We live in Hondaworld

Ever since we were expecting our fourth, I've been eyeing a new van. We got our first mini-van after Verity was born, in 2005. Before that we all fit into our Accord wagon. (We're somewhat fond of Hondas). (Ok, we're Honda fanatics). (Blame my uncle, he started it).

But when I had to ride squeezed into the 10 inch space between the girls' carseats in the back seat of the Accord, we realized we needed to give in and get a minivan. An Odyssey, of course. There didn't really seem to be any way we could afford that though. The Accord had come second hand from the aforementioned uncle who gave us a sweet deal. But I looked at the autotrader anyways. To my surprise and excitement, there were some old Odysseys out there that we could possibly handle purchasing. We went out to the Kitchener area to check out the cheapest. This 95' was going for about $3500 and once we got there it was obvious why. As I went to shift into gear during a test drive, the gear shift got stuck and wouldn't move. The salesguy nervously suggested that I just needed to really reef on it. Ok...buh-by now.

We ended up buying another 95' (earliest year Honda made the Odyssey) from some little place in TO for 5K. We were thrilled.

Now, this isn't actually our Odyssey. I realized when I went looking for a photo of big red, that we got our digital camera after that point, hence no pics of our first minivan. But google obliged me with this pic, quite close to ours. Except we didn't have a sunroof. Or those funky visors over the windows.

I'll bypass our unfortunate Hyundai experience...(You stray from the formula, you pay the consequences) and move onto the next Honda purchase, a little civic for James to take to work.

Unfortunately, we made the mistake of buying privately and that wasn't so rosy an experience. By now however, I would think you're starting to see our trend....

So back to the present. I got pregnant and we realized that our decision to buy a van with two bench seats was not so practical for 4 kids in carseats. Space overall became a bit of an issue, as the early Odyssey's were quite small. And I was having heartattacks in every parking lot with three kids trying out their independence on a four door (read: no sliders). So last week I started looking at Pilots. My brother had been razzing me that we should get a Pilot next, so I went to the Honda site to check them out. I clicked away, deciding that nope, I still liked the Odyssey better. On I clicked to autotrader and what did I find?

A mere 5 minute drive, over on Upper James, this 2000 (Yes!! Into the 2000's!!) Honda Odyssey was going for $5449. It wasn't red...but I didn't care...could we do it?

YES WE CAN!!

I want......this one.

http://www.trader.ca/powerpage/details.aspx?vlotid=95564&adid=6834267

Would anyone like to buy it for me?

Kentkids

I've recently made a couple posts on the kids' blog....

You should really hop over and see.

:-)

Kewl

These are taken by my friend Leanne. Very Ann Geddes-like, non? Thanks Leanne!

Say it ain't so

The other night I was at my moms, looking over her shoulder when she was checking her email, and my eye caught a news story on yahoo that made my heart sink.

Last Saturday, James and the kids and I spent a good portion of the day at a friends house, celebrating her youngest child's birthday with a BBQ. There were lots of friends over, and James and I met and spent some time talking with a couple who had two teenagers. We talked about all sorts of things, one of them being a discussion about our children's names, what they meant and why we had chosen them. Our new friend, who had a rather unique name himself-----Gideon--- joked that just as his daughters name----Hannah--which had been fairly uncommon when she was born and now is not, our children's names might someday be commonplace as well. I laughed and thought in my head about how completely impossible that was.

And then Jessica Alba had a baby. Do you know who Jessica Alba is? I think she might have started out as a pop singer, kind of like Mandy Moore, but turned actress and model. She's quite gorgeous. I remember her best from a fav movie, Never been kissed with Drew Barrymore. She played one of the stuck up popular kids, who dressed up as a Barbie Doll for the themed high school prom, and got in an argument with her equally popular and ditzy friends about which Barbie doll she was (Malibu Barbie? Disco Barbie? Truly mindboggling stuff).

I'm sure by now you're getting the idea, if you didn't see it on the news yourself.

Babies
Honor Marie 'Looks Just Like' Mom Jessica Alba
Originally posted Tuesday June 10, 2008 06:55 PM EDT
Jessica Alba and Cash Warren Photo by: Alex Berliner / Berliner Studio / BEImages
tiiQuigoWriteAd(757767, 1348046, 240, 190, -1);


Jessica Alba has passed on her natural beauty to 3-day-old Honor Marie Warren, according to the star's brother, Josh. "She is gorgeous. She looks just like my sister," Josh Alba told E! News of his newborn niece. "Jessica did everything natural ... It went really well." Born June 7 in Los Angeles, Honor Marie is the first child for Alba, 27, and husband Cash Warren, 31. In recent months, Alba has been in full nesting mode, and now that the baby is here, the Alba family couldn't be happier. "We are all just ecstatic," Josh said. "She definitely looks like an Alba to me."– Arnesa A. Howell

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!?!

Sure, she spells it American, but still, this spells death for the uniqueness I've cherished in my babies' names. Ach, I'm probably overreacting....but I guarantee there will be a few more Honour's out there in the next few years. Alba might not be a superstar like Julia Roberts or something, but a quick google tells me that she's got a significant following.

Sigh. Maybe she'll pop out 2 more kids in the next 2 years and we won't hear diddly about her...she'll slowly fade from the public eye......Is that an evil thing to wish? So sorry.

The early weeks

As you can imagine, I haven't had a whole lot of time these past few weeks to blog. But, it's Saturday morning, James is holding the baby, the kids are watching Dora....so I have a few moments to myself....incredibly.

First off, I wanted to post to extend my condolences to the Allen family. Ronalee (who you might notice has left comments here as of late) is a good friend of my moms. Tragically, she was killed in a car accident yesterday. Her soon to be adopted baby boy was with her and he is apparently at McMaster right now; I don't know what his status is, but I'm sure he needs your prayers. Ronalee leaves a husband and I think 4 other children; one grown daughter and others younger. They were well known at Fair Havens. Please pray for this family.

I'm going to tentatively say that my family is finally well.....knock on wood....First I continued to fight off a wicked cold that I had before the baby was born. That took a good week and a half after Afton came. Then last weekend, about 3am Saturday morning, Verity woke me up by throwing up all over her bed. This continued for the next 12 hours. When she started with a fever, I had James take her to Mac. 6 hours later, they were home with the diagnosis of a stomach virus. Brilliant. We had been planning her birthday party for that day--she turned 3 on the 20th, and we were supposed to be going to Barrie on Sunday for a family shindig. Instead, I sent the older two to my parents, hoping to shield them from the germies....and give us a break. With a tiny baby who, as my babies tend to be, doesn't sleep for long periods and doesn't care to sit by herself, tending to a vomiting toddler was tricky. I couldn't sit in Verity's room to watch over her with the baby in arms, because then I couldn't jump up and help Verity when the next wave hit. So it took both James and I...which was leaving the older two roaming the house stealing food from the pantry. (Ok, that's just Jairus). (Who does that even when his parents aren't preoccupied with his sisters).

I had hoped that the virus would be a 24 hour thing, but instead it just kept progressing through phases....I won't detail those. But most disturbing was just how much pain she was in. At times she was rolling around on her bed, wailing about her painful tummy. Finally, on Tuesday morning, after a couple hours of her wails I decided to take her back to the doctor. As my family doctor didn't have any openings for a week and a half, I took her to a local walk in clinic. Even though the vomiting had pretty much stopped, what do you suppose she did all over me while we were in the waiting room? Of course, because....that's what kind of week I was having.

The doctor dismissed us with the same diagnosis. I asked him how long it should be lasting and he said 36 hours. I leveled a look at him and said it had now been 3 days. He didn't have any good answer for that.

Meanwhile, I had dress rehearsal on Monday night, a concert on Wednesday night and tonight is our final concert. I would have been somewhat stressed about that anyway, never mind doing it with a newborn in tow and a sick girlie at home. It was difficult to get my mind on my job, which is my excuse for why I led the choir off the stage on Wednesday, completely forgetting to sing the last song, an acapella canon. My kids (choir kids, that is) were absolutely gleeful to catch Mrs. Kent in a huge blunder. Oh well, I have tonight to make up for it.

I prayed all week that none of the rest of us would get this, but internet searches on gastroenteritis and it's highly contagious status were not giving me much hope. Sure enough, on Thursday afternoon, Jairus refused his lunch and went to bed instead, crying and pointing to his tummy. I sat on his bed and cried with him. Got him a gravol and he went off to sleep.

And then that evening, a sense of dread began in my gut when the baby seemed a little warm. Her diapers started looking a little....odd (I'll spare you any further details). I took her temperature and it was a little high. We went to bed and I woke around 3 to change and feed her...and her temperature was higher, nearly 101F. I called the midwife in a mild panic and she told us to take off a layer and get her some tylenol. We did both and I was relieved to see the temp come down....but why was it up in the first place? She couldn't possibly have the virus too....NOOO!!

The entire next day I took her temps hourly, logged every feed and detailed every diaper change. Perhaps I was being a little overly paranoid, but after the week I'd put in.....and with her only being 3 weeks old....sigh.

But today seems better. Her temps have stayed down without Tylenol since early evening last night, and she's not complaining as much. Jairus also perked up without any further signs of virus. I'm SO thankful. Yesterday was Verity's first normal day, with only one or two wails. Now I just have to remember to sing that dang canon tonight and I will be on top of the world!!

Here's another picture of my newest girlie....taken yesterday when she was not feeling so well....I think it shows!

Afton Leah Kent

Ok, so two days past due is acceptable....

Little girl was born at 8:19pm last night. I woke up about 4:30am with contractions about 10 minutes apart, but not very long. To my disappointment, by the time my midwives arrived, around 10am, things had slowed down even more then that. I spent most of the day walking....inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs, trying to get them going strong (when else do we try to bring on pain...?).

I think it was some homeopathics that finally did the trick---don't ask me what they were, all I knew was that when the midwife offered me something that could possibly start labour strongly, I jumped at it...and they worked. Meanwhile, I got both doses of the antibiotic in that I needed, being Group B Strep positive. I wondered if perhaps subconciously I caused things to go slowly until that was done...

Once things picked up, it was rip roaring to the end though. I took those homeopathics around 5 I think, finished the antibiotics at 7 and less then an hour and a half later, Afton Leah made her appearance. The midwife gathered her up in the weigh sling and asked us to guess...we were all in the 7 pound range.....(buzzer sound) All wrong! She beat out Honour by one ounce--8 pounds, 6 ounces, 21.5 inches long, which makes her my biggest baby. Jairus was the same length, but only 6 pounds, 7.5 ounces. I was pretty surprised. She's doing very well and even gave us a nice block of sleep last night. As you can see, Jairus, Honour and Verity are thrilled...

By the time she was born, we had James, my parents, two midwives, three kids, 4 sisters, one boyfriend and a partridge in a pear tree in the house.

I'm so thankful that it's all done, thankful to God for the strength get through yesterday, thankful to my husband, who as usual was a wonderful support through it all, thankful to my amazing midwives who did a fantastic job and thankful to my mom for her presence and comfort through the hardest parts. Thank you!

Fifth Babies have no business being overdue.

Need I say more?

Photo Shoot

I was reading over my last few posts and thought...'Man am I a complainer!!'.

So for a change, here's something slightly more interesting....pictures of a nine month pregnant lady. (!!!)

Our good friend Dave from church offered to do a 'belly shoot'. Never fear, no actual pics of my belly (scary prospect), but lots of me and my fam. Here's a few of the favourites (out of nearly 150 shots!)

T Minus 6 and counting

Little update...no baby yet.

There are times when I don't understand how I could feel so miserable and not be in labour. Yesterday was a good case in point. I had an AWFUL night with very little sleep and continued to feel rotten all day. Usually I go out around noon to do some vocal coaching at an elementary school, but I just could not make myself do it. My good friend Sonia, who normally watches my kids at that time, came over anyway and made the kids their lunch....ah, good friends are so lovely....

As evening came, I dreaded having to get myself out for choir rehearsal. I really do wonder how much this babe weighs now, as there are times where I feel like I'm carrying a couple dumbells in there. The only thing that got me out of the house was the prospect of seeing my chiropractor first. As well as my usual adjustments, she did a few things that might apparently get labour going....but no luck yet.

I still find my hand gravitating to the top of my belly a few times a day to check for head/butt status. Still good I believe.

Made it to the homeschooling convention this past weekend, which, as much as I hoped to go into labour early, was still a goal. It was a good day. James and I went out to breakfast for the first time since....we lived in Chicago, I think. I had very yummy waffles with strawberries. We made it over to the convention centre in time for the first set of workshops and spent the day taking in various seminars and perusing the large room of booths with all manner of homeschooling resources.

So today I see my midwife and perhaps have a little procedure to get labour going. Never pleasant...but worth it in the end!

So far, so good

It seems that so far, little one is sticking her nose where it belongs.

(heehee!)

I saw the chiropractor again today and she's keeping my bones and muscles in good working order so that the baby won't have any reason to go flipping around again. I'll be 38 weeks this weekend and the end could not come sooner. Today would be nice.

So otherwise, not a whole lot going on. I've got all the baby clothes washed, folded and mostly put away. I seem to be missing a fair bit of newborn size stuff, which perplexes me....I'm pretty sure I didn't loan anything out. But for sure I normally have many little newborn hats, and I can only find one.
The homebirthing 'kit' is stocked and ready....except for the baby hats.
The new cloth diapers are washed and in a neat stack on the baby's dresser/changetable. I need to get a diaper pail though.

Today I'm wearing one of my husbands shirts. I feel very....unattractive in it, but when I pulled on a maternity top, you could see every little crease and cranny....also unattractive. Maternity clothes are so small these days. Really, I mean, not just because I'm about as big as I'll get---I've noticed that the trend in maternity clothes since my first few pregnancies has changed. Why Old Navy thinks that your stomach slowly becoming the size of a beach ball is something we pregnant women want to show off from top to bottom is beyond me.

I mean, I know alot of young women, or even young-to-getting-older women like me (can I still call myself a young woman? I'm 33) have this issue with clothes and they feel they are just not attractive unless much of their clothing is superglued to their bodies. They're the teenagers that never end. Maybe I have an advantage having been a teenager in the 80's (the late 80's, I'll grant you) when loose and baggy was totally the trend. I became comfortable in that.

Now, even my non pregnant clothes have moved beyond that level of balloon style pants, cinched at the ankle (although, have you noticed? Tight ankles are back in now). I'd like to think that I'm somewhere between the two extremes. But I digress. The point is, that these women who don't feel attractive unless we can see every bulge get pregnant, and expect to wear their clothes the same way. So maternity clothing companies respond. But they forget that most of us, especially near the end of a pregnancy value comfort over style any day. I have been so uncomfortable this pregnancy because the style of pants now is to have a large swath of elastic material that goes around the bottom of your belly, or perhaps pulls halfway up, before you're too large. I carry low and out front, always have. There's not a whole lot of room there for the waist band of my pants. And to have even that much more pressure in an already tight spot is tremendously annoying. I used to have a few pairs of stretchy cotton leotard-style pants that pulled right up over my belly. Unfortunately, I loaned them away, never to be seen again. The few pairs of 'old fashioned' above the belly waist band pants I still had only lasted me to about 7 months. I sit today in the one pair that I got from Value Village. I feel rather untrendy in them, as they don't have flared cuffs (alright, I will admit that one fashion weakness). But I'm comfy. And I don't care who sees me in them.

Anyways, enough babbling. I'm ready to go. Going to take the kids to the park in a few minutes, hoping the walk will do me good---good, as in, gets me closer to labour. I'll let you know!!

Apparently

....she's flipped back. Last night---not that I felt anything, no, she's now moved 360degrees in my belly and I had no idea. I thought I would be vastly relieved, and in a small way I am, but now I'm just worried she'll do it again. Even though I've been seeing a chiropractor regularly, and it's likely the adjustments she made yesterday morning that allowed the baby to turn again, I can't help but think that any moment, little missy could decide she's not comfortable down there again and then we'd be back to square one. I've been feeling my tummy so often that now I don't know what I'm feeling. 2.5 weeks seems like a VERY long time....

Breechy Little Monkey

So last night I was feeling really achy, particularly just inside my left hip. I felt like ligaments stretching so I wasn't really concerned, it was just annoying. Even more annoying was that it wasn't going away easily. Usually just positioning to take the strain off the ligament is enough to relieve it, although I have had a few times recently that it lasted for an hour or so.

Well, 4 hours and a bath later and I was still feeling like something was odd. We had been at my parents for the day and we headed home about 10pm. When I got home, I got right into bed, but lying down, as it had earlier in the evening, made the pain worse. After tossing and turning for a bit, I finally sat up in exasperation, wondering if I was going to need to sleep sitting up that night. The baby was quite active and I put my hands on my belly.

Lo and behold, at the top of my little basketball of a tummy, what did I feel?

A head.

I sat in the dark with a very confused look on my face for a moment. James came in and looked at me strangely. As I kept my hand there, the very hard, round shape I was feeling moved around quite a bit. More and faster than any little baby butt is able to move. On top of that, I could feel little pokey movements---not feet. Hands. I had to sit for a bit to get my mind around this. Then I got up and called my midwife.

Her student answered, as she was off for the weekend. We talked a bit and I told her what I was thinking, feeling a little foolish. What baby flips to a breech position 3 weeks before she's due? How is that even possible?

The midwife assured me that it was possible. I didn't find that assuring, actually. She asked me a bunch more questions and then said she was going to call my back-up midwife for advice. After about 10 minutes she called again. She would get me an apointment to come into clinic for the next day so they could check, and she mentioned the possibility of going for an u/s if there was some question. For that moment, I could take some Tylenol for the ligament pain, and hope to get some rest. At least that part worked.

I got in to see the student midwife, and my back-up for about 10:30 this morning. The student couldn't tell which way she was for sure. I thought the large round head shape at the top of my uterus seemed pretty obvious as I lay on the examining table. My back-up, Simone came in and started feeling around. She got a bit of a smirk on her face....she knew I was right. The baby had turned.

They got me an u/s over at St. Joes for this afternoon, just to be sure. At least I got to see her again. She's sideways, essentially looking at my right armpit, with her back down the left side of my belly. One leg is curled up with her knee at her chest, the other more stretched out into the bottom right of my torso, poking into my right hip----which made for extreme discomfort when I went to stand up from the u/s, after laying on my back for 15 minutes.

And now I'm home. Every once in a while, probably every 5 minutes or so, I feel for her head to see if it's still there. I got up early this morning and did a bunch of reading on the internet about breeches. Lotsa info out there. A few different 'natural' type things I could try. Which I will. I've already made an appointment with my chiropractor, who apparently knows some technique called the Webster that could help. Other sources talked about getting yourself into positions where gravity will encourage the babies head to go down. They say to do it for 15 minutes twice a day. At this point I'm willing to do it ALL DAY LONG.

I'm upset and annoyed and frustrated that I've made it through this pregnancy, which has been such a stressful thing, with this beautiful vision in my head about delivering this baby healthy and whole in my own bed, like the girls were. This is what I've held onto since the moment they told me that Hayden was gone. This birth was going to be the final bookend for the journey I've been on since that loss. I've actually been looking forward to this birth, relishing the thought of labour starting and working through that process again, until a little girl emerged, big and strong. I've been careful to answer peoples' questions about homebirthing with the caveat that I would homebirth if everything was going well. I finally made it to 37 weeks, when my midwife said I could stay home and now look what's happened.

Blahblahblahblahetc.

It's Tuesday. I get to stay home today. I both like that and feel tired by it.

I'm somewhere between 36 and 37 weeks. I'm really not sure how far because there's the dates my midwife and I established when I first started seeing her last fall, and then there's the date from my first ultrasound. I think one puts me at 37 weeks by the weekend, and one puts me at 37 weeks tomorrow. I wonder which one my midwife will accept if I go into labour before the weekend. I really want to stay at home, which I can't do until I'm 37 weeks. I almost wondered if something was beginning when I woke up this morning. Both my daughters labours started in the morning, as I was waking up, or shortly thereafter. This morning I was pretty uncomfortable, but then again, I usually am. This was a little worse though.

I'm trying a new quiet time plan out. It's become apparent that Verity is pretty much done with naps, with, I'm sure, a few exceptions from time to time. However, we (ok, I) need the break after lunch. Jairus still plays nicely in his room for the quiet time. Honour on the other hand had gotten a little annoying. She used to sit in the 'quiet chair' and look at books or listen to a book on tape or radio drama. Well, she's sick of the cds we have and isn't interested in looking at books for an hour. Sooo, today I brainstormed a new plan. Both the girls would have quiet time in their room (right, that'll be quiet). But they have to stay on their beds and they can only play with the small selection of toys that I keep in their rooms. Or look at books, which there's dozens of in their room too.
Well, I've already taken Honour out and restationed her on the floor of my bedroom because they started screaming at each other over some toy. And while they are supposed to stay in the rooms with the doors closed, except for bathroom or some other emergency, they've both come out once each for bathroom, once each for a drink and once or twice each for some other reason.

I've cleaned up pee from two kids already today. Sigh.

I'm eagerly awaiting our tax return. We'll be paying off my student loan (yeeehawwww!!) and establishing the all important 'emergency fund' that Dave Ramsey insists you should have. After trying to follow his and Crowns ideas for the past 3 years or so with some, but not all the success I would have liked to see, we're finally going to knuckle down and establish this fund as both sources say you should do at the very start of a financial/get out of debt plan.
With the remaining money (there'd better be remaining money....grrr) we can get a few baby things. We need a carseat, I'll probably just get a used one. We DON'T have to get a new co-sleeper as I thought we would, as James opened it up and tighted all the loose spots. Cool. We need to buy some cheapie Ikea mattresses, because we're putting the girls into bunk beds. We were given some bunks, but no mattresses and I wanted to get that done before the baby comes and hopefully give the girls a week or two in the new beds before another huge change hit the house. I was looking at Honour last night in her little Dora toddler bed and she just...barely....fits. It's time. And there's a few miscellaneous things---the kids and I all need hair cuts, we should really hire an exterminator because we have a little ant problem that I know will just get worse as the weather gets better...etc.

And I really have so many things to do that I shouldn't be sitting here blogging.

So see ya later.

Get with the times

I thought we were past the phase of political correctness.

I remember being roughly in highschool when even the phrase 'politically correct' became well used. And then there were the changes in peoples' speech patterns that followed---it was like a race to see who could identify and change the most inaccurate and apparently offensive terms in western dialogue.

I have to admit, I wasn't completely immune to it. Up until this time, we had always called my sister mulatto. It was after an Oprah episode when I was a teenager that I started calling her 'bi-racial'. And not knowing many other black people at that time, if I had gone to Chicago then, I might have been caught using the word negro. For a bit near the beginning of my time in the States I likely used African American most often, but by the time I graduated, it was black. And then I've already posted about my feelings concerning the word retarded.

But I've often thought it was much ado about nothing. And perhaps it's that my patience is a little thin these days, but frankly, I think the kafuffle raised over the Toronto councilman's lapse in pc-ness and now the poor guy out west is just eye rolling.

They crucified Councillor Rob Ford a few days ago when he had the 'audacity' to lapse into his childhood speech pattern and call Asians 'Oriental'. Frankly, while I recognize that using the word 'oriental' is old fashioned, I've never heard any convincing argument for why it's offensive. I mean, it's nothing like using the word nigger; 'oriental' is just a behind the times term. It's about as offensive as wearing fluorescent. And while in defense of himself, I thought he raised a couple good points about various other public sources that still use the word oriental (some university department--I only heard the broadcast once). Hasbro better watch their tails! Pretty soon they'll be forced to recall all the Monopoly games and reprint them with Asian Avenue! And his use of the phrase 'work like a dog' to describe the Asian community--give me a break! We all know it's true and we've all thought it before. 'Work like a dog' might not be the classiest way to compliment a society on their industriousness, but I guess Ford is not the classiest guy--I really wouldn't know as I'd never heard his name up until this past week. (And yes, a bit of googling turned up a few other 'foot in mouth' experiences--I just don't think the guy should be publicly flogged for having a bit of a red neck).

Now the uproar over Regina MP Tom Lukiwski's shameful past. I'll admit, it's slightly more concerning than a political figure that can't keep up with racial terminology. I saw this on the news last night and again I was thinking, 'is there nothing more important for these people to be focusing on?'.
My issue has to do with the fact that a) This was 16 freakin years ago! 16 years ago, I was in my last year or two of highschool. The whole gay lifestyle was just starting it's rise to public acceptance. Part of that rise was the gay community embracing the word gay---remember, it used to mean happy!! Faggot was another one of those words that they commandeered and decided that it was now a positive term, just another way to describe them. This may or may not be true today, but in the early 90's, it was well used by non-gays.
B), Did you notice what was happening in that video? It's obviously a mild party scene. People were drinking, hanging around, joking and laughing, it's obviously an 'off duty' moment. Are you telling me that a politician has no down time? That he is constantly on display? Surprise people, politicians are people that have their own thoughts and opinions, but may or may not support those in public.....I think that would be a big part of their job!

And finally, C) Why the heck was this brought out in the first place? Because some idiot out there was salivating at the prospect of making this guy look bad. The news said that the video had been left in some party headquarters for years and was just recently cleaned out....so someone found this video, popped it in, saw this guy making the comments and decided....what? That he/she just couldn't bear to toss it? That they just had to call the evening news and courier the tape right over? Please. I just have a real problem in ruining a guys life over a comment he made half a lifetime ago, in a down and possibly inebriated moment, using again, an old fashioned term, a barely-registering-on-the-insult-gauge term (I can hear it now, "yeah, well you've got dirt under your fingernails" will be ruling the schoolyard for the next few years), and a, well, truthful term. Do gays get diseases? They do. Do they transmit it to other people? They do. More than a straight guy married to the same woman his whole life? Indeed. Let the guy say sorry and get back to work people.

Sex

Whooo, got your attention, eh?!!

Ha, I did actually have a reason for that----it wasn't just for a jolt.

Quebec pulls sex ed


I'm just amazed at this article. They must really think we parents are complete idiots. To honestly think that pulling sex ed out of Quebec's public school system will leave kids 'groping in the dark' (oh, the pun) is just the ultimate in reliance on the government to do everything for us.

The whole homeschooling thing aside, I consider teaching my kids about sex one of the most important lessons they will learn from me, and I look forward to the moments where I will get to convey my beliefs to them on the subject. I relish the thought.

Quebec pulling sex ed!? Good riddance!!! The last line says that without a curriculum, alot of teachers will do nothing.....excellent!! Let them educate their own children about sex.

I will educate mine.

We are SO SICK

The title says it all. We are horribly, terribly, overwhelmingly sick. James is the only one so far not suffering.
I am currently counting down the moments until I can take some decongestant spray.....3....2......1......hallelujah!!!!!

Verity started with a cough a couple days after family day. My SIL was pretty sick that last day of the renos and Verity was all over her lap, so maybe that's where it came from. It was one of those really concerning thick coughs and I was afraid it was going to turn into croup. So I took her off to the doctors where we had quite an adventure. Just as we were waiting to see the doc, the fire alarm went off and the whole building had to evacuate. The fire department showed up. It was the Shoppers Drugmart next door, but I'm not sure what exactly. Their sprinker system went off. So after 15-20 minutes we went back into the clinic and just as the doctor came along, the power went out. He still listened to her chest, there in a dark hallway with only the emergency lights on, and wrote me out a prescription by hand for some kind of steroid that would calm her lungs down.

It worked, but she still went on to develop a brutal cold with a regular sounding cough. Last Tuesday night, I started feeling a little scratchy in the back of my throat and woke up in the middle of the night with everything aching. I got into see my chiropractor Wednesday morning--whom I haven't seen for 2 months because we couldn't afford even the co-payment. I was desperate though. I couldn't sit and couldn't stand from the pain, especially in my hips. Feeling as rotten as I was, I still hauled the kids to Dundas to see her, and put up with THE most atrocious behaviour from Verity. I swear she was possessed.

She was horrible for the rest of the day and I figured something was up with her. Sure enough, just as we were getting her pj's on, she suddenly announced that her ear hurt very badly. So James took her over to the walk in clinic, just in the nick of time, and had her looked at. Ear infection.
By now, I was completely congested, to the point of pain throughout my head, behind my eyes, into my teeth. I'm used to pretty bad sinus problems, but this seemed worse. And now Honour was blowing her nose and coughing like a....I can't think of anything that coughs alot.

James went off to work on Thursday, but decided on his own (after hearing me on the phone, I would imagine) that he needed to come home. Just in time to take Jairus over to the clinic, as he was burning up and hadn't moved from the couch all morning. By now all four of us were pretty much camped out in the family room. I've never been so glad for the 5 channels we get, one which includes TVO kids.
James brought Jairus home with his diagnosis of inner and outer ear infections. He needed Tylenol and Advil for more then 24 hours until his fever of 104 came down. He's still rather lethargic and his eyes are swollen. Also concerning are his blue fingernails.

I started on a regime of Oil of Oregano, only to find out after 24 hours and 4 doses that I shouldn't be taking it during pregnancy. Rats. There is just NOTHING I can take to help this. I can't even take the extra vitamin C that I normally would because for some reason, the stuff I have warns that you shouldn't take it within 2-4 hours of taking another medication, and I'm still on meds for strep throat. If I weren't pregnant, I would risk it.....

And now my nasal spray has kicked in and I can close my mouth. What a relief. The Tylenol is still working, so I can sit here and type. And I double checked with my midwife, Tylenol is OK. Phew.

So now I'm just waiting for Honour to start with something....fever, sore ears/throat, on top of the hacking she's already doing. How about pneumonia? We haven't had that in the house for a few years. This is what I dread every winter: the moment when my entire household is sick. With 3 kids, it's just impossible to isolate any of them.

I really hope this all passes soon.

He's My Son

If you've never had the time to look at Jairus' blog, and/or just never really understood what it was he was born with, this video, created by a dad from the Pierre Robin list I've been on for years, might give you some insight. The details are a little different, but the emotions are the
same. I especially love the prayer he prayed over his boy. And that Mark Schultz song has been constantly playing in my head since I watched this.

Joshua's Story

February Sucks

I'm in a lousy mood today. I'm hoping that blogging will lift my mood somewhat. But I have to get schooling done today, I've been sick lately and missed some, so I can't afford to miss today. So I'll type fast.

Yes, I have strep throat again. I had a sore throat all December, but because I was simultaneously having sinus problems, I just thought it was a sore throat related to that. Finally after like, the whole month, my midwife suggested I get it looked at. Some local clinic doctor took one look and dismissed it as a run of the mill sore throat, but took a swab anyway. A whole week later (cause it was over the New year holiday) I get a call....."Mrs. Kent, your throat culture came back positive for strep throat. Have you started antibiotics for that?".

Um, yes, because I would know exactly what antibiotic to prescribe for myself AND I could just waltz into a drug store and order it. What kind of lame brain question was that?

So, unhappily I started antibiotics for it. A five day power pill type antibiotic. After it was done, I felt better, but not all the way. So for another 6 weeks I ignored the sore throat and told myself it was just the dry winter weather and remaining sinus problems. Finally last Friday, the pain started getting worse so I went back to the same clinic, where a different doctor looked at my throat, declared it looked fine, but he would do a swab just to be sure. Of course, on Monday, I got a call that it was positive. More antibiotics. I've picked up some probiotics and am still taking grapefruit seed extract to combat it. This kills me. My insurance will pay for my prescription of a drug that I need to kill off my infection, but at the same time cause an imbalance in my system that could cause another infection. So I have to purchase excess remedies to combat this, all which cost me twice as much as the antibiotics, yet the insurance company wouldn't think of paying for that. How messed.

And how messed is PC bank? I am SO sick of them and I don't even bank with them. I tried them for a year a few years ago, just to save on the monthly fees but I ended screwing up my finances so many times because of how inconvenient they are, that I ended up paying fines that were vastly more expensive then the monthly fees from TD. I should have learned my lesson. But for reasons I won't get into--mostly financially based ones (as in, lack of money) I was forced to use my old PC account for a few things the last number of weeks and again, screwed up and was slapped with brutal charges for my mistakes. I've now paid to them twice the amount in fees that I would have paid to fix the problem I had in the first place that cause me to use them. I know that's kind of screwy sounding, but I don't want to get into details, so you'll have to try and muddle through that one.

My arm hurts because I had to get my RH shot yesterday because I'm a negative person. I mean, I have a negative blood type. On top of cold/strep symptoms this week, I've been feeling particularly big and heavy. Very uncomfortable. I wondered if perhaps she had shifted her position. Sure enough, at my midwife appointment, her head is now down. Which is why I feel like I can barely sit. I hope I'm not causing brain damage.

I had another dream last night. I won't get into it, but the gist was that I was at a highschool reunion. Strangely, it was at someones huge, grand house with a pool and everything. And Amanda Duern (now not Duern) was singing at the top of her lungs. She sounded pretty good.

And now for some exciting, positive news. Tomorrow we start redoing our bathroom. Sometime last year (and forgive me if I've blogged this---baby/strep throat brain) I announced to James that there was NO WAY my midwives were going to be coming into this house, and using our bathroom in the state it was in. Furthermore, there was NO WAY I was bringing my brand new baby into that bathtub for her first bath (a right-after-birth tradition) looking as disgusting as it was.
We knew that the bathroom wasn't the newest when we moved in. It was obvious that the fixtures and nearly everything in it was as old as the house---about 30 years. What we didn't know was how much had been covered up. The old people had painted....but likely hadn't thoroughly cleaned all the mildew or used the proper mildew resistant bathroom paint. So it wasn't long until we had a huge mildew problem--despite copious fan use. And the tub is slanted. It's an old metal tub, starting to rust in various spots, and it's not level, leaning down towards you if you're standing in front of it. Which means that during showers, water runs down it and off onto the floor. We tried numerous little things to fix this, all in vain. So slowly the wall next to the tub started to break down and destroy itself. And the linoleum beside the tub slowly discoloured and stained, indicating that the subfloor underneath was damaged. Then the taps started giving us a hard time, constantly leaking because of a botched repair someone before us tried to do. Then the sink, also metal, began to rust around the edges and drain. The sink taps became loose and wiggle everytime you turn them on or off. Many little things developed that made it into an unattractive and annoying bathroom. Plus, if we didn't fix some of the things, they would continue to rot until we had a huge, expensive mess on our hands. Something had to be done.

Problem A was no money. Even just to fix the things that were broken/destroyed would be way beyond what we could afford. Which was nothing.

Well, for reasons I won't get into, problem A suddenly had a solution. But it was a solution that I still felt meant that we would need to do this bathroom on the lowest possible budget. Habitat for Humanity, here we come.

I'd heard of lots of people donating things to Habitat---you see it on Makeover all the time. But I hadn't heard so much about people going and using things from Habitat. Still, we looked up the locations and found there were three within reasonable driving range. The first one we went to was right here in Hamilton.

We really lucked out there and found brand-new (donated demos) taps for both tub and sink for just over a hundred bucks. Then at the Burlington one, we bought a sink and toilet for 70$.

The last coup was when I checked back at the Hamilton one, still looking for a vanity. They had just gotten in a beautiful, brand new (but still discounted, of course) vanity that normally runs close to a thousand bucks at Home Depot. Complete with a matching framed mirror, we picked it up for 400$. It now sits in my living room and I cast many admiring gazes at it.

Oh, and my BIL is bringing us a tub for free. Perk of working for a home building company.

So after a trip to Home Depot the other night to pick up things you can't buy at Habitat (linoleum, a tub surround, paint, etc.) we are basically ready to start the attack. Tomorrow James stays home from work, my dad takes a day off and comes over, I take the kids to my parents, and they will take a sledgehammer to our bathroom. Ooooh, I should get some before pics now!!
My brother will arrive tomorrow night, my BIL will arrive the same time or the next morning, and hopefully the four of them will have this project done by the end of Family Day. How exciting!!!!

And now Jairus is hollering, so I must go.

Dreams

I have weird and vivid dreams. Anyone who knows me has likely been exposed to this. Sometimes, they're vivid, and make no sense, just a collage of scenes with people I may or may not know. But lots of times it's like I've woken up after watching a movie. Every once in a while (a very long while) a dream, or part of one comes true. Very weird.

Last night I had a dream that I died. Sort of. In my dream, when I looked in the mirror, it wasn't me looking back, but my friend Heather, who's wedding I sang at last fall. Instead of Jairus, Honour and Verity, I had three boys, but one of them was named Ashley, or some other feminine name, and he....dressed and looked like a girl.

I had been abducted, with the three kids. For a long time, I was held prisoner at some kind of abandoned campgrounds. Me and the kids thought we'd never get out. Finally, I had to take some kind of drastic and very brave action to get free---somehow it involved faking my death. I remember walking across a barren, snow covered field. There was a tombstone with a name on it. It wasn't my real name, but in my dream the name I saw there was mine.

Suddenly I was walking into a downtown building, like an inner-city rec. centre. I looked like myself again...at least, my hair was brown and I was wearing tattered jeans and other comfy, but very shabby clothes. There were a bunch of kids around doing all sorts of activities--like painting a mural. A pastor I know here in Hamilton was in charge, Pernell. I went over and talked to him and he was shocked to see me, because....I was supposed to be dead. He started telling me how this operation was going, because it was new. He gestured over to another pastor who was helping him, a guy I know in real life, another pastor from up north. I went over to talk to him as well, and he was really freaked to see me alive too. Gave me a big hug.

For some reason, I couldn't return to my family. I was totally on my own and basically had the clothes on my back.

Where does my brain come up with these things??