Joel's First Bath

Here's the pictures from Joel's first bath. As is all to obvious neither of us really have any clue as to what to do and so poor Joel was subjected to a very long and cold bath.

Here is Amanda trying her hand at washing him. Observe the overwhelming confidence that she exudes, a true professional at work.

Here's Dan's attempt, notice the extreme concentration... aren't baths supposed to be easy?!?


And finally: the aftermath.

He's Here!!!!!!!

Last night Amanda and I welcomed our little baby boy into this world. Joel Eric McCrimmon was born at 8:02 p.m. and came out wieghing 7lbs 9.5 oz and 21 inches long.

The Ultimate Commuter Bicycle

For all of us that commute by bike, there is a long list of things that make cycling annoying or dangerous. This is the answer to many of those problems.
Enjoy!!

Anticipation

Nearly 10 months ago, during the season of Lent, we were anticipating the news that we were pregnant. On the morning of Easter Sunday, we found out that we were indeed expecting a baby.
Here we are all these months later, during the season of Advent, anticipating the birth of our first born child. (We do hope its born before Christmas though...)
Both of these two seasons have been my favorite times of year. I love the anticipation of things to come, although I'm not nearly as patient for them to occur as I would hope. Its amazing to me, how these two major events (Easter and Christmas) have weeks of anticipation and preparation in their lead up. Its similar to preparing yourself for a baby. You spend time getting the room ready and preparing your body for childbirth.
This year at Church they are talking about time and what you do to prepare yourself for the big event. This Christmas will be a special time for us, as our lives are somewhat parallel to that of Mary and Joseph's. I can just imagine Mary's desire to meet her child and her need for a donkey to carry her around. You can sense Joseph's anticipation, fear and excitement as he looks for a place to safely welcome his son into the world. And you can feel the joy and celebration of shepherds and wise men as they rejoice over the birth, much like our friends and family will rejoice over our baby's safe arrival.
As we anticipate the arrival of our baby, we also anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus. We have much to look forward to this year!

The mobile...of the military persuasion

At last I've been able to put my hobby to good use. Amanda suggested to me months ago, that I create a mobile using some of my scale models that I had kicking around. I finally finished the mobile this week! It contains 3 planes and 2 tanks. Keep in mind folks, that we don't know the gender of our child. So regardless of its gender, it will have this mobile hanging over its head. (Yes, if its a girl she will need to learn to love planes and tanks!)

Our Ode to Christmas

The cookies have been baked,
The appys frozen for a later date,
The nutcrackers have invaded,
The nativity has been recreated,
The tree has been set up,
The pregnant woman is fed up.
And now we wait for the baby Jesus (ahem, we mean our baby) to show up.

Pssst...baby. There's no more room at the Inn. Come out to the stable so we can put you in a manger (and by that we mean dresser drawer!) And hurry! Christmas comes tomorrow! (at least to the Dutch community!)

4th Annual Christmas Tree Caper

For four years, it has been our tradition to carry our Christmas tree home over our shoulders. And just because Amanda is nine months pregnant, it does not change this tradition. (yes, she did carry it home over her shoulders hoping that it would induce labour) Nor, did the fact that it was pouring rain change our plans. The only thing that changed was that we got our tree at the end of November instead of the beginning of December.

For the past two years, we've added a trip to Starbucks for a hot drink to our tradition. It was there that two customers gave us the looks that we've come to look forward to. The "are you two crazy?" look. It makes us giggle every time. Our baristas were good natured about it. They've come to understand our craziness and congratulated us on our creativity.
Needless to say, the tree has been in our possession for five days and all that we have accomplished is putting up the lights, the tree topper and three decorations. Amanda has this strange dream of decorating the tree between contractions. Dan isn't too thrilled with this idea, but we've been too busy or tired or not in the mood to put anything on the tree. Hopefully we get it decorated before Christmas!

Jacob Moon

Last weekend, we went to see Jacob Moon (from Ontario) play at House of James. We are avid fans of him and try our hardest to see him every time he comes to BC. He is singer/songwriter who plays folk music. He plays a live looping machine which allows him to add depth to his music using only a single guitar. He has recently played for Rush at their induction in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. We've gotten to know Jacob over the past years (thanks Matt for the introduction and house party). Whenever he sees us at a concert, he makes an effort to come over and say hello to us. This concert, we sat in the front row and during his first song, he looked over and realized who we were. Then, he realized that we were 9 months pregnant and gave us this "congratulatory" look.
Our baby has grown to love Jacob Moon. In fact, while at the concert, our baby was dancing away to his songs. When Jacob played his two new songs, the baby stopped moving as if to protest, "I don't know who this is!!!!" But as soon as Jacob played songs from his Cd's the baby would start dancing again. Then Jacob Moon decided to play some Christmas songs from his Christmas CD which is currently being played continuously at our house. The baby went nuts, as if to say, "Christmas, Christmas, CHRISTMAS!!!" like any excited child exclaims. Needless to say, our baby LOVES Jacob Moon Christmas!
Jacob came to talk with us during intermission and congratulated us on our soon-to-be arrival. He said that anyone who would attend his show two weeks before delivering a baby should be inducted into the Jacob Moon fan club as devote members. The reality is that unless we were in labour or had just delivered, we probably would have been there. (yes, we like him that much!)

Sleep: the final frontier

Every morning, Dan asks me, "How did you sleep?" Recently, its been "Not so good." He can tell it was a good night, when I say that I managed to get 3 or 4 consecutive hours of sleep. Otherwise, I was awake every 1.5-2 hours. Usually with a bout of alertness at 4am, when my brain wakes up and refuses to shut down pondering anything from diapers to ways to stop Dan from snoring (sometimes the only solution I can come up with is a permanent one).
I've been told that this is my body preparing for what is to come. The reality is, I hate the practise. I wish that I could sleep through the night and save up sleep for the deprivation to come.
Its just another one of those lies that people tell you to make you feel better. Much like the "your baby is healthier when you're throwing up." That's not comforting...its annoying. (it really makes you want to puke on the person telling you this wonderful tidbit)
Sleep is blissful....give me every last moment I can have of it, before the baby takes it from me permanently.

Road Rash Warrior

Monday morning, Amanda went on a trip. Down the sidewalk....literally down on the sidewalk. She tripped on the curb on the way to the bus, stumbled a few steps before going down and sliding down the sidewalk. She flew about 9 feet.

The wounds in these pictures are already a week old and healing quite nicely. The swelling has subsided and her knee and both hands have returned to "normal" size (minus the pregnant swelling).

The downside of falling (hehehe), is that in the process of landing, the large belly stuck out and got landed on. This probably stunned the baby and it refused to move for the next two hours, which by our child's standards is an extremely long time to stay still. The midwife recommended a trip to the hospital to get checked out. Of course, our baby, being who it is and "loving" hospitals, began to protest as soon as the nurses started to strap on any type of instrument. What followed in the next twenty minutes, was the worse case of hiccups known to man, followed by some intense kicking and punching (and probably screaming, if it could), to try and remove the fetal heart monitor. Needless to say, "it's alive!!!!!!" and we were discharged without further incident.

But now, every time Amanda leaves the house, Dan likes to tease her by saying, "Don't trip on the curb on your way out!"

Does this bike make me look fat?

Here I am, 7.5 months pregnant, still riding a bike. Yep, just another one of those things that I did to help Dan achieve a million steps and win a bike. If only this bike wasn't "borrowed........."

I only wish Dan would let me back on the bike after my recent meeting with the sidewalk.

Hungry for God: A Childlike Perspective

This week, while reading the "Rejoice" daily devotional, we came across a story about being hungry for God. We asked Cypress what that meant and she responded that we needed to feed Jesus growing foods.

Dan and I got to talking about that. Children really don't understand the concept of being hungry for God. Their extent of understand is that they just love him. (and yes, those are Cypress's words). This got us to talking about the child-like faith we are supposed to have. If you really examine the faith of a child, their beliefs are quite simple. They believe that God loves them and they love him. There is nothing more complicated than that. But often, we as adults get caught up in the mentality of "doing" rather than "being". Are we praying enough? Reading the Bible enough? Serving enough? And there is often guilt associated with those thoughts. Children don't have those types of thoughts. They are masters in the art of just living in the moment, just "being". They don't really worry about what is for supper or if they are "Christian" enough. And if they do, often these are feeling put on by adults.

I can remember in grade 2 having the Gideons come in to talk with our class. I felt like I was a good Christian, until they talked about how we should read our Bibles every day. After that day, I started feeling guilty about missing a day's reading or not praying every night. All of a sudden, I wasn't the Christian that I was supposed to be. Or so I thought. I was wracked with guilt about not "doing" enough to prove my faith.

Please don't misinterpret what we are saying. We know its good to read your Bible and to pray. But these shouldn't be the markers of a good Christian. In Jesus' time, the Pharisees were the ones "doing" all they could to make themselves holy, yet Jesus condemned their behaviour. Martha was the doer, but she was chastised for not being like Mary who sat at Jesus' feet, being in his presence.

Perhaps the children have it right. We really just need to "be." It's not that we need to stop doing all those wonderful things, but perhaps we need to readjust how we evaluate ourselves. Perhaps we need to spend more time "being" in God's presence than "doing" all those holy things. And perhaps, we just need to be like a child. Realize that God loves us and we love him and go play.

Prenatal Class

Just one little story to share! The men in the class were asked what are the emotional changes that a woman goes through in the last three months of pregnancy. Every single man looked down at his feet, not wanting to say anything lest he be banished to the proverbial dog house. But no, I have Dan for a husband. He's not scared of that dog house. So he pipes up, " They're irrational!" All the men look at him and stare at him with fear in their eyes as if they were saying, "You are soooo dead." Then they glance to me, wondering what my response will be. These men are frightened that a rational response will be given and he will be reprimanded for his honesty. Instead, like a good wife, I laughed. Hard. Cuz I know its true. The men relaxed and began to share freely about the emotional changes their wives were going through. And we shared my irrational story about whipping cream and cake.

6 weeks to a brand new life

....give or take a few days! The end is drawing near and we are about to welcome a new little life into our midst. We are filled with fear and excitement. It's crazy to see how fast it has come. In those early days we felt like we would never make it to this point and here we are, 6 weeks approximately from delivery. The nursery is ready, and we have only a few more things we desperately need to get before junior arrives. The parents are just about as prepared as we can get. The baby is engaged (read: head dropping into lower pelvis. Amanda can breathe, but oh the pain to move!) Prenatal classes have been attended and the preparations for home birth are complete. We are literally just waiting for the baby to make its appearance.

We've learned a lot along the way. Here are some lessons, painful or otherwise, that we have accumulated along the way.
#1. There are certain foods that should never make a reappearance...no matter how good they are going down, they are terrible coming back up. (eg. applesauce, banana, cheerios etc.) Oddly, these are often the best foods to eat when you feel nauseous.
#2. There is a reason that God created baby brain. You forget how awful it is to puke for 10 weeks straight. And (hopefully) you will forget the pain of labour and will have more than one kid.
#3. The baby moving feels wonderful for the first 2 weeks or so when it flutters like a butterfly. What no one tells you is that when it moves, rolls and otherwise switches positions , it can really hurt. And random strangers will constantly ask if you are alright when you grimace as the baby kicks your bladder for the millionth time.
#4. Baby kicking bladder can lead to mild urinary incontinence. This usually occurs in the most inconvenient locations.
#5. Eating right, and staying on track can lead to appropriate weight gain. This can lead to such comments as, "You sure look small for having 6 weeks left! I thought you had 3 months to go!" It really makes every other mother jealous and you feel quite smug for looking sooo dang good.
#6. Even if you gain the recommended 20-30 pounds, you will still feel like an enlarged hippopotamus is taking over your middle section. Its even worse when a foot/hand pushes out your belly to the maximum expansion and then keeps pushing.
#7. Husbands may love touching your baby. But realize that baby is next to bladder. See #4.
#8. Husbands, realize that while your wife is suffering from morning sickness, you will also suffer. You will be restricted to eating and otherwise talking about eating only what she is eating. Otherwise you will see the wrath..literally and sometimes projectily.
#9. Husbands, you will loose bed space. Accept this fact and move on with your life. (and literally, just move over!)
#10. Babies in utero respond to sounds. Music can make them dance and snoring can make them jump. Fire alarms just freak 'em right out!
#11. Under no circumstance should you consume any amount of caffeine. This will lead baby to be extremely "high" and lead to some internal bruises!
#12. Certain smells will make you do irrational things. Some foods (especially in the first three months) will make you want to jump people to consume what they are eating. Other smells will make you vomit. Accept this fact and move swiftly away. Otherwise harassment charges may follow.
#13. Irrational emotions are just a part of pregnancy. Cry about them and move on (without whipping cream!)
#14. Birthing videos should be shot from the mother's perspective. There is a reason she has a belly obscuring the view!

There are more lessons....but you'll figure them out as you go along!

Life Lessons from a Child

Sometimes children can be honest. And sometimes it is truly brutal honesty. This week, I came home with the two kids while our neighbour Brian was outside smoking. River walks up to him and in his three year old honest way says to Brian, "That's yucky!" Then River turns to me and asks, "Amanda is that bad?" Brian pipes in that indeed smoking is bad. I agreed with him. Then Brian got the shock of his life when River stated matter of factly: "You're going to die!" Rendering both Brian and I speechless, I quickly tried to unlock the front door when Cypress pipes in, "You're going to have cancer." Yep, honesty. BRUTAL honesty. I turned to Brian and said, "Well, I guess they sure told you!" while I walked inside and encouraged the children to follow. Cypress, just before going inside turns to me and asks, "Is that going to make you puke?"
Yes....it probably will. Just so you know, if you smoke near me, I may puke on you. You have been warned!

One Month to One Million: The Finale

The total steps are in!!!! In 30 days, Dan managed to walk 1,171,189 steps! And after much deliberation, Dan was awarded the grand prize! A globe hybrid bicycle worth over $600!!! We are super-duper excited about this prize and Dan can hardly wait to pimp it out.

9 weeks and counting...

In just under (hopefully) nine weeks, little fetus McCrimmon will join the world. Which, really when you think about it, isn't really a long time. Can you tell we're a little nervous? Do you see the slight panic in our faces when we realize that this is actually happening?

Dan: Run away! Run away!
Amanda: I can't run! And even if I did, it follows me....or rather leads the way! Its still stuck to me!
Dan: Little parasite!
Amanda: We really do love this thing! ...Right?

Dan's dad suggested that our life goal (like his own) is to make our child slightly neurotic. Dan turned out fine....right? (twitch twitch).
Needless to say, Amanda thinks that his dad did a GREAT job at accomplishing his goal. Thanks dad!

So, back to that whole nine weeks thing. We're a little scared, a bit excited and a whole lot of praying that it doesn't come out in the midst of a great snowstorm.

One million Steps and still going strong

This Thursday, at about 9am, I finally took my one millionth step. The competition doesn't stop till Sunday, so we'll have to see what happens. From the people I've talked to, it seems that I will probably win the bike! Perhaps by the end of the competition, I'll have a little over 1.1 million
steps!

(Wife beams in background, so proud of husband. And soooo glad that this will be over and we can be fat lugs on the couch again!)

Rage on, Pregnancy hormones, rage on!

The other night, Dan went to the kitchen to get us some chocolate cake and whipped cream. When he brought it back to the couch, Amanda realized that the whipped cream was on top of her cake and burst into tears. Knowing full well, that she was being irrational, the tears just kept coming. There was nothing she could do to make them stop. Dan was confused. When he asked what was wrong, Amanda replied, "There's whipped cream on top of my cake!"
Dan stated, "But you asked for cake and whipped cream. What's the matter?"
Amanda replied amidst the tears, "The whipped cream is on top of my cake. I want it beside the cake."
Dan, "What difference does it make?"
Amanda: "It ruins the icing."
Dan: "Just scrape it off and put it on the side."
Amanda bursting into another round of intense tears, "It's not the same! The icing will be ruined!"
Dan: "Fine! I'll get you a new piece."
Amanda (hesitantly), "But what about this piece? I don't want it to go to waste!"
Dan: "I'll take it in my lunch tomorrow."
Amanda agrees and Dan goes to get a new piece of cake with whipped cream on the side. Dan returns with a new piece of cake, but the same whipped cream on the side.
Amanda realizes that there are pieces of the old cake in the whipped cream and tried with all her might to hold in the tears. This time with success. (Side note: while writing this, a few tears fell about the cake crumbs in the whipped cream. She's pretty sensitive about it)
The cake and whipped cream were consumed "happily" without further tears shed.
Now don't even get us started about the eggs...

Commuters Paradox

This week on the radio, we heard about the commuter's paradox. The paradox is that for those who commute roughly one hour more than their counterparts who walk, they must earn 44% more to reach the same level of happiness. The problem is that they don't. Two people in the same position, one who commutes and one who doesn't earn approximately the same amount.

The question is, does this explain our happiness?

I, Amanda, take the bus for 45 minutes every morning, but need to drive 12 minutes for work, from the school to home. The bus, though annoying at times is often more relaxing than the drive. When I drive, I find myself frustrated at the slow drivers (and that means those who drive under the speed limit), the red lights and those trying to turn left. I find myself snapping at the kids and in a more tense and aggressive state of mind. I would rather just be at home than drive. The bus can also be annoying...those insane smells and that girl in the morning who talks sooo loud. But I still find myself more relaxed while I commute on the bus. Perhaps its the book I get to read or the sleep I get to catch up on. I guess the final question really is, if people are so unhappy driving so far, why do they keep doing it?

Crunchy is as Crunchy does

Recently I've heard this new buzz word around in the blog sphere. This term has confused me as to what precisely it means. I've seen it on various websites that have to do with homesteading and cloth diapering. Tonight, I googled it.

Urban Dictionary describes "Crunchy" as:
Adjective. Used to describe persons who have adjusted or altered their lifestyle for environmental reasons. Crunchy persons tend to be politically strongly left-leaning and may be additionally but not exclusively categorized as vegetarians, vegans, eco-tarians, conservationists, environmentalists, neo-hippies, tree huggers, nature enthusiasts, etc. Also used to describe establishments where alternative foods and products are sold, i.e. natural food stores.

I don't know if this describes us. We'll let you choose.

Million Steps Update

So my millions steps goal is coming more and more within reach. As of today I've reached about 750,000 steps. This is still with a couple days left in the week, and another week left before the count has to go in. I certainly hope this all equals a bike when it's all said and done. Even if it doesn't, I will still be happy with having hit and passed my own goal.

A bit of humour: Three year old Style

River is finally at that age, where he says what comes to mind and its truly hilarious. We've laughed quite a bit this week and we thought we'd share a few conversations with you.

Dan and I took him to Starbucks this week, while Cypress was in preschool. He wanted a chocolate milk and we ordered that for him. When it came, I drank a large sip from it to avoid the plastic cup spill that is inevitable with a three year old. Dan also took a sip, just because. River yelled out, ever so seriously, "Hey! Don't tax that!!!!!" We laughed really hard, as did all the Starbucks baristas. He gets that from us I guess. Whenever they get a cookie at a grocery store, we always insist on having a "cookie tax" aka a bite. Naturally, he was upset that his drink was taxed. But aren't we all?

Even today, when we got a slurpee, he was offering it to people saying, "Do you want a tax?" Not a taste, a tax! Can you tell we've influenced these children?

Another day this week, he was demanding a book in the car. We refused to give it to him unless he was a bit nicer. Dan told him that he needed to use his polite words. After many tries using various demanding tones, he finally asked politely, "Would you please get me my book?" Dan nicely gave it to him. River exclaims, "Hey! It worked!"

Even Cypress got in on the action this week. We went to Birchwood Dairy on a field trip. There was one lone cow in the hospital pen. The tour guide asked a bunch of preschoolers, "Do you know why this cow is all alone?" Cypress, without skipping a beat says, "He's in the naughty chair!"

Something to think about

"There's no question you see more of the world on a motorbike than you do in a car, and more again on a bicycle. It's all about pace; the slower you're travelling, the more you're going to see."
Charley Boorman in his book Right to the Edge: Sydney to Tokyo By Any Means

We'd like to add that when you are walking you tend to see even more. The slower you go, the more you seem to absorb of the world around you. And that seems to be more than just what means of transportation you are using. The slower your life is, the more you seem to appreciate what's going on around you. The colour of the leaves changing, the smile of a stranger or the laughter of a child. There's no doubt in our minds that we lead a slow life and we tend to appreciate the little things in life.

We've recently heard about a man walking from Vancouver to Mexico. Its inspiring to hear someone else doing the things we contemplate. No one really does long distance walking anymore and there is something to be said about the experiences they have along the way. This guy appreciated the fact that when it was down pouring and he had to get to the next town before dark to set up camp, that when he played a song about sunshine on his harmonica that the rain ceased. This is one of the most prominent memories he has on his trip thus far. (He has made it to Oregon).

It really is true that when you stop and "smell the roses" that you can appreciate the aroma they give off...thus appreciating life a little bit more.

Conversations with Amanda and Dan the Third Edition

A: I think we should start playing Christmas music soon because that way the baby will be familiar with it when it makes its appearance.
D: Yah! We should find that song about Santa coming down the chimney. Then you can visualize that baby coming down the chute.
A: What??? My baby is NOT coming down the chimney.

Another day in our random lives!

Dreams

Its true! Pregnancy gives you some of the strangest dreams ever known to man. This past week, I had a dream that a friend from Alberta mailed me eggs. And not just a small carton. Nope! I got a LARGE package (about 3 feet long by 1 foot wide) and two smaller packages (about 1 foot by one foot each). When I went to pick them up, the lady at Thumpers Veggie Store (where apparently we pick up our packages from), mentioned that I could just buy eggs. I told her that I knew that, but my friend had mailed me eggs and I was going to use them. I cumbersomely carried these packages home and when I got home, I opened the packages of eggs to find the smallest eggs inside. They were about the size of a large marble. I was disappointed with the tiny eggs, but I was so happy, because they were free and I love eggs!

One month to one million

Dan's work is having a fitness challenge this month. The goal is to walk the most steps in order to win a bike (worth $600). Dan REALLY wants this bike. You can earn steps by participating in various activities that are worth a certain amount of steps for a certain time. For example, housework for 10 minutes earns you 750 steps. Or biking high intensity for 60 minutes earns you 15,000 steps. Dan has been wearing a pedometer when he is walking around work, and takes it off when he participates in other activities (to prevent double counting!). At the beginning of this month long adventure, Dan made a goal to walk one million steps. He is two weeks into this challenge and has already surpassed the half way mark! He has walked over half a million steps! And needless to say, I am not far behind him. Every evening, he drags me for an hour walk (if not longer!). And if it weren't for the fact that my bike is in the shop for repairs, we'd be biking every night. Its been great to support him in this quest for a new bike, but I must say it would be easier if I wasn't 7 months pregnant. But in two more weeks, he will have hopefully earned himself a new bike and I can put my feet up and rest for a while.

Bring on the Hippie Bus!

Its finally happened! We have been categorized by someone other than ourselves. Nope, we aren't newlyweds or parents-to-be. In the course of conversation with a dear friend from Alberta this past week, it came out that we are considered her "Hippie Friends!"

So, the reason we got labeled this way? Perhaps its the fact that we bake our own bread, or can fruit and veggies. Perhaps its because we make our own granola (and granola bars) or that we dehydrate fruit. It may have something to do with the lack of car in our lives and our joy of walking. Or maybe our excess recycling, thrift store finds and the composter (with new worms! Dan is really excited about this fact!) It could be because we line dry our clothes, use vinegar for cleaning and eat mostly homemade things. It could be the excitement of cloth diapers and our consideration of a home birth. Maybe its because our dream is to have chickens running around in the backyard and a large enough garden to sustain us throughout the year.

At the end of the day, we aren't really sure why we are labeled this way. We just think its funny and we'll continue to keep up with our hippie ways. The reality is that just 50 years ago, we would be considered normal. Everyone lived this way. There was no disposable society to come home to. People made do with what they had, mended what they had or did without. Why is it that because we choose to live with less and make things ourselves that we are fringe people? The fact is that a lot of people we know live this way. And we don't consider them weird hippies...they are just living like their parents and grandparents did back in the day. Perhaps its those who throw everything away that are the weirdos.

The Second Installment of Conversations with Amanda and Dan

We were having a sort of playful, pretend argument one day (which we do quite often to keep life interesting). And this is what ended it all.
A: Don't you know that the world revolves around me?
D: The world does not revolve around you.
A: Fine! But the axis is slightly closer to me than it is to you.

The most ridiculous suggestion....

With Amanda back to work, there seem to be a whole lot more stories involving those two wonderful children and their family. This is a story that we needed to share, mostly because of its ridiculous nature in relation to our lifestyle (and perhaps most people would agree!)
As you know, we walk everywhere. This means that we walk in the rain, snow, sleet and sun. Basically, we are more dependable than the postal service! We enjoy a good walk in the rain now and again. The night before this "story" takes place, we walked to the grocery store in the pouring rain to pick up a few items.
As we are just starting our the year with the kids, I seem to be a bit short on groceries for the children. I mentioned to Nancy one drippy rainy morning that I needed some milk for the kids. I was hoping for some money to go pick it up, or for her to hit up a grocery store that evening and send it with the kids the next morning. Instead, I got more than I bargained for! She suggested that I take the children to the McDonalds Drive-thru (yes, DRIVE-THRU!) and purchase a carton of milk.
To someone who the previous evening had braved the elements to bring home our groceries, this suggestion seemed utterly ridiculous. I even asked why the grocery store wasn't a better option. She just insisted that the DRIVE-THRU at MCDONALDS would prevent me from getting wet. I just don't understand. Really...it baffles me. Getting wet is not an issue. Going to the grocery store with two kids is NOT an issue. What the issue is to me, is that someone would suggest using a drive-thru to get milk. Needless to say, Dan and I had a good laugh. Its been two weeks, and we are still trying to understand.
Oh, and for the milk. I took her kids (gasp) in the rain (oh my!) and got some from the store (who would have thought?). We even lived to tell about it!!!!!

Conversations with Amanda and Dan

Sometimes the two of us have these odd kinds of conversations. Very brief and somewhat bizarre. For those of you who know us quite well, you probably won't be that surprised by its content. For those of you who don't know us that well, be prepared to learn about the inner workings of our brains and our marriage.

Conversation #1:
(while walking home from Pricesmart, Amanda breaks the silence with this....)
A: Sometimes I wish we were lesbians.
D: Huh? (odd look on face)
A: That way we can take turns having babies. I have the first one and you carry the second one.
D: Okay. I suppose its a step up from being a seahorse.

Conversation #2:
(the girls from upstairs made us cookies and dropped them off, after we invited them to share our pulled pork dinner with us)
A: I really like those girls! These cookies are like manna from heaven!
D: They're like friends....with benefits!

P.S. This is not the last of these types of posts. We have these conversations all the time. If only we could remember more of them...

AmanDan's 10 Rules Regarding Pants

Disclaimer: Not to be taken too seriously. For you offenders, this is very serious business.....
(the following opinions have been provided by Amanda and Dan and are not the opinions of most people.)

The Rules Regarding Pants
#1. Leggings are NOT pants (especially when your shirt is so short that we can see underwear lines through your leggings)
#2. Yoga pants are meant for Yoga, not for everyday use. You do not live in the gym, therefore you should not live in your gym clothes. (this will help us think that you shower after your workout, rather than walk around all sweaty and gross)
#3. Pajamas are for the bedroom (or at least your own home). I had to get dressed this morning, and so should you!
#4. Mini skirts should not be so short that a 3 years old skirt contains more material. No one wants to see you who-ha, or anything close to it.
#5. Men, your crotch should be abouts where your crotch is located. It is not located near your knees. Pull up your pants and cover your underwear for goodness sake!
#6. Full length pants should be full length pants. They should not turn into flood pants the moment you sit down. Your calf should remain covered and not by the tube socks your wearing. The only exception is if you are too tall to find pants that cover your ankles. You are forgiven-we feel your pain.
#7. Pants should not be so tight that there is nothing left to the imagination. I really don't want to see your cottage cheese thighs or golf ball butt through your pants.
#8. Underwear, especially thongs, should NOT be seen above your pant line. That space is reserved for butt cracks, which should also not be seen, but are more tolerable than your underwear.
#9. Work out wear should be reserved for working out. (see rule #2)
#10. While wearing white pants, please refrain from wearing black, patterned,or coloured underwear. Thongs are not recommended either. White pants need to be sufficiently thick so as not to reveal what lies beneath. Please remember that it does rain often and white pants should be reserved for days when the rain clouds are far away so as not to reveal what is under your pants.

We retain the right to, add to or subtract from or otherwise alter, these rules at any time we see fit. Complaints department is on permanent vacation. Estimated wait time: longer than your lifespan.

Listener Loyalty

We're not really what you would call "Loyal Listeners" to any one particular radio station. We've had the tendency to flip between stations during commercial breaks or to find a better song. This has been slowly changing over the past year and half, so slowly that we didn't really notice it happening until this past week.

We were driving by another radio station's "on-location" set-up when Amanda felt this sudden urge to yell out the window, "You suck!" She told Dan of this, and he couldn't help but agree. He actually said he wished he had a sticker for 100.5 The Peak so that he could run up and put it on their booth.

It was then that we realized, we are loyal listeners of 100.5 The Peak. We could listen to them all day without even feeling the urge to change stations. In fact, for the last year and a half its been the only station we've tuned into. Even itunes doesn't get this much of a workout. We can almost tell the time of day by certain commercials they have on (at 4:20pm they have the moment of serenity previewed by the apple i-minute). Okay, so we listen to this station far too much, but it is by far the best station out there! Check them out! (just like the "Check this out tune of the day" that they have playing 4 times a day). Yep, its true. We do love this station!

We're Goin' Squirrely!!!

Squirrel tendencies have started..or rather have run their course. Amanda has been busy this past week making meals to freeze for the fall, along with all the canning we've done throughout the summer.

So far this summer we have canned (or jarred):
20lbs cherries
20lbs peaches
40 lbs tomatoes
20lbs pears
20lbs apple sauce
10lbs green beans
2 large batches of salsa
4 batches of jam (strawberry, raspberry and cherry)

We've also dehydrated:
3 lbs of cherries
1 lbs of blueberries
The skins from the 20lbs of apples (into a nice fruit leather)
5 lbs of apple slices

We've frozen these meals (of course in large quantities):
4 pizzas
1 large lasagna
1 large ham pot pie
1 large spaghetti casserole
1 batch of country chicken stew
2 trays of cabbage rolls
1 very large batch of dutch meatball soup
A batch of mexi-wraps, refried beans and chili are still in the works.

Plus, this doesn't include the 24 loaves of bread we've made and stored in the deep freeze. And on Sunday, we'll add to these quantities with baked goods.
On the agenda for the bake-a-thon is:
peanut butter balls
scones
cookies
bagels
peanut butter granola
a batch of granola bars (already made and ready to freeze)
and whatever strikes our fancy!

Needless to say, the freezer is full and we are well prepared for the winter. Anybody wanna come for dinner and dessert?

Customer Service: a good experience!

"And I spent half of my life
In the customer service line
Flaws in the design
A sign of the times..."
(excerpt from Dan Mangan's song Robots)

Normally, when I have to call customer service, I prepare myself for a long wait followed by a fight. Today was no different. Except, I didn't need to fight for what I knew was right...nor did I have to argue my case. Today I was treated like a real human being with feelings and frustrations. I'd like to thank Tim from Fido for a GREAT customer service experience (my first one!!!!). He worked with me to get me what I was supposed to have gotten 2 phone calls ago. He changed my bill to reflect what calls I actually made and should have been billed for. Good-bye over $250 in unnecessary charges! (Imagine my surprise when I opened that bill!) He finally got my plan sorted out to be what it should have been 2 calls ago (third times a charm?). I have to admit, I didn't expect this to happen but I am utterly surprised by Tim.

An Ode to Tim
Oh Tim, You came and you found me my plan back.
You fixed all those charges on my bill
You made me smile and be still.....

Okay. That's enough. I really appreciated Tim's efforts and what he did to get my plan all sorted out. Hopefully, this is the last time I have to "fix" this problem.

Active Baby Syndrome

Today Dan and I went on a tour of the hospital. It was supposed to be a 10-15 minute tour...of course, with us, nothing ever goes according to plan. Ten minutes into the tour, Amanda began to feel a bit faint and queasy. We are not entirely sure what started this off, but perhaps all the talk about C-Sections got to be a bit much. The problem was, that no matter how long she sat, or lied down, she had trouble regaining full composure. She just kept feeling as though she was about to black out. Finally, the nurse made the call and sent us into triage to get my blood pressure checked and to check on the baby's well being.
All of Amanda's test checked out fine. Nothing wrong! To check the baby, they strapped on a heart monitor (and asked her to hold it in place since the baby kept moving) and also asked Amanda to press a button every time the baby moved. She immediately asked if this button had a press and hold feature. Needless to say, the printout was full of these little black dots indicating the baby's movement. When there was a break in the dots it was because Amanda got tired of pressing the button or had to itch her head and just wanted a break. About 10 minutes into this 20 minute long monitoring process, the baby decided to do a flip and move to the other side. Needless to say, we lost the heartbeat but the baby kept on moving. We had to coerce the baby into moving back into position by pressing hard on Amanda's stomach to move the baby back to the other side. The nurses said that everything was fine and I was cleared for discharge by my midwife.
At this point, Dan was already an hour late for work. So I drove him to work and went in for a few minutes to assure his colleagues that I was fine. This backfired. As I was talking with them, I went white as a ghost and felt faint again. I quickly sat down hoping it would go away. Another call to the midwife and she suggested I go to Emergency and get checked out again. We called Grandma to drive us there, since driving myself wouldn't be safe. After we got dropped off, we found out that Emergency wouldn't take care of anyone over 20 weeks gestation, so that meant we were herded up to Maternity again. The nurses were a bit surprised to see us again. This time, they ordered some blood work and we began the never-ending waiting period. Two and half hours later, we were told that the blood work came back okay. A bit low on hemoglobin and a bit high on other things...normal for pregnancy. But during their communication about me, they discovered that another nurse had the same sort of thing happen to her. She suggested that sometimes when the baby moves, it can twist onto my vena cava, the main artery supplying blood to my body. When the baby does this, it blocks my blood supply, causing me to have the feeling as though I am about to black out. Dan's aunt dubbed this "Active Baby Syndrome." More than appropriate as the baby hadn't really stopped moving for more than 12 hours (aren't they supposed to sleep???)
The end result is that I was told to go home and lie down. Get some rest and relax a bit. We'll see how I feel tomorrow and base that on if I will need further tests. For now, things are okay (when the baby isn't moving)!

Ultrasound #2

2 weeks ago, we went for our second ultrasound. It was amazing to see how much the baby has grown since our last ultrasound. It was also pretty neat to note that while the technician was checking the baby (with only Amanda in the room) that Amanda said, "Oh it must be 2pm. The baby is moving." The technician was surprised that she could pinpoint the time based on her baby's movement and that she could feel the movement at all. Then, she had a hard time keeping the baby still for measurements, since it likes to move so much! Once again, someone had to pin the baby down (causing Amanda great pain) just for measurements.

It was disappointing that no one was allowed in the room while 20 minutes of measurements were going on. Amanda was quite bored since she couldn't even see the screen and had to lie there with a full bladder for that long. But when all the procedures were over, Dan, Amanda's mom and Dan's grandma got to come in and see the baby. It was really cool to feel the baby kick and see it on the screen at the same time.

Great Big Sea

For Dan's birthday, I got us tickets to a Great Big Sea concert in Kamloops. The concert was absolutely incredible. We had early admission and got to choose our seats just four rows from the front! We could have sat front row, but chose to sit a few rows back so that Amanda could use the aisles created at row 4 to exit to the washroom. We ended up next to this amazing couple, the woman whom was in a wheelchair. This smart choice, saved us from getting trampled during the first few songs when people tried to rush the stage. Amanda elbows a man really hard and said to him, "Lady in a wheelchair(pointing to the lady), and Pregnant(pointing to self)! Move over!" This saved us from most (but not all) spillage of beer on legs and arms and heads. Thankfully, one lady who sat 2 rows behind us (since we were too tall to sit directly behind), complained to those who rushed the stage saying that the lady in a wheelchair doesn't really appreciate having beer spilt on her head and the pregnant lady could go into labour if you crowded her. That solved our problem and we had as much space as we needed. Even the security lady got to tease Amanda a little, asking her every time that she went to the washroom if she was in labour yet! The baby much enjoyed the concert, spending a full two hours dancing on Amanda's bladder. (although the warm up band got no such reaction, except a sharp kick at the beginning, indicating its disgust to the horrible music. We wholeheartedly agreed).

The day after the concert, Great Big Sea came on the CD player at random. The baby would be active for any song from them and then cease moving when the CD player switched to another artist. This happened numerous times. We guess that we have a Great Big Sea fan in training!

Our Trip 2010 Part 1

Our Big adventure this summer was to go on a road trip to Vancouver Island. We started in Parksville,went to Tofino and then headed up to Campbell River, Port Hardy (Winter Harbour and Zeballos), then down to Naniamo, Victoria and did a circle tour of the Juan de Fuca to Duncan and back to Victoria again. Yep, we saw the whole Island!

Long Beach by Tofino! The waves were 2 meters high (6-7 feet). The pictures don't even begin to show how tall the waves really were.

The top picture is on the side of the road on the way to Tofino. A beautiful set of waterfalls and rock formations. The second picture is Little Qualicum Falls.

The Tartan Pie Shoppe. We were driving by on our way to Englishman River Falls when we saw a sign for Tartan Pie. We wanted to know what it was, so we stopped by to ask. Its basically turkey dinner in a pie. We wanted to try it, but since Amanda is allergic to Turkey, it was out. As a consolation prize, the man who owned the shop, Derik, offered us a sausage roll that was still warm from the oven. It was heavenly! Homemade sausage wrapped in a flaky pastry. It was enough to convince us to buy an apple raspberry pie to take home. That was soooo delicious. On our last day, while in Victoria (a 2.5 hour drive one way away), our sailing trip got cancelled due to fog. Since it was Dan's birthday, mom asked, "Well, what do you want to do." Dan replied immediately that he wanted to go for pie. So, we drove 5 hours to get some pie!!! We ended up with a delicious apple blackberry pie, a beef pie with gravy, more sausage rolls and 3 free turnovers. Mom ended up with another apple raspberry pie and a tartan pie, which she describes as SOOOO GOOD!

While in Campbell River, we went on a sunset kayak with Great Wolf Expeditions. Jesse, our guide and his wife Sandra (and cute baby Anna) were absolutely amazing. We had a great time kayaking, getting to try the kelp and sea asparagus. Both were a bit salty, but tasty. Jesse was very informative talking about the sea, the things that lived in it, the local geography and native legends of the area. It was wonderfully relaxing and they took good care of us.

Our trip 2010 part 2

On the road to Winter Harbour. A little town whose winter population reaches a high of 17. The summer is about 20. We drove down this dirt road for 1.5 hours (one way) just to reach this little town. Why? Because we can. And it was on the map. And it is supposedly the westernly most point of Vancouver Island. Was it worth it? Well, we go this nice photo of a harbour!!! And the pride of being able to say we were at the westernly most inhabited point of Vancouver Island.

That same day/evening, we also took another 45 minute jaunt (one way) to a little town called Zeballos. It was quite quaint and beautiful. Our total time in the town consisted of about 10 minutes due to the gravel road and the setting sun.

Dan's desire was to take a picture of us eating Nanaimo bars in Nanaimo. He got his wish. We also have a picture of him eating a Donut in front of the town of Duncan sign...you know...Dunkin Donuts!

Amanda was "thrilled" to visit numerous (aka almost all of the) public washrooms on Vancouver Island. Her observation...for some reason Victoria is the only town on the Island without low-flow toilets. Yep...she visited that many washrooms (and some of them twice!!)

Our Trip 2010 Part 3

Mom dragged us up Mount Douglas and here are the resulting pictures. Kind of looks like Italy would with the houses hanging off the side of the mountainside.

Fort Rodd Hill and the Fisgaard Lighthouse. On the way to the lighthouse we had to travel down a long dyke that had this horrible sewage type smell to it. We made it to the lighthouse without incident. But on the way back the sewage smell was overwhelming. We tried to breathe through our mouths but ended up tasting sewage. The result was that Amanda lost her breakfast on the side of the dyke. Dang pregnancy nose!

Little Niagara Falls. Doesn't exactly have the thunderous roar that the word Niagara conjures up...but it'll do. The highlight??? Mom accidentally dropped her camera into the waterfall pool and had to fish it back out again.

Dan's hippie bus count: 32. The best one was this pink one that Dan saw repeatedly in Victoria. Please note that westfalia's didn't count in the hippie bus count otherwise we would have been in the hundreds.

Grandma's House

We went to Penticton to visit G-ma and also to see Dan's family in Naramata. The lady may look innocent, but watch out! She is a feisty old lady. Her hearing may be bad, but her eyesight is good. She caught me trying to steal a jar of cherry jam from the fridge and pass it off as the baby. It didn't work, but she let us keep the jar of jam anyway! Yummy!

G-ma lives across the street from Skaha Lake in Penticton. Dan and I enjoyed a nice morning walk along the beach, before it got too hot, which didn't take long.

Harambee

For the past several years, Dan's family has attended a camp called Harambee in Naramata. It is a camp intended for families who have adopted a child of African decent (aka Dan's little brother Eli). It was chance to meet up with Dan's family for a day as this was our only opportunity to meet up with them between now and Christmas (they live in Alberta). The day started with Dan, his dad, Eli and 30 people from the camp going on a 3 hour bike ride on the Kettle Valley Railroad. It was a fun ride following what used to be the old railroad tracks. There was quite a view from the top of the mountain. The girls stayed back and chit chatted at camp.

At the end of the evening, there was a concert performed by Miyanda. They are a group of girls who perform traditional African dance and drumming. They sure taught the baby a few moves, since it went crazy the entire concert!

Dan's brother Eli showing us his dance moves! It was a great day relaxing with family!

Dan's Graduation

He finally did it! He graduated from Columbia Bible College with a certificate to be an Education Assistant/Teacher's Assistant. When they called his name to get his diploma, the said that we needed to give an extra round of applause because this student was the only male in a class of 30!

Dan with his graduating class and the faculty. You'll notice he's the only male in the entire class, sticking out like a sore thumb in the back row!

Dan with his crazy classmates! We spent the entire year sitting next to each other, something that should not have been allowed to happen... the results speak for themselves.