Oh Golly ... Another Birthday !!!

Well it's been a rough few weeks, I don't even want to get into all of it as it's just too much to get into here, all I can say is that I have never had such a sick child in all the 6 short years of her life. Jade is so awesome, she gets over everything so quickly and when she is sick, you would hardly know, kids are such a blessing but this one is like a little angel, really she is, I am not just saying that coz I am her mommy and all, she is such an easy child, Dave and I are really so lucky. Anyway I want to say for 3 weeks she went from one thing to another, it was really a huge worry for me, but thank God she is now well and over everything. She even missed one week of school and two weeks of gymnastics now that is quite something for my healthy little one but again, thank God she is now well. I think God had me in training for when the baby comes, lack of sleep and constant worry, I tell you !!!

Thank God too that everything Jade had we managed not to catch, oh well that's not entirely true, she and I both started with a virus so who gave who what ... who knows but I got well quickly which is unusual for me but Jade, the poor thing battled for weeks.

I am well thanks, just plodding on at this stage at week 29 of my pregnancy and counting, wow only 11 weeks to go !!! I am very thankful that I passed my sugar test a week ago, with Jade I didn't pass the first one and had to go back and do the 3 hour one which I then passed but this time around, I passed the initial test too which I can hardly believe but I am very thankful for it !!!

I took a bit of strain this past week because out of the blue it got hot for about 5 days, I mean we are only going into Spring now but we had temperature up to 28 degrees C ... of course, sorry this is mainly for the SA'ns, if it were 28 F it kinda would be more normal I know (hehehe). Anyway everyone had been asking are my feet starting to swell etc. and they really weren't but my gosh this past week, oh golly, I hardly recognised I had ankles, it was disgusting !!! I worked late Wednesday night and then was on my feet all day on Thursday and well Thursday night could hardly walk, so that all being said I am very thankful it has now turned cold again, very cold actually, as much as I am not enjoying the rain the cooler weather is just great :-) I know most everyone does not agree with me but oh gosh ... I pray that Summer does not come early this year !!!

Anyway so yesterday was my birthday and all I can say is birthdays normally are really pretty cool but thanks to Facebook and getting almost 50 birthday wishes from all over the globe, was a real treat. Thank you to everyone that took the time to drop me a note, emailed, sms'd, send me cards and called, I really did have the nicest birthday I had in a long time. Thank you too Sondra for the beautiful plant for my new home, that was a special treat too. Dave bought me a 32 inch plasma Tv for our bedroom, the clever guy we would have gotten it some time but now it became an easy birthday gift (hehehe). All I asked for was a Pandora Bracelet which Dave was really reluctant to buy but I was excited to get, him and Jade bought that and Jade gave me my first charm which was a little house, how cool is that. Thanks to my mom and my in laws I am off to the Pandora store tomorrow but buy 3 or so more charms, too cool !!!

I worked yesterday morning but the afternoon I came home so I could talk to family which was really nice, thanks for the LONG chat Gavin and Gigi, that was the best gift you guys could have given me, sorry though Gigi that you and Juno got in trouble for chewing through the mic cable (hehehe), I told you I hate cats didn't I well that was just the cat getting me back I am sure !!!

Then last night the three of us went out for dinner, just a quick dinner but to a nice restaurant then we came home and relaxed the rest of the evening, the weather was so yucky that was the best plan. And well mommy's birthday cake made for a good dessert.

Here are two pics of Jade and I taken just before we went out last night ...





This morning, Dave dropped Jade at Tina's house, it was Tylers party and the kids went to go play Laser Quest which was Jades first time but she had a ball. Dave and I took the opportunity of being kid free and went to an auction of the goodies in the model of our house in our neighborhood, what an experience, we didn't stay long and the stuff was too expensive but I am glad we went. We had time left over so we quickly went to try out a new restaurant, well new for us, it is O Shea's an Irish Pub, we totally loved it and me that doesn't really like fish, had the best fish and chips that I have ever had over here in the States so I am sure we will go back there again. Then we went to get Jade, she was exhausted, hopefully that means we get to sleep in tomorrow a bit.

Tomorrow afternoon I am going out with some of my girlfriends from my old neighborhood for lunch ... I can just hear my mom saying ... Trace this is way too much eating out girl !!! But I really don't eat out much but after all the drama with Jade the past month and all the unpacking that was not which we still really are not done with ... well I am taking a break this weekend for my birthday and I am going to thoroughly enjoy it (hehehe).

That's about it when it comes to us ... I want to say thank you to all our friends over here, mainly all my 'sisters' at Church At Charlotte for all their prayers when it came to my father in laws recovery and my mom in laws recent knee surgery, they are both doing well from what we know so I am thankful for all the prayers !!!

Also some other good news is that my parents got the visa's for their trip to us, that's another blessing I can tell you, they got a 10 year visa which was great, my dad also got his international drivers licence so that's cool, now we just need flights which I will do in this coming week, it's getting exciting, not too long now !!!

That's it I guess ... enough waffling, I know ... until next time !!!

Yet More Messy Snow !!!

Well hi there again, before I go on, I wanted to take this opportunity to wish my mother in law good luck for her knee surgery tomorrow, we hope and pray all goes well and that your recovery is fast and easy and definitely easier than the last one !!!

Secondly I want to thank everyone for their prayers for my father in laws recovery from his latest ordeal, thank God he seems to be fine, too fine maybe because I believe he isn't taking it as easy as he should which is easy when you feel fine right ... but hopefully those around him will keep encouraging him to slow down and take things one day at a time !!!

A quick update on all of us, Dave and I are fine, thank God I managed to recover from that bug I had recently pretty quickly. At almost 7 months pregnant though I am tired a lot of the time but thankfully with working mornings, I get to rest up in the afternoons, or at the very least to do stuff at snail pace !!! I have my monthly obgyn check up tomorrow and am scared to death coz I have to do that horrid sugar test and drink that disgusting liquid which when I was pregnant with Jade I totally threw up and can't imagine it will be much different this time around. Please hope and pray my results are good and that I do not have to do anything different to what I am doing now, that being said, I am prepared for whatever result comes my way.

As far as Jade goes, the poor thing has been coughing her lungs out for what has felt like forever now, it's amazing actually because I am usually the one that these things linger with but this time, it has taken it's toll on Jade. Then just when I thought she may be recovering, she got a UTI which is probably from all the bloody medicine she has been on so now she is on an antibiotic for the next 10 days, she said she was feeling a lot better on day two of the medicine which made me feel a lot more at ease BUT ... then Saturday night she started to throw up and this big throw up bug is going around now, thank God even when Jade throws up she is not a big throw up child but it did leave her not wanting to drink or eat anything the entire Sunday. Today being Monday thankfully her fever is down and she is enjoying lots and lots and lots of pretzels right now, and well ice chips is her favorite but has been even more popular the past two days. She seems fine today but I pray this is all over with now as I hate seeing her sick. Also my God I hope neither Dave or I get this, I can deal with a lot but throw up is so not my thing, thank God Dave is ok with all that !!!

So today is another snow day, it didn't snow enough for it to be fun playing snow but anyway, it gave us a day off school and another day for Jade to recover, she should not have gone out into the snow today but how could I keep her out of it, we went out for a short while so she can say she was out there but now we are indoors trying to defrost !!!

Below are some pics I took while Jade and I were outside, here is one of the front of our house, you can see there wasn't too much snow, I always say just enough to make a muddy mess but anyway, it's still pretty !!!



This is a picture from our porch out front.



Just two pics of Jade making snow balls ... or trying to anyway.





Jade and I decided to go on an adventure since it really wasn't that cold out, wet yeah but not too cold, our new neighborhood has tons of paths or trails to walk so we decided to take one and just see where we come out, it was actually really pretty and I would imagine in Summer when the trees are all green it is even prettier. I found a large river back there that we didn't even know was there, I am glad we decided to take this long walk. There are so many paths though that you never know which one to take or where you are going to come out but thankfully we came out in a cul de sac that I recognised so it wasn't too hard to find our way home again. I think when the weather is better we need to go take some family walks around here and see what all we can find.



This is someone elses snowman but we thought it was a good photo opportunity anyway :-)



Even Mickey is frozen over(hehehe) !!!



This is Jade out back on the deck. The deck started to feel like an ice rink after a while so she had good fun out there while I pretty much watched and just stayed out of the way, I was so scared I would slip but thank God I didn't.



Just a picture of our back yard.



Jades snow angel !!!



Ok that's me for now :-) I am sure I will blog again soon.