I haven't felt much like updating here. The reason being that I am 8 weeks pregnant with Baby #2!
I am exhausted 24/7 and nauseous 24/7 and just flat out miserable right now. I don't remember it being this rough when I was pregnant with Sophia. Jeff says I just ate all the time to help with the nausea.
Unfortunately, with Sophia I gained WAY too much weight because of all that eating. This time around I'm finding I'm doing good to eat anything.
My belly is already starting to show. Last time, it wasn't until around the 4th month that I started showing. It's amazing how it's all so different the second time around.
We are excited! Due date is May 4th..but I'm sure he or she will arrive late April as we'll have a c-section.
We are overwhelmed by the American health care system and the cost of having a baby in this country when you have no health insurance. How do people afford having children here? Jeff is self-employed so it's been tough to find health care. I have no idea what we'll do once the baby is here. These are the times I miss Canada. The socialized health care system there was amazing. Hopefully we can find a solution soon!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Can't never could
I am a guilty mom. When Sophia and I are in the car, I let her play her games on my iPhone. Sometimes she'll catch a few minutes of her videos that are loaded on there (Winnie the Pooh, Elmo, Dora, Veggie Tales...).
It's amazing how quickly kids pick up technology. A month ago she had no clue how to operate the phone. I could pick a game, start it up for her and she would be happy playing it for whatever duration of time we were in the car. Somewhere between July and August she figured out how to pick out and start her own games, end them, and start a new one, and even found her videos on her own.
I guess she forgot all of that today. As we were driving home from My Gym she asked for the green phone. I gave it to her and quickly regretted it. You see, I had found this neat, FREE iPhone puzzle app. for toddlers. She liked the free one but wanted the one that had the train and the fairies. So I forked over .99 cents to iTunes and got her the full version. It's been drama ever since.
Today she told me "I can't, I can't, I can't...Mommy, I can't do it" and then broke out in a huge crying fit. I wish I could have pulled the car over and given her a hug but it was impossible in that moment. Instead I gave her a pep talk about how "can't never could" and "you can do anything you put your mind to" and "you can be anything you dream of being". She's two. I don't know if she got that message..I hope and pray that she did. Somewhere inside my spirit broke just a little..for several reasons: 1. How does she know she CAN'T do something at the age of 2? Where did she learn this? and 2. The drama is already starting.
This little episode made me realize I have to be mindful every minute of every day of how I'm behaving. Little eyes are watching, right?
It's amazing how quickly kids pick up technology. A month ago she had no clue how to operate the phone. I could pick a game, start it up for her and she would be happy playing it for whatever duration of time we were in the car. Somewhere between July and August she figured out how to pick out and start her own games, end them, and start a new one, and even found her videos on her own.
I guess she forgot all of that today. As we were driving home from My Gym she asked for the green phone. I gave it to her and quickly regretted it. You see, I had found this neat, FREE iPhone puzzle app. for toddlers. She liked the free one but wanted the one that had the train and the fairies. So I forked over .99 cents to iTunes and got her the full version. It's been drama ever since.
Today she told me "I can't, I can't, I can't...Mommy, I can't do it" and then broke out in a huge crying fit. I wish I could have pulled the car over and given her a hug but it was impossible in that moment. Instead I gave her a pep talk about how "can't never could" and "you can do anything you put your mind to" and "you can be anything you dream of being". She's two. I don't know if she got that message..I hope and pray that she did. Somewhere inside my spirit broke just a little..for several reasons: 1. How does she know she CAN'T do something at the age of 2? Where did she learn this? and 2. The drama is already starting.
This little episode made me realize I have to be mindful every minute of every day of how I'm behaving. Little eyes are watching, right?
Monday, August 16, 2010
Damaged Goods
Last week was a pretty busy week for the Schafer's. Jeff had to go to Vancouver for business so Sophia and I went to Sugar and Papa's house (that would be my parents). On Monday morning we dropped J off at DFW and made our way to Hope. Sophia was a great traveling companion...we only sang Twinkle, Twinkle a dozen times, said hi to all the cows and horses along the way and ate more than our share of gummy bears. It was a lot of fun.
We came back to Texas so we could pick up J on Thursday night and on Friday we headed back to Hope for the annual Watermelon Festival. My aim was to have a "slice of the good life" and see dad compete in the Politically Correct Watermelon Eating Contest.
Dad won the contest, but I never got my slice of the good life. So disappointed. Will have to make a trip back just to get some of that good ol' Hope melon.
My little brother was in Illinois with his wife and in-laws so my dad was supposed to preach the sermon at their church on Sunday. He had spent every evening at the church working on his sermon and was getting to be a little frustrated by Saturday night. I asked him what his topic was and he told me it was about learning to see people through God's eyes. Well, it must have been God because that previous Friday my daily devotion in my inbox was on Damaged Goods. How we are so quick to label people based on what we see.
Funny that my dad chose this topic to preach on because I've been dealing with this lately with a particular person. I feel such guilt that I have such ugly feelings toward this individual and I'm praying daily that God help me find the good in them..some days it's just so hard.
Romans 15:15, "May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other – each with the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the other."
We came back to Texas so we could pick up J on Thursday night and on Friday we headed back to Hope for the annual Watermelon Festival. My aim was to have a "slice of the good life" and see dad compete in the Politically Correct Watermelon Eating Contest.
Dad won the contest, but I never got my slice of the good life. So disappointed. Will have to make a trip back just to get some of that good ol' Hope melon.
My little brother was in Illinois with his wife and in-laws so my dad was supposed to preach the sermon at their church on Sunday. He had spent every evening at the church working on his sermon and was getting to be a little frustrated by Saturday night. I asked him what his topic was and he told me it was about learning to see people through God's eyes. Well, it must have been God because that previous Friday my daily devotion in my inbox was on Damaged Goods. How we are so quick to label people based on what we see.
Funny that my dad chose this topic to preach on because I've been dealing with this lately with a particular person. I feel such guilt that I have such ugly feelings toward this individual and I'm praying daily that God help me find the good in them..some days it's just so hard.
Romans 15:15, "May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other – each with the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the other."
Monday, August 2, 2010
Say a prayer
Please say a prayer for this family. Their 4 year old daughter lost her battle with cancer yesterday. I cannot imagine the heartache and pain they are suffering right now.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Discipline 101
It has been an exhausting morning in our household. It's days like these that I feel I was not cut out for parenting and that everything I do is just absolutely wrong.
Sophia has always been a wonderful child. She's adventurous, curious, a cuddler, a daddy's girl AND a mommy's girl, a lover of animals and princesses and bubbles. She is our sweet precious girl and in the moments of her tantrum throwing I have to remember these things about her so I don't overreact.
I am no pro at discipline and I feel like I'm wading into unknown waters here...more like drowning in the water. How on earth do you appropriately discipline a two year old? Do they understand what you're doing? I only ask that because with Sophia, everything is fun and games.
I'm exhausted and have no idea where to begin..I'm hoping Dr. Sears has some suggestions for me...Lord knows I need all the help I can get on this one.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
To Infinity and Beyond...
or in the words of Sophia "to yinyinity and bewond"!
She is addicted to all things Pixar at this stage. We started with Cars..and Jeff and I were worried that we would be watching that movie at least once a day until we were 50. Thankfully she branched out to Disney and took an interest in Tinkerbell for a bit. Of course, we've moved on and now we are at Toy Story. Good thing there's two of them out on video so we can rotate them and not lose our minds.
Today we were in Target buying essentials to make chocolate chip cookies for a play date on Thursday and she was begging to go to the toy section and check out Buzz and Woody. Of course I broke and purchased the cheapest Buzz Light Year I could find.
All the way home she talked to Buzz. "Bwuzz, you wanna drink of juicy?" "Bwuzz, look at the cows!", "Bwuzz, wet's watch Dooowa"...it was endless and the cutest thing EVER!
She is now having nap time with Bwuzz...he got more kisses than Mommy did today!
OH! And a cute story, mostly for me to remember:
Jeff was heading off to yoga this morning as Sophia and I were going to gymnastics. He passed us on the Tollway and Sophia said "There goes Daddy! Catch him Mommy, catch him"! She was shrieking.."Sosie go fast too Mommy, Sosie go fast too"! She was so sad when we didn't catch him.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Hello? Anyone still out there?
Hi there!
I'm a little ashamed to have been gone so long but life has been happening and there's not been much time to sit and write about it. Where on earth do I begin?
We FINALLY live in the US! The Dallas area to be exact. We arrived here late on January 31st. All three of us had come down with a terrible stomach bug. That 4 hour flight was the longest 4 hours of our lives..we never thought it would end.
The next day we moved into our new home. At the time we were leasing it from a couple that had to suddenly move back to Georgia to deal with a family situation. The 3rd week of May we bought the house and have been settling in ever since!
We love life here and are so glad we made the move. It took us 6 years to get here, but the journey was very much worth it! We are counting our blessings every day...God has been so good to us.
Now, the whole reason I even wrote this post was because my sweet cousin over at Hannah and Bryan nominated me for the "your going places, baby" award! Thanks Hannah..you just gave me the kick in the petunia that I needed (I've been watching Tinkerbell with Sophia just a tad too much!)!
The rules for this award:
(1) describe where I think I'll be in 10 years and (2) pass the fun along to 10 other bloggers.
In 10 years, we'll still be happily settled in Texas (I hope!) with 2 - 3 kids, some dogs, our cats. Sophia will be on the verge of the teen years (WHOA!) so I'm sure I'll have my hands full with drama! Hopefully we'll have our lake or beach house by that time and we'll be taking our annual vacations, FINALLY! I'm hoping by then that I have established my at home job as a transcriptionist so I can continue to stay home with the kids.
Now the 10 winners are:
Ummm, make that 7 winners - I don't read enough blogs, obviously!
Happy Friday and I hope you all have a fab weekend!
I'm a little ashamed to have been gone so long but life has been happening and there's not been much time to sit and write about it. Where on earth do I begin?
We FINALLY live in the US! The Dallas area to be exact. We arrived here late on January 31st. All three of us had come down with a terrible stomach bug. That 4 hour flight was the longest 4 hours of our lives..we never thought it would end.
The next day we moved into our new home. At the time we were leasing it from a couple that had to suddenly move back to Georgia to deal with a family situation. The 3rd week of May we bought the house and have been settling in ever since!
We love life here and are so glad we made the move. It took us 6 years to get here, but the journey was very much worth it! We are counting our blessings every day...God has been so good to us.
Now, the whole reason I even wrote this post was because my sweet cousin over at Hannah and Bryan nominated me for the "your going places, baby" award! Thanks Hannah..you just gave me the kick in the petunia that I needed (I've been watching Tinkerbell with Sophia just a tad too much!)!
The rules for this award: (1) describe where I think I'll be in 10 years and (2) pass the fun along to 10 other bloggers.
In 10 years, we'll still be happily settled in Texas (I hope!) with 2 - 3 kids, some dogs, our cats. Sophia will be on the verge of the teen years (WHOA!) so I'm sure I'll have my hands full with drama! Hopefully we'll have our lake or beach house by that time and we'll be taking our annual vacations, FINALLY! I'm hoping by then that I have established my at home job as a transcriptionist so I can continue to stay home with the kids.
Now the 10 winners are:
- Weight Watchers Changed My Life
- Waiting For Chloe Grace
- Our Gifts From God
- I'm Just Beachy
- Bumpkin On A Swing
- A Glimpse Of The Girl Next Door
- A Daily Dose Of Davis
Ummm, make that 7 winners - I don't read enough blogs, obviously!
Happy Friday and I hope you all have a fab weekend!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
2010
It's been forever since I've blogged! So much has happened that I need to record for my own sake, so here goes.
In November we started the process of getting Sophia's American Citizenship finished. It took so much time getting all the paperwork together and then I spent three hours being questioned by an immigration officer at the US Consulate. Finally our hard work paid off and today Sophia's American passport arrived!
Before that we had made plans for our Christmas. We booked our flight to Arkansas/Texas for the holidays and were to leave on December 22nd. Well lo and behold the US Consulate in Montreal decided that December 22nd was a great day for Jeff to need to be there for his immigration interview. Thankfully we were able to change our flight to the 23rd for the holidays. Poor Jeff was flying on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of the month. He was exhausted when we finally landed in Dallas!
While down south we spent a few days in Frisco, Texas house hunting. We found the perfect home for us to lease and were so excited coming back to Vancouver. We just knew we'd get the house..and then we didn't. I was so heartbroken for days. We had looked at all the homes that were contenders and none of them were available any longer. We had no idea what we were going to do. We needed a home for February 1st!
Jeff was up late one night and found a house he had bookmarked months earlier. It was a little more than what we wanted to spend but we found a way to afford (and possibly even buy it in the next 6 months!) it. It is gorgeous and huge and we cannot wait to move! We are spending the next week or so finalizing everything for our move, booking flights, immunizations for the cats, all the little things you have to do for an "international" move. We cannot wait to start our new life in the south!
2010 is going to be an amazing year and I cannot wait to see what it brings!
In November we started the process of getting Sophia's American Citizenship finished. It took so much time getting all the paperwork together and then I spent three hours being questioned by an immigration officer at the US Consulate. Finally our hard work paid off and today Sophia's American passport arrived!
Before that we had made plans for our Christmas. We booked our flight to Arkansas/Texas for the holidays and were to leave on December 22nd. Well lo and behold the US Consulate in Montreal decided that December 22nd was a great day for Jeff to need to be there for his immigration interview. Thankfully we were able to change our flight to the 23rd for the holidays. Poor Jeff was flying on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of the month. He was exhausted when we finally landed in Dallas!
While down south we spent a few days in Frisco, Texas house hunting. We found the perfect home for us to lease and were so excited coming back to Vancouver. We just knew we'd get the house..and then we didn't. I was so heartbroken for days. We had looked at all the homes that were contenders and none of them were available any longer. We had no idea what we were going to do. We needed a home for February 1st!
Jeff was up late one night and found a house he had bookmarked months earlier. It was a little more than what we wanted to spend but we found a way to afford (and possibly even buy it in the next 6 months!) it. It is gorgeous and huge and we cannot wait to move! We are spending the next week or so finalizing everything for our move, booking flights, immunizations for the cats, all the little things you have to do for an "international" move. We cannot wait to start our new life in the south!
2010 is going to be an amazing year and I cannot wait to see what it brings!
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