Happy Birthday to my love

Rene turned 30 today. He's been pretty depressed about it for a while, but by today he had accepted it and has taken it like a man, like an old man hehe.

It was a fun day. We woke up and Rene stayed in bed while the girls and I went down and got Rene's birthday presents. He got a mug, a kettle, some socks, a fishing game (which Kaya got for free at a yard sale and kept secret from Rene for weeks, and a bag of doritos which Kaya bought with her own money.

Then we went out to church and I saw the lead singer from the casting pearls, who are now called Vota. I loved this band from back when I was in Scotland, they're one of my favourite bands ever. Then I moved here to Lincoln and was buying tickets for a consert when my husband pointed out they were from Lincoln! I couldn't believe it. So he was at church today and I couldn't stand to talk to him I was too star struck.

Then we came home and Rene had a surprise birthday party. My friend Stacy helped set it all up and a bunch of friends came and brought food and we had a bunch of fun. We even got a game of killer bunnies going at the end. Awesome. Rene was very surprised and felt very loved.

Then to top off a fantastic day, tonight as I was changing Glenn's diaper he gave me his first real laugh! Rene says he got a snigger from him before, but there were no witnesses so it doesn't count. I got a short but very loud laugh and it was adorable. Made my day.

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I love having people come visit

But it sure sucks when they have to go back home again. I really hate goodbyes.

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Homecoming Scotland 2009

2009 will be Robert Burns' 250th Birthday, and Scotland will be celebrating all year.

I must admit, I get a tad homesick from time to time. I do wish we could go back to visit soon..

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Zoe talking

She was talking about some scary butterfly she saw on the computer. It was actually a dragon.

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The best kind of house guests

My Dad and Step Mother are here spending Thanksgiving with us from Georgia. I am lucky to have the best type of guests ever -

They gave the kids gifts
Entertained the kids and cooked the meal!
Cleaned up after the meal and served dessert
Gave us money (I love it when people do that)
Said goodnight then went off to a hotel to sleep.

I have it so easy. I get to spend time with them without doing any work!

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Thankful for quick baths in the sink

Ok I haven't kept up well with the thankful thing, sorry.


My girls were 3+ times a day poopers when they were little babies. Glenn, however, saves it up for a few days then lets it all go at once!

And when he does finally blow it's like he fills his diaper to saturation with cheese sauce. Warm, squishy, dark yellow, grainy cheese sauce. It not only looks like cheese sauce, it smells exactly like it too. It smells delicious! I'd be tempted to pour some of it over my elbow pasta if not for the fact that I know it's poop.

Anyway, he made one of these secret recipe cheese sauce diapers the other day and the stuff was stuck on his bum and wouldn't shift. So we quickly filled the sink with water and California Baby bubbles and scrubbed him down. He seemed to enjoy his bath in the sink, though it was a little cramped up. Of course we got pictures

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Is God A Brunette?

Conversation with Kaya and Lana at lunch today.

Kaya says "Mum, I think God has dark brown hair and a mustache"

Interesting. "Lana, what do you think God looks like?"

"In a tv show God had a brown beard. I think that's what he has"

So it got me thinking, why do we never imagine God as a blondie? Do we all imagine him with dark hair? He probably doesn't have hair, other than Jesus-God, though we tend to not think of him as blond either. I'm sure there were some blond Jews right?

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Scottish word of the week - 7

This week is the word - MOCKIT

See video for explanation and to hear pronunciation.

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Thankful for washing machines

I don't enjoy the endless task that is laundry. Washing clothes is not so bad, but the baskets full of clean clothes requiring folding and putting away overwhelm me sometimes.

Yet still, I'm thankful for washing machines to make the task of laundry easier and faster. Especially on days like today, when I had to wash all our covers, and our sheets and mattress protectors and loads of towels, because Zoe and Glenn were sick and puking all over the place.

I'm also thankful that they seem to be doing much better now. They got lots of sleep today, we had a snuggly in bed watching dvds day today (and doing laundry of course).

And it's the weekend, yay!

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Thankful for sleep

I'm going to do this thankful thing again like I did last year. Just from now until Thanksgiving, I'll think of something I'm thankful for.

Today it's how good Glenn is at sleeping. This boy is just perfect in every way. He is so extremely sweet natured, he rarely complains or cries. He's so happy to just hang out with us and be cuddled and be a part of our chaos.

And he loves sleeping! We have the arms reach co-sleeper which attaches to the side of our bed and keeps him close to me, yet still in his own safe little space. I feed him and lay him in there at about 10pm and he goes right to sleep and sleeps through til morning most nights. When he doesn't sleep through he just wakes once to nurse and goes right back to sleep.



He's such a doll and such an easy baby to look after. I'm so privileged to be the one that gets to take care of him and raise him. He's just incredible.


Kaya is thankful


Lana is thankful

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The Lord Provides

I'm always humbled by the ways God provides for us.

Money is tight right now. We have no savings and at the end of every month we're diving into the pennies jar to make ends meet. I know it's hard times for everyone with the economy and bla bla bla (I've made a personal commitment to myself not to get political on my blog. There's enough of that on the web already!).

So anyway tonight the doorbell rang and it was a lady and a gentleman from St Mark's Methodist church giving us a bunch of thanksgiving food for free! We hadn't signed up for any programs or anything. They just had one basket leftover and their pastor instructed them to drive out and give it to the first house with bikes outside.

As "chance" would have it (or as God would have it!) we had a bike sitting in our yard that some neighbourhood kid had left. It's been there for a few days, we don't even know who it belongs to.

So they gave us loads of food, milk, fruit, tinned food, even a pumpkin pie!

Thanks God, for finding another creative way to see us through til next wage check. I need to stop worrying and remember that God always provides! He's never failed to yet.

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Jackpot

I intended to post this last week but never got round to it.

Rene came home from work one day last week with 4 paper bags full of beautiful, quality girl clothes and 2 large plastic sacks full of adorable baby boy clothes! There was something for everybody, and some gap, old navy and gymboree. All the clothes look awesome.

The only thing better than yard sale clothes is free clothes! Especially gorgeous ones like these. Here are a couple of my favourites:



Sweet sweater for Zoe



Tommy Hilfiger outfit



gymboree leggings for Lana and sweater for Glenn

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Pain

Ow. I have a history of bouts of abdominal pain which was suspected to be caused by gall stones. It was never properly investigated though (the NHS had a waiting list).

A week and a half ago I started having these pains again. I was up all night throwing up and praying that this pain in my stomach would go away. It did but came back again last night.

It's right where my stomach is, right at the top in the center. It's like cramps that come in waves, and man it hurts. Severely sore and debilitating. Rene was getting ready to leave this morning when he saw me doubled over and unable to even read the package on the motrin because I just couldn't focus for that long.

So he stayed home from work and took me to the Dr. I was so hesitant because we truly just can't afford the medical bills just now. But I couldn't take the pain anymore. So I went.

The Dr suspected a condition that causes stomach ulcers but ruled it out with a blood test. So he sent me off to hospital for an ultrasound. The pains had stopped by then but my upper abdomen was very tender and the ultrasound was very uncomfortable.

It came back negative. No gall stones, stomach looked fine, kidneys fine.

I don't know what the heck is wrong. They're going to investigate the gall bladder thing further, with some test. But it might effect breastfeeding and I don't know how to get around that. I have to drink some stuff that's not safe for baby. Meanwhile he wants me to try prilosec. I don't believe it's an indigestion thing, I've had loads of heartburn etc in pregnancies before and this is entirely different. I don't believe it's gall bladder either since it isn't on the right hand side.

Anyway I'm confused, sore and disappointed. I feel guilty to have cost time (away from work) and money and no results. Not feeling very thrilled right now.

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Scottish word of the week - 6

Last week's video blog of the word of the week was a huge success. I received many e-mails and spoken comments of approval and requests for more. So I won't leave you hanging any longer.

This week's word is - KEN

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And the bad mother of the year award goes to...

That would be ME!

Let me set the scene: I'm out at the goodwill store parking lot with a shopping cart full of bargains - bulky ones like lamps and shelves. Zoe is in the child seat in the cart, Glenn is in the sling and Kaya and Lana want to just run off to the car without holding hands.

I'm paranoid about walking through car parks. I'm so scared a car will pull out without seeing them or something. The girls just don't pay much attention either and I get so scared.

The car park is on a slope so I push the cart in front of me and stop the wheel with my foot while I take Turtle out of the sling and buckle him into his seat. Meanwhile, Kaya and Lana are refusing to get in the car at the other side, preferring instead to draw on the windows with rain water. So I'm busy buckling G in and yelling at the girls to get in the car so they don't get hit, when I hear some kid screaming. Sounds like it's coming from the middle of the car park.

I giggle to myself, feeling quite pleased that someone else is having trouble with their kid and it's not my own screaming for a change. This voice continued wailing "waaaaaaaa", sounding pretty distressed and kind of familiar - I guess all kids sound the same when they're upset.

I'm still yelling at K and L while this voice screaming grows increasingly distant and I think to myself how nice it is that Zoe is being nice and quiet, and I finish buckling in Glenn and turn to smile at....Zoe....Zoe? Zoe?

As I turn round and see her and the cart at the other side of the car park, after stopping itself against a parked truck with a lady in the passenger seat, it dawns on me that the voice all along had been Zoe's. I don't know how it got passed my foot without me feeling it.

I ran to her and she burst out laughing. She thought it was a trip. The lady in the truck was laughing too. Thankfully, it was a small car park, she didn't go too far and was perfectly ok. But still I was pretty darn shaken up.

I'm able to laugh about it now. Poor girl, I imagine her flailing and wailing while she went "weeeeee" in the cart. Good grief. I felt terrible. That's a story I'm sure I'll retell a few times!

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A Buddy Ha Ha

Zoe likes the Veggie Tales song, "Belly Button".

Sorry, let me rephrase that, without the mega understatement. Zoe is OBSESSED with the Belly Button song. She calls it "A Buddy Ha Ha" and it has to be on the computer on repeat all day or else she totally flips out and is not content until we put it back on again.

This is a typical scene of her requesting "A Buddy Ha Ha"




Thing is, she doesn't really sing along apart from this one word. There's a rap part in the song, and a line that goes, "We can offer a prosthetic but of course you'd have to know, it'd be covered by your shirt, but not your HMO"
The backing vocals come in to reinforce the word "shirt" and so does Zoe. It's the only word she joins in for and she shouts it loud.

Problem is, she doesn't pronounce the "r", which makes it sound like a completely different word. And she's taken to spontaneously shouting it out of context, I guess when she hears the song playing in her head. I'm thinking I might have some explaining to do at church!

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Little talker

Zoe is quite the little chatterbox these days. Her vocabulary blows me away.

This morning she said, "Bye bye Mummy. I'll be right back. Teef. Okay? Okay!"
Then went off to the bathroom to find her toothbrush.

She's not even 2 until end of February. She's going to cost us a fortune in phone bills by the time she's a teenager

.

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My new exercise regime

The kids and I needed a little more physical exertion in our day.

So we dance to this three + times a day. Annoyingly catchy.

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7 years

It's been 7 years since Heather died. I made a video to remind me of all I have to look forward to one day.

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Mmm Pumpkin Pie

Made with fresh pumpkins rather than canned. So yummy.

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A year of growth

First I just want to say how much I'm loving the weather. We've had sunshine and 70s, even a couple low 80s readings over the past week here. It's been blissful.

I was taking photos out in the yard yesterday and then browsing through some of this time last year when we also had some pretty weather. I can't believe how much the girls have grown in a year. Especially Zoe. It's so bitter sweet.

Here's this year






And here's last year

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Scotland's got talent

I've been listening to pandora radio and discovered a couple new artists recently.

First is called Alexi Murdoch



Apparently he sounds exactly just like Nick Drake. His music had been categorized as New Folk, Alternative and Industrial. Whatever it is, I love it! I love to relax to it in the evenings while I'm playing around with photoshop and the kids are tucked in bed.

As I read his bio in Rhapsody I discovered he is from Scotland. Why should I be surprised? All the most talented people seem to come from Scotland.



The next guy I've recently started listening to blows me away with his music. He's not just a pretty face, though he is that too! (not as much as Rene though of course ;-)) His voice is beautiful. It seems he's been popular for a wee while, and I've just now discovered him.

Paolo Nutini




And again, I was sitting listening to him and loving it, then read on Rhapsody that he's from Paisley, Scotland. Wow. Now a lot of good things come from Scotland, but not a lot good comes out of Paisley! hehe. I'm very impressed.

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Scottish Word Of The Week - 5

Not really doing these weekly...I'll try to keep up better this time...


Today's word is

WHEESHT

Essentially it means shut up. I thought you'd like to hear it explained in a Scottish accent though. I'll make this segment be a video blog from now on, featuring special guest Rene Docherty.

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