Happy Easter Everyone ...

Happy Easter Everyone ... it is still only just after 12 here so midday and I don't think Jade has stopped eating candy from after breakfast. She is actually outside playing with your two neighbors, two little boys, Vincent which is 5 and Gabriel that is 3 I think, the have become her new BFF's :-) even though there are tons of kids around here, we moved in around the same time and they seem to be outside playing similar times to us so Jade is really enjoying her time with them. She is also sharing all her candy with them so I am not complaining the quicker she gets through it all the better.

It is a great day, not hot, it's only 13 degrees outside but he sun is shining and it is very warm, a typical Spring day I guess. Dave is outside painting the deck which seems to be a never ending job, poor guy. My mom keeps on saying he should have left it for when my dad comes but in all honesty I think as much as he would have loved that, he had to paint the outside of the deck which is like 14 feet up in the air so climbing up the ladder that high and hanging on for dear life while he paints, well let's just say that I think it was best he did that ... sorry dad !!! Anyway he is almost done although the deck part that you walk on looks like it might need a second coat but I think that is the easy part, well I hope so.

I am inside just tidying up which also seems to be a never ending story really but I guess that is what happens when you move into a nice big house. I am not complaining, I totally love my house but there is still lots to do, much to unpack, sort out and of course decorating will happen in time but we are going so which is so not my thing but I haven't really had an option being so far pregnant at this point.

On the subject of my pregnancy, at this point we are praying that this little baby girl hangs in there and comes more later than sooner. I had my regular trip to the OB last week, I am now going once every two weeks and soon I am sure I will be doing the rounds with all the doctors in the practice to meet them all, that is standard practice here. Anyway you know that we had decided that my date of induction would be the 21st of May well that already would be a week and a half early due date wise, my due date was May 29th well ... and this scares me half to death !!! They were not going to do another ultrasound for the remainder of my pregnancy, because everything was measuring right and all seemed well, there was apparently no need but it was starting to worry me, it was just such a long time since my last scan which was at 19 weeks, what if something was wrong and they didn't pick it up ... not that we even wanted to go there but being pregnant you can't help and think these things, also I was having weird dreams that I was having a boy and my gosh I have so much pink stuff, way more than I had with Jade it was just freaking me out that if I had a boy, oh my gosh I would have to change everything and start from scratch so, at my last check up I asked my OB if I was allowed to having another scan which she agreed on but at my next check up which was last week.

So the good news is that we are definitely having a girl !!! Thank God for that !!! But the bad news is that the fluid around the baby is borderline low, it needs to be at least 5cm and I was 7.5 which is ok if it stays there but if it goes lower it would not only make delivery very difficult but it could be dangerous for the baby. Of course my OB told me not to worry but what did she think I would do. She said on my next visit to her office we would scan again and if the fluid stayed at 7.5cm we were ok but if it decreased or went below 5cm she might have to induce me then, that would be the 22nd of April and 5 weeks early, did I say I was scared to death.

Anyway I did the wrong thing when I came home, I researched it online and of course there you hear all the nightmare stuff all the things that can go wrong with baby and mom ... developmental problems and OMG just so much I wish I had not looked, but I have to keep telling myself that the OB said, not to worry so I am trying very hard to stay calm and not to worry. She said that if I had to deliver at 35 weeks the baby would be fine, and that I believe because I have spoken to many people that have said that or even experienced that but still, the longer she stays in there the better so we are hoping and praying what is meant to be will be and we will just wait and see what happens on the 22nd. We are pretty much ready for her if she came now but I really would want my parents to be here but I know we have good Friend here that would help us out with Jade so I am not too concerned with all that. I would need to run out and buy one or two things last minute but we will be ok, I just pray the baby is ok. So that's the latest on the pregnancy.

Back onto a lighter note ... Easter :-) Jade has been on Spring Break this past week, she and I didn't do anything too fun unfortunately but at least she had yesterday to look forward to, it was our yearly trip to the big Easter Eggstravaganza that is always held at the park close to our old house. It had rained big time on Friday so we figured it was going to be a mess but it wasn't too bad, Jade still got to do her big hunt which I normally video while Dave helps her collect candy but this time, he has not locked the car properly so went back to lock it ... that sounds weird I know but we take a bus from a near location that drops us right at the Eggstravaganza, it's part of the fun and he had seen from the bus so needed to take the trip back and then meet us later, so sad but anyway. Here is a pick of all the candy she and I picked up :-)




Then we stopped to get her face painted which would have been really pretty had she not had a fringe but anyway ... she was happy and that is all that mattered right :-)



She went on a bunch of rides but the lines were really long this year which was terrible as it was warm and standing long periods of time in the sun was not something that I enjoyed but anyway it was all part of the fun I guess, here she is on a surf board that moves that you have to balance on, she did pretty well actually, I am surprised that she didn't ask for a surf board afterwards she had so much fun on it. I guess if we lived close to the ocean she would be more inclined to want one right :-)



We took two video's as well, one is of her on this elastic thingi, it looked like a lot of fun but was totally exhausting I am sure :-) The other is on this trampoline thing which I knew she would be good on since she had done it before, only I think she was so caught up in doing the back flips that she forgot she needed to use her feet to push herself up so the guy helping had to do it the entire time, poor guy. She did a front flip too but I did not get that on video, oh well.

Afterwards we went out for a quick lunch then we came home, Dave continued on the deck while Jade played outside with the neighbors, I was lucky enough to take a quick nap and then joined her outside, so we had a nice day :-)

Well it looks like we might go out this afternoon after all, Dave just came in quickly and I said it would be nice to go out and enjoy the sunshine, even though he really needs to finish the deck, it's Easter, we should get out and enjoy it, so I have no idea where we are going but maybe a trip to the lake or something, we will see, maybe we can get some pics while we are out too. I actually didn't take any pics this morning while Jade did her hunt around the house and we need to do some Easter pics since we missed out on the bunny yesterday the line was just too long. So we will see, she has some Summer dresses I would love to do some pics in but it really isn't weather for that yet and with her two front teeth being out well ... mom isn't excited to do pics either (hehehe) but I will see what I can do but don't hold your breath !!!

Added a couple of hours later ...

Ok ... just to add in here we did go to the Lake so I thought I would add these quick pics, we had a good time watching all the boats go in and out, and Jade enjoyed skipping rocks with Dave and attempting to fish with a fishing pole Dave put together for her, it was really cute, she said she can't wait for Oupa to come and fish with her :-) Anyway here you go ... big fat tummy and all !!!









Anyway hope y'all had a great day or are enjoying what is left of it :-) Until next time :-)

Run Up To Easter ... Welcome Spring !!!

It feels like forever since I updated my blog but I don't think it's been too long anyway here I am, I am going to try and keep this as short as possible ... TD says I write way too much but I keep telling him it's not for him but for family but maybe I do write too much.

I think when I last updated we were having a rough time with Jade health wise, I am happy to report that thank God she is doing much better now. I was starting to think that the good man upstairs was just getting me in training for a difficult baby, oh golly, Heaven forbid !!!

Friday was Jades last day of school before Spring Break which is really only a week long here, it's not long at all but we are all looking forward to sleeping in a little in the mornings, most of the sessions at the Church follow the school calendar but I am still working Wednesday night and Friday morning but still it will give me a bit of a break which I so need at this stage, I feel like time is running out before this little girl arrives and of course my parents too and the house is far from ready, livable of course but far from ready.

There isn't too much that needs to be done but the baby room still needs some work, I am almost done with washing all her clothing and oh my gosh, I go for a scan on Wednesday but if this turns out to be a little boy, it is going to be so scary because everything and I mean everything is pink and purple, he would be so in tune to his feminine side, I don't know what we will do. I actually wasn't going to have another scan before the birth but really was starting to worry that it would be half of the pregnancy that I would not have had a scan in so asked my doctor if she would scan on my next visit. It will be Spring Break too so Jade will get to tag along and see the baby too which will be a treat for her :-) Hold thumbs it remains a girl !!!

So yeah that's the baby room, Jades room is almost done, still a few touches I need to do in there, the media room remains a mess and well the spare room is ok for now. Our room has a few boxes in it that I have to sort out this coming week and then hopefully I will feel more ready for visitors, hold thumbs I can pull that off.

Anyway so as I was saying, it was Jade last day of school so she got her school report and thankfully everything looks good, she seems to be progressing as she should :-)

Me, I am plodding along feeling like I am getting bigger and more uncomfortable by the day but thankfully that is not really true, uncomfortable yes but according to the doctors records I am in way better shape this time around than I was with Jade which is hard to believe given all the years since being pregnant with her but I guess all the work is keeping me on my toes. I am 32 weeks pregnant now but will be induced either the 20th or 21st of May so not too long here at all, about 5 - 6 weeks, gosh !!! I am starting to get a little nervous now but I guess that is normal.

Dave is Dave ... same old same old, you know how it goes. He is dealing with a lot of stress at work which doesn't make him a happy chappy at all but what can one do right. He said he might take Monday off and make it a long weekend and then Friday he is off too, so hopefully the break does him good. He is actually painting our deck right now which is a huge job so I probably won't see him most of the weekend.

Jade had her first Easter Egg Hunt at school yesterday but today we had one in the neighborhood too. This pic was taken before we left the house, as you can see for those that don't see Jade much, yep, she has lost her two front teeth, it looks terrible and yep, you won't be getting too many pics over the next while until they grow in ...



Anyway the kids did a little bit of a parade from a block away from the clubhouse to the clubhouse, considering there are so many kids in this neighborhood the turn out was really bad, shame their organizing was pretty good but the turnout must have been disappointing for them. Here is a pic of some of the kids before they started their parade.



Once they got to the clubhouse, the kids had to find 3 eggs what were hidden in the forest and then go to the table and turn them in, in exchange they got to chose 5 treats which were either candy, or pencils and erasers, stickers or tattoos and they got a ticket for the drawing of 6 Easter Baskets. They then had to guess how many jelly beans were in a jar for another basket. Then they got snow cones and popcorn and got to play on the playground. Oh and they got their face kinda painted ...



Jade won the guess to the jelly bean jar so she won a basket which she is thoroughly enjoying as you can well imagine, oh golly ... Spring Break with way too much sugar, maybe it's not going to be so much fun !!!



Next week she has the 107.9 The Link big Easter Eggstravaganza that we always go to so we are looking forward to that, the weather is getting warmer now, it was great this morning but hopefully it doesn't get hot too quickly.

Then the following week the 18th, Jade is going to CMC Pineville where she was delivered and where the baby will be delivered and there she will be given a sibling tour and lesson, I am looking forward to that as I believe it is very cute, hope Dave will go with us :-)

That's all from me for now, Happy Easter everyone.

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.

Been A Tough Week !!!

Well it seems like a while since I last wrote but it really wasn't that long ago after all but anyway the main thing is here I am, finally getting y'all up to date.

Before I start with my long story, I wanted to wish my in-laws a Happy Wedding Anniversary, I hope you had a good one and that you have many many more, each getting happier as the years roll around !!!

Ok so last weekend, the 7th of February we moved into our house, Darryl, TD and Lewis came to help us move and they did a fine job of getting it all done quickly, before I knew it just about everything was moved into the new house in Waxhaw and well then the fun began, trying to find the perfect place for everything. Firstly thanks guys for your help, we could never have done it without your help and Dave and I appreciate it more than you know !!!

Obviously first things first, we got Jades bedroom and our bedroom sorted out as much as possible and then got the Tv room sorted to the point that there was a place to sit and the Tv was set up ... an the kitchen of course was workable even before we moved in, the rest would just happen in time, little did I know just how long that time I was talking about would be, I know that Rome wasn't built in a day but patience is not my strong point at all !!!

So Monday I went off to clean out the apartment and bring the last few things through to the house, once I was done there I was exhausted but knew I needed to work on stuff at the new house too so that's just what I did. Unfortunately I think I overdid it, I was getting over a cold I had caught the previous week but by Monday night I really felt rotten and by Tuesday morning I was calling in sick at work and knew I had a bad fever.

Off to the doctor I went Tuesday afternoon only to be told that I had a virus and that there was nothing they could do for me other than put me on 7 days of bed rest to take care of my fever. Well that evening Jade came down with the same thing and by Wednesday morning she too had a really high fever so I kept her home from school, poor thing, she is such a trooper even when she is sick. I didn't know how I was going to get bed rest with her being sick too but it actually worked out really well, she lay in front of the Tv upstairs and I was in bed downstairs, I just made sure she had enough to drink, had the tissues handy and was comfy and just checked on her ever so often. Actually I think she checked on me more, she is such a loving child really, she is always so worried about me when I am sick, you know men ... well thank God for Jade is all I can say.

Wednesday was a really bad day for me, my fever was really high all day and all night but thankfully by Thursday I was feeling a lot better other than the constant cough of course but at least I was able to function a little. On Wednesday Jade felt good more of the day but by evening her fever was back big time, and it lasted on and off all day Thursday too, by evening it had broken. With Friday being a big PJ party at school and the Valentines exchange, when she felt better that morning I sent her off to school which now I think wasn't a great idea because by Saturday her cough was so bad it really was worrying me.

We kept her in bed most of Saturday but even when she is not feeling good, it is hard to tie this child down, she wants to be on the go all the time, I really needed her to try and take a nap as Dave had booked us tickets to go see MonsterJam on Saturday night, which is the big Monster Truck evening that comes to Charlotte once a year, anyway she didn't take a nap but fell asleep in the car on route to the MonsterJam and well the poor thing felt even worse when we had to wake her to get out the car. She had great fun rooting all the trucks on but shame she was not herself at all. Thanks Dave for a great evening, sorry Jade and I weren't the best of company but with both of us coughing so much, being in a dusty environment probably wasn't the best place for us.

Sunday morning we took it easy coz we knew we had to go out to Concorde Mills the afternoon for Daves Valentines gift I got him. I got him a SuperCar Experience, he got to chose 3 cars from 7 to drive over the space of about an hour, here are some pics of him with the cars.

Here is his first car which totally blew his mind, he said he has never driven anything quite like it, it is the Nissan GTR - 3.8L Twin Turbo V6 AWD. You should have seen his face when he got out of this one, it was priceless, like a total little box just being given his favorite toy for Christmas. Even though he has two more 'better' cars to drive, I knew he thought his was in Heaven for sure !!!

Then secondly he got to drive the Porsche 911 Turbo - 3.6 V6 AWD, he was actually going to drive the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster which was in the same category but changed his mind last minute and I don't think he regretted it one minute. Below these two Porsche pics is a pic of the Aston Martin he would have driven.







Last but not least, he finally got to drive the little red Ferrari F430 - 4.3L V8 RWD. Thankfully the guy that rode along side him in each car was a fun guy and told
Dave when to floor it etc. I think he had a great time and I would recommend this gift to anyone wanting a car thrill :-)





Oh I have to tell you something funny though, when Dave was about to take the Ferrari for a drive, one of the other guys standing around there told him to rev the car for me for the video so he did but not much, I don't think he knew how much he could do even though I am sure he would loved to have shown off a good deal more, anyway the guy next to him about to drive the Aston Martin was told the same thing and you will hear in the video how much he revved, it's funny coz it makes the Ferrari sound like nothing which in fact had Dave revved it would have been very impressive, oh dear ... I guess next time !!!

Anyway, so today is Monday and I took Jade to the doctor only to be told the same thing as my doctor told me, it's a virus and it needs to run its course, nothing you can do about it :-( so we will just continue to cough I guess. I was worried about the baby with all the coughing but my obgyn says it's just giving the baby a good work out and not to worry about it but thank God the fever is under control as that was pretty dangerous for the baby !!!

So I am 25 and a half weeks pregnant, almost 6 and a half months, I cannot believe it !!! Actually I should believe it coz gosh I am still experiencing the nausea which I thought by 6 months was gone with Jade by my obgyn said nope, I had it till month 7 so we will see, for me it's almost like my normal right now. I have also really battled with my allergies more so this time around than I remember with Jade I kinda feel like I have been sick the entire pregnancy, fun right ??? Well I have never enjoyed pregnancy so I didn't expect this one to be fun or any different. Thank God now she is moving around more, it puts my mind at rest a bit but man is she making me uncomfortable and I still have so much longer to go and she needs to grow so much more, fun days to come, I can tell !!! I cannot wait to give birth to her and feel better again and then I can thank God that I NEVER have to experience this ever again, I am definitely going to make sure of that ... right Dave !!!

So tomorrow Jade is back to school again, hopefully she will be fine, the doctor said to send her before she starts crawling the walls at home, little does she know how much she has already been doing that, poor thing. And well I am back to work again tomorrow too so I got at least 1 day out of my 7 bed rest, what can I say !!!

I know everyone has been asking for house pics but the house is still in a mess so it will be a very long time till I take pics ... so please be patient.

Take care.

We Woke Up To Snow ...

Another quick update ... more pics than all my waffling. Yesterday we were told snow is coming but we didn't want to get Jade too excited because often when snow is said to be coming, it doesn't and she gets so disappointed but anyway this time was different.

By the time I went to bed around 12 there was still no snow, not even rain but when I woke up in the middle of the night, around 2h30 there had already been a snow dusting so I knew we had a good chance of snow, at 5h30 I woke up to make sure there was snow and that school and work for me was cancelled and then hopped back into bed till Jade got up, and was she excited !!!

Here is the first picture I took, opening our balcony door slightly to get the shot, it was like -4 for it wasn't too bad or cold at all.



Dave and Jade went out first this morning because I was just really scared I would slip on the pathways but Dave said it was ok, so after a while I joined them too, not playing in the snow as much as they did, I just kept warm and watched them get all wet and cold. Thankfully the little bug in my tummy kept me from being target practise too ... she has her advantages (hehehe). Dave couldn't stay too long, he had meetings at work that he had to attend but at least he got to play some.

This is in the car park, this is Daves car.



This is my car.



Here are a couple of pics of Jade, unfortunately the camera doesn't really pic up that it is snowing, pity coz it's really pretty. I don't think the snow will accumulate much more, it is starting to stop now, we have maybe 3 inches.





The snow on the trees is so pretty, I think it would be perfect if this had happened on Christmas but oh well, I guess we will have to move State before we get snow at Christmas.



Without true snow clothing it's really cold to play in the snow, Dave was really taking strain, he is a real wimp when it comes to cold anyway so throwing wet snow into the mix is so not his thing (hehehe).



That's our balcony on the left, we are on the ground floor.



We all walked down to the park and Dave and Jade played there for while, it was quite funny how they were playing, Jade tried to escape Daves snowballs and went down the slide which was packed with snow, I could tell she was shocked when she came out the other end (hehehe).



Dave throwing snowballs at Jade, don't worry she got him back many times.



Anyway we are in for a break now, I am sure when she sees some kids outside she will want to go out again, so in the meantime I am trying to dry the jackets, boots and gloves for the next round. Guess my drier is going to run all day again today.

Jade and I are kind of lucky to be home today to watch the inauguration of President Obama, I am not sure how much she will take in but she and I will watch some of it together, I guess it's history so we better take note :-) She would not have been off school today and I would have worked this morning too so we got lucky with the snow.

I might post more later if I get more but with the snow stopping, I think that's probably it !!!

Quick Update

Hi There

I know it's been a while since I last updated, sorry !!! But there hasn't been anything exciting to blog about but I thought I would quickly give y'all an update of what has been going on lately.

Jade is fine, doing well at school and gymnastics so that's good. Thankfully her nose cleared up nicely, it's still a bit pink but it looks like thankfully there won't be any scars. I know I promised to post some ice skating videos but it is such a pain to upload videos here at the apartment, my connection is almost as bad as South Africa ... so it's frustrating and I will rather post them later when we move into the house, which won't be long now :-) Anyway, here is one pic of her skating amongst everyone on the open air ice rink that was in the city. We took her at night so that the lights were on and it made it more special for her. The ice was very slippery, way more than the other rink she was on, she got frustrated quickly which surprised me but after a quick lecture about being a quitter she got right back on the ice and thoroughly had a ball, got better and better, she skated for hours !!!



Dave is well, I can tell by his mood lately that he is getting stressed about the house now, you know how he is with all the financial stuff ... anyway we close on the house this coming Friday the 23rd, closing means we sign all the paperwork and get handed the keys, golly it's finally happening, very exciting stuff. There is a bunch of work that needs to be done at the house before we start moving, Dave wants to treat the garage floor, this is a huge undertaking but I think he will do that the first weekend we have the keys, it's a step by step process so it will probably take him the entire weekend. Then all the blinds need to be hung, or all the important ones, the rest can wait, all the fans need to be done but they can be done later too, I want some extra shelving put into the closets, so he will need to do that as soon as possible or I won't be able to get started doing my bit. Then we found out we need to treat all the tiles throughout the house too, I think that's just wrong and on discussion with a bunch of people Dave is trying to get the builder to do it for us. But other than that, there's still a good amount of work to be done before we start moving our stuff in. We plan on being in the house completely by the 7th of February so most of the big moving will be done that weekend, we have some people coming out to help Dave with the heavy stuff so please don't worry about me, I won't be doing any of that !!! The pod and some furniture plus the refrigerator will be delivered before then so we will be able to work with all that stuff to get the house comfy in the meantime. I cannot wait to get out of the apartment but I know I need to be patient and go slow and it will eventually all come together :-) Hold thumbs all goes well with the closing !!!

As for me, I am plodding along or should I say waddling along :-( I am now 21 and a half weeks pregnant and finally starting to feel the baby move a little more. I have never been one for enjoying the movement, I think it's quite yucky actually but with our history, I think this time around I will try and enjoy the movement and take it as a sign that all is well more than anything else. I really haven't done any reading this pregnancy, weird actually because with Jade all I did was read but I soon realized that nothing could prepare you for parenthood and a new baby ... so I figured this time around I just wouldn't even bother. That being said, I was on a website that gave the measurements for babies at 21 weeks and I couldn't believe that this baby is about 7 1/2 inches right now, from head to rump that is and then you would add another almost 3 inches on for the legs ... makes it all so much more real doesn't it ? Well I am still enjoying the nausea, yeah right, why is it that woman get to play the biggest roles in kids lives and still have to be the one to suffer through pregnancies, why couldn't men have taken on that role ... very unfair if you ask me !!!

What else can I tell you, gosh it's been cold her lately, I can't remember what the coldest temperature has been but I know it was more than -10 and let me tell you, that's cold !!! The days haven't got any warmer than around 5 degrees lately, without the wind that is ok but when you throw in a breeze, oh my gosh it's cold. We are used to it now thank Heavens but still it's really cold. I wonder sometimes though how it can be that cold and it not snow, very weird if you ask me.

On that note, yesterday afternoon when I was on my way home from the store I noticed that the fountains at the apartments next to ours had frozen up, so before church last night I took Dave and Jade to see it, I should have allowed more time for us to hang out there because she had a ball. It was really quite pretty since the water was still coming out the top, some of the water had iced too and before I could tell Jade any different, oh my gosh, she just stepped onto the ice, I nearly had heart failure, I mean it wasn't deep or anything but how silly could she be. Dave was right there so he grabbed her out but she had her full weight which is around 50 pounds now, on the ice and it didn't crack, amazing. She and Dave were trying to break the ice and managed in some places, then they would throw it in the air and let it break on the other ice when it landed, they had great fun. Jade wanted to go there again today but she has a bit of the sniffles today so I think we will pass on that today, anyway I don't want the responsibility of her being that close to the ice again ... she is off school today thankfully, it's Martin Luther Kings birthday so hopefully the sniffles will be done with tomorrow. Here's a pic of the fountain.



Ok, well that's me for now, I will probably only update again after we move so it might be a while. Oh by the way, both of Jades top big front teeth are lose, oh golly that's not going to be a pretty picture when they come out but hopefully they grow in as fast as the other one did.

Take care y'all.

Another Proud Parent Moment

Yesterday evening we went off to church like normal, now from previous emails you might know already that in the beginning of the Mass, Father calls all the kids to the front and then they leave from there with a teacher which keeps them occupied for some of the Mass before they all join the congregation again. Well usually in the last five minutes before the Mass starts Jade draws a picture, I am not sure if the kids have been encouraged to do this but she does it every week now and then folds it in 4 and it gets put in one of the prayer baskets that the kids take up to the alter when everything for communion is taken forward.

We never tell her what to draw, she does whatever is in her mind that day, it's usually religious in some form though, anyway for some reason yesterday she didn't fold the paper, I think it was because we ran slightly late and she actually didn't get to finish the picture off, so she walked forward to where all the kids where, she of course always pushes her way to the front which makes Dave and I cringe but anyway. So I saw Father bend down and speak to her and I thought, oh my gosh now what ? He took the picture from Jade and asked her her name and if he could show the congregation her picture, of course she grabbed her 5 minutes of fame with open arms (hehehe), now you have to remember this church holds about 4000 people and right now so soon after Christmas all the Masses are pretty much full. So Father showed everyone her picture, he then asked Jade if he could hang onto it and use it as part of his Homily and for what she knows of Homily, she said yes, everyone giggled and well he promised to get the picture back to her, and off they all went with the teacher.

Now obviously she was not there for the Homily but my golly what was amazing is she drew the picture below which was Jesus in the manger with the star above and well his Homily had to do with just that ... so right in the middle of his Homily he once again brought that picture out and referred to his budding artist Jade and her beautiful picture which painted a true picture of the Gospel for that night, can you believe this ???

Dave and I were blown away and it was such a proud moment, now I was wondering how he was going to get the picture back to her but he had chosen her to bring the prayer basket forward so when she went forward with all the rest taking forward the Communion goodies, he gave her her picture back, it really was a cool moment.



Now when we got to the car we of course told her how very lucky she was to have had that opportunity etc. but we also had to tell her that yes she got lucky but from now on that she must fold her picture as the Father does not have time during Mass to look at pictures, we told her that he looks at everything in the prayer baskets later and he will see her pics there, you see we know her well enough that come next week, she is going to get right up there in the Fathers face with a new picture :-) only next week might be a different Father etc. we also told her that she needs to give some other kids chance to take up the prayer baskets as she has already done it 3 times recently, it's so cute to see how involved she wants to be but my golly, give the other kids a chance.

So that was another proud parent moment in our lives :-)

My Poor Child And Her Rug Burn !!!

I had to publish these silly pics ... Let me start by saying that with Jades gymnastics background, she doesn't do anything around the house normally, everything has a skip and a jump in it, and if there's enough place between A and B there will be cart wheels or forward rolls, not to mention all the trampoline work she does on her bed and on my sofa when she thinks I am not looking ... and well back flips etc. I won't even go there so, that all being said !!!

Friday night she had just gotten out of the bath and was getting into her pj's when she came to me and said her nose was sore, I could see it was a little red but nothing much since she was all red from her hot bath anyway, but I asked her what she had done ... Apparently she was skipping and somehow landed on her nose, yeah I don't know either. I joked that she was using an imaginary rope and when she tripped over the rope and fell, she was too busy holding the imaginary handles to put her hands down and break the fall before eating the rug but I think what happened from what she told me is that she was skipping, you know like running, jumping skipping and she tripped and before she knew it her nose was to the rug.

Poor thing, later that night before I went to be I went to check on her and her nose must have been glowing close to what Rudolph's glow, I even called Dave in to show him, it was really red and by Saturday morning you can tell it was a real rug burn and it was scabbed over :-( So now we are just trying to keep it dry so it will heal well. Thank God she knows not to pick at it and well it's already started itching so thankfully it is on the mend, hopefully it doesn't break open in her sleep, it really looks ouch !!!

I was so mad that she was so silly that she got upset with me and told me I disappointed her ... she is going to give me a run for my money come teenage hood that is for sure. She is very shy to go to school with it tomorrow so we will see how that goes, she can be super sensitive sometimes so hopefully the kids wont be too mean and there won't be too many tears.

Dave thinks I have her well trained with all my hormones going on ... and actually I am super sensitive even without the added hormones, so adding a third girl to the house is going to be almost too much for him. It's good that he doesn't have a sensitive bone in his body !!! Today Jade and I were watching Chronicles of Narnia but I went off to shower and she watched the end with Dave, well when the lion got killed she cried her heart out, so I told her while daddy was laughing at her which didn't help that if mommy was watching it with her, she too would be crying ... poor thing.

Anyway here are three pics of her nose !!!

3 Quick Pics To Start The New Year !!!

Happy New Year to everyone :-) I hope that New Year brings y'all nothing but happiness, good health and golly could I be so bold as to wish for good fortune too !!!

Here are just 3 quick pics of Jade taken this morning, looking at past posts on my blog, I realize that I don't publish as many pics of her as I did in the past, probably because she is a little less cooperative these days when mom asks her to look cute for a few minutes for pictures, she really couldn't be bothered, she's growing up fast, there is no stopping that !!!



The apartment is a bit dark so sorry the pics are not great but it's cold outside, they predicted freezing rain today so I have been very hesitant in going out but I have to at some point, need to go get stuff for the weekend. I was trying to explain to my mom that we have gotten used to the cold here that we hardly wear a jacket if it's between 10 - 15 degrees, unless it is windy which it is hardly ever here, the wind chill is what makes you cold. But like today it is 4 degrees, it isn't that cold but because it is rainy and wet, we will have to do the jacket and boots for sure !!!



Jades hair is so much easier short, especially for school in the mornings but I think Dave has been whispering in her ear that she needs to grow her hair again, you see he likes it longer, I think he has forgotten how long it takes to blow dry the long hair, or what a mess it is first thing in the mornings but anyway, this past week she asked me when she can grow her hair again, so I told her that we can have one more Summer with it short and then maybe we can start to grow it again. I figured with the baby coming and all, I was going to push for that at the very least, she seemed happy with that thank Heavens !!!



Something I had forgotten to mention was that when school broke up for Winter Break Jade got her Kindergarten Testing Results which we were really proud of, it seems that she is pretty much ahead of her game at this point which is exciting for us to hear :-)

The testing is broken up into 4 categories ISF (Initial Sound Fluency - What sound does 'letters' begin with ?) here she got a 36, the goal is 25, they also gave us an indication of where she should be at the beginning, middle and end of first grade, I will let you in on that goal on the next 3, there wasn't one for this one.

Then for LNF (Letter Naming Fluency) she got a 58, the goal was 27. The goal for beginning first grade is 37.

For NWF (Nonsense Word Fluency - Read this word 'wub') she got 42, the goal is 13, beginning first grade the goal is 24, middle is 50 and end is 50.

Lastly for PSF (Phoneme - Sound - Segmentation Fluency - Tell me all the sounds in the word 'mop' ) she got a 37, the goal is 18. Beginning first grade is must be 35, middle 35 and end 35.

So as you can see, we are very happy with what we see right now :-)

Anyway thought I would share that with y'all. Now it's after 2pm and I am still in my PJ's ... golly when school starts back again next week, I am so going to be in trouble, I will have to get with the program again (hehehe), I guess I need to go get showered and done so Jade and I can get out a bit.

Take care.