birthday sharing...

unless something wildly intense happens in the next hour and a half the new odegard will not share a birthday with my mom.

ps. happy birthday mom!

no one yet

just thought I'd let you know that there isn't a new odegard here yet. I enjoyed a lovely day with the kids in Abbotsford with mom, while Lance had a study day trying to catch up after being away all last week. Now we're back home and waiting.

nothing new to report.

good night.

due tomorrow

So tomorrow is my due date (Monday) and I am finally "ready" for this baby to come. Ready being in quotes because we're not really ready, but just more ready than a week ago. We've made it through the various commitments we had in the month of September - praise God. Tonight we heard The Rawling Brothers play in Chilliwack and that was the last thing I wanted to get through before the baby comes. I think I'm going to start walking up a storm now and see if we can get things moving. Being a VBAC (google if you don't know what this is) the midwife told me that the standard in obstetrics is to schedule a C-section if the woman goes to 41 weeks and three days. I'm 40 weeks tomorrow, so ten days after that is when they'd want to me to seriously consider a c-section. You can believe that I will be doing everything possible to get this baby out before then. Not really worried about this yet - still plenty of time.

No real "signs" that the baby is coming. My body Just feels a little different - how vague is that?

Baby is lying posterior and the midwife wants me to be on all fours for half an hour twice a day - hopefully enticing this little one to roll over, enabling an easier exit. The babe isn't engaged yet either, head is a little off to the side. So we'll see how this little wiggler will decide to make it's exit into the world.

We're settling into a name but just yesterday realized we should have names for the other gender picked out - ultrasounds have been known to lie!

okay better get to sleep.

Aimee

reunited and delighted

This morning we drove to Abbotsford to pick up the kids. We were soooo glad to see them again. We hadn't seen them in three full days. They are delightful and have changed a lot. Especially Elijah - what a talker! They had a great time with the grandparents - I'm sure there'll be a post soon over at mom's. Now we've got to keep the baby in a bit more so mom can get rested up before we need her help again!

The assessment ended really well. I was absolutely exhausted by the end and had a hard time staying awake during the last session! But I'm glad we did it and really appreciated the insights they gave us. My favorite part was how they so clearly could see Lance's specific giftngs. I was very proud of him. Anyways we were assessed very positively which helped to confirm the direction we've been heading. More on that some other time.

Going to enjoy being our whole family now.

Thanks for your prayers.

Aimee

they're watching us

So we've made it through our first day of the three day assessment process. (church planter's assessment - includes personality assessment, role playing, interviews, presentations...)

I had been somewhat nervous about it, but it was fine. Right off the bat I felt at home and safe with the assessors. This is good, cause they are always watching us and writing notes.

I'm too tired to write more.

The kids are having a blast with the grandparents. I am enjoying some kid free time. Planning on an excellent sleep starting in a couple minutes.

No sign of baby yet so that's good.

good night.

Aimee

quick post

Hi guys,

It didn't cross my mind that some of you might be checking here for baby arrival news already. I guess we are only a week away from the due date (sept 29) so that makes sense.

Well, no baby yet. Phew.

I am feeling very nesty and domestic, so that could mean something. Two batches of muffins (many frozen) in three days is unheard of for me. I'm also planning on doing some sewing!! Shannon has convinced me that it is VERY easy to make my own sling. So I'm going to try.

Tomorrow Lance and I start our three day assessment for church planting. I've got to prepare a couple things this morning. We drop the kids off in Abbotsford tonight and mom and dad are taking care of them for three days! I can't even imagine what it will be like for me not to take care of them all day everyday. The assessment is in Burnaby so we'll be at home for nights but the kids will stay with mom and dad. I think it will be like a mini holiday. I've never been apart from them for this long, I think it will be strange too. Hopefully some really good nights sleep before the 3 kid arrives. You can pray for lots of energy for my folks, energy for me for the three long days of assessment and for the kids that they'll do great with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Lando. thanks.

Okay better go get some stuff done.

Aimee

Married

Steven and Courtney are married. The wedding was lovely. Hilarious. Highly interactive. Lots of tenderness and tears. Much laughter. A real celebration. Here are a few photos from the pre-ceremony shoot:








more later, time to get these kids to bed for naps.

aimee

In our yard and on my feet

We were away in Abbotsford for four days. I came back to find these in my yard, just poking their bright faces out of the bamboo/lawn. They're a type of fall crocus - Colchicum. The leaves come in the spring, then disappear and the flowers appear seemingly like magic in the fall. I'll say. What a lovely surprise.

And now about my feet. I have been faithfully wearing my birkenstocks for 9 years. Lance gave them to me for my 19th birthday... that is a long time ago. This summer I knew it was time to let them go, the soles were worn through, the footbeds cracked, cork splitting apart. But Birkenstocks are very expensive. Think around $130. Yikes. I have a REALLY hard time spending that amount on myself. And think of the stress of the choice, I have to pick a pair that I'll like for another 10 years! Anyways, before we left Camrose Heidi bought Jeremy my chopsaw (an anniversary present for me from Lance, something I always wanted, but in the two years I had it never used it). I decided that their generous payment would fund my new Birks. So I started looking... Lance encouraged me to not bother with choosing a sandal that would last ten years in terms of style, but to choose something fun. I looked in many stores one day and came home with a pair of shoes - on sale, orange and very cute. I needed shoes too and these were such a good price that snatched them up. They look like this, but an orangy colour:



Then I got to thinking. I could probably find some great Birkenstocks for a great price online. Nothing in the stores was catching my eye anyways. I knew my size and had narrowed down which style I wanted. So I looked and looked and finally found these:



And the best part - well besides being very happy with both pairs of shoes, so happy in fact that I look at my feet way more than anyone should - is that I got both shoes for basically the price of the chopsaw! So Heidi, thanks for the new shoes!

who can resist

much to Lance's shock I am seriously considering buying another box of peaches...

at the park

Venturing out

Today I was brave. I ventured out and met new people. I recently joined an online group of mom's in the burnaby area. A couple of them were planning to meet at a local mall's indoor play area today and invited the rest of us. I'm new to the group and don't know anyone...but that's why I joined the group, to meet people nearby. I didn't know if I'd go, but this morning as I looked at the long day ahead (Lance left for school at 7:45am and his last class ends at 9:45pm) I knew I needed to get out and about - and probably more than once.

So I packed us up and headed to the mall. The play area was nice, semi-enclosed which is good for me and my two year olds. It was also sock only, which I knew so I had brought the kids socks... but not me. After releasing the kids into the play area, I had to gather them up, reharness them into the stroller and head to Sears to buy some socks - which fortunately I needed anyways.

So socked and ready to go we returned to the play area where I met the two ladies from the group. I'm glad I went. The kids had a good time for the most part (Elijah got hit by a rambunctious boy - I sure felt like a mama bear). And mostly it was just a good step for me, whether or not anything comes of it.

Too bad though, the kids slept on the 15 minute drive home. I tried to transfer them into beds...but no success. We are all awake and I don't foresee naps in the future. We'll make it to bed time.

Hope you are well.

Aimee

37...

I'm 37 weeks now...which means three more to go. That is a little too soon for me. There is much to be done in the next three weeks, and pretty much none of it relates to the baby. We are really hoping - praying too - that this little one doesn't make an early arrival.

On Saturday my little brother is getting married. This is very exciting. His lovely fiancee Courtney is a great match for him and we are excited to add her into our family. She loves the kids and they love her, so that is quite nice too! Anyways, I'm taking the photographs for the wedding as long as I'm not in labor or nursing a newborn by Saturday. I'm sure neither of those things will happen so I think we'll be okay. I love photographing weddings, and think their photos will turn out great - mostly because they are such good looking and photogenic people - that helps the photographer out a lot! So this week I'm preparing for that.

Lance is officially in school, last week was orientation, today is his first day of classes. He has class Tues, Wed, Thurs. I figure the ideal time for the baby to be born is late Thursday night. Then we'll have a nice stretch all together before he has to be back at school.

About a week after Steven's wedding Lance and I are going to be a part of a "church planter's assessment" conference. We've been in the process of investigating church planting with the MB church for a number of months now and are hoping to - sometime in the next year or so, be involved in starting a church of some kind in Vancouver. Anyways one of the first steps towards this is the assessment thing. We've already had to fill out a number of personality inventories in preparation, Lance has to prepare a sermon and we both have to prepare a short talk about why we feel called to church planting. Then the assessors grill you and at the end talk with you about what they see in you (individually and as a couple) strengths, weaknesses, red flags, and talk about if it seems like you're cut out for the work of church planting. Friends have gone through this assessment and say it is pretty stressful. So I was thinking if it's just too much I can fake labor - Lance suggested he could spill water on my lap and declare my water broken - and then we'd get out fast. :) But really, we are hoping the baby holds off till after this. The dates are the 22-25 and I'm due the 29th. Think we'll make it?

Well, my kids are asleep so I'm going to head to bed too. Thanks for all your comments.

Aimee

gratitude

this morning after serving the kids their oatmeal and rushing towards the couch with my own bowl (complete with peaches) I said, "Thank-you God for oats and (sigh) a new day" then asked if anyone wanted to say that. We often do "repeat" prayers. Eva chimed in enthusiastically,

"Thank-you God for oats, and cookies and milk and Elijah and Eva"
Elijah interrupted, "and Mama"
Eva finished off, "and Papa".

I've been wanting to emphasize gratitude in the full and far from perfect days - to help keep me connected with God the giver of all things. Here, on a morning where all I could think to pray was thanks for oats, and the new day (and that with a mixture of hope and sighing) my kids rattled off a more complete list. And that was after 2 seconds of thinking about it.

So I'll add to my morning thanks, "Thank-you God for my children who point me to you and remind me of your goodness"

beds

well, we have been having adventures with the new beds. Bedtime lasts from 7-9. Includes reading, then lights out, then made-up stories (only if all children are laying down), no jumping or standing allowed. I read somewhere about a mom of twins setting up a playpen in another room - she used this as a consequence for not obeying the rules, e.g., climbing out of bed or jumping. We have been trying this. Pretty much every night one kid will end up falling asleep in the "baby bed" and will be transferred later by Lance back to their proper bed. They prefer to be in their big kid beds so we hope that they will learn to stay in them and thereby avoid the baby bed. We've had some better nights but it is really tiring to stay in there with them for so long. We've tried leaving them and just checking on them, but then all the calmness that the storytime brought is undone and they go absolutely ape. They really enjoy being silly with each other, and this is great, just not so much at bedtime. Usually once one kid goes to the baby bed the other is asleep within 15 minutes, so we know they're not staying awake because they're not sleepy, it's because they have new freedom and each other to share it with.

Lance is out tonight at a rehearsal - he plays a concert at CBC in Abbotsford tomorrow -- See you there! So I put the kids to bed. Ended up with Elijah in the baby bed, he fell asleep after five minutes. And then laying with Eva in her bed till she fell asleep. I'm off to bed now trying to get more sleep. The kids have been waking up earlier so it makes it really important for us to get to bed at a decent time.

Oh, today we shared some of my many peaches with the people who live upstairs -- as a peace offering. There has been a lot of screaming here lately with the new beds. Things have improved somewhat, but Eva is quite vocal about her preferences when being asked to do something she doesn't want to do - like stay in her bed. Lance wrote a note apologizing and explaining the recent noise and tucked it into a basket of peaches. We'd been planning to do this earlier and last night was the impetus. Eva woke up around 11:30 going absolutely crazy. Nothing would calm her. I think she was still asleep. It was really hard to figure out what she needed. Finally (after waking up Elijah with her gale force screams) she snapped out of it and I was able to snuggle her - she had previously been resisting this - and help her fall back to sleep. We felt bad for the neighbors. Anyways the guy who lives upstairs was really gracious and understanding but said he couldn't speak for his sister, who sleeps directly above the twins. Oh dear. Thing is, there is nothing we can do. We are doing our best to meet her needs and help her communicate without screaming. Hoping the sister really likes peaches. Perhaps after future rough nights we could just keep the peaches coming. Just wait till we add a newborn to the mix....

Okay better go.

Aimee

Drowning in Peaches

I love peaches. I could eat 5 a day, but hold back to about 3. I went to a local farm market today hoping they sold them by the case. Spotting no cases I loaded up my basket with other produce and when at the checkout asked about the possibility of buying a case. Yes they have boxes, and a quick phonecall resulted in the price, $20. A great price in my opinion. Well what I saw next bugged out my eyes and dropped my jaw. My $20 box of peaches was not your typical two layer of peaches 20ish lb case, but a banana box, almost full. I have no idea how many pounds of peaches I am now in possession of. I have big plans now. Pies, crisps, jam, freezing... I've been thinking lately that I'd rather have frozen all fruit pies on hand than frozen meals. That is silly and impractical - but peach pie is my favorite.

so in a couple days when they're perfectly ripe I will be working hard. And eating a lot of fresh peaches.

I think this baby's last couple of pounds are made entirely of peaches.