Birdies

This is my latest little knitting project! So cute! They were small, but not too quick as they have a few pieces and are a little fiddly! But I would definitely make some more! Here's the pattern on Ravelry.

Life keeps rolling by. My kids are growing up! The kids are doing well in school and definitely have their areas where they shine. I marvel at Shea's reading ability and though he still hates to draw, his writing skills have improved and his little messages he writes on his own in birthday cards are the sweetest! He has almost finished his third piano book and is quite the little performer. I imagine he is wearing on his piano teacher, but also a riot to watch. Liam is enjoying being the oldest in the school, with many leadership opportunities. He has joined a junior youth group with a friend and is branching out doing his own things. Riley is continuing to marvel us with his musical abilities. He has started trombone now, is taking electric guitar lessons, but also plays bass, acoustic, ukelele, and trumpet. He is not afraid, and because he can hit the high notes, he gets all the first trumpet high parts. I just watched his band play 2 songs at school, and it was awesome. He seems to prefer his grade 8 teachers, to his 6/7 ones, and isn't overwhelmed with homework yet. Hard to believe that he's in his last year of middle school!? He keeps us guessing with his up/down mood swings these days! I have started taking more shifts at work again. Two ladies are taking week holidays, so I'm covering both at the hospital and at the care home. It will be a bit of a stress to be working the full weeks, but easier in the sense that it is done in two quick planned weeks, rather than being called in one day a week here and there. My bank account was starting to dwindle, so I figure I'd better get back at er! Two more positions are opening again, so I'll probably do some coverage while those are being filled again (like last year!). Shea and I have a ski seasons pass for our first time ever, and I am excited to try skiing more than three times a year! I may actually improve some? Time to buy some long underwear! In my down time, I've been taking some photos, and keeping up with my running. Here's my latest photo shoot, of my cute little nieces and nephews... (Also growing up right before our eyes.) Their house is coming along nicely, and this week they started framing in the basement! We joined them for lunch yesterday, and as usual, neighbors with a horse (needing riding) dropped by, numerous friends and family came over...yup, it's never a quiet place. Maybe we can convince Luke to build a skating rink out there on their huge land somewhere to add to the fun!!? Hard to believe that November is here. It came sooner this year due to the late start of school. Before you know it, it'll be Christmas.

Jasper

Just got back from a Girl's Weekend in Jasper. It was gorgeous and sunny. I went up the skytram and did an hour hike up farther to enjoy the view from the top. Amazing. Due to all the late nights and sharing a hide-a-bed, I didn't get much sleep. I'm pretty tired, but glad I got away!

Better late than not at all

The kids are back to school, and it's a good thing cuz that was a LooooooooNG summer! 5 weeks longer to be exact. Thanks to the teacher strike and the stubborn government! Today was only the first official day in their classes. They are in grade 8 (the oldest grade in middle school), grade 5 (the oldest grade in elementary school) and grade two. Next year my three will be in three different schools. We were trying out the homeschool routine while I had them home the past 3 weeks, and it wasn't pretty. I had fun with seeing them learn new things, and thinking up crazy art or science experiments. But trying to instruct such different grades at the same time was nearly impossible. One would goof while I'd be working with another, and on and on. I felt pulled in three directions and my house was always chaos. So we know for sure now that I was not meant to homeschool. And blessings on those moms who can do it, because you are very selfless and have more patience than I do. So we're happy to be back to the usual routine and getting the last two mornings on my own to breathe and do my dishes has been wonderful. They come home at 2pm, so we still have a long afternoon together. Shea is back into the swing of piano lessons and started up with swim club. Riley is in guitar lessons again, and will be in school band. We're not sure what Liam will be up to, but we're just happy to be back in school for now!

August

Another month has passed, and here we sit with no end of summer in sight as our schools are still negotiating contracts with the government. We've been told there may be a month yet of strikes or even longer. It makes what would have been the last week of summer feel rather weird. We haven't shopped for school supplies, and we aren't starting to get back into sleeping routines or taking those "final" trips to the beach. It is strange. We've had a lot of fun the last two weeks. We took our family vacation week in the middle of August. We hooked up the trailer and went down to Osoyoos for the first night. Then we drove over the border into the States for the first time with the kids. We drove to Coeur d'Alene where we had booked 4 nights at the Lake Coeur d'Alene Resort Campground. It was a long drive through some dry old Prairie looking towns. It was close to 40 degrees. We were happy to get to our campground which was set in the forest and stayed very cool and quiet. The next two days were spent at the Silverwood theme park, just half an hour from our campsite. We had heard about this great amusement park and figured the boys would enjoy it as much as Disneyland, so we had to check it out. The first day was spent at the waterpark side of the grounds. It was 38 degrees that day, and so we were thankful for the water. Unfortunately 50,000 other people had the same idea, and we were in lines for over an hour each time, so we hit the wave pool most of the time. The next day we went to the rides. We came early and got first in line for one of the largest wooden roller coasters! Shea (who is 7), was just tall enough, and this was his first roller coaster! Wowza, it was crazy fast! We nearly scared all of them with that first ride! So the three of them stood there in horror as "daddy" and I rode the next one, Aftershock. It was SO fun! I can't do the spinny rides anymore, but the coasters are a blast. The boys got their courage up again and tried a pile of other crazy rides. We loved it and would do it again for sure. The next two days were spent shopping in Spokane and wandering the beautiful city of Coeur d'Alene. It actually looks very similar to Salmon Arm, but the waterfront there is developed so nicely with great boardwalks, marinas, shops and beaches. Makes you wish our town could do the same! We have too many nature enthusiasts in our neck of the woods, who don't want to disturb the bird sanctuaries! Then we headed north, rather than heading back west, and crossed the border near Creston. We camped there one night and toured the Columbia Brewery the next day as our campground was right across the street. It was a fun little spontaneous adventure, and the boys felt like they were in a live episode of "How it's Made". They had lots of questions for our tour guide. It was really cool to see the cans being filled and sealed and pushed along crazy fast. Did you know that something like 98% of glass beer bottles are recycled and reused (after being sanitized) up to 15 times? We watched the part where they wash the bottles and remove the old labels with their fancy machines. Then we took two ferries and stopped in Crawford Bay on the way, to see the artisans there, such as North Woven Brooms, the place that made brooms for Harry Potter and the Bewitched movies. Also we watched glass blowing and the blacksmiths doing their amazing work. The kids were pretty impressed. We camped in downtown Nelson and wandered around the shops there for a bit. The weather was starting to get pretty wet and cold and the kids (and parents) were getting pretty tired. We decided to shorten our trip by a day and came straight home the next day through Revelstoke in the pouring rain. We didn't stop at the hotsprings as we had hoped, but aim to do it sometime in the fall when we're not so tired and wet! We came home to company as Greg's family was coming for the next week. We hosted his sister and her boys and did many fun family beach days and dinners together. We've now got 8 kids under 12 between us!

The two older girl cousins have stayed longer for an extra week with grandma, so the fun isn't over yet! Today we're hitting up the beach and the little 3 will do the waterslides tonight while the older 2 go to the movies with Greg and I. Riley and I have also decided to get in shape, so this August we started the Couch to 5K running plan. We are into our 4th week and are running about 16 min. of the half hour now. It works you up to running really gradually and we haven't hardly had any trouble. I used to do 5K's quite frequently, but Riley has never run much, so this has been great for him. We do lots of talking during the walking parts, and quite often Shea is following us on his bike or scooter. Riley and I even did one run in Creston, and one in Coeur d'Alene! It should take 9 weeks til the program is done, and you're running the 5K. So we are already over half way there! I have 60lbs of peaches sitting in my hallway, so I have my work cut out for me this weekend! I am also planning to do pickles and hopefully some salsa and corn! This morning I started my day doing the ice bucket challenge (to raise money for ALS)! Be sure to check out my video on Facebook! The boys were so happy to dump ice cold water on their mom and film it! I have photos to go with all these words, but most of them are on G's phone, so I will add them later!

I told my boys they had to write 5 sentences in a journal today. (What a slave driver, mean old mom they have, right?) Thankfully my two oldest got right down to business. They know! We've done this every summer, and though I hadn't made them do it yet this summer, they know that I'm not going to let them get out of it. So they did their duty. The youngest, however, maybe he thought it would go a whole lot faster if he cried over every letter he wrote. And he was writing about kittens and waterslides. Really sad topics. So then my mom bugged me by saying I didn't write my five sentences today...so here I am. In fact, I already just wrote over five sentences and didn't even cry, so there. So summer came early, and work/school came to an abrupt halt. I wasn't quite ready for it all to be over, and yet it was. We went down to meet that sweet new baby nephew of ours. Then when we came home, we camped out at my brothers new farm with my family. Even since the campout we've spent a lot of time out there as they nearly gutted their new house and have done lots of work since. This past weekend (almost a month later), we helped them move out of the basement and into their newly carpeted/painted/trimmed rooms. It looks like a whole new house. So beautiful. Luke and Pam are work horses who we wouldn't see if we didn't practically move in there and work with them! We do take lots of time to enjoy their yard/pool/cherries and animals too though! Anna (my sister) and her kids have been there for a month and she has done so many projects too. She also is my personal side-kick at the beach, pulling weeds, chewing Spitz, picking raspberries in the rain, bellyflopping into the pool, flying down the waterslides, grocery shopping, doing dishes, and we'll often be found wandering around with 9 or so kids! So glad to have her here and sad she's leaving soon. Our little family also did a 3 night stay in Osoyoos with our trailer and sweated it out in the 40 degree weather! We spent most of the time in the water and lived in our bathing suits! We are hoping to do a few more trips before this summer is over.

Baby

Got to meet and photograph my newest (and possibly last??) little nephew. He's SO cute!!

New developments

So another month has flown on by, and it has been full of action! We celebrated another birthday in our house. Shea had a Pikachu themed 7th birthday party at our house. We have always had his parties at our house with the family and a few friends. We did the annual water balloon volleyball game and many other fun Pikachu games like Bingo, and using squirt guns to knock the ping pong balls off of golf tees, air boarding over a fan etc. He had a great time and the weather cooperated! Then Greg and I took off to Florida for a week. Greg enjoyed the web developer conference and I enjoyed the resort. Need I say more! I met many great ladies, and it was so nice to not have to cook, pack lunches, nag at the kids or clean clean clean. My brother and his wife have been busy selling their house, moving out of it and waiting to close a deal on a house just out of town. It has 8.5 acres, with outbuildings, animals, an above-ground pool, space for the inlaws etc. It was a foreclosure and had to go to court. While waiting for the court date, their house sold and they had to move out and stay with her family. They just heard news that they got the house and can move in in two weeks time!! YAY! We're all so relieved and excited that we can be part of this new big adventure with them. Many reno/building plans are in the works. We have a campout booked in their yard already at the end of the month! The day after that good news, we heard yesterday that Heather and Christian had their second baby, another boy. He was a wee little 6lbs 6oz bundle who they named Magnus. Grandma and Grandpa are on their way down with Riley to meet him right now. We can't wait to meet their new baby and see their new first home. I will be taking baby pictures for them again, so you will see those eventually! I haven't been working as much lately as another position was filled at Bastion. For now I'm just covering sick days and holidays for people. I don't mind as I can spend hours in the yard right now, and school is coming to a close. We've had a few strike days and may have more to come :( So many new and exciting things are happening around us, and we're anticipating a busy summer.

Upgrade

In our house, the dining table is a central important piece of furniture for our family as we eat around it together daily. We have had many birthday cakes and parties around that table, discussions and friends. When we first got married, we had been given a little round oak table with two matching chairs from my in laws. We still use it as our extra table. When we moved into our first house, we upgraded from that four seater round table to another used six seater rectangular table (that came with 5 chairs and two leafs). It was an old white painted thing with ugly blue vinyl seats. Ugly, but practical. Great for kids, and we've squeezed 8 people around it regularly (as seen below).

It has been great to us, and we don't worry about any scratches or stains.

Lately I've been looking for a new-to-us set as one of the 5 chairs had completely broken. I have been looking for a month, in town, on kijiji and craigslist. On Saturday morning I was scrolling the "dining sets" section again and found an add for 8 wooden chairs for a great price in Kamloops. Greg picked them up for us this morning and they look fabulous! They have tied in the brown countertops with our brown couch. They are solid wood, and made in Canada!

One day I might get a new table, but for now this one is doing fine. It has pen marks, stains and knicks, but it's holding up. I think I actually need a bigger house before I get a bigger/better table! As you can see in the picture, we have to drag the table out onto the carpet to fit if people are eating at the bar. (Or I guess we could get new flooring that would carry the dining area into the living room.) To offically break them in, on the day we got our chairs, we squeezed 9 of us around the table (and 3 at the bar) for dinner with Luke's family tonight, our fourth big meal with family in a row this Easter!

Easter 2014

Easter is always a special time of year. It is so exciting to have the sun start to shine again and have things spring out of the ground...but more specifically, we are reminded of the hope we have because Christ has risen! We had family visiting and have spent the last three suppers having big celebration meals together. Look how big these boys are getting!

Baby on the way!

Our family isn't done growing yet. Greg's sister is having another baby in June, so we did a little photoshoot while she was home for Easter.

What a cute little family. I have no guesses as to what she's having, but it's exciting no matter what!! Congratulations, Heather and Christian, can't wait to meet him/her!

Hi friends, and hello spring! Life is going along at a quick pace, and I'm already looking into summer plans and activities. I have been working at least a day a week, and sometimes more. Last week my boss just finally got me booked into a regular casual schedule on Monday/Wed/Friday from 9am to 2pm, which is quite welcome! I didn't like being called the night or morning of the day I'd be working. This makes my life a lot simpler. The position is at the old folks home,but is in the rehab (convalescent care) section. It is made up of 5-10 people who have usually come from the hospital and are more or less medically stable but not ready to go home. We do lots of exercise and classes, as well as cognitive work with the patients. The goal is that they go back home in 2-6 weeks so we get a nice turnover of clients. It is a much slower pace than the hospital and has more of a homey environment. The boss is still trying to hire and has some new applicants, so my "position" won't last long, but for now it's working nicely. I'm hoping it'll last until summer. Time for work....more later!!

Finished pillow

I finally finished a project I started in the fall. I had been given some wool for my last birthday, and figured I should get using it and make something for myself as the wool was a gift for ME after-all! I am still fearful to make myself a sweater in case I hate it, so decided to make a cabled sweater for my pillow!

I used this pattern from ravelry to get me started. I think next time I'll try a more chunkier pillow like this one in hopes that it'll go a little quicker. I decided to do a three needle bind off to finish the project and then on the other open end, I sewed in a zipper by hand so I can remove the case if needed. I really like the finished product!

Two Shea stories

This past weekend, my parents asked Shea and I to join them on the long trek up north to Prince George to visit my sister and her family. We decided to go for it, as I would never do the drive on my own with kids and love any opportunity to party with the fam. So Shea got to skip school on Friday, and we drove up. We were able to stay in our favorite hotel there, which is like an indoor Hawaii, with palm trees and pools. It really is a cheap paradise, especially in winter. While there, we all went out for breakfast in the hotel restaurant, which is like a tiki hut in the main area of the hotel. Shea got the buffet and ended up finishing his meal before mine had even come. I figured I could be trusting and send him out with his older cousin to walk around in the hotel while we finished eating. I looked at him sternly in the eyes and said..."DO NOT GO near the pool. Don't even go around it. Just walk around the outside and stay far from the pool." Off the two ran, and the rest of us adults ate our breakfast. No less than 10 minutes later, Shea's other cousin came to the table and said, "The boys are in the pool." IN THE POOL?? How, what and IN THE POOL???? We purposely did not give the kids the room keys as we didn't want them getting into anything. All sorts of images were going through my head. I left my breakfast and ran off to the pool. My sister was there already hauling her son out, and I didn't have to say much and Shea came out and we marched straight to the hotel room. HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU GET IN THE ROOM?? He had his suit on, goggles and everything. He would have had to get dressed at Olympic speed and would have made a beeline straight to the pool from leaving the restaurant as it was only a few minutes later. "The cleaning lady let me in." Oh my word. BUT HOW did you think that was ok, as I said to go nowhere near the pool. What a rotter. I couldn't believe he would so blatantly disobey me. We have a LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG way to go. His only good excuse was that my cousin (a responsible adult that we can trust) ironically was visiting PG too, was in the pool and asked the boys if they were coming in!! But still....any thought that maybe you could ask your mom if that was OK???!! KIDS. To be so carefree. The next day, we were lazing around in our hotel room. The adults were watching the olympics and the kids were running around and having fun. Shea asked me for a toonie to head to the gumball machines that are all around the hotel. It took him quite awhile, and I was almost tempted to go check the pool area again! Finally after 5 minutes, he came back and stumbled loudly into the room and announced. "AHHHHHH, I feel so good. I just had the best massage ever!" "I got 4 minutes and I L.O.V.E'd it!" The little crazy kid had spent his toonie on a four minute massage chair! What a nut. He is so crazy right now. Funny, adorable, but exhausting. Anyone wanna borrow him for awhile??

Limbo

So I worked up til January 10th, training my replacement and then have been home. It does feel really weird to go from working SO hard to doing just housework or knitting! It was a welcome break, but ironically I almost feel more tired. Now that my body is allowed to relax, it almost seems like it's trying to catch up on the last crazy year of insanity! I also stay up later, knowing I don't have to work in the morning, so I guess that isn't great. I did get called in already to cover for the new girl, as she needed a personal day. Next week I have two days of orientation at the convalescent care program. I don't know what kind of casual work I'll get over there, but even a day or two a week would be great. I'm really hating this time of year and can't WAIT for spring. The snow is just dirty and crusty and the sidewalks are terrible for walking. I really hate going outside, and I have little motivation to get working out again, though I did try a barre class which was a mix of pilates and ballet and man did I hurt for the next three days following! I do look forward to walking/running again once the weather improves. The boys have kept me busy with their various activities and helping them with their homework. We've been doing multiplication cards and reading as much as possible around here. Riley is doing a lot of guitar and ukelele and Shea is really doing well at his piano lessons. I need to dedicate 20 min. a day to helping him get through his theory and practicing, so it's a lot of work on my part as well. Check out two of his piano solos on my facebook page! Hurry up, spring....

...my favorite subject!

I love how with a toddler, you never know what you're going to get because they are so spontaneous with their faces and movements.

I'm looking forward to spring, and all the flowers that I'll be able to photograph. For now, I've got my poinsettia and some dried hydrangeas!

Done like dinner

Ok, so today was officially my official last day of work. (I know I've been saying that awhile!) It was my last day at the end of July, and then I went back in September and have been there til now. I had taken Christmas off, (cuz I'm casual and I can do that!) and then came back after the two weeks to train my replacement. I was only supposed to train her for 2 days, but it turned into four, so I almost worked another whole week. At the end of the day, my replacement suddenly informed me that she would love to job share and would be happy to give up one day a week of her full-time position. I was overjoyed to hear it, but hopes were dashed soon after when I approached my boss about it. She said that the union only will accept 50/50 job shares, or maybe a 40/60, but not a 20/80 or whatever that would be. :( I think it has to do with benefits, and that the union wants all permanent employees to have access to benefits. I would happily work without benefits, as I have been all year, but ya. So that's sad. I may write the union, and see what their reasoning is. So now the only options left are the two positions available at Bastion Place, both part time, but since it's a position, I'd have to work every other weekend and of course all school holidays/summer (so no). Or getting some casual positions to cover those currently unfilled posts. That may not happen for awhile, as they are still working out their new expanded convalescent program there. So it's a wait-see for now.

I must admit that I'm rather sad, but feeling also happy I am not in a position where I HAVE to work, or have to take what I get. I get the chance to pick the best option for our family. I am going to enjoy getting some more social time in, and cleaning out our disaster house! Maybe I'll get my kitchen tile in one of these days!!