Curious Minds

Just a quick post as I should be in bed. This is for anyone who might be remotely curious about what I do at the gym sometimes for hours on end, until my joints hurt and my feet don't want to support my body anymore ( sorry it is release week and I am swamped).

Who knows if my career as a fitness Instructor just doesn't do it for me in the next couple years, maybe I will try the circus.
I am prepping for my NewBody certification video that I am filming on Monday, October 13. I will blog again with an update very soon after that, for right now I have a one track mind and that is how it is going to stay.
Off to bed with an ice pack...fun filled Saturday night :)

New Stage

I have just recently started a new journey in my career as a fitness instructor.
I have been teaching for almost 6 months now and I am just getting my feet wet. Last Friday I completed my NewBody training, NewBody is a program exclusive to Goodlife Fitness. Training was difficult to say the least, I spent 12 hours in the gym and most of the time we were moving. NewBody is my first discipline that I am training for. In the next couple weeks I will be flying to Toronto for a weekend of Attack training and a weekend of combat training. These trainings are so intense that you don't eat all weekend and you live off of power aid or some other supplement drink. I am totally physiced for the Attack training, it is so up my ally. Attack is super high cardio, I wore my heart rate monitor last week to class and worked so hard that I took my body from a aerobic workout to an anaerobic workout. Anaerobic doesn't burn as many calories but builds muscle, it all has to do with your heart rate. At one point my heart rate was at 101 % ( which is possible, it means that for my age and size my peak heart rate is 190 beats per minute, I was above that for a time being).

Going back to NewBody, I don't think anyone realizes what fitness instructors do to get ready for there classes. I am in the process of getting my video ready to become totally certified. I eat, sleep and breath NewBody right now. I team teach as many classes as I possibly can and have spent countless hours in front of the video at home.
A couple nights ago I woke Evan at 2:00 a.m. just to practice, lets just say he wasn't to happy with me at the time.
All I think about is NewBody, which is good at the moment but it worries me for the next couple weeks. My Attack and combat training are only two weeks apart and they are far more intense then the NewBody training.
At this time I am also running a skipping program on Friday evenings and I teach anywhere from 4-8 time per week, starting to feel stretched a little thin.
At the moment I am thinking about dropping the skipping program and just focusing on my disciplines at least until after Christmas.

I don't think this post is going anywhere I just needed to write and get things out of my head. It is also midnight and I am team teaching tomorrow morning so have about an hour of work to do yet tonight.

I love my job and wouldn't ever want to change anything, I need to figure out how to structure my life better. My family has eaten out for the last 3 night because I haven't had time to cook. We pride ourselves on eating healthy so this week has been a huge blow. My house also looks like a bomb went off in it, no time to clean and when Evan gets home in the evening I leave and he takes care of the kids. Evan works extremely hard at his job and I totally understand why all he wants to do is lay down on the couch.
If anyone has any suggestions about how to better stream line my house please let me know, I am open to anything right now.

Pictures as promised

Emmanuel getting ready to leave the house ( above)

Trying to get a hug in ( above)

Standing in line waiting to go in with the teacher ( above)

Having story time on the special squares ( above)

Totally couldn't resist putting this one of Micah, sleeping with her hand down her panties.
She doesn't I took this picture! Love her.

What life is like

Many times I have caught myself wondering if my life is turning out the way I wanted it to. Did I want to have kids young, did/do I want to be a stay at home mom, am I married to the man of my dreams, did I want to live in Calgary, am I happy as a fitness instructor.
I don't have all the answers for the way my life is turning out but I would never take anything back good or bad. As a adult you need to learn to deal with what you have been given and make the best of it. So much that happens in life is out of our control and in God's hands, and I would not want it any other way.
We do have choices in our life though, I feel like I am struggling with many of those choices right now.
I know that I made the right choice to start working as a fitness instructor, I am a happier person and a better mom. I knew before I had kids that I wanted to work after the first year and I took on small jobs here and there. I was never fulfilled still, I felt smothered and resentful towards my family. Now that I am with Goodlife I am gone approximately 16 hours per week, that is not even like working 3 full days and I have never been happier. Because I am happier my family is happier, I am healthier and way more confident.
Starting to work has brought on more choices with my life, do I want to work more, am I over doing it, do I need to give my body a rest, etc.
I am so happy as a fitness instructor but wasn't prepared for everything that goes along with it. Some weeks depending on how much I teach I am taking pain killers just to get through the next class then there are weeks that I don't teach very much at all and I feel like I need to get in to the gym to get a hard workout.
Another issue is body image, I am a great weight and healthy but deep inside I feel like it isn't enough, I can lose a couple more pounds, teach a couple more cardio classes or run a couple more miles. This isn't an issue that I am alone in, it is through out the entire fitness industry.

* please don't judge me, I just need to be honest. I would love to hear your comments, please keep them kind.

update on Emmanuel starting school.
Emmanuel is one his 2 full week of school and is loving it. He has adjusted so well to going to school every morning. This morning when I walked him to the school he took off running to his friends on the play ground and only came back to where I was standing to get his backpack. After he got his backpack he went and lined up and didn't look back.
When I go and pick him up from school he walks out of the doors gives his teacher a high-five throws me his backpack and takes off running with 4 other kindergarten boys. This group is inseparable, so cute.
Hopefully I can post some pictures in a couple days of his first day at kindergarten.
Micah is also loving her mornings at home. We are home Monday, Thursday and Friday morning. The other mornings I am teaching so Micah is in play group. We have spent many hours coloring, playing barbies and painting her nails, she is such a little girl.

HRM

I just found the best heart rate monitor on line today. My mentor at the gym also works for Sport Check as a writer and she lead me in the right direction.
I am starting a class in two weeks, it is a skipping class. I have been told that if you skip for 1 hour you will burn 1000 calories but we wont be skipping for a full hour so I want to be able to say we just burnt xxxx calories in one hour skipping, running and boxing.
This heart rate monitor counts calories, keeps track of your heart rate, counts laps and so much more. these things are totally awesome.

So much more has happened in life including Emmanuel going to Kindergarten and me starting some new classes. I am also heading out for more training in the next couple weeks so I will be busy.
I am going to be starting a moms and babies fitness class in October, this class totally rules. It will be done with the babies in Snuggli's and well as floor work.
I just need to find a snuggli and something that replicates a baby ( don't look at my uterus... nothing is coming out of there anytime soon)!

Will post more soon, off to by me the heart rate monitor.

update

So I have decided that after 4 weeks of silence it is time to post again. Summer is coming to a close and it has been way to short.
My parents came out for 10 days in visit, we did a lot of sight seeing, hanging out a home and playing with the kids. My mom even got to see me teach a class or two so that was awesome. We also had Micah's third birthday party ( my babies are growing up, more about that later).
Micah's special chair



The cupcakes I made from scratch ( so proud!)

We have also spent a lot of time at the lake which has been way more fun this year than any other, I think that is because the kids are older and able to do more for them selves.
We have also had company over the summer keeping us hoping!

I was able to fly out to Winnipeg recently and spend two days with my family as well as Josh and Holly's new baby. While in Manitoba I caught Strep throat which put me out of commission for about 6 days, not ideal when you are a fitness instructor! My first class back I didn't think I would actually make it through.

That is all for now, my mind is consumed with the fact that Emmanuel is headed to kindergarten on Tuesday!
Hopefully will post more in depth later, not holding my breath though.

I thought I would give an update on how things went on Saturday. I took until about now to be able to actually form into words what I felt and saw that morning at the walk for the cure.
We arrived at the Round up Center in Calgary at about 6:25 a.m thinking we would have time to run though a few things before we started. It took forever to find the right person to talk to and when we did find her she was so busy she pointed in the direction of the "stage" and ran off again.
We found someone else and asked where to set up our music and that is when they informed us that we couldn't use our own music they had some pre-selected, huge blow!
After everything was figured out and it was time to go on, we were terrified. The stage was very small and very high up, we didn't hear the music until we were standing on the stage so we had no idea how fast it was or how many beats per minute it was ( that is huge for a fitness Instructor), and we had no idea what we were going to do because the routine was to our music so we wung it.

It turned out amazing, we had one girl figuring out what to do and the rest followed. Everything that possible felt like it was going wrong was all washed away when you looked out into a sea of a thousand smiling faces and remembered that reason we were there.
At one point we were doing a side step movement and all I could see was a mass of pink moving from side to side, It took all my will power to hold it together at that moment. Between all the people in pink, the music, seeing runners carrying the running shoes of runners from past years who have past away, and the genuine energy it was so over whelming but perfect.

My parents are out for the week so I will post more next week.

A good cause

I have been given probably what I consider the greatest opportunity, Calgary has the walk for the cure this weekend. It is a 60 km walk for Breast Cancer, the participants walk 35 km on Saturday and do the remaining 25 on Sunday. Goodlife Fitness has been asked to be in Charge of warming up the participants on Saturday morning. Myself along with 3 of the other instructors will be heading to the Round up center for 6:30 a.m to lead a mass of people in a warm up.

When I found out I was going to be involved I was speechless, I feel so blessed and honored to be involved in such an event.
God has been doing so much wonderful things in my life, I have spent the last day just thanking him because I feel like I have no words to express how I truly feel.

I feel like I have the opportunity to use my passion for encourage and help others, I never want to look past that or lose it.

Hope everyone enjoys there weekend.

I will be back

I will come out and say it, I am boring and have nothing of importance to say.
Do I bore everyone out of there minds talking about my job at the gym, what classes I am teaching and what percent body fat I am at? I already have very few readers left I think that would scare away the rest.
I hope everyone is enjoying there summer, and I promise that I will be returning so please don't stop checking just give me a week or so.

Still to busy to post very much, wondering if I should shut down the blog, I just can't see to keep up.
Last night I opened my big mouth and said some things that I shouldn't have, it wasn't mean or hurtful things just something that didn't need to be said. I have lost many hours of sleep last night over this incident.
Anyone else out there feel like they have put there foot in there mouth at the wrong place and wrong time?

Today I am feeling like a huge A**

Hope everyone has a great day

Just found out a couple hours ago that I passed my exam, ready to move on to the second phase of this journey.

The classes are done, the exam has been written and the first fitness Instructors class has been taught. I will come back to this blog soon, for right now I am working on material for my classes, waiting for my exam marks and trying to pick up the pieces of our life. The last couple weeks have been crazy but so worth it.
Thank you so much to Evan's mom for coming to stay with us last week, you were a life savor. I really couldn't have done it without you.

If anyone still reads this blog I have a question, I am in the gym 5 days a week and will be getting some more of my own classes in the next week or so. I need a really good deodorant, no white residue, smells decent and not an antiperspirant. Anyone with ideas please let me know.

Breaking the silence

Just wanted everyone to know that I will be breaking the silence on the blog as soon as possible.

I will be writing my exam on Thursday, June 5 and my life will be a lot less hectic. As for right now I spend all my free time at the gym on studying, my house is a disaster, my dishes are not done and my bathroom looks like a bomb went off in it.

On a happy note, my kids are doing great with all things considered and the amount of studying I do.
I also will be heading to Edmonton for the weekend for some classes. This will be the first time I was away for night since my kids have been born other then going to the hospital to have Micah. This will not be a vacation by any stretch of the imagination but It is getting away. I will have 29 hours of classes in 2 1/2 days, hurray for my brain.

I will definitely be posting when I return home.

It is 8:30 in the morning and I am sitting at the computer while my kids are running around playing, I am trying to wrap my head around the events of the past week in this house.
All the craziness started on Saturday morning when I received a call from Calgary E.M.S at 4:00a.m, Nathan had been out with one of his friends for the night and they had been in a car accident. I arrived at Foothills Hospital at 4:40 in the morning only to have to wait about 20 minutes to see him.
Not going into any details I spent most of the day at the hospital with Nathan and his friend trying to make sure that they were okay and trying to be a voice for them. They were treated very poorly by the hospital, I left for my gym class at 9:00 a.m and returned at 12:00 and they still hadn't been feed or given anything to drink. A couple hours later they were both discharged into my care, Nathan's friend is from B.C so the hospital left him in my care and he stayed with us until Monday night. So I spent the weekend taking care of 2 very sore and in rough shape boys, they first 24 hrs was the hardest because I was on concussion watch but after that it got easier.
On Monday morning I headed out to the airport to pick up my mom who came out to help. My mom spent 2 days with us her and left this morning. She was a God send, even if she didn't do much for Nathan she gave me a much needed break by taking care of the kids and helping with house work. So mom if you are reading THANK YOU very much for your time and help.

Now we are back to "normal" life and I am starting to panic because my Exam is in 3 weeks and I need 5 weeks to study, I am still not past the first page.

If anyone has any advice on how to get back in the grove of studying please let me know. I graduated 8 years ago and feel like I am a fish out of water with the whole studying concept.

What a week

I don't remember the last time I have had a crazy week like this last one. All of our adventures started last week Friday Morning. Evan's sister had flown out from Manitoba to pack up their house in Invermere before the movers came to get the boxes on Monday. We originally were going to pick her up at the airport and she was going to take a bus to Invermere in the afternoon with my brother. It started to snow and we heard word that the bus might be canceled so Evan and Nathan took off work and we decided to drive up ourselves and help pack.
We left our house at 10:30 and the snow was just starting to fall, by the time we hit Banff it was snowing full force and we were debating turning around. As we pressed on the weather was getting worse, at 20 km Evan couldn't see anything all he could do was follow the car ahead of us. We ended up making it to Invermere 4 1/2 hrs later as well as about 20 cars in the ditch and 5 plus on their roof.
Evan and I stayed in Invermere for 1 hour and decided to head back. The park rangers wouldn't let us back through the pass, we had to take a 6 hour detour through Crow's Nest Pass. Anyway 24 hrs later 2 more blizzards in Crow's Nest and hotel room we made it home.
That Saturday morning at 5:00 a.m. I got up to check the weather as I got out of bed I wrenched my left Knee, I hobbled to the window and realized that I was storming and took my sore knee back to bed.
At 7:00 a.m. we realized that we had to go our be stuck at the hotel for at least another day or two, so we left.

I spent the next couple days on the couch with an ice pack and medication nursing my knee ( aside from a couple lower impact classes at the gym). On Wednesday my knee started to feel better and I came down with a cold, I almost never get sick and this has been a bad one. On Wednesday I was doing some studying on pregnant women exercising and there heart rates and realized that I wasn't comprehending anything. I was definitely in a fog. On Thursday I went back and reread the chapter and is was so straight forward it made me embarrassed. All it was taking about is that if a pregnant mothers heart rate goes above 140 it starts to have an effect on the babies oxygen and blood supply.

Anyway long and the short of it is that it has been a long weekend, on top of everything Evan has worked until 1:00 a.m every morning so I have been on my own for the most part.
All I can say is that I am looking forward to the weekend, I have a couple classes at the gym on Saturday and Sunday will be the first day we have seen Evan since that Saturday. Hurray for good times.

If anyone has any idea where to get really good quality yoga pants and tank tops please let me know. I am not very happy with my current top ( brand is Matrix)

My Morning

This morning I decided that I would bake muffins with my kids. We usually have lots of fun baking and the kids love mixing the batter and eating it.
As I was getting all the different ingredients out I noticed that the house was quiet but I didn't think to much of it. After all the ingredients were on the table I called the kids to come help me, Emmanuel called back that they were busy playing and would come in a minute. I thought that they were in Emmanuel's room which happens to be right across from the bathroom.
I left them for a couple more minutes and then decided to find out what they were "playing", so I called out and asked. Emmanuel's answer was nothing and about 5 seconds later I hear a little voice say " Emmanuel that's pretty, Mommy look Emmanuel made my hair pretty." This was followed by a very quick Micah BE QUIET. Lets just say I went running and running fast.
When I walked into the bathroom, this is what I found,
beside the sink I found a very proud Micah and a sheepish looking Emmanuel.

Micah's hair was beautiful, it is white blond and curly. When I would brush it it would go well beyond the middle of her back then bounce up to her shoulder blades with her curls.
Thankfully I used to be a hair dresser and could save it a little bit. Now Micah looks like this,
View from the back.

View from the front.

The nice part is some of the piece that were cut are very close to her scalp and they just happen to be right on top of her ears and behind them, very easy to cover up.
I guess Emmanuel has been watching me more then I thought when I cut hair.

Kids will be Kids.

Turning back the clock

First of all I what to say thank you to the people who have left comments, they have been a sense of encouragement through this hard time. I would love to say that my life has figured itself out and I am happy but I am just not there yet.
I have come to the conclusion that a lot of what I am battling has come from exhaustion and stress. the last 1 1/2 years I have pretty much raised my kid by myself, moving to Calgary was hard financially and it sent us spiraling into survival mode. Evan would work during the day and the evening only to come home and fall into bed. It has been a lot better over the last couple months nut I still wasn't taking anytime for myself. Evan and I were talking and realized that he had been gone from us for 3 plus months over the last 4 1/2 years.
I have been away for 1 night on a youth retreat with 20 youth, some how that just doesn't add up.

Evan had been to Las Vegas on "business" ( he had 2 meetings in 5 days). He goes to concerts, had the house to himself for countless weeks while I visit my parents. He also spent 2 months in Calgary working and hanging out with my brother while I was with the kids in MB trying to tie up lose ends.

well times are going to change, I am heading back to school. Starting May 30 I will be studying to become a fitness Instructor. I have theory classes in Edmonton for a weekend and then practical classes in either Toronto or Ottawa in late summer. I will be training in two disiplines, Body Flow ( yoga, tai chi and Pilates) as well as Body Combat. I am super excited and can't wait to start. It is the perfect job, it will only be a couple hours a week and if my classes are during the day the kids get free babysitting right at the gym. I am hoping to teach 4-5 classes a week, hopefully some days of back to back classes. My schedule won't change very much from what it is now because I already spent two hours on Tuesday and Wednesday night at the gym as well as two hours Saturday morning.

I am hoping through working again I will be able to find myself and my many passions in life.

Lost #2

After Body Combat tonight I did some soul searching to try and find out what is causing my funk.

I have decided to enlighten everyone on how I am really feeling, but please keep in mind that they are feelings and neither right nor wrong. I feel like I have been having panic attacks in the last couple days. These have come with the feel like I am going to be a parent for the rest of my life, What did we get ourselves into. I am not sure why it has taken me almost 5 years to realize it to this depth. For the last 5 years I have always thought that I am glad that I am a young mom, imagine what I can still do when my kids are older. I will be 41 when Emmanuel turns 20. We didn't plan to have kids nearly as early as we did but I have always worked with it and thought it turned out great.
Please don't misunderstand me I love my kids so much and I wouldn't want my life another way I just have been wondering what life would have been if we waited to have our children. I miss the freedom and spontaneity of when we were first married.
I have been doing some soul searching and plan to do a lot more, I will also keep up with my classes as they have been really good for my heart and my body.

Evan believes that a lot off this is due to hormones, my hormones have been wacky the last couple weeks. Evan and I have been trying to have our third and last baby for a number of months already with no success yet. Evan thinks the stress of it is showing in different ways and my panic about the future is one way. This will be the last time that I talk about trying to conceive until we are pregnant as I don't want to turn this chapter in our life completely public. I just wanted to let everyone in on what I have been dealing with.

I know I will get through this and the funk will clear and things will look brighter. I need to keep trusting in God and relying on him.
I hope no one thinks of me or my opinions as I don't love my children, I love them dearly and just needed to vent and get somethings out of my head. Just typing what I am feeling in an honest way have relived stress already.

Lost

Ever get the feeling like you are wondering with no where to go and nothing to do? It is such a disorienting feeling, there is no drive or purpose to push you to accomplish anything.
This is how I have been feeling for the past 2 days. Except I have many places to go and many things I should be doing.
I still go through the motions, taking care of the kids, cleaning, making meals and going to the gym but I feel nothing. This is not like me at all. Especially at the gym I am driving to fight a little harder, to sweat a little more to dance with more beat. As of yesterday in my body Jam class we were doing Hip Hop and reggae and reggae is my all time favorite yet I still felt like my feet had no bounce, no lift in my heart or spirit.
Tonight I have body Combat and I am going to try and punch and kick this feeling out of me.
Hopefully I will feel better soon, I have been losing weight and I got a new hair cut so things were looking up and I can't even point out what has caused my hazy feeling.

On a better note Evan and I invested in Bikes for ourselves and a bike trailer. I have started biking to the gym instead for driving the 3 minutes. Evan comes an hour or two later with the kids in the trailer and then we bike home together. This is the best way we could have spent our money, I have a feeling we will get lots of wear and tear out of them this summer.

Butt Kicking

I have officially had my butt kicked yesterday at my Body Combat class. When I was told to try the class the person told me it was just like Tae-boo with Billy Banks, I used to do these videos in high school. Well they were wrong, I have been doing high impact dance classes for 3 weeks and today is the first time I fell like I was run over by a truck. I was finished after 15 minutes in the class and still had 45 more to go. I am now on a personal mission that I will make it through the class without feeling like I want to die. The funny part is my Body Jam instructor said that her class is the hardest and if we can do body jam we can do any class, boy was she mislead :).

On a different note my brother has officially moved in with us. It is great to have him around and see him more often, he will be working with Evan doing Commercial concrete.
All we have to do is find him a bed. We had a bed for him that we found on line, it came with box spring, mattress. headboard and dresser. Evan was bringing the stuff home on the van when the tie down straps broke and sent the mattress and box spring flying off the top of the van. The mattress and box spring didn't hit any car but caused two different accidents, let just say Evan has been super frustrated since then.

anyway that is all for now I am going to go and sit on the couch and pretend that my body doesn't hurt every time I move.

What a wonderful week

As a stay at home mom I can get really tired of not leaving the house. Sometimes I have the car and then I try and pack as much as I can into the day and it ends up feeling to full and I have to deal with cranky kids.

I am super pumped about my week ahead of me. Today is a house cleaning day, dishes need to be done, the bathroom needs cleaning and the basement. On Tuesday I have the car, I have a meeting with the Kindergarten teacher at the last school in our district and I have my Body Jam class in the evening. Wednesday My brother is moving in with us, we are super pumped about that. Also on Wednesday I have my Body Combat class in the evening.
Thursday I am at home and Friday we have our small group meeting in the evening.
I know this must be a boring post but it feels great to have something to look forward to during the week.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

The new class

I have spent the last 6 months trying to revise my eating habits and how much I work out. In November it was recommended by the doctor that I stop eating wheat, anything with Gluten and starchy foods. I was told to go on this diet to see if it makes my I.B.S any better.
Let me tell you I feel like a new person, my stomach used to look like I was 5 months pregnant everyday ( no, I am NOT joking) and I had the worse stomach pain.
I know have a smaller stomach with just a little baby flab. I also started biking in December every night for 1 hour, I lost 15 pounds by the end of February.
I stopped biking the end of February due to physical and emotional circumstances and have been trying to get back to doing physical exercise.
Well, I did it I joined a womens gym called Goodlife. I do a couple classes they offer one is called Body Jam and I love it. It is high energy dancing for an hour, anything for Salsa to Hip Hop to Line dancing with tons of pelvic thrusting and bumping and grinding ( SO fun). So yeah for me and now that everyone knows I can't slack off, time to shed some of my excess body fat.

1 st time on the Gondola in Baniff

a couple weeks ago after an especially long and hard week Evan and I decided to take the kids to Baniff on a Sunday afternoon. When we got there we discovered that it was a lot cooler in Baniff then it was in Calgary, and Evan and I were only in Spring Jackets, we brought the kids winter jackets.
Instead of taking a couple hours to hike some of the path ways we paid the HIGH price to ride the Gondola. I have to say that it was the best money we have spent on our family in a long time.
It takes about 10 minutes to get up to the top of the mountain and then you need to get out. We spent time walking around the store at the top of the mountain and walking outside on the walk way. The outside walk was awesome but we only lasted about 10 minutes before being to cold.



after spending about 1 hour with the Gondola we drove back into Baniff and took the kids to the candy shop. We love the candy shop there, it is filled with candy and only candy.
After our kids had picked some candy we spent about 1 1/2 hrs walking around the main street. Baniff has the best stores, we wouldn't be able to afford things but it is great just to look around.


Update on our school situation: I have yet to chose a kindergarten school for Emmanuel. I still haven't had an opportunity to see the last school in our zone, but I am leaning toward the Catholic school. I am hoping to be able to get to the other school later this week and I will make a more informed decision.

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend and is enjoying the warmer weather.

*** We are selling our double jogging stroller, if anyone is interested around the Calgary area or Manitoba ( I am coming out in May) be write us an e-mail at echo_mtn@telus.net
We are asking $75.00 o.b.o It is navy blue with black trim, with 2 large baskets under each seat.
both seats recline individually and it has a 5 point harness system.
I will post a picture this afternoon when it is warmer outside.

Lots to say just no time to sit down and write. maybe I should make it a bigger priority in my life.
New entry to come when the dishes are done, hopefully tonight.
Sorry for the prolonged silence.

September is coming

I have been very busy over the last couples days due to the new stage of life we are entering. We are in the process of looking for a Kindergarten school for Emmanuel. We have two schools close to our house that I decided to check out today, you think that would be an easy process. The first one has a great play ground which drew Emmanuel there, as I walked in I was greeted by the principal.
She asked Emmanuel his name and shook his hand before even addressing me, Huge brownie points!
After talking for a couple minutes she asked if I realized that it was a Catholic school, I of course had no idea. Emmanuel would still be accepted if we were not Catholic. We had a tour of the school and she even brought us into classrooms that were in session. She was open and welcoming, Emmanuel held her hand while we walked around in the kindergarten classroom ( that is a huge step forward for him). I LOVE the school and some of the teachers I meet, Emmanuel loved the school, the big thing I am concerned about is confusing him. I love the fact that they say the Lord's prayer but they also say other ones and have Catholic practices. ( I am in no way against the Catholic Religion, it is just not for us.)
I thanked her for the tour and asked if there were any other kindergarten schools in the area, she said there was one across the street.

Onward I went.

As I approached the school school I had a deep sinking feeling. There were very few windows, and the windows they had were covered in a mesh like cage. The outside of the school was very unwelcoming and cold.
I walked in and no one addressed me or Emmanuel, we found our way to the office and asked if we could have information on Kindergarten program. The lady looked at me like I was stupid and said they have an open house in May and I could get all the information then.
So I asked if I could see the school as she was like, "NOW?"
I said if it wasn't a problem and she was like sorry we don't do that. The biggest problem I have is the school has a no religion policy, no Lord's prayer, no religion classes, and no Christmas concert ( they have a celebrate the seasons concert) NOTHING.
That bothers me so much, I would like to be met half way at least. So now I am back to the drawing board, there is one more school in our district that I am going to check out, I would have to drive Emmanuel or he would need to take the bus. I f that doesn't pan out I am going to look at Christian schools and see what our options are.

Please if anyone has advice let me know. I really just want the best for my child and if I don't feel comfortable with the school I don't think I should send him there.

Hurray for Vanishing spots

Micah is now over the fever that has plagued her since Tuesday at noon. After my last post Micah had spots over most of her body and couple hours later she started to sweat and then the spots disappeared as well as her fever. I thought she was fine and proceeded with the plan to go out. Right before we left Micah's fever was back up , we decided to try and still go out. Skip ahead a couple hours to a child who is inconsolable and hot, when we returned home Micah's fever was at 105.7, I called health links and was told to keep her home unless it stayed that high for 2 straight hours. They also said the rash was most likely due to the high fever as well as the blisters in her mouth. Micah stayed with a fever anywhere between 102.1-104.5 for the next 24 hours. Her fever broke Thursday around 2 a.m and has not returned. There has been many time I wished it was back because she is now a bear, instead for having a pathetic cry and staring into space. She cries all the time and doesn't sleep, last night I finally climbed into bed at 4:30 a.m.
So we are on the mend, She has a stuffed nose and the blisters in her mouth are almost healed.
So after all this trouble my daughter just had a really bad head cold.
I am just hoping that she is better tomorrow, we are taking part in the baby dedication in our church tomorrow morning.
Hopefully I will be able to post pictures of my children all dressed up for church, we bought Micah and jean skirt from once upon a child for $3.50, can't go wrong with a price like that.

Micah's Fever

Well all good things must come to an end, Micah's temp is back up to 104.1. She has also developed a rash on the trunk of her body and has blisters in her mouth. I have called health links and they said she should be seen if she gets worse nut if not it is okay to keep her home. Health links said that it sounded like she was getting measles and only time will tell. I am glad not to take her to the doctors but sad to see her so sick. Needless to say I think tonight is officially canceled, I think we will be celebrating Valentines day at home like the other years. There is always next year :).

Mystery Fever

I think my daughter is now over the mystery fever that has been bothering her, at one point her temp was at 103.1. For the last couple days she hasn't been herself, cranky, not sleeping during the day or at night, not eating much and just not happy. I have averaged about 3 hours of sleep a night since Friday night.
She didn't complain of a stomach ache, no cold symptoms and she said her mouth DIDN'T hurt. Hopefully she stay fever free now, especially since Evan and I are going out of Valentines day tonight. It will be our first date in a couple months, we are trying a restaurant called Newport Grill, it is right on a lake. Not holding my breath that we will be able to see anything, our reservation in at 6:30 and it is dark by then. We decided to celebrate today because tomorrow is Evan's birthday and we are busy this weekend. I am not complaining I think it will be fun, the kids are going to spend the evening with our close friends who also have two kids. There youngest is 5 months and Micah loves "taking care of her".

Just wondering what is everyone else doing for Valentines day?
This is our first year celebrating outside of our home since Emmanuel was born so I am pretty excited. Every other year we have ordered food after the kids have gone to bed and watched a movie, which I also really enjoy.

Blog Design

Welcome to the new Innocence and Sticky Popsicles juice site, Thank you so much to Lena for creating a new lay out for me. I really love the work you do.
Hopefully the new layout is like a new beginning for my blog, hopefully I will have more to say and more updates.
Thank you again Lena.

update

I think that Micah is over the hardest part of giving up her soother. She still asks for it all the time but accepts it when we tell her that we don't have one and she doesn't need it anymore.
It is weird not have Micah on a soother, I feel like she is not a baby anymore. We don't need a diaper bag anymore, I have nothing to carry in it. No more kids in diapers and no need for soothers, I just keep snacks in the car for when we go out. What a freeing stage of life to be in, now if we decide to have more children it will be a rude awakening of carrying a bag around again.

On more exciting news Evan and I are going away for a couple days by ourselves for the first time since Emmanuel has been born. We will be heading to Canmore for 3 days of sleeping in, eating out and exploring the town. SO EXCITED.
It is going to be nice to get away, Evan has been working tons and I am tired after being home with the kids 24/7. Evan is tired too, it is hard to start work at 7:00 a.m and get home around midnight 6 days a week.

hopefully I can post more later, no promises I suck at this type of thing

growing up

My children our officially growing up. Emmanuel will be starting Kindergarten in the fall and Micah has gotten rid of her soother.
I contemplated making the title of this post Going crazy! Micah is driving me up the wall, we took her soother away during the day about 3 weeks ago and now we are doing nights and nap time.
We are working on day 3 with little sleep and a cranky over tired 2 1/2 year old. She was fine when we took the soother away during the day but at night it is a different story, she is always asking for it ( day and night), looking for it and either whining or crying.
I am glad we took the soother away it was getting old watching my toddler walking around with a soother in her mouth. She is also very good at talking but it is almost impossible to understand with the mouth plugged up.
Anyway I will keep plugging away because this to will come to an end and we will be free of soothers.

Ring Sling

Today I was over at Drea blog and saw a contest on a ring sling. I would love to use one if we were to expand our family any time soon and if not it would make a great baby gift.

Hopefully I win.

We are back from our Ski holiday with Evan's Family. We had an awesome time full of laughs, food and very sore muscles. I went snowboarding for the first time, had a blast. I did spend most of my time on my rear end so I was very sore for the couple days after.
We spent tons of time out side playing in the snow or sitting in the Hot springs. In the evenings after the kids had gone to bed we would play games or talk or watch T.V. And the place we were staying in was amazing, so very nice. In the room Evan and I were sharing with our kids had it own T.V, private bathroom with heated floors and a Jacuzzi tub.
I have tons of pictures and will post them when I find the camera, It is easier to explain what happened when you have pictures to look at.

Micah's appointment was super long but really encouraging, the doctor was really nice. Micah doesn't need glasses, she has a pretty rare condition where her eyes are overly sensitive. The doctor said that most kids grow out of it and I f they don't they have to learn to cope with it. We are hoping that Micah will grow out of it, it seems to be really annoying for her.

I will try and post a more detailed description of our holidays when I have the pictures down loaded.

Breaking the silence

I have decided it is time to break the silence, I have been so slack with blogging. Nothing to exciting has happened around here lately. Sooner or later I will get around to posting pictures of Christmas and our ski trip. Evan's family is going skiing for a week, we leave on Friday for Radium.

This evening as I was sitting at the table with the kids writing on a paper my kids were coloring and Micah started to complain about her eyes. This is a normal when she is coloring, watching T.V or Reading. I decide to tell her about her appointment with the ophthalmologist on Friday. After telling her about the appointment she started asking questions like will it hurt and is the doctor nice.

After all questions were answer she composed this song which she is still singing.

" Doctor wont hurt me, because...
he is a nice guy."
" I want to go to the hospital, because...
He is a nice guy.
" I want to go to the hospital, because...
To get glasses."
" Doctor wont hurt me, because
My eyes are burning and hes a nice guy."

That is as much as I can remember and you get the idea.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a great new year. I will post an update about Micah's appointment on Friday either before we leave for the resort of when we return home.

I hope people are still checking this blog.