Birthday, Quilt, Grad....oh my!

Wow, I knew it had been a while since I posted but I didn't realize that it had been that long. Sigh. Days and weeks are flying by much too fast. So let's play catch up.

The end of April was spent wishing for nicer weather, getting used to Brock sleeping well on his tummy, trying to find the time and energy to finish Kristie's quilt, playing with friends and all the mundane but important things that moms do. Oh, and doing a bunch of tests because I've been having gall bladder attacks again - minus the gall bladder. Blood work, ultra sound and CT scan later says I'm normal. Doc thinks that I probably have small stones in my liver and get the attacks when one of them passes. So far they haven't been too bad so we're just monitoring it as best as we can for now. The CT scan was interesting as I got there and was informed that I couldn't nurse for 48 HOURS! I didn't know that. So Brock went cold turkey for a day and a half and I pumped and dumped. I said a prayer on the way home from the hospital that he would be able to tolerate that much formula at once and be able to drink it until it was OK for him to nurse again. He did fine for 36 hours and then flatly refused any more. So I started nursing him again trusting that the Lord had blessed him for the time that he needed. The only negative side is that he refuses ANY formula now so if I need to leave him I have to try and pump enough for him. It's limiting but worth it.

May 1st found us celebrating Rhett's 3rd birthday. His actual birthday is on the 4th but we had the party on the Friday so Cliff could be there too. We planned for the park, crossed our fingers and got lucky! The weather was gorgeous, we had lots of friends come and Rhett thought everyone at the park that day was there for him! The kids had a blast running all over the park and playing. We took a break for candles, cupcakes and presents and then it was back to playing again. I went to the dollar store and got a bunch of buckets and shovels for the treat bags and they were a hit! A success all around. When you ask Rhett how old he is he'll tell you 3 but hold up 2 fingers. Quite cute! And I was a brain dead mom and forgot to think about the sun so Zane got burnt, I got burnt and even Brock got a little sun burnt. Grrrr. Rhett has been living with his hat on - it comes off for prayer, bath and bed. That's it. So he was spared the sun burn. Oh well. We all lived and they weren't bad. Just a little red reminder to bring the sunscreen out.

It was also Stake Conference weekend and the evening session for adults was a panel discussion about preparedness. They had 6 members of the stake at the front who were the 'experts' in certain fields of preparedness either because of their actual work or their current calling and after some brief comments opened the panel to questions from the audience. It was very different. What I got out of the whole thing was that there are many resources within our stake that we aren't aware of and if we have concerns about something we need to take them to our RS pres, Elders Quorum Pres, Bishop, etc and if they don't know the answer they can find out for us. I was a great big chicken and did not venture out Sunday with three kids by myself. Cliff had to work in Calgary and I just wasn't up to sitting with 3 kids by myself not knowing if I could leave the 2 older ones with someone I knew to go and nurse Brock and logistics like that. The kids were bears all morning so I was glad I had made that choice!

Monday was Rhett's actual birthday and we got a great surprise...Grammie S was able to come up because Grandpa Dooley had a load to Red Deer! So me and the 2 little boys went and picked her up in the afternoon and Zane was surprised that Grammie was there after school to get him! We also had our good friends the Allreds over for ice cream sundaes and candles and happy birthday for Rhett again. Birthdays aren't just a day in our house it seems. They're more of an extended event. Anyways, with Grammie here I was able to get Krisite's quilt almost done...just the binding had to be hand sewn.

Zane started soccer on Tuesday. It was so fun to watch him. He did really good for his first organized game and his team came out tied. They play the width of the field and have one regular field split into 4 different games. They play 3 on 3 and about 3 minute shifts so everyone gets lots of playing time and ball time. He plays Tuesdays and Thursdays until the end of June. And he LOVED it. And of course he slept super well that night. The rest of us froze (minus Brock who was either nursing or in the snugly) and we were really glad that soccer was only an hour!

We left Thursday afternoon for Barnwell for Kristie's high school grad. We stopped in Calgary to eat and feed Brock, tried to do a little bit of shopping, carried on to Lethbridge, dropped Grammie at her truck and carried on to Barnwell. It was a long trip but the kids were troopers.

Friday Cliff went golfing with his Uncle Roy in Taber and I took the kids to show off at mom's work. Kristie watched the big boys in the afternoon while Cliff and I did a bunch of stuff in Lethbridge. We got to see his Grandma and Grandpa Jackson (grandpa's in the hospital) and they haven't seen Brock yet so that was really nice. And we also hooked up with his Uncle Gary and Aunt Melanie who we haven't seen in 5 years because they've been living in Ireland. It was a busy day but a lot of fun to see everyone and get a good visit in.

Saturday was Kristie's grad and was spent going back and forth to the different parts of grad. Auntie Rikki watched the big boys for the morning exercises and Auntie Kizzy came and picked them up for the evening part. I finished off the quilt in the morning...took pictures but still am having program issues. It's on my radar, I promise. Anyways, Kristie looked gorgeous - I wished her dress was a little more modest but that was her choice and it definitely made her look all grown up.

And then it was all of a sudden Sunday. We went to church in Barnwell, saw a lot of good friends, had a fabulous mother's day dinner, hung out with family and then packed up and came home.

I have a list a mile long of things I want to do but I'm trying to categorize them and focus on one thing a day instead of trying to do too much in one day. And I have finally got back on the weight loss wagon. I've flirted with exercise over the past 12 weeks, and have had a few good eating days but I wasn't completely committed and any little thing swayed my resolve. Not the way to lose the weight - I know - I've been here before. So I did a lot of thinking and decided I needed some added incentive to eat good - that's the part I'm most struggling with. And I came up with a fabulous bribe! For every day I stay on points (I'm doing the same Weight Watchers system I did last time) I get $1 to spend on fabric! There is a fabulous Jelly Roll (which is a bunch of pre-cut and matched strips rolled up together for those of you who don't quilt) that I've been eyeing up in a store in Lethbridge. Yep, it's gonna be mine. So far so good. I even baked like a mad woman today and resisted the cookies. That's HUGE! And how did I bake do you ask? A little bit of planning and a LOT of luck!

Hopefully it won't be so long until I post again.....I'll try to pencil it in more often!