Hi Pastrami, Nice to meet you!

MB has quite the imagination - I'm not sure if the things she does is usual for a 2 yr old (almost 3 already!!) but regardless she keeps me laughing and entertained all the time!
One of her "things" is to pretend to be a character and we have to call her by her new name all the time, and she WILL correct us and even feed us our lines.... example....  "come and eat"-me  "no, say, come and eat Pablo"-MB "okay, come and eat Pablo" -me     
Yes, I give in to her feeding me my lines because I have learned that doing anything else is destructive!
So I thought I would share some of the interesting characters she pretends to be..
Pablo (he's a penquin that hates the cold)
Diego (Dora's cousin, and when she's Diego, I'm ALWAYS Dora and I need to remember my name too)
Baby Clayton (yes, neither Baby or Clayton will suffice)
Princess (sometimes baby princess, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Mermaid, and others I can't think of)
Dino (T-rex or Triceratops are the usual variations)
Woody, Buzz (Lightyear)
My favorite was this Sunday, she was "Prince Charming"... on the way home from church she kept trying to convince me (the queen) to marry her, and why wouldn't I? She's Prince Charming!!! But I resisted, as it would make Daddy sad, because I'm already married to him!
When we got home, she told Daddy "I'm Prince Charming"... he misunderstood "Hi Pastrami, nice to meet you"... but she didn't catch on and so now whenever she pretends to be Prince Charming Hugh just calls her Pastrami (maybe not as funny as I write it, but it keeps me laughing... I just don't have the knack for story telling...... errrrr..... now I have to go)

Party Life

Since I got married nearly 4 years ago, Hugh and I have lived a sort-of quiet, anti-social life.  I struggled with this change especially since I was so used to always being around people and doing something!  But I guess I also thought it was romantic, because we just both loved being together, and so although I wanted to hang out with my friends too, I loved that there wasn't anyone else we needed to see.
Hugh was a homebody and liked "quiet time" - those who know him probably just laughed - really nothing about Hugh is quiet... most of the time he is away from work (including his lunch hour at work) is filled with music (loud music if it's allowed!)  But to sum up how we've spent our time together in evenings and weekends - movies, strolling the mall, dates, the Medium series and now the Star Trek Voyager series!

Hugh was the first to branch out, which totally made me jealous - after ignoring and not hanging out with friends for 3 years there were no friends to hang out with. Luckily I still kept intouch with my former roomies Kim & Serena long distance - but when he had his Jam sessions, Bro's Night and Nerd nights I was always left feeling like a loner with nothing to do (pathetic huh?!)
Hugh encouraged me to hang out with friends and although I insisted that people didn't really like me much and that the friends I did have wouldn't want to hang out with me when their hubbies were home, he kept making suggestions and offering to make sacrifices so I could try to have a social life. (sweet guy huh!!)

Finally, things got moving.  My friend Lesley moved back to Calgary in the summer and she was always the social butterfly - so I third wheeled it and started in on some girls nights - it totally revitalized me! But then she moved... back to solo-Tress...

Basketball on Wed. Nights reached out to me too... but didn't really meet my social needs as I was playing with married men and was the only girl.... UNTIL my friend Jenny agreed to play (maybe only 3 times, but still it was super fun!)

Jenny is incredible - energetic and always doing something it seems! I don't know how she can do with with 4 kids, but it's been so fun getting 'in the loop' and getting to know the other ladies in the ward!
Seriously, I feel so lucky - i'm in the best ward ever!  The women I'm surrounded with are such examples to me and hanging out with them energizes me so much!.... is this getting cheezy? sorry - the point is (of this huge long story) - it is SO important to have good friends - no matter what age you are!  i got so used to thinking that it only mattered back before I was married and had to be bombarded with 'peer pressure' all the time, but truly surrounding myself with good people now is such a blessing and I'm sad that I didn't put the effort forward to do that over the last few years.

From the Mouth of Babes

I had the worse day on Tuesday! MB woke me up at 5am, Baby C woke me up a few others times through the night, Hubby H (hehe) kept me up late (as per usual!)... boiling down to one tired and GRUMPY mom!
This was probably the grumpiest I've ever been with my child or even in my life, i'm not sure... but I stayed up with her so that Hugh could sleep, and tried surviving but was definitely lacking many needful 'mom qualities'!
I felt like every few seconds I was snapping at her - don't touch my face! -stop whining, do you need to go back to bed?! - quiet! if you wake up daddy and the baby you are going to be in trouble!
I'm ashamed to say that I pushed it too far, but this child brought me to repent when she bowed her head and starting praying "Heavenly Father , *sigh*, thank you for this day, and thank you for it, help me be good and happy, name of Jesus Jesus Christ, amen"
What can a Mom do after that? I felt awful, but grateful for the sweet spirit Heavenly Father sent to me, to help me, to teach me!

My Angel!

Proud Moments

I have the most amazing Husband! We take turns doing lessons for our children every Monday (Family Home Evening Night) and this Monday he was incredible! I felt so proud - and I know he enjoyed it so much!
So his topic - Teeth - he got all excited and then disappeared downstairs for a while.  Here's what he came up with:

He's so talented, and MB loved every minute of germ killing :)  I'm a happy mama and proud wife!

Crazy Days

I'm laying on the couch feelin' sorry for myself and thought I'd glance back at my blog and try to work on the 'project' i've been putting together for my next post, but not really feeling in the mood.  So I started reading my friend Kelli's blog and am feeling alittle reproofed.  Thanks so much Kelli for your posts! They are so thoughtful and positive and got me thinking...  so here's another post to hopefully turn my mood around.
Let's start at the beginning of my day... I think it was 530ish in the morning with MB.  After spending forever in the potty telling my version of Goldilocks & the Three Bears & 3 Little Pigs we went downstairs and started cleaning and working on breakfast and lunch for Hugh.  I picked up my pasta sauce, but I guess the lid wasn't on and so the bottle fell and the sauce sprayed (exploded might give you a better picture of what actually happened) all over me, baby, my fridge, my wall AND my ceiling!!! Check the time - it's only 7:30...
Shortly after 8, as I'm finally cleaning the splatter from my face and out of my hair, MB hollers for me because she "found a worm that was hiding"... I panicked a bit, worried about what I might find - luckily it was just a playdough worm she made, but a few minutes later, that worm wormed its way into her hair (mushed right in!!!) So, threw her in the tub and it came out pretty good.  If you can believe it, I actually got out of the door by 9 to get to aerobics on time!
I had a pretty good day with my kids, they are pretty amazing!  MB and I made a fort out of chairs and blankets and read a story in there.  I know I'm really lucky to be able to stay at home with my kids everyday and the truth is, that I do love it!  Motherhood is beautiful (I learned it from my Mother). Here are a couple old pics of when I was expecting my first baby... I really had no idea what was in store...  Looking at these pics and hearing other peoples announcements makes me itch for more....

The Beginning of the Love Story...

With a Blog titled "the love story continues..." A person should really make sure that everyone is "hooked on the original love story - or where is the importance on the "to be continued" ???(trust me, tv producers and movie producers get this!)
So let's start near the beginning... flashback to 1999.. haha.. or we can just go straight to 2001 when Hugh switched high schools to "be closer to the woman he loved" (that's how I like to think of it anyway!):

 We were "just friends" as far as I knew, but a bird did whisper in my ear that Hugh had a crush on me.  Destiny was already working, as we already were matched up with the same spare - of course we spent them all together, usually just the two of us because our mutual friend knew of his interest. 
You may have heard a rumor, that I am "the older woman"... well it's hard for me to admit, but it's true, I was a senior and Hugh was only in gr.11! So it would have been a scandal for us to date (in my eyes) but after spending tons of time together, my rockstar friend kinda grew on me!  We really liked each other, but things were sorta awkward and I had a 'business plan' to use the relationship to prepare myself for the 'man of my dreams' that I would meet in a few months once I started college.  Basically it was doomed before it began, and it ended in heartbreak :*(
While away at school, the friendship was shakey and finally crumbled - "we can't be friends" (I remember writing this to him on MSN, sad moment, but he had a girlfriend and was moving on).  My Grandma Jensen was always a fan of Hugh and kept dropping his name often as the guy I should be going for the whole time I lived with her as I went to college.

After I moved back home, I saw Hugh around, and felt guilty without the friendship - so I apologized and tried to start working towards it again.  Little did I know that "THE HOOK" would bring me back (check out the song Hook by Blues Traveller on my side bar) and I was crazy-in-love with him, although I seemed to have little effect on him.   Finally I CONVINCED him (yes, I was reduced to practically begging him) to date me again.  Things were going really good.  I was living with roomies and he had a car.  We even actually kissed!!! WOWZA's! And I showed him a song I wrote+recorded for him , basically put my whole heart into it all

The love was shortlived though, Hugh had other plans.  He was preparing to serve a mission for 2 yrs for our church and didn't want to be distracted or foolish (he had matured alot and became much more serious since the first time we dated)  So this time, my heart was broken.  We kept our distance pretty much until he left to Mexico, but just before he left, the sparks were reignited and I was given hope and secretly decided that I wanted to marry him when he came back.

Two years is a really long (and short) time though - and I got mad about the circumstances and needed to get back to living, being social and doing things, so I moved on and stopped writing. 

Long story short (actually most of this is already the condensed version) He came home, I tried to resist - but was totally 'gaga' for him again, so I asked him out, he shut me down.  Then I started preparing for serving a mission myself (for 18mths and my reason was not because he shut me down, I KNOW how it sounds) and Hugh found out that I sent in the papers for it.  He must have realized that he really did love me and didn't want me to stop being "an option" so he decided he had to stop me!  We started spending all of our time together, he was so amazing, exactly what I always wanted!  Then one night he said it... "I don't want you to go on a mission, I love you, and I promise you that when we are older, we will go together" (practically a proposal right there!) And a few hours later my mission"call" came!

HOLY DRAMA!!! Worst and best week of my life - and lots of tears were shed!  BUT I decided to 'defer' the call (take 6mths to see if the relationship was going to be serious) and a few days later Hugh proposed (picked out the perfect ring all by himself!) And we weren't even dating! :)

My parents were overseas living in Bahrain - but were coming back in 2 mths, so we planned for the wedding to happen then! We`ve been married FOREVER, oh, I mean 3 lovely years now, and I`m so lucky to be married to my very best friend - he`s really the man of my dreams and an incredible father! I know I made the right choice, and I`ve been reaping all the blessings ever since!  So... here`s where it began and it`s always getting better - so I guess, Stay Tuned....

Dragons, Dinosaurs & MONSTERS!

My Daughter, MB, is 2 yrs old - she talks alot and has an amazing imagination! She's had a few "run-ins" with Dragons and Dinosaurs that I wish I could 'delete', but the stories that come from them are pretty humorous!

First, the Dragon! We were visiting with a friend that has two boys that love going to see the dragon at the mall, so we went with them and I was expecting a cartoony, kid friendly dragon experience - BUT - when we got there the loud growlings and roarings were accompanied with a scary FIRE-breathing dragon near the ceiling.  MB didn't know how to react until she saw her "brave" friend (the little boy that is her age) start to cry.  From that moment she became OBSESSED, and was telling everyone, nonstop about the scary dragon and always ASKING Daddy to take her to the mall to see dragons for their daddy-daughter dates.

After that story I'm sure you'll think I was foolish and maybe a little cruel for doing what I did next. Months after our dragon experience I was tempted to see an exhibit that had mechanical dinosaurs.  So the first one looked like a tiny T-rex, and it's fingers were wiggling, so I tried to make it fun and told her "hey, look, he's pretending to play the piano!" and then it swung it's tail "Oh, MB, he must be happy, he's wagging his tail like a puppy!"  BUT, then he roared and his head swooped quickly towards us with open mouth full of sharp terrifying teeth.... and MB got all tense and said "Mommy, I'm sad"... so I went into protective Momma-mode and got her outta there.  This story comes up every now and again as well...

My favorite story though is this... and she's so cute....  She's started talking about monsters, and as her brother is crawling and creeping around now she often pretends that he is the monster and she yells "Mommy, run the monster is coming" and we run or jump up and 'hide' on the furniture and pretend to be scared and baby thinks he's SOOOOO FUNNY!   Well one day, MB hollared to me as she came down the stairs, "Mommy, I'm a monster!!!!" so I screamed and ran like I was scared, but didn't get far when she said "it's okay mommy, I'm not real!" (so sweet that she didn't want me to be scared after all I've inflicted her with).

Okay, maybe I won't win Mom of the Year this year... but the kid is pretty cool still!

Broken Body

Despite being certain that no one will want to read a blog by me and being pretty confident that I will always feel lame that I can't write clever things, I have decided to start a blog.  There are a few different things I'd like to use this blog for... some venting (but I'll try to keep that to a minimum), sharing ideas and insights AND getting advise (so hopefully someone will read this).

There are lots of things that I can write about for this entry--- life has been busy and interesting lately!  My Birthday was this weekend and I turned the big 26 - a big deal for a girl who considered herself a "grannie" at her 21st birthday (and recieved grannie panties as a result--- are those pictures I really want to add on here? and if I were to do that, how would I add it??!!)  ahhh I figured it out...

  It turned out to be a wonderful birthday with lots of fun with my Hubby and kids!!

So on to the subject of the title (do people say that?)... I ended up going to the hospital early in the morning at the urge of Healthlink with stomach pains that are really starting to get on my nerves.  I had a baby at the end of January and have been having stomach pains/cramps similar to prelabor pains for the past two months.  I was sure I was pregnant but all tests say no.  I went to Urgent Care last week which  got me an ultrasound and a followup appt with my family doctor (who is an amazing dr!).  At my followup appt I found that the ultrasound was completely normal and without giving too much detail that you probably don't want to read about I ended up getting prescribed two antibiotics.  After taking these for 3 days, my pains became more consistant and more painful, hence the early morning call to healthlink.  So at the hospital, I get multiple tests spanning over quite a few hours, and eventually get sent home being told that I had no infection (so stop taking the antibiotics) and that everything is normal - "here are 6 percocet to help you deal with the pain".
Frustration - alittle bit... I've been pretty bummed out and not really knowing where to go from here.
I wish I was on Star Trek Voyager with one of those lightflashing fixers that heal any problem... (sorry I'm not sure what it's actually called as I'm new to the Star Trek world too).
Hope you enjoy reading the blogs and I welcome suggestions and questions to keep things rollin'