1 year and 1 half

i've been meaning to post this forever and haven't got around to it until today. my big big baby is 18 months old and turning into a big big boy. how is it possible that he could be 18 months old already? i mean seriously, it seems like 2 seconds ago he looked like this:

wow, so scary huge. a good reminder for me.

And then about 2 weeks after that he looked like this:
and then somewhere between that time and now i blinked and we have exhibit Oz)

Ozzie and his "buddy". A term greta actually came up with that has stuck around our house. Ozzie is the epitome of an 18 month boy. Hitting, throwing, playing with cars and above all BALLS!!! He is obsessed. All i hear all day is "Bah , Bahh? Bah." But apart from the usual, he is really anything but. This kid has a definite mind and personality all of his own.

-He WILL NOT eat anything anymore if i try and spoon feed it to him. He's actually really good at it doing it himself, Bowls of cereal, soup, pasta, applesauce. you name it.
- He loves to dance more than pretty much doing anything else. And when he does, he thinks it requires a tutu to be sucessful


- He loves to leave the house and go out. He'll bring me his coat and shoes the minute i say "go" and also loves to walk everywhere. If i try and carry him, he'll arch his back until he's won that game, simply because i cannot carry his squirmy body weight anymore
- His favorite foods right now are: mini cucumbers (all to himself of course), entire apples(skin on), grapes, juice boxes, and tomato oregano chicken on rice.
- I recently attempted taking his bottle away and it was a no go. he WILL NOT drink any milk unless its in his bottle. it doesnt matter how cute, or bottle-ish a sippy cup is, he wont touch it unless its in his "Ba"
- he loves to climb on everything, but it pretty cautious which is nice, so he'll go down backwards off of things instead of try going head first. Hes also been attempting to jump, which is hilarious, and playing tag with greta.

- He will mostly try to say anything i ask him to, but so far he can say: mama, dada, greta, ball, apple, water, buddy, birdie, moo, meow, grandma, no, and how could i forget "Yah" for yes. If i say ozzie do you want ______? and if he does he'll give a resounding "yah". so cute. he also signs a bit: the usuals are more, please, sorry, and milk
-He love to play hide and seek with me and greta, and he always hides behind the patio curtains. but he sits there and be's so quiet and cute. and when we find him he gets so excited and says, "BO" instead of boo. haha, i really need to get that on video.

Oz, you are the sweetest boy when you want to be. and the things i love about you most are your sweet hugs in the morning with pats on my back, your jiggly thighs and cheeks when you run down the hallway, your open mouth surprized face for anything exciting, and how you try to say "love you" at bed time to me. it melts my heart. oh and how could i ever forget your dance moves? love you bud.

(** i had more pics to post but they aren't working, so oh well)

distractions

Recently, Oprah did a show on driving while cell phone talking/texting and its harmful effects. I don't like Op and usually and never watch her, but the re-run was on today, so i watched a bit to help aid in my packing procrastination. It was pretty brutal, showing numerous totally preventable deaths that occured from texting while behind the wheel. so sad.

Off topic...you know when you're pregnant(which i'm SOOOO not) and it seems like everywhere you go ALL you notice is pregnant women. It seems like they come out of nowhere and are EVERYWHERE you look? But really, its just you noticing them more because you're in the same boat.
anyways, thats me and vehicles right now. I've never been one to notice a sweet ride, or check out a make or model of a vehicle EVER in my life. But now that we're looking for one, i CANT stop. I'm constantly twisting my head around, looking over my shoulder, peeping tom into peoples vehicles to check out the interior and I can't help but notice the make , size, color, of every nice vehicle i see. I just cant help it.

So today, i'm driving Greta to ballet and i'm at a red light waiting to turn left. At the adjacent light is a super nice black, SUV-ish, toyota, something or other and i wanted to know what it was. My light turns green, i have a turning arrow, i proceed, crank my neck, and JUST about ram right into the stinking light post. seriously, i swerved hard, and missed it by an inch. what an idiot.

right after i thought to myself, good thing i wasn't on my phone at the same time. we would have been toast. we just need to hurry up and get a vehicle so i can be distracted by something else more safe.

and the worst of it is, I STILL don't know what that toyota was.

1 month and not counting.

***Warning- Serious, story like, and very long post. tune out now if you're looking for entertainment.***

woah, its been way too long since i posted anything. mostly because this past month a and a half really has been a complete blur. okay, who am i kidding? this whole year. i remember going into this last year of school thinking, its going to be sweet, less stress, more time to chill, kids are getting more independent, time to make life plans, etc etc. Ummm....not so much. I feel like we've been on a slippery slope since september and can't level out and catch our breath. time is passing so quickly. with that said, it IS nice after all the turmoil to have things sort-of planned out and set in motion for the next phase of life. this is how it all went down...(i'm doing this more for the record than anything, so sorry if it's long)

plan a) Decide where we want to LIVE, and find a JOB

Simple enough right? look at the pros/cons of your top places and choose somewhere. easy peezy. well, lets just say that when i married dick i knew the "families from 2 different provinces" thing would be difficult. but as long as we were together it would be fine. and it has been, except we've spent almost EVERY holiday, weekend, vacation and dollar traveling many hours to visit family, and we wanted to change that. so after much discussion we thought okotoks would be a happy medium, close to my fam, close to the airport, close to shopping, close to church peeps. and so on.

then comes the finding a job part. who knew how lame that would be? not me. turns out, just because you're a dentist doesnt mean you have a foot in the door at any office of your choice. for one, they have to be looking for an associate, then they must offer some sort of almost full time schedule so you dont go broke. then the dentist has to be normal, not stinky, or pervert-y or bad dental-philosophy-y. oh, and also, if you know someone in the business, that helps...alot. too bad that ain't us. but we were able to meet with a great dentist and his wife in okotoks and felt pretty good about it. too good to be true?

so after waiting and waiting to hear from office manager after office manager, things in okotoks were taking a lot longer than we planned. and we didnt want to put all of our eggs in one baskie so we thought we better look around somemore. but the thoughts of calgary made us ill, and anywhere else in okotoks was a dead end. did i mention dick was still going to school full time during all of this? but we were still hopeful and prayerful that something would work out, and that the Lord would provide.
one morning, dick wakes up literally and says:

Him: "I think we should look in Lethbridge"
Me: "No"
Him: "Yes, i really do"
Me: " No seriously, NO!"

Usually in those type of situations, i get my way. Not that day, he kept bringing it up, asking me to call around etc. etc. So i thought i'd appease him, knowing the jobs there were pretty picked over from what we heard. Long story long, he had an interview that weekend. Before he met with the dentist, he called me and said, "Just so you know, I know i'm going to get the job and love it, and we're going to move to Lethbridge" I just laughed, cause he always says stuff like that just to annoy. 5 hours later. He calls back, "It went great, THAT is where I want to work, but I'll go wherever is best for all of us." I was seriously in shock. then tears. It was a good thing he wasnt home to see me, it was ugly. I dont know why, i just felt so sad. I think you have an idea in your mind of what your life will be like, and how it will play out, and mine never ever had Lethbridge written in the fine print.

When dick got home we talked some more, and i knew we needed to decide quickly because the same day dick found out he had the opportunity to work in Lethbridge, he also found out the same news from the Dentist in Okotoks.... crap. I wanted so bad just to say take the Okotoks job. But honestly, most of the reasons were pretty selfish. So i sucked it up, cleaned the slate and asked a higher source. It was just like when I was dating dick and he said he already felt a strong confimation about marrying me, and I was too scared to find out the answer on my end. You know how that story wound up:) Well, turns out, i did recieve an answer through the events that transpired over the next weeks.

plan b) SELL our house, BUY another one

We have had such amazing blessings in this department, mostly due to my mothers insight, but also because of timing. Timing is EVERYTHING. when to buy/sell is crucial, especially in our flip/flopping economic state. So, WAY earlier than planned, i felt strongly that we needed to list our house before we left for reading week. So I literally had a week to deep clean, pack some, organize, fix, and polish up our house for showings, all by myself. I do work best under pressure, but this was ridiculous. We strolled out of our Listed house on a Saturday, and planned to return in 2 weeks. I PLEADED with the Lord that if it was right, that miraculously our house would sell while we were gone.
Mean time, back at the ranch. (okay this is gonna be a novel) Dick was up north working, and without cell phone, internet, or basically any means of communication. BOO! Thank-goodness i had my family to help make some crucial decisions, and that they happen to be real-estate geniuses was nice too! After almost 2 weeks, and no legit offers on our house, I was packed and ready to leave back to saskatoon in the morning. I was sad, and depressed even thinking about being home alone with the kids, and showing our house a billion times blah blah blah. That night we got a call, and an offer, and sold our house. YEAH!!!! It was such a relief.

On the way home, sitting on the floor of a 7 person van, with 8 people in it. I thought about all the things that had transpired since dick said he felt strongly that we needed to look in Lethbridge. Finding a dentist that was looking for someone, getting along with him, getting the job, how i felt at the temple when i went, how i felt impressed to list our house quickly, and that it SOLD quickly. call it what you want, but it was all a miracle to me. I couldn't dent it.

This whole year we've been praying for the Lord to bless us to feel the spirit and be directed on the right path for our family. I can not deny that this has come to pass. And as much and Lethy drives me crazy, i know its where we're supposed to be, and so we'll make it work no matter what. I mean, i wasn't too thrilled about moving to saskatoon either, and look how well that turned out!

So now we're down to 1 month left in saskatoon, and i'm feeling sad, nostalgic, a little frantic, but excited.

I'm sad to leave this city, weird as it seems. I've really come to love this cold, bridge-y, spray park filled, circle driv'in place. and I can honesty say we've made so many wonderful lifelong friends, and really grown closer as a family, that I cant imagine what life would have been like these past few years anywhere else.

So, one month left and i'm NOT counting down. i'm just going to try and not stress(After the RS party of course) pack a little each day, enjoy this insanity of a beautiful spring we're having and spend time with friends and my little family!


oh, and i forgot to mention we bought a place last week. Havent seen it yet ( i know right?) but here's the outside, its going to be great!