Book Review #1

One of the good things about relocating to the near North (rather than the far North) is that I am not the only person whose spouse has brought them here. Soon after we arrived I was able to get involved in a book club with other spouses who have been relocated. Most of the time we end up talking about things more related to our husbands and their work than we do the book we pick, but we keep reading anyway. :)

I love books. I love to read. I love to write, and part of the reason for this blog is to get me back into writing, sort of like a daily exercise. While I enjoy the book club I also feel the need to talk about books a little more, so I'm going to do book reviews up here every once in a while. Sometimes I'll talk about the books chosen by my book club, sometimes maybe not. If you ever have a suggestion for a good read, please let me know!

This past month we read The Postmistress by Sarah Blake; as seen here!

The story follows a few American characters through the early part of WWII, before the US officially joined the war. The main characters include a postmistress, (big surprise) a doctor, and a radio news announcer. The first few pages are set in the closer past at a dinner party, then in chapter one it moves to 1941. At the dinner party a woman gets annoyed by how people are talking about WWII, so starts to tell her own story...

Never has a book taken me so long to read. The first half took me 2 months! Of course, I read about 8 other books in that time. The last half I read in a morning. I told myself I wasn't allowed to read anything else until I finished as the book club meeting was only days away! Now, it could be that I didn't enjoy this book because it's not like books I usually choose to read. But I don't really think so. I have never read such an apathetic view of WWII! I don't know. Maybe that's how the beginning of the war was in the states. But that makes it a little worse. If people could be so apathetic about that...what are we possibly ignoring now?

But really this book has got to be one of the most uninvolved stories I've read. I do not recommend reading it. If you want to read an account of WWII, stick with Anne Frank. Get involved and care about what happened, rather than ignore the situation with the bulk of the characters in the book.

Hopefully, next time I'll have more positive remarks!!

Pregnant Presents!

I don't know if I mentioned, but when my mom arrived up here a couple of weeks ago she had a bag full of baby clothes! One of my mom's crazy talents is finding fantastic sales, she just happens to be in the right place at the right time I guess! So she was there the day Walmart marked all their "last season" baby clothes down to $1. She brought 2 of everything! Such cute t-shirts, even a couple of Christmas shirts (they'll be 3 months this Christmas) and some of those sleeping baby bag things. So cute!

This weekend my sister came up from Calgary to visit for the weekend. A while ago I had asked her to keep an eye out for a good used double stroller for me. Up here on kijiji people are trying to sell the ones they special ordered from the states for almost the same price...I don't know why I would pay $600 for a used stroller, but I guess they think it's worth a shot! When Maegan came in she and my brother-in-law had bought a new stroller for us! Such a great surprise! I'm really looking forward to opening it and watching Marvin put it together! I figure that'll be worth at least an afternoon of entertainment! But what an unexpected surprise! I'm excited about how excited my family and friends are about this very odd pregnancy! Only 2 more sleeps until my ultrasound! I'm not opening the stroller box until then at least! Twins still seems a little surreal to me! I'm looking forward to having that confirmed! Hahahah!

Babysitting!

Another exciting thing that happened at the end of the week is that I put an ad up on Kijiji about providing childcare for one or two children through the summer! I had one call the same day and the next day a little girl and her mom came to visit!

I explained to X that I was hoping to babysit this girl before she came to visit. He asked a few questions about playing games and so on. When I explained that she is younger that he is he told me he wouldn't like me to babysit her. It turns out he thought it would be like getting a little sister a little early, that she would be here through the night. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to sleep if she cried. Right. There are a lot of concerning aspects of that statement. For example, he woke me up the other night at 3am to tell me he loved me. You reading this maybe think that's sweet. How about I call you at 3am so you can read it again to see how you feel at that point. There is also the whole twin thing on the horizon...he MAY find his sleep patterns changed forever in 4 months. We'll just see how that goes shall we?

After a visit with this LG, her mom, and a short visit with her dad, they called me the next day and said it would be a good match! So I'm excited! She is younger than X, but I think it will be great for him to play with her this summer and get used to how to deal with younger people! She's going to start a couple of hours a day this week and be full time next week. I'm thinking about re-posting my ad (as people up here don't read passed the first page) and seeing if I can get one more, maybe closer to X's age. But maybe I won't. We'll see how this week goes maybe. But things are moving along for us! I hope we can keep moving along in a positive direction!

Odd Things 2

I think I mentioned a while ago that my guilty pleasure is following celebrity news. I really like going to people.com on Fridays because on Fridays there's a section on funny quotes of the week. Yes. That's how guilty I am.

Anyway, I've decided that my Friday posts are going to be my "Odd Things" posts. they will most likely be odd things related to my pregnancy, but not necessarily exclusively. I'm assuming that there will be enough changes and strange happenings every week that I'll be able to come up with something to say! ;)

This week, the big oddness that I find is my ummm, how shall I say this, growth? The week that M was away for training I knew that he would notice a difference in my belly when he came back. He was gone for 6 days after all. This week I kept thinking how odd it was that I wasn't growing at all! Some days I even felt like I'd be able to "hide" the pregnancy again. Last night getting into bed felt a little odd in that when I settled it felt like a HUGE relief from a stress I wasn't aware of. This morning when I woke up it was apparent I had grown! Mom left here last night sometime after 10pm and came back this morning less than 12 hours later, she looked at me and said "whoah" and started laughing at me. Apparently the babies saved up their growth this week for one night!

My feet and ankles also swelled up through the day yesterday. I had hoped it was just because of the heat and that it would go away over night. Not so much. I'm afraid fat feet are here to stay. Sad, but inevitable. I can't remember when my feet swelled when I was pregnant with X, but I do remember they didn't go back to normal until he was a month old! Good times.

Can't wait to see what changes this week! Really. :)

Long time no see!!

Well between blogger being down for updates for a couple of days, and my sister visiting from Calgary for the weekend, it's been a "long time" since my last post! And so much exciting-ness has happened! I'll probably end up doing two or three posts today instead of one giant one! That would be better don't you think?

The first exciting thing that happened was that Marvin and I had our first real date in over 3 months! On Wednesday my mom came over to babysit and we went to see the movie Thor! Now if you know me, you know how much I love movies! I have to admit, first of all, I'm a little disappointed in the local movie theatre! For those of you out East, it's one small step up from the Amherst Theatre. Yep it's that good. And because the movie was in 3D our tickets were $15 each! Dude! Even with a free babysitter in town now, we'll still not be going out very often methinks! Anyway, one more complaint...I read a review of Thor written by a friend of mine before choosing the movie and he suggested that if there was a choice between 3D and regular 2D to choose the 2D as the movie was not filmed with 3D cameras, they just went back and added the specialness. Seeing it in 3D, I agree! So not worth the extra $3, just made it difficult to watch, not at all like seeing Avatar in 3D.

Ok, done complaining. I loved the movie! Funny AND smart. Great acting by a very talented cast, and of course I always love Stan Lee's cameo appearances in all Marvel movies. And as my friend mentioned in his review, if there was a movie called "Chris Hemsworth Walks Around Mostly Naked for 2 Hours" it would be a hit and I would go. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Kat Dennings in the movie, she was in "The House Bunny" and played Norah in "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist." I really love her attitude! Anyway, I would totally recommend going to see Thor if you can. It's true that you can see some of the plot line a LONG way off, but you're still surprised!

Of course the date part was great too! It was fabulous just spending some time with Marvin. We skipped the whole eating out thing due to economics, but left the house early anyway and went to the library (again, if you know me, you know this is my favourite place to be) and we even got a little (slow) walk downtown in! I love the library here in town. It's in the local multiplex rec center, however you want to say it. It's a place that has a giant pool, a couple of ice rinks for hockey, a curling rink, an indoor track, indoor soccer fields, squash, basketball and volleyball courts, a weight room with personal trainers, etc. The library is two floors, downstairs for the computer and children's area, upstairs for the quiet zone and adult collections. I just love being there, so Marvin was being extra nice to me following me around while I chose some books and blu rays.

We ended the night at Tim Horton's, which is an ordeal here like nowhere else. Imagine. You put 90,000 Newfoundlanders, Prince Edward Islanders, Nova Scotians, and New Brunswickers in a town with 2 Timmy's. The drive thru line wraps around to the highway. I am not exaggerating. But it was fun for us, with no children (that can vocalize) in the car. Just to have some time. Excellent.

Date night is good. You should do it.

Odd things

So far this pregnancy has been much odder than my pregnancy with X. Of course, that it is twins this time certainly tops the list of odd things! Some odd things I do remember feeling when X was occupying my mid-section, like heartburn! Oh the heartburn! Everything does seem to be developing a little faster this time around! I know I didn't wear maternity clothes until I was 22 weeks with X. I remember, because that's when I told my co-workers at the library! I've been living in my maternity jeans since 14 weeks this time around!

The oddest thing though, which has me thoroughly perplexed happens when I sleep, or lay down on the couch. My knees fall asleep. Straight up. You know how your entire leg falls asleep if you sit funny for too long and then that pins and needles feeling comes? Every morning when I wake up I have two perfectly circular patches of the pins and needles feeling on my knees. It doesn't make it difficult to walk or anything like that, but it does last for the first half hour of my day at least! I find it extremely ridiculous.

I also don't understand how twins having a tussle in my stomach could possibly lead to blood coming out of MY nose, and yet....apparently this is a common side effect. I'll keep you updated on odd things. I promise. Only 7 days until my ultrasound! I really hope to share the genders with you!

On another note, I think I might start including book reviews in this blog. It will truly turn into a very eclectic blog, but hopefully you will continue to enjoy coming by to find out what's going on!

Church

By far the hardest thing about moving to this new Northern frontier for me has been the lack of a church family. Church has always been "easy" for me. I've always moved to new places with a built-in church family that I just had to get to know. Sort of comes part and parcel with being the pastor's daughter I guess. Now I'm not deluded enough to believe that having a church would make all my troubles disappear. Not even a little. More often than not church comes with it's own set of problems...and problem people. But I've always been lucky enough to find a group of genuine people that I could have intelligent conversations with, and was fortunate enough to develop real, and honest, relationships with in every church I've been a part of.

The first issue up here, obviously, is that I didn't move here with my parents. Hahaha. I'm not a ready-made part of any church here yet. The only other time I've moved somewhere without them was when I went to college...so I went to church with all my Bible college friends...not really a huge difference there. Ok, not a problem really. I'm a fairly strong, somewhat outgoing person, I can make friends without mommy and daddy. The second problem is that I was raised in the Church of the Nazarene. There are no Nazarene churches up here. Again, not really a problem, I am by no means blind to the faults of "my" denomination, nor am I hung up on labels. I also like to think that I am not narrow minded, that I am open to thoughts and ideas that I may not have heard before.

I really have very few criteria for a church up here. First, it has to have a children's program. X has been in church all his life and is accustomed to being loved by children, teens, and adults alike. He gets so confused when younger teens don't respond to his smooth pick-up lines at the park. Second, I cannot go to a church that is theologically redonkulous. Using words like this sometimes leads people to believe that I am not intelligent or serious about some things, but I assure you, I am educated and I am listening with a discerning heart. If you are stupid out loud, especially from a pulpit, I will verbally rebel. Third, I need friends. I need church friends. Young, old, married, not married, no kids, 8 kids, I don't care. My husband needs friends, my son NEEDS friends!

These do not seem like unrealistic requests to me. Before coming here I decided that I needed to be careful about choosing a church. I wanted to make sure if I needed to try a couple churches that I would give each church more than one "chance." It would be so easy to find fault in every place and keep "hopping." So I first tried the Alliance church. Since our schools (not MERGED, merged is a bad word) partnered into one, I thought that would be close enough to theology that I was familiar with, so a good place to start. Kids program, check. They are between pastors, so I can't really say anything concrete about the theology as they have had special speakers the 3 times I've been, but so far no red flags. Friends? No one has spoken to me once. I've got all the conversation starters built in, 5 year old kid, burgeoning pregnant belly, sitting alone (M isn't able to come with all the time due to his work schedule), but no. Dropping X off at Sunday school, picking him up, getting coffee from the lobby...no. the only conversation I've had is one lady asked my name and gave me hers then walked away. X loves it. Says his SS teacher is really nice. But I decided I'd given them their "chance" and decided to try somewhere new today.

We tried the Salvation Army church today. I've always been told that the theology between Nazarene and Sally Ann is very close. I've even known/lived with people who grew up Sally Ann, then started going to the Nazarene when THEY moved and found the transition easy and agreeable. Could be that the heavily Newfoundland-flavoured Salvation Army is different. I don't know. But if there is one thing I have completely fallen OUT of love with in the years of my experience, it is emotional manipulation. We were NOT leaving today until SOMEBODY went to the altar! 4 closing songs later she finally called for someone to come pray for her husband. Now really, this might be unfair. The Majors are on vacation, so again this was not the regular speaker, but when I go to a church for the first time and the message is out of revelation, it's about how the world is going to end (i.e. the signs are all around us and apparent, technology is evil and the earthquakes are happening because of technology) and all 7 churches of Asia are covered individually in detail? I get a little antsy. Throw in a couple derrogatory remarks about "the Muslims" and other religions, while saying the Pharisees were idiots, and I'm out the door. I'm afraid the decision was unanimous that this church will not be getting a second visit from us.

There was a good quote though. Almost good enough to be included in "Stuff Old Dude Says." "People are lost and dying while Jesus is knocking at the door to so many hearts. But the knob is not on the outside of the door so that Jesus can just walk in and intrude, he has to be let in, the knob is on the inside." My interpretation? "You're the nob on the inside and you're a nob if you don't let Jesus in." I know, I'm a bad person.

Solution? Not one yet. Best one so far is go to the Alliance church with my mom. X can have the great SS experience and at least my mom will talk to me. (Does that mean I do need my mommy to make friends?) And then find a small group somewhere, or a small church that meets not on Sunday morning, but is more friendly and accepting of discussion and of people like me!!