Ahh it is a bright, beautiful Monday morning. Despite the fact I got little sleep last night between designing and my darling baby boy, I feel good. Real good. This post was almost called “Manic Monday … Ooo Weee Oooo ….”, due to a rough start on Becs part, but alas all is well in our corner of the woods again.

We had an amazing weekend. We were crazy busy. Even social. I know. Shocking.

Look at my soccer girl. Doesn’t she rock the house? Becs was so bursting with excitement about the big soccer practice that upon arrival she got a tad spooked. There was a lot of new kids, couches with a lot of instructions and only two YELLOW balls. The rest were merely white and paled in comparison to the YELLOW ball. In fact the YELLOW ball became a security object for Becca. In the end she did quite well. It is fun to watch her, trip through the class, all social norms whooshing over her “my mom stays at home” head. When asked to head to the end of the line, she stared blankly at the coach then proceeded to jump ahead of everyone {repeatedly} to kick the ball. J cruised over and explained then she was all down with the line concept. It is funny what we take for granted. We do not experience many “lines, wait your turn in sequence” here at home.

Ethan has gone from, a tentative walker, to a walk all the time, who needs to crawl, kid. He also has cut back his nursing throughout the day (much to my dismay, mind you he made up for it last night, the kid is a trickster). He has such a great passion for all that he adores. It is so cool.

For about five minutes we thought we might be pregnant again. We are not even sure that another baby is in our future, but I have to admit I was totally bummed that I was baron. Like somehow I lost something that wasn’t even there. J of course was mystified by my behaviour and was extremely relieved. That annoyed me beyond belief. The cad.

I am just bursting with energy and ideas. I love it. I do hope to sit still long enough to catch up with you all. My attention span has been spotty at best as of late.

How was your weekend?

The kids and I have been going, going, going all week. Not a single day of rest and this mom is weary! It has been a fun-filled week with playing, hiking, books and snow filled walks.

Oh we even witnessed a kid slip into a partially frozen creek! I loved the moments that followed, as the mom attempted not to giggle (we had been giving warnings that were on deaf ears that he was too close to the water!) It cut our hike a little short but all the kids that witnessed the fall listened REALLY REALLY well after … hehe! No one was hurt, but a lesson was learned … “Always ALWAYS listen to your Mommy!”

I have completed a couple blog designs too. Meaning, not only has my parenting time been full, my “down-time” has been full as well. See we went to talk to the bank about a mortgage and “the man” would give us “the money”!!! We still cannot actually afford to buy and maintain a house, but we are one step closer! Weee!! <—me squealing with delight!

Anyway, I am the budget gal. I take care of all of finances, so I can cut back the spending however there are only a few ways I can make money for the cause, all the while still parenting the way I want to.

It is a tough balance.  Yet the blog designs gives me a little play money which is way nice. Plus geeking it out and being creative makes me happy.

Oh … “They” are talking about writing off our car!!! ARG! So we might be buying another car way way before we were planning on it. Any suggestions on a fuel efficient, inexpensive, roomy for four plus a cat, car … are welcome.  We will know more Monday but plan on browsing the car shops this weekend just in case.

That is IF this winter weather cuts out of here. Ummm didn’t spring start like last week?  It is snowing like crazy out there…Since this morning! The kids and I walked to the library and we soaked when we arrived there and then home. It was fun and not too cold, so a good hearted adventure.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I hope to finish up a couple books (that I want to share my thoughts on with you) and do some yummy cooking … some ham, corn chowder is on the menu for sure this blustery weekend! I also hope to catch up with you all .. I hate when I get this far behind in reading blogs … I miss you.

Ok seriously people! If you are having troubles reading and commenting you have to tell me! Thank you MommaBee, Michelle & Cori, I hope this is an improvement!

I did a quickie redesign in hopes of solving the issues. Please please leave me a comment if the design makes your computer choke up.

In all fairness I do test all my designs in IE, Safari, and Firefox. Even our old PC loaded the site fine, so I was totally in the dark.

Now if you really want to optimize your blog reading buy a Mac. Really. Mac’s are Sexy.

If you cannot *~stubborn~* buy a Mac, please download Firefox. Or at the very very least upgrade to IE 7 (the closest IE has ever gotten to allowing proper code).

Ok I will hop off my geeky soap box, for now and remind you that this week I will be announcing some fun contests to celebrate the Soodz Clan’s Return to the Great White North (aka Canada)!

Pic of the Day ~ Post Naptime Snuggles ~

Once again I am in awe that another week has squeaked by. It has been a week full of things to be grateful for.

1. I am grateful that I am still pregnant. I have been experiencing panic attacks that I am sure are linked to that insecurity. The attacks so need to not continue once Ethan arrives, they are really a horrific sensation. I am really enjoying this pregnancy. There have been some ups and downs for sure, but I am trying to love every moment.

2. I am thankful for our friends. Becca was able to hang out with her pal Jamie twice this week and in turn I was lucky to chill out with Holly. We also had the opportunity to spend the day with Erin and Samuel, which is always awesome!

3. I am in debt to J, for allowing me to listen to my body yesterday and take two naps. I was especially tired yesterday and J was kind enough to take Becca to work in the morning then stay home in the afternoon. The guy has even more on his plate than I do and he is balancing it all with much grace and compassion. Unfortunately napping twice left me wide awake till TWO AM this morning, so I am not sure I should listen that closely to my body next time!

4. I am grateful for my time with Becca. This past week we have spent so many quality  moments it has made me swell with love. Post-Nap times has been snugglefests, she has been crawling into our bed in the morning and gets all cozy. We have also played hard and been in-sync all week. Having bad days on occasion sure helps keep the perspective on the good days!

5. I am thankful for my Sunday morning knit times. I look forward to them all week. It is my chance to be alone for the drive there and then be just me, talk with a great friend and relax.  AND I get to knit. I have been working on a sweater that is finally near completion (after knitting the sucker almost twice!) It has been an amazing project even with the mistakes, the ripping out and trying again.

This coming week, we see the OB (every week now), have a playdate on the calendar and I am co-hosting book club at Holly’s house. Last fall I read The Glass Castle (HIGHLY recommend it btw!) so that was my pick for this month. I also have a itsy bit of sewing left and I have been inspired in the web design department so I have been puttering about on that.

Pic of the Day ~ The Ever Sweet Becca ~

The weekend was a quiet one. With J & Becca still on the mend, we stayed pretty close to home. On Sunday, J took Becca out for some errands, which gave me the opportunity to work on some theme development for wordpress.

I develop all my themes with the very basic of coding. Unfortunately with the new upgrades it was time to make sure I new some more advance coding and update this theme. I also wanted to be prepared to develop more themes in the future. Boring geek talk for most sorry!

Awesome Mom is sporting a new look. It took us a while (*cough* me *cough*) to get it all laid out and looking right. I have a few more templates that are waiting to be created as well. Once again technology has advanced leaving me to learn the system again. The New Blogger is a bitch err challenge to learn. I think most of my struggles are trying to concentrate and be pregnant! I was totally exhausted yesterday after weeding through all that code for Wordpress!

Becca and I had a lovely time this morning. Marina has moved into a beautiful new place and we went over to play in their totally awesome backyard. As always Becca had a blast playing with her friends, while I had the chance to relax and knit. I received some AMAZING yarn from a co-op that Marina ran …. omg it is sooooo soft, I have never felt wool that soft before. I will be taking some pictures and posting on my other blog, when my head stops throbbing.

Unfortunately, I left with a NASTY headache, pressure changes in the weather or something because I have a terrible migraine! Becca zonked out in the car on the way back and now refuses to sleep again *cries* Afternoons like these totally suck! Hopefully she will be content to play really really quietly in the dark! I hate these headaches even more when pregnant, no booze or drugs to dull the pain *whines*!

I am frightfully behind in reading my daily reads, so please know that once I can see clearly out of both eyes, and the pain is all gone I will pop over to see you all … I am off to crawl into a dark, quiet place ….