Two weeks

One week

We've spent the last week being completely in awe of the miracle of our beautiful baby girl. She is absolutely perfect, and the only trouble we are having is fattening her up...

Welcome to the world little one....

Reid Louise
May 14th @ 10:15am
6lbs 10oz and 20.5"

Got a guess?

Well, the little one is due to arrive next Wednesday, May 20th. 8 days after their Grams' birthday and Grandpa Mitchell's birthday, and 2 days before their parents 11th wedding anniversary. But, since it IS a Mitchell, I'm sure it'll be late, announcing it's preference to operate on MST - Mitchell Standard Time. Where logic and punctualness are obsolete! They are showing no sign of becoming more familiar with the exit... apparently I am too good of a hostess, and they are already taking after their Daddy by preferring to swim and play in the water.
So, now that I have a working laptop again (yay for Richard!), I thought we'd play a guessing game. Go to: Baby Mitchell and enter your best guess. Will it be a boy/girl? May/June? {oh please little one, not June!} Let's see what you think...

Eight months

**photography by the fabulously talented MaryAlice Duncan**

Hard to believe that in the last eight months we have been entrusted to the growth of this little one... And in eight more weeks we will more than likely have met them... seen their little face and touched their little hands and feet. I am completely overwhelmed at how much they are already loved and how much we are about to be responsible for. Can't wait to see just who they look like, and what adventures they will take us on... One thing is for certain, our lives will never be the same!

Brett's birthday

Today my sweet husband turns 35...
No one on this earth makes me laugh as much, frustrates me as much, loves me as much, spoils me as much, or has enough patience to deal with me :) I certainly don't deserve to have him in my life, but am certainly grateful to have him as my best friend and soul mate.
Happy birthday Brett!

Guilty as Charged

"If we distance ourselves long enough from real needs, we replace them with those that aren't. Pretense becomes the new real and suddenly a delay in the delivery of our new couch becomes a terrible upset. We are wise to force ourselves to keep differentiating between simple inconveniences and authentic tribulations. The more detatched and self-absorbed we become, the more we mistake annoyances for agonies. It happens to all of us."
-Beth Moore "Esther. It's Tough Being a Woman"

LIfe is just hard...

...for no reason at all.
-Remember the Titans
Any prayers on behalf of Benji & Rebekah for the blessing of their daughter Gracie would certainly be apprectiated.
Instead of typing out the details I'll simply send you to http://www.thebenjamites.blogspot.com/
Our prayers are with you...

The little one....

Here is our ultrasound pic from 21 weeks (I'm currently 24 weeks pg). {Sorry for the delay!}
For those who don't know, we aren't finding out what we're having, so if you see something in this pic, you're better than the technician :) At this point we are just grateful to have a healthy baby with a four chambered heart, intact kidneys, and split brain (yes, I'm a medical geek). Looking forward to meeting this chiciringo!
{strangely enough, this post is for my Mom, who flew out to Cuba for some sun and relaxation today and won't see this for a week... sorry Mom!}
And a special shout out to my friend Carissa for scanning the pics... you rock girl!

The Holidays - Canadian Style

Maple Leafs vs. Penguins in Mellon Arena. Driving through snow storms. Presents. Mincemeat tarts. Wearing multiple layers in frigid temps. Snow, snow, snow. Rain. More snow. Christmas crowds. Cafe Mocha. Climbing through snowbanks to find the car at the mall. Nanamo bars. Christmas movies. Giving. Family. Love. Excitement. Opening stockings. Hot tea. Cranberry pudding. Christmas Vacation. Turkey soup. Canasta with Grandma. Mary Brown's taters. Skating. Laughing. Carter Christmas. Wi Bowling. Breakfast at Cora's. Baby Mitchell presents. Swiss Chalet. Snow tubing. Hot chocolate. Frost bitten toes. Days in the car. Christmas holidays 2008.

at Mellon Arena

Yeah baby!!

Samantha & Cole

Cole & Judy

Yes, it's true
the Ontario sister: holds the wall while skating...
the Alabama sister: not a chance!!

cheerleader pose!!

love this pic of Samantha..

Brett & Cole

Who doesn't need help getting their skates off?

The Carter/Smith girls
Jennifer, Janette, Kathy, & Judy

Mom bowling!

This is truly a photogenic moment...
Mom & Auntie Erma showing Dad & Uncle Vern (the techies) how to use the Wi remotes :)

I love how Davis is peeking up into this pic!

New Years Eve: the chalet at Snow Valley
I love how this turned out blurry - that's how tired we all were after tubing out in the cold!

Celebrating, celebrating

As of today we've been a part of eachother's lives for 17 years.
There are no words to adequately describe just how much I love and respect this man. I simply can not imagine my life without him in it, or imagine a more suitable partner to get to journey beside through this life.

Highschool sweethearts.
Best friends.
Soulmates.
17 years knowing eachother.
10 years of marriage.
6 months until our little family becomes 3....

Headin' to Starbucks

Today Starbucks is donating to the Global Fund to help save lives in Africa in support of World AIDS Day. So head on over and get your favourite latte, coffee, chai tea. Doing good never tasted better.

Happy Thanksgiving

In my pitiful attempt at a blog update, here are a few pics of our State Park visits this fall...

Oak Mountain

Brett thinking he is pretty clever
"Why don't you get out of the canoe and get a picture of those trees?"
And when I turn back around, he is 20 ft away from the shoreline... haha!

We went one afternoon to Oak Mountain and rented a canoe, which we haven't done in FOREVER!
Being in the stern of a canoe with Brett behind me is one of my absolute favourite places to be!

Radnor Lake, Nashville

Karen & I

Derek, Timothy's legs, Karen, Brett and I
We were fortunate to spend a morning hiking at Radnor with dear friends of ours one Saturday in Nashville. The extra bonus is that Timothy will be quiet the whole time he's in the sling :)
{And we got to hang out with some of our favourite people!}

Proud Canadian

Kudos to Roxy for directing me to this site, written by a Canadian in Texas...
Here is a blurb from one of her posts. To me, it's absolutely hilarious. Unless you are a Canadian who is living or has lived in the States you may not get it. Or may even get offended.
My last post was for my Mom. I suppose this one's for me. :)

Taken from "Canadian Thoughts in Texas" {italics mine}
"What have you learned about being Canadian and Canadian-ness since you moved to the US?

That even though I've been gone for 6 1/2 years, I still love that country to death. I don't care that the taxes are higher there. I don't care that in a lot of the country it is freaking cold for a long part of the year. There's something magical about Canada to me, because it is home.

I've said before that if someone had told me even two years before I moved here that I'd end up living in the U.S., I would have thought they were crazy.

Because in Canada, we're raised to have a very mild disdain for our neighbors to the South. Not that we'd ever tell them to their face, because that's just not the Canadian way. But much of Canada's culture is based on our snickering of the brashness and loudness that is America.

No offense to my American brothers and sisters, but you guys drink the cherry-flavored America Kool Aid by the gallon. You're like that popular blonde girl who talks about how pretty she is all the time. And we're the mousy brunette with glasses who's really cute if you look past the glasses, and who never has the confidence to speak up.

When you drive down any street in the U.S. you will see flags left right and center. Many, many American flags. And if you ask people about being American, they'll tell you that they live in the greatest country on Earth. Which always strikes me as amusing, because really? Have you lived in every country in the world to say that?

That's like experiencing ice cream for the first time and claiming that this in fact has to be the greatest flavor in the world. And it very well may be. But maybe, just maybe, somewhere out there there's a pint of chocolate ice cream with chocolate truffles in it. And chocolate covered almonds. And maybe that's better. But being American and admitting that maybe potentially one of the 193 other countries just might be better than the U.S. is probably considered treason.

Ask a Canadian if they live in the greatest country in the world and they'll launch into a long tirade about how we have universal healthcare, and golly that's really good, and we're really pretty good about not littering, and our beer is really great, but we've been told that the Swiss have an even lower crime rate and they have really great chocolate, and, well, Switzerland sounds really pretty cool too and really we should go visit there together.

I think the reason Canada and the U.S. are so different, is because of the ways we earned our independence. Because the U.S. had it just as bad or good as Canada in the 1770's. We were both overtaxed. And we were owned by the British. And the U.S. went "screw this! They may talk with a fancy accent, but we ain't giving them another cent!" And then to show they were serious, they dumped tea in the Boston harbor. And the British don't like people wasting perfectly good tea, so they went to war to teach the Americans about respect. But the British lost and they finally thought "these guys are too much trouble, lets them leave and we'll just get the Canadians continue to pay for us to build even more castles."

And the Americans were proud, and had every reason to be. They once were a colony, but now they no longer were. And more than 200 years later, that pride lives on, it's part of the country's identity. You're either American, or you're not. You either get it, or you don't.

Canada didn't really see a need to get its independence. In fact, in 1812, the Americans looked over towards us and yelled out "dude, you're totally getting screwed by your British Mom and Dad! Run away with us!" And Canada said, "oh, we're fine, it's not that bad, we don't mind them. Plus we get to put their king on our money, which is pretty fun!"

And the Americans went "dude, you're so dense! We'll come up there and fight you to teach you that you should be independent."

The Canadians were like "what? Why don't you chill and have a great Canadian beer? And maybe a piece of this yummy maple syrup coffee cake we just made?"

And somehow, the Canadians won the war of 1812. Although, to this day, Americans still won't admit that. It's a sore point with them. They also won't admit that the beaver is a way cooler national symbol than the eagle, because really? Eagles, they're majestic and all, but beavers? they can karate chop you with their tail.

Canada finally became independent in 1982. I'm not freaking kidding you. And you know how we did it? We just asked. We said "hey there, Queen Elizabeth II, so we're thinking that maybe you'd let us be independent. Although we'd love for you to still be a figure head for our country, and our money's so cute with you on it, we'd like to keep your face on it."

Queen Elizabeth thinking that really, she was tired of getting shipments of beaver tails (the pastry, not the animal's appendage) and maple syrup, figured why the hell not.

So it's hard for Canada to have the rah rah rah sentiment that Americans have developed. You fought for it. We didn't.

Another difference with Canada is that for some reason, we're very good at infiltrating Hollywood. Name just about any celebrity and odds are pretty good that they're Canadian. William Shatner? Canadian. Avril Lavigne? Canadian. Alex Trebek? Canadian. Rachel McAdams? Canadian. Keanu Reeves? Canadian. Jim Carrey? Canadian. Pamela Anderson? Canadian. Howie Mandel? Canadian. Michael J. Fox? Canadian. 3/4 of the great NHL players? Canadian. Peter Jennings? Canadian. Mike Myers? Canadian. Celine Dion? She's really an alien who claims to be Canadian, we really don't have any part in that one.

Why are Canadians so good at entertaining? It's the snow. Not much to do on those long winter nights, except for practice scenes and Oscar speeches.

The thing that's great about Canada, is that nobody ever hates us. So living in the States, I don't ever have to hide that I'm originally from Canada. It doesn't matter what Canada does, it can't cause ripples. Like you know that little Iraqi war thing that won't end? Remember how France refused to go and Americans were horrified? Calling them all sorts of names, boycotting the entire country, like Jean-Pierre in suburban Paris had himself agreed to the government's decision. French toast and French fries were renamed. It was quite the debacle.

And Canada? Canada also refused to go to Iraq. And nobody raised an eyebrow. Because really? Picking on France? Way more fun. Plus, the fact that the New York City police force is larger than Canada's army might also make the U.S. think "well, if Canada's not going to send Bob and Joe out for this war, I guess we can do without two more soldiers."

Being Canadian in Texas means that you get to tell people how much better Sleeman's Cream Ale is than any microbrewery beer here. It means scoffing at the weather people when they speak of doom for the entire city of Dallas because 1/4 inch of ice is expected. And then telling your coworkers about those times you dug out your car with your bare hands after four feet of snow came down and buried it.

Living in Texas means that I get to regale people of tales of Canadian TV shows like "Danger Bay" and "The Littlest Hobo" and "You Can't Do That On Television". And swoon when I watch an episode of Degrassi where I recognize something from Toronto. And feel homesick when the sportscasters don't bother talking about the Stanley Cup, because the Dallas Stars are no longer in it, and they figure who cares. And feel sad when a Canadian team wins a large sporting event and I can't be there to celebrate. It means that people look at you funny when you say that you don't get what the big deal is about College football and March Madness. And that you get excited when an American sitcom makes a reference to something Canadian. Even if it mocks the country.

It means that the second you find out someone else is Canadian, you feel an instant bond to them. Because really? No one bad ever came out of that place, so they must be a great person.

Living here also means that I get chills and goosebumps every time the American anthem plays, because it's such a gorgeous and heartfelt song that makes me misty eyed and proud to have been allowed to live here. And when I go home and attend a hockey game against an American team, I get to sing proudly to both songs without ever feeling like I've abandoned my home country.

Being Canadian in Texas gives me something unique from everyone else in my department. Something that they can tease me about and that I can talk about endlessly if they'll let me. Being Canadian is being able to talk about the country tongue-in-cheek without feeling like I'm being unpatriotic. As Jodi said, Canadians love to laugh at themselves more than anything. Having a self-deprecating sense of humor is as mandatory as thinking that maple leafs in the fall are one of the most beautiful things ever. Does anyone outside of Canada think we're as funny as we think we are? I'm not sure. But I don't think Canadians care one way or another.

This one's for you Mom...

Someone's been bugging me for an update....

Brett and I are about to head out to TN so his boys can whup up on Freed-Hardeman tonight @ 7:00. Memphis BBQ with Anna Jane. Then we're heading to Nashville to meet my nephew and spend some quality time with his parents Karen & Derek. Dinner with Terry & Margaret on Saturday before heading to the Predators season opening game against Dallas. Hopefully there will be some eating involved at Pancake Pantry and/or Baja Burrito at some point. And back to the Gump by Sunday...
Holla..!