rained off and on for most of the week plunging the temperature down to the point where I turned on our furnace and baked bread one day! I nearly cursed.
This past weekend we only drove an hour and a half to a mountain lake where we enjoyed much milder temperatures than the pervious weekend but a vast improvement from the week. At night I wore sweats, socks, a long sleeved shirt, and a hoodie in my sleeping bag with another blanket on top. It dropped down to 5 C at night. I'm pretty sure my nose froze. The day time was nice and sunny and warm whith some circling and roaming thunderclouds Saturday afternoon but all they did was make noise, no rain. Of course this time we had covered our tent with a tarp! Sierra's highlight here was the park. Kid's are so easy to please!
We arrived home early this afternoon and celebrated my mom's birthday this eveninga nd now back to work and reality tomorrow. Thus ends what we get this year for summer vacation. It wasn't long but it was great!

Decisions

As you all know, Trevor and I have struggled greatly over the last year with his lack of a permanant job. It has affected me particularly hard and I've been through a myriad of emotions and personal turmoil. I can't even fully explain why. It really wasn't about not being able to pay bills or eat or have any fun or what we could or could not have. Yes, we had to be careful with our finances but we were never in trouble. Heck we were even able to build a gorgeous house! I believe that it was more to do with the fact that we had plans for our life, gosh darn it! Trevor was to work full time as a teacher, and I was to work very part time mostly to get out of the house and less out of financial necessity. Yet those plans just weren't working out. Whatever the reason, I felt how I felt. Near the end of May, I think it was, I reached my breaking point and basically shattered. Everything had culminated and came exploding out. I ranted and raved to those close to me and I especially had it out with God.
I was done.
The worst day of my erupting emotions actually ended with one of the best talks Trevor and I had on the topic. We conversed in such a way that I felt like we really heard each other and took to heart what we were saying. We were able to express how we felt and not have it come across offensive or hurtful. We worked through our thoughts and feelings and came to the mutual conclusion that we would plan on Trevor substitute teaching for another year for now. If a job came up than there would be much jubilation but we would plan on him subbing. (although with our track record for plans...) He has had enough affirmation in his ability as a teacher from other teachers and students that for him to pursue another career just didn't make sense. The next day I was filled with a complete sense of peace and renewed vigor for life so I knew that for now the right decision was made.
Then a few weeks ago Trevor was given a job offer of a different sort. He's been working at a decal shop off and on for a couple of years and is full time for the summer. The owners openly acknowledged that production goes up significantly when Trevor is there and asked if he would consider committing to full time work for them in a management type role. They wanted him to sign on for one year and there would be a significant wage increase.
Talk about out of left field! Trevor wasn't surprised but I blindsided.
There was much more thought and discussion between the two of us and we were able to reach a unified conclusion. Despite the appealing fact that this opportunity would provide stability in several ways we didn't feel that was the direction God wanted. We agreed that Trevor should not give up teaching entirely to do this because that is still his first love and we're still hoping there is a job for him. To not sub at all would greatly reduce his chances at any possible positions. He came up with a counter offer of a three day a week option explaining that he wasn't quite ready to give up on teaching yet. The owners are currently contemplating it. It will come down to wage if they agree this is a viable option.
My first thought when this all came up was.
"Is God testing us or giving us an opportunity?"
How in the world does one discern that?
Prayer and the power of reasoning is how we came to our conclusion of the compromise offer. I've come to terms with this job issue and if the decal shop option falls through we will both be okay. We've made our decision and are hanging on to that certainty for now. Interestingly enough a few people have expressed feelings that we are close to concluding this job issue for good - by way of a teaching job. I want desperately to believe them but I've so hurt by this whole thing that for now I can only cling to what is certain. Anything more will be a huge bonus.