A New Venture

As of today I have one month left of maternity leave...then Brad will take the rest in paternity leave.  I'm very okay with this as I only have 1/3 position, meaning I only go to work one day a week...pretty sweet!  I think I'm looking forward to it...at least on days like these where I feel like I've been put through the ringer by a very moody, teething, crabby, constantly yelling 2 year old...I can't believe how draining that can be.  But I still love him...one moment he's screaming and the next coming over and giving his two shouldered hugs.  He leans and gives a hug on one shoulder saying "ah" while he does it and then proceeds to your other shoulder to do the same...it's like a British hug.

But on to my new venture.  I really do not like the idea of working too much out of the home so I have/had been thinking for quite awhile of what I could do from the home.  Nursing isn't really a career you can stay home and do.  I still wanted to do something I felt passionate about and somehow still related to health care.  As I have been cleaning our house (and being that it's 2 times the size of our old house it seems I clean alot!) I realize how much I love my Norwex products!  If you haven't heard of them...you need to!  Working in oncology has really prodded me to move to less chemicals in my home, and having kids has made that a priority too...and that is where Norwex comes in...you can clean your house pretty much with water...no chemicals!  It has been so wonderful...not only good for the environment but more importantly great for our family.

So...as of this week I am officially a sales consultant for Norwex!  It's weird to be so excited about something...but I feel that everyone needs to know about this!  I am still officially on maternity leave so won't be technically starting until the end of May but if you have any questions or would like to book a party (which by the way gives you loads and loads of free stuff!) let me know.  I have a new business e-mail address too...vivsnorwex@gmail.com.

Weird to be excited about cleaning...but hey if I have to do it, I may as well be excited about it!

Yard work...maybe we should have more kids??

If that's the only reason to have more kids...I don't think it's a good enough one!!  So, nope...no more kiddos! I think if we get through the two year old teething stage...we can get through anything!!

Yesterday, we got out finally in the yard.  For me it has to be a very nice day...warm weather, no wind...good enough to get a tan out of the deal...and it was that day.  I hadn't realized that we have a rather large yard...much larger than our one in the city.  And the previous owners did not leave the yard in very great shape...it needed a little bit of TLC to start off the spring season.  I don't think I've ever raked that much!  By evening I could hardly lift my arms.  But all the work paid off and the grass even looks a little green.  Now to getting rid of some unwanted perennials and dog trails in the lawn...anyone want some perennials??

Now to getting our fire pit in commission so that we can enjoy the warm evenings when they come...we welcome visitors anytime!!

Remembering Benjamin's Tummy Time Torture

Yesterday Brad and I were talking about how Levi seems to be a lot better with being on his belly than Ben was.  It reminded us of something that happened when Ben was around Levi's age...maybe a little younger.  Ben hated being on his belly and at this point did not like to roll over onto his back.  So when he would somehow land on him belly we would let him cry for a little while but then sat him back up to relieve his troubles.

One day, Brad was home with Ben and I had gone for a quick trip to the store...on my way I realized that I had forgotten the cell phone but I didn't feel like turning back to get it being that I planned to only be gone 15 minutes or so.  I ended up being a little bit longer than expected and when I returned back home there was a strange vehicle in the driveway and I could hear Ben wailing inside.  My first thought was "why is Brad not picking him up?".  I went around to our backdoor because our front door knob was broken so you could get out but not in.  There was a stranger talking to Brad in our back porch and Ben was sitting on the living room floor crying...a little less forcefully by now.  It turned out that while I was gone for my short trip out, Brad took the garbage out and the front door accidentally closed behind him...and being that it was broken he couldn't get back in and all the other doors were locked.  And there was Ben sitting on the living room floor...peacefully at first, that is until he fell over onto his belly.  Then the wailing began...and Brad could hear him from outside.  Brad said that at least hearing him cry meant he was "okay", otherwise he would have broken a window to get in.  So finally Brad ran across the street (to our "suspicious activity" neighbors) and called a locksmith.  So when I got home, the locksmith had gotten the door open and Ben was still working through his trauma...and so was Brad.  It was a scary morning...but now we can look back and kind of laugh at it.

Am I really this old??

I know I'm not old, but sometimes I just feel like it.  It's more that time has flown so fast!  For the most part I'm very glad with how old I am, but sometimes things happen that just make me feel old.  This weekend was one of those.  It was Brad's birthday on Saturday so we wanted to go out and our family babysitters were all busy...what to do?  I always babysat when I was in my early teens and I they trusted me with their kids...but now here I am with the kids and needing someone to watch them.  How can it be?  Am I really that old?  We found a wonderful girl to come and watch the boys for a few hours.  I drove to pick her up...it seems like just yesterday I was the one being picked up...I remember feeling very awkward and nervous driving with the parents.  It went perfectly fine...Levi was in bed already and Ben didn't even care that we had left him.  He was climbing the couch and licking the wall when we left...oblivious to us leaving.  And we had a wonderful evening...and we'll definitely be doing that again!

Spring...finally!

I have been waiting and waiting for spring to finally arrive.  The past few weeks have been the first time since we moved that I felt a bit isolated from the city life.  We (mostly me and Ben) really needed to get out of this house...yet it was still miserable out and trips to the mall are a lot more work now that we live out of the city (and a lot more money too!).  All I wanted was to be able to take the boys out for a walk or just take Ben outside for a change of pace.  Finally it is here...and what a relief!  We've been taking almost daily walks and Ben has loved the puddles!  And Levi just goes wherever we go.

Levi has been growing into such a little man...not crawling yet but we've had him on his hands and knees, he just doesn't know what to do when he's there:)  He's a big boy so we had to get him a new car seat.  For some reason I've been finding this transition really hard...I don't really know why?  Even though I am not a "fan" of this baby stage it is kind of sad to see him move on from it.  And I guess a "big boy" car seat feels like such a big step for an 8 month old.  Our Quinny carseat and stroller was my favorite purchase when we had Ben...and now tonight someone is possibly going to buy it...it is going to be so sad...I'm tearing up as I write this.  How can I be so attached to a carseat and stroller??!  We've moved on to the double stroller...the next stage in life. 

As the snow disappears we've started noticing all the yard work we have in store for us.  Funny how there are things that you just don't notice when you are buying a house.  Such as weird shaped flower gardens in the middle of the backyard, huge divots in the ground, random trees, flower beds overgrown with

So that's what's new around here...thanks to spring!