Beautiful Days

What a beautiful day! Overcast, about 19-20 degrees (which in pregnancy terms is about 27 degrees), I wish it would stay like this all summer! I can go for a walk without sweating for the rest of the afternoon. Still too hot for socks or sleeves though.

The heat really bothers me when I'm pregnant. Doesn't bother everyone though, I do have several preggo friends who aren't bothered by it at all! Lucky.

One thing I love about really hot days, though, is playing with water! And that just happens to be one of Nathan's favourite things to do too. He's probably play with the hose outside in winter if I let him.

Catching water drops out of a hose

ER visit #3 of 2009

Colin asked me to take out the garbage on Monday night and I playfully say back, "no way, I did 8 loads of laundry in the past 2 days" so out he goes. Next thing I know, he's practically screaming and hopping into the house.

The garbage can knocked down a futon frame we have leaned up against the wall (it's there cuz ONE DAY we'll have enough room to throw it out...better yet, anyone want it?) and it came crashing down onto the top of his bare foot.

When I saw it, I just about threw up. It looked like someone sawed a greenish/yellow softball in half and stuck it on his foot, it was THAT swollen! Also had some puncture wounds, but not a whole lotta red stuff came out so it's probably still in the softball. I'm not permitted to post a photo of it so that's why it's being described in such detail!

Parts of his foot turned black and blue almost instantly. I raced around the house as calm as a panicked chicken to find him some ice, T3's and Advil. I was in such a frenzy that I had to calm myself down in order to give him a pill from the correct prescription bottle. He didn't need morning sickness relief or meds to make him lactate, after all.

It didn't take too long for us to realize he had to get to the hospital. I've never seen an injury like that and assumed his foot was broken, so when Grandma showed up to look after our sleeping boy, we left.

Colin's a trooper. He was like, "Yay, I get to ride in a wheelchair" when we got there. HA! His sense of humour was not suffering!

We waited and waited and waited, like you do in "emergency rooms" (kinda an oxymoron, eh?) and finally the doc came back with the results. Doc looked absolutely shocked when he said it wasn't broken. The guy waiting in the chairs next to us loudly exclaimed, "WHAT??!?! THAT'S not BROKEN?!??!". Obviously others are people-watching us as much as we're people-watching them.

So he has to just ice and ice so the swelling comes down.

I had to take the next day off because he can't walk, and he needed to get to the store to rent crutches, and had Nathan to get to Grandma's house somehow. So I was his chauffeur, and even went to school with him (I'm his business partner so am allowed to attend any of the seminars I want to). It was kinda fun.

So obviously he can't do anything at home so I had a busy evening trying to cook dinner with Nathan running around and then trying to clean up with Nathan running around. When all of a sudden, Nate tripped and hit the corner of a doorway and fell to the ground. He got a yet another goose egg on his head, and his nose bled. Thank goodness THAT didn't break either. I don't know what it is with my family and being accident prone...

I don't even know how either of them are doing today though, since I leave before any other eyes are open at my house, so I just hope for the best.

My goodness, what's next?

Country Twang

I never used to be a big country music fan. I used to like R&B and Pop, but now can't stand the sound of it. I hear that Lady Gaga is great and I say, "Lady who???". Makes me feel old actually.

I find it cleaner, less angry, and just a lot more relaxing to listen to.

I would rather be listening to the "local" Christian music station, because contrary to popular belief, Christian music is actually awesome! But I can't. The "local" station is taped in Washington, and the reception here is AWFUL. Especially anywhere with power lines, like the entire freeway. Which is the only place I listen to music anymore.

So I stick on my cowgirl hat and listen to JRFM.

I heard a few months back on a non-country station (must have been News 1130, all news all the time radio, which is my 2nd favourite station) that the genre of music with the most reference to sex, drinking, drugs and illegal activity is not rap or rock, but good ol' COUNTRY! Ever since, I've been paying extra attention to the lyrics and I do agree, and switch the station as to not sing along with songs that are talking about one-night stands. I just don't need that.

However, it is my station of choice and have really grown to love most of the songs.

One thing though, that drives me absolutely nuts about country music is the artist's inability to rhyme. Not every line has to rhyme, so please don't try! But SO many artists just change the annunciation of the word so that it sounds like the un-rhyming word they're trying to pair it with.

Take this song by the Steve Miller Band, for example. See if you can twang the last word in each line to make them rhyme with each other, go ahead, say it out loud:

This heres a story about billy joe and bobbie sue
Two young lovers with nothin better to do
Than sit around the house, get high, and watch the tube
And here is what happened when they decided to cut loose

(and my favourite non-rhyming verse)

Billy mack is a detective down in texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He aint gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin off of the peoples taxes

Could you do it? They need a rhyming dictionary. And a grammar lesson.

Adventure to Jug Island

Do you have people in your life that bring adventure around every time you get together? We do. Our friends Justin and Lorene (or as Nathan would say “Alorene and Dennis”). How can I be surprised though? They are on a round the world trip as Missionaries right now. If that doesn’t scream adventure, what does??

It’s not a bad thing though, we love adventure! And thankfully Nathan does too!

They are back from their trip for a few weeks and we got to spend the weekend with them last weekend. On Friday, we headed to Belcarra Park. But Colin wanted to go to this more “secluded” spot that was a “one kilometer walk” away from the parking lot.

So we load up the stroller and off we head up the “Jug Island” beach trail. The first part is ok. It’s nice to be in the trees on such a hot day. Then we see the first trail marker:

5.5 km round trip? That’s a lot longer than this preggo lady wanted to go. But outnumbered, I pressed on.

We came across some marshy parts that were interesting to maneuver around with the stroller. Luckily this stroller was free from junk week so we don’t really care if it gets dirty.

It wasn’t too long before the trail started heading up. And not “gradual up”, but “climbing boulders and stairs” up. Did I mention we had the stroller? Even though it is a jogging stroller, NO stroller is equipped for what lay ahead.

The further we went, the more Justin and Colin had to carry the stroller. King Nathan sat in his throne, actually white-knuckling it a lot of the time. But he did enjoy it, luckily.

After we’d been hiking for an hour, we came up to a sign that said we still had 2km to go! WHAT? They said it was a 5.5 km ROUND trip! If we still had 2 km to go, that means we only went ¼ of a kilometer so far? I don’t think so.

ARGGGH. We’ve come this far, why not keep going? So we trekked on (without a SINGLE complaint from the preggo lady…there were actually many, MANY complaints) for the promise of a secluded pristine beach at the end of the yellow brick road.

We ran into someone we know on this trail heading back from where we came. He took one look at us and could tell he thought we were absolutely CRAZY for bringing the stroller. He kindly let us know that we were only half way and the terrain gets much more difficult from this point on.

One would think we’d turn back and head to the other not so secluded beach that is about 50 steps from our car, but we decided to ditch the stroller in the bush (who in their right mind would want to steal a stroller and carry it all the way back, and besides, it’s free) and see how Nathan would do walking.

We stopped about 10 steps later at a lookout to rehydrate and try to keep Nathan from jumping off a cliff. Things weren’t going so smoothly with him not strapped into the stroller.

We had a chat. Ok we have to figure out if we’re going to continue to secluded beach or head back to regular beach. It’s decision time. Lorene suggests that the pregnant lady gets to decide. And just at that moment, a divine intervention!!!! One of those moments where you swear you hear a heavenly “Ahhhhhh”.

A whole class of noisy (is there any other kind?) teenage girls pass us.

We ask: “Are you headed to the beach?”

Girls: “Hee hee! Yup! It’s like a field trip or something”

We ask: “Are you spending the day there?”

Girls: “Only until the end of the school day!”

The 4 of us look at each other and no words needed to be spoken. We turned around and headed back to regular beach. Afterall, what is the point of secluded beach if there are 30 teenage girls there?

We eventually made it to regular beach, and there was practically no one there. So it ended up being a secluded beach afterall. Once there, we had a snacknic (a picnic lunch made entirely of snack food), relaxed on a blanket, and splashed in the ocean. Fun day!

The city of Port Moody is going to hear about the faulty signage on the Jug Island Beach Trail.