Yeah, I've Got Nothing...

     We aren't finding out what we're having this time.  It was a decision we agreed on and we feel pretty good about it.  I'm thinking we're having another boy, and Duncan says so too, every time we ask him.  It would be weird to never have a girl, and I'd be sad about never getting to do that, but that doesn't mean I'd be disappointed with a boy.  I love boys.  But we can't come up with a name that works.  We've used the names we like on the first three boys.  Here are some we've come up with and the reasons they don't work:

Graham- we like this one a lot, we love Gray for short, but I've noticed in Utah most people pronounce it like "gram".  It's a two-syllable name!!  Then our friends from Australia kindly pointed out that calling someone "such a Graham" in Australia is saying they're a really big dweeby nerd.  Super.

Reuben- we both really like this one too.  When I was a kid, we had our cousins from Norway come visit one summer, and the younger boy was named Reuben.  I remember him being really excited about bubble gum, and stuffing an entire package into his mouth at once.  If our last name is pronounced correctly, it sounds fine.  If it's pronounced how it looks, however, the two names together sound really dumb.

Milo- we have tossed this one around for quite a while, and can't decide if it's cool or a bit nerdy.  I think it's a really great name, but again, sounds a little odd with our last name (?).

Merek- I've had this one on my list for years, like before Gabriel was even born.  There have been a couple of hockey players with this name, and I really like it a lot.  It sounds out of place with the other boys' names.

And then there are those that have come up, but not as seriously:

Theo

Maddoc

Asher

Grady

     I don't know.  Aren't you supposed to be a little excited about your baby's name?  Shouldn't it sound good with your last name?  What if he ends up working in Australia?  What then??  

The same Australian friends are having a baby a week before us, a boy, and are naming him Willoughby.  We could never get away with that!  Say it with an Australian accent though, and suddenly it sounds really cool.  If I were British, for instance, we could have a Charlie or a Desmond.  Here?  Nope.

      Anyway, feel free to weigh in.  If you're secretly appalled at the name we choose in the end, boy or girl, sorry.  Gabriel and I were looking in name books a while back, and found some doozies, so just be glad we didn't call our kid Frick.  

Oy Vay.

     So I'm in the underworld of emergency preparedness.  Not because I'm not doing it.  Not because we don't have anything.  Because I have a very zealous husband who nearly has me convinced that the world as we know it may end in the next year.

     We have not had a single day in over a month where we have not had some kind of list making or review or brainstorming session.  Somehow I got roped into spending 2 hours at Cabela's on Saturday, comparing cots, looking at portable "shower" stalls, and enduring every grown man that came into the store gleefully testing out the duck and goose callers.  Every other time Jer comes home, he has bags in hand, with more gear.  Hand warmers, snow pants, a tent, freeze-dried fruit... I am grateful that he's serious about getting us the rest of the way prepared, but sometimes I just long for a day where we chat about the day, watch some mindless TV, and go to bed laughing about something.  Instead I'm having nightmares about my family freezing/starving/dying, and even dreams about some of my friends not having what they need, and then I'm panicking about them, too.  

     Then there's the problem of husbands buying the kids' clothes.  He's concerned with function.  Fine.  And warmth.  Great.  My only real quibble is that I'd like the clothes to be the right size, and cute doesn't hurt.  One pair of boots that were meant for Gabriel were big enough for me.  The coats are huge.  "They'll grow into it."  I guess the kids will at least be warm while they roll around on the snow, trying to find a way to stand up.

     The problem with delving in to all of this is that you find you're never going to be done.  Fourteen foot tent?  Have more kids, you need a bigger one.  Sleeping bags that work up to 20 below?  You should have the ones that go to 40 below.  Storing water?  Super, it's just that you really should have barrels, wooden crates to put them on, and a filter that can do at least 13,000 gallons.  And then with us, you throw in the unique add-ons like a 5 year old that can't yet eat solids and is still in diapers, the fact that we're vegetarian but realize that we have to have means to change that if our lives depend on it, and oh, did I mention that same 5 year old is on seizure medication that I'm pretty sure we aren't going to find in freeze-dried form so that we can store a year of it?  Oh yeah, and I can't even make bread.

     I do, however, plan on adding basic birth kits to the pile, so if the world is ending, you're pregnant and going into labour, come find me.  I'll be the one with my kids tethered together with some combination of bungee cords, duct tape and tarps, dragging them behind me through the snow, traces of dehydrated spinach frozen to my face.

Noah's Favourite Song...

This song is making us very happy at our house right now.  You have to see Noah dancing and singing at the top of his lungs to get the full effect, but you'll enjoy it just the same.  Happy Sunday.

Some People...

I love good people.  Real, genuine good people.

People who offer themselves rather than trite words.

People who are somehow there for you even when they're miles and miles away.

People who "get" my boy with special needs and treat him like the awesome person he is.

People who leave notes of support when you're suffering, and they don't even really know you.

People who appear out of nowhere right when you're pretty sure you'll shortly lose your mind.

People who offer help no one else can, and don't care one bit if anyone else ever knows about it.

People who almost effortlessly gain the undying love of my kids.

People who have a laugh and a huge smile for Duncan as he jogs through Target, hair flying in all directions, saying "Otay, Mummy!" to every direction I give him.

People who know when and how to laugh with you, and know when to weep with you, too.

People who are raising more good people.

People who keep in touch even when you're having a stretch of not being so good at it.

People who you know won't talk about you behind your back when you leave the room.

People who remember days or events that matter to you, even some of the time.

People who still rejoice when a baby is born, even in Utah where that happens a lot.

  This has been on my mind lately, as this has been a very rough year for us.  I'm glad I've shed tears over people's goodness so often this year, not just over the bad stuff.  I learned from my best visiting teacher ever, to just offer what you can give.  Instead of  "Call if you need anything.", it was "I can do A or B on any of these days, what would help the most?".  There are no small or useless offers when you're offering yourself in any way.  A former teacher of Noah's gets him, thinks he's hilarious and entirely lovable, and probably has no idea how much I love and enjoy how much she loves and enjoys him.  It makes my day.  Noah's too.  I am sooo not as talented at some things as other people I know, but I'm good at other stuff.  That "other stuff" might be just what someone else needs.  I wish I could adequately thank all the good people in my life (hopefully you all know who you are), but mostly I plan to just spread all that good stuff around.  Yup.  

A Little Plug

So the beginning of the school year is approaching, and I just wanted to tell/remind everybody that if you do any of your shopping (now or ever) on Amazon.com, you can help Noah's school.  It is called Clear Horizons Academy, and is for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders.  It is phenomenal, and I'm pretty sure all the teachers there are half angel, half saint.  If you'll just take an extra 20 seconds, go to clearhorizonsacademy.org and click on the Amazon link right there on the homepage.  Then 5-10% of your purchase on that visit will automatically be donated to the school (you have to do it each time you shop).  It's a really easy way to do some good.  You know you want to.  :)

Adjustments, Not By My Chiropractor

     Yes, it has been nearly a month since my last post.  We've been a little busy.  We moved.  Out of 2 houses.  With three little boys underfoot.  This was no small feat, and thank heaven for helpful friends and neighbours.  We're sort of settled in to our new place.  I'm still waking up not sure where I am after a full week of sleeping here, and going to church today was just weird.  We've been in the same ward for 7 years, one where we were one of the quiet-ish families, one where there were four nurseries and nearly no older people, one where, we decided today that the Bishop does at least twice the job of most Bishops-  into one with mostly older people, one nursery, and we were by far the noisiest family there.  I didn't trip over a single kid in the hallway between classes.  It was like the twilight zone.  

     I'm trying to be as outgoing as my kids, but it's not working.  I don't have nearly the eyelash-batting-power that Gabriel has, I can't get away with talking to people's feet like Noah, and somehow, diving under the pew to grab people's shoes in the row in front of us like Duncan did didn't seem to be appropriate for me, at least not during an actual church meeting.  You just can't make friends like kids do.  They can say and do such random things, and it works.  Noah can ask total strangers for a high five, and if people don't respond, he keeps trying new approaches until one works.  He had tried with this one guy this week when we were out, and the guy wasn't paying him any attention, so finally on his 6th or 7th attempt, he yells "Chicka chicka high five???!!" ("Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" is one of his favourite books).  That got us all laughing.  I guess it will just take more time for us grown-up types.  Am I anti-social?  Am I a snob?  Am I just weird?  I feel like I'm 6 and a 1/2 again, starting a new school, across the country from where I had been living, having left my close-knit Grade 1 friends behind.  And this time, I have no stickers to trade.

Oh, Canada!

Big week for my family.  It's my big brother's birthday (Happy Birthday, Craig!) today, tomorrow is Canada Day (our day for fireworks and the like), and then it's the 4th of July.  

    Mine will be the red Toyota Sienna with the Canadian flags on the windows all week (thanks Mom!).  I know I live in the U.S.A, and have met some of the best people I know here, but I am Canadian, and I really love Canada.  I miss a lot about it.  I miss being able to say Canadian/British words without anyone looking at me like I'm speaking Chinese.  I miss watching hockey without anyone saying "How can you even see the puck??".  I miss Nanaimo Bars.  I miss the smell of ice rinks.  I miss everyone around me using "eh" in the appropriate way.  I miss the more sing-song-y way that most Canadians speak.  I miss good, and I mean GOOD chocolate bars (if they're made of chocolate in Canada, they're chocolate bars, they have to be made of candy to be called candy bars).  I miss touques ("touque" rhymes with "duke").  I miss being able to say I'm from Ontario, and not having anyone assume I mean Ontario California.  Most of all, it's family and friends I miss.  My parents, my sister and her kids, my younger brother, all three of my living grandparents, some cousins, aunts and uncles are all still there.  Canada is beautiful.  If you've been to one province or city, you've gotten a glimpse, but you haven't "seen Canada".  So Happy Canada Day tomorrow.  It's this really great, beautiful country to your north that you really should visit if you ever get the chance.

    Let me add, I have to thank all of my south of the border friends for helping me see the very best parts of the U.S.A... that's all of you.

     A lesson on the proper use of "eh" will be forthcoming.  Try to contain yourselves until then.

You Know Who You Are

After nearly having a too-close encounter with a semi yesterday, I'm just saying, would all you people who change lanes without signaling or looking over your shoulder, or turn right from the center lane instead of the actual right turn lane, or text while driving, or brake repeatedly when you're going the speed limit or slower and there's no one in front of you for miles, or tailgate me when I'm in the right hand lane and you have 3 other lanes to drive in besides mine, or straddle the line for a mile or two before actually choosing just one lane to drive in, or just go at a four-way stop whenever the spirit moves you even when it's clearly not your turn, or turn on to a main road in front from a parking lot, cutting right across my path, when I'm on the main road waiting to turn in to said parking lot, and I have a little thing called the "right of way", or act like the deserving queen of Sheba when I wave you in front of me so you don't have to wait for hundreds more cars to go by before you can go ( just give me a little thank-you wave, everyone feels better), please, please, take some driving refresher classes, or just stay home.  

      My friend JaNae  has a picture on her blog (hit the "Jorgensens" link to find it) from a few months back that her husband took (from the passenger seat) of a woman full on crocheting  while driving about 65 mph, neither hand on the wheel!  Enough!!  I'm out here, obeying the rules, being careful, and fearing for my life because you can't handle your shiny steel and metal torpedo of death.  It's not cool, not cute, and you have to follow the same rules as everyone else.  "Out my way!" as my friend Dee Dee used to scream as she wildly circled her bike around her cul-de-sac.  I am making the same plea, minus the crazy driving.  Come on, fellow citizens.   You know who you are.  I've got my kids in my car.  We just want to make it to Target alive.

Yes, we're (nearly) homeless...

     We've got mold, people!  Some very kind friends are letting us live in their house while ours undergoes an investigation of sorts.  Really it's more like insurance company runaround.  We've had a leak in our basement, mold was growing for a while and we didn't know it, so now that we know, we're out.  The insurance company sent a "leak specialist" out to determine where the water was coming from.  After looking around in the offending room for about 10 minutes, he comes out and announces "Well you've got a big crack in your foundation!".  NOOOO! REALLY?? Nice work, Sherlock!  Actually, I'm beginning to think I'm a leak specialist and just didn't know it. So with our fate left in the experts' hands, we are searching for other places to live.  We're not happy about it.  We're still trying to decide if the more economical choice is to just get a bunch of haz-mat suits for the family, and a good air filtration system, and call it good.  We'll let you know.

     So it's the most low-tech blog ever, but, ta-dah!  Here we go.  So many of my family members and best friends live f-a-a-a-r away, I hope this will help keep us all in touch.  I will get pictures on here, eventually.  I must warn all who read, there may be some pretty random topics on here.  This Mommy, wife, daughter, sister, friend, Mormon, Canadian, actor, vegetarian, home-birther, mosquito-dentist-and-country-music-loather, hockey fan, baby enthusiast, thinker...  I have some opinions, ideas, questions and thoughts on a lot of things.    

     Here's the low-down on us:

Wendy (Me): Thirty-something, and, see above.  Married 11 and 1/2 years to...

Jeremy:  Thirty-something, talented, singer/actor, handsome, hard-working, all around good guy.

Gabriel: 7, scary smart, animal obsessed, stress butt just like his Grandpa, thoughtful, sweet,   planner.

Noah: 5, singer, jokester, dirt, water and light lover, attached to his blanket

Duncan: 2, SO happy, fearless, can open anything, motto: "Destruction With a Smile"

     We hope that's not the end of this list.  :)