Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Pretty Pumpkin Patch

I could not believe my ears this morning when I was feeding Harrison his breakfast... the lady on the radio said that she was participating in the Run for a Cure (for breast cancer) on Sunday and that they would be running in the rain/snow. SNOW??! I thought that I had either heard wrong or that maybe, just maybe she was exagerating a little, so I went to the computer to check it out. Unfortunately I heard right. There is a 50% possibility of snow flurries on Sunday. WOW!! Guess Harrison will get to use his snowsuit after all. Can't wait to post some photos of that!

Today we had pictures for Harrison scheduled at Wal-Mart in Lethbridge at 10:30. I dressed him in everything except his shirt for pictures, just in case and we headed out the door. Arriving just in time for our appointment, ok just a few minutes late, we rushed in and changed his shirt and began the photo shoot. Really how can you go wrong with a package of 30 portraits for $7.99??? After a bunch of monkeying around (literally) to make Harrison smile I had 8 poses to choose from and only 2 without his hands in his mouth. Thankfully the one I picked was PERFECT. Really, he had a huge smile, hands were down, looking right at the camera, Mommy could not ask for more. YAY! Also a huge thanks to the photo lady at Wal-Mart for being so patient and good with him.

Afterwards I really wanted to find a "pumpkin patch" to take some pretty fall pictures of Harrison while he had on a nice outfit and was in a good mood, so we headed out to Green Haven Garden Center which I had heard on the radio had pumpkins or something like that. When we arrived they had a bunch of pretty fall displays set up and they were all excellent for photo opps, so away we went. Here are a few of my favorites from today...



The pumpkin on the left was over 450 lbs!! Amazing! We had fun out there and all the elderly people shopping for fall plants were loving Harrison too. What a fun way to spend the morning!

Tomorrow is our play date with the grand daughter of some friends of my parents. Her name is Saige and we are going to a play group at a local school. I hope they have fun together and burn some energy. It is very challenging to keep up with a toddler and be 6 months pregnant! Who knew?

Last night I had a surprise phone call from my dear sweet friend Kristen (from Abilene)!! It was much needed and was such a huge help to just feel "normal" again. It was so nice talking with her, I can't wait to get back to Texas to catch up with everyone else!

I also heard from someone today that there is a corn maze with a petting zoo and more pumpkins near where we live, so I think we will try to seek that out sometime this week as well. Hope everyone's week is off to a great start! Thanks for reading and thanks for your comments! Here is one more photo to leave you with a smile... Grandma and Harry Potter!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Just Another Day

Wishing there was more to share about today but it was a fairly uneventful Saturday here in Alberta. One praise item is that Harrison slept really well last night and didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning instead of his semi-usual 7-7:15 which was super nice! Who can complain of a little extra sleep when pregnant.

I've been starting to feel the third trimester energy drain, slowly but surely. It's so amazing how meticulously God created pregnancy to be... everything works just like clockwork. I have my next ultrasound on Oct 13 which I am very excited for. It will give us a chance to confirm that we are in fact having a little girl. If not I sure have a lot of pink to get rid of!! Just like with Harrison though I knew in my spirit what we were expecting before we were ever told.

I had to go to the hospital this morning to do my 2 hour gestational diabetes test. I've been praying and praying not to have it and that I don't receive it so we will see that the test says this week. Either way I am prepared to deal with whatever comes. I just wish there was something more I could do about it, but you either get it or you don't so not like I can "fix" it. *sigh*

After taking in that much sugar I just felt blah all afternoon and evening. Blair and Danielle were here at the farm and Danielle was learning all about canning from mom. Last week they did pickles and this week they did pickled beets. I LOVE pickled beets, YUM!

Not much on the schedule for tomorrow because it's supposed to be really windy. For those in Texas thinking "windy" you'd have to be here to understand that 50 mph is a "gusty" day!! I think we will start catching up on Pastor Richards sermon series online... Good plan!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Preparation

Our little family is busy making many preparations to settle into our "new" location in Texas. Yes, the Burnett's are moving again (or still).

Today Grandpa, Harrison and I drove up to Calgary so that I could submit my passport for updating. We woke up at 6 am so we could be on the road by 6:30 since it is about a 2 hour drive. The office opened right at 8:30 am and we pulled up when they were opening the door. I jumped out of the truck with my papers in hand and dashed to the door, received my ticket number and prepared to wait in line while Grandpa was getting Harrison into his stroller. As I went to take a seat to wait I happily realized that the number before mine was already on the board. Not even 1 minute later my number popped up on the screen! The lady was super nice that was helping me, taking great care that my renewed passport wouldn't get shipped to Texas, which I greatly appreciated. She did her work on the computer and a few minutes later I was on my way out the door. I quickly glanced at my watch and the whole thing only took 6 minutes!! Great job passport lady! Grandpa didn't even have time to get Harrison out of the car yet. Awesome!

That left plenty of time to have a chat with my dear friend Cindy. We went over to Humpty's and ordered some breakfast while we waited for Cindy to arrive. Instead of eating Harrison was busy making eyes at a pretty little girl about his age a couple tables over, trying very hard to impress her with his truck driving skills. Cindy arrived as we were finishing up our food and Harrison was ready to get going so we had a quick chat in the parking lot while Grandpa kindly helped Harrison walk off some of his energy. It was so nice catching up with a good friend!!

I also have to brag a little bit about Cindy and her thoughtfulness. I had mentioned that if for some reason Harrison and I can't head back to Texas before I'm 8 months along with the baby then I may ask her to help me get some used and give away items together so that we are prepared for Audrey's arrival. Well the very next day she tells me that she has a ton of baby stuff for me! I am so blown away and blessed by all the people that so quickly donated their stuff to us, wow! I can't wait to organize all the little girl clothes! Yay for pink! And a HUGE thank you to Cindy for sure!!

Mike was busy making his own preparations in Texas today. We will be moving into Mike's Memaws house in Brownwood while Mike attends the Trooper Academy in Austin. While we live there all we will have to do is pay for our utilities which is another huge blessing to us. The carpets are very old and worn so Mike is in the process of pulling them up so they can be replaced which will be very nice. I am really looking forward to finally having all of our possessions unpacked for more than 4 months and being able to go through it all and purge everything that we don't need. I am not a collector of "things" and I really enjoy being able to give away items that may be useful to someone else. It shouldn't be long before I am having crazy pregnancy dreams about home improvements again!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Starting Over

Today is a new day to start fresh. Our old blog site was good but unfortunately for unknown reasons they went out of business and the site closed. This left us looking for a new home and that's ok. Change is always good. If our family were resistant to change I don't know where we'd be! For those of you who know us well, I am sure you'll agree.

Breathe in the fresh, cool air of autumn. I love the fall, it is my favorite season by far. Warm, sunny days followed by crisp, cool evenings. The weather is agreeable too, especially in Alberta where it is still nice out and we have yet to see the first of that "S" word. SNOW. When I was a kid growing up here it was a regular occurrence to have the first snowfall the last week of October, or on Halloween, which always made things interesting. I've heard before "you know you're Canadian when you sew your Halloween costume to fit over your snow suit!" Until then, we will continue enjoying the beautiful weather at my parents farm near Fort Macleod, Alberta.



Since arriving in Alberta in August Harrison has been having a really great time getting reacquainted with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Blair and his new Aunty Danielle. His favorite passtime is definitely driving any type of equipment with Grandpa; the golf cart, the lawn mower, and several different tractors. Grandpa even took Harrison to work to drive the huge front end loader that fills up the dump trucks. I don't know who was happier that day, Harrison or Grandpa!



Sadly we miss Daddy on a day-to-day basis. Mike is still in Texas looking for work. Our piece of good news this week was that Mike had his final State Trooper interview today! He said it went really well and received good feedback from the recruiting officer. It will take about 2-3 weeks for us to hear if he is invited to attend the 3 days of testing in Austin or not. I am fully confident that God has created Michael for this career, and that he has spiritually equipped him for success!! We are so proud of you honey, keep working towards your goals!

Everything is going well on the pregnancy front too. I am now 26 weeks and 2 days along making the countdown until the due date only 13 weeks and 5 more days. We will actually have Audrey sooner than our due date, anywhere from 10-14 days earlier. It does not seem "real" yet that we are about to have a new born daughter and a 19 month old son at the same time. WOW. I hope we're ready!!

Speaking of getting ready I have started making lists... oh how I wish I could avoid this compulsion! I guess it is my own little way of feeling prepared. Yesterday I made a baby list and then created a couple of gift registries online (Wal-Mart, Target, and Babies 'R' Us) which is always fun. For Audrey we thought we wouldn't need as much stuff as we did with Harrison but a lot of our stuff was borrowed and has been returned so there are a few items that we still need to locate.

I've also been keeping busy with paperwork galore. I am requesting a Canadian Citizenship certificate for Harrison which I found out takes 10 months! At least the process is started though. I also need my passport renewed. We are heading up to Calgary bright and early tomorrow morning to the passport office to submit all my documents. I can't get back home to Texas until my passport is renewed because is expires in November, so hopefully all goes smoothly with it.

Next week Harrison and I are starting to attend a toddlers play group at a nearby town. It is only twice a week, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 9-12 but it will definitely help burn off some of the extra energy he has. It will also be really good for him to have some social interaction with kids who are a little bit older than he is. I'm excited to see how he does with it next week.

I think I should stop writing for today, or maybe break it up into 2 posts. Hope everyone is doing well, I look forward to hearing your comments.

Love Always,
The Burnett Family