Making a Stink

We went house shopping on Monday morning. Husband took half a day off work and we drove to town to meet our Realtor. I elected to stay in the car with Baby while Husband went inside to tell the Realtor we were there. So I climbed into the back seat of the car and... ugh...was overwhelmed by a familiar smell. Baby poop. So, I went into the Real Estate office to find a place to change him. Our Realtor kindly let me use the table in his office. Okay.

So, I take off Baby's snowsuit etc. and discover the biggest, messiest poop you have ever seen. I am serious. He has had messy poops before, but nothing like this. He might as well not have been wearing a diaper for all the good it did. I am talking soiled undershirt, soiled shirt, soiled pants, soiled snowsuit. Aack. And I only had one baby wipe in my bag! I could not believe it. Luckily I am at least smart enough to keep a change of clothes in my bag for him. So he got an entire change of clothes and we spent the morning with a VERY VERY stinky diaper bag. (Note: Baby is breastfed. This means that his poops are way less stinky than if he were formula fed. If that were the case, I may have just thrown the clothes out...) All I can hope is that I didn't leave too much poop residue on the Realtor's table.

So, as I was saying, we were going house shopping. Long story short...we made an offer on a house and it was accepted! We are just waiting for a) our buyer's financing to go through and b) our financing to go through. So, say a little prayer, or cross your fingers, or do your Ancestral House Buying Dance in the hopes that nothing goes wonky at this point. We didn't actually think we would find a house on our first official looking session, but it was just right. We are very excited. I told my brother today, who recently moved back to MB, and he was jealous. We looked at four houses. He looked at 33!

So that is the news at our house. Also, it was melting again today and the outlook is quite warm for the next few days. happy spring. or should I say, happy vern...

A Lenten Update

So I thought it was about time for an update on my Lenten efforts...

1. No chocolate. This has not been a problem, except once. I went to a friend's house for a "play date" (read: our babies laid on the floor beside each other) and she had made banana chocolate chip muffins. I carefully weighed the options - - break my Lent pledge or refuse snacks prepared fresh that afternoon before my arrival. I decided it would be worse to refuse the snack. You may or may not agree that it was the right choice, but, frankly, I don't care.

2. Floss my teeth everyday. I have to admit I have missed a couple of days, when we have been out late. But I did buy a new thing of minty floss, so I think I am doing well.

3. Only check email once per day. No dice. I just can't do it. Being at home all day in the boonies, blogs and email are my only connection to the outside world. I am using things like "There might be an email from our Realtor" as excuses to check more than once. I will continue to work on this, through Lent and beyond.

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We set up Baby's stroller today, and he has been riding around the house in it all afternoon. We haven't used a stroller yet, due to it being Winter. But now he is be enough for the stroller (it is not for infants younger than six months. He is not six months yet, but he is big enough and sits up well enough.) and it is getting nice out side. It is a Quinny Zapp, which is, I believe, the "smallest buggy in the world". We like to call the crazy big strollers, "SUV Strollers". If that is the case, the Zapp is the "Smart Car Stroller." We love it. We feel very European. Fun times.

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We are going to look at houses tomorrow. Wish us luck. Hopefully it will be fun and we'll get a good idea of the market. We are very much looking forward to this next step in the whole process. Weeeeee.

Have a good week.


ps It is SNOWING again. Stop it. Really.

It's the Beginning of the End

Wow. What an eventful few days. Around here it is the beginning of the end of...

1. Winter. Things are starting to melt. And though the temperatures have cooled off a bit, it is feeling like spring. The sun is so strong, even though we are a few days away from the vernal equinox. (I would like to know why we don't call "spring" "vern". The autumnal equinox indicates the start of autumn, why doesn't the vernal equinox start vern? Huh? Tell me.)

2. Our time in this little White Kirk. That's right. We have accepted an offer on our house, with the condition of financing. So, barring any trouble at the buyer's bank, we are good to go. The possession date is June 1. So now we will begin looking in earnest for a new house. Let the fun begin...

3. Baby's sweet innocent babyhood. We fed him his first SOLID FOOD today. Talk about a milestone. Yup. I mashed up some banana and he had at it. He seemed to really like it. Although, he was equally happy to put the plate in his mouth. So it begins. I wonder what we will feed him next?...


What fun we are having around here. Have a good night! (or day, depending when you are reading this.)

xoxo

Melty Melty

Ha Ha! It is melting! Hooray!

Daylight Savings Time is weird. It really throws me. I have just felt odd for the last two days. What does the sun think it is doing still shining in our windows at supper time? It is like I am forced to suddenly switch seasons. Not that I don't want it to be spring, but I feel a bit jarred. Baby doesn't know that it is DST. We will work to switch him over, but if he stays an hour out it is not the end of the world. He is in bed now, so, so far so good. I do love the feeling of strong spring sun when the air is still cool. It brings back spring memories. Getting to wear rubber boots instead of snow boots for the first time. Writing papers in the University library by a huge bank of south facing windows.

We watched a movie on the weekend. Stranger Than Fiction. I'm no film critic, but I thought it was pretty good. An interesting story. It was lacking something though, I'm not sure what. Anytime I watch a clever movie or read a fabulous book I think "Hey, I could do that." I've always thought of myself as the creative type. So it should be easy to come up with an original idea for a story. But as you all know from reading my blog, I'm not as creative as I like to think I am. Or, at least not in that way. My Grandma is a published author. I have an Aunt who is a high school English teacher. My dad is an eloquent public speaker (as evidenced by his speech at my wedding. He claims that we didn't tell mom and him that they were supposed to say something at the reception. Yet when they spoke it sounded witty and polished.) So you would think that some of this "way with words" would have found its way to me. No dice. I sit down to write a blog post and my mind goes blank. I haven't written a story in years. And though I describe myself as a "fledgling songwriter" my note book with songs in it sits, untouched, in my bedside table. Hmmm. I'll keep trying.

Happy almost Spring everybody!

on being late

I was late for a La Leche League meeting last night. This caused me no little anxiety. Some people are chronically late, I am chronically early. Deep inside I feel that if I am not early, then I am late. This becomes a problem when you add other people into the equation. My best friend in High School was chronically late (sorry SD, if you're reading this. Love ya'). It got to the point where if she was supposed to pick me up at 7:15 I would tell her 7:00. It's not that she meant to be late, she just moves at a different pace. (Maybe that pace has increased living in the big city...) Now I am married to a man, who though wonderful in almost every way, has a similar inner clock to that high school friend. This is not a problem in most cases, but I have to admit, I do stress out a bit when we are trying to get out the door on time. Someone once told me that a family is only as fast as its slowest member. It's true. I can stand at the door waiting all I want, it isn't going to make anyone else move more quickly. So it seems that I am destined to go through life waiting at the door. Maybe I should learn from my slower paced loved ones and take it easy. On the other hand, maybe they should learn from me and BE ON TIME!

So, I was late last night. Although it was really no one's fault. A combination of a delayed supper and a baby who wanted to nurse longer caused me to leave later (I could have been less late by cutting the dramatics and just skipping the whole "Now I'm late I shouldn't even go" routine.) But I got there eventually and that's all that counts. I think.


In other news, we have been stood up twice by people coming to look at our house. Well, not actually stood up, because they did call to cancel. We were supposed to have someone come yesterday at 3pm and today at 1pm. Ugh.

I always think I have lots to say, but I really don't.
Ta Ta Fir Noo

ps Like the new colour scheme?

Oh come on now, really

We have a digital answering machine. A run of the mill, $20, leave-a-message answering machine. We have had it for about five years, and it has treated us great - mostly. It has this really bad habit of going wonky only when we are waiting for really important phone calls. Instead of its 20 minute recording capacity, it blinks "full" after one or two short messages. Then anyone else calling hears that our machine is full. This happened two years ago when Husband had applied and interviewed for his current job. A lot was riding on the outcome - - full-time employment in his field (a rare thing), a big move, an offer on a house conditional on his getting it. We were waiting anxiously for the call and our answering machine said "Ha ha!" Now, we are in the process of trying to sell our house. We had some people come look at it yesterday (woo hoo! finally...). We were out of town until tonight, and when we got home, sure enough our machine was blinking "full". I pressed play and there is the beginning of a message from our realtor, "The showing went well yesterday..." but he gets cut off! Come on! What does our answering machine have against us?! What did we do to deserve this?! Once again, I must say, technology is more trouble than it's worth.

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I am tired. Very tired. We were out of town and this did not go over well with Baby. He slept poorly. He was sick this morning. He cried and cried. Thus, I slept poorly, and now I am beat. There is nothing like having a child to make you question every decision you make (maybe we shouldn't have gone out last night!, should we give him a bath or put him straight to bed?, . . . ) But as I nurse him to sleep every night, it doesn't matter how crappy the day has been - how much he fussed, or how impatient I was. He is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and I love him more than anything. He breaks my heart and melts my heart every day. I'm so glad to be his mama.

If Snow Were Currency

We would be rolling in it.

It has now finally stopped snowing. Husband was home yesterday from work. (There are some advantages to living in the boonies. "Travel Not Advised" means Travel not advised!) Now our yard is a beautiful wind swept fairy land. Or something. The walk needs shoveling again. If you adhere to the "In like a lion out like a lamb" theory of March, then take heart, the lamb is a-comin'.

In other exciting news, our fave band, Over The Rhine now has new wearable merchandise available. Woo-hoo! Unfortunately the old "Wine me, Dine me, Over the Rhine me" is no longer available, but I would be happy with a "Snow Angels" shirt (their new Christmas album. The album includes a song called "Snowed in With You" which has been quite appropriate this week.) If you haven't heard them, check out their website, they have a streaming radio as well as downloadable MP3s. They are superb.

Speaking of OTR, we are feeling like we would really love to go back to the Glen Workshop this year (sorry, I'm a bit link happy). However, our research has not yet developed a tree that grows money, so I think we will have to pass. Too bad. It was such a great experience last year. Like summer camp for grown ups.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

ps I hope you've noticed my new Blog feature, my Reading Log. All the books I have read this year. I will try to keep it up to date. Some I have read before, some are new to me. Feel free to recommend some good reading.