swapping

one of my favourite things about facebook right now is the Abby Kids Swap Site. I spend lots of time there looking at all the clothes posted. the great part is that they're all in abbotsford so even if it's just a $2 onesie that looks cute, it's not a big deal to swing by and get it. lately, i've bought a number of things (mostly pink...) and everyone seems to do the same thing. you tell them the day you'll be coming by and they leave it outside on their front step in a bag for you. then when you show up, you put the money in mailbox or under the mat. it's quite the easy process and not having to deal with people face to face is something i love! haha.

now that we found out we're having a girl, i have started going through boxes of ben's clothes. i have two years worth of clothing to organize. what i'm finding is that i pull things out of these boxes and think, "i don't want to get rid of THIS!" even though there's no real reason to keep them. so far, i've been organizing the clothes into 4 piles: stuff that a girl could wear (keep), stuff that's in good enough shape to sell, stuff that's decent to give to goodwill, and stuff to toss (stained usually). of course there are the handful of items that are going in a tiny box to save indefinitely - ben's toque that he wore home from the hospital, his first little pair of shoes, etc. i'm trying not to let that box get very full. :)

happy

my happy birthday frap

(my cake pics are on my mom's computer)

happy birthday tim - ben was a big help on the candles. :)

big boy bed

in anticipation for the baby's arrival, we're planning on revamping our spare room into ben's new "big boy" room. currently it's a turquoisey blue which i thought would be okay but turns out, i want it to be a little more matchy with ben's bedding. but one cannot match paint colour to bedding if there is no bedding so i started the search online last week. here's what i chose - it's on it's way to sumas, washington right now! can't wait to pick it up, pick a paint colour and get decorating.

may's been lacking

for some reason, it's been a tough blogging month. i went back to last may and read some much better posts and thought, "man, i'm really slacking here!" i thought i would just let you know that i know. i'll get working on it. ;)

cinnamon loaf recipe

it seems that perhaps having a toddler may improve my baking. with the rainy weather lately and a couple days that tim took the truck to work, i had to come up with something to do to keep ben occupied in the house. last week, i baked banana bread and today (yep, tim's working on a saturday!), we tried out a cinnamon loaf.

in an attempt to not eat all the banana bread on my own, i cut it up into slices and wrapped each slice individually and put them in the freezer. then tim could grab a frozen slice for his lunch and it would be thawed by lunch. i was also hoping that the frozen state of the bread would deter me from eating it. but what are microwaves for? though, i did pretty well and only pulled out a piece to nuke it once.

as for the cinnamon loaf this morning, i'm pretty sure that will be fully eaten in the next few days - it's so good. i'd been feeling like coffee cake so i called my mom for a recipe but her coffee cake recipes called for ingredients that i didn't have on hand. then she suggested this one and after it's been made, it was exactly the flavour that i'd been craving in the first place! i've eaten two warm slices already...this is why i shouldn't be baking... but here's the recipe if you're looking for something:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening (i used butter)

2 eggs

1 cup sour milk or buttermilk - my mom suggested i use almost a cup of milk and mix a couple tablespoons of vinegar in and let it sit a bit before using it - it did the trick.

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

save for the end: 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon

Cream the sugar, butter, and then add eggs. Add half the flour, the other dry ingred. and half the milk and stir. Then add the remainders of the flour and milk and stir. (apparently this makes it fluffier) Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and pour the sugar/cinnamon mixture on top. "swirl" with a knife (i didn't quite do this right as there are huge patches of no cinnamon in my loaf but it still tastes good). Bake at 350 for about an hour.

There wasn't enough ingredients for Ben's liking and he continued to pretend pour things into the batter after everything was in. But it was just right for me. Enjoy!

i posted yesterday and that post seems to have disappeared! so if you're just tuning in now...

boy or girl?

at my last doctor's appointment, we'd figured out that i'd be having my ultrasound in week 20 and the results would come to my doctor's office at 21 weeks - right in time for my regular monthly appointment. perfect, i'd get to show up and find out from my doctor in person whether we are having a boy or girl. tim and i planned to have him come along to the appointment so we could find out at the same time.

today, the phone rang and call display showed my doctor was calling. hmm... i answer and it's him. "hi, rebecca. i have some results for you here." whaaaat? oh no, oh no, we had a plan! i replied, "already? but i'm coming in tomorrow." "do you want to wait? i haven't looked at it yet - i can stick it back in your file and we'll open it tomorrow if you want." ummmm.....

i WAITED! i could have found out today and i WAITED! crazy.

we find out tomorrow....

happy mother's day!

when i get grown

When I first heard this song by Treelines, I was driving by myself in the car. I liked the sound so I turned it up a little to hear the words. aaand I started to cry. Sure, you can blame the pregnancy hormones but when I hear it (like I'm playing it on repeat right now as I write), I can't think too hard about the words or I tear up again. If you haven't already pressed play on the youtube video, go back and listen and then continue here.

The main lines that get me everytime are:

Their cribs will fill our morning but by noon they'll be in school,
Their teenage years will come and go and by the rising of the moon they'll settle down,
With someone else who shares their name now.

It's the way they compare their children's growing up as a day - cribs fill our morning, noon, they're in school, by the rising of the moon, they'll settle down. What's scary is that as soon as you have a child, you realize how so very fast they grow. It was like, "Oh my goodness - I'm not ready for my baby to grow up so fast." *cry*. ;)

But as I've over analysed this song, it occurred to me that there may be another reason that this song can tug at the heartstrings (well, MY heartstrings). it's about finding ONE person and creating a life with that person and growing old with them. There aren't too many songs, shows, people etc. out there endorsing this ideal - in fact, it sometimes feels the opposite. So another feeling while I listen is that reminder that I'm so glad that I've found my person that I want to live out this life with.

Download the song for free here.

When I get all grown I want to find a little space,
Somewhere that I can be myself somewhere I feel safe and settle down
With a girl who shares my name.

We'll store up in the autumn months and party in the spring,
We'll lay away those summer days on white sand by the sea,
We'll fall asleep when the snow begins to come down.

Then the day will come when her stomach starts to grow,
We'll freak about the million things we don't already know,
We'll give them names after my favourite hockey players if it's ok.

Their cribs will fill our morning but by noon they'll be in school,
Their teenage years will come and go and by the rising of the moon they'll settle down,
With someone else who shares their name now.

And when our shoulders like old wooden fences lean towards the ground,
The grandkids grow like rocket ships shooting to the clouds,
Her hair is grey but her blue eyes never shone so proud.

When the Lord comes calling and we have to say goodbye,
I'll rest her in the ground if I'm the one whose left behind,
Whisper goodnight and wait patiently for my white light to come.

"whaaat?" - ben

after we had our ultrasound, we sat ben down at the computer (the pics were on a cd) and showed him the pictures of the baby. we attempted to explain that "mommy's tummy is getting bigger because she's growing a baby inside" which really is the freakiest sounding thing to say to a toddler. he seemed to like the pictures but when we kept trying to explain anything else, he just stared at us blankly. (i can just see my dad shaking his head in disbelief - haha). we figured he didn't have a clue what we were talking about.

then on tuesday, we were hanging out with ang and her son, kainoa, and i was telling ang this story. then i said to ben, "hey ben, where's mommy's baby?" and he pointed at my stomach! so who knows what's going in and what he's thinking? hopefully by september, we'll have him all prepped and ready for a sibling!

introducing baby shulba #2

yep, he or she looks just like all the other ultrasounds you've ever seen! ;) i thought it was funny when our technician said, "it's cute". the ultrasound tech said she WAS able to determine the gender which is great so we will be finding out the gender hopefully on may 11th at our next doctor's appointment!