Quilt Giveaway

This is a beautiful quilt by a friend of mine. AMAZING! Love how talented she is! Quick - check it out before it closes tonight.

Whole Lotta Crazy...

So it is really no secret that I am a little nuts. Many of you would suggest that "little" isn't quite enough to aptly describe the Ku-Ku, but that is ok. For the most part, my crazy is funny - a quirky side of me that I am well aware of, but doesn't really affect my life. Enter my INSANE fear of earthquakes. I am wholly and completely terrified of them. There have been many days where I wake up and think, "I am so glad I live in SASKATCHEWAN because there is NO CHANCE of there ever being an earthquake here." (Such is the benefit of being completely land-locked in the middle of the prairies in Canada. Yup - no chance of an earthquake here! Ok - did you hear that crazy? I LOVE living in Saskatchewan because of no earthquakes??? Yeah - Yikes.)

To explain: when I was 14, my siblings and I were visiting my Nana and Opa in Palm Desert. It was AWESOME! We hung out at the pool everyday and it was the closest I have ever been in my life to having a tan. We were there for 3 weeks and I was in heaven. We saw Geckos and went shopping, went to Disneyland... I felt like we had truly had the "full" California experience. Then on a Wednesday before we were to leave, there was a tremor. It was only 4.1 - enough to give us a little shake and an even bigger thrill. It was AWESOME! WAY better than Disneyland! We had so much adrenaline and couldn't believe our luck at being able to tell all our friends that we were actually in a real earthquake. Then about an hour later, the mobile home started shaking with the fury of a deranged parent! Stuff was flying out of cupboards and the freezer and my bags were packed before it was over. It was 6.3 and we were only 5 miles from the epicenter AND San Andreas Fault. They believed this quake had a 25% chance of causing "The Big One". Umm.... hello? I wanted out of there!!!!!!! I had HAD it with California and vowed to never, ever cross the state border again.

Earthquakes became something I thought about from time to time. When the garage door opened in my parents house in Calgary I quietly freaked. As I did when a freight truck drove too fast down the street, Apparently there is a massive fault line in Utah and every time we visit family I am always aware; listening for crickets because that night in California was SILENT. I finally went back to California a couple summers ago with Paul and the kids and my Loco was just as fervent. I would think about earthquakes several hundred times a day, wondering "what would I do if I was in an earthquake right now?? What about now? And now? I would question the safety of the roads and buildings I was in... Are you getting the picture yet? Yup - TOTALLY nuts!!

Anyway - so this film shoot is in California. And I was actually doing ok about it; looking forward to it even. I focus about how fun it will be and how great it will be having some time with Paul. We were there for 3 weeks 2 summers ago, and we weren't in any earthquakes or tsunami's (don't get me started about those...), so it will be fine (and this is what I keep telling myself) AND THEN THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE IN L.A. LAST NIGHT.

That may have sealed the deal guys! I don't know that I need to tell my acne story that bad!

Fun quiz - thanks Andrea!

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I Heart ProActiv

Funny things happen in my life and sometimes the weirdest things occur as a result.  The best example of it is an impending commercial I am going to be on.  Yes... I am going to be gracing the little screen with my presence and telling the story of my skin on a ProActiv commercial!  It all started on a late night whim when I saw an infomercial for ProActiv and I was hooked (as I often am with infomercials - they are just so convincing!).  When I finally got my order in the mail, I was so excited to start using it - I have had mediocre skin since my awkward teenage years and was so looking forward to promised perfection!!!  I read the entire information brochure in detail and was anxious to get started.  There was a part where it told you to take before and after pictures and write your story for some free product.  Since I am always up for "free" I took the required photos and started using the product.  Turned out I didn't need to use the "60 day money back guarantee" because I fell in love with it!!  So I mailed in my pictures, waited for my free product and thought nothing more of it.  Then I got a very random phone call from the people at ProActiv asking me to tell them more about my experience.  As I was still babysitting, I was thrilled for an adult convo and diversion, even if it was talking about my acne!  By the end of the conversation, Tamra said, "You have informercial written all over you and we would love to fly you to San Francisco to film you!"  

Stunned silence....

"Huh?"

The commercial is set for July (my MIL Clare is going to watch the kids and can't do it until then) and Paul and I will fly down for a whole week of near childless bliss!  (I think Ezra, aka "Saskatoon Fats" will be crashing I mean joining us.)  Heaven thank ProActiv!!!! 

Now if only I could lose 30 lbs of  "having 4 babies chub"...

(Why this isn't going to happen...  )

Going Public

For a while I kept my blogging secret.  Not even my mom knew about it, and my mom knows about pretty much everything.  The Blog was called "Just for Laura" because she kept harassing me to start one.  Not too sure why... but I am glad she did.  I was extremely hesitant to start because I wanted it to be funny, well-written, darling, awesome pics of everyone and everything... basically perfect.  And since I knew logically that was NEVER going to happen, I didn't even want to start.  Enter Laura.  She is very good at persuading and promised she would never tell anyone else about my secret little blog.  (Yes, I see now how silly it was to think Blog on the INTERNET could be secret - haha.)  And that it would only be her reading it so it wouldn't matter if it wasn't perfect.  Made sense, right?  Why not!  True to her word, she didn't tell anyone.  But as I left comments on other people's blogs that I read, it would take them (me unknowing) to my ever imperfect blog.  (Stress level increasing, stress level increasing...  Deep breath... deep breath)  But I guess I kind of got over it (which I am certain Laura knew I would) and now am thrilled to have comments from friends about the silly things I think about.  Thanks for reading, your comments and now I would be happy if you come back, as long as you don't expect it to be perfect.

Take that Crazy!  I am so going to defeat you one day...!

Sleeping Angel

I am a huge proponent of "letting kids cry-it-out" when it comes to teaching babies how to sleep.  People know this about me and often will call for a pep-talk or how-to right before they attempt it with their own babies.  I KNOW that it is for the best.  The theory is that you are parenting and teaching them a lifelong skill.  It takes discipline and commitment and denying yourself from running into the room and scooping your precious infant in your arms to make his sadness go away.  You have to believe in what you are doing or you will absolutely fail and both you and babe will be MISERABLE!  

That being said, I dread 6 months.  And I dread it for the full 6 months.  For the first half  year of their lives, my kids have always slept with us; nursing at will at the all night diner.  I am perpetually exhausted for this duration.  But it doesn't usually bother me because I know that it is so short lived.  Then at 6 months, I let my beautiful baby cry.  Because if they get to the point where they can sit up on their own, it gets WAY worse.  

Ezra has had some issues with asthma and RSV.  I have put off letting him cry because I wasn't ready.  Besides, he is such a good baby - I couldn't bear to have him sad.  (Also the guilt of knowing full well that any bad sleep habits are exclusively my fault since I trained him that way since he was born.)

So I knew that time was fast approaching.  I realized the other day that Ezra was already 7 months old.  I was struggling getting him to sleep naps (at 20 lbs, he is WAY too big for the swing) and he no longer would nurse to sleep.  He never went to bed at night before 10:30 and he was starting to strain those abs trying to sit up.  I knew it was time and my heart sunk.

The first night I gave him an evening bath, and made sure to do a routine so he would learn to depend on cues that bedtime was coming.  I sang to him and cuddled him and nursed him and loved him.  Then I put his in his crib (yes the one he has hardly ever been in), turned out the light and walked out the door.

He cried for 5 minutes.  And then REALLY revved it up.  I was so sad and felt so awful.  After 20 minutes he volcano puked all over his clean bod, jammies, sheets.  So much for that!  We quickly re-bathed him and I brought him back into bed with us.  I felt awful, but I also knew that it would only get worse as he got older.  

The next night I tried again.  This time he cried for 7 minutes and was out cold.  A couple hours later he whimpered for about 30 seconds, and then proceeded to sleep through the NIGHT!  He woke up at 7:30 this morning cooing in his crib!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I could hardly believe it.  The longest he had gone without nursing (day or night) was 3 hours...!  Imagine my elation and how big the girls were (ok, don't imagine that...!).  Even with that success, I still worried about nap time.  I wanted him to be in the routine of night before I tried the day - but then how was I going to get him to sleep?!?!  So, fretfully, I nursed him, sang to him and laid him down fully awake and left the room.  A few minutes later after being distracted, I realized I hadn't heard a peep from him.  I went to check on him and sure enough - sound asleep.  

So it turns out Ezra is super star and I had nothing to worry about.  Not that I would have done it any earlier though... l wouldn't change the first 7 months of snuggling for anything.  But I am just so relieved and grateful that now that he is bigger and needs to learn how to sleep on his own (since I couldn't do it for him anymore) that it was such an easy transition.  Yeah for letting them cry and bigger yeah that he didn't really have to!!!!!!

?????

This is what Paul found when he got out of the shower this morning.  After telling him for the last few days that I wasn't feeling well, and was super tired, and after his insisting that I take a pregnancy test... I finally got this out this morning.  (BTW - 2 lines = POSITIVE.)

Paul called me in and said, "Have you seen this?? Me "Why?"

Paul - lifting the pregnancy test for me to see...

Me - "Oh My Gosh."

Paul - (Laughing, shaking his head) "Holy Crap, Is this for real?  I can't believe it.  What are we going to do?  We are so done!"

Me - "There is no way... But how could it be wrong?"

Paul - "I have no idea what to say..."

Silence

Me - "Well - I can only think of one...  April Fools!"  

Hahaha.  I wanted to let him think it all day, but he has a big exam on Friday that he really needs to be able to focus on.  So ladies, get a pregnancy test from the dollar store while you are pregnant, take it, and keep it in the wrapper until a future date when you want to mess with your husband's head...  Guaranteed good time!!  

It was fun to see what he would say though.  When my brother Stefan, found out his wife JoDee was pregnant with their 5th (the oldest, twins, were 7) he didn't speak to her for 3 months!  Thankfully Paul was a little better at receiving unexpected news.