Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Sleep is the one thing that is Never over-rated

Posted by eljamieson at 3:53 PM 3 comments
This is a blog disclaimer!! If you don't believe in Chiropractors than skip this one because I'm about to sing the praises of!


My little munchkin has generally been a terrible sleeper since birth. I think I spent the first 3 months of her life sleeping on the couch with her! I was hoping as she got older she would start sleeping better, but alas she started getting worse. Sometimes she would be up as many as 4 times a night which is ridiculous for a 9/10 month old. I was at the end of my rope when someone reminded me about taking the kids to the chiropractor.

I took Vaughn lots when he was a baby and Greta went a few times too, but our Chiropractor was out in Camrose so it always seemed like an ordeal to drive out there. My friend Jennifer recommended her Chiropractor that she had been taking her son to. I booked an appointment and headed down to Whyte Ave to hope beyond hope it might help.

Well today was our third visit and it just occurred to me that her sleeping has gotten progressively better since we started going. On Thursday I decided it was baby bootcamp time, time to whip her into shape or more to the point sleeping through the night. I prepared for hours upon hours of screaming and crying (hers and mine) for a few nights but I was determined to stick it out. When Thursday night came she didn't even wake up for the 11:00 feeding I was trying to get rid of. . . . curious. Infact she hasn't woken up for it in almost a week. I truly believe it is in part to the Chiropractor. She had a couple of bad falls and her back was probably bothering her but she obviously doesn't have the words to tell me. If you think about it I don't sleep very well when my back hurts either!

If you are thinking how on earth can I let someone crack my babies backs etc., let me assure you it doesn't hurt them a bit. They use a little tool that applies gentle pressure to the spots that need adjusting. I've felt it and it doesn't hurt, it's the same thing my chiropractor uses on my jaw to help my TMJ (which by the way only got better by seeing my chiropractor). I know that this isn't for everyone but it has been a true blessing for us.

Hopefully I haven't jinxed myself by writing that Greta is sleeping but it looks like we may be on the road to a fully rested house! Praise the Lord!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Daddyless weekend

Posted by eljamieson at 8:46 PM 0 comments
Matt, 2 of his brothers, his dad, uncle and 2 cousins left on Thursday morning for a Jamieson fishing/camping weekend, they won't be back until Monday evening. That is 5 long days to fill all by myself. Sadly Matt travelled and worked nights a lot at ATB so being alone for a long period of time isn't completely new to me. I decided that to make the days go faster I would jam pack as much fun into those 5 days as possible!

Here is the run down on our 5 daddy-less days

Thursday
The guys pulled out around 8 that morning with Max coming around 8:30. It was pretty gross for most of the day so we filled it playing with cars and the always a favourite finger painting. I decided to get the grocery shopping out of the way and headed out as soon as Max left on Thursday. It was actually a perfect way to fill the evening, we ate supper and then off to bed. After the kids went to bed, I caught up on all my PVR'd shows while eating some super yummy ice cream. Day 1 down

Friday
The gorgeous weekend weather began, so we headed outside and enjoyed it! Lots of playing outside that day and even a few fun crafts in the afternoon. At 4:30 I loaded up the kids and headed to Ryan and Ashley's house for supper and then swimming in Leduc with Beau, Kristen and Avery. It was sooooo much fun and the perfect end to the day. After I managed to get the kids into bed I watched Julie and Julia. Such a cute movie and one Matt would never watch with me.

Saturday
This was our busiest day, we woke up and headed to the church for 9, made a quick stop at Costco for 10 and then headed off to Beaumont by 10:15 to watch the Beaumont days parade. Here is what I learned about the Beaumont parade, it goes around the entire ring road and takes almost an hour to reach Ryan and Ashley's house. I wasn't entirely prepared for the long wait and forgot to put sunscreen on Greta, whoops, now she has a giant sun burn on her legs. And the bad Mommy award goes to . . . . Luckily the parade was a HUGE hit with Vaughn, they had monster trucks and candy, what more can a kid ask for. We were home in time for naps and then after nap time we headed to PA and Ingrid's house for a bbq with some old friends. It was a great end to a great day!

Sunday
It started out as a pretty typical Sunday for us, up and at the church by 8:30 to do the Age 2& 3 class for both services. Luckily my kids don't mind being at the church and Greta will even have decent naps in the sleeper room. Taco Bell was definitely on the menu for Sunday lunch which we picked up on the way home. Glorious lunch was followed by even more glorious nap time!

After nap time I decided that the kids needed more sand in their sandbox, which meant a trip to Home depot. Not a big deal, right? Normally no it's not a big deal but 1/2 way home Vaughn informed me that Greta threw Teddy out of the cart at the 'sandbox' store. Honestly I didn't even remember Teddy being in 'the sandbox store'. I frantically high tail it back to Home Depot and proceed to search the stupid store like a crazy lady looking for Teddy.

When we were there the first time we got to use one of the special kid carts that looks like a car. Picture it, if you will, me with 2 kids, crying (me not the kids) and stalking all the kid carts asking people if there was a bear in the cart. I scoured the ENTIRE store to no avail. I cried at the customer service counter trying to explain how essential it is that I find this stupid bear. This is me and I quote at the customer service counter "I know that I look like a crazy lady. I'm a grown woman crying over a lost Teddy bear but you don't understand how IMPORTANT this bear is" sniffle, sniffle. They called in extra helpers and helped me look, after 1/2 an hour I thanked them, left my name and number and headed out to the car. By this point Vaughn has declared that he is going to go home and be sad because Teddy is gone and I am praying "God if you really love my kid how can you let him lose this bear twice". Vaughn then asks if I'm sad because I lost Teddy . . . no kid I'm sad because YOU lost Teddy.

I decide to search the car one more time (please note I've already done this 2 times) and I reach down in the front passenger seat by the floor and there is Teddy. The only way he could have got there would have been for me to put him there when I was loading the sand onto the driver passenger seat when we left the first time. I have NO memory of putting Teddy in the car. I burst into tears in the parking lot, sniffling and crying, again, like a crazy lady. I show the dumb bear to Vaughn and he says 'are you so happy Mommy? Is your nose broken?" (because of the sniffling). I don't know how Teddy got in the car but I am just so happy he got in the car. I'm going to give this one to Jesus because I have no other explanation (well besides the obvious that I'm an exhausted Mom who forgets what she's doing 1/2 the time anyway)

To wrap up the trauma of Sunday with bbq hot dogs, eating outside, watering the flowers, going for a walk, having a bath and off to bed. We've also ended Sunday with a new house rule . . . the dumb bear never leaves the house again!!


That is almost the end of the Daddyless weekend. Tomorrow I am using my coupon to get 1 free 8x10 picture of the kids taken at Walmart, hopefully I can withstand the pressure and not buy any extra pictures! On top of all the crazyness of being alone for 5 days I also decided I would use these days to break Greta of her 11:00 bottle habit . . . so far so good, she's already been squawking a bit tonight already so who knows what the night holds, but I think we are well on our way to being done with that feeding.

So that's the summary I was going to post some pictures but my computer isn't cooperating . . . maybe it'll work later.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Dress

Posted by eljamieson at 2:51 PM 0 comments



Monday, June 7, 2010

changes

Posted by eljamieson at 1:31 PM 0 comments
There have been a lot of changes going on in the Jamieson household lately. I don't do well with change, to put it mildly. These past few weeks have been rather stressful for me and I'm hoping that I can start embracing all the change soon because it's too late to go back.

What's all the change you might be asking, well here we go . ..

Matt's job
Matt quit his job at ATB about 4 weeks ago. He loved that job and I loved that he had that job but nothing is ever perfect and that includes his salary. We were promised a raise that never happened and at the end they even denied that they ever promised it to us. Matt recieved the highest performance reviews possible (one of only 20 to get a perfect score in all ATB) but they were un-willing to increase his salary. We've learned our lesson about verbal agreements and are emerging hopefully a little bit smarter next time we head down this road.

We aren't greedy people, we just need enough to make ends meet each month. We've chosen for me to stay home with the kids while they are young, this is something that is very important to our family. So we make sacrifices to make that happen. We don't get very many extras in our lives and are blessed with what we do have. We don't need more and aren't feeling sorry for ourselves we want to try and do what's best for our family. And as long as we can make it work financially the right thing for our family, for now me being at home (not including the dayhome). That means that Matt can't stay at a job he loves if the money isn't there. Isn't being a grownup, tons of fun

Enter 'Digital Construction', the name of Matt's company. Not only has Matt quit his job but he's opened his own company . . . goodbye stability and regular income, hello more stress than Erin can handle :) To be fair it isn't actually as bad as all that. He has gone back to framing, contracting himself out to a good friend who owns a construction company. It isn't that we've jumped in without a safety net, there is work to be had. The other side is that Matt is trying to also develop a video side to his business. We don't want him to lose the skills he developed at ATB and honestly, construction isn't our end game. Our hope is that over the years the video business will grow and he can decrease the hours he does construction and increase his the time he spends doing videos. For those that don't know Matt produced videos for ATB both for internal and external use. His video's were even part of an award winning website created by ATB. I am so proud of him and all the work he does. This website has a few of the video's he's done, I know he's done tons more but I don't know where to find them all

http://www.wearealberta.ca/Home/tabid/38/Default.aspx

So if you are looking for a video production company, my husbands good and his rates are reasonable :)


Our House
We bought this house 4ish years ago and have spent lots of time, energy and money fixing it up and making it our own. It has been a good house, good layout, great neighborhood and neighbors, but all good things must come to an end. We have begun the process of building a new house in Beaumont. I am terrified, it all seems scary and unknown and I keep praying we are doing the right thing! This house is more of an investment than long term place, which again isn't not something that suits me very well. Matt told me I couldn't become attached to a house if it could financially benefit our family to move and sell, and for now I agree with him. There will come a time to put down roots and stay somewhere permanently but that time isn't now. For now we are trying to get our current house ready to sell and then move into a rental home until the new house gets finished . . . makes me tired just thinking about it!


Those are the 2 big changes, it maybe does sound like much to those of you that love spontaneity and a challenge but it's huge for me. For those of you that pray, I would appreciate your prayers as we do our best to follow the Lord in whatever way's He leads us. No matter what change comes our way our Lord and Saviour is always the same and so that is what I cling to when all the change threatens to overwhelm me. Thank goodness I have that!


Washing my feelings

Posted by eljamieson at 1:28 PM 0 comments
Vaughn was washing himself in the bath tub this week and giving me the running commentary.

V: I'm washing my toes, my legs, my tummy, my feelings, my arm . . .
E: You're washing your what?
V. My tummy, my toes, my feelings . . .
E: Right . . . where are your feelings exactly?
V: Right here Mommy (points to his nipples)
E: (holding in uncontrollable laughter) those are called nipples, not your feelings. You can't see your feelings, they are on the inside.
V: oh, ok

Exercise update - 2

Posted by eljamieson at 1:06 PM 0 comments
Well I began the journey of trying to live a healthier life in January, hard to believe it's been that long already! I committed to going to the gym twice a week and then started counting calories on top of exercising. I am proud to say that for the most part I stuck to my twice a week commitment, I fell off the wagon after my surgery but have jumped back on and am trying to get back in the swing of things.

My weight lost is up to 21 lbs and I've lost several inches from my waist and hips. What does all that mean, it means I feel fabulous!

I've never attempted to lose weight or be healthy before I've just either been happy or unhappy with my body. I've learned a few things about myself through all this. For the first time I think I have appreciated my stubbornness, it has helped me stop eating and get off the couch. Generally the fact that I am stubborn like a mule has been a negative part of my personality but lately it's been my saving grace. The second thing I've learned is that my body is never going to look like it did before I had kids but I'm ok with that. I know some people get their pre-baby bodies back but not me, I will forever more be much curvier than I used to be and probably have these awful love handles for the rest of my days. But I'm ok with it, I'm not ashamed of what I look like anymore, I'm proud that I've worked hard and that it shows.

I've always heard the last 10 lbs are the hardest to lose and I understand why now. I'm tired of counting calories, I'm tired of weighing in once a week. I want to eat a burger without caring . . . but that is never going to be my life again, so it's time to get used to it. At this point I really just looking forward to hitting maintenance mode where I get to eat more calories than I am now.

If I can just stay focused to lose another 5ish lbs I will feel like I've completely won . . .

I don't really have before and after pictures mainly because I wouldn't let anyone take my picture before. I could do the sideways picturing holding my pants out to show how much I've lost but I think I'll spare you all that one. Before I went and bought new clothes Greta kept trying to pull herself up on my leg and just ended up pulling my pants down . . . whoops! Anyway here is a picture from last summer and one from this weekend, I don't know if you'll be able to see the difference but I sure can!

 

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