Moved

the blog to a new home.

http://raisinganarmy.wordpress.com

Future updates there!

Technical Difficulties

I've been having a lot of problems with this blog lately (ie: People not being able to comment, my Twitter feed not showing up, etc). Currently working on resolving those issues. If that can't be done, I may just move the blog to a new host. Keep checking back!

New Posts ARE Coming...

Just probably not today. For the past two days I have been tired beyond all reason and not getting much of anything productive done. I feel sort of like this:

Or maybe even this...

Yeah...that about sums it up.

(These were pictures taken a while back at the old apartment, but I just felt they were too good not to share. Look for a better post over the weekend. For now, just enjoy the cute.)

And he grew and he grew and he grew....

I don't know how many of you have ever read the Robert Munsch book "I'll Love You Forever", but it's the story of a boy and his mother. It starts with a mother rocking her very new baby boy in her arms and singing to him a song;

"I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always.

As long as I'm living,

My baby you'll be."

This book has always been a favorite of mine. Except the part where "he grew and he grew and he grew" because I sort of want to forget that part. I want to keep my boys little for as long as I can. These moments are far too precious and fleeting. I want to cling to them for as long as time will let me.


Today let me tell you a story. A story about a boy and how " he grew and he grew and he grew" and how much his mommy loves him.

Once upon a time, there was a dream.

Possible names that we had chosen for this dream: Paris, Madeline, Roman...but one name stood out above all. Hayden. Which was odd, since we were pretty convinced that he was a girl.

Early one cold November morning, that dream became a reality.

Our little bundle of perfection; Hayden Joseph Edwin

And here's where he grew...and today I took him to kindergarten for the first time.

Please stop growing so fast.

Day 42 - Meltdown

I'm normally a very good cook. You can ask anyone that has had dinner at my house and they will testify to it. Heck, ask Johnny and you may never get him to shut up about my cooking.

But tonight...I epically failed.

I decided to be a bit of a smarty pants tonight and cook tomorrow's dinner today. That way I'd have less mess and fuss tomorrow, right? I thawed the pork chops and put them in the oven, seasoned just the way we like them. At the 30 minute mark I turned them, marvelling at how well they were coming along. Popped them back in the oven and set the timer.

That's where the story takes a turn for the worse.

I then went downstairs with Johnny to our office to play some games...and didn't realize that the timer isn't loud enough to be heard down there. When I remembered the food I dashed upstairs to check and found this:

Fail in a roasting pan

The picture doesn't even do my insurmountable failure proper justice. These things are shriveled, burned, and so hard you'd break your teeth trying to bite one.

I immediately had a meltdown. I cried and berated myself for being so stupid as to ruin food when we're already trying to be so careful with our budget. I felt like an idiot. How could I forget? How could I not have brought the timer downstairs with me so that I would be sure to hear it?

My sweet husband put his arms around me and told me how much he loved my cooking and that everyone makes mistakes...that burning the food once in the past few years really wasn't that big a deal.

Did it make me any less frustrated about ruining the food? No. I think I love him just a little bit more though.

Day 39: New Home, Part 1 of...Several

So on Monday, the move finally went ahead. My Mom and Dad arrived with their truck and we started to put the boxes that we had stuffed our lives into on their truck. We left our 2 bedroom apartment behind forever and made our way to our three bedroom, two bathroom house.

My new house!!!!

So far we love everything about this house. The trees in the front yard are just like the ones I had in my yard when I was a little girl. I plan to plant pansies in the "wishing well" in the front yard in the spring. I have two rhubarb patches and two plum trees in the backyard.

What do the boys like best? Well, they love the playroom and their new bedroom but I think that perhaps their favorite part is...

Silly Hayden

...being able to look out the window! Since our old apartment was a downstairs one, all the windows were too high for the kids to be able to look out of without help. Now they can stand in the living room and see everything that goes on outside. Watching the mail be delivered is a particular fascination to them.

I don't have pictures of everything yet because I haven't really had a chance with all the unpacking, but here are a few since I know some of you are curious.

Silas, James and Hayden watching television in the new living room

Can't see much of the living room in this picture but you can see that it has hardwood floors, the walls are a gold color except the one directly behind the sofa, which is an off-white.

The Mom is unimpressed

This is the armchair and bamboo divider between my living room and dining room. Mom is not greatly excited about having her picture taken and I don't blame her. We'd been waiting for Dad and Johnny to return from the apartment for ages and were starving.

Ignore the mess...

This is my dining room. What you can't see in this picture are the glass cupboards on the wall to the right. They house my Willow Tree Angels, my Cherished Teddies and my pretty teacups.

Some things never change.

Despite having a new bedroom with a new layout...Silas still manages to somehow get out of bed and end up in the strangest places.

Breakfast at the new place.

This is me, early in the morning the day after our move. Showing my face was not an option.

Just like last year...Silas has eyes only for the cake.

This was my first big dinner in the new place. My mom's birthday was Wednesday and since she couldn't be in town that day, I did her birthday dinner a day late. It was a fantastic dinner if I do say so myself. We had baked pork chops, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts and peas...and of course birthday cake for dessert!

More pictures coming in the next couple days. Keep your eyes peeled and the comments coming. Please don't make me beg.

Day 33 - Endings and Beginnings

Barring unforseen circumstances, tomorrow is the day we move into our new home. There have been some happy memories of this place, however.

Moving is HARD work.

August 1, 2006 was the day we moved into this apartment as a family. We'd lived here for a couple of months the previous year with my sister, but this time it was going to be home to us. Our idea of "unpacking" was to dump boxes of stuff on our bed and sort through them a few at a time. This strategy proved unsound and we will not attempt it again. At around 9 pm when we were still trying to find Hayden's pyjama bottoms, the poor little guy fell asleep on top of the pile of clothes. Not optimal.

Since moving here we've added another baby to the family. Silas joined us on December 5th the year we moved in, and it was this apartment that we brought him home to. This apartment is soaked in the cries of babies, the shrieks of toddlers, and the giggles of preschoolers.

Tomorrow we will start fresh in a new home. A home to be filled with more laughter and joy. More memories.

And we can't wait.

An Oldie, but a Goodie

James at 2 and a half, Hayden at 1 month.

It's so hard to believe how much they've grown. From the above picture to this:

Time flies.

Day 30 - Meet the Family...We're not the Fockers, We're COOLER

I haven't blogged much about my extended family, so I guess it's time to fill you in on some of the other people you will "meet" as you read my blog.

I have the most fantastical, absolutely amazing parents in the history of the universe. If you think yours are better, it's just because you didn't have mine! *winks* My mother, Joan, is a domestic goddess who was the absolute best stay at home mom that any child could ever ask for. She is my role model, my idol, the person I strive to be like. She is beautiful and has aged more gracefully than anyone I know. I hope at her age to look like her.

My beautiful, beautiful Mommy. *muah*

She devoted her life to God, her husband and her children, in that order. One of my most prominent memories of life with my mother is coming home from school, opening the door (we never had to use a key to get in) and calling "Mom?!" from the doorway. Door still open. Only one foot inside the back porch. 99% of the time Mom's sweet voice would call back, "Yes Joanie?" and I would come inside. On that odd 1% of the time that she had gone to a neighbour's house or was working in our vegetable patch and lost track of time, I would dump my backpack next to the door and go right back outside to search for her. It wasn't worth being inside without my mom. My mom was my friend as I grew up, but there was a balance there. She was able to still be my friend without letting her role as authority and disciplinarian slip. I hope to achieve that balance with my boys.

Then there's my Daddy, James. I have always been Daddy's girl. He was definitely not the disciplinarian in our family. A common phrase among my siblings and I was "If Mom says no, it means no. If Dad says no, it means maybe." He's a barrel of fun and laughs and still has the best cuddling lap in the world, even if I am 29 years old now. I will forever be Daddy's Angel.

My Daddy with my baby.

All I can say is "best parents ever" and I hope that Johnny and I can raise our children even half as well as they did.

I am the youngest of four children, and I'm the youngest by a lot. There's a 13 year gap between myself and my youngest sister. The oldest is Carolyn.

Carolyn and Silas WAYYYY back.

Carolyn is mom to Russell (almost 23), Tiffany (21) and Melissa (almost 20), and is about to be grandma for the first time to a little boy that we think is going to be named Wyatt. We'll find out tomorrow when he's born!

Second is my brother Jimmy, who I don't have a picture of. Jimmy left home when I was about 4 years old and I've only seen him twice since. He has a son named Kyle, who I also don't have a picture of. Kyle is 17...I think.

My youngest sibling is my sister, Linda. We've been very close for my whole life and are even able to read each other's minds on occasion. She's mom to Adam (21) and Beckie (almost 19).

Linda with Silas in 2007.

So now that you know the cast of characters, the story will make more sense. You'll be hearing a lot more about these folks in the coming weeks, starting tomorrow with the birth of Melissa's baby boy!

Day 29 - Only a Week Til Moving Day!

So here I am, surrounded by boxes, with only a week til moving day and I think I've decided something.

This is the longest week of my life.

I swear to you, it's only Tuesday and I feel like a month has passed since Sunday night. I'm so anxious and eager for the move now that I just want it to happen. I'm dying to get my dishes in the cupboards and my pictures on the walls. I want to cook dinner in my new kitchen and watch TV in my new family room and sleep in my new bedroom. I want to hang out in my backyard. I want to take pictures of the new place to post here on this blog.

I guess I just have to wait some more.

I hate waiting.

Day 23 - Much Needed Update

Well I've been quite lax in updating because things have been more than a little crazy here. Packing, appointments for Hayden's kindergarten checkup, family visiting from out of town, etc. So here is the update that I should have posted before.

Johnny and I are getting ready to move into the house of our dreams. Now before you start envisioning a pink palace in the clouds, let me tell you what the house we've dreamed of really has. I've never been one for marble halls and diamond sunbursts. What we wanted in a home was simple:

• Enough bedrooms to have a room for family that comes to visit.
• A kitchen that I could actually TURN AROUND in.
• More kitchen cupboards than I have things to put in them.
• A dishwasher.
• A backyard big enough for the kids to play in.
• More than one bathroom.
• A playroom for the kids.
• An office for the computers.
• A fireplace.

The only thing our new place is missing is the last, and that can be added later. We are beyond happy. I will post pictures the day we move in. It's a beautiful home and it's just around the corner from Hayden's school. It's truly a home that was made for us.

In other good news, as of tomorrow I will be wiping a debt off my record that has been bothering me for years. My first car (which I no longer own, having sold the stupid thing to my father) will be entirely paid for. Hurray for no longer owing money and no longer having to dish out $200 a month for something I haven't had in my possession for 2 years!

So now that you know where I've been hiding (under a pile of boxes) I hope to update you more often, even if the updates are short and sweet. And on September 1st I'm sure there'll be a lot to write about!

Day 13 - Good News and Bad News

So this past week was too crazy to blog. Which kind of sucks when you think about it because in a week that there is no time to blog there are loads of things to blog about. I don't want to subject you to every last detail so I'll give you the condensed version.

We spent the first part of the week looking for houses and apartments since even though we knew that by law we didn't have to move, we wanted to get out of here. Johnny has been aggressive and relentless, pursuing every lead of a new dwelling that he could. We did find the perfect place. Three bedrooms plus an office that could be converted to one, big family room downstairs, one and a half bathrooms, nice backyard, quiet neighbourhood about a 2 minute walk from the primary school that Hayden will be attending, and it is just plain beautiful. We spent an agonizing 2-3 days poring over our budget to be absolutely certain that it was in our range since it's a fair bit more expensive than the dinky little apartment we've been living in and rightly so since it's about 1785697965 times as big. (Not really but work with me on the exaggeration thing.)

We decided we could comfortably afford it and then came the wait to find out if the owner thought we were suitable tenants. We spent 24 hours on pins and needles, but it was worth it when the news came that the house is ours! We move on the first and we're beyond excited. Even the kids can't wait!

That's the good news. Now to the bad news. There's been a setback in the armed forces avenue of our lives.

The day before Johnny had his medical testing done, he went to our family doctor (actually the doofus who was filling in for our family doctor who was on leave...) and got his ears syringed out. He has to have this done regularly because otherwise he gets an extreme buildup of hardened earwax like I have never seen before and loses his hearing. The doofus syringed one ear and wouldn't do the other.

The med tech who did the medical could tell that earwax was the reason that Johnny failed the hearing test in that ear because just two years ago he passed that very hearing test. The other ear was perfect. He even tried to syringe out the ear on his own but didn't have the proper tools to do it and couldn't properly finish the job. He said he was not failing Johnny based on earwax and tried to pass him based on previous test results. Ottawa wants the hearing test redone. So that means more waiting and a later BMQ date. Also the infantry profession will likely be closed for the year at that point so he will either have to pick a different profession or wait longer.

My first reaction to this was disappointment, but it faded quickly. I'm thinking this might be a good thing. First of all, it means he'll have some time in the new house with us before he has to be zipped away to BMQ. Second, I'm a firm believer that God has a hand in everything and perhaps something bad would have happened if he had gone on time. Perhaps there would have been an accident on the way to BMQ or after he got there. Perhaps he would have been deployed and injured or something if he'd gone sooner. It may be protection from God to have to wait. So I'm still hopeful...but accepting of whatever happens.

And I made a decision concerning this blog. If something does go wrong and he doesn't get accepted, I will keep going. It's still our journey. I'm still raising an army. Just that maybe my General won't actually be a soldier after all. And I'm okay with that because I love him no matter what.

(I love you baby.)

WHY SO SERIOUS?!?!?!?

(yes, it's chocolate.)

Day 10 - Hope?

Yesterday we went to look at a house. Not an apartment, a house. We fell in love with it right away since it had many of the things we've wanted in a place, and it's on one of our favorite streets in town. It's a quiet neighbourhood, 2 minute walk from Hayden's school, and has a nice backyard that the boys could play in.

Today we will find out if we're going to be moving into it in on the first of September. Oh look...I'm back to waiting! This time though, I'm waiting with high hopes because I'm almost positive that it's going to swing in our favor and for the first time since we first got married, I'll have a house with a yard for my boys to play in. A yard with flowers and rhubarb and a fire pit. A house with a dishwasher and a laundry chute!

So I won't write much more right now...I'll save it for later today when I get the final word. Wish us luck!

Day 8 - I'm Gonna Miss This

Just leaving you with my life's theme song for today, since I have nothing new to report.

This is a beautiful song and I listen to it constantly, reminding myself amidst the crying and noise and chatter of the boys that this time is so precious and someday I'm going to look back and wish this all back. Enjoy.



You're Gonna Miss This - Trace Adkins

She was staring out that window, of that SUV
Complaining, saying "I can't wait to turn 18."
She said, "I'll make my own money, and I'll make my own rules."
Mamma put the car in park out there in front of the school
Then she kissed her head and said, "I was just like you."

-Chorus-
You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

Before she knows it, she's a brand new bride
In a one-bedroom apartment, and her daddy stops by
He tells her, "It's a nice place."
She says, "It'll do for now."
Starts talking about babies and buying a house
Daddy shakes his head and says, "Baby, just slow down"

-Chorus-
You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

Five years later there's a plumber workin' on the water heater
Dog's barkin', phone's ringin'
One kid's cryin', one kid's screamin'
She keeps apologizin'
He says, "They don't bother me.
I've got 2 babies of my own.
One's 36, one's 23."
Huh, it's hard to believe, but ...

-Chorus-
You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this
You're gonna miss this
Yeah, you're gonna miss this

Edit: If you're wondering about the video, the only version of the actual video I could find on youtube had the embedding disabled, but I wanted to share the song regardless. :)

Day 7 - As if Things Couldn't Get More Stressful...

Our landlord decides to do something so completely unexpected (and might I add ILLEGAL) that I haven't even been able to post in this blog for the past few days. (Not that I had anything interesting to talk about other than whining about the wait and wishing that we just knew something. Anything.)

His girlfriend decides she wants to use the apartment we're living in and convert it to a hair salon. So she gives us 30 days to move. Um, what? According to the laws in our province:

"In a periodic tenancy (for example, a month-to-month tenancy) the landlord may give 3 months notice to terminate the tenancy at any time, and the tenant must give one month notice." Source: CMHC

Either way, we want out. I don't have time for this crap. We could fight it and get our extra 60 days in the apartment but if Johnny gets a date for boot camp, I want to be already settled in before he leaves. I don't want to be moving a month later. That would completely and utterly suck.

So back to apartment hunting and fuming. Still no word on BMQ because the bases are closed today. ARGH!

Day 3 - Phone Rage

I have a love-hate relationship with my telephone.

Some days I love it because it keeps me from being lonely. If at any point in my day I crave conversation with someone whose favorite topic to rave about is not Spiderman, I can pick up my telephone and call...my mother. Because let's face it, I don't have many friends and my mother is awesome. I also love it when it rings with a surprise phone call from my sister or sister in law or cousin.

Today my telephone and I are NOT FRIENDS.

That telephone is supposed to be ringing with someone on the other end who can provide us with answers, and the only person to call us all day was someone wanting to confirm a bill payment and the time remaining in the day for us to get answers is quickly ticking off the clock.

For those of you wondering about the "one week versus three months" debate from yesterday, Johnny called to get to the bottom of it and they said it's normally three months-ish because most people need to get some sort of clearance, be it from a doctor, employer or something like that. Johnny is right now only waiting on his background check. Which we know is fine...they just need the paperwork.

So since my post for today is boring and I'm anxious to get back to glaring at my telephone as if I could will it to ring, check out The Winter of My Discount Tent", a blog of a friend of mine. She's way funnier and more interesting than me right now!

Day 2 - More Waiting

So Johnny finally did show up yesterday, just so you know. I'm not still sitting in a hotel lobby a day later.

He showed up smiling since apparently all testing went swimmingly. He passed his medical with flying colors (minus the fact that he is apparently as color blind as you get) and the interview was incredible. He was also told that he could get a call back with a BMQ date as soon as today.

TODAY!

So the wait may not be as bad as we thought, right?

Well...maybe. He called there today to ask a question that he had forgotten to ask yesterday and also casually asked if she knew when he might hear back. She said...maybe about three months.

...um what? Why would they tell him two such drastically different stories? Now I'm going a little crazy here because as I explained to you before: Joanie + Waiting = Nothing Good. Tell me that I could get some details this week and then tell me that I might be waiting for three months?! So who's right here? Johnny thinks that the person that interviewed him just might have a bit more insight than the person he was talking to today, so I'm still hoping for the best. I'm not eager to have him leave, but since it's something that must be done I'd like to get it over with. After all, the sooner he leaves, the sooner we can be together again and settle into our new life.

Today my routine is all messed up. I'm still sitting here in my pyjamas at noon, trying to muster the energy to get up and do the things I know I need to do. Silas and Hayden have not been pleasant today, probably due to their routine being messed up after nights with Nanny (Johnny's mother) and Momma (my mother) and not sleeping in their own beds. Silas was exceptionally cranky and tired and is now napping. I'm supposed to be sorting through boxes and totes and drawers for yard sale items...but I'm so tired and lazy that I just can't seem to move from my computer chair.

Oh well, maybe after lunch.

*wishes the waiting would go faster*

Day 1 - The Waiting Game

If there’s one thing I’m not good with, it’s waiting. I’ve never been good at waiting for things. Surprises aren’t high on my list of favorites either. I like to prepare. I like to know what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen. I like calendars and planners and lists. I think part of this is why I struggled so much during my first two pregnancies. It was just a waiting game to meet this unknown child at the end. With Silas, we knew ahead of time that we were having a boy, so I was able to relax and just enjoy the pregnancy, since the only uncertainty of waiting was the “when” and my doctors weren’t going to let me go over my due date so even some of that uncertainty was lessened.

Today our journey begins. I’m writing this from our hotel room while Johnny is somewhere at the recruiting center having a medical and interview with the Canadian Armed Forces. I’m just waiting for him to come back so we can head out to the store, then head home to pick up our boys. I’m feeling pretty impatient – as usual – and I am suddenly struck with the realization that this is what my entire life is about to become; a waiting game.

First, the waiting to find out if he has passed all the testing and is accepted. Once that waiting is past, we move on to the waiting for a date for BMQ and from there to the waiting (and dreading) his departure for the training. It’s then that I begin the agonizing wait for boot camp to be over so that we can be together again. After he’s done with his basic and career training periods, we start waiting (and again more dreading) the time that he will be deployed.
This means that I’m going to have to work on my patience. Johnny seems very laid-back and accepting of the whole waiting game, but I’m not quite so cool and collected. I’m trying very hard, but I can’t help wishing I could just “know”.

When I know something, you’ll know something. As of now, day one of the waiting game is underway.

UPDATE: It's almost 2pm...I'm now sitting in the hotel lobby because checkout time was hours ago (but the wonderful people at the inn we are staying at allowed me to stay in the room past checkout time since I had nowhere else to go) and there is no sign of Johnny. He left at 7am and he's still not back. I hope this is a good sign. I'm pretty bored though. He even has the car so I can't go shopping!

Mission Statement and Purpose

Wow, that sounds a bit formal for me! Let me give you a little background on who I am and my intentions when I made this blog. A blog that I'm still not totally sure will succeed.

I'm Joanie, a twenty nine year old from Newfoundland, Canada. I'm married to Johnny, who is twenty seven.

This is us last year. No recent pictures of us together...Hrm...have to fix that. We got married on January 3, 2004, a beautiful winter day.

Yes, he had hair back then! Not much...but some!

We are the lucky parents of three beautiful, healthy and noisy boys. James is our oldest, he turned 7 just this month.




James is smart and funny and all those other things that a mother says her children are. He loves fishing and 4-wheeling and snowmobiling and biking and all other things that involve being outside. He is very much an outdoorsman. I will also tell you right off, to avoid having to go into it at a later time in this blog, that James lives with my mom due to circumstances right before and after Hayden's birth. I don't like the situation but it's best for him right now and I don't really care to discuss it any further on the internet, so I'll leave it at that!

Our second son is Hayden, who is 4 and a half.

He is also a million and one good things, but I'll throw in "strong-willed" on top of it all. Hayden has an attention-span disorder (he has not been diagnosed with ADD yet, but it's being looked into) and he's a handful and a half. He likes Transformers and Ironman and Spiderman and basically anything that moves really fast and makes a lot of noise. He has an imagination that's second to none and I often spend my days wondering "Who is he talking to?".

My "baby" is Silas, who is 2 and a half.

He's also a thousand good things, and knows just how to push all my buttons, whether for good or bad. He's a snuggler - though he wasn't as a baby - and incredibly loveable. He likes trucks, tractors and Thomas the Tank Engine.

Some more about me...I'm a gamer and a scrapbooker. I love to cook and bake and garden. I love boating, but the thought of having to swim paralyzes me with fear. I can't stand any critter with more than 4 legs unless it's a butterfly. I have an unhealthy addiction to Baked Lays Original Chips and collect anything with pigs on it, thanks to my darling sister. I also adore all things Tinkerbell and my favorite color is pink.

Johnny is a gamer as well. He's artistic and funny (sometimes) and loves to eat what I cook and bake. He's smart and cuddly and the best husband I could have asked to get. We do everything together! We both like photography and Yoga and taking long walks.

Now as to the reason I made this blog. Shortly after we got married, Johnny expressed an interest in joining the Canadian Armed Forces. He was accepted and got a date for Basic Training...except that at the same time I had just found out that I was pregnant with Hayden and the boot camp date was almost the same day as the due date! He changed his mind and decided instead to go to college to try his hand at accounting. He brought it up several more times in the following months and years, but I'm a bit of a wimp and don't like to be alone. The thought of 13 weeks alone while he's in BMQ and the inevitable deployments practically sent me into a panic.

Nothing since then has ever really made him happy and his desire to join the Armed Forces just grew. Finally we decided that it was time for him to follow his dream and he reapplied. Here's where the uncertainty of this blog comes in.

On Tuesday morning he has his medical and interview for the Canadian Armed Forces. That day I will truly start this blog as our journey beginning because it begins the wait. The agonizing wait to see if he is actually accepted. If he isn't, I will shut down this blog and begin a new one elsewhere chronicling our new path. If he is, this blog will continue on and Tuesday will be considered Day 1 of our journey, even though we've been on it for longer than that. To me, the journey doesn't truly begin until then.

I'll be taking my laptop with us to the hotel so that if there's internet there I can update. Wish us luck!!!