I don’t always attend “ladies only” events but I went to something called the salad fiesta a few years back with my mom. I haven’t been able to go in the last few years, and I was so happy when a friend invited me to go with her this year. She also hadn’t been in several years so we thought it would be fun.

There were probably around 150 ladies all seated around tables, listening to a couple of speakers talk about gardening, life, and joy. We ate lots and lots of different salads. The BEST one was the taco salad though, hands down! We definitely had seconds. I ate tons, yet strangely, a few hours later, I’m sooo hungry! I guess thats what happens when when a pregnant woman eats only salad for supper. But you’d think salad with ground beef should count for something! It was delicious anyway. Same time next year!

A little side note from today is that the baby moved a good amount 🙂 Brady worked most of a full day and was completely bushed when he got home. He washed up and came to lay in bed with me and just rest before he had to get up and take care of Dekker while I was out all evening. We watched Friends and he felt the baby move more than he ever has so far this pregnancy. I’m so happy this time has come and he can share in the baby’s movements with me. Two weeks until our ultrasound, and then we’ll really get to see baby move around. All of our routine ultrasounds with Dekker were terrible. At our 20 week, the tech wouldn’t show us anything. We never got to see fingers and toes, nothing, and this time around, we’ve already seen fingers!!! We’ve definitely found a much better clinic with much nicer techs, so I’m really excited to see baby at this stage like never before! But thats beside the point. Baby moved a lot today.

Now, I am tired. I had a really rough night actually, not able to sleep thanks to some insane body aches, but tonight, I will take my sleep aid and maybe even a couple Tylenol just in case, and tomorrow, we will be heathens and skip church. And rest.

The concert ended about an hour and a half ago and my ears are still ringing. I find myself talked very quietly because I’m scared I’ll be that awkward person shouting at others. However, Brady is currently just as deaf as I am so it would probably help if I spoke up. Quandary.

The show was completely amazing tonight. I don’t have much energy left so pictures and videos may or may not come another day, but it was truly spectacular. A quick breakdown of events, however, I can do.

We were on the floor in front of the stage, pretty decently close actually! Closer than we were at their Regina show last year. I was sooo pumped to be so close, even though there was a good amount of super pushy people near us.

The first band was called Anami Vice. They were terrible when we saw them as openers last year, and strangely, they were worse today. There were a couple of people around us that knew all the words to their songs, but almost everyone else just seemed bored. It was pretty exciting when they left the stage. The applause for them lasted a couple of seconds. Baaaaad.

Down with Webster was the second band. I have to give them credit. They’re not a band I listen to regularly at all, but they put on an amazing show. Their drummer is fabulous and they have really good energy without being doofuses. It also helps that they were after Anami Vice. But seriously, they were good, and while I only recognized their singles, it was easy to get into and enjoy. However, it was midway through their show that I started getting dizzy. I always start to feel it in the very top of my head, and then it spreads all down my head and face. Once it finishes my face, I faint. Not ideal. But we had such a good spot in the crowd! I tried so hard to overcome it. I moved around a bit, I turned around and got a different view, some light, less noise in my ears, but I could see that Brady was desperately bracing himself against the crazy amount of people trying to push closer. There was no way I was getting more space. So I gave up and we left the crowd to go find a drink and a seat.

We got a drink and sat in a pretty unpopulated area until DWW was over. It was nice to rest our legs. I am very much someone who likes to push to the front of the crowd, and Brady would probably prefer to be seated, so it was nice for me that he wasn’t as disappointed to leave the crazy crowd. In the short break between DWW and Marianas Trench, we found some Mini Donuts and a bathroom. Not a whole lot to report from that part of the evening…

Marianas Trench had their main stage set up as expected, plus two catwalk stages coming out the sides. Those were less populated, and right by the walls that would normally enclose the rink. So I figured, less people plus walls to hold onto if need be met my needs better than pushing back into the big, sweaty crowd. I was right! We actually loved that spot so much better than our original spot. Those guys never stay in one place for very long, so we got lots of close ups of all of them. Plus the sound was better. And there were less pushy people. My only complaint was that corner smelled of fart. And it wasn’t me. I’m pregnant, and I wasn’t the one farting! Oh well, that happens I suppose.

It was quite an epic show. It was the closing performance for the tour they were on, so there were tons of pranks going on all through the show including absurd amounts of fog, sound guys attached to the ceiling, and live lobsters. But I wouldn’t do those stories justice tonight so just trust me when I say, even if you don’t like their music, it was one heck of a show tonight!

We arrived home to our son asleep in bed, and our amazing friend Jerilee reading on our couch. Only an amazing friend would do such a long stretch of babysitting and not let you pay her. We appreciated it sooo much! We loved our night out.

So now, my legs hurt, and my butt hurts, and muscles I didn’t know existed (and probably don’t anymore) hurt. I’m going to bed.

This will be another fairly randomly put together post about todays events that don’t really mean anything or even matter, but I get a kick out of them. The first is something you just have to try and picture.

Dekker has these cute little plastic safety glasses he got with his tools and tool bench. They attach with an elastic strap. He can sometimes put them on by himself but apparently half the game is having me put them on him, him take them off, and me put them back on. Over and over and over again. Today he brought me his glasses so I put them on him. I soon found him biffed and hung up over our wire/wooden bead toy (that toy that every church and doctors office in the world has). He got himself up and proceeded to have a good long cry. Sounds sad, I know. But it was actually super adorable. We decided against pants that afternoon so my boy was in nothing more than a diaper, a shirt, and his trusty glasses. Safety first, right Dekker? I wanted to take a picture, but I thought it might seem mean. Then I blogged about it. Mother fail.

The second thing I want to post about was a game he started playing. Growing up, we always waved at the window when people left.  Whether it was family or friends, whether it was leaving for school or leaving after a evening gathering or party, we waved. Dekker has taken to it well, and waves out any window to anyone walking by. Its adorable. But I figured he just thought windows meant waving. Today he was playing with his cars on the table beside the couch. He was making car noises, then they’d stop and he’d wave at the car, and then the car would drive again. It was sooo adorable! I guess he catches on to more than I thought! Smart boy!!

The last thing I’ll post on here today is a cute little video we found on Facebook that Dekker LOVES! We’ve had certain kid videos recommended to us once in a while since Deks was born, but this one we found during my hospital visit a couple of weeks back. Its kind of cute and I just figured I’d put it out there 🙂 Enjoy!

Ironically, grapes for a snack tonight!

Not tons to say around today in particular but last night, Brady finally got to feel a little baby kick! I guess I shouldn’t say finally, since baby’s only been making teeny little movements for a week or two, but its nice that he could feel one. I’m sure he’ll get more chances in the near future! Here’s a clip of Dekker when I was 35 weeks pregnant. Oh, to have no stretch marks…sigh…

Another tidbit from yesterday is that Brady and I ate an entire lasagna. I know, thats awful, but it wasn’t. It was oh so good! I have a pregnancy app that I use to track everything and it gives me little tips everyday. Lately, its all about asking for salad dressing on the side and being very careful about the portions I’m eating. If you ask me, the app needs to relax a little. Yes, its true that just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I need to eat everything in sight, but it also isn’t really the time to really start eating any less! NO dieting!! Especially with my blood pressure being as flaky as it is, I need to eat often! So I ate a HUGE amount of supper last night and it was sooo good! I was full to bursting, yet still disappointed when it was over. Ok, and just for the record, it was a 9×9 lasagna, not 9×13. I’m not that gross! But I might have been. Big thanks to my lovely friend Willa for making it for us 🙂 I’m sooo looking forward to the second one in my freezer!!

Such wonderful gifts from amazing friends 🙂 We are sooo blessed!

Dekker and I had a pretty relaxed day. Only one plan. We drove my mom to a physio appointment for 1pm. So I woke him (yes, woke him) at 11am so we could eat and get ready and be out the door by about 11:45am, at my moms by 12:15 and at her appointment by 12:45. And it worked! Check out my stylin’ passenger.

We got my mom on time and she even got into her appointment ten minutes early! Which was exciting because her physiotherapist is pretty much amazing and gives nice, long appointments, so while she doesn’t run behind too badly, she rarely runs early. But she did today. Dekker amused himself pretty well with the fish tank and toys, but we had a nice photo shoot while he ate his crackers.

 

After physio, we took mom home to take the rest of the day to relax. We stopped to fill up the car, and to get a latte at Tim Hortons, but besides that, we pretty well headed straight home.

Dekker went right down for a nap and surfaced when Brady got home. He had started talking already a few minutes before Brady pulled up, but the baby in my belly was moving a lot and I didn’t want it to stop, so I let him talk for a little while. Truly an unbelievable feeling 🙂

Brady’s turn!! A couple of things have come up and we can finally share them publicly! Keeping secrets is murder when I blog every day!

Brady has signed a contract with Daytona Homes as their primary finishing carpenter!! This is VERY exciting, as well as a new challenge that we are anxiously waiting to see how it plays out. He signed everything last week, and we went out to celebrate as a family that evening. I’m sure Brady would have more accurate and better worded info, but I’ll say that Daytona started in Edmonton and became among the top five home builders there in a few short years. They’re now among the top three in Grand Prairie, and became the top builder in Regina within four years. They are now here and they have big plans to do the same 🙂 This is a big opportunity for right now, and has HUGE potential to grow in a few short months. Brady will likely be looking for a couple of employees before the year end. Praise God for such an exciting chain of events! The slump in work was very nerve wracking in the beginning of the year, being that we had just found out I was pregnant with offspring #2, and this is just the answer to our prayers that we were hoping for! To the future!!! *raises glass of milk*

Daddy’s turn again!!! Bedtime cuddle pictures of the boys.

 

A certain little man LOVES the camera! And the camera certainly loves him back 🙂

 

We met with our small group from church tonight, and had a HUGE feast!! We all usually bring a part of the meal, but by the time I figured out what ti bring, everything was accounted for, so we brought all of nothing. But the ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, caesar salad, and asparagus did NOT disappoint! A yummy whipped cherry cheesecake to top it off was more than perfect! I’m still hungry thinking about it, yet I could eat it all again. It was a delicious night.

My original plan was to arrive in town early and make my part of the meal there so I could bring it hot. Since that changed, I knew I could leave my home to arrive there at a normal time. My only other plan was to go be with a friend whose husband was in surgery. I wanted to drop in and just bring some love and support and prayer. I have had this plan in mind for quite some time, but I felt convicted this morning that it was unwise for me to bring Dekker into quite that situation. I called and spoke to a nurse about whether or not that particular ward was kid-friendly, and while she said he would be more than welcome, that it was a ward with lots of ill people and that she personally would not bring her kids there. I decided that my beautiful friend would likely be more concerned about Dekker’s health, and perhaps our presence there wouldn’t be the blessing I was hoping for. So I’ve been praying from here and hopefully she and her family can feel that.

So neither of my plans worked out, which sometimes leaves me feeling annoyed and scattered, but I embraced it and let Dekker sleep in as long as he could. However, that has consequences at our house.

Dekker’s poor bum. Sigh. Its awful and red and he screams and screams. He’s fine while I get him on his change table but as soon as I touch his diaper, he grabs the sides of his change table mattress and starts screaming in fear. Its hard to even tell if he’s still in wicked pain or just terrified. As wrong as it sounds, tonight, all his red bumps turned into yeast, and I was sooo excited!! We’ve been holding the yeast off for a little while, knowing those red bumps were just dying to turn white, and I know the yeast hurts him the most, but when it finally gives in and all turns into yeast, then those creams work sooo much better! So I’m hoping that now, with the real yeast to deal with, we may be able to clear this stinking thing up! There’s hope.

After some solid naked time, we had cuddle time, which was just the BEST!

Probably the best bedtime buddle pictures we’ve ever gotten 🙂 Love this boy.

 

Today felt like a relatively normal Sunday. I haven’t felt normal for a little while but today seemed good. Church, lunch, cards, home. Pretty nice! We had a HUGE lunch of pork chops and mashed potatoes, carrots, and the yummy shrimp thing our friends made us a week ago. So. Full. So Brady and I just had garlic toast and caesar salad for supper, haha 🙂 It was delicious. Now for dessert in the tub.

But before that, I realize I haven’t written about Dekker’s latest talents! Well, I may have posted them here or there, so if none of this is new, just blame my pregnancy brain and forgive me. A lot of these, he learned a while ago but stopped doing them. Thankfully, they’re back!

Dekker growls reeeaaally well! He waves quite a bit now. He’ll dance with his little head wobble, or he’ll spin in circles, or he’ll jump, or he’ll point his fingers out and bounce. He’ll also just spin if you ask him to. He’ll show you his belly if you ask. He squats, which is actually a kind of hilarious sight to see. And he’s actively working on standing on one leg. I’ll be honest and say he’s terrible at it, haha! But he’s almost always trying it on carpet so I’m not as concerned when he goes over, nor is he. He’s a total blast these days. Um, and he says “six.” Ya, I have no idea. Turns pages, says “six, six, six, six…”

We’ve also given him his first ever naked time! He hasn’t really ever run around naked, especially these days where he’s pooping up to five times. But with this diaper rash, we are trying everything, including naked time. Sooo many hilarious pictures later, we decided to do it again. I believe naked evenings may just be something Dekker will get to partake in. (*I should clarify here, this is not a family event.) He is so happy to run around naked and play toys. I’m not quite sure how I feel about posting those pictures on my blog, but trust me that he is completely adorable. He still has a little pot belly, and his thighs are HUGE, but he is muscle!!! I’ll be scared of him in a couple of years, I’m sure. We have good fun anyway 🙂 Naked evenings are the best.

The end of a somewhat haphazard post. I hear a bath running and maybe if I really listen, I might be able to hear some kind of dessert being prepared??! Yum.

I really am thankful for so much help these last few days. I know not everyone cares about hair, especially mine, and they don’t need to, but I still really appreciate the input 🙂

After my last post about coloring my hair, I got a solid amount of blog comments, Facebook comments, and private Facebook messages. Unfortunately for me, they were split pretty well evenly! Lots of people said highlight the heck out of it, some said go dark because my hair is already dark, and a couple said I should do what I really want to do. So yesterday evening, I called a random salon and just asked politely for someone with lots of experience, and figured that would force me to make the decision and stop fricking talking about it!!!

I did what I wanted 🙂

I bleached the crazy out of my hair. And I LOVE it! I know some people said I might look washed out because of my pale skin, and it is totally valid! I’m very, very white. But then while I was looking at Pinterest, I saw some beautiful pictures of women with bright white blonde hair and pale skin. I figure if they can do it, I can at least give it a try. Worst case scenario, I go back to being brown. But I don’t even have to go there 🙂 I’m here, and I’m happy. It was a long process, but I actually really loved the girl I went to, and the other ladies in the salon were so interested in how it would turn out, being that it was such a change. It was pretty exciting. I feel pretty.

While I was doing this, the boys were walking around the mall, having a boy date, which included Booster Juice and Goldfish, and buying me Body Butter.

I love my boys.

After getting my hair done, we hit the walk-in yet again for Dekker’s poor bum. We got a new compound cream for him not long ago but it wasn’t easing Dekkers pain at all. He was getting scared of his diaper changes in the way that he would cry as he brought him to his room. That is not like him. He doesn’t usually fight his changes at all, but he would shake and scream through them. So we went back in today, and my goodness how lucky we were! For probably out third visit in a row, the waiting room was empty! We saw a doctor right away, and one that we’ve seen before and really like. He was super understanding, clearly read up on Dekker’s history before he came into the room, and said that the compound cream we were using was 1:1:1 of yeast cream, anti-bacterial, and cortisone. While he said compound creams are good sometimes, in our case Dekker clearly wasn’t getting enough of the yeast stuff at all. It was just too small amounts of the things he needed. So we nixed it and he gave us a fresh prescription of the yeast cream that has worked in the past. Seriously, everyone, Lakeside Medical has the best doctors. Sometimes the wait times are long, and they are across the city, but they are always good!

We ran a few more errands, including Walmart, where I diligently went to check my blood pressure and found it stupidly low again 🙁 Ticks me off. But maybe that’ll just be the case this trimester. I’m doing my best! We also let Dekker try a milkshake, and he loooved it! Not the best picture, but you can see his chocolate chin.

Speaking of being pregnant, I’m 17 weeks today. This past week I have had the pleasure of feeling my tiny little baby move in my belly. There really is no feeling like it. Its still very early to feel those movements, and I only feel them in the morning or before bed when I’m laying very still, not concentrating on anything else. Then, I feel them. Tiny little kicks. That has definitely been the highlight of the week! As for a current belly shot, here you have it:

Its nice to have a baby.

 

 

 

After all HUGE amount of feedback yesterday, here on the blog as well as on Facebook, I chose the haircut that seemed to be the crowd favorite.

No question in my mind. However, color is still up in the air. I know I want to throw blonde in there, but how much is the question. My ideal?

I really want to play with platinum blonde, but I don’t know if now is the time. I like to try things in a kind of extreme way, but I KNOW I would be attacked by roots really fast! So, we look at our other options.

I know, you guys are gonna lose interest in this kind of stuff pretty quick, so I’ll stop after this. But I need this help from people who actually go to hair appointments on a somewhat regular basis and know things about what might look nice. I promise, once I get some answers here, I’ll make a decision and hopefully get it all done next week before Friday. Brady and I are going to a concert that I’ve been pumped about the last few months. I want to feel fresh. And pretty. And rockin’!!

So instead of a play-by-play of today, I figured I’d actually try for some opinions. Even though I know some people won’t care, and that’s fine.

If you remember, I was part of a hair show in November last year. They colored my hair a crazy bright bronze and gave me a cute asymmetrical cut. However, being myself, I have not touched my hair since, and its awful. While I’ve tossed around where to go and how much everyone costs, the real question is what I want. And I need help deciding!!! I’m tossed up between three types of cuts, all with wiggle room of course. All of these I’m a bit nervous of because I haven’t selected a hairstylist to officially stick with, so maintaining the cut could be great, or if I don’t love the stylist, I could be back at square one. So, behold my three options:

 

So after all of that, another question is the question of color. Safest best is to just go back to my brown. Done and done. But I’ve been harbouring a secret the last year and a half-ish. I would love to try blonde! I played with blonde once, about ten years ago. Sadly, it was back in the day when people used those caps with the holes that they would poke through and pull your hair out. Not pretty. Never went back. But I’ve been toying with the idea. However, now, I don’t know where to go that I could actually maintain the color! Having such dark hair already, I would get serious roots super fast!! Not subtle. The longer cut has some beautiful coloring but again, maintaining. I’d looove to dabble in blonde, especially to bring in Spring 🙂 But I’m a little nervous and I’d really appreciate any opinion anyone has, even if you hate all the cuts, haha! I’ll take other ideas and examples. I’m getting desperate enough that I just about ducked into a Magicuts the other day! HELP!