At a Loss!

I am at a loss about what to do. Mina, appears to be ATHLETIC! This is very strange to me, and I wonder how the combination of Keith and myself could ever have produced an athletic child. Keith is the first to admit that he is very much not athletic. He is also non-competitive. Although I think that he may have enjoyed badmington in Jr. High, I don't think he was good at it. I also, am the opposite of athletic. I think my very low blood pressure, and crappy hemoglobin, has something to do with it, because when I physically exert myself, I get very dizzy, and red, and stay that way for hours. At high school track meets, when we are forced to choose 3 events to participate it, I would pointedly choose things that I would only have to do once, because I sucked so much and would rather just go and, well, no need to get into what I would go and do. So I choose the high jump (funny to watch a 4 foot 10 girl attempt!) the 100 m dash (my body does not "dash") and the shot put, which usually landed somewhere around my feet. Hardly even out of the circle. So. We produced Mina, who likes to run around the house shouting "fast", could hold her own in a throwing rocks in water contest with her cousin, and can throw a ball like nobody's business. Way straighter and harder, and with far more accuracy than Abby ever will. (Abby is much more like Keitha and I, when it comes to natural athletic abilities.) I picture a dim future for us, having to get second jobs to have to pay for sporting equipment, and driving all over the province for tournaments. Weird. I never thought I'd be a soccer mom, but I guess kids surprise you.

This 'n That

Hello all! Just thought I'd say hey. We are so excited to go to SL for the weekend and see everyone! (Well, except for Eve, who is following her dream and writing her big exam!) Mom has a million plans for us all, I don't think she realizes that we are just there for 2 1/2 days, one of those being a church day. I have been thinking about Eve a lot, and have to admit that I am a little jelous that she is following her heart, and doing that thing that she loves and has wanted to do for so long. I am so frusturated that I cannot even study part time to do midwifery, as the program just does not exsist here in Alberta. All of the courses at the other universities are very midwife specific, there is no equavalent here to get me started. Sometimes I wonder if I should just be a labour and delivery nurse, and wonder if I could ever be happy doing that, or would I always pretend to be a midwife and get into trouble with the hospital rules. It is just not the same. Although there is a Dr here who does home births, and brings along a nurse and usually has a midwife as her back up. What do you think? Should I get on it, and be a L&D nurse, since Midwifery is a far far off possibility that may or may not ever happen here? And at least then I would be able to help, and make a small difference in the way women give birth. Or should I hope for the best and keep on dreaming about getting to be a midwife? I just hate not doing anything to reach my goal. I hate not really knowing if it will happen or not. And I do not feel right about uprooting my family and starting everything over for me to go to school in another province. I like to ask myself every once in a while "what have I done today/this week/this month to reach my goal?" And it drives me crazy that the answer is nothing. And, that I cannot do anything about it.

In other news...

Abby is learning to read her watch and tell time! I have no idea what she is going to do in kindergarten... I remember being so frusturated trying to learn to read a watch in grade 2!
Mina is talking up a storm. She also is learning her shapes and letters now, and gets so excited when she sees a letter she recognizes. She nearly has a seizure when we drive past a McDonalds. "M!M!M!M!M! Yellow M! Yellow, yellow! mom mom!" If she weren't buckled down, she would fall out of her chair for sure.
We have renovated our bathroom once again, because Keith got a free toilet at work after chatting up the American Standard rep, and I wanted to replace the cracked tile... It looks way better! My next task will be painting the bedrooms and then switching our room with the girls so that they will have more space to share, and Mina will not have to sleep in the living room anymore.

Later!

Changes...

Well, my old job is officially finished. I worked there for 7 YEARS! That is a really long time for me to be in one place, and it was very hard to leave. My employer whom I got along so well with, his patients (sniff, not mine anymore) who I got to know so well that going to work every day was more like a social engagement, catching up with old friends, instead of actually working. On the bright side, now I work 3 evenings a week, and 2 saturdays a month. I get the privledge of raising my own kids, instead of sending them elsewhere, which always felt a little wrong, and a lot wrong if I thought about it too much. So here I am, on the middle of a Tuesday afternoon, and I feel so strange not having to be at work. It is like those days when you forget to wear your watch, and spend all day wondering what time it is and what you are supposed to do next and being all nervous that you are late and missing something important. I need to establish a new routine, and am not sure how to start. I think by finding some swimming lessons and library groups to join for the girls. I have been able to do so many things I have been needing and wanting to do! I finally threaded and started using my beautiful new serger that has been gathering dust for months, the house is cleaner than it has been in a long time, and it has only been 2 days! Housework somehow does not seem so oppressive when you have more than a 30 minute slot to do it in! I think I may even be able to make some progress on the house reno stuff we have been wanting to do for so long. Change is difficult sometimes, but I think this is going to work out for the best. The only down side, is that I am really going to miss Keith in the evenings. But I think we can handle it, after all those years of night shifts, this is nothing!

The Latest

Well, last week it was the International Day of Midwives. I missed Edmonton's event, as I was in Disneyland, and I was a bit sad about that. I was looking forward to going to the leg. and seeing all of our area's midwives (yes, all 7 of them!) and especially Noreen, who was there for Mina's birth. Anyhow. The news is that the province is planning to start funding midwifery! For real! Alberta is finally going to catch up with most of the rest of Canada! Also, MRC had a date set for the "bridging program" for training international midwives to practise here. And they had a meeting with UofC and UofA about developing direct midwifery programs. Soooo, I may not even have to move to get my education! I am going to try and post links now. One is from the news brief from MRC, another is to a documentary called "the business of being born". It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It is about 1 1/2 hours long though. I love how at the end, the director, who is pregnant goes into labour. She was planning to have a midwife home birth, but her baby was coming early and was breech, and so the midwife brings her to the hospital for a c section. There are so many people who have such an uninformed opinion about midwifery, and I hope that they will see this film, and recognize that midwives are professionals, and are highly trained in knowing when a delivery needs interventions. And they bring the mom to a hospital when this happens.
http://www.mtroyal.ca/healthcomm/ashs/midwifery.shtml
http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/home.htm
I am really excited about this positive development for Alberta! Imagine, being able to birth where and how you choose, whether you have the $ or not! Midwives will be available to everyone, not just rich people! Now I really have to get serious about figuring out how to fund my education...

The Happiest Place on Earth

Disneyland! We got to spend 3 days there with "Papa" and had a wonderful time! The weather was beautiful, (even though the air quality was not - Keith said that it made him feel like a smoker again.) Our flight was uneventful! That was a true miracle, and it was so nice to fly direct instead of having to transfer airplanes. Our new sit-n-stand stroller was really the best $100 bucks ever spent. It was perfect for the girls, Abby could get out when she wanted, and hop back on when she needed a break. We actually did a really good job at packing just what we needed. I was quite proud of us for that! My new favourite ride is the Tower of Terror, I thought it would be really scary, but actually it was quite fun. Keith was quite impressed by the Haunted Mansion. Abby loved the rollercoaster in Toon Town the most, and she also spent most of a morning getting soaked in the waterpark. She still does not like rides that are dark, as they are too scarry. I do need to find a way to cover her scalp in sunscreen, or just get her to wear a hat, as it got sunburnt through her fine red hair. Feeding the ducks was also a big hit, especially with Mina, whose new words from the past few days include "duck-duck" "Papa" and "abra" (as in abra-cadabra). Very very cute.

Travel tips for next time:

• Take the time to get to a grocery store. Shopping at 7-11 for groceries is just wrong, and you never quite get what you want.
• Stay up for the fireworks (note to self). Even though I get so pooped out after a day of Disney, I should have stayed up! Next time I will!
• Bring some Auntie's along. I would have loved to have a sister to go shopping with. I wanted to go, but did not really want to go alone, and also did not want to bring Keith and the kids. Shopping for deals at Ross is just something you have to do with a sister. Plus Aunties are good for the girls, and cousins would have been even more fun. Next time we should plan for a family event. There is usually a "kids fly free" event in the spring time, I think we should take advantage of it!
• Bring my own camera. At the last minute I decided not to bring mine, as dad and Keith both had theirs. But I missed my D40 the whole time, and was kicking myself for trying to be so practical about how many cameras one group of people actually needs.
  
• Plan for a cheaper parking spot for when we are at the airport! Nuff said.

We had a really fun time. I think Keith may even be hooked on the Dis for family vacations too! I will post some pics later when I get them sorted out.

Because I don't post enough pictures...

Here are some pictures, I realized that I do not put enough up here, and the aunties do not get to see my kids beautiful faces enough.
A) Abby and Keith doing science experiments.
B) Putting together IKEA furniture. Notice that Mina is the only one bothering to read the instructions...
C) Playing "my old friend". This has become a favourite activity before bed. (I thought I had rotated the picture. Sorry) I had forgotten how much fun it is to play my saxophone. Abby and Mina love it so much, although they do chew up my reeds and slobber all over the mouth piece.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of the girls, each wearing the cute hats Auntie Betina made for them. Although Mina prefers to wear panties on her head, I do make her switch them out for a hat when we go out, which makes her very sad. It is officially spring now, and even Easter this weekend, but you would not really know it by looking outside. I am wishing we were at Betina's again for the holiday so that the Easter Bunny could come outside (and to Rosaurs too), instead of just to the living room. Somehow, it just does not seem as fun. But I am sure Abby and Mina will still love it. Maybe we should consider making Easter in Colfax a tradition.

Funny

"Where am I going? And why am I in this handbasket?"

About my Job

This week is teachers convention in Edmonton. Which means that at work, I get to clean childrens teeth all day long.
One question: Are all 9 - 15 yr old boys so sullen and unresponsive? They will not answer any questions, make eye contact, or even be generally pleasant.
Also: A note to people who go to the dentist. If you treat your dental professional badly, if you are whiny and mean or try to bite them, you can bet that you are going to get the 4 minute disgusting fluoride instead of the more pleasant 1 minute tasty one. There will not even be a choice!

What Have I Been Up To, You Ask?

Well, let me tell you. I have been making and individually wrapping (well, 2 to a pkg) 500 home made chocolate chip cookies. I have been doing it for a long time. Because I love my little sister, and they will make her wedding guests very happy. I have always been good at baking cookies, and sometimes people ask how come mine always turn out so well. Here are some cookie baking tips.

• Use butter. It just tastes better. It must be at room temperature. You should not try to cheat by heating it up in the microwave, because that melts the middle of it and that will change the end result. Make sure you leave the correct amount of butter on the counter until it softens. Do not cheat.
  
• Have a good recipe. Some, like just finding one on the net, will not turn out well. Others are tried and true, like the Toll House chocolate chip recipe, or the ones on the back of the chipits package.
  
• Have good equipment. A Kitchenaid mixer is the absolute best, but a hand mixer will do. Ther right cookie sheets are essential. Shiny metal, air insulated with a rim only on one side. This is very important so that the air will circulate around the cookie and bake it properly. A cookie scoop will ensure they are the right size and shape. Do not cram the dough into the scoop, or they will not fall out of the scoop properly. Have an oven thermometer in your oven to make suer the temperature is correct, and pre heat it. Know your hot spot. Mine is at the back left, so a cookie sheet must be off centre to the right to ensure even baking.
  
• Follow the recipe. Always cream the butter with the sugars before adding eggs and vanilla. Mix the dry stuff seperately, then mix in with wet. Then do add ins, like chips/nets etc. Don't do it all at once.
• Use only a minimal amount of spray oil (pam).
  
• Make sure the cookies are 2 inches apart. If you try to put too many cookies on a sheet, the air will not flow around them and they will be flat and raw.
• Do not scoop dough onto a warm or hot cookie sheet. Have at least 2 cookie sheets to rotate, so that you do not have to wait for the one the cool before putting the next batch in.
  
• Use a timer. Always check them 1 minute before the timer goes off. They should be very slightly brown around the bottom edge. Take them out of the oven at this point and let sit on the pan for 1 - 2 minutes more. Then remove to cooling rack. Use a clean lifter. If the lifter has melted chocolate chips on it, it will not lift your cookies properly and they will get misshapen.
  

If you do any of those things wrong, your cookies will not turn out and be beautiful, like the ones that will be at Patience's wedding.

My Incredible Husband

I have a fantastic husband. There is a long long list of praises to sing for him, but let me just share with you this most recent feat. He has not smoked in 4 days! I am so proud of him! YAY Keith! You are awesome. I love you.

Tagged

Well, Betina tagged me, and so I have to write 6 things about myself. I do not have any other bloggers to tag back though, so the tagging will have to stop here.

• I hate hot weather. Even though today it is the coldest day so far this winter (-46 with the wind), and it is the first time ever that I have called my boss to tell him that I am not coming in to work, I still can honestly say that I hate hot weather. Today I will attempt to shovel out the 3 feet of snow we got overnight, I will plug in the car so that it might start tomorrow morning, and will probably get frostbite. But I will still enjoy it more that I would a hot hot summer day.
  
• I have been fired from 2 jobs. One was a Tim Hortons, and they fired me because I had a "bad attitude", and the other was The Keg, because I missed a shift when it was -35 and my car would not start, and they thought I should just take the bus. (I was not about to wait for a bus in that weather, so I got fired.) So even though I know Dr. M would not fire me for today, I was still a bit nervous about calling him this morning.
  
• I really like eating out at restaurants. We do not do this very often these days, but I love it. I am excited for when the kids are older and Keith and I can do this more often. One of the careers that I have always wanted to try out is being a food writer for a newspaper or magazine. And if you are going out to eat, you have to order desert. It does not make sense not too! Especially if they have cheesecake, or a chocolate lava cake.
  
• Recently I have began to enjoy opera music. I think it is because we got a kids opera CD with english translation, and the songs are really fun! Now every time it comes on the radio, I turn it up.
  
• I never properly learned how to be a girl. I cannot for the life of me blow dry my hair, and I haven't the first clue about how to put on makeup. I don't really like spending money on clothes, or even shopping for clothes in general. This only really bothers me when I am with my beautiful sisters who are really good at blowdrying.
  
• I never use spell check, normally. But the past few weeks I have been e mailing principals of some schools we might send Abby to, and I used spell check on them. I would be so embarassed if I sent an e mail to a principal with spelling mistakes in it. And besides, they might not let Abby into their school if that happened.
  

I think that is 6. Now I just have to figure out how to link to my sister's blogs. I'll try that next time I am on here.

January 8 random samplings

Well, it is a new year already! Christmas was really fun, Keith and I both had lots of time off, and we both got to just relax. It was nice, and actually felt like a holiday when it was over. Here are some fun things that happened/were said. (Mostly by Abby)

• "Auntie Patience, are you excited to get married so that you can sleep with Dan?"
• "I am NOT a fish expert, I am a HORSE expert" (stomping away in a huff)
• Mina seems to be sleeping better! Over the holidays we developed a new night time strategy. We just ignore her. Well, not completely, but we try to have her go back to sleep on her own, without the boob. She seems to be getting the hang of it!
  
• Mina is also walking up a storm! 14 months is such a cute age. She will just walk around the house, carrying a stuff, putting random things in the baking cupboard, and chattering away. So cute.
  
• We were talking about registering Abby for school. Abby got really excited, started to jump up and down doing the happy dance, saying "Yay! I get to go to Paleontology school!" When we told her it was for kindergarten, and not college, she was very sad. Incidentally, we may have found a suitable school for her, so long as there is space left for kids from other neighborhoods.
  

I am sure I had more to blog about, but it is nearly 10, and I am falling asleep. zzz.

One more sleep!

Only one more sleep, and then it is Christmas holidays! I am really excited for Christmas. It seems like the magic only lasts a few years - until grade 1 or so, when other kids ruin it for everyone. So I am really trying to enjoy and notice how magical it is for Abby, and Mina too. Every morning, the first thing Abby does is the advent calendar, and of course counts the remaining days. She has her letter for Santa memorized, and wraps up little presents for people all day, with kleenex and tape. She also loves to hear the baby Jesus story before bed, she says it gives her a good sleep. Right now she is more excited for "Auntie" day, the day we get to see Nunu. Abby is kind of upset that I did not put a picture of Nawana on our Christmas card, and she also thinks Auntie's last name is the same as ours. Abby also dreams of her every night, riding a white horse together. Mina likes to toddle up to the tree, oohing, and goes up to the baby's 1st Christmas pictures of her and Abby, and she likes to take the Christmas Fish off of the tree and play with him. It is fun.

Just a note about the Christmas card I sent out, you will notice there is no letter to go along with it. That is because I was too tired and grumpy that week to say anything positive. It has been a good year, I think, but really it has gone by in a blurry haze due to lack of sleep, and I do not really remember the highlights very well. Each time I started writing the letter, it degenerated very quickly into "I wish everyone would just go away and let me sleep." I am trying to be more positive now though, and I am hoping that this holiday season I can at least have a nap. Maybe 2 of them, if I have been good this year. Then I might feel better.

This and that, incoherent ramblings of today....

Well, since I went through the trouble to sign in and post a comment on nunu's blog, I might as well post here too. I do not really have anything specific to say, so here are my random thoughts.

• It is very cold here now! Like 20 below 0 for a high during the day. brrr. I sewed Mina's mittens on to her snowsuit, and she ripped out the stitching! That little weiner. I guess I should not have just basted them on...
  
• Abby and Mina both have eye infections, and I have to torture them 4 times daily with eye drops, and it is not much fun.
  
• There is no Midwifery school in Alberta! So, it seems likely that in 4 or 5 years, we will be moving to BC or Ontario. Unless things change in this province. We are so backwards here, in the "richest" province in Canada. I might become a lobbyist in the meantime, while I am upgrading and saving $.
  
• Christmas is coming! I arranged a cookie exchange at work and everyone signed up to participate! (except for M the grinch, who doesn't really like me, so is spurning the cookie exchange) I am unreasonably excited about this, and change my mind 3 times a day about what kind of cookie I am going to wow everyone with. I also arranged a festive pizza lunch, to which I am bringing dessert, and Donna caught my merry spirit and is arranging a gift exchange. Ho ho ho!
  
• Mina walks now! She can go about 10 steps, when she is motivated, like when she sees someone else's church bag and wants to root through it, in search of food. Then she will sit there, quietly, eating someone else's apple.
  
• Abby can count to 100! She is often muttering under her breath, and when you ask her what she said, she gets mad at you for interupting, and she has to start counting again.
  

When I Grow Up

I have always known that career wise, and education wise, I want to do more than Dental Assisting. For a long time though, like the past 12 years or so, I have struggled with figuring out what that something was. I have always been very envious of my sisters, who all seemed to be able to figure that question out very early in life, while I sat by, taking dental assistimg really only because it was only 1 year long, so if I hated it, it would not be a big loss. Turns out, I do enjoy my job, and it has served me well for the past 9 years. (holy cow, that is a long time!) For a while I thought that I wanted to be a nurse. But after being in the hospital a couple of times, and seeing what a nurse's job is like, and what our healthcare system here is really like, I realized that I do not want to be doing that. So that was the end of that dream. But the past couple of years, I have had this secret ambition. At first it was just a passing thought, I did not really believe I could do it. I would read books about it all the time, and imagine and dream that it was me, but I never said anything about it, because it was like this secret idea I had... But I got brave, I said it out loud, and it made me so excited. I have an info session to attend at the end of the month to find out if I can train for it in Alberta, but I could also go to BC or Ontario for it - for a 4 yr program at university. So my new 5 year plan is to do some major upgrading, as the programs are super competitive, and to save money. A lot of money.... Then, when my kids are both in elementary school, I am going to school to become a MIDWIFE! I am so so so excited about this, and it feels so right!

We Miss Auntie

Sigh, beloved Auntie, sister and nanny NuNu has been away for a week now. We sure miss her! I miss having so many stylish pairs of shoes on my shoe rack - and they almost fit me, so I could pretend they were mine and that I knew something about fashion. I miss all of her shopping bags, she would come home after being at the mall and give us fashion shows of all the things she found that day. I miss coming home to a fresh batch of cookies. Nunu would wake up, promptly at 2, and start baking up a storm. And she always shared. Now, I have to start baking cookies regularly again, because there is nothing as depressing as an empty cookie jar. I miss hearing the giggles from when Abby would crawl into bed with Nunu and pretend to be a bear in a cave under the blankets. I miss being able to say "go see what Auntie is doing" when Abby was driving me crazy and needed something to do while I made dinner. Abby misses her too, and really loves sleeping in Nawana's old bed. She says that she dreams of Auntie sleeping there too. She misses the walks to Starbucks to get strawberry frappuccino's on a nice day. Keith misses reading fashion magazines, well, so do I. Mina misses impromptu piano concerts - Nawana would play very complicated songs, and Mina and Abby would dance around the living room. It was so cute.

We hope things are going well in Mississauga, and that your ugly nurse shoes are at least very comfortable. We love you Nunu!

Disneyland!

We are back! We had such a fun and relaxing time at the Happiest Place on Earth! (Which to Keith was the one and only smoking section in Tomorrowland.) So after taking a car, 2 airplanes and a bus, we arrived at the wrong hotel. So "Judy" called for a golf cart to come and pick us up, and what appeared, but a fancy schmancy Cadillac - a sign of things to come. Abby asked if she had to take her shoes off in it, it was so nice. The Grand hotel was so amazing and beautiful. I miss sleeping in the bed, having a newspaper delivered in the morning, and the double vanity and cozy robes that we wore to the pool. It was really high class, nothing like the KOA Disney holidays of childhood. Not a can of Chunky soup in sight! Just nice ladies asking us if we needed turn down service (I had to ask what that was. It involved fluffy pillows and chocolate. Two of my favourite things!) For me the hotel was really the highlight. I may plan all future vacations based on if we can afford a top hotel.

Our first morning there, we went to California Adventure, which was all decked out for Halloween with candy corn growing on the palm trees. Abby LOVED Soaring over California, and was making a joke later about "walking over California", ha ha. Keith, mom and I did the big rollercoaster, (which we could see from our balcony!) and Abby went on the carousel too. Then it was time for lunch at Ariels Grotto. Holy moley. Princesses galore. Abby had the Christmas morning look on her face for the entire event, and I got all teary seeing her so excited. Then we went to Disneyland, where I made the mistake of taking Abby on Snow Whites Scary Adventure (not reading the sign before going into it.) It was very scary. Abby would only go on outdoor rides that were not scary, loud or dark after that. So we spent lots of time at Dumbo, Tea Cups, and the Carousel. Although we did get her to go on Pirates then next day, which she says she liked, even though she was complaining about how wet her Belle dress was, and hiding her eyes the whole time... Her big highlight was the Princess Vanity Faire, where she got 1 on 1 time with 3 princesses - for 1/2 an hour! She brought a picture of them that she had drawn, and got to show them and chat and dance with them. She did have a bit of trouble explaining to Pocahantas why she was not included in the drawing... It was so cute to see her in that princess dress, having such a magical time. She also really liked the parade and the Jungle Cruise. Keith and I loved Space Mountain, which I think is my fav "fast" disney ride.

We had such a fun time! It was relaxing and happy and fun! Our pics are not digital this time, but I will try and post some after I get the negs scanned and put on CD. Thank you dad and mom for taking us on this really great holiday, and for all of the magic that Abby got to experience! We are planning to go again at Christmas time, when the girls are a few years older, I am going to save me pennies so that we can stay at the Grand again!

A few things Tuesday

Betina's Thursday posts are really fun to read, so I am going to try and post weekly too, even if is is just random goings on. So here we go.

On Sunday, during Sacrament meeting, just after the water prayer, the bishop gets up and tells us all that there is a bomb in the building and we have to evacuate. He is Chinese and has quite an accent, so it took us all a while to figure out what he was talking about. Quite the adventure. Turns out it was only a prank call, and the police traced it and have a suspect, who will be charged. The Primary presentation was supposed to be that day, so they are going to do it on fast sunday instead, in place of testimony meeting. Maybe they just do not want to hear everyone bearing their testimonies about the bomb...

Abby likes to play with Mina. When Mina is not in the mood, Abby will set a trail of food on the floor to make Mina come to where she wants her to play. She keeps a bowl of dry cheerios in her room for this purpose. It is her "Mina bait".

I am back at work now, it is going fine. My boss is really happy to have me back, which is nice to know. Mina hates being away from me, and it makes me feel so guilty, I really hope that she gets used to things soon. I am stressed about it...

My Bathroom

One day, in my dream house, I will have my own bathroom. One that no one else is ever allowed to use. It will have:

• A heated ceramic floor, so that there are never drops of water to step in
• A heated towel rack too.
• A double shower with seats for shaving my legs without having to balance like a flamingo.
• Glass block window so that the neighbors cannot see inside when I am showering at night. Because the window film you buy at the store just does not do the job, apparantly.
• A bidet, which I think every crohnie should have.
  
• A built in window seat, so that i can just hang out in there and read when I need to get away. Also so I can just in there when I am sick.
  
• A telephone so that I can talk to my sisters. For some reason, one of us is usually in the bathroom when we chat.
  
• A really big cabinet where I can store many varieties of floss.
• No bath toys.
• A huge jetted tub, so that if I ever get pregnant again, which is not likely, I can have my baby at home. Or one of my sisters can come over and have a baby in my tub.
  
• A cabinet with special lights for sterilizing my toothbrush.

I think that is it. I have discovered that I really want my own bathroom. Even Keith would not be able to use it, although he really quite pleasant to share a bathroom with, I just want my own. Maybe I would set up my sewing machine in there too.