Here's to Sisters!

Zoe and Ellie are lucky they have each other. Ellie used to hate Zoe.  With a capitol H.  And now they are inseparable.  It seems like with the boys in school and with Ellie being home every other day, they've got lots of one-on-one play time together with no boy-interruptions.  It is a JOY to hear them laughing together.  And now they will have another sister to join them.  This sounds a lot like me, Sarah and Jenny.  I know that what I have is special with my sisters.  I know that not everyone has that with theirs, and some don't have sisters.  Yes, we are lucky and rare.  They make me laugh.  I can tell them anything.  If I am dying to get out of the house and have me some girl-time, they are the first ones I want to hang out with.  I only WISH that upon my girls.  Sometimes Joe and I roll our eyes at all the drama they create (I am included in that drama.  Sometimes), and that they will continue to create in droves as they get older.  That stuff scares me.  I hope they still love me when they are all teenagers and fighting over who gets to use the bathroom or phone next while I am yelling at them for yelling.  Oh the joys of girls and periods and drama.  Life wasn't always smooth-sailing with me and Sarah and me and Jenny.  Sarah and I shared a room all growing up and once she piled all of my stuff that was on the floor or unorganized onto my bed and took my homework hostage until I cleaned it all up (a total-Sarah move).  She also always had hair all over the carpet from blow-drying it.  Aaaaaand that's pretty much the worst of it because Sarah was and still is an angel and impossible to hate.  Jenny is four years younger, so we didn't really even hang out until we were all married and on our own.  But we had our good moments and bad when she was a teenager and I was still living at home.  We had good talks, and then she'd make dumb choices.  And then we'd have more good talks.  And she'd make more dumb choices.  This is all very vague but let's suffice it to say she was not an angel like Sarah.  Haha!  Although she broke my heart a few times in the past and my heart broke FOR her over and over, she is my best friend today. This gives me a little hope for my girls.  If they challenge each other now or during their teenaged years or even when they are married and old like me, there is hope that maybe one day they will realize how special and funny and fun and awesome they all are and become best friends over it.  This doesn't mean we are all the same person.  It just means we all know each other well enough to know the good and bad and still love each other regardless.

Oh.  And they are the funniest people I know.  That helps.

Here's to sisters!

Mom's Beef Stew

This is 100% a brag post.  So.   Just know that going into this.  And I can be proud of myself because dang it, it's been a while since I've had the joys and freedom of having my own kitchen AND the joys of finally wanting to eat yummy things (or anything).  I am just about twenty-one weeks along and haven't thrown up in two whole weeks (as long as I'm taking Diclectin) and my nausea is mostly gone (as long as I eat every couple hours).  Which MEANS.... I can cook again!  Do I LOVE cooking?  Yes and no.  There is some satisfaction that comes when a recipe turns out really well and my kids eat every last bite without complaining AND when Joe pays me a compliment on how well I did.  But even when everything seems to fall into place and it's delicious (to me anyway) there is always ONE child who fights me EVERY SINGLE evening (usually Noah or Ellie), which is one MAJOR deterrent from enjoying cooking.  Why slave in the kitchen all afternoon when no one appreciates it?  Well, I'm trying to take a different approach.  We have a larger family now and Joe actually comes home for dinner most of the time, so I kind of HAVE to make meals anyway.  Might as well make them good.  And with Fall here, I have been really enjoying making some great comfort food!  I asked my Mom for her beef stew recipe and YES, I made it.  She joked that I had to make bread with it too.  So I DID!  The kids devoured it.  Not one complaint.  And Joe was out of town, so he couldn't even compliment me and tell me how awesome I did.  I'll have to make it again to give him another chance to butter me up.

Mom's Beef Stew
1 lb. cut up beef stewing meat. I cut the cut up pieces even smaller.
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 cut up onion
1 cup sliced celery
3 cut up potatoes
3-4 sliced carrots
5 cups liquid. Either beef or vegetable broth or water with added bouillon cubes (2)
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper

Add all ingredients in crock pot or large Dutch oven pot.
Crock pot: cook on low 8 hrs or high 5 hrs.
Large pot: simmer for 3 hrs or until veggies are tender.
Taste. It may need more salt.

(I added some flour mixed with water to thicken it, because I'm a thick-stew kinda gal).

 
Don't judge me on the bread.  I had to buy a different brand of whole wheat flour because Costco was out of their usual and ...it's orange?  The kids didn't complain.  But I sure as heck noticed a difference.  The ironic thing about all this is now that I finally want to cook decent food and bake (I made apple pie last Sunday!  And cookies earlier in the week... look at me go), Joe has decided to go on a diet.  Haha!  Which means, I am back to cooking for just me and the kids.  His diets consist of nothing that I make and nothing that the kids (or I) will eat willingly.  Good for him.  But annoying for me.  I'm back to square one.  Why do I cook at all?  Might as well have macaroni and hot dogs for dinner---which is exactly what we're having tonight because I know the kids will devour it.  See, I AM a real human being.  But at least I can brag about the odd time I make my Mom's Beef Stew.  Or the one time.

Toronto. Newsies. Writing. Ultrasound

Back in mid-August I was asked to sing at the Waterloo's Ontario-wide Youth Leadership Conference.  And since they were flying me out anyway, I planted a seed in Joe's head to come with me and make a trip of it, just us two!  And I also REALLY planted the seed that Newsies was on tour in Toronto WHILE I'd be there, so he HAD to come see it with me.  Well, for my birthday he took those seeds and he made them trees!  Big ones.  In other words, he came with me AND we saw Newsies together.  At the time that I agreed to sing, I was not pregnant, NOR did I know that I would be expected to sing at 9am, which is really 7am Alberta time.  Just a few weeks before the trip my nausea turned into nausea AND barfing.  I was throwing up a lot and the only thing that seemed to help was sleep.  And eating---when that was the last thing I really wanted to do!  I didn't know how I was possibly going to sing that early in the morning (not to mention my acidic barf-throat on top of my morning voice) without having to run off stage to barf in a garbage can, let alone enjoy the rest of my trip.  Well.  I prayed.  A lot.  It was really one of those "a miracle has to happen or I'm going to throw up on someone" experiences.  Well.  A miracle happened.  I woke up extra early (5:30am Alberta time) to get ready after flying in late last night and finally getting to bed after 1am Toronto time.  Yuck.  All odds were against me, and I even had to walk through a food court first thing in the morning to grab a muffin ---and survived it!  I did not know how this was happening.  Okay I did.  It was a major answer to prayers.  I didn't feel sick once while singing and speaking to the youth.  My throat didn't hurt with the burning feeling of acid-throat.  And I even lasted afterwards when people wanted to talk.  I LASTED!  It was all crazy.  And another cool story I can add to my "God answers prayers" list.

I was thirteen weeks along at the time of our trip and hadn't officially announced my pregnancy to anyone, but I didn't really feel like being as creative as I originally wanted to.  I was just too sick to have the energy to pull off a cute photoshoot with the kids, so the idea came to me as we were about to walk into the theatre to see Newsies and I saw a huge poster where people could take their own picture as the headline.  So.  We did that instead, the headline being: "Maren's got a bun in the oven."  Newsies was AWESOME!  I went into it knowing that some of the story line had been changed, so that didn't bother me.  In fact, I felt like the story was better than the movie.  And the DANCING was just incredible!  Oh man.  I love Broadway shows.  I cried multiple times and cheered the loudest after my favourite songs.  The lady beside me didn't appreciate that, but I didn't appreciate her lack of enthusiasm.  As soon as it ended I wanted to watch it all over again.  I grew up with this musical and know every word to every song (which was occasionally different and there were even a few new ones), so this musical is close to my heart and was a SUPER special occasion for me.  Thank you Joe.

We got to stay at a friend's house in Burlington for the rest of our stay (Tagg and Lisa Grant's).  Tagg was out of town for work and Lisa was leaving the next day to "the cottage" (I love that word---must be said in a British accent) with her two darling girls.  Although I am sad we missed them and didn't have more of a chance to visit with Lisa and catch up, I felt like a Queen staying in their super nice house.  All they asked us to do was take out the garbage.  Done.  Joe was able to get his trip covered and lined up a meeting with his Dad and another doctor to work on cadavers at the University for a new instrument regarding carpel-tunnel surgery that Joe 3D printed.  Cool!  The instrument didn't pan out, but Joe's Dad looked like a kid in a candy store.  He was so excited about the process and they were able to think up other ideas that they thought might work, so it wasn't a total waste of a trip.  And no.  I didn't not go into the room full of cadavers.  Joe said it looked like a scene from the Walking Dead.  There were a bunch of severed arms just hanging out there ready to be plowed into.  Gross.  I don't know how Joe does it.  Or his Dad.  All I had to do was walk down the hallway to the room where they were working and I would smell it all.  No thanks.  So, while they did that all day, I brought a book and read under the tree on the University grounds.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  I felt like I should be in a movie.

We were there from late Wednesday and flew home on Sunday.  What did we do with our time you ask? We both worked.  Ha!  Joe told me straight up that he was going to be a downer and HAD to absolutely work during the day and that I'd be on my own until the evenings (by the evenings I was even more sick than I was during the day.  Ha!).  So, since I wasn't really physically up for doing a lot of different activities by myself, I brought our trusty laptop and decided I was going to take this opportunity to start writing a musical called, "The Feather Pen Fairy Tales."  I had started on the basic plot a few months ago, but sometimes life doesn't really allow you uninterrupted time to work so I hadn't really had time to touch it.  Until now!  And boy did I get lots done.  I had another movie-moment where I sat outside on their gorgeous warp-around porch on a swing bench with my juice and banana muffin beside me and my laptop on my lap.  It even RAINED.  Like, the warm, relaxing kind.  And because I was sheltered by their wraparound porch I could continue writing outside.  It was a dream.  I finished writing all of Act One and have the plot of act two all sorted.  The only thing left to do once Act Two is written is write the songs!  This is going to be the hard part because I don't want them to sound the same as "Cursed By a Woman."  I want this musical to have its own sound.  So.  I've got lots of research and studying to do.  Then I will sit at my piano and hope that something comes out of me.  I know "working" sounds boring, but it was the best possible way I could have spent my trip and I have no regrets.  I have been planting another seed to Joe that it would be a real treat to be by myself in a cabin in the woods for two weeks so I can write uninterrupted (minus any lurking psychopaths of course.  Only peace and quiet.  And a body guard).  I feel like this weekend was a close second.  In the evenings we treated ourselves to our favourite restaurants and visited with a few friends.  The rest we got to see at church that Sunday.  It was Stake Conference so I missed a few people, but all in all, it was kind of a perfect trip.  Minus pregnancy sickness.  Which thankfully is starting to abate slightly as long as I continue taking my diclectin.  I am still really tired and I still have to eat every couple hours and if I miss a pill I am toast.  But it's a huge improvement from how I felt on this trip.  I am halfway there!   I had my ultrasound a week ago and all of the kids had school off, so they ALL got to wait with Joe in the waiting room and hear all together that baby number five will be a girl!  Yay!  I can use my favourite name Jane after all!  The kids thought that she looked pretty creepy in 3D form on the screen and they made our tech laugh a few times with their little comments.  The boys think we should name her Zicknorf to match how creepy she looked (that is Noah's alien name at the dinner table when he is actually eating his food and liking it, ...obviously the real Noah has been abducted).  This makes Ellie furious because she wants her name to be Emily.  She's going to be disappointed that it's Mommy and Daddy's choice.  Well.  Mommy's choice.  Here are a few pictures of our Toronto trip and the day of the Ultrasound at 19 weeks.