Just Jordan

I have never taken time out of my "never long enough" work day to write a blog, but I need to get this off my chest. Yesterday after work I hopped into the van only to notice that I had less than 1/4 of a tank.  It was cold.  I was wimpy.  I did not want to stop to fill it...BUT I did.  I usually go to Costco (cheap gas and on my way), but since I would have to fill it myself, I opted to fill-up at the full-service Co-op in Martensville.  Like I said, I was feeling wimpy. Fast forward to this morning. Hugh and I are sitting at the table discussing our days and I remember that my staff is going for drinks after work.  This means Hugh needs to take Calder and my recently filled van.  No big deal.  Hugh starts the car for me and we get our days started.  As I am pulling out of the driveway, I take a look down at the gas gauge.  No surprise.  Less than 1/16 of a tank.  I can just see a sliver of space between the needle an...

Although you might be thinking I am going to talk about Calder or Hugh's farting (ewww...I can't believe I just put that), I am actually going to discuss gas in our vehicles. Hugh drives on empty and it drives me nuts. I got my first taste of his risky behavior the week before our wedding in 2006.  We had attended my cousin's wedding in Calgary and were on our way home with Luke and his girlfriend.  When we got to Strathmore, I announced to Hugh that the next decent sized placed was Hanna and we should probably fill up before we left civilization.  His response was "we'll be fine" and he put it into 5th gear and cruised out of town. Now picture us, in the middle of nowhere, with the gas light going on.  It's a Sunday afternoon and Hugh says, "no worries, some little town will have gas."  No.  There were NO little towns with gas.  And we drove out of our way to check out a couple.  We started getting desperate as the gas gauge sank lower and...

So, once again, Braxton Hick's contractions are ruling my life.  I consider myself an expert at Braxton Hicks having experienced them for my whole pregnancy with Calder. For those of you who don't know, Braxton Hicks are "practice contractions".  The uterus contracts just like it does in labour, except you're not in labor .    Most women get them in their third trimester and the intensity of the contraction varies woman to woman.  They can range from intense, taking your breath away, to slightly painful or annoying.  They say if you get more than 4 an hour, you should head to the hospital. My Braxton Hicks started at 11 weeks.  I would wake up in the morning to a tightening of my uterus.  I would say these ones were neither painful or even annoying.  They were just there.  It actually feels kind of neat at this stage to feel the shape of your uterus and to realize that your baby is hanging out it there.  After that morning visit...

The first in-family hockey battle was this past Friday night in Tisdale.  The Shellbrook Elks vs Tisdale Ramblers.  Hugh vs Luke.   The battle between the boys started earlier in the week when Hugh asked Calder to give Uncle Luke a wet kiss (this would give Calder the best chance of passing on his bronchitis to Luke) and Luke kept offering Hugh chocolate bars. Friday night, we all hoped in the van after work and headed to the game.  The first period was a tight battle between the two teams, with the Rambler's goalie holding them in the game.  The second and third periods were not nearly as tight and, in fact, at times, got a bit out of control.  At one point, the Elk's goalie came out to play the puck and was ran over by a Rambler player. The Elks responded on the next shift by taking a slap shot at the Rambler bench.  Luke may still be mad about that one.  Final score: 10 - 3 Elks.   The next day during Hugh's 4 hour nap (yes, you r...

So, I was just glancing back through my posts and the New Things Calder is Doing post from the start of October caught my eye.  The items on that list seem old now and it is only been a month and a half.  It is amazing how quickly they learn things and even more amazing how quickly I forget. Here is the November list: 1.  Calder now rarely signs please, but is saying it on his own (sometimes with some gentle encouragement!). 2.  He says Thank-You.  Sounds like "yah yah", but he is consistent with it. 3.  He RUNS up and down our hall.  Sometimes pushing some big truck and other times just flying on his own.  Hugh and I just hold our breath and wait for the occasional wipe out. 4.  Calder knows what a time-out is and a threat of one can often deter whatever "no-no" he is doing, It may stop him from standing on the couch, climbing on the table, or throwing his cars just to name a few of his favorites. 5.  Calder aggressively he...

Sharing is something that we are continually dealing with, as I am sure most parents with toddlers are.  Calder does o.k. with sharing.  And by o.k., I mean he only occasionally rips toys out of other children's hands and sometimes shares what he's eating with others. We definitely have hit some roadblocks when it comes to sharing.  Calder knows the word "mine" and isn't afraid to use it.  As well, we don't have as many play dates at our house as we do at others.  It is one thing to share someone else's toys, and an other to share your own. When it is all said and done, I should have been pleased by the sharing Calder was doing this morning.  He had his treat cup held out for our dog, Cleo.   Cleo had her entire snout in the cup as her tongue washed out the inside, cleaning up any Cheerios that came it's way. Instead of being pleased with this great example of sharing, I was entirely grossed out. When Cleo was done getting what she could out of...

Calder almost didn't make it out for his first trick-or-treating (Although, I think Hugh may have went without him, he was so excited).  Calder just REFUSED to put his costume on (we had even done a trial run on Friday) and by refused, I do mean REFUSED.  He cried, he screamed, he trashed and he cried some more.  Hugh and I were even bribing him with his favorite thing....going outside and we were having no luck at all.  Thankfully my mom was here with some glow sticks.  The new toy seemed to do the trick.  It didn't hurt that Calder's friend Dylan showed up dressed in his tiger costume.  A little bribery and some peer pressure seemed to do the trick. Calder did a great job of walking with Hugh, Dylan and Chris (Dylan's dad).  Mom and I were able to watch them hit the houses from our front window.  There was only one minor setback when Calder pulled a grave out of our neighbors lawn.  I was glad Chris was there to intervene, as Hugh...

Calder loves it outside.  It doesn't matter how grumpy he is inside, once we get into the fresh air, he is happy.  We love happy Calder!  He especially loves the park and has recently decided he is big enough to walk there.  You will notice Hugh has the stroller.  Calder will NOT leave the park on his own free will.  It doesn't matter if we are there for 15 minutes or an hour.  When it is time to go, there is usually a sceaming boy and a fight to strap him into the stroller.  If we don't have the stroller, we have to carry him.  This is increasingly difficult as he gains more and more weight. Not to mention the fact that he will kick and scream the entire way home! At the park he will spend time on the swings.  Calder loves when Hugh makes noises as he pushes him. Hugh has taught Calder how to fire his cars down the slide.  This started in the backyard during the summer and now consists of picking a car ou...

I took the Sr. Girls Volleyball team to Okotoks this past Thursday through Saturday.  We had a great trip.  We placed 3rd in the tournament and played terrific.  The girls also did some great bonding with each other and scouted some pretty hot boys (which I am sure was the highlight of the trip). If you want to know who's with who at my school, or who the hot boys are, you can just ask me.  I am now on the up-and-up with all the gossip.  Fourteen hours in a vehicle with 5 grade 10 and 11 girls was all it took! Now, off to bed, as I am still recovering.

On Saturday, Hugh, Calder, and I headed out to the Corn Maze at Rosthern.   The picture below took a significant amount of work to get organized.  The four month pregnant lady had to scale the bale.  This was by far the easy part of the work.  The hard part, surprisingly, was getting Calder up. Hugh.  Six foot two inch Hugh, should have been able to hoist Calder up with no effort.  But for some reason, he decided he should put Calder on the bale 10 feet to my right.  I had to let him know that we couldn't let Calder "fend for himself" on a bale.   With Hugh's arms extended and Calder in them, Hugh began shimmying along the edge of the bale toward me.  According to Hugh's account later, he then tripped on a piece of wood and then followed that with slipping on it.  This lead him to a slow motion fall along the edge of the bale to his back on the ground, all the while with arms extended and Calder in them. I meanwhile, had the best v...

1.  Jumping.  Well, he is attempting to jump.  Mostly he is just squatting down and extending his legs really quickly, without his feet leaving the floor. 2.  Making train and semi horn noises.  The honking noise is a tad bit high pitched for a semi horn, but he does the arm pump to go with it, so there is no mistaking it. 3.  Trying to say please when he signs it.  He is have a bit of trouble connecting the "s" sounds to words.  We get a lot of pointing and the word "emi" when we are driving! 4.  Crashing cars into one another, head on.  He loves this and I am proud to say I taught him how! 5.  Passing gas on the toilet. LOL.  He won't go, but he will grunt out a couple of farts! 6.  Kicking a ball.  He has only wiped doing this a couple of times.

Yikes.  A whole month has went by.  What have we been up to?  Well, I have been up to teaching, parenting and coaching.  That on top of being pregnant has been utterly exhausting.  In fact, I should have been in bed in hour ago! I will try and be better in October!

Volleyball has started for me.  I am coaching the Sr. girls team with another teacher.  We have practices at 6:30, so I have been missing my evenings with Calder. The boys have lots of fun without me (which is great) and today they headed to the park after supper.  Hugh said the park was packed.  There were 3 or 4 parents and 7 or 8 kids.  Calder climbed out of the stroller with a huge smile on his face and went racing toward the swings.  He got most of the way there and stopped dead.  Squished his face up.  Grunted.  And let out the loudest, longest fart ever produced by an 18 month old child. Hugh said it was a bit embarassing, but all of the parents had a good laugh. I think Hugh deserves this embarrasing moment.  He is the one teaching Calder (with some assistance from my brother) that laughing at farts is the socially acceptable response.  I hope Calder continues to let them rip in public (but only when Hugh is looking af...

There are little moments that I have with Calder that I wish I could put in a bottle and save for later. When he gives me a kiss without being asked, or a cuddle before bed, or a wet hug when he's in the tub. Quiet moments reading a book or loud moments playing with cars. Pictures and videos can't quite capture the feeling of these moments and my memory is just not good enough.  I know in even a week, these moments may be forgotten. So, I need a bottle for all the moments.  Or even better a Pensieve (if you haven't read Harry Potter, get on it).

Yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary. Hugh and I were able to head out for lunch together yesterday as we had our division start-up downtown.   We walked around enjoying the 30 degree sunshine and finally settled on Ding Dongs a Vietnamese restaurant next to the mall.  We ordered spring rolls as an appetizer (Hugh was starving) and we each got a yummy noodle bowl.  When we were done, Hugh went down and ordered another order of spring rolls and a bowl of won ton soup.  He ate it all.   Did I mention the soup was for 2?   When our server brought the soup, Hugh commented what a big spoon it came with.  The server didn't understand what he was talking about as she put two bowls and two spoons on the table.  I was finally able to communicate to her, that the soup would only be eaten by Hugh and I was also able to communicate to Hugh that the big spoon that he was going to eat with was not a spoon at all.  It was the ladle. I ...

I thought I would throw in a few shots of Calder and his cars.  He still loves them!  No surprise there. Our trip started with a little help packing from Calder.  We got all of our stuff set out beside the suitcase (we couldn't put it in, as Calder was hiding out in the suitcase).   We left him in the bedroom (major mistake) and headed to his room to grab his clothes.  When we came back into our room, not only had Calder packed our bag for us, he was unpacking it as well! We spent a fun ride to the lake.  Even got to do a bit of dancing at a construction stop.  This is the only picture of me from the weekend.  Hugh really needs to learn how to use the camera! Uncle Luke is always good for a bunch of laughs.  Here he is tipping Calder over and helping do a lower back workout. One thing I love about being with my family is how everyone helps take care of Calder.  I felt like a village was raising my son ...

This morning Calder and I made the 1/2 hour round trip to Osler to pick up some mini cars (or dinky cars as Hugh likes to call them). Calder loves playing with cars.  He only has 6 or 8, so Hugh and I thought it might be time to invest in a few more.  Hugh remembers having dozens as a kid and I know my brother, Luke, had dozens as well. I showed Calder the cars when we picked them up and he quickly hoarded 3 or 4 in his car seat.  When we got home I gathered them up and threw them in the sink to give them a quick scrub (they were very clean, but Calder put one in his mouth on the way home, so I thought it couldn't hurt!). Calder was so excited.  He kept running back to the sink signing "more" and "please" and saying "more".  We worked on saying and signing "thank-you" as I washed and dried the 30 cars we had picked up. He is currently stacking the cars on top of each other, loading them into a tub and pushing it around, climbing into ...

Is hard.  And I have loved every minute of it. Hugh is away adjusting crops for hail insurance in Alberta.  He left last Thursday morning and will be home on Wednesday.  We are at the half way point. I have been amazed at how much I have learned about Calder in the past few days during our intense 1-on-1 time.  Instead of passing him off to Hugh when he is grumpy and I am busy (cooking, laundry, facebooking :-), etc.), I have discovered ways to make him happy and still get what I am doing done.  Obviously, any of the "Jordan time" things, just get tossed to the side (saved for during nap time), but during the cleaning and especially cooking time, I have really learned to multitask a child and my job as cook and maid:-) I guess I had done this before, but I not to the extent that I have done it the pass few days.  I am lucky to have a great husband who is able to be around most evenings and does more than his share around the house.  So before thi...

Calder has been at my Mom and Dad's since Sunday night.  I have a TON of planning to do for school and wanted to get it done and off my mind.  It worked out perfect this week for Calder to be in Tisdale.  My Mom is on holidays and my Grandma E is out from Burnaby.  It sounds like they are having a great time with him. Calder has really started to climb on things.  Yes, it is now official.  I have a climber.  For instance, he will now climb in and out of his booster seat at the table, teetering on the edge as he gets down, just taunting you to get up and remove him.  Once you get him down, he promptly climbs back up and begins to teeter again.  I finally resolved to let him fall if he falls.  He hasn't fallen.  He is a monkey, apparently. Mom and Grandma are bringing him back to us tomorrow.  Although, sleeping in and eating whenever we want have been marvelous, not to mention leaving our house after supper, Hugh and I have ...

It's official.  I am SICK of the rain.  I have been avoiding blogging about it, because quite frankly, I don't want to think about it, but I would be remised to not mention it.  It has been THE story of the spring/summer. Last Tuesday night, we had a killer storm.  Lightening, thunder and rain.  Well, so I'm told.  Calder and I slept right through it.  I woke up to a wet lawn and deck, but didn't think much of it.  That has been par for the course this year.  Imagine my shock when I opened up my front door to get the paper and saw this: Strange, where did all that soil come from? It must have really rained.  My flowers are drowning. You have got to be kidding me.  Where did all that soil go? My tulips!   Hugh and I have no idea where the soil went to.  Hugh figures it must have went under our steps. I then grabbed the paper and headed for the back yard. hmmm...no weiner roast tonight. Is that a mud pit? ...

Maybe hate is too strong of a word.  I won't want Calder to say it, so let's say these are things I strongly dislike. 1.  People who were watering their lawn yesterday. 2.  When one lane of traffic is closed and cars zoom to the front of the line to merge, rather than merging in their place. 3.  Mosquitos. 4.  Vacuuming.  I would rather do the bathrooms any day. 5.  Getting up before 6 am. 6.  People who don't wear a belt with their jeans (this only includes the people whose waistlines I can see...if a shirt is covering the waistline, it's fine). 7.  When there are re-runs on of my favorite shows during the winter. 8.  Did I mention vacuuming? 9.  Running in 60 km/h winds. 10.  Students who make it their class goal to try and piss me off. 11.  Cars that drive 60 km/h on our crescent.  Next time, I may just throw my gardening tool at them. 12.  When I hop in the car and it doesn't start. ...

On Thursday, I got this forward from a former athlete, Kolby Rice. Hello Everyone : Please watch the video clip below and then …..I know you will want to help .  Mandi is a special young lady Her parents, Rick and Carol Schwartz are our family friends from my husband Gordie’s home town of Kamsack. Some of you will know them – some of you won’t .  Our children were childhood friends and played together. Then both our families both left Kamsack and the Schwartz family now lives in Wilcox. Their 22 year old daughter, Mandy has leukemia and desperately needs a bone marrow transplant.  She has only 35 days left to find a perfect match. We pray she stays healthy until that transplant happens.  She is at home in Wilcox right now – after a difficult bout of chemo. We are praying that all of you will proceed to be tested to be a match.   It only takes 10 minutes to get it done and it could save her life!!!!  You simply need to answer a few questions and then t...

The last two days, Caesar Salad and screaming have been two of Calder's favorite things. Caesar Salad A few weeks ago, while Hugh and I were eating supper, Calder pointed to my salad and signed "more".  I gave him some thinking the taste of the dressing would cause him to make a hilarious face and we would get a laugh out of it.  NO SUCH LUCK.  He loved the dressing.  In fact, he sucked the dressing off the lettuce and then spit the lettuce out.  He then signed "more" and continued to suck the dressing off of a number of pieces of lettuce.   This had been the pattern until yesterday.  He now DEVOURS the lettuce.  He doesn't like the hard white part on the romaine leaf, but any of the leafy green stuff covered in parmesan cheese and fat filled dressing, (We get the big bottle of full-fat goodness from Costco.  I figure if I am eating vegetables, I can have a few extra calories with them) and there is no stopping him.  Tonight for suppe...

Where to begin. It seems like forever since I have written a blog.  It is so long that not only have I had guilt for not blogging, but I even received an email requesting I get back on the blog-wagon (o.k. it was my mom who requested the blog, but if she mentioned it, others must be thinking the same thing...right?:-) Hugh has been nagging me for a while that we need a second freezer and a second fridge.  When my parents were up a few weeks ago, we happened to come across a great deal on a upright freezer at Costco. Needless, to say, I caved and Hugh got the freezer.  I am happy to report that I LOVE the freezer.  It is so great to be able to see the stuff we have, without it getting stuck at the bottom.  I am sure things will still get lost in this one, but at least it is not as far to the back as it is to the bottom!  Here are some pictures of the best part of the freezer, the box.  Hugh made Calder his first fort and it was a hit.  It lasted ...