Hey, Mrs. Wilson!

We’re here! With no internet!

I finally went to a Starbucks today and got onto their wireless network because I was going absolutely insane after three days of no internet. I can access Facebook through my cell, but I get bored of that after about 3 seconds. The internet just isn’t the same if you can’t blog or read blogs. I cannot remember what i used the internet for before I discovered blogs.

Kaylie and I just dropped my dad off at the bus station. We’re all really sad to see him go. We totally could not have done our trip without him. He drove the moving truck the whole way here while I followed him in the van, he babysat so Noah and I could take some much needed alone time (with which we went to Walmart - it was quite romantic), he also built all our furniture we’d just purchased at IKEA in Edmonton. He’s just an all-around pleasant guy to have around and we’re really going to miss having him with us. As we were driving away, Kaylie said, “Why does he HAVE to go?”

Our trip went quite well. We didn’t have any major problems at all. I have to make a shout-out to the Athabasca Hotel in Jasper though. Their customer service is AMAZING. When I called to make our reservation, I told them that we would be coming with a UHAUL. Before we checked in, we were looking around for a parking spot and saw a blocked off area and wished we could park there because it was perfect to fit the truck. We went to go check in and found that the spot was reserved for us! How cool is that??

We got to Regina on Wednesday and quickly unloaded the UHAUL while Liliana napped. She woke up right after the work was done, it was perfect timing. I think the Lord knew we needed a little break from her so that we could get done what needed to get done. He watched over us the whole trip and gave us everything we needed. We could feel the prayers of all that were praying for us in how smoothly everything has gone so far. We trust that He’ll stay with us as we start our new life here.

We’re leaving (AGAIN!) today to go to a camp where my father-in-law is speaking. Noah and I have really missed listening to him speak every Sunday so this is our opportunity to get our fix. It’ll also be Kaylie and Liliana’s first camp experience, so it should be a fun trip.  It was quite the challenge to try pack for camp when everything we own is still in boxes, but I finally pulled it together. We’ll be back Sunday night.

Sorry if I haven’t returned anyone’s emails. Once we get our internet up and running at home, I will respond, I promise.

I’ll leave you with one picture of my dad and the girls. They really loved having him here. Papas are way more fun than parents.

Day 1: Terrace to Jasper = 950 km
Day 2: Jasper to Saskatoon = 930 km

Things/people we could NOT have done without:

• 2-way radios (van to UHAUL)
• Google maps (to find IKEA!)
• Baby MumMums
• 3 soothers
• a portable DVD player
• Vsmile Pocket
  
• an air-conditioned townhouse complete with a LONG hot shower and a non-fast food meal waiting for us at the end of today’s journey
• my dad
• my inlaws (are you happy now Russ?)

Traveling in a air-conditioning-challenged van = 950 km
Gas for 2 vehicles = $459.00
2 salads and some vegetables in Jasper = $42.00
A long hot shower after 12 sweaty hours of driving = priceless

A small update for you from the last couple days, more on these later:

1. My brother and I made the 430 km trek to get a UHAUL. (Not the most customer-friendly company ever.)

2. We bought a 1993 (1994?) Dodge Grand Caravan. (Never say never!)

3. We loaded up everything we own in a 17 ft van/truck/big ugly thing.

4. We’re spending today saying goodbye.

5. This is our last day in BC. We’ll miss you.

6. Noah says that the fact that I blogged today means I have an addiction. I beg to differ.

Sorry about the feed issues. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, contact your local psych ward. Ask for Jen.

So, I’ve decided to take a short blogging break. Oh relax Ann, I said SHORT and you’ll be camping anyway.

Onwards.

A week from today, my dad, Noah, and I will be unloading the Uhaul at our new home. Between now and then, there is a lot happening. Way too much to comprehend. We still have to work two more days each, Noah needs to have his other two wisdom teeth pulled, we’ll finish up our lives here in BC, pick up stuff we’ve been storing at friends’ places while we’ve been in our 300 square foot no bedroom insert inappropriate phrase home, pack up the Uhaul, potentially buy a new (to us) vehicle, and drive halfway across the country with two hopefully doped up and sleeping children.

Sounds easy, right? I’m not so convinced.

In other news, I joined Weight Watchers. Twelve weeks ago. In that time I lost 10 lbs. Actually, 10.2 to be exact. You may be thinking, Awesome! Way to go! Great job! but really, it’s attributed to moving twice in three months, being sick, and eating a whole ton of Kernels 94% Fat Free popcorn with dill pickle flavoring sprinkled on top.

In reality, I posess no self control. That is why every other diet had failed me I have failed every other diet I’ve ever tried. Three months ago, a friend of mine was telling me of her weight struggle and said that she had just joined Weight Watchers and how great it was. I told her to pick me up for the next meeting. (That’s why it works. Accountability. Or guilt. PoTAYto PoTATo.)

I didn’t blog about my Weight Watchers journey, because I didn’t feel like blogging about something that I was going to fail at again. It’s not as fun as it sounds. According to the Weight Watchers … stuff … what’s the right word? Not media … books, intelligence … I am seriously losing my vocabulary. OH! LITERATURE! ANYWAY, according to them, if you follow their “rules”, you can lose 2 lbs per week. Multiply that by 12 weeks, and you should be down 24 lbs by the end of your first Weight Watchers period.

It wasn’t that easy. By week 4, I was down 8 lbs. THAT WAS EIGHT WEEKS AGO. (And in those four weeks I was packing up 3,000 square feet of life BY MYSELF BECAUSE I’M A CONTROL FREAK and having the worse 5 days I’ve had in my married life which may or may not have involved smashing things.) After that, my weight went up and down and up and down … until I forced myself to stick to it for the last two weeks so that I could hit the 10 lb mark. I HAD TO hit the 10 lb mark. Or else. Or else what? I don’t know, I’d force-feed myself cookie-dough Blizzards or something, which would be totally self-destructive in more ways than one, but whatever.

So, does this make me happier? To be down 10 lbs? Not really. It does mean, though, that I fit into some pre-Liliana clothes. Some, not all. Not even close to all. Apparently weight loss also requires toning. I’m not toned. At all. It’s more like jello jigglers than anything. I know you have a nice mental picture in your head now. Brilliant.

So there you have it. I might post little tidbits on our journey, but other than that, I’ll catch you on the flip side.

Okay, first off I am SO SORRY for not posting until now. A bazillion pictures take FOREVER to edit. I DO have a life outside the internet you know! Goodness. (Hi Ann!)

Kaylie had her birthday party on Saturday, but since I did not get the permission from any of her friends’ parents, I cannot post pictures of it. She had a blast though. We held it at the local public pool. Best place EVER for a birthday party, in my opinion. There’s no mess at your house, and kids absolutely LOVE to swim. We put them all in life jackets and didn’t have to worry about watching them too carefully. Of course we watched them, but I didn’t have to worry about anyone drowning.

After Kaylie’s shindig, we headed out to another birthday party.

My Grandma’s 80th.

The 80th Birthday Bash for my Grandma was AMAZING. It was so great to see all my relatives I hadn’t seen in forever. It was hosted at Clarence & Cheryl’s place (my dad’s brother - where all family gatherings are). Their place is absolutely GORGEOUS. They have a huge property 10 minutes outside town and pretty much the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen. That addition on the back is a green house. Oh. My. Word. It’s breathtaking.

Anyway, enough about the house. More important things …

So many of my cousins had fabulous cameras. I had some serious lens envy. Rayna has the same Canon Rebel that I do, just newer. AND, she has this neat little thing that keeps her from losing her lens cap, which is a bad habit of mine.

Ben has a sweet lens. Apparently he got it off eBay for next to nothing. I may have been a little jealous.

And Brandon? Well, he just had a point and shoot, but still, a really cool dude (who just happens to be my little brother).

Ome Geert (Uncle George) came all the way from Holland for the special occasion. I was never clear on whether he was my Grandma’s brother or brother-in-law. He totally spoiled Kaylie while he was here!

Grannie, Liliana, and Kaylie. We had just arrived and Liliana was wondering why she was stuck in front of a camera when there were so many awesome places to wreak havoc.

Like so.

Kaylie made sure that Ashley got in on the action. She definitely got her exercise.

And then spent the rest of the evening on poor Ben’s shoulders. That dude will need a serious massage after the trauma his shoulders went through.

Liliana and her Uncle Brandon.

My sister and my cousin, Chrissy.

I have a big family. This is not even all of us. My grandma had six children, and each of them had 2-4 kids, plus my one aunt and uncle are foster parents, plus in-laws, plus great-grandchildren … yea, it’s big.

My Grandma was pretty excited about the fact that all her children were able to make it for her birthday.

Have you ever seen a bunch of adult children try to decide who was going to stand where for a picture? It’s a bigger ordeal than you think.

Finally, though, they got it together.

My grandparents are Dutch. Born and raised in Holland. They were married there, and had three girls there. My Aunt Jane (second from left in back row), my Aunt Joanne (far right in back row), and my Aunt Hilda (front row). Then, they immigrated to Canada and had three boys. My dad (second from right in back row), my Uncle Clarence (far left in back row), and my Uncle Rick (in front).

My Grandpa died of a heart attack when I was a kid. He had already lived beyond what the doctors told him he would. He had diabetes and they told him he’d be lucky to live to 19. He lived quite a lot longer than that.

Um, yea. Kids will be kids.

In addition to her six children, my Grandma has 21 grandchildren (I think I counted correctly) and six great-grandchildren (with two more on the way).

Add spouses to that and family gatherings are never small. Ever.

Someone brought vintage family photos to the big hoorah and then got it in their head to take “now and then” pictures. Apparently there’s one of the granddaughters about 15 or so years ago. I think there’s two missing from this photo.

I’m still not sure where Uncle John freaking us all out comes into play.

Pam (right), Chloe (middle), and I were all born in the spring of 1983. The best year ever for babies, in my humble opinion. We all made sure to smile nice for a picture for Grandma.

We’re all about the serious family photos.

This is 3/4 of my immediate family. The other 1/4 were a long drive away and we missed them dearly. Apparently Mom and Dad didn’t get the “make a funny face” memo. Erica, Kaylie, and I got it. Noah got the “slack-jaw” memo (his favorite), and Brandon and Liliana are wondering how to make their faces look as cool as everyone else’s.

My parents and half their granddaughters. At this rate, I’m doubtful they’ll ever have a grandson.

I think this is my favorite one yet of our little family. We’re a bunch of whack jobs.

We sang Happy Birthday …

and then proceeded to do what we do best. What’s a Braam family get-together without a Braam family song? We do them for birthdays, baby showers, weddings … I think we should start a business.

When Noah and I were dating, we attended my cousin’s wedding. Which one, I cannot remember. Noah was adamant that he was not going to sing the crazy song with the rest of the family. Some family members were pressuring to make him sing. My Auntie Joanne was there and told Noah he did not have to participate in the embarrassing family ritual. From then on she became his favorite aunt.

I know, I know. This is a great picture of the background, with my brother and I in front of it. The bad thing about having a fancy schmancy camera is that it’s hard to teach people how to use it when you want them to take a picture.

That is a beer in my hand. A Coors Light to be exact. I am the heavy drinker in my little family, which is to say that I have a beer every six months or so. I know, rehab here I come!

Noah says it makes me a nicer person. He says I should drink it more often. I don’t really know what to think about that. Either it means he thinks that I’m a naturally unpleasant person, or he wants me to become an alcoholic. Either way, I don’t think I’m going to add to my 2-a-year alcohol consumption.

So there you have it Ann. I FINALLY posted again. Are you happy now?

ps. It’s my mother-in-law’s birthday today.  She’s 25 (times two).  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE!!!

This is who I spend my evening with. My family. This isn’t even all of it.

Much MUCH more on that, Kaylie’s 7th birthday party, and beer tomorrow.

No, I’m not giving away a free XBOX. Sorry. BUT, Noah got one today. An XBOX 360. For free. I didn’t even have to steal it. It was a gift. He said it was the greatest day of his life, besides the day his daughter was born. What I want to know is What about our wedding day? Where does that rate? In third place after the day he got the XBOX 360?

We went to Wally World today to see if we could find some cheap games, but there were none (no interesting ones anyway) to be found. Our Wally World kind of sucks. Nine more days until we leave to live in a real city. Woot. I did see Rock Band there though. I love that game. Seriously, so much fun. I told Noah he could get it for me with his birthday money. He wasn’t too stoked about that idea.

I went back to work today. Apparently yesterday was more of a food poisoning problem than a flu problem, or so says my nutritionist friend. Whatever it was, I’m just glad it’s 95% gone. While being in bed all day watching the original Star Wars movies is relaxing between bathroom breaks and stomach convulsions, I’d rather be at work.

After dinner, Ann called me and asked me to go for a walk with her and Tam. I’m pretty much always up for a walk. I also wanted an opportunity to take some last photos of my home town.

This is the view off our back deck. The neighbors behind us were having a barbeque on their deck and probably thought I was shooting them instead of the mountains.

It’s always awkward when some stranger has a camera pointed at you.

The lovely Ann. I made her push Liliana in the stroller so I could go on with my photography addiction.

The girls. Kaylie, Michaela, Kendra. They’ve been three peas in a pod lately.

Liliana absolutely loves animals. She was loving on Riley, but was also guarding her soother with her life. Tam took it for safe-keeping.

“Oooooo. What big paws you have, Riley!”

Liliana just wanted to be one of the big girls. I let her chase after them for a bit.

They totally ignored her, as you can tell.

We left the girls (except Liliana) with Tam’s husband at the soccer fields and went for a nice stroll up the hill. It was anything but a nice stroll, it was more like back-breaking labor, but we made it half way up.

And eventually we made it to the top. You can see the soccer fields way down below.

I wish it wasn’t so cloudy so you could take in the greatness of the mountains, which was the whole point of these pictures. Alas, I may have to trek up this hill again and shoot them on a nicer, less cloudy day.

Can you see Kaylie?

My home town.

I’m sure going to miss it.

Disclaimer: If you’re a queezy person, stop reading now. Or just skip the first couple paragraphs.

That is me. I am sick. Contrary to the beliefs of one commenter on the previous post (Hi Megan!), I am NOT pregnant. Nope, not. I do, however, have the flu.

When I get morning sickness (which is really ALL DAY sickness), I’m extremely nauseous. Now? I am not nauseous. I feel like I took a whole bottle of laxatives and I saw earlier today what I had eaten at a baby shower I went to last night. I am achy all over and my stomach has been convulsing all day.

A real pretty picture, right?

When Liliana woke up this morning, she had blown out of her diaper, her onesie, and her sleeper. Wonderful. On top of that she has the worst diaper rash I have ever seen. My poor baby screams bloody murder every time I change her diaper. I don’t like seeing my baby in pain. I figured we both had the flu and called my boss and Liliana’s babysitter to tell them that they wouldn’t be seeing either of us this morning.

Liliana didn’t have any more episodes, although she still has a bad rash. But, Daddy gave her a soothing bath tonight (the first one he’s done!) before she went to bed and she seemed to be a little happier about her diaper area after that.

A funny moment earlier was when Noah was changing Liliana and we decided to let her “air out” for a little bit. She then peed on the carpet. It was just a tiny bit, but she seemed to be all proud of herself. The little stinker! Noah put a diaper on her right away after that. Then cleaned up the pee.

I’ve spent the entire day either in bed or in the rocker beside the bed (in our bedroom/living room/dining room/play room). Every time I stand up, I get sick. It’s really quite fun. Thankfully, Liliana napped and behaved very well today and Daddy was off work by 3:00pm to take over.

I’m hoping it is just a one-day thing, because I kind of need to go to work tomorrow. And this weekend is CRAZY busy. Be ready for lots of pictures (because I know you’re being deprived right now). On Saturday, Kaylie and her friend Daijah (DAY-YAH, because I know you were wondering) are having a joint birthday party. Both their birthdays are in the summer and they want each other at their parties. And? I hate birthday parties so having help with it is WONDERFUL.

Right after Kaylie and Daijah’s party (they’re turning 7 and 6 respectively) is my Grandma’s 80th birthday bash. It’s also a family reunion of sorts. A whole lot of my aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven’t seen in a long, long time are coming for the event. One of my cousins (who is my age) I haven’t seen since just after I had Kaylie. She brought me a water gun while I was still in the hospital to fend off the bazillions of visitors who were driving me mental.

I love my family dearly, but I’m kind of the black sheep. Or I was. Most of my cousins graduated high school and pursued 4-year university degrees, then got married AND THEN had kids (well, so far one has kids and one is pregnant). They have been incredibly supportive and never EVER gave me grief about stupidly getting pregnant at 17, but I still feel it. My fault, not theirs. It’s kind of hard to be the only one with a kid while the rest are off pursuing their dreams (which I did later, BUT STILL!)

My Grandma had been my greatest cheerleader since finding out I was pregnant with Kaylie. She has prayed for me daily (literally) and has always told me how proud she is of me. I love her dearly and I’m looking forward to spending her 80th birthday with her. It’s probably the last time I’ll see most of my family for quite a while, since pretty much all of them live in BC. It’s a long drive to Saskatchewan.

Speaking of, we’re leaving in 10 sleeps. Am I excited? Sure. But I kind of feel like I’m lying about it. It doesn’t actually feel like we’re leaving. I guess I’m one of those people who takes forever to adjust, or else I adjust way too easily. A week from today, we’ll be loading up a big truck to move half-way across the country. A week from Sunday, we’ll be leaving BC, spending a night in Alberta, 2 nights with my in-laws just north of Regina, and then on July 2nd we’re finally going to our new home.

I’ll believe it when I see it.