Boring, boring, boring.

Well, I know that if I don't update this blog fairly soon, I'm going to have some upset readers sending me some kick-it-into-gear emails. So here I sit, with no inspiration and no exciting things to write about to make a worthwhile entry. Unless of course, you are interested in the fact that I need to locate a new bulb for the aquarium hood - the light keeps flickering off and on as I sit here in the living room. The poor fish are going through a constant lightning storm. Or maybe you are interested in the fact that I need to get up and get a Tums. Or maybe you are interested that I am wearing comfy green socks.
However, I doubt it.
So, I give up!
If anything remarkable happens, or if I find out where I hid my inspiration, I'll let you know.

Yakity Yak

Somehow, for some reason, I feel like rewriting my blog. Again. This laptop is certainly an exercise in patience for me since it keeps erasing what I have written. Not too bad when you've only got a few sentences, but when you're done writing an entry and it disappears, it doesn't make me terribly happy.
I read somewhere an interesting thing about the human brain that got me thinking today. Apparently, if you took a paragraph, and for every word you left the first and last letters in place but mixed up the rest of the letters, it generally is not very difficult to read and decipher what is meant. Interesting enough, but I was wondering if I just typed all the letters that I would normally type with my left hand, and skipped all the letters I would type with my right, would you still be able to read what I'm writing? This would make things a little easier for me, since my right hand seems to spend an inordinate amount of time sleeping.
Aaret ts s e f te f rear sts f reac. ts a fr f cara te sdre, brgt b fd retet ttg ressre erves. t sd g awa b 6 wees after brt. It seems that this will not work, as I have a hard time remembering what I just wrote there.
"Apparently this is one of the fun regular symptoms of pregnancy. It's a form of carpal tunnel syndrome, brought on by fluid retention putting pressure on nerves. It should go away by 6 weeks after birth."
So much for that idea...
Anyways. I think I'll leave it at that, for fear of the computer destroying more of my writing. Sorry, no pictures again, as I want to avoid plugging anything into this temperamental beast. Besides, pictures will be much more exciting in a month or so...

Especially for Danielle

So, I just wrote out TWO blog entries.
And both of them were DELETED before I could post them. I am just somewhat ANNOYED at the situation.
Apparently, according to Danielle, since I am home now I must have lots of time to blog and blog and blog, and since I have not blogged for several weeks, I am neglecting my duties as a stay-at-home pre-mom. I apologize for my lack of posting, Danielle, but I will need an extra large dosage of patience if my blogs keep on getting deleted like this!
So yes, I am now a stay-at-home pre-Mom -- my birthday present to myself was my last day of work. The days were getting longer and longer, and my feet were pretty much destroyed by the time I got home. It's been nice to be somewhat alive at 5 o'clock and motivated to cook dinner!
AHA I just outwitted the computer - it tried to delete my post again but I FOILED it by copying and pasting what I had written so far. Take that, computer!! This old laptop is a little grumpy because I resurrected it out of the closet and have forced it to be my Internet connection at home! :)
I've been keeping myself quite busy despite being done work - visiting, volunteering, Bible study, reading, painting, cooking, cleaning, and all the random things that sit on the back-burner until a time when motivation, time, and energy collide into action. It has been such a blessing to be at home! I have enjoyed it immensely.
Baby seems to be doing quite well. Another 6 or 7 or 8 weeks until we get to meet our little bundle of joy. Despite his or her best attempts at trying to escape mommy's tummy by karate-kicking a way out, Baby is still quite firmly tucked in there, and losing space day by day. Somedays it seems like Baby doesn't sleep at all, but thankfully he or she has been quite considerate to never wake up mommy while she's sleeping. Perhaps Baby will be born knowing that bedtime is between 10 pm and 6 am. Perhaps. There's always a small chance right?
I would be motivated to keep writing, but fear of losing what I have written so far is leading me to desire leaving the computer alone for a little while instead of continuing to write my blog-novel. No pictures today folks, as this computer is already grumpy enough without me trying to load pictures up on it as well!

An Alphabet of Baby Names

Almanac, Bermuda, Caterwall, Dudley, Eucalyptus, Fahrenheit, Goliath, Haliburton, Icibella, Jezebel, Kurdette, Lycanthia, Mezzanine, Nicotine, Orcah, Paderno, Quartet, Rhizome, Sophomoria, Tarantula, Ursula, Vanderkind, Walruskan, Xerox, Yosemite, Zelophane.

Just doing some brainstorming...

Dear Refrigerator

Dear Refrigerator,

After a year of living with us and providing us with COOL, we have finally reached the sad day in which we must part. When we first met you, you were tall and strong, and we were happy that you were around. We cheerfully decorated you with pictures, magnets, and word-poetry. We thankfully packed our milk, our lunch meat, and our fruit into your cool bottom compartment, and stacked our hamburgers, popsicles, and ice-cubes into your frozen upper compartment. Soon we learned how your over-zealous attempts to cool our food would often freeze our lettuce and turn our juice jug into a giant un-drinkable popsicle. I did not keep track of how many heads of lettuce met their frozen end in your icy embrace.

Day and night, you kept your trusty motor running. In fact, you were so hard-working that you only took a break for a few minutes every day. You faithfully extracted water from the air and collected it on your refrigerator floor, where the cold pool would slowly leak out your door, toward the kitchen wall and even sometimes all the way into the basement. We never had you diagnosed, but I sometimes wondered if you thought you were a dehumidifier instead of a fridge. You worked so hard at trying to being a dehumidifier that you did not feel the pain of the rust which resulted along your side from the constant stream of water you released.

Perhaps it was because your door would not close properly, or perhaps it was from the stress of your door swinging open harder than you could handle, but when we moved you, it appears you had been overworked at some point or another. The large burn mark left on the linoleum remains for us as a reminder of your dedication and perseverance as an appliance in our household, and we will always remember you for it.

We hope that the Great Refrigerator Round-Up people treat you with all the dignity and respect that you deserve. The house is just not the same without your loud, constant humming, and we certainly notice the loss of your presence.

Sincerely,

Your old family

I'm an Aunt!!

Happy birthday Robert John! We are excited to announce the much-anticipated birth of Robert John Mulder, born on August 10 at 9:12 a.m. to proud parents Jeremy and Sarah. Congratulations Mom and Dad! Robert weighed in at 7 lbs, 1/2 an ounce, and measured at a lengthy 23 inches - possibly 2 of which are toes... :) It was quite something to finally meet this brand-new nephew, and to hold him only three hours after his birth! He's tiny, beautiful, and healthy. Early predictions that he had no nose and would be born 5-month-old size and able to eat an entire box of crackers were apparently unfounded, as Robert has a beautiful button nose, and is not yet interested in vegetable thins.

Toxic Skewers

We bought a set of BBQ utensils late last summer on clearance at Canadian Tire. It came with a flipper, tongs, and four skewers. Since it was late in the summer, we didn't have an opportunity to use the skewers, and they were retired into a drawer until we pulled them out again on the weekend. Anticipating a fantastic meal of corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, and shish-kabob for a few guests, we prepared the food and skewered the meat. However, halfway through cooking the meat, we discovered a fatal flaw in our BBQ skewers: as it turns out, the "stainless steel" handles are actually plastic covered in a thin layer of metal. As most of us probably know, plastic melts when heated - and heat is a natural part of the cooking process, especially when grilling on a BBQ. The result? Well, our food was still edible thankfully, but the skewers started bubbling toxic black plastic ooze, and they are now somewhat distorted. Who designs such a product? What other non-sensical kitchen impliments have they come up with? Plastic frying pans? Glass forks and knives? Perhaps a rubber kettle? So much for those skewers . . .

Almost August!!

So, it's been a while... the summer moves by quickly and it's hard to believe it's almost August already. August!! It's almost our house-move-in-iversary and that hot, sticky, busy day is still so clear in our memories. We've done some changes in the house since then - almost all the upstairs walls are painted, and things have been rearranged and rearranged again. The baby's room is looking really nice, although it's still kind of a collecting ground right now for miscellaneous household items which don't have a spot at the moment. The entranceway is looking good as well, with the new stairway in and the floor almost finished. Our refrigerator reached the end of its lifespan this past Tuesday, and unfortunately for it, no one was sad to see it go. In its place is a brand new fridge which doesn't leak water into the basement or run on exorbitant amounts of energy, for which our electricity bill will thank us.
There is a fly buzzing around my living room which is driving me CRAZY. Unfortunately the fly swatter has run away with the battery charger in all the renovation confusion, and I have yet to find their elusive hiding place. I imagine it's probably somewhere with SOS pad and Pom-pom-on-a-stick, which are a few of Kitty's favorite toys which have been missing for some time.
No baby yet out in Lucan for Sarah and Jeremy - (s)he's just a little too comfortable in there. Can't wait to meet the littlest Mulder!
A big congratulations goes out to Jared and Michelle (Westra) Wilms, who were married last week Saturday in a lovely ceremony in Ancaster. We wish you the Lord's blessings as you start your married life together! Welcome to matrimonial bliss :)

Causing mischief at the mall for Michelle's bachelorette party

Does this girl know what she's getting into? :)

Congratulations you two!!Baby Vander Deen at 24 weeks

July 12

One month later

No, St Catharines has not been covered over by a volcanic eruption, neither has our home disappeared into a hole in the ground, nor have we been transported to another planet. Actually our phone lines were down for quite a while over the past month, and with no phone comes no internet as well. Last weekend Mike and Dad fixed the problem and we are back to a dial tone again. However, we have been working on the baby's room (former office) and so the regular phone jack for the internet is not so accessible right now, and that will have to suffice as my excuse for not updating this blog in more than a month. I didn't even write one update in the whole month of June!
Things are going well for us over here. Mike is done his first year of teaching, and was glad to see the end although also sad to say goodbye to his first class. It was a good year, and he certainly enjoyed it and is looking forward to September and starting fresh again. For the summer he will be busy driving a flower delivery truck to Buffalo a few times a week, as well as working on curriculum development and, when he has a chance, working on some things around the house. And then of course there are a few stints of camping which I am VERY much looking forward to enjoying!!
Things are going well with me as well - I've been feeling quite well, although the days at work seem to be longer than they were before, and I wonder how I am going to feel in a few months, if my feet are already as sore as they are now at the end of the day. We had an ultrasound about two weeks ago, which was really neat. Everything looks good with the baby, and it was hard to believe he/she was squirming around so much in there when I couldn't feel it!! I can sometimes feel the baby moving although it's definitely not very strong yet. After an interesting painting fiasco in the baby's room, it is now painted a lovely Serengeti Plains green, and Mike has been putting lots of elbow grease into cleaning up the hardwood floor in there. When we first painted the room, it turned out to be a fluorescent minty green which we were NOT too impressed with, but the colour now is quite perfect!
Other than that, things continue on their merry way, excep for the "T" buton on this lapop which seems o be going hrough some personal roubles. There's a baseball game going on in the park, so I think I'll go check it out! Until next time...

Ultrasound pictures - a little hard to see what's going on, but after being

on the fridge for a few weeks, we can recognize him/her quite easily

Twenty weeks