goodbye blogger.

I've been admiring a few Wordpress blogs for about a year now, impressed with their clean look and spiffy options. More recently though, two of my friends have moved over to Wordpress from Blogger and so I too am making the switch. I've been secretly working on my blog for a little while but I still have no clue how to work their high-tech system. I'm learning though and feedback or suggestions will be very welcome.

So...I hope to see you over there and if I end-up hating Wordpress then I'll see you back over here:)

Take Care.

Bob The Builder.

James had this fab idea of taking one of our under-the-bed bins and filling it with play sand for the kids. Seriously...best idea ever. They've already spent hours just sitting there and playing, and apparently singing. Too cute. (sorry for the bad quality of video, my camera was in a bad mood)

things i was able to pack into the 24 hours without the kids.

(in order)

1. Make myself a massive (somewhat gluttonous) lunch without the kids eating half of it.

2. Watch Fashion Television without having to listen to Curious George in the background.

3. Lounge around on my bed reading my Hobby Farms magazine with peace and quiet.

4. Have a bath without Rhys asking what time it is.

5. Get ready to go out without breaking up a fight over a toy.

6. Buy a big bag skittles without having to buy something for the kids...or having to deal with them crying for candy.

7. Go and see a non-kid friendly movie (Couples Retreat).

8. Buy a bottle of wine.

9. Stay up late without having to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn.

10. Slept well past the crack of dawn.

11. Get ready in peace again :)

12. Go out for a breakfast buffet and actually carry on a conversation with my husband without being interrupted a million times.

13. Write goals for our next two years without being interrupted a million times.

14. Drive in the truck without having to explain the itinerary for the whole day (something which Rhys has become obsessed with).

15. Go to Chapters and spend an hour quietly looking at books without having my limbs torn off of my body in different directions.

16. Get overly excited to see the kids on our way to pick them up.

♥

I'm having a lot of trouble trying to come up with words to describe these past five years of my life. They've been crazy years full of things that I never imagined would happen to us, or at least not in our first years of marriage. Life has taken us down some seemingly random roads full of sharp twists and turns, some good and some, well, let's call them character building. Marriage is not what I expected. I expected a long honeymoon stage. I expected us to find great jobs where we got paid a decent amount of money so that we could buy a cute house (one that wasn't a fixer-upper). I expected us to have lots of time to hang out with friends and go on fun trips with other couples, or just the two of us...because we would be able to pick and choose. I expected us to think about having kids when we were 26, which would give us enough time to build a solid foundation and save up some money. I expected us to have enough money to buy nice wines and expensive cheeses which we would consume together all curled up on our fashionable sofa sharing about our days and joking about our co-workers. Sounds a little fairytale-ish? Yup. I have this thing where I get my hopes up and I have all of these high expectations that I put on myself, others, situations, anything really, only to have them all dashed and disappointed. Because who can really live up to all of that? Who really gets that life? I suppose some people do, but they are few and far between. Yes, I think that the one word that I would use to sum-up these five years of marriage would be unexpected. I didn't expect to get pregnant two months after being married. I didn't expect to be a mom at 21. I didn't expect us to go through this many jobs, including two layoff's. I didn't expect us to live in five different places within four years. I didn't expect to have my second child at 24. I didn't expect us to have to find a new church, and essentially a whole new community. When I stop and thing about it I could pretty much say anything that has happened since we've been married was not even close to what I had pictured. This sounds like a real drag doesn't it? I suppose that I could look at it that way (and I have to admit that there are moments when I'm feeling overwhelmed that I do) but I like to think that God has put all of this on our plate because, for some reason, God thinks that we can handle it and He's choosing to build our character. If I had gotten the marriage that I was expecting sure it would have been easy, but it wouldn't have caused me to look deeper into myself to find strength and faith and patience and love. I like to think that I'm much more of the woman and wife that God wants me to be because of all of the craziness that has happened to us.

So here's to five unexpected years of marital bliss....I mean craziness.

silly boy.

*out of nowhere*

Rhys: "But I don't see God."

Bria: "Are you thinking about God right now?"

Rhys: "Yeah, I want to ask him if this is a hay bail tractor or not."

winnipegger in training.

ruffle scarf.

So I was drooling over the Anthropologie website today, wishing that I had tons of money to spend in that store (wishing that there was an Anthro store in Winnipeg actually), when I realized that I had some cozy fabric kickin' around and that I could easily make my own ruffle scarf. Fifteen minutes later...Presto! My Anthropologie inspired fall scarf. I already have an order in for another one (although it will be a mini-version of mine for the mini-me that lives in the house). Don't you just love it? My only regret is that it should be about 2 feet longer...and it was, until I ruffled it.

*yes, i do look weird in the picture. my kids were yelling at me to make them lunch and i decided to ignore them and take a picture to put on my blog instead.

7:00 am.

There are times when I feel really bad about being a SAHM. James runs out the door first thing in the morning and works non-stop, sometimes through lunch, and gets home late to provide for us while I just stay home...all day, every day. There are days where this really bothers me, I feel like I should be doing more or pushing myself harder to take on more things or get a better education so I can help out too. I have these moments where I buy into the unspoken 'you're not really that successful if you just stay home with your kids' mentality that has invaded our society.
This morning, however, was not one of those moments. The kids wanted to have a cuddle on the couch before we started our day, something that doesn't happen often enough. Rhys brought over a pencil and piece of paper and started writing out his numbers. Amelia sat looking through her Peter Rabbit books and I sipped my coffee. It was a wonderful moment because I felt as though I was contributing to my kids in a way that making more money never ever could. I was giving them my time, my attention, my cuddles, my counting skills, and they were getting mom all to themselves.

hello october.

Well, it's October. All of my fretting and complaining didn't make a difference to our ticking clock, it just kept going. We may as well kick off the month on the right note so here's an adorable song for you to listen to. Hope you like it!