Elisa

Alright, so here we go, the story of Elisa, For Elisa.

I suspected I was pregnant with Elisa very early on. The telling sign? I had to eat breakfast. Twice. Or else my blood sugar dropped significantly and I felt like I was going to puke if I didnt eat ONE MORE THING.

We found out I was pregnant the same day I became an avon lady. That was May 30th of so 2012. Naturally I was a little alarmed, as Sophia was just 3 months old. I kind of had a bit of a psycho time for the first 2 months of Sophia's life and I had just started feeling normal again and was dreading feeling crazy again.

We also had a landlord who made life more stressful than it needed to be.

I'm convinced there was some serious spiritual oppression there because when we left things got better in most ways.

So ya I was stressed about our living situation, robbing Sophia of her mother, robbing the baby of her mother etc etc.

When I told my mother she called Josh and I a pair of rabbits. She was trying to make me laugh. It worked.
My dad said he wasn't surprised. lol.

We told my inlaws on fathers day weekend. Again. We had just told them about the problems with our landlord ( I say this so you can understand my mother in laws reaction) My father in law calmly stated that he already knew. My mother in law said " you need to get out of here" We told aunt and uncles via skype since they were all far away. Jeremy chastized Josh about having children with such close birthdays because their birthdays are 2 days apart. How could he do this to his children?! It was funny though, not in a mean way.

So I knew very early on that this baby was going to be a girl and her name would be Elisa. Everyone else thought I was having a boy. But not me. I knew. I struggled with a lot of feelings of inadequacy. One day in the early days, before the first ultrasound, I was at the midwives waiting for my appointment. I started flipping through a book called Surprise Child. I was very surprised to find bible verses at the beginning of each chapter. I read through it a bit. Then I saw this verse : Isaiah 49 :1b and 3
The LORD called me before my birth;

from within the womb he called me by name.He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel,

and you will bring me glory.”

It was like God was yelling at me through the pages. Not in a bad way. In a "please hear me" kind of way
From that moment I no longer feared. Well, sometimes a little but I knew that my little one was here for a purpose. Created by God to fulfill some sort of plan. It just made me realize that though it would be hard for me, that wasnt what the focus should've been.  Also, I had no idea, but Elisa means dedicated to God.

The first ultrasound made me fall in love with her. She was so calm. She kept falling asleep - a huge contrast to Sophia who looked like she was dancing the entire time.

Actually she kind of looked like a little kolbassa. I was told I couldnt call her that though.

She was pretty chill and didnt really make her presence known too often until about 28 weeks. I mean I had movement and she hiccupped but she wasnt giving me too much discomfort.
Then for the next 10 weeks it was like she was waging war on my pelvis.
Then...all chill again. She actually had turned head up around 30 weeks and then went back again so I suspect thats why it was so horrifically uncomfortable.

The birth story....well. She was due on the 27th. The early morning of the 28th I was sure I was in labour. I had contractions in the middle of the night and pain. After three hours it stopped though. I spent the whole next day working on Sophia's scrapbook like mad - convinced Elisa was coming any second.

My midwife, the same one I had with Sophia who doesnt get flustered and is in no way like me - animated and dramatic - stated firmly that once labour started I needed to think about getting to the hospital because there may not be much time. I had considered a home birth but after what happened wtih Sophia, and the fact that Sophia, being just 12 months old would be in the house ( and i am not quiet. Low moans? Are you joking. Thats NOT how I roll. )I didnt want to scar her. However, the morning of the 29th I was dreaming about labour, waking briefly from painful contractions but fully woke up at 4 again, and sat up startled, realizing these were real contractions and should be timing them. So for an hour or so I timed them and then woke up Josh. I spent another hour hunched over my pillow crying for no apparent reason, and having really strong contractions. I was actually scared we wouldnt make it to the hospital...because once we got to the hospital, I stopped crying.
Anyway, it was....such a good labour. I actually had like a minute between contractions. I could rest, eat, drink, chat, laugh. My student midwife said I was the most pleasant labouring woman she had ever seen ( she was a senior student...and also pregnant though she didnt tell us until I was discharged cuz frankly she couldnt hide it anymore). My labour kept starting and stopping. I was ridiculously drowsy for no apparent reason ( maybe cuz my iron was like 6) and just wanted to have the baby. After a while I got an epidural. Boy wasnt that fun.
The anestetist insisted on educating the student on how to give an epidural. At one point he was like " No! you need to keep the alcohol away from the sterile field otherwise that can get into her cerebral spinal fluid and she will become paralyzed.
Awesome. Thats just what I want to hear.
Anyway, the same pattern of stopping and starting continued for several more hours. It got boring. especially since they wouldnt let me walk around because Elisa's heart rate kept skyrocketing.
Again, Exact opposite of her sister. Its continued.
Finally she was born at 4:15 that evening. She had to be vaccumed. Thanks to modern literature I blamed myself for having an epidural, but when the student was making sure everything had exited ( im keeping it clean), she held up the cord, made a very weird face and said " this is a really short cord" the midwife confirmed that statement was correct. The next day the student told me that 40% of births with short cords do need intervention because the baby has a hard time ....exiting...lol
The dr was a total butcher though. I was in extreme pain. And I had drugs. Sheesh.

So thats the birth story of little Elisa. She was jaundice and so we had to stay a bit. I wish I had kept her little glasses. I hated her having to wear them and be in the incubator cuz i wanted to see her face and hold her, but now, I think it would have been cute to see how much she has grown.

So there you have it, but babies birth stories. I assume that this blog will be here forever, even if i abandon it one day but the stories are now written down while they are still fairly fresh in my memory for them to read one day.

Now I believe they are both awake, therefore, I shall sign off.

“If you are disorderly, you are a rapist of peace and quiet.”

Okay so I said I wasn't going to post today but here I am.

Somehow I've managed to do 80% of everything I need to do before tonight.

Thanks to my brother in law who has copious amounts of music that I yearly rip off him, I am enjoying the soundtrack to my currently blogging experience.

I tried to plan a surprise date for Josh, but yesterday was kind of an ick day for him so I didn't want to stun him with plans to not only leave the house, but insist he dress up for the occasion when all he wanted to do was veg. Surprisingly when I confessed my plans his eyes lit up and he eagerly said "yes! date!"
hehe.

So anyway, yesterday afternoon my dear friend Leanne texts me to tell me that her husbands car key, that i bent trying to break into my house a few weeks ago ( that's a whole other story) wasnt working and might cost 200$ to replace. ARGH right? Well thankfully its only costing $8. Phew! Thats one of those THINK CHRISTINA moments I need to remember. Yeesh. Or maybe I just need to remember my keys. Or rather remember that they are in the diaper bag that is outside the house with me. Grr.

Today's title is courtesy of the Mindy Project. Josh and I are huge office fans, so when we heard Mindy Kaling was having her own show we decided to try and check it out. We had seen an episode from season 1 and then forgot about it until last night when we were both seriously bummed and not wanting to watch a serious show.

So. Funny. I seriously laughed outloud so many times. Especially at this quote. Mindy is arrested for accidentally riding a bike into someones pool, drunk, and she asks the cop why they arent out looking for murderers and rapists and the cop replies “If you are disorderly, you are a rapist of peace and quiet.”

Thats really all i have to say on the subject of life at this time.

My little Sidekicks

Today I picked up Elisa and was looking at her ridiculously adorable smiling face and realized that she will be 8 months on sunday.

Since I will be too busy to blog tomorrow and my inlaws are visiting this weekend I decided to do something a little different today. Its more for me and maybe even my babies when they are older.

Im going to talk about birth stories! ( Men, dont worry, Im keeping it clean!)

Anyway, it would make more sense to talk about Sophia first, even though it was Elisa who inspired this.

So Sophia was due on January 15th 2012. I was a walrus who could barely walk at that point. I was a little scared but was missing being able to roll over in bed. My friend Courtney who had had a baby a year before me, asked if I was able to roll over still, when I was about 32 weeks pregnant. I thought that was a very strange question. A silly question.
A few weeks later I realized it was not.

We discovered I was pregnant the day we were leaving for our first anniversary getaway. I took two tests because I wasn't sure the stick was right. Then I played the sims and waited for Josh to come home so I could tell him. I simply handed the test over and he was all excited. For some reason i couldn't verbally tell people I was pregnant. Not because I was unhappy but I think I just felt embarrassed everyone knew that I had had sex.
I know right? I blame my mother ( I know you are reading this. I love you. You are awesome)
Seriously.
When we told my mom she didnt believe us. We had made the mistake of giving her a baby bib for christmas as a joke because she got bifocals and would spill food on her chest. You know we will all be doing that one day. Anyway, she had been then convinced that thats how we had chosen to tell her we were having a baby and got all excited. We were really confused. It eventually got cleared up and mom was totally bummed out. So when it was real, it took some convincing. Then she was very happy.
Dad was also happy. I cant remember his exact reaction but i remember telling him in my inlaws driveway on my cell phone.
We told my inlaws on fathers day. My sister in law was there and her fiancee was supposed to be there, and we were skyping my brother in law...so we figured, perfect time! Everyone will be there. Alas, brother in law to be was not so he got a text from seester. Im pretty sure my mother in law said hee haw cuz thats how she rolls and i love it.

Anyway, Sophia was an ACTIVE baby. She had her naps and stuff and was very kind to me at night. I was working at a school at the time and every now and then Id let out a little yelp from the back corner of the classroom and the teacher would stop teaching and ask if it was the baby attacking me again. Sophia also hiccuped alot. I didn't realize it was hiccuping and thought she was just incessantly tapping her toe or something. I crocheted alot when I was pregnant with her so i used to run my hook across my belly and she would follow it. It was fun.

By week 40 it was no longer fun. I could elaborate but I promised to keep it clean. At some point during week 40 I stopped being terrified and just really wanted labour to come. My midwife had been trying different things to help the process along. My prenatal class lady had me all freaked out about having to have a csection and the evils of epidurals and being induced so I was horrified about that possibility.
However, my amazing midwife decided to go ahed and book an induction just incase for the following Sunday January 22.
Friday January 20th I woke up feeling crampy. I leapt ( as well as a huge walrus of a pregnant woman can leap) out of bed and threw open the spare room door where my mom was sleeping and said " MOM! Ive got cramps!" and then gathered up all the laundry i could find and waddled at a ridiculous speed down the stairs to put on the laundry. Then I had a bath, painstakingly shaved my legs and demanded that mommy paint my toes. Then we waited.......and waited......
I had a planned midwife appointment planned for 1230. I watched the clock and my contractions were mild and coming every half hour or so. We went to the appointment and we were all giddy with excitement and got mcdonalds on the way home
First mistake
Josh came home and we waited....mom made dinner.
kraft dinner and fried weiners with onions
mistake number 2
we played wizard junior
the contractions got worse so i laid down and wimpered.
mom called everyone we knew and could hardly contain her worry. She IS my mother after all. She was mad i wasnt going to the hospital. Looking back its kind of amusing. We left around 9. It was starting to storm and we had to drive to Ajax from Scarborough. On the way there my inlaws called back and i couldnt talk cuz i was contracting. They had gotten a dog. We talked about her name. I said they should call her winnie for the female version of Winston their previous dog ( who was a LOT more chill than Winnie is).

The next parts dont need to be talked about much. I ended up getting the evil epidural cuz my body decided that i needed to have constant contractions. I didnt realize you were supposed to keep pushing the button to get medicine though. I thought the button they gave me was a fancy call bell. I snapped angrily at the anestesiologist who asked me , in the middle of yelling through a contraction, if i was having a contraction. I stopped yelling long enough to bark NO! sarcastically in her general direction. She made some comment along the lines of me being testy.
*BEEEEP*
My midwife was AMAZING. They almost had to do an emergency CSection ( which i didn't know til later) and i could tell that my normally chill calm unflustered midwife was flustered, unchill and uncalm though she did an excellent job of trying to hide it, as she told me that it was important that I push well.
Clearly God knew this and boom here she was. My biggest annoyance when they flopped her on my chest was that they flopped her so far down I couldn't see her cute little face.
A lot of weird things happened after that. My midwives each had students. I knew my 1st midwife;s student very well. I absolutely adored her. My other midwife's student was....uhm. Lets just say she didn't pass the program. She was basically the weirdness that happened.

And now she is 20 months old and seems to be adding words to her vocabulary daily. She is so smart and sweet and stubborn and entertaining. She brings me so much joy and frustration all at once. She was taking the silverware out of the drawer and I told her to stop about three time and finally got on my knees, took her hands, told her that stuff can hurt her and if she did it again she would have to go in a timeout. Then I kissed both her hands ( because whenever i tell her she will have to go in a timeout she puts herself in it and thats not effective so i do that sort of thing so she knows shes not in trouble YET lol) She grinned and kissed me on the lips. Which normally i dont like , but it was just such a sweet moment.
Then she put herself in timeout.
So I had to deal with that lol.

Well little Elisa is now awake so I have to stop typing. Next week I shall write hers. I didnt get time to edit so ......yeah. 

Adventures in the big city - guest starring Sarah R

Well today's big adventure was to go see Sarah, my old nursing school friend.
I hadn't seen Sarah for four years. Back before we had children, our nursing lisences and our men. But wouldn't you know, it was like no time had past. I was comfortable enough around her to eat a piece of banana that fell on the floor when first Sophia and then Elisa rejected it. Or maybe it was the other way around. Regardless it was rejected by both children AND fell on the floor.

So, I had somehow managed to forget that the closer you get to Toronto the more my time management is completely useless. But I am getting ahead of myself.

So we all piled into the car and we are driving. Sometimes. Stop and go stop and go. We were listening to this preacher on the radio ( who i mostly didnt hear cuz i was searching for something on my phone, getting more and more car sick) and all of a sudden we hear a terrible, retching very wet sound. We looked at each other. Josh says "oh thats not good" I took off my belt and crammed around to see Elisa, smiling and absolutely covered in a pool of barf

Fantastic.

So after a ridiculously long time we arrive at the school and Josh leaves ( after making sure im ok, I must make that known). At first glance I decided the puke wasn't as terrible as first thought.When I got close up however......I was assaulted with a smell so terrible I literally gagged and was convinced my breakfast was going to come up in the parking lot ( I wonder if that would mean that I would get my 4 points of breakfast back if that had happened?....Leanne? Ever covered that in a weight watchers meeting?)
Anyway I cleaned her up and we were on our way.
My next mission was to get us coffee. If I have learned anything from my time living in the city it is that when you see a place you are wanting to go, go there NOW. Don't wait for the proverbial "next" one. Chances are there will be ten more along your route, but its more likely there isn't. So I went to the mcDonalds near ikea.
oh
my
gosh
Again, i forget about how bloody LONG everything takes. I was in the line up for at least ten minutes. I rolled down the window so Sophia could look out and the SMELL! UGH! Not to mention the most ghetto car wash I've ever seen ( not including the one in Omemee....though i wouldnt necessarily call that ghetto - more like redneck. If its still in existence) There were wires sticking out everywhere. I actually thought it wasn't in operation any longer. And people think Scarborough is bad. HA
So we eventually made it to Sarah's and I got lost getting in, and lost in the parking lot. You all go ahead and laugh, you would get lost too! Anyway we had a very nice time together, her baby is so cute and sweet. Sweet little baby decided to puke all over her poor mama when we were out in the parking garage saying goodbye. Luckily for Sarah, her baby had already puked on my sweater, so i took it off and cleaned Sarah up.
Yes I am that kind of person.
Next time I go see Sarah, Im finding a new drive thru.


No offense to Sarah, but i have saved the best for last.....
Last night, Josh and I are bathing the girls. I usually end up taking Elisa out first because she tries to climb out of the tub. I was changing her when I heard shouts from the bathroom. Josh was yelling frantically. I forget his exact words. Then I hear water, and Sophia shrieking.
Turns out she pooed in the tub. This is only the second time this has happened, and the first was when she was about 5 days old. Later Josh explained that he saw poo...and then more poo....and then more poo. He had been in the middle of washing Sophia's hair and was trying to rinse it with clean water from the tap and for whatever reason that made Sophia hysterical. After I put Elisa to sleep, I went to clean up the poo.
Ugh.
Not something one wants to do at the end of a long day right? Well...I went in there, armed with my walmart grocery bag to use as a glove to pick out all the poop. Turns out there was a hole in it. So it didnt protect at all. It just collected poopy water all over my hand. Also, the poo had been left in there long enough that it gotten all soft so it was falling into bits every time I grabbed a piece. Poo really is an awfully weird consistency. Anyway, i threw it all in the toilet, cleaned the tub and hubbie opens the door and says " I was going to clean that up!"
Ugh. I really need to learn to just....slow down every now and then lol.

One last thing: The downfalls of these cauliflower pizza crusts. I took one out of the freezer when I came home to make myself one. I was super hungry so I decided to stick it in the oven to thaw it quickly. It became mush and now the kitchen smells like  someone hot boxed it with vegetable farts. But it still tasted good.

One more time for seester <3
Just sign off
xo

Unicorns!!!!!!!!!!

Well here we are day three

The children are all tucked up nice in their beds sleeping *crosses fingers* Lately I've been using naptime to eat, watch a video series ( that i'm enjoying very much) on prayer and blogging. Its feeling so much  more fulfilling than watching netflix and cleaning the kitchen.

Today was one of those weird days, where you are walking around, enjoying the sun and the nice crisp fall air. Side note : Fall is so deceiving. It makes you believe the air you are breathing is fresh and clean. You go from the summer, enduring the oppressive, hair poofing humidity, feeling like you are in a constant sauna ( asthmatics everywhere cry!) and then suddenly the air turns and holds the sharpness of the impending doom about to come ( ahem winter) and you think "oh! the air! its clean!"
Lies. All lies.
But I still enjoy it.
Side note over.
So I'm walking, enjoying the sun...and i start to notice that people are looking at me Smiling. Not in the "oh my gosh your kids are so cute! are they boys or girls? are they twins?" kind of way. Its an odd smile. One I can't describe. I start to think....is there something on my face? Do I have trails of boogers on my beautiful pashmina that I have watched videos about how to tie in 30 different ways and tried about ten? Are my children doing something weird? Is there something stuck to my butt?
I have no answers.

Today's excursion was to the chiropractor.
If you live in the durham region and need a chiropractor, go see Dr. Natalie. I LOVE Natalie. If we didn't meet on a professional level we would be great friends. I'm about 6 months older than her, we both like old school blue rodeo, she cracks my back and I make her laugh. If it weren't for her I wouldn't have been walking at all at the end of my pregnancy with Elisa. She also kept Elisa's copious amounts of spitting up at bay. Now I know some of you are probably freaking out over the fact that I took my newborn to a chiropractor, but honestly, massive difference. Elisa is also my second child...so...you tend to be a lot more relaxed the second time. Anyway, I do actually have a photo of Natalie adjusting baby Elisa when she was about 2 months old, but since I took it for the scrapbook and did not ask her permission to post it in my blog, I won't be posting it here.

Up until school started up again, I hadn't been bringing the children with me to get adjusted. I've been braving it however with them. Its not a far walk -about 20 minutes. I always seem to be late though. So I've walked there three times now, and every time, Sophia has a total meltdown. I think she thinks I'm being tortured or something. Last time we went, Elisa sat quietly in the corner, picking Kleenexes out of the garbage can and tried to eat them until Natalie noticed and took them away. This time she sat in the corner screaming. If you know my Elisa, you know shes happy 90% of the time. Like, you prematurely wake her from a nap and she grins at you. Not today. She just sat and screamed. Sophia was clinging to my foot with one hand, clutching her bottle with another and shrieking like a banshee. She alternated between grabbing my foot and hovering at my shoulder. Not even this old man or ten in the bed would console her. Absolutely ridiculous. As soon as we left the exam room, everything was roses and buttercups again. Maybe they are scared of the spine model.

Id really like to get inside my kids heads sometimes. It'd be wonderful to know what the heck they think is going on.

There is something else I'd like to blog about but I have been sworn to secrecy by the powers that be. I will say....that there is a certain product I'm doing a review survey for that I used to think tasted horrid but now suddenly tastes nice....I will share it later on. If I remember.

So last night was weigh number 3 ( and yes im using this blog as well as a means of keeping me accountable - though I have buddy Leanne for that - I have to keep her proud ha ha!). I didn't gain, didn't lose, but that's cuz i used my points last week on terrible things. SO this weeks goal - protein, protein and protein. Probably less bananas too. Better those though than chocolate chips......

Also, I need some help. I usually send my sponsored child a gift. I'm not supposed to but I do. I pray over that package like mad, that some idiot in the kampala office won't be a douche, steal it and take it home to his kids or sell it. She always gets whatever I send. Now I'm all out of ideas. I have sent lots of math books ( her parents at first sounded like they thought I was wasteful cuz I sent clothes and jump ropes. Once I started sending educational books they loved me heh) clothes and jump ropes, colouring supplies etc. I sometimes feel bad because they aren't supposed to get things that aren't totally flat and I think the other children probably get nothing and Alice ( thats her name, Alice. You can tell from her pictures that shes got 'tude. I love it) gets stuff. Anyway, I need to send very soon if she's to get it by Christmas. So any ideas would be appreciated.

Ok, here is it again dear seester :
Just sign off
xo

Seriously lacking in good post titles.....

So I had been inspired by my friend Steve Warburton ( who is a champion of photo of the days and is currently doing a blog a day on facebook, allowing others to choose the titles. My day is coming up so soon Im excited. Its going to be different than anyone elses. Weeee!!!) to do a blog a day.

Clearly that didnt happen. But I thought about it. Instead, perhaps a blog a weekday? Lets see if the children allow for that to happen.

Nothing really exciting to talk about. I worked this weekend. My client spent 3 of the 5 hours I was working, sleeping. Like a little angel. I would be lying if I said I wasn't insanely jealous. Instead I cleaned everything I could clean and then watched tv.

Can I just say, childrens tv is NOT what childrens tv used to be. The family channel I think its designed to teach 10 year olds to be 30. IIIIII dont even act like half of these people. Nor do I look as good. Nor have I ever for that matter. Its good to see that todays children are learning that once lust fades its the proper time to end a relationship. Not trying to bash people who have been divorced or anything ( most people i know who are divorced its for very good reason) but I am a little concerned about my kids growing up with tv that teaches them that relationships must always carry excitement and spark. I LOVE my husband. I certainly don't feel the same way about him now that I did when we met. Frankly Im glad. Nothing would ever get done, and in that cloudy haze of ridiculous amounts of dopamine shooting out of every single neuron,making us pathetic beings we didnt really get to KNOW each other as well as we did when the crap of life started raining down on us every now and then. He irritates me, I irritate him ( but even when he's irritating he's SO CUTE!!!!! * siblings puking sounds can be heard from thousands of miles away*). You dont live with someone and never get cranky or annoyed with them. Thats life. There are plenty of valid  reasons to end a relationship but thats not one.
Anyway, I lack the ability to fully express myself sometimes. So that didnt come out as eloquently as I would have like. That was irritating factor number 1 for the weekend.

So hubbie and I are on weight watchers. Today completes week three. So far between us we have lost 11 pounds and we will see what happens when we weigh tonight. Anyway, on the way home from work i was craving sweetness. I was craving McDonalds vanilla chai tea latte. So I got one thinking it couldn't possibly be more than 6 points. Id been very good all day so that I could have popcorn with 2 tbsp of light butter for a snack that night ( YES i DO measure it out)...
Well I got home, and checked.
That bloody drink was 11 freaking points for a small
And it all went downhill from there. I was snapping at hubbie over nothing. You know that spark talked about in the upper paragraph? Well poor hubbie wasn't feeling anything good from nasty pants me. Not until Sunday morning after Id gotten a good sleep and was my happy sweet magical self again. Ha. ha. ha.

So we have been checking out a new church lately. REALLY enjoying it. Some of my previous re configured thoughts are being pre configured......does that make sense? Is that even a word? Hm. Anyway, really enjoying the preaching ( very biblically based. no hollywoodizations. im big on that.) especially the striving to be a welcoming and loving church to EVERYONE. Not just the cool people, not just the veterans, everyone. We have had a few conversations with all the pastors and we have only been going for 6 weeks, and they even know our names ( well the two we've talked to more than once) Im impressed. Their particular church focus really seems so far to fit with what Josh and I have been wanting to serve with and live with.

Also, I shredded three large head of cauliflower during naptime yesterday. I have never wanted a food processor more in my life than ever before. I made about 14 "mini" pizza crusts out of it. No, I dont have pictures. I didn't have time for that. As if I could even hold my camera still after that gigantic workout. But if you want one come get one. :D 2 ww points each! So simple to make too. IF you have a food processor.

My eldest child is faceplanting repeatedly in her crib now. She is always so great at letting us know she is awake. Whether its yelling, crying, faceplanting, jumping or rocking into the headboard, its never quiet. NO need for a monitor. Its especially wonderful when she does it in the middle of the night. ZZZZzzzzzzzzz

On another, happier note, she sings Jesus loves me. When she gets to "but He is strong" she gets very excited and says it with great emphasis. So cute. She developed that all on her own. Then somehow "backpack" from Dora the explorer makes its way in. Remixes of a toddler.

Because of this wake up I do not have time to insert more magenta into my blog design. But it will be there. Its going to look like a blog that belongs to a 14 yr old. Because inside, I am a 14 yr old. Just ask my babysitters. I frequently forget they aren't my peers and Im supposed to be an example.

and now, to let my dear seester have her way ( maybe just this once.....but maybe it will be twice. It all depends on how i feel) I will sign off the way she instructed :

Just sign off
xo

Reconnection

Ah at last a blog

So I have mentioned on facebook that i have been blogging in my head for quite a while now. Im so excited to finally have some kind of outlet. I mean I have a serious lack in adult conversation these days, and since im the only adult around, well you do the math.

Anyhow, I used to blog alot. For as long as I can remember I have loved writing. I actually have a story i wrote in kindergarten. It makes no sense to me now and you can pick out like three words, but due to the pictures of people and things i cut out from a catalogue I deduce that the story is about a beautiful princess named lynn ( in a jean material dress, go 80s!!!) whose prince was lured away by a red head in a turquoise wide neck sweater...or something like that. As I got older I wrote, wrote , wrote and up until last year had a ton of stories that i never did finish. I finally , sadly parted with them after realizing...ya....im not exactly going to make my living writing.

I posted a lot on blogs in my early twenties, but thats was an icky time I'd rather forget 75% of. The only thing i may adapt from them is my tendency to make blog titles of quotes or song lyrics.

So that brings us here.

Why did I choose this name? Well, first I will admit the word peregrinate is brand new to me ( as of 15 minutes ago). I was trying to think or something having to do with direction. So i used my trusty friend thesaurus. Peregrinate means : "to travel - especially by foot" This struck a chord with me as
1. Ive been doing a lot of walking lately. It keeps the girls happy ( maybe it helps mommy more sane?)
 and breaks up the day a bit, and is also good for chasing away baby weight. Wee!
and
2. The relationship with God is frequently described as walking with God. There seems to be a pattern in my life every 5 years or so, where it is totally redefined. This time in my life seems to be one of those times as well so, again, title appropriate.

Also, my husband with be ecstatic that I chose a title with two Ps. Its not quite an aliteration, but close enough.

I havent yet figured out how I'm going to choose to end my blog posts, so, for now, I'm just going to stop writing
:D