Where has the time gone?

I can't believe that I haven't posted sice october 30th!! Now here it is December 13th! Things have been very busy in the Campbell home. We moved November 16th and I must say that I love, love, love our new home. It felt like home from day one. There was no adjustment period, even for the girls or the pets. The very 1st morning we woke up here Rob says to me, this just feels right, and it really does. I hope to have some pictures to post soon. i know we will be staying here for lots of years to come so there will be lots of time for pictures. I look forward to creating many memories with the girls in this house.

The Christmas season is in full swing here. Things are busy busy busy. Today I go to the dr's, toinght I have choir, tomorrow night we have a birthday party for one of Livy's friends, tomorrow Rob's brother arrives for the holidays, Sunday I'm siging with the choir at my mom's church for their Christmas contata, Monday I have my Christmas meeting/party with the board of directors for the family resource center, Tuesday is nadia's Christmas cocert at her school, etc, etc, etc. Rob is planning to take some time off over the holidays and I'm really looking forward to that. What I'm not looking forward to is January 8th...i have to get all 4 of my wisdom teeth out that day. YUCK!

Anyway, I need to get ready for the doctor's.

It takes a village to raise a child

Has anyone else noticed that these days moms try to do it all on their own? It hit me hard last week how much things have changed over the years when it comes to raising children. I remember when I was little my mother was constantly out visiting her friends (other moms) for coffee and chat time while us kids would all play together. Obviously my mom stayed home with us so this was possible, i'm not talking about working moms. Anyway, i'm kind of rambeling here...last week 2 friends and I got together...we are all moms and we all babysit so bewteen the 3 of us there were 11 children there. We had the best day ever! We spent hours outside with the kids and hours inside while the kids played and us mom's talked. We all helped each other with the kids. No one got stressed out, nobody got yelled at, it was great. Since then we've been getting together almost daily. It's great having extra hands when Carson is cranky and it's great having kids for Livy to play with. I come home at the end of the day feeling good and happy. It has just got me thinking of when i was little and my mom would do the same thing. I really think it's why so many moms are "pulling their hair out" these days. It really does take a village to raise a child and when you try to do it all alone it just doesn't work.

Tracy

SOLD

Well as of today our house is sold...it's supposed to be offical tonight I think. I can't believe how smooth this went. This is the second time we've sold a house without even a sign in the yard! Wish us luck that the move goes so smoothly! We'll be moving some time around November 19th which is great because it will give us time to get settled in before Christmas.

Nadia is having a friend over today after school. I'm happy that she brings friends here but I'm always worried about how things will go with Livy. I know that Nadia needs her own time with her friends but it just seems so unfair to Livy to be left out. I told Nadia that today she would get some time on her own with her friend but for the hour that Carson sleeps she will have to play with Livy in the play room or outside. It would be nice if Livy had some friends too and then she could just play with someone too.

Well that's all i have time for right now...

MLS #

www.mls.ca

275007

Moving again???

After only living in our current home for 6 months it seems we may be moving again. When we moved here we had a 2 year plan. Live in this house and pay off debt for 2 years so that at the end of that time we could afford the house we would want to stay in for the duration of our childrens childhood. However, it seems that may be happening 18 months sooner then originally planned. It all started because there was a brand new house build on the street where my borther lives for a realitivly cheap price so I wanted to see it. When we were there we realized why it was cheap...we didn't like it at all. however our real estate agent said while you're here I can take you to a house around the corner that is just being listed tonight. he told us who build it and it was built by the people I've always wanted to build my dream home. We went to see it and we really liked it. We went back several times and endedup deciding to make a conditional offer which they accepted. So this weekend we have been cleaning, painting, decluttering, etc, etc, etc. to get this house ready to list. Our agent called yesterday to say that hewants to show it today and the sign isn't even up. I'm not getting my hopes up that things will go as smoothly as it did last time. As much as I would love to have the house I know these people will be building again so it's not the end of the world. I'm trying not to stress myself out too much.

As for how things are going looking after my nephew...last week was not good. He wasn't feeling well and therefore he cried and cried and screamed and screamed. I found it very diffiuclt. Having a baby to look after changes the whoe dynamic of the house because I have to do things on his schedual not my own.

Anyway, I have lots of cleaning to do this morning...keep your fingers crossed for us :)

sisters at war

Are my 2 girls the only 2 that seem to fight all the time? Really it is more Nadia at fault then Liv. Liv just wants to be with Nadia and be loved and accepted by her but lately Nadia has been downright nasty to her little sister and it is really making me sad. I keep telling her that she will only ever have1 sister and that she will be her sister for life but nothing I say seems to work. She has her good moments but it's usually only when it's convenient for her, but most of the time she is awful to her. Any advice?

At days end tomorrow I will have finished my1st week looking after my nephew. He is 10 months old and a lot of work. I'm very much out of practice having a baby in the house. I'll keep you updated on how this new experience goes for me.

Well Jude, it appears you may well be the only one left reading my blog but I will keep updating. As for me enjoying my extra time. I don't forsee any extra time in the near future with my nephew here everyday, but I do try to sneek in some time to read a good book every now and then.

Until next time,
Tracy

positive thinking

so i've been done work for a few days now and i'm doing ok. I know I will miss it and for awhile I could think about was how terrible my fall and winter are going to be. I was feeling sorry for myself and thinking really negativly. I've decided to change my thinking. I really belive that the more positive your outlook the more positive things will happen. I plan to keep myself as busy as possible because I not one of those people who are content to just sit home all day. I find the day just drags on if I do. I'll keep you posted on how i'm doing.

Nadia started grade 1 this year and she is in the French immersion program. I can't get over how quickly she is learning!!! She has already had words for homework that I can't even pronounce!!! I'm not sure how i'll be able to help her as it gets even harder. She had a pretty tough time when I dropped her off on her 1st day. We had only been at this school for 2 months last year and she didn't see any of her friends over the summer so she was really nervous. I was glad when the teacher called me aftershool to say how well she did. Tonight is the offical meet the teacher night so i'm really hoping to hear that she is still doing well.

Anyway, I guess that's all for now. I'll try to write more often now that the summer is over...not that I have all that many readers....for those of you that do check in please leave a comment so I know i'm not writing to thin air :)

Is it fall already?

I can't believe that the summer is almost over. It seems like only yesterday i was getting ready to go back to work and now i'm getting ready to be done. September 16th is my last day and i'm actually very sad about it. I *really* love my job, but it's not just the job, it's how i feel when i'm working there. I'm not just Nadia and Olivia's mom when I'm there. I'm Tracy. I feel valued and confident when i'm there. I know that I do a great job there and the family that runs the campground put their trust in me. Also I truly enjoy the company of the people I work with. in the winter, I go back to being just a mom, and while i do agree that being a mom is the hardest and most important job in the world it is not always the most fullfilling job.

Now to totally change the subject...did any of you give something up when you became a mother? Was there something you used to do that you really enjoyed that now you don't have time for? For me it would be writing poetry. I have books filled with my poems and i haven't written one now in almost 10 years. How do you feel about what you gave up? Do you miss it? Do you think it's possible to do it again? This is where my heards been lately...hope to hear some responses.

Here are a few pictures of our new house...sorry it's taken me so long to post them. I can't believe how busy I have been!!! Life is good though...I am still working lots and camping most of the time when i'm not working. We just came home last night and are heading back to the trailer tomorrow night for the week. I have a teenager starting to babysit the girls at the camp ground on Wednesday...we'll see how that goes. I have mixed feelings about it.

Well, I have lots to get done today so I've gotta go. I'll try and write a full post some time soon.

Update on being back to work

Well i've been back to work for 2 weeks now and things are going well. Work is good. i like what I do and *really* enjoy the people I work with. The kids have done pretty good with me going back. They really enjoy spending time with lisa and she never has any problems with them (it seems they save up the bad behaviour for when I get home). Livy has had her share of melt downs when i get home but she hasn't been napping so i'm sure that's a big part of it. next week I start doing 10 hour shifts and since the days aren't very busy at work right now I expect I'll have lots of spare time on my hands. Any good book suggestions?

Going back to work

Tomorrow i return to work. I've been off since September and over these past 7 months all i've thought about was going back to work. To me work was like a vacation. it was the first time in 5 years i had any "me" time, and i loved it! however now that the day is almost here I have very mixed feelings about it. I do love my job and I want to go back, i just hate that it is so soon after the loss of Rob's dad and our move, as all these changes have been super hard on Olivia. She doesn't leave my side. She even sits on her little stool in the bathroom while I take a shower. If I sit down, she sits on me. If i leave the room, she follows. It's been driving me a bit crazy but I know that it is only temporary. I'm not sure how me going to work is going to affect her. It helps that my best fried (Livy's Auntie) will be keeping her until Nadia get's done school in June, but it will still be hard. I'll keep you posted on how we all adjust.

Thanks for your kind words on my last post Roni and jude! I really apprciate your thoughtfulness.

so glad that is done with

Well, we are all moved in. However, I don't think our move will ever be thought of with happy thoughts as the loss of Rob's dad will always be associated with that time. Rob's dad passed away the night before we moved. Nadia was devestated! This has been the hardest thing for me to deal with as a mom yet. She was so upset. Violently shaking and sobing and crying out for her Grampy. It broke my heart to see her in such pain. Rob's dad was 83 but he wasn't the kind of man who wanted his grandkids to be seen and not heard. He had tea parties with them every visit. he held them on his knee and listened to them talk about their day. He hugged them every chance he got and always told them how much he loved them. When he was in the hospital his room was filled with pictures they drew and colored for him. he showed every nurse, every doctor, every visiter. When he found out he was going to die and they transfered him to a private room, those pictures were all he cared about. We took the girls to visit him on Monday and we held them both up because he couldn't sit up. He reached out his hand to touch them and i'll never forget the look in his eyes. The look of knowledge that this would be the last time he got to see them. He loved my girls and they loved him. Nadia asked me how she would remember him because she's afraid she will forget. I told her we have to talk about him every day and look at his pictures and that would keep his memory alive in our heart forever.

So needless to say, i'm glad that the move is over and that the past month is behind us. Nadia has started at her new school and is doing well. She is making new friends and really likes her teacher. i start back to work on Saturday. It sure is a lot of changes for my girls.

Overwhelmed and exhusted

Rob got devestating news last night. his dad is dying. They took him in for an emergcy surgery yesterday evening and found that he has bowel cancer and there is nothing they can do but make him comfortable. His dad was still really dopey from being put under when they left at 10:00pm last night so they went back to do to give him the news. Actually by now i'm sure they've told him. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to tell my father that he is going to die and that he most likly will never be outside of the hospital again.

So Rob has been at the hospital a lot this week. Thursday they tried a procedure to help his dad and it took 9 hours, Friday we all went to visit and yesterday was the surgery where they found the cancer. We move on Wednesday.....i don't know how we will be ready. I'm trying to get it done....but i'm so tired. We probably have 75% of our stuff packed and I paked 65% of that all by myself. I'm beat! But when I start to feel sorry myself I think of how Rob is feeling....He is overwhelmed too...this was his weekend to pack and now this happens. He says he is going to stay up all night tonight and pack, but I hate to see him do that.

anyway, this is really just another vent from me. Please be thinking of Rob's family.

please let me vent

This post is a vent for me...please don't find me selfish for how I'm feeling....

I really feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders right now and I'm seriously worried that I'm going to loose it...1st of all we have the move happening next week. I'm so excited about it and if packing was the only thing I had to worry about then everything would be fine but unfortunatly Rob's dad is in the hospital and he has been for almost 3 weeks and there really isn't any sign of him getting out any time soon. He is in the Saint John hosptial so Rob hasbeen driving to work in Moncton and then driving to Saint John every other day. That has been hard enough on me (having to deal with the kids those days) but I've been managing, and we go with him accassionaly. Fast forward to today....Rob's sister came down from NS to stay for awhile. She is sleeping at Rob's dad's place but I have to cook for her while she's here...no big deal, really. The big deal is that even though she is here with her own car she wants Rob to drive her to the hosptial EVERY DAY when he gets home from work. EVERYDAY!!! How am I supposed to pack, clean and look after our children with no help? When i questioned Rob on why she couldn't drive herself once in awhile he got angry with me!!! i'm just so stressed out and I don't know what to do right now.....maybe I am just selfish

Finally!!!!!

Well, it seems my blog is working now....i'm really not sure what was wrong or why it all of a sudden is working, and of coarse, now that it is, I don't even feel like I really have any thing of intrest to write about.

The closing date for our new home is April 11 and I can't wait! I am so sick of having boxes every where. We starting packing early so that the house would be decultterd for showings and then we didn't end up having to show it. We decided it would still be smart to pack what we could so we have had boxes every where for the past month and it's driving me crazy!!! I just can't wait to get settled in to the new house. I return to work April 21 so unpacking will need to happen quickly.

Nadia will start at her new school April16 and i'm soooo nervous for her. She is such an outgoing little girl and she makes friends so easy but I hate that i'm making her start over. I'm sure i'm more sad about it then she is. I took her to meet her classmates last week and she did fine. At first she was clinging to my legs (so out of character for her) and she never did want me to leave but in the end she wanted to go back to that school and not her current one.

On to a completly different topic. I LOVE FACEBOOK! if you haven't checked it out yet you really need to. I'm warning you that it's very addictive! I've gotten in contact with so many of my friends from highschool and college. It's great!

Well, It's getting late and I have a good book waiting for me in bed....hopefully my blog won't give me any more problems and I can keep you all updated with our move. I'll try to have some pictures to post soon too.

trying again...if this doesn't work I'll try emailing blogger like Jude suggested. I didn't even think about doing that before.

Rob is trying to get my blog working for me

?

test

test 2

This is a test and will really make Tracy mad if it works from Robs PC.

test

blog still not working...i also tried to make a new one and I get the same error...Rob is going to take a look at the computer and see what he can do.

test

test

just testing to see if this works

Only 1 month until we move

what happened

Nadia is sick

March Break

Today offically marks the start of March break here in NB. Nadia couldn't be any more excited not to have to go to school!!! And I must say it's nice having her home. Nice not to have to wake up at 6:30 and also not to have to be sure to be home by 2:15 to greet the bus, but more then that, just nice to spend some time with my girl. I took her to see Bridge to Terabithia on Saturday, just she and I. It was nice. We don't really get to spend much time together just the 2 of us. Today she got to come to the family resource center and play, something she really enjoyed before starting school.

Tonight the girls are staying at my mom's and Rob and I are going to see Eve Avila in concert. I'm looking forward to spending some time with just Rob. Do you ever feel that you miss your spouse even when you see them every day?

Jude asked about the closing date on our house. We close April 11th on the new house and April 16th on our current house. I can't wait!!!

try this

http://cognitivelabs.com/irritation.htm

Sold!!!!!

I've been trying to post for some time now but blogger wasn't working for me. here is the long awaited update!

We pur our house on the market on a Monday evening and by Tuesday there was an offer in on it which we countered and the following day our house was sold! There was never even a sign in front. Everything happened so fast and so smoothly that it just really feels meant to be.

We decided on a smaller more affordable house then the few i showed you all. One of those 3 that we *really* liked sold before we even got to see it. our agent still took us to look at it and told us that the poeple who built it build a house a year to sell. My brother and his wife actually bought one from them a year ago. So now we have a new game plan. The house we are buying we plan to live in for 2 years and then buy a house from these people. Originally we were planning to buy a home that we would stay in the for rest our lives. Instead we got a smaller more affordable home and we will work on paying down some debt over the next 2 years and then buy what will be our dream home.

The house we are currently buying is a bungalow with a most finished basement. We plan to finish the remainder of the basement so we have an office and a playroom. I'm excited about this move but packing sure is a big job!!!!

Thanks for checking in!
Tracy

Declutering!!!

Who knew there would be so much work involved in selling a house. I feel like all i've done over the past 2 days is clean and box things up!!! What sucks is that I've hardly made a dent in all the stuff.

We met with our agent tonight and she thinks she has someone who might want to buy outhouse right away. We should know in the next couple of days. I won't go into detail here but it sounds very promising. Also we have a conditional offer in on a house for us in to move to so if all the dominos fall in the right order things would be perfect! However, I'm not counting on that happening.

This will be our 1st move since having children. Rob and I moved in together in this home almost 6 years ago and this is where we've stayed. Moving isn't easy!!!! I can't imagine having a job where you have to be relocated all the time.

Wish us luck!!! Andfor any of you that are pros at moving and packing I'd love to hear some tips.

House Hunting

We are officially house hunting. I'm excited and terrified at the same time. Let me first tell you why i'm excited. We bought the house we are currently living in when I was 8 months pregnant for Nadia. We really needed a house and didn't hav the luxury of taking our time. This house was a major deal and Rob just felt we couldn't pass it up. We had looked at it together once and I wasn't convined it was for us. It needed a lot of work and it was small. The next day I went to work and the real estate agent called Rob and told him that the family really needed to sell and would pretty much take ANY offer so she suggested taht Rob really low ball and offer and go from there to at least getsome negotiations started. So he did...remember, i was at work so I wasn't informed of this decision. Anyway, the people surprised even the agent and they accepted our offer. So we knew this house was not a long term thing. We made the decision to stay for 5 years and then move to what would be the house we want to live the rest of our lives in. 5 years was last September andwe are still in this house. The reason being we went and bought a 25 000 trailer last year and Rob felt we should pay 2 years on it before approaching the bank for a mortgage. Fast forward to now. We saw a house on the market that we just had to go see. It seemed to have almost everything we were looking for and even Rob agreed that we should go see it. So we did. We both like the house but now that we've seen that one we ant to see a few more before making any decisions. We are going to look at a few more next weekend that I'm even more excited to see because they are newer. One is only 1 year old and another is only 5 years old whereas the one we say yesterday is 19 years old. I am way past ready to be out of this house. I can't wait to start the next chapter of our lives in a new home, in what really would be our dream home.

Now, on to why i'm terrified. Remember that trailer I mentioned...well we don'teven have a full year of payments under our belt yet so we may not even get approved for a mortgage and that scares me. I would HATE to fall in love with a house only to be told we can't afford it. So Rob is going to go meet with the bank this Friday so we know before we start looking to much more. Also the houses we are looking at are not where we currently live. They are in communities 20 and 30 mins from here. That would mean a new school for nadia. It would also mean that I wouldn't have the family resource center every morning like I do now and I have a large community of friends here that took me a long time to find. So it would be out of my comfort zone to leave this. I thought I had made up my mind to stay in Sussex, but now I seem to have buttlerflies in my stomach about the thought of leaving. You know that feeling you get when you meet someone for the 1st time and there is that chemisty between you that makes you feel all silly inside. That' s how i feel.

I'll be sure to keep you updated as we go through this journy. Any words of wisdom would be apprciated.

If you're interested check out www.mls.ca and look at numbers 265180, 270152 and 265847

Update

Well, I now have 3 workouts under my belt at curves. I'm still not certain howI feel about it. I like getting out of the house by myself and I like that everyone there seems to be very welcoming but what I don't like is how regulated it is. It is 30 min 3 times a week and that is it. You are not to go 4 times a week you are not to do more then 30 min. I just don't feel that30 min is enough for me. I talked to one of the workers and she agreed that I seem to need a bit more and says that it is because I am already in such great shape. To get 30 min you go around the circut 2.5 times she said she thought it would probably be ok for me to 3 times around starting next week. We'll see how that goes. She also said some of the other staff may not agree with that idea. Anyway, I'm glad that I'm going and i will miss it when the month ends but now I have a whole new dilema. There is a bathsuit that I really like in the Spring/Summer 2007 sears catelog, but it's expensive. So now i may have to make the choice between continuing at curves or buying the bathing suit. My EI runs out mid February and then i will depend on babysitting money so doing both is not really a choice.

On the babysitting front. Last week was my 1st week with Scotia (yes that is her name). She did great! This was the 1st time she has ever been left with a non family member and her mom was really worried but she adjusted really well. There were no tears, in fact she did cry when her mom tried to take her home the 2nd day she was here.

Today is Friday and I have a little break, both Vanessa and Scotia are not here today so it will be just Livy and i until Nadia gets home from school. This has been a great week and i'm really glad to have it end this way.

Have a great weekend everyone.

staying in shape

I began jogging last April and by October I lost 30lbs! Obviously I was very pleased with these results. I've manged to stay at that weight and have been trying to work on toneing instead of weight loss. I have a couple of work out videos and I still jog when the weather permits but I'm not really making much progress. I really think i need to go to a gym so I can get some weight lifting into my routien, however who has time to go to a gym when they have kids!!! I just can't fathum that I would actually have the time to go so I feel I would be wasting my money. Speaking of money...it's expensive. For example, a friend of mine gave me a free months membership to curves (my 1st workout is this morning). I'm really looking forward to trying it out, however, if i love it and want to continue the price just to join is $99.00 plus your months membership fee of $40.00. I go back to work at the end of April at which time I will not be able to go to a gym anymore so I really can't bring myself to fork over that kind of money for 2 months use. Anyone have any advice for me?

Wish me luck today at Curves...i'll let you know how I make out.

Finally I can post

I've been trying to log into my blog for a couple of weeks now to no avail. Finally today I'm able.

We had a fantastic Christmas. Christmas day my faither in law and brother in law came here in the morning and then after lunch we went to my parents house. The girls got WAY to much stuff this year. Would you believe there are things that i haven't even taken out of the boxes yet and they haven't even noticed.

Only 3 more months until I go back to work and I'm already counting down. I'm really looking forward to working again. In the mean time I start babysitting another little girl on Monday. She will be 2 in April so a little younger then I'm used to having around but she is a sweet little girl. Hopefully i'm not biting off more then I can chew with a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a 1 year old. We shall soon see.

Well supper is almost really so i'll end with some pictures and try and post again soon.