can you find Rhys?

this is how he has been sleeping lately.

some life updates.

Just as Rhys and I were lying down for our weekly nap we started-up a conversation about the babies. Oh boy oh boy oh boy! BABIES! My sister-in-law will be popping a baby out any day now and both Rhys and I are very ecstatic about this; another baby to love, another baby to hold, another baby to buy itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny outfits for. Rhys is excited to have another friend around and can't wait to meet this new little creature (he said that he will read to it since it can't really play yet...which I thought was just darling). AND just when we get used to having that baby around we get...ANOTHER BABY! We are both very very very excited about the second baby, which will be popped out by my very own sister sometime around November 4th. I am horribly thrilled to be a 3rd degree Auntie and Rhys is happy about yet another friend being introduced into his life. We both think that Rhonda (sister-in-law) will have a boy and that Kelly (sister) will have a girl...but you just never ever know for sure. I will keep you posted.

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This weekend was the weekend from HELL. On Saturday morning James started to feel sick and promptly planted himself down on the couch to ride out the waves of what turned into the stomach flu. Blech! I did my best to care for him, the kids, and the house while still feeling worn out from a long week. I was sure that I wasn't going to catch the flu from James since I'd been sick a grand total of 7 times this year and was clinging to the hope that this weekend I would be in the Lords favor. But, alas, no such luck. I woke up Sunday morning feeling queasy and a tad green. I don't know if any of you have ever experienced this but it felt like my insides wanted to be on my outside. Horrible, I know. I spent the rest of the day close to the washroom and threw up....drum-roll please...8 times. Ugh. I lost 3 pounds, still feel dizzy, am on a mainly liquid diet, and feel like someone beat me from the inside. I explained to my mother that it felt like I swallowed a wind-up toy and then ate a whole package of baking soda. Double Blech! However, my mother shone through and gave me a break from the kids yesterday with an order to, "Have a hot bath and a sleep!" Which I did.

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I've been trying my very hardest to become a tidy person. I know that I blogged about this a little while ago, but it is a constant struggle of mine. But I made a small breakthrough...actually I made 2 small breakthroughs.

First Small Breakthrough: I've been watching a show called 'At The End Of My Leash' off of the Slice website (because I don't have cable so I try to find shows to watch online). The show is about a dog trainer who gets calls or e-mails from families that are 'at the end of their leash' with their dog or dogs. The animal is usually neglected, untrained, and bored which translates into them being loud, dis-respectful and, well, untrained. The funny thing is that the family is usually the root of the problem. In one of the episodes the dog trainer went into the families home and snooped around a bit. The place was filthy and he really gave it to the mom and dad for keeping a house in that state. While my house wasn't nearly as bad as theirs was, I kinda felt like he was talking to me. I turned to show off, went upstairs and cleaned my whole bedroom. It felt sooooo good to get it organized. I went to sleep happy with myself and eager to do more cleaning. I've known this for a long time but I need to constantly remind myself that I am happier in a cleaner home. Mess = Cranky Pants Bria. Clean = Sweet Loving Happy Bria. Big difference. Big. Difference.

Second Small Breakthrough: While talking to my mom about the whole ordeal I realized what went wrong! This may sound like I'm putting the blame on everyone else but I'm not. I will fess-up to being the messy person that I am any day of the week, but it does help to know how I got to where I'm at. I had my own apartment for just a few months before James and I got married. It wasn't very messy but it wasn't very organized either. When James moved in I never got into a routine and he is way more messy than I am. So two messies move in together and then *poof* we had a baby. Well, that makes it even harder to have a routine and babies don't clean-up after themselves! Then we moved, then we moved again, then we had another baby, and then we moved two more times. And that, folks, is what happened! LIFE! Now that we are fairly settled and I'm not popping another baby out I'm finding it way way way easier to curb bad habits, get into a routine, and learn how to be organized. It's still a slow process but there are a lot of bad habits! Both James and I have gotten better and I think that we are both proud of how far we've come. I don't want my kids growing up in a messy house and I want take care of what God has blessed us with. Now...I have to go do some more laundry.

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he's so strange...

random bria.

I spend so much of my day in the kitchen.

autumn.

We went for a walk today and I took a few moments to stop and enjoy this wonderful time of year. I love Autumn; the crisp air, the changing colours, the crunchy leaves.

I adore sweaters, hats, mittens, and all things cozy. I crave the smell of Bonn fires, cider and apple pie. Thanksgiving. Harvest. Autumn...mmmmmmmmm.

My favorite season.

homesteading (part one)

"Homesteading applies to anyone who is a part of the back-to-the-land movement and who chooses to live sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle."

I guess you could say that it all started with me being surrounded by a lot of nature and open spaces growing up. Every house I lived in during my childhood backed onto a forest or field. The first house was fenced in and I was much too young to be let loose onto the wilderness around. The second house backed onto a small forest which quickly turned into anything our little minds wanted it to be. We had a wicked fort that was home to many afternoon games of 'Indians' or whatever else we could make up on the spot.

In between my second and third house my family took a year 'off ', bought a Motor home, and travelled in a circle around the United States visiting 23 states. We stayed at many many camp grounds in beautiful state parks and out-of-the-way locations. More-often-than-not my sister, brother and I would be out the door and scampering into the wilderness as soon as we pulled into a new lot. We would scout out the location; taking into consideration distance to water, high land, look-outs, and so on. We would set up 'camp' and begin our adventures. My brother was Chief Eagle Feather (or Eagle something), my sister was the hunter, and I was....oh yes, the squaw! We visited both the east and west coast, the Louisiana Bayou, the desert, and the Grand Canyon...just to name a few.

My third house was on Liberty Street; inside the city limits but with a feel of the country. We had a few acres which backed onto a farmers field (I always loved running in and out of the corn). Our neighbour across from us has some goats, cows, donkeys and a Great Dane that was bigger than most of his animals. It was just perfect.

So I guess that's where it started. The seed was planted long ago. So many open spaces full of beauty and fresh air. Places to breath, places to create, places away from the hustle and bustle of cities. I always find it amazing how alive you become when you take away the distractions; your heart begins to loose the numbness, your mind begins to clear, your life becomes fresh again and there is a new vigor in your step. Some people are city dwellers and they live for that lifestyle. Not me.

"Men are better watching the seasons and putting good into the earth than running together in cities where they listen all day to each others noises."

-Mary Renault

(I posted this picture because my mom says it reminders her of an old photo of pioneers. I love this shot of James and I and I love even more that it looks how our hearts feel. I hope that makes sense.)

worker men!

Just imagine Rhys' delight when a whole caravan of trucks and construction workers (or as Rhys likes to call them, "worker men") showed up this morning to work on our neighbours sidewalk. He watched and watched and watched and watched, then got out his cement truck and watched while holding it. He is such a typical boy.

feeling weird.

I've been in a weird mood today. We got some odd family news yesterday and I suppose I am still processing the whole ordeal. When I am at a loss of words I need to tap into some other creative faucet; I have to let something out, even if it has nothing to do with anything. This is better than my other coping mechanism, which is walking to 7-11 and buying candy:) Today I sat down with a pencil and a blank page to let out some sort of emotional angst. I thought that a poem would follow but I ended up drawing...always a welcomed change.

sunrise on cabin lake.

James just got back from spending a few days in the great Manitoban wilderness with a few guys, a gun and whole bunch of beer. I was glad that he was able to get away to take a breather from our busy city lives. Camping is a great way to re-adjust and I wish I was able to do it more often (especially today...my toddler has decided to test my patience a little bit more than usual). James awoke early one morning and took a picture of the sunrise and I just had to post the picture. So beautiful! Manitoba can get such a bum-wrap but when you take a moment to stop and look around you find that it truly is a stunning place to live.

random bria.

I'm not usually one for outright copying people, however, when I come across a good idea there is no stopping trying to make it work in my own 'bria' way. I was out surfing through the blogging world last week and stumbled upon a blogger that was going through 100 facts about herself (which she had admittedly stolen from someone's blog). I thought that this was a fantastic idea (but one which wouldn't work for me at all). I love random things, unexpected things, somewhat useless things, and most-of-all random things...oops, that was my first one, well, I DO love random things. Take, for instance, my total love for the art of Improv. LOVE IT! It was one of my favorite things to do in High School and then again in University. I love movies and t.v. shows that use a substantial amount of improvisation (A Mighty Wind, Best In Show, The Office) and I love the thrill of being in a, more-often-than-not, comedic situation and having to think on your toes. Anyways, I got a bit sidetracked there...what I'm trying to say is that I think I will start a 'random bria' series. I don't think that I could come up with 100 random facts all at once so I will randomly post random facts! I know, I know I'm a genius.

First random bria post:
I box! Well, I did...up until my class was over. I started boxing in January and I quickly fell in love with pretty much everything about it (excluding the 5 minutes of jump rope as warm-up exercises...apparently I left my jump roping abilities back in kindergarten). I had some martial arts training when I was younger (another random bria fact) so I had a bit of background with punches and stance, this helped me to catch on fairly quickly. Now, I have to point out...THIS WAS NOT NOT NOT BOXERCISE! This was a class at an actual boxing club (United Boxing Club, to be exact) and they were very serious about teaching us how to actually box. I really enjoyed the feeling of not being able to move my limbs the next day, it meant that I was doing something productive! I started to question my involvement in the class when they introduced the 'Spartan 300'...300 push-up in one hour, broken up into sets of 25 randomly dispersed into the rest of the grueling boxing class. Despite the knot in my stomach I would get before each class I pushed on and felt a bit more proud of myself after each class was over. One of my proudest moments during my boxing classes is when I came home and punched James (by his request...he thought that it was 'cute' that I was learning how to fight) and I actually hurt him! Odd, I know. I really miss boxing and I hope to start again soon, it turned out to be a great outlet for a lot of things I had been keeping inside of me. That and people always gave me a weird look when I told them I was boxing...it's always a good idea to mix it up a bit. :)

little boy.

It was three years ago today that they wrapped you up into a little bundle and put you into my arms. So little, so new. You looked at me for the longest time and you seemed so pensive; not too sure of this unusual place, not too sure of these funny faces. I had no idea what to do with you, I hadn't ever changed a diaper before! I wondered if I would be a good mom, I wondered if I would be able to somehow make this work. You weren't planned...by us, and we were so young.

We took you home to our little apartment on Maryland Street and began to figure out this whole 'parenting' thing. We slowly got to know each other and you started communicating, it started as just a little squawk which then turned into a very loud squawk. Soon the corners of your mouth would turn up when you saw my face and your little limbs would flap around wildly when we would play. I caught-on to the art of changing diapers and breastfeeding while you caught-on to the art of pooping everywhere and eating. You turned out to be such a wonderful little baby.

Now you are 3, three, three, THREE! I just can't believe that time has flown by this quickly and your are no longer my baby, you are my big boy! I wish I could go back or push a pause button to soak it all in just for a little longer, but I can't...time doesn't stop for emotional mothers. Every day you get bigger and bigger and I am amazed by the person you are turning into. I love so much about you; your adorable smile, your contagious laugh, your love/hate relationship with robots, your obsession with tattoo's, the 'fire in you' that makes you run around the house 24/7, the way you love your sister, the way you adore your entire family (aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents, and friends), how much of a boy you are, the way you say 'chep-up' for 'ketchup', the fact that snuggling up with mommy and daddy for a special movie night in your jammies with a huge bowl of pop corn is one of the best things you can think of, and I especially, especially love when you tell me that I'm pretty and you think that I'm precious. You are so special to me and I'm so happy that God had you planned for your Dad and I. There are times when my mind wanders back to what our lives would be like if God had planned it differently and I always come up with the same conclusion...empty. You fill this house with so much laughter, love, energy and chaos...I wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy Birthday Rhys!

zoolander?

Rhys thought it would be fun if I took some pictures of him...this is what happened.

SUCCESS!

I am in shock! I was able to turn this:

Into this:
A BABY BOOT! Can you believe it!? I was able to knit something! Now, this is a very very simple pattern that I followed; you knit a square and then a little square and then sew them together (in an odd and seemingly nonsensical way...but it did turn into a rather adorable boot). The pattern in the book didn't have pom-poms on the end of the string. Actually, the pattern didn't have a string at all, it just had a tie-thing that looked like it wouldn't ever stay on a kicking baby foot.
Anyway, I'm very very proud of my knitting accomplishment. The doors of the knitting world have been flung open and I am excited to rush right in! Both my sister and sister-in-law are due in the next few months and I can't wait to whip up a whole pile of these cozy toe-warmers. Heck, I may even venture out even further and try making a baby toque! There's no stopping me now! I AM OFFICIALLY A KNITTER!