Dr. Phils has a blog!

Okay, so I still have to do a fathers day post, and I will....but I was on the Dr. Phil blog today, yes Dr. Phil has a blog! And he had the most amazing video and I just had to share it here, it was very moving and very inspiring.

http://sports.espn.go.com/videohub/video/video?id=3696478

And of course I just had to comment. You can view my comment in the comment section of this video if you want to read a tiny bit about my son....

Just amazing!

Car crazy

But it's summer and life is good. Not much new to report except we got a new van!! Woohooo!

Okay, not new, in fact older than our old van, with 50,000 more km but it doesn't overheat and will do for now. If we get a year out of it I will be dancing with joy. Just a year, I'm okay with that, afterall we only paid $500 for it, certified and e-tested! What a steal eh?

We just need to hold off on getting a new van until the mortgage is settled, and since I'm off all summer we get a little caught up financially. I figure by this time next year would be a great time to shop for a vehicle and then well...maybe we'll even go new....shocking I know, but with the car market being what it is, might be worth it.

I honestly do not like spending money on cars, for a mechanic to look at my car...well they must shake their heads. I do what I HAVE to on them, and only when I HAVE to so you can imagine what my cars look like.

I don't go through car washes, what for, it's just a car. I don't get things fixed that aren't safety issues, or to keep the car alive...I rarely will scrub out a car...with 3 kids I got much better things to do. Twice a year is good for me, unless it gets sand filled from a day at the beach, or it's a rental.

I just feel their such huge money pits. The minute you drive a new car off the lot it deprecitates by 20%, 20% can you believe it! Most mechanics I know are shady...though there are some good ones out there lost in the world of bad reputations, silly things break down on cars that cost thousands to fix, and well, most are so electronically souped up that a simple repair becomes a huge deal! Did you know that in our car to change the battery you had to take off the window shield washer fluid container and unhook some other doo dad that takes and hour to do, just to get a boost if you needed one! Who does that? Who designs things that way?

It doesnt' help that hubby is not mechanically inclined and not very fond of getting his hands dirty. Though he's getting better and learning more and more, he can now change front breaks and the oil...gotta give him credit, it's more than what I would do! Give me toilets, no problem, cars, na uh.

Cars are just not my thing. Never will be I think. Maybe, maybe one day when the covertible rolls up in my driveway, but in my world now with life being as it is and my priorities focused on different things, it just.....isn't.

So anyway, we did pick up a *ahem* new to us van. And it doesn't have a lot of rust either...yet. It's a Dodge Caravan and gots lots of bells and whistles, like automatic back windows and electronically moving driver seat...I think that's the best part of the van...the gagets! Oh and did I say it's got an automatic starter! That will be nice in the winter if it lives that long...

My News

June 4th, time is going way too fast for me and I am often times am feeling like I'm treading water just trying to keep my head up. I'm sorry I haven't been around much, I will try to catch up on all that I can today.

So my big news.....that I was suppose to announce last week :(. Sorry, like I said I just haven't had time to blog or follow the blogs the last two weeks...please forgive me, I've been thinking of you all.

Okay, big news....I got a new job! It's been in the works for a little while now and I started mid May. It's only part-time as a compliment to my school bus job, and it's something I was doing anyway....sort of.

So what is it, get on with it you say? Well....I've just signed on with the agency I did my surrogacies through, Canadian Surrogacy Options also known as CSO as the new Surrogate Support Worker!!! The job just opened up and well since I love talking with other surrogates and am in a good place in my life, and since I already love to help other surrogates (and IPs), this is a great fit for me. Also because I'm so passionate about surrogacy and helping families through surrogacies, I can't think of a better thing to do. I have no desire to start my own agency (all the red tape, yuck) but I do love educating others with what I know, being there for other people when they need to bounce something off or seek advice, and sharing my love for surrogacy as a whole.

So what does it entail, well all of the above, plus going to the clinic to meet surrogates, most especially new ones who dont' know what to expect, connecting with Joanne the owner of the agency, Caroline and even Robyn who runs Little Miracles (the egg donation agency connected with CSO) as to what they need or want, letting surrogates know their thought of and cared about, offering advice on "technical things" like medications and protocols, insurance and such, and giving a listening ear for the non-technical things like feelings and issues. Often times you dont' have to say much when it comes to that, sometimes one just needs someone to listen to.

I really am loving it and am so grateful to have the opportunity to reach out to other surrogates along the way.

So what else have I been up to? Well, not much actually. Last week my daughter had her Kindergarden concert, she was so cute standing up there on stage, but she was in the back and hard to see sometimes......:). I guess someone's got to be in the back.

This past weekend all the boys had camps to go to, leaving just Taylor and I on our own. She wanted to camp too, so we got out the tent and did just that, right there in our backyard! Now those of you in Ontario know how crappy the weather was over the weekend...rain rain rain, and just think we were out in the tent. A few times I thought of giving in and going inside, but for my daughters sake we stuck it out both Friday and Saturday night.

Saturday we went to the Toronto Zoo. We had so much fun together and got to pet and feed stingrays! I love the Zoo, and would totally get a seasons pass for it, next year for sure!

Sunday morning we headed off to visit S, B and baby B! It was such a nice visit and we got some cute pictures, sorry I don't have time to post, maybe S might put them up on her blog??? The last time we saw each other baby was 2 weeks old, and though I get TONS of pictures, they don't do her justice on how big she is!!! She is huge! Well to me anyway. And of course very adorable. She definately keeps mommy and daddy on her toes and after seeing them all together cooing after a very attention loving little sweetheart, I started to wonder if I myself wanted to go back there.........I seem to sway back and forth on my own baby making wishes.

I did love to hold her, and was lucky enough that she totally let me (apparently she's a bit stranger shy), and Taylor was pretty excited to see her, though in the moment I think she really just liked the baby toys. It wasn't until afterwards that she talked about her.....

Anyway it was a great day. We had a nice lunch and then I was off cause I had to pick up the boys from camp.

This week, nothing much, my birthday was yesterday, really when you get to this age it's just another day to me, I cooked, I cleaned, though Ian did make me a cake and picked up a couple of presents. I guess they got something planned for Sunday too. :)

That's about it, hope everyone is well, I'm off to try to catch up as much as I can!