Picture post

It has been a while, so I am going to do a random picture posting. Todays post is from back in February, during the Winter Olympics. These were from one day at one of the celebration sites in Surrey.

oopsies

I see there are some cobwebs taking up residence on my blog. My bad, and my apologies.
I became a homeschooling mama for half the year. It was VERY hectic, but paid off in the end, and he goes to grade 2. The kids have been playing up a storm with summer holidays here and finally weather agreeable to having such fun. The kids are growing up fast and I am trying to soak up as much of their youthful vibrancy as possible, as though days may feel long, they truly are fleeting in the end.
We adopted two cats. Smudge is white with a smudge of grey on his forehead. Bandit, as the name suggests has a black mask. He actually looks more like a cow, though apparently, fat cow is not a cool cat name. LOL Could you imagine trying to cat him in at night? At the time we thought he was a she. How can someone raise kittens and not see that parts are on the outside... anyways, sidetracking myself here. Supposed to be updating. K, so we have started to get the yard in proper shape, levelling out the new soil, planting grass seed, making flower beds. Exciting stuff. I shoveled about 25 wheelbarrows of dirt myself. Felt good to get sweaty and dirty from gardening though.
Broke the mini quad Father's day weekend. Kids were at gramma's, so me and my hubby went and ripped it out at the pit by my house. It was great, and I got covered head to toe with mud over the 5 hours. But, of course a but, my chain caught up and I split the motor casing in half, taking a few chunks out on the way. KJ fixed it for next weekend when we will take the big and little quads out for a few hours again.
Well, that is my life in a nutshell. Lots of other things I am sure, but I got to start supper.

Keeping busy

After the family left, spent some time getting my house and life back into its normal rhythm.

Pulled Aiden from school and began homeschooling him about two weeks ago. It is going great. He sits and works at his papers, and we have been expanding his work out into everyday situations like baking cookies, nature walks, art projects, writing letters, etc.

Nicholas has been on a baking bender when he is here. Cookies... today he and two friends kids that I was watching made 6 1/2 dozen plus a GIANT cookie. Can you say sugar high? LOL

House has had it's fall cleaning now. Almost done, except for the piles of socks that are waiting to be paired. KJ built a back deck and last weekend an overhang that covers the whole area with UVA and UVB protection, same as the front.

Christmas decorations are ready to go up, might be doing that tonight. The kids are making presents for people already, so I need to clear up some space to put them for the next month. Photoshop and picture taking sessions, along with a whole bunch of sewing will be keeping me busier in the next few weeks.

That is about it... just been busy doing this and that.

On a passing...

My aunt went into the hospital Sunday, and died Friday morning. Family left this morning. I am currently still decompressing. Things have been emotional, messy, and on quite a few occasions loud. Family feuding has gotten in the way of giving me time to grieve. I played counsellor to them all for the last time this weekend. Hopefully they can now move forward with their lives instead of bathing in the past every day. Sigh. I was left a cold in their wake. I have a heavy chest, so calling my dr tomorrow to see if I can get a rx called in for my puffers. It has been such a chaotic week that at almost 5pm I am ready for bed. My life is back to its peace & quiet... well four kids kind of quiet.

Sharing is caring

Today my SIL went to the drs to talk about vaxes- swine flu vax mainly. She has decided not to get it for her family. Asked if I was I replied no, and we started sharing a bit. She shared this link. A link for a site in Canada that shows the flip side of vaxes no one wants to know of. The damage they can cause. I linked her to my blog story of Nicholas to explain where I am at on the whole vax issue. What I found on that site thanks to her is stories exactly like our experience. Always nice to know you are not alone and it is not all in your head. Anyways, passing that link along bc sharing is caring. http://vran.org/

Wednesday morning notes.

Last night bedtime was before midnight! The night before Ana stayed up until 3am. She woke Joshua up around two am so she wouldn't be the only reason I was awake. Then they all got back up before 8am. Lovely. So needless to say, yesterday was a drag my butt kind of day, and today I am hopeful for more. Aiden is still out of school sick. His trip to science world this week is looking farther and farther from happening. As the school receptionist put it, he is not the only one. Apparently cold and flu season has most definitely hit Aiden's school. Joshua and Anastasja have not even made one day of Strongstart yet. They are both unhappy about that. Every day I hear about how Joshua is not going to school. Is it wrong that today I am happy about not having to get out of my comfy jammies and smooshy bathrobe and heated house to go drop the boy off in this downpour of rain and chill outside.

KJs dad came and went. Think he was here about two days and one night. Short visit, but still very enjoyable. He brought the younger 3 the Olympic tracksuits the Bay is selling for early Xmas presents. The boys have black tracksets, Ana has a red one. They will be styling while the Olympics are here. Kj and I cooked our first turkey dinner together on our own. Apparently we make a wicked bird that is juicy and well cooked. I also made stovetop stuffing for my first time, while KJ tackled the gravy. Added into the meal were also candied yams, mashed yams, buttered baby carrots, mashed dill potatoes, cranberry sauce, and topped off by Charlene's contribution, a rhubarb saskatoon berry pie and vanilla ice cream. So much for eking past this season without doing a turkey. I also must add that there was a hell of a lot of leftovers from the turkey dinner vs my yummy shepherds pie thanksgiving dinner.

Trip up north is on for the second week of November. So excited to get to see everyone. Taking the 3 youngest now, rather than just Ana. Childcare was too nightmarish to try to figure out if I left them behind.

My Anastasja is awake and on me now... update later.

Dumb Crackhead!

K, so a week ago, KJ caught crackhead aka D.F. (dumb f*&*) under the hood of Geoffs mustang taking out wires etc. Two days ago, he gets in the shop. KJ wakes to the door banging at 4am, goes in, turns on the light (behind the door and that is so scary to even think about) and D.F. is in there with a skill saw, heavy metal C clamp and the quad key in hand. KJ figured one punch and he would land a charge bc the guy is so frail from drug use. So he tells him to drop it all, and screw off or he will call the police. The guy got nothing, though we thought he had the quad key for about an hour til I found it where he dropped it on the floor. So this morning he came back. Again got into the shop. We know he pried it somehow, but you can't really tell looking at the deadbolt. Anyways, he started the big quad up in our driveway. Stupid DF. Thankfully the cold bogged it out down the street bc KJ upon hearing it again took his boxer clad body out and chased him down. He clothes lined the guy off the bike, punched him once, and then stomped on his face. Then drove the Quad home and woke me up. We have a rule of no violence, but this guy is not getting the picture and KJ is worried about him coming back when he is at work. He took a shower before waking me up. I went on the street and seen the guy standing at the other end of the street from where KJ left him and walking all disoriented. I yelled after him, but by the time I got to that side he was gone. This has freaked us out. So now we are looking into all kinds of security we can add. The shop holds all his tools, plus the quads, bikes,and other stuff like camping gear. All the kinds of stuff this guy wants so he can pawn it for his drugs. What a way to start the day.

It's October

Things have been busy, as usual, and my computer was having issues, so I have not been updating. Will try to squeeze as much in as possible.

Lets see... left off in August... well, the annual family camping trip/reunion was fun. The kids made candy art on paper plates with icing to hold it all together. They also had the traditional tree jello. The family dinner was a great spread; pigs in a blanket, perogies, chicken quesadillas,lazy cabbage rolls, various meat & fish stuffs (yuck to me), corn on the cob, bean salad, garden salad, oh the list was endless as were the yummy desserts. Our contribution was a potato salad with a whack load of bacon in it. We skipped rocks on the river, took long walks, played boccie ball, croquet, scrabble, crib, and of course poker.

Went on another camping trip at the end of August to KJs cousins new house. Huge housewarming party with lots of food, drink, family and a live band. Lots of fun!

All but Anastasja and Nick got haircuts. Cut 6 inches off mine, and Charlene styled it up this week with another inch or so lost. Joshua lost 4 inches, but it is still long and curly. Aiden has his Caesar #1 cut or whatnot. KJ went with him for that. Nicholas keeps saying he wants a haircut but each time we are there or someone comes here he takes it back. He he he

Nick is in grade 8 this year, doing very well. He loves Fridays- Zombie survival class. Aiden is in grade 1 now. He missed about 2 weeks due to a light viral illness mid Sept- Oct. It sucked because with all the swine flu news, any symptom keeps you home. So his fever kept him home 2, then the sniffles a week. Then he got to go back for one day, and got sick for an hour that night and was off the next day. So far he is doing well being back. He studied hard for his first spelling test, and got 5/5. I was so glad he saw the rewards from doing the homework.

Joshua and Anastasja have yet to get a day in to Strongstart. We have spent many hours singing, dancing, and playing around to make up for it. Joshua also is able to spell his name out loud as well as write it. He is with Aiden and I when we read slowly together and has started to recognize what some of the words I stop at for Aiden to say are and saying them before he can.

The house has been getting worked on more. We ripped up the backyard after the tree with the tire swing and another, fell in the last windstorm. We are rebuilding the fence anyways, as the trees took out most of it when they fell. They were really close together, and fell 90 degrees from each other. Now our backyard is where we ride the ATV's, and pocket bikes. We have acquired a few more, and wanted a place the kids could ride their kiddy quad too. It is a neat little track we lined with branches from the trees, with a jump built in.The neighbours have ripped up their backyard, and some more of the fence, so now it is quite a big track. All approved by everyone, of course. I have gotten the quad off all four wheels today. Exhilarating and addictive. The kids love it. Joshua is almost off his training wheels for his two wheeler. Aiden, not so much. KJ has built a 10x10 deck off the back door in the kitchen. Now the backyard is actually accessible, other than through the shops heavy back door. Bought paint for the kitchen cabinets. Quite the opinions over the color I chose- a medium dark grey, but with the counter tops and appliances (thinking also of more changes still coming) and the color blocking that is going to be done, I think it will be sharp. As KJ put it, it can be repainted if it doesn't look right. Every room has under gone a mass cleaning/ purging as well, aside from my poor laundry room, which though it has, thanks to doing all the other rooms, has still got a bit of work that is waiting.

Had a chance to get out of the house, other than the typical a bit ago. Went to my friends house for a swap party. A clothing/misc swap where everyone comes, bringing the stuff (clean and folded) they do not want anymore, put them into piles, and then everyone goes through everyone's things, finding stuff they like and fit. It was a lot of fun. Got to squeeze in a game of scattergories before the night was done to boot. Love the "new" clothes too. After losing the baby weight I have over the years given away most of the clothes that fit me at this size, so it was a big expansion of things to wear. I also was able to give away a garbage bag of clothes I really had no use for that were taking up space. So now, I am proud to say, everything, and I mean everything in my dresser is folded and piled properly. No more scary moments of brushing the door and having everything fall down. It has been a while. LOL.

The TD Great Canadian Shoreline Clean Up was a success! This year there were 14 volunteers and we managed to clean up almost all of King's Creek. Some areas were inaccessible, but we got all we could. Filled up around 8 garbage bags with stuff. It was nice that it was a lot of family and friends that came. Only four volunteers were from the site. I had entered it as open to join, but earlier in the day the group that had taken the site I had to coordinated before (Quibble Creek), performed their clean up so I am guessing that was where most ppl went. It was a school/college I think that took it this year. Still, the goal was reached, and everyone had that feel good feeling you get from hard work and seeing the positive impact. It was a great day that we ended with almost all coming over for a barbecue and driving bikes around in the yard.

My sister moved a bit further up north due to an amazing job change that I am so happy for her for. Anyways, she moved and went for her first grocery shop and runs into Josie, my other sister, whom I haven't heard from since the wedding. Well, she just moved there too, and is pregnant, due December 15th! So I am going to be an aunty again. Taking a trip up north, well, so long as everything works out, the second week of November, so hopefully Ana and I will get to see everyone. Chrystal's girls have not met her yet, nor has Josie, so I am crossing my fingers everything works out as planned.

K, well just writing this has actually taken a few hours of me coming back and forth through company coming by, getting the atv off 4 wheels, and putting Ana down for a nap. I baked two apple oat crisps too. Which family and company polished off in 10 minutes. I cheated last night and went with Shepard's pie and homemade apple pie. No one complained about not having turkey, only how long the apple pie took to bake (they ate it fresh from the oven).

Oh and KJ's dad is here from tomorrow til next week sometime, so again, probably won't be on much. So I am going to end this with a happy thanksgiving to my fellow canucks.

Summer Time

This summer has been a busy one. Many days filled with friends and family visiting. This weekend is the weekend we go off to the annual family reunion camping trip. Complete with tree jello, feasting and well, no fire this year... but I am sure we will roast wienies over the stove over maybe strike a match or two or two hundred. Not too sure if we are taking the quad we bought for Nicks b day. Feels rather wrong with him not being there. He took off last night to go to Sechelt for the weekend with a friend. Much has changed in the family with a new baby to meet, so should be fun chatting and catching up with everyone. Still figuring out some details, but supposed to leave tomorrow night. Got lots of laundry to catch up to til then, and packing up has not even began. Not finished the laundry from the boys camping trip with Jason from last week. Whew, gonna be a long night.

Ana add on...

Had to shout to the blogosphere that Ana went #2 this morning on the potty!!! She also just said thank you when I handed her half a frozen yogurt tube. <3 Loving my baby and had to share.