One of the foremost things on my mind for sure has been this:
That's the little guy that we're waiting on to make an appearance. I'm not due for another 3 weeks, but I keep telling him...."Any day now you could come out and have a whole lot more room to squirm..." He has definitely consumed much energy and preoccupied much of my thought time in the last 8 months or so. Having the thoughts and memories of the unexpected outcome of the 2 previous pregnancies to deal with during this one has definitely been a challenge, but with the Lord's help, I've been able to deal with them much better than I anticipated. I just can't wait to hold this baby boy in my arms.
The winter seemed to be fairly uneventful - we didn't even have much for winter storms or snow - a rarity in these parts! There was only one snow fall where we used the tractor to clear the yard...of course it IS only the end of March, and many a blizzard has come to Southern Manitoba in April and May! In November we traveled to Alberta and made quite a round trip, seeing many friends/family along the way. I'd love to share some pictures, but they're on my currently crashed laptop....I'm having power supply issues with it, I don't want to buy a new battery because there is some issue with the power cord connection, and at 6.5 years old, its outlived its life expectancy and isn't worth putting money into. Trevor is supposed to be getting a new work computer, so we will have his computer at home...I'm waiting rather impatiently for this to happen, but am thankful for my Iphone, so I can at least keep up on some internet stuff during the week when his computer is at work! Someday I need to figure out how to make my computer stay running long enough to rescue my pictures and such off of it....
Back to our Alberta trip - we were gone around 10 days and did a bit of a circle - Regina, Carbon, Winfield, Athabasca/Boyle, Edmonton, Lloydminster and home again. It was a good trip - we saw many people along the way, but of course we didn't get to see EVERYONE...there are just too many people to see in one trip!
We kept expecting the seasons to change, all through November and into December - "We better get it done before it snows" or "I gotta finish this project before it gets cold". We were blessed with an amazingly warm winter though, and there were few days where it was majorly unpleasant to work outside.
This is Lolo with one of her favorite Christmas presents - a Lightning McQueen stereo that I bought her with some of the money she got for Christmas.
Christmas was fairly low key - with just our local family together for celebration. January was again much more mild and beautiful than typically found in these parts! I continued to work 2 days a week at the local credit union, enjoying getting to know more of the local community members and all the laughs and scowls that come with being in the service industry. I finished up and went on maternity leave the third week of February - its nice to be at home with Lolo now!
February brought a little more activity around here - at the beginning of the month we took a quick trip down through North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri and then back up through South Dakota and home again. Why Missouri? Two simple words would explain it for anyone who knows my husband....Allis Chalmers.... Yes, we did 4 days and 3000km just to look at some bulldozers... It was a somewhat interesting trip... We did stop at the Mall of America on the way down and let Lolo go on some rides, saw the dam and locks on the Mississippi River at Keokuk and did a bit of shopping at an outlet mall on the way home...mostly it was a lot of sitting in the car.
Here we are looking south off the observation deck which is the old bridge over the Mississippi. You can see a very long coal train, the old train station and an old riverboat in the background.
Looking across the bridge - you can only go a little ways out on it now, but its a neat old bridge!
The dam and the lock.
The old riverboat
Info about the dam and locks - what a huge project to be undertaken at a time of mainly manual labor! From my reading, there were MANY dams built around that time!
I did get lots of handwork done in the van - I made Lolo these Moccasins for her birthday:
And crocheted this wool diaper soaker for the babe:
The week after that trip was the long weekend. Along with the others gathered to the Lord's name at La Riviere we hosted a family fun weekend - skating, games, food and fellowship with a number of young families from the area and some from Saskatchewan as well. It was a nice time to visit! We had my cousin's family stay with us, she and I are due the same day in April, so it was interesting to share about our pregnancies and compare bellies :)
Here's Lolo skating...just her second time on ice, she did alright!
Back at Christmas, Trevor had surprised me with tickets to see "Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe" on the friday of the long weekend, so our guests actually arrived while we were out on our date. We had a great time at the concert - lots of laughs and some neat music!
The Long weekend was also Lolo's birthday -
Very excited about her "Lightning Queen" Jammies
Three Happy Cousins!
March has rolled by somewhat slowly for me, as I anticipate the due date and meeting this little guy, there have been lots of uncomfortable, sleepless nights and such, but I AM encouraged to see the days are ticking away...however slowly it may seem to happen! The weather has been gorgeous though, with days getting up to 20C and sunshine....of course the ever present spring wind hasn't let us down, but its been a beautiful month anyways, Lolo was excited to get her swing out last weekend and I've even had clothes drying on the line a few times already...yes in March....in Manitoba...who would have guessed?! I took this picture the other day of the green things growing in my flower bed already! The garden already has weeds in it and is begging to be tilled, while the lawn shows many a green blade poking through last year's brown thatch...If you can see it among the bones and garbage the dogs have left behind on the lawn all winter... I really wish bending over wasn't so painful right now, I see many things that should be picked up out there...but I guess they're not likely to go anywhere! Trevor did help me rake up a wagon load of sticks and bones right along the sidewalk, so visitors don't get too grossed out by the "leftovers".
Lolo enjoying the beautiful weather!
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