There really isn't an excuse. Arielle was plenty cute in May, but for some reason after my fairly consistent blogging in April I apparently gave up completely in the month of May. I really should try harder. But I've said that too many times for it to count so I'll just show you some pictures of her May cuteness.

This one on the left is from the morning of us packing to go visit my parents in Ontario. Clearly putting clothes on Arielle was not first on my list. However she did help by putting on slippers...my slippers. She really is very clever.

Our trip in Ontario was a lot of fun. My sister came and we just hung out and bonded, like we are likely to do when we hang out. Arielle was many realms of cute AND was able to go down a slide by herself for the first time. Grandma was VERY happy to be present for this momentous occasion. Now when I take her to the park near our house I can't seem to get her off the slide unless I bribe her with the privilege of watch 'Bob'.

So we went from record highs in April to actual moments of snow in May. I think Manitoba weather has some problems making up it's mind. I was all for rain because all the dust was making my allergies unbearable but I didn't mean it had to come with a 10+ degree drop in temperature! *sigh*

Anyway back to motherhood, just had to do the weather segway...lol I was doing so well blogging fairly regularly and then I dropped off the face of planet there for a couple of weeks. Now, mind you, my come back is a lot sooner then it has been so I shall take some pride in that. I don't have much to say so to make it more interesting I shall put up an adorable picture of my daughter :)

So Arielle went on her first play date without Mommy or Daddy yesterday. I was at work and yet still had some separation anxiety...lol She was with one of her favourite babysitters so I wasn't worried for her well being, but frankly I didn't think it was fair that she was having fun without me! :)

She wasn't all that interested in taking a nap after which lead her to being quite overtired about an hour before her regular bedtime. It was very sad actually. I tried to give her a bath and she was screaming and could not be consoled. So it was a quick wipe down hair wash get outta there situation. Then she had to cuddle with me for about ten minutes before I could put her nightgown on.

I'm pretty sure she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow then slept a solid 12 hours before stirring this morning. I'm hoping she'll nap better this afternoon.

My little girl is just getting so big I can't believe it! I watch her running around the yard playing and remember last year when we were planning to move here. She couldn't even walk then let alone run around! This summer is going to be so much more active for her. Plus she's literally getting big...she's quite tall, at least to me she seems tall. Maybe that's because I still want her to be my baby, who knows :p

We're really enjoying the gorgeous weather over the last few days. I've also started a list of things I'd like to get Arielle for outside. However, she seems quite content to move stones, dirt and leaves from one spot to another. My child does not need elaborate toys, just her imagination...that said I think a sandbox is in order at the very least.

Well it's the afternoon now so I'm gonna go try to do some exercising while Arielle makes me believe she's sleeping, we'll see who's more delusional in an hour :)

It's true. Because it's nothing short of heaven to hear the sheer jubilation in Arielle's voice when I come home. She'll point at me with a big smile and say 'MOM!' then jump around because she's just so thrilled to see me. She even does this in the morning when I haven't been near her all night, I'll open the door and with her barely open eyes I can see the smile and she says 'Mom'.

Nothing rivals that, nothing...she literally makes me feel like I'm looking at a little bit of heaven on earth.

The quote is true! When you've had snow for so long and had to layer all of your clothes to keep warm as soon as the sun shines and melts the snow it doesn't matter if it's wet as long as it's warm you can't help but go outside.

I really think that Arielle was starting to get a bit of cabin fever at the end of winter there. So much so that she was actually afraid of the outdoors when it was finally warm enough to go outside. Now she's barely out of bed and standing at the door ready to go out. She'll only come inside if I make washing her hands sound appealing or if we're gonna watch 'Bob' (that means Veggie Tales lol). This is why I've added a photo of her watching Bob on the computer. I've edited out the bare bum because I don't want her in therapy later on in her life because I put her bare bum on the internet. However trust me it is a very cute bare bum.

Now she is napping for almost the third straight hour. This happens when she doesn't get any sleep for a couple of nights and breaks her routine. So I think that is why there was a break in her 'talking' nap. I'm letting her sleep right now because she is a lot more pleasant to be around once she's slept. :) She was great over the weekend tho. She made everybody laugh with her overall cuteness and was pretty much cheerful both days that we went out which is awesome.

She really does love her cousin Jane. She got very excited and pointed at Jane when we went to Nana's on Saturday. Then she actually got down off my lap to go play with Jane. And whenever she wanted to see me Jane would take her hand and walk her over to me 'See Arielle here's your mom' then they'd go back and play. My fave was when Jane came over to me and said 'Arielle wanted her bunny so I gave it to her. She's all right now' like a 35 year old...haha She's so cute.

I should get off to work now tho so I'll leave you with a pic of Arielle that I took when she was outside this morning. Didn't really wax philosophical in this post but heck it's longer and has cute pics, what more do you want from me? :p

I don't hate them like Garfield but I do usually have a very busy Monday. It's 8:30 and I'm pretty much ready to crawl into bed with a book and go to sleep. I don't work a full 8 hour day at work but it is 6.5 plus I come home and it's right into Arielle's evening routine. Doesn't sound like much but I'm pretty tired by the end of the night. I hope I'll get an extra burst of adrenaline when we have another one...lol Maybe it's the hormones...haha

Arielle moved up another size in diaper today. The one she was wearing said it went to 36 pounds and she's not that heavy yet but it was giving her red marks all around cause it was too tight, so up another size we went. SIZE 5! What the heck my baby can't be that big yet can she?

Well I'm too tired to wax philosophical right now, maybe tomorrow morning over coffee I can come up with something somewhat worth reading...lol

Happy Easter to all from the Banman house.

We're on our way to Jonathan's parents house today. I love vacation weekends but I find they are usually WAY busier than a normal weekend. Anyway I need to pack a diaper bag and change of clothes for Arielle, cause she will more than likely get dirty if we venture outside...LOL

Hope everyone has/had a good Easter weekend. I'll try to write more updates next week :) Here's my cutie for viewing pleasure :)

It's true! And even though my house is a small one it gets messy way too fast. I could blame the toddler we have trotting around here but she really likes to clean up after herself, it's almost disturbing...lol I think the dust bunnies and I are just waging war on each other determined to be the one to win...I shall prevail! I have a vacuum. Which is another thing, we have somewhat of a solution to the problem we were having with vacuuming. I got her this and now she just 'vacuums' a room ahead of me and everyone is happy. Although we do have to point at her vacuum and mommy's vacuum about 15 times before we can actually start. Whatever works...one for me zero for the dust bunnies!

Rather pointless post except to update how vacuuming is going in our house :)

There are times in one's life when it takes all of your energy to seek out happiness. Things will bog you down to the point of overshadowing the happiness, crowding it out. So it sits outside waiting for that moment when you realize it's been there all along. All you had to do was let it back in.

Even then I think that happiness is really all in the mind. There are things in my life that could bog me down to the point of major depression and if I focused on those things I would miss out on happiness. Like the simple pleasure of hearing Arielle's thrilled sound when I give her some apples. She's absolutely ecstatic about that fruit. If I give her slices of apple she will point at them, grin and giggle as tho it were the best thing in the world. And really, in that moment it is the best thing.

Remember when you could find happiness in the enjoyment of a piece of fruit?

Me neither, but watching Arielle enjoy it brings back that unique happiness and I'm content.

You know what else makes me happy? Watching Arielle nestle her head on her dad's shoulder when he dances with her...pure joy right there.

If you asked me right now what would make my life more happy I would say nothing...

...except maybe a pedicure, that would take my happiness over the top...lol

May you find much happiness in your life today :)

Yup that's my kid there, she's quite the multitasker. She can play with crayons AND talk to Grandma while Mommy changes her diaper. This is probably the quietest Arielle is when I change her. Grandma talks and Arielle listens...she's getting to a point where she can say some things like 'hi' and random babble that Grandma loves to hear.

I just got a kick out of it when I was done changing her she was just lying there with the phone by her ear...it's hilarious.

Speaking of the phone the other night when I was giving her a bath she picked up one of her foam letters (the letter 'I') put it up to her ear and said 'HI'...then proceeded to babble and giggle as tho she was talking to someone. I think she just might be imitating me...lol Gotta watch what I say now...although I have been for some time, cause she's the kinda kid that will repeat what she hears much later...I just know it...lol

Today we went to the mall to get some much needed items and Arielle was a complete doll the whole time. Just sat in the stroller and smiled at everyone walking by. There were times when she had to examine the items that Mommy was buying but other than that there wasn't a peep out of her. So after I got what was needed I let her roam around the mall...where she proceeded to walk to a bench and sit on it...lol She finally gets out of the stroller and she wants to people watch on a bench...it was hilarious. An older woman sitting next to us kept marvelling at how cute she was; which is very true of course :)

Now I gotta make sure my little cuteness gets into bed for her nap...and we'll see if she actually naps. Apparently she napped for Auntie Krista yesterday and the day before she napped for Daddy so here's hoping she'll nap for Mommy. Which means actually sleep as opposed to two ours of "MOM!...mom...momomomom...MOM"...lol Then I'd like to say I'd do the dishes but I'm not making an promises :)

The only thing that cannot be fixed with a nap is the hyper-activeness of an almost two year old. Today she was in her bed in the afternoon for about two hours. There most definitely was no napping. Sleep did not happen. However, there was some giggling, some calling out, laughing and above kicking the crib. It was good times.

I wanted to be upset, but all I could do was finally go in there and tickle her...lol I wish I had more to say but I don't, so today the entry is short :p

...is infinitely preferable to that of a mere adult. ~Fran Lebowitz

So we have a morning ritual now. It just sort of happened this way. Arielle will get up in the morning and we'll have breakfast. Then I'll have my coffee and do some blogging she'll play with her play doh and drink her water. Usually this means for the first couple of minutes she'll point at my coffee and I'll say 'Mommy's' then she'll point at her water and I'll say 'Arielle's'. She loves this game, one day, after she decides it's okay to talk, I'll get her to do the talking. Until then, it's all up to mommy.

Strange that she doesn't talk a mile a minute yet like her mother? No not really. You see she's a bit of perfectionist, so she'll only talk when she's good and comfortable with talking and not a minute sooner. She did the same with rolling over, crawling and walking. I've learned to just let it happen. Encouraging her to try to live up to something I've read in a book really only leads her to teach me that she's her own person and will not be put in a box. She's wise beyond her years.

I can't think of anything else to post right now, so I'm going to put this up to maintain trying to daily blog or at least every other day...plus Arielle is going to eat soup now which means I have to strip her down, because even with a bib she still manages to get soup all over herself. lol And she's wearing a cute outfit today as you can see :)

Does that mean when Arielle and I are having a really good giggle that I'm working out? Could I use that as fit credits for my Wii? I should look into that, because I rarely go a day without having a good rough and tumble laugh with my little girl. It's kind of difficult not to laugh with her, she's just so cute and funny I can't help myself.

For example today she was bringing magnets from the living room into the kitchen and for some reason decided that crawling would be a funnier mode of transportation than walking. I mean really she crawled from the living room, to the kitchen and back, then did it again because she realized I was laughing. She loves to make people laugh. When she realizes someone is laughing at something she's doing she can't help but elevate the action just to get another giggle. She really is a little ham, I absolutely love it. She projects such joy out of her life that I can't help but find the silver lining, her attitude usually points directly to it.

Right now she is lying in her bed putting her feet up against the side of her crib and gently kicking them. The crib makes a small noise when she does this you see, I think it's a mild way to refuse to nap. This is fine by me, she's quiet and lying down eventually this will lead to sleeping and if not then she'll be spending some quality time alone and I can spend some quality time with the laundry, the dishes and the bathroom. (First two are done, I'm putting off doing the latter :)

Another random thought, I love the happy noises Arielle makes. Like when I say she can have a treat and hand it to her in a little bowl (like the picture) she'll point at the bowl and let out this happy little giggle that cracks me up. Or the other night when I asked Jonathan to return to me a stack of her wash cloths that she had moved to the middle of the bathroom floor. He gave them to her one by one so she could, in turn, give them to me. She laughed every time he handed one to her and every time I took one. The simplest things give this girl a chuckle.

How do you not look at life on the bright side with this kind of brightness around?

So there is my inner jogging. That and running up and down the stairs with the laundry, scrubbing the bathroom and loading and unloading the dishwasher. Couple that with about a half hour of yoga before I go to bed and I have a very full day of exercise. Now if only the weather would get warmer so I could go back outside with Arielle and run around, that'd be even better.

Now that she's finally quiet (I choose to think that she's sleeping :) I'm gonna have some me time and forget the bathroom for now :)

At this point I'm not sure what quote I'm going to put in my title so I figured I'd just start typing and see where that takes me. Arielle is stomping around the house right now refusing to let me change her out of her PJ's into clothes for the day. Not a huge deal except that, of course, we have plans to go visit this morning so I might have to use my amazing powers of persuasion to get her onto the change table. (read: bribe her into distraction with animal crackers :)

Animal crackers didn't work but telling her that we were going to see Auntie Krista and Kai seemed to get her thrilled enough to let me do the clothing exchange. Naturally I didn't get this posted before we left, but hey I figure if I can get something out by the end of the day I'm doing better than I have been...lol

I'm trying to get back into a work out routine. I was getting pretty good at it, then I had to take a weekend off which sorta messed with my schedule. No biggie, it just took me three weeks to get back into another schedule. I just wish I could tell the stupid Wii board to shut up about missing a day...honestly that thing is annoying! LoL It's not like a personal trainer cause at least you can dialogue with them...stupid Wii board doesn't know squat...haha BUT it does give me some kind of guidance in regards to working out so that's a good thing. It also helped me say hello to my pre-pregnancy weight, which was one of my goals. Now that I'm there I'd like to lose another ten pounds before I get pregnant again. But even if I don't I like that's I've made it here, I feel better in my own skin.

Last but not least today Jonathan and I are celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary. No not the anniversary of our 3rd wedding (that's in October) this is the anniversary of the very first day we were married. March 24, 2007, I got married to my best friend and today we get to celebrate that by...him having a review of some kind at work. :p I'll be drinking wine and eating cheesecake at home...however next week he's taking me out to dinner so that makes up for it...LOL One learns to compromise in marriage and while this is the official day I see no reason why we can't celebrate this day when it is more convenient for us...so I love you hunny! Have a good work meeting :)

Here's a picture of the most amazing thing that Jonathan and I have accomplished in out marriage. The creation of this beautiful girl, not too bad hey? :)

...decided against the privacy settings again...don't ask me why...lol I flip flop on things like this...if you had subscribed to read my blog I still have the list saved so if I decide to hit the privacy settings again you'll already be there.

Until then it'll stream on facebook again. I'm cool like that :p

I kinda miss doing the whole quote in the title thing that I did before so I'm gonna try to get back to that...much like I'd like to get to a blogging every day or two...wait did I ever do that?

I'm inspired by my husband who is trying to quit smoking. He blogs daily about his struggles and triumphs and it shows that there really is time in the day to do that...I just need to carve it out. I type about 50-80 words a minute so honestly it shouldn't take that long to write a post...see look how many words I just typed in that whole diatribe that really wasn't worth writing but heck it's a post now...lol

In case you hadn't noticed I changed my blog template. I was kinda bored with the one before and found a website that had some original templates so I figured I'd try it out. I don't know how long this will tickle my fancy we'll have to see. Maybe as long as I actually blog...*sigh* So inconsistent I am. I think my problem is I put all this pressure on myself to say all kinds of inspiring things when really I just want to have some thoughts about parenting my little girl.

She is a delight. Still loves to watch Veggie Tales. As the weather slowly gets warmer she is enjoying the outdoors as well. We have some stones in our backyard that she likes to move from one spot to the other. She's definitely an organizer. She'll take them out one by one and line them along the step then when she's done she'll put them, one by one, back into the seat of her car. Sometimes I wish I could crawl inside her head for five minutes just to follow the thoughts there.

She's also a bit of a ham. If she knows that she's made someone laugh she'll go out of her way to continue to get them to giggle. It's hilarious.

We're working on her adaptation process. Right now she tends to adapt to new situations rather dramatically unless she gets a full description of what we are doing differently and why...then maybe she won't scream. It's going to be funny in years to come, I know this. But right now it's a bit frustrating. It took me over an hour and a half the other day to get her used to being outdoors again. She had to slowly acclimatize herself...there is absolutely no jumping into new situations. This should be interesting when a new sibling comes along, but that's not a bridge we're crossing right now so I won't fret about that yet.

Lunch is ready so I should go eat that...maybe tomorrow I'll write more...maybe not...it's kind of like I'm making my own waiting game. I hate waiting...very masochistic of me :p

It seems like such an irrelevant thing, time. We all rely on it in one way or another and most days we probably don't give it much thought. I think that since I became a mother I'm noticing time a lot more closely now. For starters it's right in front of my face. As my daughter learns, grows and progresses I can see time go by. There are days when I can still remember holding my small 7lb 4oz baby on my chest in the hospital doing our first skin to skin contact. Seriously I can almost feel her there now if I think about it. Yet today she is running around the house in my slippers saying 'Mom!' whenever she needs something and it amazes me that she is that same baby.

Heck she's not a baby any more she's a toddler, a small child, my little girl. Every day I'm reminded of how amazing she is and how blessed I am to have her. As she gets older I start thinking about what sort of person she will be and what part I will play in that. It's a bit overwhelming to think I have so much influence over this person. That some things I decide could literally shape who she is in the future. I try not to think about that too much, because I also know she's her own person and if I try to be perfect I will most definitely fail so above all she'll know she's loved, protected and respected.

So that brings me back to the tiny little baby on my chest...I want another one :p

She refuses to do anything according to the norm. Sometimes I wish I could just crawl inside her head for five minutes and try to figure out what really goes on in there. It's also fun trying to decide what's going on in there. It will be easier when she can actually answer my questions by herein lies the problem, as it were.

She will not talk until she is pretty certain she'll say the word correctly. Sometimes a word will slip out and then Jonathan or I will try to coax her to repeat it but she won't! A few weeks later she'll be more comfortable with the word and will then say it more often. Almost all of her new words are dealt with in this manor. I'm pretty sure this stems from me. I have major performance anxiety and when I don't know that I'll do something the very best I find it difficult to do the task at all. As a child it would stress me out to the enth degree. She seems to have acquired this trait from me.

There are pros and cons to this. The major pro is the fact that I can relate to her feelings and for the most part I can calm her down when she gets overly anxious. The cons are her complete unwillingness to try new things unless it's on her terms. She's just so...*sigh* me...lol

All in all she really is an amazing kid...really. She'll sit and play by herself for quite awhile. I can see a burgeoning imagination growing right before my eyes (she'll 'feed' bunny on a regular basis making eating motions with her mouth, it's so cute!) and she's just so sweet I think her sweetness oozes out of her. I did not think it was possible to love a little person so much. :p

<--She's giving the 'camera face' in this pic...lol

I'm most definitely getting that 'want another baby' urge. It mostly has to do with the fact that it's 2010 and Jonathan and I have agreed this is the year we want to try for baby number two.

Now being me I keep talking about the 'plans' and how well it would work out if...yadda yadda. I'm fully aware that we can't control when we get pregnant. I'd honestly be pretty happy if it happened any time this year. I would like to be able to go to my parents place for Christmas but I also want to submit to the Lord's plans so I just keep laying it in his hands.

And I watch the Veggie Tales episode that teaches about patience...it's very helpful...lol

Speaking of Veggie Tales we've scaled back the viewing for our little fan here at home. It was getting to the point where she couldn't stay interested in anything for longer than a few minutes at a time and I think that had to do with the constant influx of images from the TV. So we just allow a couple of episodes a day and after a day of not really understanding Arielle adapted quite well. Now she'll happily play with her books or toys of quite a long time. Her newest thing is to play with an afghan she'll place it nicely on herself while she's sitting in her chair, take it off...rinse repeat...lol

She seems incredibly fascinated with the fact that her feet are beneath the blanket. She gets so thrilled every time she 'finds' them after pulling it off...lol I love, love, LOVE looking at life through the eyes of a toddler. It's so cute!

I was reading back in the first couple months of her life how little sleep we were getting and I'm just marveling how that's changed. She is truly an amazing sleeper, sure she has her bad days but really they are few and far between. Over all she's awesome! She sleeps from about 8 at night to between 8 and 9 in the morning, then goes down for a nap between 1 and 1:30...she'll probably chat and sing to herself, even giggle, for sometimes an hour and a half, then she'll sleep for almost two hours...and I swear to you she'll go to bed fine at 8 that night...it's crazy talk!

Sure this will probably change or the two year molars will come and mess with it, but right now I don't care about what could happen cause she's a sleeping dream. Which is why the rose coloured glasses are back on about a newborn...lol

Anyway my dream child is up so should go play with her...look at me all bloggy at the beginning of a month. :)

The best story yet!

So she comes to me the other day carrying a bag of her diapers. I said 'yes those are your diapers now can you put them back?'

She does this and returns with the pad from her diaper bag and hands it to me. I say 'Yes that's your diaper pad now can you put it back?'

I kid you not the child rolled her eyes. Or did the toddler equivalent. Then she proceeds to put the pad flat on the floor, lie down on it and put her legs up giving me look as if to say 'Lady if you haven't caught on yet there's no hope for you.'

LOL Turns out she wanted me to change her diaper...yeah I can be slow :p

She seriously makes me giggle...I love that kid!

Yup vacuuming is a unique kind of drama in our house. Arielle used to laugh and actually cheer when I'd turn the vacuum on, then she'd go play by herself and almost ignore me. Then a couple of weeks ago she started crying. Now at first I just thought she was mad that I was vacuuming and not playing with her, then it started to sound like she was scared. She would pull on my leg and follow me around with her face buried into my leg. It was sad and kinda frustrating, the only way she would stop was if I picked her up.

She's almost 30 pounds people.

So I tried again last week with the same problem. I thought if I showed her how to turn it on and let her walk beside me while I did it, it would be okay. Uh, not so much I don't know if I was doing it to fast or what but she flipped out. So yet again I had to carry her, not a small feat but hey I could call it a workout I suppose :p

Then today I thought that accompanying the letting her turn it on I would allow her to actually push with me while I vacuum. It was beautiful. Not a sound out of her as long as she could be with me and help me...the downside is it takes twice as long to vacuum, but I don't care there's no crying and I can attack those stupid dust bunnies that taunt me day and night. It was actually kinda fun :)

On another note I think the Lord gave me extra grace today, because we had a couple of meltdown tantrums and I think I dealt with them pretty well. She needed to have her nap but I had to change her diaper which was not on her list of fun things to do. SO she decided to flip right the heck out. This lead me to place her on my lap and softly say into her ear that she needed to sit there until she was done. So she cried and screamed for a couple more minutes then gave me the sign for 'down' so I said again, quietly, that she could go down when she was done crying. She hiccuped a couple of times and thought about it then calmed down some more. So I put her down and asked her if she was done, she walked away and got her bunny then seemed to be fine. But I had to get her into her bed stat before we had another one of those. lol

I wish I could bottle up the pure joy my daughter is because it seems unfair that I get to enjoy her the most. It doesn't matter what kind of day I'm having her giggle, her cuddle, her actual breath makes it better.

The future can be what it is...my present is filled with the happiness that is my daughter. I'm going to go dance with her now :)

Over the last few years I've actually gotten pretty good and going with the flow. Major changes in my life led to a lot more understanding about the minor ones. So most of the time I'm pretty good with change, it happens and honestly I should look forward to it. However, I am a lot like my daughter in that I love my routine and I can't remember the last time a life routine lasted longer than a year. Let me back up...

As most of you know Jonathan's job was up in the air just before the holidays. The facility is closing it's doors in Winnipeg. He had a few offers within the company so we weren't really worried about him having employment, just where that employment might take us. (some of the offers were in the US and there was even potential for Costa Rica) BIG change!

The best offer for us came in a job he had actually been seeking out a few weeks before the announcement about the facility closure. So he went to that interview and heard that he might get that job. Getting that one means that he would work from home. Any of you who have visited our home (or seen pictures) knows that we do not really have the room to offer him actual office space. So the first thought was we have to move.

Second thought, the facility doors close at the end of March.

Yesterday it took all I could do to not freak out over how much we need to do in this house to sell it. Let alone how much packing we'd need to do and don't get me started on what the heck our new house would look like, given what we can afford right now. I talked to a few family and friends and that helped but in the end all I could do was look around my house and see all the jobs that are here to do. Plus as small as it is we were kinda hoping to move out of it NEXT year at this time, not this year.

Jonathan came home and said that actually we could probably build him a little office in the basement and his work would give us some money towards that. Now our basement is not the best living conditions but if Jonathan could make a go of it even for half a year it would give us more time to make this house even that much easier to sell and for, hopefully, more money.

Right now I don't know which I'd prefer...in one sense being able to organize and sell at a slower pace is appealing, but there is something about being able to just get it all done with and move sooner than later. Since he does have a job to work from home, eventually we'd like to be in BC. It's cheaper for us and definitely more convenient to stay in Manitoba so yeah even though we know that Jonathan still has a job there are still so many 'what ifs'.

It's like that whole 'cross a bridge when you come to it'...we crossed that bridge and now there are three or four to choose from. I don't want to sound ungrateful because I do understand the huge process we got to sidestep with Jonathan getting the job we wanted for him. I just can't stop myself for constantly looking ahead at the 'what ifs'.

Live in the now Sheri, for example check out your cute kid: