Accident Pictures

Hi everyone - here are the long awaited pictures from our accident on Jan. 7. We were on our way back from Christmas in Kelowna when we were rear-ended by a semi. I had hoped to have these up sooner, but life happens! We're all ok. A little sore and stuff afterwards, but it's an absolute miracle we survived this one! I'll update more later, maybe even with a picture of our new car that we got yesterday!

The three survivors - Byron, Emilie and me!

OK - so that's not totally true. The fourth survivor is too little to be seen yet, and nestled safely inside me. . . . .

Our creations

Here's the coasters that Byron painted and the ornament that I did. Too bad it can't stay on the tree - we've had to take off all the breakable ones because the tree falls over "all on its own" at least once a day.

We got the Christmas tree up!

Well, since Byron was off yesterday, we took the opportunity to get some of our Christmas stuff finished - well, after we went out for breakfast, of course! We also went to the "Fire Escape" - a place where you can paint your own potery. I'll post pictures of our after we pick them up on Tuesday.







So the tree is up! Enjoy:

And here's how the tree looked this morning. TIA!!!!!!

It's been a week

Well, it's been a really long week. my back is still hurting, and I'm still on the couch, although I've been able to get up a bit today and work on Christmas Cards. I've been to the chiropractor every day this week. At one point I told him I should probably just move in. The good news (sort of) is that I can finally take some drugs to help with it, since I'm not pregnant. The IUI didn't work. I found out yesterday. So here we go again! Another 10 days of crazy drugs and then another IUI sometime around Christmas.

Tonight we're going to the hockey game between the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames. I know that after 6 years in Calgary we really should be cheering for the home team, but it's just not going to happen! So Byron and I will be cheering for the Canucks, James will be cheering for the Flames and Doug . . . . is still trying to make up his mind? Should be fun. If you happen to be watching Hockey Night in Canada, we'll be sitting way up at the very top.

Not much else going on here. I've been stuck on the couch all week, so it's been pretty boring, actually.

Here I am on the Couch

So I was getting ready to go out today and my back decided to go out. So here I am on the couch. My chiro agreed to see me as an emergency this afternoon, so Byron's coming to pick me up and take me over.

Last night was so much fun! I took two of my girls out for dinner at the Outback and then a movie. They wanted to see Happy Feet, so we went. And being the cool adult I am, I let them pick where they wanted to sit. So there we were, three rows from the front, which I'm sure is what I'm paying for today. The movie was cute, but I don't think I would see it again. I do really want to see The Nativity Story still.

Oh - and I just remembered. It's already December 2! I started Christmas shopping for Byron yesterday. Shhh!!!!!

It's warming up!

It's only -12 today! T-Shirt weather, almost! OK, so it's still cold, and that wind is a killer, but at least things are starting to thaw out, as we can tell by how much windsheild washer fluid we're going through.

It's been a pretty quiet week in the Porritt house. The animals are starting to go crazy because of the cold, but they'll survive. We found our block heater! When this cold snap hit, we couldn't find the cord and were kind of worried that it didn't get put back in after the engine blew up this summer, but then Byron had a flat tires and while it was in for repairs, he got them to look for us, and sure enough it was there! Good thing too, because the next night was something like

-40!

Tonight I'm taking a couple of my Grade 6 girls to dinner and a movie. Kind of a rite of passage kind of idea. I'm not sure what we'll see yet. I want to see the Nativity Story, but they're talking about Happy Feet. So we'll see.

This weekend is the first of our Christmas parties - Sunday night with the Staff and Leadership team from the church. Tomorrow I'm going over to Crystal's to work on Christmas cards. My slavemaster of a boss at Starbucks gave me the day off! (But I'm paying for it next week!)

Here's a couple of pictures for you:

It's still cold!

Very cold, in fact. Yesterday's high was -25, but it felt like -38 with wind chill (That's -35F for my american friends!) It's been a pretty uneventful few days. We're working on cleaning up the house. I don't know how it gets away from us so fast. But it was bad enough that I really should have taken before and after pictures. It took three solid hours on Sunday to clean our bedroom and ensuite. Yuck! Yesterday I did the Living Room and the Kitchen while Byron was at work. That leaves just my office, the eating area and the dreaded basement. Byron and I were joking the other day that I really need a schedule like the one my mom had while I was growing up: Monday is Laundry, Tuesday is vacuuming the upstairs, Wednesday is for dusting, etc. I wonder if I'd stick to it - or would it just be an excuse for Byron not to clean up?

Tia is learning the meaning fo the word "Don't". She's going a little stir crazy with the cold, I think. She's started eating plants, chewing on odd things and scratching the side of my chair in my office.

Here's a joke for today:

I did not realize just how closely my 18-month-old toddler had been listening to Christmas carols until she picked the peas off her plate, threw them on the floor, and said with an excited smile, "Peas on Earth."—Margaret Nix Windley, Portsmouth, Vir. "Kids of the Kingdom," Christian Reader.


My reward once all this cleaning is done is going to be to put up my Christmas decorations!

Pictures

Here are few pictures for your viewing enjoyment:

Jessica's getting pudgy from eating too much kitten foodMiss Tia's taking over the house. (Tia means "Princess" in Greek)

Jeffrey's taken over Baloo's bed.

Jessica doesn't think Tia's to cute. Not impressed. Not impressed at all.

SNOW?????

Here's what we woke up to this morning. It's going up to -12 today. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be -24. Ugh.

Now we wait

The IUI went textbook perfect this morning, so now we wait. Two long weeks. We spent the rest of today watching movies and hanging out with our kitties (and the dog).

The phone's been ringing off the hook tonight! It was great to talk to Noreen (and Liam and Connor), and my candles are in! I love candles.

An exciting weekend

OK - I promised to update after my ultrasound on Saturday, but the weekend really got away from us. Here's the scoop: Apparently, I responded really well to the medication! I had expected to have to go back a few times, but I didn't have to. So last night I got my trigger shot (to make my body release the eggs). Byron was supposed to do it (give me the injection), but a friend who works with Byron who is a nurse offered to come over, so that was a lot less stress for both of us. It didn't hurt that much, but I do have a nice little bruise on my stomach.S o tomorrow is our IUI and then we wait. Please don't ask me for updates. I'll let you know tomorrow or the next day how the IUI went, but I want to live normally as possible until I find out if it worked or not a couple of weeks from now.

Here's the other exciting thing. I'm a Starbucks employee! SO much for giving up my second job! I was helping Byron on Friday night with sampling Peppermint Hot Chocolates for an event at the mall, and the District Manager came by and told Byron to put me on payroll. So I'm now a seasonal employee. I'll be helping out with other sampling events too. Last night we did a really cool event at the Bay in the mall - the "Bay Gala". We served about 650 coffees and hot chocolates. The Bay treated us so well. All of us girls got gift bags of perfumes and makeup, and you should see the bag Byron got! It's amazing! Colognes, Aftershaves, stuff for me, skin care stuff, hair products (we laughed at this one), a shirt, a business organizer, and a bag. We were just in shock over it. It was amazing!

Well, Tia just climbed up on me for a snuggle. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes.

What did I do today?

It's been a long day! I spent most of the day at Alberta Children's Hospital with a friend and her son (Pray for R's quick recovery from day surgery). It was the first time I've been to the new hospital, and I have to say that I was quite impressed. Very kid-friendly, and appealing. I also took a little look around and found their Family Information library and their Chaplency Office and "Sacred Space" (Chapel).

This afternoon I wrote my December Parents Newsletter (Let me know if you need Christmas Ideas for kids - I've got it covered!)

And then I got a call from Byron "Can you come help at the store?" So I'm on my way now to serve Peppermint Hot Chocolates at the Tree Lighting at Sunridge Mall. Here's a picture from what Byron and I did the same thing a few weeks ago for Halloween. I even got to wear a green apron. Shhhh!!!!!

Tomorrow is my first ultrasound for this cycle. Pray that God's got just the right amount of stuff going on in my body! I've made it through 10 days of drugs now, and I think I only tore Byron's head off a few times. I know I'm not easy to live with with these drugs - the side effects make me nasty! Hopefully this is the time it will work! I'm trying to find a balance between hoping that this will work and protecting myself from the disappointment that comes from getting those hopes dashed.

I QUIT!

I finally did it. Yesterday I met Lynda for coffee and officially handed in my resignation for DDRC. I can't believe it! I'm so relieved I won't have to worry about that and school at the same time. I will definately miss the people there, though. Apparently I'm still invited to the Christmas party, so I'll take that as a good sign.

So I offically now only have one job!

Hi everyone!

Hi everyone! So it's time for us to join the blogging world. Don't expect a lot of updates - we'll try our best, but there are no garantees. But we'll keep you posted on the important details. For those of you who don't know, Byron is now a manager at his Starbucks. He's super busy (this morning he got called in at 7am), but he's definately enjoying it. As for me, I'm still the Kids Pastor at Church in the Hills, and I love it! I work with an amazing group of volunteers and the kids are awesome! I'm also going back to school! I am starting in January at Canadian Theological Seminary to work towards a Masters of Divinity degree. I'm so excited, but I'm so scared too. They gave me advanced standing in some of my courses, so I think they actually expect me to remember something from my other degree!

The furry kids are great. Baloo is sleeping on the floor in my office. He's definately turning into an old puppy. He loves being inside with his people - especially if there's room on the couch! Jeffrey has lost his outdoor priviledges after I found him down the block last week in a stand off with another cat. Jessica is a little put off with our newest addition - Tia! Tia's a sweetheart. She loves snuggling. But she's quickly becoming the dominant cat in the house.

Ok , finally, most of you know that we've been trying to have a baby for a really long time. And we still are. Please, just keep praying for us - especially over these next couple of weeks. We'll update as we can.

Here's a link to a great radio broadcast done by an amazing woman who has dealt with infertility:

http://www.wbcl.org/mmarchive/buildASX.asp?fileID=442