Just Jordan

Last night Calder had his first gymnastics class. I was worried he would be glued to my side and too shy to join the rest of the kids, behaviours we have dealt with in the past , but apparently the worry was all for not. His coach said,  "Follow me" and before I could wave good-bye, Calder was gone! Calder's class was a bit chaotic (to say the least). His teenage coach immediately apologized for his assistant's absence, stating "She was too tired to come." There were six 3 - 4 year olds in Calder's group. If I had to guess it was about 3 too many for one teenage boy to handle on his own. Poor kid! It was all I could do to sit on the sidelines and watch this well meaning teenage boy get his show run by a bunch of toddlers. He was trying so hard to get them to cooperate, but just didn't have the management skills to get a rambunctious group of kids under control.  I wanted to approach him and tell him I have my level 1 gymnastics coaching certifi...

Yesterday, was hump day. I am now officially over 1/2 way done my treatments! I have been finding that water is key for me. If I can stay saturated, I can usually keep the headaches at bay. Even in the days following my treatments if I feel an IVIG headache coming on (they start in my forehead) and I drink water, I can usually keep them at bay. I do find that the treatments really take a lot of energy out of my, though. Thursdays and Fridays are challenging days for me. Just. So. Tired. Yesterday was the first day I felt tired of the treatments. I am sure it has to do with being tired in general, but I am finding whatever novelty there was of rushing to the hospital on Wednesday mornings  is wearing off. I do keep busy on Wednesdays, though. Shopping, knitting, making lists, watching videos, chatting on the phone, and the occasional catnap keep the day flowing by at a steady pace. Having visitors has also been awesome. Especially when they bring me lunch or a treat (the turke...

My friend Deena's post on Monday got me thinking about the value of friendship - and about how that value increases as we age. My mom and dad have a group of friends. The EXACT kind of group I want to have when my kid(s) are off on their own. They call themselves 501. Makes me smile to think their group has a name! 501 (pronounced 5-oh-1) comes from 5:01 pm. It started with a group of men meeting for a drink after work and has grown into a fabulous group of people, men, women, single, widowed, and those like my mom and dad, married, who gather together to share commradery and laughs. They still meet for a drink after work, but it has turned into a Friday night tradtion. In fact, even in the summer, my parents will drive into town from the lake to attend 501. I think the best part about this group is that they have invested more than just time to meet up at the bar for a drink. They have seen each other through children's weddings and the births of grandchildren. They bee...

This year when I heard the first Christmas ads immediately following Remembrance Day, I cringed. I am a December 1st kind-of-girl. I like to wait until the month that Christmas is in before I turn on my lights or decorate my house. That's not to say I am not thinking about Christmas before December 1st. In fact, I think about it ALOT before in terms of gifts and planning. We have quite a few birthdays in December, so on top of all of the Christmas gifts we buy, I need to be on top of all things gifts in order to maintain my sanity. I also like to know how I am going to spend Christmas - where we are going and how long we will spend there, so November is filled with emails and phone calls trying to coordinate everyone's schedule. Christmas is on my mind, but not in my house, I guess. Yesterday morning on my way to work the house on the corner of our crescent caught my eye. It had its outdoor lights on and their tree had lit up their whole front window. It looked beaut...

Hugh and I have been on a parenting quest.  The last week most of our conversations have been focused around Calder. We have a strong willed child. No idea where he could have gotten that from. My guesses are my sister and Hugh's brother ;-) Well, and maybe me :-) Basically this means that Calder wants his way, all the time, no matter what. For example Calder wants to decide which toothbrush he uses each morning. He  chooses out of 3 different brushes every morning - and if we assume which one he wants to use and load it up with toothpaste, we have inevitably chosen the wrong one. He then will proceed to cry and scream until he gets his choice. Example #2, every night Calder wants to decide when he is going to come to the table for supper. Even when we give him a warning, "We are setting the timer and in 5 minutes it is time to come for supper" and he agrees to the arrangement, arguing still ensues. As soon as the buzzer goes off and we remind him to come to the table h...

Somewhere during 4th period this got put on my door. My first thought was, "Sweet. I love winning." My second thought, "That must be some sort of insult." Hahahahaha! I honestly have scoured my week trying to think of the event that may have caused a student to write this. Save taking a few cell phones (which is VERY typical for me), my week has been totally uneventful.  Darn.  My little message would be WAY funnier if I knew who left it for me!

I met my niece, Harper, on the weekend. And by met I mean I was in the same room as her. The best way to describe how I felt was uncomfortable. Anytime I am around a baby this is how I feel. I haven't held a baby since I held Tripp. I haven't touched one. I have trouble even looking at one.  I did look at my niece, though. I made myself. I want to get over my uncomfortableness around babies and it feels like the only way to do that is to face it. Harper is beautiful. Both Hugh and I forgot how small babies were. She is almost the exact same size Calder was a birth, Tripp was even smaller - funny how you forget. Since my niece's birth, I have been feeling some additional anxiety around the birth of our baby. I am always worried about carrying it to term, about it being healthy, and about breastfeeding, but the emotions that I experienced when my niece was born have made me worry about the emotions I am going to feel when this baby is born. Don't get me wrong, I hav...

Pregnant with Calder - 24 weeks Pregnant with Tripp - 23 weeks  Pregnant with #3 - 24 weeks I look HUGE in round 3!  My weight gain is virtually the same at this point for all 3 pregnancies. How the heck can that be? LOL Okay. Maybe I'm not huge, but here I am pregnant with Tripp at 27 weeks. Looks like I am about 3 weeks up from last time! I am heading the the Fetal Assessment Unit on Monday for an ultrasound. According to one of my nurses at CTC (where I get my IVIG treatments), my obstetrician "basically runs FAU with another obstetrician". This means I get to see my obstetrician for this appointment, which is awesome. I am really happy that there is one doctor who will know everything about my case. My doctor told me that the ultrasound equipment in FAU is better, so we will get a better look at the baby and placenta. I'm not sure how often I will have to head to FAU. My doctor said that we will see how things look on Monday and go f...

"Auntie" Brittany is becoming Auntie Brittany! My brother, Luke, and his girlfriend, Brittany, got engaged Thanksgiving long weekend. We are absolutely thrilled Brittany said yes. It has felt like she has been part of the family since the moment we met her. We are pumped that Luke felt the same way (and that he didn't do anything to mess it up in the process ;-) When I told Calder that Auntie Brittany and Uncle Luke were going to get married, he didn't understand. Apparently, marriage isn't a concept that we have really talked about with him! I explained to Calder that when two people love each other and want to be a family they get married - Just like his dad and I did.  Calder's response, "Oh. I thought they already were married." hahahaha.  I can't say it enough. We are so excited for Luke and Brittany's big day in August when they get the formality out of the way and become their own family. Picture from their...

My sister, Jes, bought a butternut squash in July and brought it to the lake. It never got eaten, so when it was time to close up the cabin in late September, I brought it home. It sat on a shelf in the pantry until Monday when I made some delicious soup. The timing was perfect as my sister and her boyfriend were coming for lunch!   I can not get over how long the squash stayed good. This recipe was taken from www.allrecipes.com . Here is the direct link . After reading the reviews, this is exact recipe for the soup I made: 2 tablespoons margarine 1 small onion 1 carrot 1 stalk of celery 2 medium sweet potatoes 1 butternut squash 1 box of beef stock Sour cream. Half butternut squash. Place it in a casserole dish with a bit of water. Microwave for appoximately 15 minutes. Finely chop onion, carrot, and celery (I used my small Kitchen Aid food processor - I can't cook without it!). Add to large pot with melted margarine. Saute. Peel and cube sweet potato. Add to...

I have been thinking a lot the past couple weeks about the experience our family, in particular Calder, is going to have when we bring our baby home in March. It is all I can do not to write "hopefully" in that statement - and probably even writing this statement negates the fact that I didn't write it :-) Calder was a couple weeks shy of 2 years old when Tripp was born. He understood that there was a baby, but likely had no idea how his life would be affected. When we bring this baby home he will be 4. Right now, he talks about the baby with us every day. Some days we initiate, but usually he does. Calder talks about the baby at daycare - even asking the other kids if their moms have babies in their bellies! Obviously, I don't think that he can fully fathom the impact this baby will have on his life, but he certainly has a good understanding of what it means to have a baby. And he truly is thrilled. If we had Tripp at home, I suspect that Calder wouldn't be q...

On Sunday afternoon, my brother-in-law, Billy, and sister-in-law, Abbey welcomed the beautiful Harper Alice Margaret into the world. I have been trying to sort out for two days how to write about this. My heart just aches to write the truth, so the truth it will be. I will start by sharing an email I wrote to Abbey after Harper was born: I have written the first line of this about 5 times. I don't know how to start. So I will just start. When I read on Facebook that you might have the baby early a couple of weeks ago I felt very emotional. My chest tightened up and I felt tears well. I didn't want to think about why I was feeling that way, because I knew that dealing with those emotions would be hard and I didn't want to be sad, I didn't want to cry, and mostly, I just didn't want to deal. When Hugh emailed me on Thursday to tell me you were headed to the hospital I felt all those same emotions, except this time I knew I couldn't delay them. This was...

Mom my gave me some grief yesterday. In the kindest way :-)  She just wanted to see pics of Calder's halloween escapades! Calder spent his night with his buddy, Dylan. Here are the three best shots. It was cold on halloween. I think it was about -8 when the boys went out. They lasted an hour and brought back a pile of loot. Hugh and Dylan's dad, Chris, took the boys trick-or-treating and I with the help of my sister, Jes, and her boyfriend, Nate, held down the fort passing out candy to 120 some kids. Oh wait. Make that 118 kids plus 2 parents. One said, "I am collecting for my daughter. She got cold 1/2 a block ago and had to go in." The other one simply echoed in with her kids, "Trick-or-treat." Unbelievable. Calder had a great time with Dylan. Apparently the boys wrestled every couple houses ( sounds a bit like last year ) . I am just going to focus on that :-)