Speilmoms Ramblings

Happy Birthday Levi!!!

2010-07-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

It's summer again. Which means company, holidays, eating, swimming and most of all celebrating our oldest son. Fifteen years ago he made us parents for the very first time! I'm so proud of the young man he's becoming!

This morning I expected to have to wait hours to see his little 15 year old face peering bleary eyed at me from the basement BUT ... he bounded up the stairs dressed and in search of presents before 8am!!! What?! He has inherited the "birthday-excitement-gene" from his mother it seems. I hope he wasn't disappointed. This year there was no pony (again) but he seemed okay with that. Instead Kev put together a list of old cars for sale on Craig's list and gave him cash and a promise of help of work. I promise not to help, seems fair! We also gave him an enormous case of Dr. Pepper which he quickly horded, candy and some movies. AND this is the big one, I am forgoing my morning yoga DVD so he can play his stupid shooting game on the PS3. Love. It's an amazing thing!

What do you do on your 15th birthday you may ask? Well your mom makes a bunch of your friends food, feeds them ice cream cake and then you head into the bush to shoot paintballs at each other - true story. How fun is that? (nope, I don't see it either but I'm not a teenage boy) See why we don't invite girls to these things?

Happy Birthday Levi Peter Jay! We are proud ot have you as our eldest son and are excited to see what another year holds!

School is out ... for summer...sort of :)

2010-06-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

It's officially summer for us! Amelia attended her Kindergarten homeschool wrap up party, Isaac and Maddy had their last meeting with the support teacher who oversees us AND Levi is done...
well sort of...
He has suddenly found his school mojo of sorts and will be doing his English 10 online in July. Yay Levi!! But he's done everything else.

So today I sit with nothing on my calendar. I'm not sure what to do. I mean, don't get me wrong, there is much to do. I just mean I don't have 3 things to race to back to back or baking due at some function or someone's gift to buy. I guess I can't avoid it any longer...I'll have to do the laundry...sigh.

In other news, we got the pool up! Which will ensure a summer time full of laundry for me :) just in case I was to run out.

Sometimes in the midst of the laundry and the vacuuming and the millions of meals and snacks, I forget about the joy.

The joy in that first gasp as you break the surface of a cold pool.
The joy in sucking on a Freezy
and feeling it run in sticky streams down your chin.
The joy of eating snacks for lunch
and having bag after bag of chips.
The pure joy in running.
and screaming.
and laughing until your sides hurt.
The joy in plucking something out of the garden.
and eating it with while the dirt crunches between your teeth.
The joy in late bedtimes
and sleepovers.
The joy of having late night bonfires.
and early morning birdsongs.
The joy of reading a book just for fun.
The joy of warm sun on wet skin.
Pure summer joy!

It's great to be a child at our house! Here's to a summer of joy for everyone.

brrrrrrrrrrr....

2010-06-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

So I'm not sure what's up over here on the West Coast of BC but...WE ARE FREEZING TO DEATH!!! Where oh where is summer?? Where is the sun? Where is the heat? My poor garden! My poor kids!
We are trying to fill the pool and get the yard and deck ready for a summer of BBQ's and get togethers and fun (and even grow our own food) but we need the heat to come on! Please!

Let me show you where we are so far....
This is our new two tiered garden on the left side of the path. Notice the tiny new grass coming up?! YAY - it's the upside of this cool damp weather. See the pool? This is the downside. Takes FOREVER to fill cuz we have a well and it messes with the water pressure. Also, at this point you risk hypothermia if you attempt it...
Here's the other side of the path. I wasn't quite sure how to handle the whole apple tree, garden situation so...it may change next year. (I know, I should move shovels and bins and garbage - sorry!)
My mom and dad worked like dogs last week when they came out as hubby is still broken AND they love to garden :) Did I mention I have the best parents in the world?? Well it deserves to be repeated!

And here we have the far side of the tiered yard. That far garden always existed but my dad cleaned up the roses (thanks dad) and generally weeded. Our plan is to dig steps into that far end. It's going to be a beautiful thing!
Also, yay for tomatoes :) Hopefully if it ever warms up we'll get a bunch of fruit!
So onto my veggie patch which after all this cold wet dark weather is looking less than stellar at this point in the year. I think something may be eating my peas, but that's a conversation for another time.
Also see all that hose? This is the upside of the rainy, yucky weather. No need to hurry on the watering system..sigh! ( I think my poor plum tree may think it's fall)

And the far side of my veggie garden. See that box in the front? My girls planted this in a random, kid garden patch kind of way. Notice how it's the only place anything is really thriving? So weird!
Oh and one day, we'll have grapevines growing over a pergola! Stay tuned! Maybe the sun will come out too which would be amazing at this point! I'm very thankful for all the help and support we've had to bring it to this point. Kev has been literally on the couch (herniated disk) for the last almost 3 weeks and still God provided for this to all move forward! Awesome!

Well...there's my garden update for the week. I'm off to put on my wool socks!

Finishing up and looking to next year...

2010-06-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

It seems that the older the kids get, the shorter the break between finishing up for this school year and beginning to think about next. So this year? I feel like I'm planning next before we're even quite through this one.
Son number one is to blame (but in a good way). He decided quite suddenly to get serious about his school life which means, summer classes and planning for next year and thinking about what he wants to be when he grows up. What brought this on you might ask? Well I'm not quite sure but let's just say that giving him a concrete short term goal (a new laptop) and a long term purpose to shoot for (working toward an Engineering degree) has certainly worked for this one!

What better than to make a mom feel her age then to have her oldest going into Grade 10!! He's almost 15 and really becoming a man. This would make him so embarrassed to hear but, I'm very proud of him! And really excited to see occasional glimpses of the man that God created him to be peaking through the eyes of the boy he's leaving behind.

Here he is as I dropped him off at the airport last week so he could head off to Edmonton to attend a huge Christian Youth weekend with an old friend....

The crazy thing about kids is, we'll probably have to use something completely different to help motivate and inspire boy number two...and then girl number one and then girl number two...I think God designed it that way, just so we don't get bored or get any rest. Certainly keeps me praying!

Two in a row...what the ...????

2010-06-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

I know they're dark and fuzzy and sort of hard to see but I have to share. Mom and I hit the nursery today and I've got a new addiction! Plants everywhere! Also we're getting closer to being done the new rock walls and gardens. LOVE IT! Maddy and Amelia shovelled "poo" (dirt) as they called it. And Mads made the little round garden around the apple tree herself. She's pretty proud!
(disregard the shovels and the crazy landscape fabric mess. A garden mag this is not.)
And I couldn't resist this beautiful Hydrangea (just trust me on this one. It's dark and far away.)
I even managed to plant up some of my planters but most of all...I found the torches I bought at mother's day and finally got them out. This is fun!
...and tomorrow? Well, I've hardly put a dint in the flats I've bought over the last few days. I have another table exactly like this on the other side of the deck too :)
Happy Spring!!!

I'm back!!!

2010-06-06T17:22:00.000-07:00

I've been reading and lurking and just haven't written for what I now realize, is almost a year.

What have I been doing with my year you might ask? I'm not even going to try to go back over it all BUT I will say that the time between my last blog post and this one has been filled to the brim with people I love and who love me. People I gave birth to, or married, or whom I've known as long as I can remember and new people whom I've grown to love.

For me there's nothing like a friend. The time and effort are almost always worth it. God calls us to be part of community BUT I believe it's more than going to church or school or work, more than joining groups and showing up. It's more about making myself available. It's really knowing people rather than knowing OF them. It means I'm going get hurt or inconvenienced or uncomfortable. And worst of all...(for me) it means I'm going to screw up and hurt someone. It just happens. Real life, it's messy.

But it's fun! It's full of laughter, late nights and early mornings, of good talks and good cries and wine! Lots of yummy red wine.

I read this in a fav cookbook this am. I loved it!
"As much as I care about food, dinners like that remind me that the food is not the ultimate point - the people are. And when I remember that, it is much easier to have people over." (Perfect Recipes - check it out. Awesome cookbook!)
Whew - this makes me feel much better about Amelia's birthday when I accidentally burned the corn at our dinner for 20+ or Easter when I burned the mashed potatoes for 40+. If you can't laugh at yourself what can you do?! Hopefully everyone still loves me and had the fantastic time they said they did.

So here I am, back at this blogging thing. I'm going to try to stay with it as it's such an encouragement to me to read my own words from a year ago. There's so much going on, I need a place to document our lives.

So here's where we are right now:

The girls bedroom addition is almost finished, only the window trim and bathroom mirror need to go in. Mom and I plan to make the cushion for the window seat this week.

Oh and the built in is not quite finished but we won't think about that right now.

We've (and I mean that in the broadest sense of the word) have been building rock walls in our yard...and now I have new garden beds to fill and old ones to weed and plant.

Unfortunately my hubby has done something insane to his back so...he's off excavator duty for now and has to leave this HUGE and I mean huge job he's started almost done. Is it killing him to lay on the couch while he wants to be building a patio and moving rocks? Yes. Yes it does BUT he's in so much pain he is actually staying there. Lots of prayer is needed! BUT he is getting much needed computer work done so...it is not all bad.

And we're finishing up the school work for the year. Levi has decided that he's going to do some serious academics for grade 10, 11 and 12. It's taken us all a bit by surprise but he's motivated and I'm very proud. He's decided that he'll do Grade 10 English this summer - wow!

Today however, is a lazy day. The kids danced in their year end show last night until very late and today is a definite day of rest. Rest and cookie decorating :) The best kind of day!
(not sure what's up with the oldest and his crazy face - ignore please, it only encourages him!)

My summer baby.

2009-07-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

I've had a baby in every season but our first born. Our son was born in the hottest middlest swealteringest (I know, but I like to just make stuff up) Okanagan summer. July 14, 1995.
I was sure there had never been a better, cuter, boyisher baby ever born! Man we adored him! I think we just couldn't believe he was ours. I mean would you trust these two kids with this baby? I'm not sure I would! It's still amazing to me the faith God shows in us when he entrusts these precious vulnerable people to us!

It's been a joy so far to raise Levi Peter Jay, to watch him become a man. We're so excited to see what God has for him next week, next month, next year! He's fun and smart, a good friend and brother (and he's kind of annoying but comes by that honestly too).
Happy Fourteenth Birthday oldest son of ours! It's been a joy to watch you go from this....

to this....

Dance-o-rama day....

2009-06-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's here. It's here! The much anticipated, much practised for , many dollars spent in anticipation of Year End Dance Recital. And yes I do believe these words deserve both italics and capitols. This is A BIG Deal in our teeny tiny world folks! I can't wait! The kids are very excited. I'm going to cry, I just know it!
My boy, my creative, wonderful second born son, has a major role in the ballet. This is pretty amazing to me as he just started. Last year he sat in the audience and thought, "yah, maybe I'd like to try that."

Here are Isaac and Olivia, so excited to get a SYTYCD dude's autograph at the last competition....

Amelia, (youngest and still in the Rec program which = less time and money, thank goodness for small mercies) is a "gangsta bunny" - her words. I have no idea what this is but I'm excited to find out. I'm pretty sure it's a lot of standing around on stage staring into the lights because that's pretty much what 5 year olds do on stage for the first time. She's also in a ballet class which means a crazy mad dash costume change for her. Next year it's only one class for my dance crazy youngest!

Here she is at the park while we wait for her bro. and cousin to finish their dance class....

Please anyone reading this, hold me too this!
And Madeline? My beautiful Maddy. She is a different kid this year, happy, confident and looks like a dancer. I cannot wait to see her ballet piece. They dance to The Colours of the Wind this year and just watching the practice made all the moms tear up. It's a lovely lovely dance. (and yes, we recognize we are very bias - it's our job!)

Here's a bunch of them at the last competition. She's the first girl on the right....

So what would normal moms do before this huge day. Should I get a couple extra hours sleep? get the dinner ready? How about stress about all the things there are to do?
NOPE.
I went for an 18.5 km run!!!! YAY. I can run again. The injury seems to have healed and although I'm feeling a tad stiff and will probablly not walk normally tommorow, I FEEL GREAT!!! You have no idea how happy this makes me.

Oh and I got to look after Kev's cousin's little man this week. She owns the dance studio and needed a hand. We were more than happy to hang out with him.
How cute is he?! I WANT one!!!

Another Beautiful Day and other things....

2009-06-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here quietly thinking about how thankful I am for this life I lead, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but still pretty wonderful.
I'm listening to my girls in the shower, instructing each other on the fine art of conditioning your hair while singing random song lyrics...opps someone just got soap in her eye....

...aaaaaaand I'm back. they have a way of resolving things for themselves before I can even get there to help them!

I got up fairly early this morning (not living on a farm early, but early enough) and Isaac surprised me by being awake as well. He was so hungry he couldn't sleep so I fried him up an egg before I headed to the pool and he informed me that this was his favourite time of day to do his math. He's not awake yet you see, and it's over before he's even aware it started. Youngest Son is VERY good at math. I need all my faculties about me to tackle even the most basic of tasks in the math world.

By the time I got home, he was in my bed fast asleep...still is actually. The beauty of homeschooling!

Hey take a peek into a random ordinary day at the Speilschool house.....
The kids found my rag bag and asked if they could sew.

Notice my poor sad inadequate machine in the background? Well it gave up the ghost this day so...I need to get a decent one! Silly thing!
Hey. See if you can guess where we're spending our vacation money this year???

If you guessed in Isaac's mouth, you'd be close but we're also dedicating a bit to this child (we wouldn't want to be unfair at all!)

This one is up next if she doesn't quit with the nighttime thumb sucking....(sigh)

I really could be worse though right?! And look how happy they are as they cut things up into ity bity bits :)

And if you're thinking, but doesn't she have 4 kids? Why don't we ever see the oldest one? I do actually. Thanks for asking. It's because he's going to school this year for the first time. He loves it! Or tolerates it as much as can be expected (he is an almost 14 year old boy so...)
...Oh look, I found one. Here he is about a month ago heading off to Vancouver Island on a ball hockey tourney. He really does have a great life too!

It can be about my perspective on things. I could look around the house today and notice the dirty floor and the stacks of unfolded, clean laundry and think about the supper that needs to go into the crockpot and the shopping that needs to be done and feel overwhelmed OR...
I could hear the joy in my girl's voices and they sing and play, and the peace that surrounds our home as we learn to just rest in His promise that He never gives us more than we can handle. This is the life I'm privileged to lead. I'll try to remember that as I stand in the checkout line at Superstore explaining to my girls why I will NOT be buying them gum today.

" Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world girves. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14.:27)

more than a month this time...

2009-05-26T13:59:00.001-07:00

I go at this so erratically I'm not sure if any of you are still hanging in there. If you still check to see if I'm alive, thanks! I am. Life is...well it's good actually. In fact here's an updated "Speil-photo". In our defence we were in play clothes....

I'm sure you're alive and not living in a deep dark cave so you know there's a recession going on but despite all this, we're good.
God is using this time to teach me something I was not willing or able to learn at any other time. Bad times can in fact lead to good things. That was the Big Revelation from our bible study a few weeks back.

Hard does not equal bad.

Here's one you won't see too often on a bookmark or coffee cup. It's true of everything worth doing. I'm finding this even in my running!

⁷Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Heb 12:7-11

Hmmmmm....I would say that we've all had it so easy and good for so long we've come to take our lives for granted. (I'm speaking to North Americans here. Those people living in the third world who've been paying for our excess, I'm deeply sorry.)
I have to let you know that we in fact are not going bankrupt or making any crazy changes to our lives (well I am growing a garden and for those of you who knew the old me - it's crazy). My hubby owns and operates his own company. It's small but we do have a couple of guys that work for us whose families depend on our company for their income. That is some serious responsibility!

I'm finally after years of my spreadsheet loving husband lovingly emailing them to me, following the budget! AND I'm growing a garden. Guess what? I LOVE IT!
It's truly amazing and I can take no credit. Kev and the boys built it all for me, put the dirt into it and surrounded my raised beds with (hopefully) slug killing rocks. I just put the seeds and tiny plants into it's waiting beds. It's an addiction!

Obviously I didn't line these up perfectly but hopefully you can get the idea of what the view from my deck is...

And I'm growing herbs in boxes hanging from my deck again. I'm so excited about this!
I do have some pretty things growing too but it's all about the food this year.

Speaking of addictions, I'm still running. Or I was running. Today was my first day back after a bout or siatica that chased me to the pool to do this:
Deep water running

(Only without the funky shoes. And I got the pic at this cool blog.)

....With these guys, well not these specific folks but you get my drift....

It's been good for me actually. I was freaking out because I had to drop bootcamp and running and go exclusively for the deep water running. I read some articles that said it would keep me in running shape but I wasn't exactly sure. It seems to have!
I've signed up to do another half marathon in the fall which should be fun. We start training for it in July. I'm in the process of changing up my work out schedule. This is all very exciting for me but not so much for anyone else. I'm going to write more about it though cuz ... hey, this is my blog.

I'm off to check on the kidlets. My niece just turned 10 and they have been enjoying an afternoon of uninterrupted play.

2009-04-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

I've meant to sit down so many times but how to write of all the fun, craziness and well craziness that is our life? Do I go back and try to fill in the blanks?

No. I don't think I will. There's really no way I can.

I'll just pick up from today, or from this weekend anyway.

We're just heading out of a busy Easter weekend. Normally I host a candy hunt/dinner for Kevin's family but this year I wanted to include some friends as well. That's when the madness really began.....
Each time I heard that someone didn't have a place to go on Easter...I invited them! And then it rained and rained and rained. We had 24 kids for our Candy Hunt and it was rain forest type rain.... I can't even describe it. Here are the pictures:

Kev and Terry waited as long as they could to hide everything and still the rain did NOT let up!..and no, I have no idea why my husband felt he should dress like that or make that face. I also don't know why Terry even bothered with that umbrella!

So out they went....

and what goes out, must come back in.....this is my entry way after the hunt!

and this is my very wet nephew, who will officially do anything for candy...

and the play room, full of kids and people...

Now let move upstairs shall we? We fed everyone Chili because, what would you feed 50 people at Easter?
The living room view:

at the table:

and in the kitchen...

We had a wonderful time! I think that's pretty much capacity for our house but what a blessing to be able to have so many great friends and family over to celebrate the resurrection
of our Lord!
Happy (late) Easter.

Enjoying the winter....

2009-01-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

*****warning. Post is super heavy on the picture content******

We took last year off so this year the kids are back on the slopes. Excitement!!

Especially from our first time skier. She loved it. I spent that whole first day, after her one hour lesson (aka: my coffee break), running up and down the bunny hill. She's get to the top of the toe lift and fall down or get half way up and fall down. It was a good day of hill training for me. Ha. And warm! We all had our shirt sleeves on. Amazing!

Jan 16th all suited up and ready to start....

The next time we went (Jan 23rd) she barely even needed a hand! Which is kind of nice because it was considerably colder! She still wanted me out there with her though;) No sitting in the lodge with a book and a coffee for me!

...and these two remembered like they'd never taken a year break from the slopes....Maddy and Emilee took a lesson that first day...

and hopped right onto the chair the next Friday...

Isaac decided he's done with skiing forever. One day of boarding and "that was the best day ever! When can we go again?!" was all I heard.

Isaac and Wylan on day 1

Isaac and Wylan on Friday #2:

It was so amazingly warm that first Friday, Grandma and Auntie Randa could sit outside on the deck in the lodge, watch, tan and chat. VERY NICE!

Levi and Amelia after their second Friday of mount Baker. This is my fav photo because, check out the poor guy in the background!!!!

Amelia needs to be in every shot. Here she is with biggest cousin Josh after a long hard day of boarding for him....

We even brought friends. Dom and Danny came both days...

Dom's brother Clayton came the second Friday (and Grandma didn't boo hoo)
Here is is goofing with Emilee after their last run!

And here's what the madness looks like inside the lodge. We are able to bring our own food and use their hot water at the ski hill so it really cuts down on the cost. Can you imagine buying food for all these hungry hyenas?!?!? No? Me either! We'd only be able to go once rather than every Friday until the season is over. (yes. We know they have a very nice life!)

And my nephews enjoying their post-snowboard snack....

Here's what my sister-in-law got to do while I was hoofing it up and down the bunny hill

Gives me hope I tell you! :)

If you made it this far in my post, thanks! You must be related to us! We are truley blessed to be able to do this for our kids and to have such a wonderful affordable ski hill accross the boarder from us.

Fifth Birthdays and the fourth child...

2009-01-25T14:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess you know that you have 4 kids when someone finally asks you when you're going to post those birthday pictures and you realize they're still in the camera. In my defence, it has been an especially busy week. In reality, it's just kind of what our life is like these days.

So here goes:

Amelia Lillian turned 5 on January 21. My baby is five. FIVE! Wow!

I had no idea how I was going to squeeze a birthday into an already crazy week so I put on my thinking cap and...had an afternoon party, just with family AND pulled the older boys out of school. She was delighted!

(here are Maddy, Amelia, Isaac and Emilee decorating for the party)

She had one request and it was to play this balloon game we'd played at a friend's birthday, so daddy dutifully blew up 100 balloons the night before (don't worry about his lungs, there was a compressor involved!) and the kids went for it. It was a hit!

Maddy and Emilee in front of the hallway of balloons:

Here's Emilee hunting for candy in all those balloons.

Opening presents....

Yes that is a Camp Rock Barbie but before I get any snide comments, she loved it! AND it was cheap. HA!

Gramma and Amelia checking the balloon prizes out...

And it's cake time....(Isaac decorated it)

Each year that goes by adds to my amazement at God's rich blessings in our lives. We have 4 kids who truly love each other. (No. sorry they still fight. We aren't perfect! Sheesh!) and 3 cousins who are more like siblings. It's pretty amazing to look over and see my 15 (almost 16) year old nephew who looks more like a young man than a kid every day, taking time to spend with his 10 year old cousin or to snuggle with his (now) five year old Cuz. It's pretty great actually! And to see the two 13 year olds really enjoying watching and filming their youngest sib/cousin getting her presents. I am struck by our riches that have nothing at all to do with money. Thank you Lord!

....and happy fifth birthday baby! I thank God everyday for the surprise blessing that you are. He knew that we needed you in our lives!

So much to write so little time...

2008-12-30T11:43:00.000-08:00

I meant to write a Christmas post about how much I love it, the magic the presents the kids and laughter and food and fun and snow and music....

We had a wonderful busy Christmas full of love and laughter. We spent Christmas Eve with my hubby's fam and Christmas day with mine. It was perfect most because of this....
Here's how we spent our afternoon before going to Christmas Eve dinner:

We got snow. Mounds and mounds and mounds of snow. In a place where we don't get much snow and it really doesn't last for long. It was wonderful and magical!

December Renovations

2008-12-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

What do most people do in the month of December? Loads of baking? Shopping for presents? Visiting with friends? Bundling the kids up to go out to play in the snow?

We've been so blessed to do all these things. It's been busy and amazing and the crowning treat? THE SNOW! We live on the west coast so there isn't much snow here usually, so when we get it....YAY! We are thrilled in a way that only people who know it will barely last a couple of weeks can be.

So for those of you following along, we have one dog, two kittens, four kids and snow. What more could we possibly do? Well this....

Yes, more renovations! I admit it does seem kind of crazy because, well it's Christmas and we have company coming and it's snowing but in our defence it looked like this when the guys started:

....not exactly the middle of a heat wave but you will notice the lack of snow.
It's really been an unexpected gift because my brother-in-law offered his guys who are currently between jobs and this was the week they were available. Can you imagine how long this would have taken Kev?!
The guys have been out there for a week in the freezing cold and the outside is pretty much finished. This addition is to replace a deck that used to come off the girls room and was beyond repair. I'm pretty excited because it means that both kid's rooms both up and down will increase in size, AND the new bathroom for the girls is even framed in. The biggest concern was getting the roof up and tied into the old roof while a wind/rain storm went on around us and then...the snow. Kev worked outside until his thumbs were purple because he kept hammering them in the dark and got it done, just in time!
Here's a shot of what the side of the house looked like before the addition (look behind the girl in the loader. It was the only shot I could find)

But most of all I'm thankful to be living here despite the ongoing house and yard renovations. How can I put into words how I feel about my kids growing up with their cousins? This was/is my dream for them. When my mom and dad get here on Monday the picture will be complete. We'll all be together for the holidays. God is so good! I'm reminded every day in small ways that His blessings are all around us!

Just trying this out...

2008-12-12T00:04:00.000-08:00

I made a calendar for Christmas and the website said i could post a preview here. Let's see if this works.....

First week of Advent

2008-12-03T09:13:00.000-08:00

I'm behind as usual and December seems to have sprung on me while I wasn't paying attention soooooo....we're already 3 days into it and haven't started our Advent study yet. Never fear! I'm a great believer in better late than never (seriously I'd never get anything done otherwise!).

I'm using this and it looks amazing. She is graciously allowing people to download it and print it for free - wow! I'll let you know how it goes.

Try to take time this holiday season to remember (this is for me too cuz I'm terrible about it!) that no one will care if you forgot to bring a gift or plate of goodies they just want to spend some time with you.

I hope as we get ready to celebrate our Lord's birth I can stay focused on what is important. We've already decided that this year is going to be a "less is more" Christmas. We've never gone overly crazy at Christmas but still it seems to creep in on me. I so love giving gifts that I tend to go overboard. We're trying to give to other people who actually have needs rather than adding to our excesses.

Wednesdays are long dance days so I'm trying to get things ready for the rest of the week. There's nothing like watching my three dancers go for it. The all love it so much!

wow. Kind of in shock!

2008-11-28T11:26:00.000-08:00

I know someone left me a note and said they were nominating me for this but....wow!
I'm actually not worthy of even being in the Canadian Blog awards. I'm a terrible inconsistent whiney blogger BUT thank you so much!

Having said that, please vote for my friend Kris. She is a fantastic writer, blogger, friend, mom and so many other things. She's also know as Mighty Morphin' Mama and you'll find her here.

Have a look and vote. vote. vote.

Oh and we have someone new at our house! Well two someone news actually. This was the only thing on my kid's Christmas list....

meet Columbus and Zeni:

and yes, we are a tiny bit crazy. Thanks for asking:)

another random thought or two....

2008-11-15T12:13:00.000-08:00

I know I promised you a post on my homeschooling but...well you're just going to have to wait because today is NOT the day. I never know exactly what I'm going to write about but I generally have a feeling. I'm not getting the homeschooling feeling today. I mean it is Saturday and I have been on facebook so perhaps I can be forgiven for this lack of motivation.

I should also explain that after all the whining about my birthday and and all the "moan...sob...it's going to suck so much etc etc..."
I haven't even had my birthday yet. All my pissiness (is this a word?) comes about before the day. It's all about the anticipation of the suckitude for me. Don't I sound like a good time?! Yup. I am. Party in a bag. Anywho, the offical day is Monday and it's looking good actually. On Thursday, I got roses from my bible study ladies AND a cake. A cake and presents and I'm totally happy. Very easily bought am I. I'm always awed by the fact that hubby has yet to figure this out but I digress....
I'm going out for lunch on Sunday with my sil and mil which may or may not also include a walk or shopping but will most certainly include eating - yum! AND I get to go out for dinner with hubby on THE DAY. I do love him despite to serious lack of flowers and I love spending time with him. He's still my best friend which is crazy to think after 14 plus years of marriage. There will be no Mexico or diamonds but I am reminded every day of how loved I am. See how I'm growing up?! ha

Oh and I'm happy to be training again! We run half marathon number two on February 15th. I'm a teeny bit freaked out about it actually. This one is supposed to be hillier ... yikes. I just finished week one of training and it's been pretty good. I'm only running three days a week right now but I'm also going to bootcamp 3 days a week so hopefully it's enough to get me to the goal feeling strong. It's much more fun to run these things if your all trained up and ready to go. This whole running/training thing has been an improtant life lesson for me actually. I'm sure God is using it to show me that it's not actually about the race, it's about the process getting to the goal. I'm such a procrastinator in so many areas of my life but somehow I'm usually able to pull it out and get it done. I'm a mess and I don't enjoy whatever I've been asked to do but I get it done.
There's no way to shortcut the training for a run process. I just can't do it if I don't do the prep work. So many applications to my regular life.....

And the kid's bedroom addition is finally taking shape. I'll get out there and take some pictures if the giant tarp is down. The giant green tarp is such a classy addition to our home;-)
Can't wait to see it finished. Closets - yay! and a girl's bathroom, double yay!
Stay tuned!

I should be remembering....

2008-11-11T09:47:00.000-08:00

as today is Rememberance day here in Canada. We honour all those who bravely gave their lives so we can enjoy our freedom. I am always brought to tears by these ceremonies. I can't help being keenly aware that each on of those gleaming white crosses or headstones represents a lifetime of grief and loss.

I wrote this post before I watched the ceremony however so beware...total babyish whining coming up:

Birthdays suck as an adult. don't get me wrong, I love my birthday. It was always so special when I was a kid. A whole day (or at least a few hours) filled with friends and fun and cake (love me some cake!). We used to joke that I had a "birthday month" rather than just a day.

But as an adult...stupid thing sucks hard.

I've had some wonderful ones over the years so I shouldn't be such a whiner. Hubby took me to Sechelt for a couple of nights where we stayed on the side of a cliff in a Yurt (sp?!) which is essentially an upscale tent. There was a storm. Amazing. Oh, and one year I got diamond earrings! YAY! Presents...love me some presents!
I've had birthdays where I had to make my own cake and birthdays where everyone I knew brought a cake over and one with no cake at all...won't go there.

I get so pissy around the time up to my birthday. Like my husband says, I do have expectations. I don't even know what there are, but I do know they aren't being met. See...stupid and juvenile!

Mostly I like people. I'd love a day filled with different people and doing interesting things....but it's ceased being about me long long ago, which is what you find out when you're the mom. My hubby had the helpful suggestion that I should plan my own event.

"If you want a party, Shay. You plan it!"

Cool right?! ...Can you feel the sarcasm?

... but he might just be onto something. I might just do that

...next year. (Maybe I want to be in Mexico on my birthday?! Becareful what you encourage me to do!)

This year, I think the hubs and I will go out for dinner and maybe a movie, which I also love. And my sil and mil are taking me for lunch on Sunday and it may even involve some shopping! It's all good.

Here's to my birthday! I obviously need to stop being such a huge baby about the whole thing and just get overmyself already.

And I will.

On Tuesday, which is the day after my birthday.

Until then I will have to pray for an attitude adjustment I guess. The whole thing usually turns out great. I'm always struck by how much everyone loves me and how good God has been to me.

So.....maybe I am growing up! Birthday months are over rated anyway!

halloween musings...

2008-11-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

As a Christian I've struggled over what to do with this holiday based in traditions which quite honestly celebrats many of the things that my faith deems to be evil or not to be worshiped
...but many of our contemporary holidays are based on some crazy pagan rituals and traditions. The early church tried to redeem many of these days by placing holy celebrations on the former pagan celebration days. They just never got to Halloween I guess.

I've never been a big celebrator of Halloween as a day or a holiday. As a child we would dress up and find ourselves braving the freezing cold to go to a few neighbors for treats. My mom always made candy popcorn balls because this was back in the days when we knew all our neighbors and people could still eat baking tossed into treat bags. I think I was a gypsy which meant make up, a shawl and big earrings clipped to my head rag. Oh Joy!

But we only did this until I was 7ish because my mom began to feel we should not be celebrating this pagan godless holiday and, much to my great sugar deprived regret, we stopped. My husband grew up in a family where they did not partake at all. I think they were hiding in their basement watching tv with the lights off? Not sure.

I've never really cared either way. When the boys were little, Levi was terrified of the dark AND people in costumes so it was hardly a noble decision not to take him out into the dark night filled with people in costumes. How crazy would that have been?! We always handed candy out though cuz I'm just crazy that way I guess.

I got an email the other day with this note in it and it got me thinking:

"With this in mind, I offer you the five “scariest” things you can do this Halloween:

The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to not make light of evil. Halloween was conceived in evil and has remained a celebration that uses children to promote a fascination with darkness and superstitious fear. Simultaneously, it makes light of things that the Bible describes as evil. Stand against such things, and the world will find you very scary indeed. The fear of the Lord makes men turn from evil (Proverbs 16:6)."

Have I allowed my culture to dictate my faith? Is this something to get all crazy about? Or does it just make us look silly and weird to those who don't share our faith? If you're a Christian how do you handle the Halloween thing?

Being someone who tends to compromise AND obviously doesn't take things nearly seriously enough, I think we'll continue to allow our kids to wear cute costumes and beg for candy. While I agree there is nothing very redeeming in this practice, I also don't agree it teaches my children to live in fear or celebrate death and evil. How to know what the right thing to do is......

Here they are with their cousins off to beg candy from strangers, really what a strange tradition!

Run run as fast as you can. You can't catch me I'm.....

2008-10-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

...well turns out I'm not the gingerbread man AND you can catch me if you need too. BUT....

WE DID IT! Our very first half marathon is officially under our belts. We came. we ran. we did it!

Moranda, Angela and I headed over to Victoria on the ferry last Saturday morning. We got there nice and early thinking we'd have at least a 2 ferry wait. (any of you who follows the BC news knows we have some serious trouble with our ferry s. They're expensive and break down a lot.) But we, surprisingly got on the 9:00. HURRAY!

Yikes. How pasty white am I?!
This was our girls weekend with a twist. The twist? It involved running 21 km with 5000 other crazy people. We'd run 20km the weekend before so I knew we could do the distance. It was just the actual race and the time that were in question. Would I make it in the 2 hours we hoped? Would I hit a wall? What if we had to pee? Or worse? (seriously, for a runner this is a big deal. All the bathroom related issues. And were were NOT stopping to go potty!)

After picking up our run packages and hitting the line up for free Gatorade I was hit with realization, "Crap! We're really doing this thing!"

Here we are checking into the hotel with our good friend the hotel bear. What? Weird!

We spent a wonderful day, wandering the crowded streets of Victoria crammed with thousands of other racers and their families. It was pretty cool to think that all these people of different races, shapes and sizes were here to declare their love of the long run, or to prove to themselves they could do it, or to support someone who just loves to torture themselves in this particular approved method of self flagellation :) We shopped and ate and talked for hours. The only thing missing was a glass of wine at dinner as we gazed out at the harbor and tried to eat our pre-race carbs.

So here's where I stop and rant a bit about my running bff, Angela. She hardly trains. I mean the girl runs but not regularly like Moranda and I do. At dinner before the race, she had two beers and meat loaf. Seriously, MEAT LOAF! I'm not kidding you. The morning of, she had a coffee and maybe some water? Took one bottle of juice with her AND beat the pants off me! SO ANNOYING! Really though we are proud. I mean, how could we not be?

Look at her, putting on her iPod, not even pretending she going to run with us!

Moranda, tiny little thing that she is...sets a mean pace...

....and me. I'm the cheer leader. I get the troupes out, sign them up and brow beat them into running with me in bad weather and then....well they all beat my time! What?! Actually I'm pretty proud of them all! Woot woot!
Here I am, having my pre-race pbj. YUM!

We crowed into the street a block from our hotel and waited for the race to start. My thoughts at the time? "Oh no, I have to pee. There's no way I'm going to stop to pee. We're really doing this. YIKES!"

And we were off.

The course wound it's way through the harbor area of Victoria and then out towards the ocean. It's all kind of hazy for me but we seemed to run up hills and down hills loop around and then up more gradual hills, into neighbourhoods and up more hills. I kept expecting to loop back and run back along the ocean but we kept turning corners and running up hills. The first 15 kms went really well. I actually found the first 12 pretty easy. We had a fast (for us) pace going on but we seemed to be okay. Moranda and I ran together for most of it and she was just on a mission.
I ran into trouble running back along the ocean at about 16 km. I had to walk to take a gel pack and Moranda couldn't stop. I tried to catch her the rest of 5 km and I could even see her but couldn't quite make my time up again.
Those last 5km were so tough! I had no idea what a mental game the whole thing would be. I was giving myself serious mental slaps upside the head. Everything in me wanted to stop or just to walk. It was so crazy! When we got nearer the end people standing on the side cheering would say, "you're almost there. Only one km!" And then you'd run for a km and someone would say, "only one km!" They were playing some seriously mean mind games! Those last 2.5 k were the longest I've ever run! When I first finished I was pretty disappointed in my time but looking back....not bad at all!

Angela : 1:57:42
Moranda : 2:02:50
Shalagh : 2:04:42

Look how proud weird hotel bear is of us!

We were pretty elated and quite emotional. While were were running all of us were wondering, "why are we doing this exactly?"

After, we still couldn't tell you why, but there's something about training, running, struggling and finishing....

So we signed up for another one. In February. Anyone want to join us?

Remembering ....

2008-10-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

I feel as I start to write this that I have many thoughts swirling around in my brain. As I run in the morning one will twist around and come to the surface. "I need to write that down", and when I get home, something else has swirled to the surface.

A beautifully written post by my dear friend, Kristen, brought this one up. She lost her much loved daughter before she was born, 5 years ago. Kalila would be six now. I never said this to Kris, but I'm sure she felt it, as our kids played on the beach together this summer, I felt someone missing. There should have been two girls almost 6 and almost 7 playing in the sand, rather than just the one. I don't understand why God allows these things to happen but I do know His heart breaks with ours, that it was not in His original plan to have children die. It wasn't in His plan to have any of us die or experience pain, actually, but He did give us that darn free choice...and we used it...sigh.

My dear friend Heather phoned two days ago. It's been 9 years she said. "Nine years?!" I was instantly back to that day. The day that she kissed Sadie for the last time, left her heart with a complete stranger and trudged off to work. It was her first week and she wouldn't have to do it for long. The company was heading for consolidation and she would get a buy out. Sadie had a cold and she didn't like her bottle much...but what else could she do.
She told me she knew something was wrong when her desk phone rang. She thought maybe Kain had broken his arm at school. How could she know her world would stop in that moment?

I still remember where I was standing nine years and two days ago today when my phone rang. When Heather's aunt blurted out, "Heather's baby died!" My brain couldn't process the words but I started to sob instantly. It couldn't be true, not Sadie.
We miss her still, her mother and I. We remember her beautiful smile and the fact that she'd just started to sit. Her laugh bubbled up like a brook when you tickled her chin with her toes. I think she'd be too tall and too thin for her age, like her mom and her big bro. With red highlights in her hair. I bet she'd have skinned knees and be able to run like the wind, much like her crazy mom.

Here she is in one of the last photos taken of her and that's her mom at the age Sadie would be up in the corner....

God has blessed us all with more children but there are some that we can only carry in our hearts. I am waiting for that day when I will be able to see my two dearest friends reunited with their daughters.

Until then....

I remember.

September is crazier than Christmas and other thoughts....

2008-09-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

I've discovered something about myself. I love being busy, having lots to do and tons of people to see BUT there's a fine line. When I cross this unseen line I move into the land where I can barely cope. Out come the "crazy eyes" and out goes any peace in my mind. I loose sight of the big picture and just go into "one foot in front of the other" mode. It's not pretty.

The goal this year is to figure out how to get all the kids to their events and to homeschool without entering "crazy-eye" land. Oh and I'm back, in case you're wondering. Hubby took me on a 5 day trip (no kids) to San Fransisco.

It was the perfect cure for what ailed me. Now I'm back all rested and refreshed and ready to run the roads again.

...some new and exciting changes have been happening at the Speilman house. Well they're new and exciting to us anyway. Son number one went to school for the first time. Is he five you ask? Nope. Thirteen. He and his cousins biked off to their first day

and so far.... he's loving it! I think what he likes most is the independence. I've suddenly had to allow him to take on a lot more responsibility. He has to get himself to school and home and get himself organized for school and sport without me around. He's rising to the challenge quite nicely and I'm more than pleasantly surprised!

The girls are back at dance and Isaac (son #2) has joined them. He went to the year end show last year and thought he might like to try a class. We let him attend his cousin's classes for the first week, just to try it out. She's doing 2 ballet, 1 technique and one jazz out AND he LOVES it! It's crazy and kind of wonderful. It took my hubby a minute(okay a few weeks actually but who's counting) to get his head around the fact that his little boy was going to take ballet but I think it's all good now. The main thing is...he LOVES it! And he's quite good.

And of course there's soccer for both boys and the homeschooling.
I'm going to write another post about the homeschooling so stay tuned! I've been praying for passion, for inspiration, for some love of teaching/learning to come back. AND God answered. I'm pretty excited about this year.
God is so good! I have so much to be thankful for.

Seven is a perfect number....

2008-09-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

My third born child, the one that brought some pink and frilly into our lego filled lives, my first daughter, turned seven on the 4th. Seven! WOW!

She has brought us so much joy! She's friendly, outgoing, fun, intense and loving. It's wonderful to watch her grow and change over the years. She definitely is her own girl!

Here we are welcoming her into our lives...(yup I know, I look pretty horrendous but hey...I just had an 8lb 4oz baby)

Here she is at almost one....

Almost two....

Third birthday....

Four and a half....

Fifth birthday.....

Sixth birthday...
..

And here she is now, celebrating being seven!

We Love you very much Madeline Elizabeth. You bring much joy to us all!

new gadget that I love...

2008-09-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

Hubs came home the other day with an anniversary prezzie for me.

Let me just take this opportunity to say just how much I love presents! Really I do! It's crazy. Awhile ago Kev and I read this Book "The Five Love Languages"
So it really is official. The number two for me was, yup gifts! And Kev? Not gifts at all. There has been some learning curve to this marriage thing:)

See how I get off track?!

This nifty new gadget keeps track of the distance and time I run and allows me to upload it all to the computer and track my runs. So cool!

Here's a pic of my fav new toy: Nike+ Sportband

I LOVE it!! We found out the distance we thought was 10K was actually 8...opps! So now we're running 10. It's helping me so much with my motivation and training for the half marathon in October. I really love that it allows me to track and look at all my runs with distances and pace.

Can you tell I love this thing?! AND my hubby thought of it all on his own. He loves gadgets and I love gifts - perfect! AND this is one I can actually use!

Happy Anniversary to us!

2008-08-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

Fourteen years ago today we stood before God and our families and committed to love, honour and cherish each other forever. How could we even know the depth of the promise we were making that day? I was 21 and he was 22, what a crazy thing to decide at such a young age and yet, how wonderful! Oh what joy I would have missed if we hadn't taken the leap into this journey that is us.

Fourteen years down the road, we have moved provinces...twice, welcomed 4 new lives into this world, owned 3 houses and had countless other crazy, happy, heartbreaking, frustrating, wonderful and not so great things happen in our lives. Through it all we're still best friends. I'm so honoured to call Kevin my husband and partner, to see his love and tenderness as a father and to walk beside him through all the madness that is our life. I'm thankful (almost) everyday that the Lord brought us together.

I love you now and always babe!
Happy Anniversary....

Levi's trip to Mexico and some talk about homeschooling...

2008-08-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

I need to post these but I'm kind of low on pithy things to say. I always get like this by the end of summer. I feel a bit wrung out. It's been a wonderful fun filled summer full of visiting and eating (and running so I can keep eating) but I'm just...tired and ready for the season to change.

This year will bring some new beginnings for our family. Levi (our oldest) is heading to school for the first time. No he's not 5...he's 13. I know but we are homeschoolers so this is a big step at our house. It's a small private school in our neighbourhood so it will be a gentle transition for him (and me). He's nervous and excited.

The smaller peeps and I are staying here to explore the world. I've been reading about the Charlotte Mason Method of teaching/learning/facilitating exploration of our world and I'm wondering..."why did I wait so long to read these books?!" It's speaking to my heart! WOW!

This is the book I'm reading right now and here's a quote from the Chapter "What is Eduction?"

"We, as persons, are not enlightened by means of multiple-choice tests or grades, but rather by the other people in our lives that we come to know, admire and love. We are educated by our friendships and by our intimacies. For instance, think how the actions of someone you admire influence your behaviour. Similarly, think also of how a boy's interest is sparked by a hobby he loves, and to which he devotes all his time and trouble. Whether it be gardening, keeping house, or governing a state, love of work - like love of people- teaches things that no school, no system, can. " Karen Andreola Charlotte Mason Companion

This could explain my own love of this whole blogging thing too and is obviously not exclusive to homeschooling. I'm feeling my passion for this whole journey returning. Let me be honest, the last two years have been a challenge. Let's just say, we're all pretty excited to start again...again:)

Here's the biggest event in son #1's life this summer:

Levi and Kevin went to Mexico with a team from our church. They built a home for a couple of single mom's and their kids. It was an amazing learning opportunity for Levi and I've seen a bit of a leap in his willingness to help around our home AND his thankfullness. He commented on how little these people have and yet how thankful and happy they are. Pretty cool AND a bit of a reminder to us all.

Starting the build...

Levi and his little shadow. this kid LOVED him!

Working on the house....

Ladies washing and chatting with their new home in the background....

The whole team....

Celebrating their new home!

Working on crafts with the village kids...

goofing off...

Hanging at the campsite...

One day off at the beach...

Flying home...

Well look at that, I did have quite a bit to say after all. Like I wouldn't?! hee hee.

Old friends and great times!

2008-08-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what it is about old friends? You know the ones. They're the people you met when you were sometimes just a child and over the years and through different phases these relationships can seem unlikely or mismatched BUT they out last all others. why is that? What is it about people you don't have to share your history with? People who, although you're very different in many ways, just know you? I'm not sure but I thank God for my old friends.

Tanya and I became bff (before the days of bffs actually) when she was 12 and I was 13. I had just moved to Vernon and was pretty lonely, she and I just loved each other right away. I met her hubby that same year. We had a little crush on each other. How long ago does that seem?!

And we grew up ... growing together and apart over the years, sometimes understanding each other and sometimes....not.

She had Liam and 5 months later I had Levi, She had Conner and a year later I had Isaac, she had Kaanan and....well she won that one because a year in a half later I brought the first female to our little party. What a crazy crew of testosterone we would have been (actually we still are!) without my girls.

And now we get to celebrate the birth of new life. They are welcoming son number 4 in November. What joy! The last 6-7 years have been pretty tough on these guys but we're rejoicing with them in this new season.

So here's to my best oldest friend!
We had such a wonderful long weekend with them, shopping and eating and walking along the ocean. Happy BC day!

Wordless Wednesday....

2008-07-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

Best friend sisters :)

Daddy. Can I have a pony?

2008-07-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

So my kids want to ride. They'd actually like us to buy 10 or 20 acres and some horses, maybe a chicken or two but mostly horses...maybe we could ranch?

I'm not sure if you're following along but I'm the girl (lady, senior citizen...take your pic) who until last year had never had garden. Heck, we just got our first pet, but we're ready for the big time baby. Why? What brought about this sudden desire to do all things horse?

Horse riding day camp baby!

Our friends, we lovingly call the "pink family" (they have 4 girls who usually wear pink) own a small horse farm (or whatever the official term is for 20 acres where you ride, board and take riding lessons). Anyway, they hosted our kids for two days of riding lessons and fun.

Isaac on the pony Soda Pop. He loved it was we a terrific first time rider!....

Emilee on Soda Pop...

Maddy and Em on Cajan and Brany. (Emilee thinks she should buy Brandy. "But mom it's only $2000 - Cheap!"

Levi took the camp too and was, Tracy's words "A natural". She's never seen anything like it before. CRAZY! He had to leave yesterday's session early though to get his travel shots for Mexico so I missed getting a picture of him riding.

Un-tacking the horses with Tracy...

and Amanda...

Now we MUST have horses! The kids can talk of nothing else. Their eyes are a big as saucers and their little hearts are racing!

Actually, weirder things have happened. I mean, I do have a garden and a dog. NEVER say never people!

Happy Birthday oldest son!

2008-07-14T17:01:00.000-07:00

It was 13 years ago today that Kevin and I became parents for the very first time!
We are proud of the young man we are raising and thank God every day for him!

Happy 13th birthday Levi Peter Jay!!! We love you!

more holiday pictures....

2008-07-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

I almost gave up and just went on with my life, leaving what's left of our wonderful week on my computer. HOWEVER, here I find myself, up before everyone else and awake and dressed (trust me this does NOT happen much). Anywho...here goes....

Canada Day:

July 1 is when we celebrate our national holiday here in Canada, even the weather got the memo. Wow! What an amazing day in every way.

Check out Maddy's breakfast of champions!!! Shhhhh. Don't tell anyone I let my kid do this okay?! But if you can't have a little pop with your sugar, opps I mean cereal while you're on holiday then when can you?

Here's how the day started for Kev....pure bliss...

And Bella spent some time with the gookie (yup. Made that up myself, so what?!) bubble stuff I brought. You can imagine how delighted everyone was with me:)

And I finally got to meet Kristen's little sis. We've heard so much about each other over the years it was just a formality to actually meet irl. What an awesome lady! They were camping across the lake and came over to hang for the day. Awesome! Maddy and Anna were inseparable and Aaron blended in with all the crazy boys so seamlessly he just added to the madness. Perfect!
Here are Halley and Anna are checkin' out the dock...

We also got a great surprise! Our friends Lynn....

and Mark...

stopped by "on their way" to Kelowna. It actually took them about 2 hours out of their way but it was so great to see them again we were glad they took the time.

Lynn, Kristen and I met at church when we all only had 2 boys that were 3-4 and 1. There's something about the people you meet when you kids are little eh?! It's a bond that hard to break!

It's amazing to me how God seems to bind your hearts to some people. It doesn't matter how much time passes.

Check them out now! I only ventured into this madness to take a quick photo and than I ran for cover....

The tree boys in front, were our one year olds when we met. It boggles the mind! (and yes my 10 year old is VERY small for his age! In all fairness though Jesse, far right, is massive.)
I took a couple shots as I was backing away from the madness....

You don't want to get in the way of this crew!

Off they went on the tube...

While Princess Arabella entertained us with her extreme cuteness! And we, of course, ate more chips! ....

and I even got one of Kris, cutest preggo eveh! Pretty darn amazing for 6 babies! I know she's going to kill me for this but I can run faster than her right now. Ha Ha....

Sorry Kristen. Love ya girl!

Holiday time!

2008-07-10T13:56:00.000-07:00

Day one:

Our week at the lake started in Vernon with my parents and a "test run" on our new boat. We stopped in the middle of the lake for over an hour and just drifted and swam. SO FUN!

NOT so fun....stalling out in the middle of the lake and having to beg some other poor boat load to tug us back to the boat launch which was an hour away. YIKES and thanks anonymous good Samaritans!

Day 2:

We finally got to the lake after spending the day back and forth from Canadian Tire trying to replace parts on the boat and get it running smoothly.
What was wrong you ask? A loose wire which Kristen's hubby found almost immediately once he looked at it. At least we kept the receipt on all the engine stuff:)

and here the kids are...at the lake and ready to get wet! (Actually I think they were already wet at this point but...details...)

reacquainting with our best friends that we haven't seen in way too long!

My Amelia and Kristen's Judah hugging on the dock.....

Maddy and Bella hamming it up...(we pretty much decided these two are cut from the same cloth. Watch out world!)

And this is what happened after the group shot of our 8. Notice Brent running for cover. I think he may even be trying to remove Arabella and Judah from harms way?! Way to go super dad!!!!...

Day Three:

This is the day that Kristen and I thought we'd go into town and buy our food for the week. We filled up a huge cart and spent what we felt was a fairly reasonable amount on food for 12 for a week. We congratulated ourselves on our great frugality. "Wow, what wonders we are", we thought. Oh, you laugh! How long do you think we lasted before having to go for another car load of food?

TWO DAYS! How do small people eat so much?! I had no idea 12 people could eat so many chips in such a short amount of time! (I definitely did my part!)

And the guys and kids? They all loaded into the boat and headed out to Copper Island. I have no pictures evidence of what went on there because on this trip it seemed, you much be female to operate the camera and male to operate the boat.
From the stories they carried back, I understand it's better that way. We did hear that Ryley is quite the cliff jumper and that Amelia randomly jumped off the boat without telling anyone (yikes!). They had a blast though and want to live at the lake forever! (I wonder if this would still be true if we ran out of pop?)

Loading up...

Heading out...

Okay for those of you that got this far, stay tuned for more tomorrow....

and check out Kristen's Blog for more pics!

We're home!

2008-07-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

We've been back for a couple of days may I recommend a holiday with a family you never get to see but love like they're family! Very enjoyable AND relaxing!

We lay in the sun, ate, drank, lay in the sun, ate drank, lay in the sun....well you get the picture.

I'll post pics as soon as I have them out of the camera...I'm usually so much more on the ball than this but I volunteered for our church's soccer camp this week so I'm doing that every am. We were all bagged yesterday! I don't even think the kids had fun, it was just all too much after just coming home BUT today was waaaaaaaaay better! Nothing like a little sleep!

Oh and we bought a boat. Yup you heard right. On Wednesday just before we needed to leave for our holiday our hubbies started to think about the holiday (we left Friday. Yes, it's a guy thing!). Kev (my hub) started to phone around about renting a boat and found that it's freakin' expensive. I'm not sure why this shocks us every year, but it does and it's always totally expensive!

Anyway, he jokes that he should buy one (also go thru this ever year so I didn't think much of it) but this year is different, this year we live super close the the US border AND we have our new best friend CRAIG'S LIST!! YAY for Craig, whoever he was!!!

Kev and his bil found a couple boats, drove to Seattle and back to check on them and returned dragging an older (but still great) boat that they got for a screaming deal.
We are having a blast with the old thing even though it required repairs and isn't too flashy. My hub can not pass on a great deal:)

Stay tuned for a couple of photos of the fun in the sun....

Happy Canada Day week!

2008-06-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

We're off tomorrow to spend a few days with my mom and dad and then off to the lake!!

I can't wait! As I was packing up, (and this involves ALOT of packing! They don't even provide bedding so it all has to come with.) I realized I actually want to go on a trip where I don't have to provide meals. just. once. That having been said...

I can't wait to spend a week in the sun (fingers crossed) with our best friends.

Happy Canada to all you Canadians! Have a wonderful week.

Okay. Okay I get it! I'll slow down!

2008-06-23T19:37:00.000-07:00

Does your body ever just shut down? Mine does this to me sometimes. It's like it says, "well if she isn't going to rest. I'm just going to make her."

...So after an insanely busy week/month... Tuesday a.m. I went to boot camp (yes, I'm doing a boot camp 2 mornings a week. It rocks! Seriously. I highly recommend!) , came home did my thing and loaded the kids in the car: one boy to swimming, two girls and one dog off to Abbottsford to their last dance. (the girls NOT the dog. I'm sure she'd love to dance but I'm not sure the teacher would be so impressed). I was starting to feel tired and kind of draggy but...whatev, it's been a long month. We got there early to pick up gifties for dance instructors and then ... to dance. Suddenly I am sick but I still have 2 hours of dance and one trip to the park (remember the dog?) to wait through. Argh! It's okay. I did it.

Now the 30 min drive home and oh, there's my hubby and his dad and my boys all hungry hungry hungry. Drag my poor (now feverish) butt around for a bit more and YAY. BED!

The next day played out much the same except less driving for me and more bed. Finally at around 4:30 I lifted my overly warm head off the pillow and asked my hovering youngest child if she wanted to pray for mommy? Well, she delights in praying for people and pray she did! I believe God has a special place in His heart for the prayers of tiny girls because I almost immediately started to feel better.

I was able to get up, make dinner and spend the evening with my family. Thank you Lord!

And then I was off again.

Kev went to Edmonton for 2 days and I had to get up and take the kids to the waterslides Thursday am. I was well enough to do all of this! If I had to be sick, it was perfect timing that it happen the two days that it did.

I do feel like I need to say, "God answers prayers. Even in the little things. Quite amazing really!"

******And He answered our prayers in another area. We will be leaving for our annual trip to the lake with our bffs on Friday. AND Kristen will be joining us. Praise GOD her placenta moved!!!! She's got the thumbs up on her trip and we get to hang out with our favorite people for a week. ******

Another year is almost done...

2008-06-17T11:07:00.001-07:00

school/dance and sport year that is.
I can't believe how many things we've packing into the last week and are continuing to pack into the next few.

In the world of my oldest son:

Levi got an amazing opportunity to tour EA Games with his dad. His dream is to become a programmer and this was a unique and amazing opportunity for him. They don't give many tours and he had to get special permission, assuring them he had some actually programming knowledge and wasn't just on a Looky-lou. Here they are....he's so excited he can hardly contain himself!

How did he come by this ability to write code you may ask? NO IDEA! And certainly not from me. I'm becoming more and more proud of the person he's growing into. He never ceases to amazing me!
Another thing that boggles me, how can someone who teaches himself C++ not be able to find his own socks? Mystery of the Universe that one!

Son number two:

After attending his sister's recital, Isaac has decided he'd like to try dance. My husband gave me "the look" but we're going to give it a go. This kid has been moving to music since he was a wee babe. He really SHOULD dance! Here he is with Gramma and Grandpa Reid (and our little Rockin' Robin after the show).

He finishes his swimming lessons today and soccer ends next week. WHEW. It's tough work being a kid these days!

What about the girls? :

I seem to always lump them together but they do hang quite a bit. Some days my older daughter comes and asks for a little "alone time" read: no little sister bugging her. It's something about how Amelia doesn't follow "the rules". I'm not sure how makes these rules but they MUST BE FOLLOWED!

Maddy went to a Grade one class once a week this year. They had a little wind up where they got to ride horses and later play & eat in the gym.

On Saturday we celebrated a long awaited birthday with cousin Emilee at Build-a-Bear. I'm a party mom, doncha know?!
Here's the gang waiting for it to start...

They had games for the kids to play and....

they even made the "party moms" play! Good times!

and then we raced back to Amelia's Tiny dance graduation...

and then back to the party...check out all the new Build a Bears, because we don't have enough stuffies in our houses...

So that brings up to last Saturday....
What have I been doing you ask? Driving mostly.

more dancing....

2008-06-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

Staying with the same theme as it seems to be the theme of my life this week; it's dance rehearsal pictures. These are some seriously cute girls!

We (the parents) aren't allowed to go and watch from the audience so be prepared for pictures of what the organized chaos looks like from back stage. This year Mads has a costume change after the intermission. (I don't have any pics of this as my camera died.) They don't want parents back to help but at the practice I stayed and helped 3 little girls get into their Rockin' Robin dresses. They almost didnt' make it in time so I'm interested to see them do this without a parents help...hmmm.... All I know is that sometimes they surprise us with what they can actually do when left alone to it!

We came all suited up:

and then we had to wait...

While colouring...

and dancing...

and more dancing...

and making crazy faces while your aunt takes your picture...

And more colouring with good friends....

and finally after the dance. Waiting to go on for the finale...

Honestly, these kids all did great! My girls can barely wait while I pour their juice at home but they were able to get all dressed up and wait for hours on Wednesday. I'm impressed by their desire to perform and their love of the comrade re that goes on. They had a truly wonderful time!

I was so proud of Maddy's growth this year. Last year we had to pray and talk through nerves while this year she is so confident and excited to dance. Her skill improvement over the year is also something to behold! WOW.

My tiny girl could NOT wait to go on stage. she's been waiting for months!

Now I can't wait until Saturday when we get to finally watch from the front of the stage...all their hard work!

my week so far

2008-06-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

The days seem to race by and I mean to write but then...well I just don't do I?!

If you've been following along you know my girls take dance. Last Saturday was a crazy one filled with dance photos, an open house at hubby's cousins new house (which included a gawk at the new baby too) and even a dinner party at friends. Why spread things out when you can do everything all on one day?!

Anywho, here are the cutest little lions in the world waiting for their slot with the photographer. My littlest munchkin is on the far left...

And here is Maddy's ballet class all dressed up as Jasmine from Alladin. I sense a Disney theme coming for this years final recital. Mads is in the far right...

Those headpieces, although not looking too bad in these pics, are a huge pain in the ass! They didn't fit any of the girls properly. I"m not sure how we're going to get them on and be able to actually dance in them on the weekend. Ah well, not my problem as I'm not allowed backstage I don't think. My little bum will be firmly planted in the audience.
The girls have loads of fans (read: Grandparents) coming this week in anticipation of the upcoming exhibition.

Amelia surprised me this year, first with her shear enjoyment of dance lessons AND secondly with her desire to be on stage. Can this really be my child? and she wants to perform? In front of people?

Oh and in other news. Amelia visited the dentist for the first time and there is to be no more of this....

She is changing the shape of her palate and the dentist feels she may need an apparatice to stop sucking. We're trying the yucky nail polish stuff first. So far, its working although, she is NOT happy about the whole thing!

Creative and all that jazz...

2008-05-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

Check this out....

click here

I mean the colours and the creativity...wow. It stirs something in my soul, something I don't really have time to answer right now but I feel like there will be a time for this too, as season for my soul as it were.

Seasons. It's something I feel God has been speaking to me about. There will be time for my stuff, time to learn new things and explore my creative side, time to sit and visit and time for less "dirt-under-your fingernails" and "laundry by the truck load" kind of tasks.

I can wait! but at the same time I'm learning to appreciate the season I'm in (or I pray I am). The time of chubby cheeks and sticky fingers, of boys on the cusp of manhood and houses on the brink craziness. There's joy here in the confusion and chaos and mess too!

Oh and I wanted to share this. I adjusted my mil's famous (well to us anyway) chocolate cake recipe to make it lower fat and moist at the same time. It's pretty yummy! If you don't have spelt flour just use whole wheat or white. It will still be amazing!

Wickedly Delish Choc Cake

1 cup spelt flour
3/4 cup white flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

sift together and add:
2 eggs
1 cup strong coffee
1 cup sour milk
1 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla

mix until all smooth and bake at 350 for 30-40 mins

I use a cream cheese icing but it's up to you:)

This is what we'll be having for dessert tonight....mmmmmmmmmmmm!

Little words in the background....

2008-05-26T18:51:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here enjoying a moment of blog reading (seriously have you read the Pioneer Woman? Hilarious! and I teeny bit crazy. Just how I like 'em!) while behind me my two youngest play and watch Narnia on the big screen.

I've started to notice something about my girls. They argue. All. The. Time. Is this normal? Should they argue about everything? I'm not even sure if arguing quite describes it. They just sort of snip at each other, or instruct each other continually. I don't have a sister so please help me out here. I've heard my Nanny (in her 80's) and her sisters talk to each other like this but I hoped it was just them? I guess I kind of imagined sisters braiding each other's hair and telling secrets like best friends. I know, I know, there are unicorns and dancing rainbows in my world too!

Here was this moments conversation:

"Bella, Bella", my youngest calls to her sister's toy.
"Amelia!" spoken sharply with the best six year old, Know-it-all voice, "I'm Rosabell!!!"

I mean, really. Doesn't everyone know this. A. being the great little sis that she is, doesn't miss a beat and just switches names. She's not to be outdone though and starts instructing on another point.

It's amazing to me to hear these two argue and chat, chat and argue. I guess under it all they really are the best of friends. I pray they stay that way. I would have given anything to have a sister. They won't understand this feeling, of course, because they've always had one but hopefully they grow to be best friends AND sisters.

Oh and here's a shout out to my niece who turned nine yesterday. We kinda "share" kids and you add her into the mix...yikes. It's like listening to the funniest, cutest group of fishwives on the planet!

Happy Birthday Emilee Rose!!

Hoping there's a green thumb in there somewhere...

2008-05-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

So we've never had a garden before...NEVER. So what do we do? Do we start with a small patch and grow a couple of things, hoping to learn as we go along? NO WAY! That is for sissies...we build a ... well let me just show you....

Cool, right?! This was taken on Friday or Saturday before Kev filled them with dirt completely.
Here's the final product taken yesterday after the kids and I planted them with an assortment of veggies and fruit. Wahooo! In the pouring rain I might add....

We're going to fill in around it with wood chips to cut down on the mud and yuck and even build a couple little seats. Whenever I type "we" in association with the word "build" you can just read Kevin really. I'm just building things in spirit! I only have the ideas people.

Here are the little herb gardens "we" built boxes for on the edge of the deck....

Oh and our new grapes! It doesn't look like much now but give it a year and imagine a pergola and a patio...nice right?!

Oh and I'm going to give Angela the credit for the amazing yellow plum tree in the middle - yay Ange. YOU ROCK! And she said we should do seating around it....awesome! AND she will drop everything and join me in dropping hundreds of dollars at plant stores...bff territory.

I need to stop for a second and say, why did no one tell me before how much shopping gardening involves?! I freaking LOVE gardening!!! YAY!

Here's some of those plants in my new flower garden. This is before and after we did a ton of digging and hauling and by WE I mean WE. Holy digging batman!

Oh and where were my little helpers while I toiled away in the rain? They were in and out...mostly in but they also subscribe to the there in spirit thing...

And oldest son even got a job! Love to see him clean up...

Here's hoping that our newfound love of all things garden will result in beautiful flowers and loads of fresh yummy veggies and fruit! Happy shopping all you crazy gardeners...I've now joined the cult!

okay so lets do this thing....

2008-05-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

Well I did it! I actually registered myself and my gals for our first half marathon! YIKES! How did this come about? Why? What?
I have no answers for you other than, I talk about it for long enough, I'm just gonna have to do it!

The race takes place in beautiful Victoria on October 12, 2008. I have no idea if I'll be ready. I'm never run farther than 13 km and this is a 22km race so....training here we come! We have this handy dandy 12 week training program that we need to start in the middle of July. I think it will be a great thing to train and plan for. I'm not sure how I'll fit it in to my schedule but I'm excited to try.

In other news....
I'm official middle aged. Sad but true! We went to a wedding this weekend for the younger sister of one of my best friends. I've known the bride since she was 1 I think! Her sister and I (12 and 13 years older respectively) used to drag her and her little bro around like little dolls. It was an honor to be invited to see her get married. And she was a beautiful bride. It was a little strange though, to be one of the older people at the wedding! VERY strange because I still feel like one of those 20is people rather than a 30ish people.

Here's Kev and I all dressed up like real live adults....

Best doggie EVER!!

2008-05-14T12:52:00.000-07:00

I came into the kitchen one day to find this....

I think they were having "tea". Please ignore the disaster that is my pre-renovated kitchen. One day we will actually get the darn thing finished!

I feel like she's asking me, "how long do I have to put up with this?". Honestly, she's the most tolerant dog ever! The girls torment her all day long and she puts up with them like a trouper!

Wednesday am thoughts

2008-05-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

So here I am with a couple of minutes to myself, the house is perfectly quiet....

ahhhhhh....

I had to get up super early this morning to get hubs to the airport. Normally he'd drive himself but the van (which we just had fixed) started to do this weird sputtering thing yesterday so we had to take it in and I can't be without a vehicle for the two days he's gone so.....

I got up at 5am and drove to the airport.

But that's not the crazy thing.

When I came home, instead of hopping back into my warm bed beside my warm four year old (not sure why she has her own bed really?!?!) I put on my ipod and went for my run early. YUP CRAZY!

So here I am, it's 7:40 the kids are all still asleep and I've been for my run. I actually have a minute to write my blog and have a shower.

I think I am seeing what you morning people are going on about. Don't get too excited though cuz I still love my warm bed!

Birthday pictures and other stuff

2008-05-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

It only took me a week to put these up... but in my defense we've all been sick. Not the nice... oh, cough, cough, I'm not feeling good kind. nope! It's the go to bed and get up a day later, burning with fever kind. I'm still not feeling 100% but it seems to be running it's course. Levi finally socummed so that's everyone, hopefully we're all done.

On to the good stuff...

Our smallest boy child turned 10. TEN!!! WOW! On April 28th. He's still our little man though as he asked for cute kids type toys (Build a Bears and such). We were more than happy to accommodate him as this may be the last year he's little in that way.

Here he is opening the "must have" game from G & G Reid!

He's brought so much joy to us in the 10 years he's been part of our family.

I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday. He was the only one that made me wait...fitting really as he still makes me wait. He was born 5 days late and with a super long knotted cord attaching him to the placenta. I didn't know until later that this could have been a disaster. Thank you Lord for your grace! I looked into his tiny face with the too large nose and thought, "well Hello little man. There you are!". He made Levi a big brother and us feel like a family, a real one. No playing it once you have two kids!

He's grown into quite a young man. Isaac means laughter and he is so ready with that. We love our sensitive, warm, cuddly little man. What a special day. A whole decade!

He wanted to forgo the "kid birthday" in favour of having his best friend over for a play. We than had Noah's whole family join us in our family gathering. It was wonderful! I hope he knows how much he's loved!

Happy 10th birthday Isaac!

(and one of the doggie cuz I mean, how cute is she?!)

What a blast!!!

2008-04-21T22:51:00.000-07:00

Who knew that running a 10 k with almost 60,000 people could be sooooo much fun! We should really get out more right?!

April 19th
When we got to the hotel, we were all a tiny bit apprehensive. It wasn't in the most amazing area, you understand...and outside stood a tall sketchy looking dude...but it was all good once we walked through the doors, clean, safe, warm, comfy. I know Ange wondered about the safety of her car in the parking garage that smelled of urine but we came back the next day to find it all still safe and sound so all was well on that front too.

Cue the fun self portraits that mostly say, "yay we have an evening alone! No kids, no responsibilities..."

We went for a huge dinner complete with wine. You should really ignore all the pre-running rules and apply almost all the girls weekend rules when you go for the sunrun.

Moranda walked us down memory lane after dinner as we re-lived her romantic proposal 10 years ago...

So romantic! Obviously she was deliriously excited...

And Ange braved a dangerous roped off area for us...

Yes, we are wild and crazy gals! (Why was that roped off? What was so dangerous?)

We headed back to the hotel and tried to get some sleep but I was so excited I hardly slept at all. I'm not sure why... (read comment above about needing to get out more!)

April 20th
Here we are! Out standing in the starting crowds, ready to run. It was freezing out and...

We're looking up in disbelief, Yes they really are going to ask us to do aerobics in the cold with thousands of other people first thing in the morning!

It was a great warm up but I did feel like it was 1991 again.

....after a rousing national anthem, we were off!

There are no photos of this part for obvious reasons. It's hard to run, breath and take photos. As it was Moranda and I couldn't keep up to Angela. Go, Ange, go!
We didn't see her again until BC Place. She beat us by almost 3 minutes too! GO ANGE!

Our times were:
Angela 50:07
Shalagh 52:56
Moranda 52:57

The course was not too hard and the weather was perfect. It was amazing to see all the people in front and behind us - wow! And there were so many standing on the street, braving the cold cheering us all on. It was an amazing experience and I can't wait until next year!

Here we are enjoying our post race goodies in BC Place...

And then? We went shopping of course, and for lunch!

quick update!!!

2008-04-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

Whew! The weeks just seem to fly by.
I wanted to let you know (Hi mom and dad I know you read this now!) that the running gals are heading downtown in a few minutes to hit the Lulu store and get settled in for our race.

I'm pretty excited! If you click here you can check out the route and info on the Sunrun. They have more entrants than ever before (56,000 I believe. How insane is that?!)

I took a break from blogging last week (not sure if you noticed. I did.) to read a couple of classics I've wanted to read forever: Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park by Jane Austin. Oh, how thankful I am to be a woman today instead of back then. I was struck with how boring everyone's lives seemed. How did they fill their days? And yet they were not unhappy. Something to think about. All this busyness does not always add to our lives in a positive way.

Oh and Madeline is competing with her little jazz troupe again on Monday. She loves it and they are all so cute! I can't wait! I'm pretty proud of the progress they're making. She had an extra Ballet class today because they take their first (yikes) exams next month. She's getting so grown up. I can't believe that's my rough and tumble little girl all in pink, standing so prim and proper.

...So I'm off!
Wish us luck! And think of us panting away amongst the hoards.
Look for pics and info next week.....

Two days in a row??!!

2008-04-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

I surprise even myself sometimes!

I'm on a Homeschooling Yahoo email list for our area and this video came through today:

Honestly, I don't usually take the time to watch videos that people send me. I know, but I'm just lazy that way!
This was was well worth it. Probably because it made me feel better. We always joke that we're the crazy house and people need to sign a waver in order to play here but now I don't feel so bad! It's amazing to me that my kids rarely get hurt other than the minor cuts and scrapes that you come to expect from childhood.
I'm a great believer in kids being able to try things for themselves, even slightly unsafe things. I haven't however, ever let them drive the car. Seriously, it's on the video!!

Oh and thank you all for your great words of encouragement to me! I'm being reminded that I need to step outside myself and reach out to others. I think when I'm lonely or sad or just having one of those days, taking my eyes off myself and putting them on someone else, although not my natural reaction is the best thing to do. See I'm growing up already!!
It's always a risk isn't it? to be vulnerable and to be "real". I believe God honors our attempts to peal off the masks we all wear. I like to be the strong one, the one giving the advice. It's hard for me to take encouragement and be vulnerable in this way.

...and in other news: For those of you who've been asking, my next run is April 20th. The Sunrun which is being touted as the second largest 10 km in North America. It should be fun! I'm a bit nervous because I haven't had the time to run the distances I should but I think the pace will be slow because of all the people so it should be fine. Wish us luck!!

Here we are...me and my running bff's...(my sil and her sil. You guys rock!)

Is it Monday again?

2008-04-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what happens to my weeks but they seem to fly by or slip through my fingers or race past like I'm viewing them from a speeding train....some weeks anyway, this was one of them. We've had soccer tryouts and dance competitions and birthdays and field trips and.... the list continues on and on. I'm desperately looking forward to my day at home today.

I was reminded Saturday (or Friday...the days they do run together) of the importance of friends, the way they call us up and out (sometimes) even when we aren't expecting it. I called my good friend Kristen and she shared with me some of the incredible and painful things God is doing in her family. She called me up and then she called me out...on my homeschooling. What a blessing good friends are!

"Thank you Kris for reminding me that I'm called to do this right now and I need to lean in. In all your pain and frustration that I phoned to help you with...I left with something for me. I'm blessed to call you friend!"

On the subject of friends and community, I've been seriously missing mine, my old friends, my safety net, my resources BUT I know we are in the place we should be. I've been sad and angry but mostly lonely. It's strange because to the outside observer I would seem to have lots of friends but inside my life, I'm a bit lonely. It's hard for me to admit that actually. It makes me feel needy, which I hate (I know pride again). In examining this feeling I realize that I am mostly hating being the "new person" to have to make all the connections again in a new place. It's hard work and a strange feeling to always be the outsider.

I do have some really amazing friends (and family). You know who you are and I thank God for you so please don't take this personally. I couldn't make it without you!

Although as a child I was painfully shy, I was still motivated to have a friend or 3 and to be with people 24/7. I was, I think, somewhat afraid to be alone. As I grew older and became a teen, then an adult I was not very comfortable in my own skin. Not really sure who I was. I knew I wasn't that bubbly always happy, alway "up" girl everyone thought I was. But who was I?

As I'm sure most women find, having children does not erase this question. It only distracts us from it and adds to it. Who am I? What has God created me to do? Where do I fit? I am surprised to find these questions still rattling around in my brain. Sometimes they make me crazy and sometimes they just remind me that as we get older we're designed to continue to change and grow. We can't be completely defined by our roles. I am a mother but that alone does not characterize me. This is true of all the labels I wear mother, wife, friend.... all describe me somewhat...I seem to be again in a season of change which always brings these questions up for me.

I realize this lonely, reflective place although not comfortable for me who likes everything to be fun and easy (I know I'm a flake, what can I say?!) is exactly where I'm supposed to be. It seems to be the season for me to look more closely at who God has created me to be. Perhaps I'll even grow up a bit. What?! Weirder things have happened!

I should have warned you before you started that this post is somewhat all over the place and a tiny bit whiny. Thanks to those of you who stuck with me this far. This blog world, those of you who comment and share your lives have also become part of my new community.

Easter was fun!!

2008-03-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Easter went off without a hitch, mostly because my sister-in-law and I had already decided the weater would suck and we'd have to have the event indoors AND because I forgot to actually count how many were coming until the day before giving me very little time to panic.

Would you like to know the number? 34!! YES you read the right!

Here are most of the kids ...

Braving the wind and rain in search of their sugar and chocolate. These kids are die hard candy freaks!!!
Just to make the day even more complicated and fun to navigate, my oldest had a soccer tourney! YUP. FUN!

The dads hid the candy so it was harder than usual to find.

We poo-pooed the usual turkey or ham and went for chili. You read our numbers right? It was a sheer logistics thing. Everyone brought a salad or buns or dessert and a feast was had by all.

We had cousins, brothers, aunts, grandmas, babies, preggos, teens (and preggo teens) and everyone else in between.

It was wonderful! Crazy but wonderful. I'm so glad we took that wall out!

Hey and check this out. I used to babysit this guy when he was a baby...

He just happens to be hubby's Cuz. How small a world do we live in?! And he'll be a father himself in May. This is a sure way to make oneself feel old. VERY OLD!

Oh and Amelia, my four year old, was again our intrepid photographer, just to explain some of the odd angles.

Dawn and Joel announced that they too will become parents this year! Congrats guys!

And it's not a celebration without the dogs. How did we go so long without dogs? We are officially "those weird dog people now". I promise not to show you my dog pictures when you whip out your baby pics though, I'm not quite that far gone!

Cousin Molly...

.... our and Bree, who rarely gets any personal space....

Happy Easter

2008-03-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

I hope you are surrounded by love this weekend. We have been very busy but again, for good reasons, full of company and love. We've just said good bye to good friends who spent a quick but good two days with us. There's something about old friends isn't there?

... and I should be prepping the house for our second annual Friends/Family Easter bash, instead here I am.

...priorities and anything to avoid actual house work!

Here are some pictures from last year....

The kids getting ready for the big candy hunt and the adults roasting smokies on the bonfire in our front yard....

This year we're sticking to our non-traditional food theme and going with chili (we were cold last week when we were planning it).

Levi is playing in a soccer tourney this weekend too just to add to the fun and complicate the day tomorrow. I think we've managed the logistics but time will only tell!

What are your Easter plans? I would love to say we are attending our church's Easter pancake breakfast and service BUT it looks like, again, we will be celebrating quietly at home as a family. A calm before the company starts to pour in. Sometimes I find this quiet family time more refreshing to the spirit than a crowd at church but I'd still like to take part.
...maybe next year.

I took this picture last week. I was amazed that despite the cooler than normal weather the trees are budding. This one is in full bloom now.

This is a big weekend for those of us who proclaim Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Is this the "superbowl for Christians" as someone jokingly asked our pastor? I guess it is actually. Only much more than that! Without Jesus death and resurrection we would have no hope for a future, no forgiveness for our sins and no relationship with the Lord of heaven. There is much to celebrate this weekend. So we hold a big bash and include anyone who wants to join us but mostly family and friends. Some who share our faith and some who don't but all are welcome:)

I'm looking forward to it actually. Last year was a blast. The kids hunted for candy and the adults ate, drank and enjoyed each other. What's better than that?! We are truly blessed!

The daffodils are blooming now too. Just in time for Easter!

Rain, rain go away....

2008-03-17T16:36:00.000-07:00

I seem to start my posts out with a "long time no write" more often than not these days. It's partly because as we approach spring and the days become longer and rainier, they also seem to get fuller; full of things I love though which is good. We usually get more company as the days get longer. It's also because I am trying to make some sense of all the thoughts buzzing around in my head. It does help to write them down so here I am.

We are still involved in the school saga although we both (Kev and I) feel closer to an answer. We are always open to new ideas and directions though so we won't say we've decided for sure until he's actually sitting in a desk or at my kitchen table in September.
We went into our meeting with the principal feeling we would most likely register Levi as a home schooler with the school and only participate in their field trips etc. We left the meeting feeling we would most likely send him to school next year. This is a huge deal for us but it feels like an answer to prayer. The school is super flexible. The kids only attend 4 days a week and he wants our input into the kind of courses etc the Levi takes. We're pretty excited! Stay tuned...

Oh and I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their kind words and encouragement in all our questions and indecision surrounding Levi's school. I've been so touched by the personal emails some of you have sent me. I'm humbled by your vulnerability and it's really helped to know I'm not alone. Thanks!

In other news.... My mom and dad were here for a week. My little brother turned 33, now how did that happen I wonder?!

Here we all are after taking him out for a dinner meal. Happy birthday little bro!

It was wonderful as always. My mom and dad give so much time and energy to the kids it's amazing. My mom coloured and did crafts until I felt a bit crazy for her.

here are some play-doh people they made....

She also helped me clean my house which I can not say enough about. I'm in a bit of shock now that my kitchen no longer self cleans. It's a bit hard to get used to!

Here's my mom and my girls enjoying a tea and a dolphin show at the Vancouver Aquarium on Friday....

And my dad drove the boys around to Warhammar stores and skate board shops. YAY dad!

and here's dad, being his goofy self at the restaurant...

We finished the weekend off celebrating my oldest nephew turning 15. Happy Birthday Josh! We love you....

About the race and other things....

2008-03-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much everyone for all your encouragement about our schooling choices. We are meeting with a small Christian School tomorrow and may register with them so that Levi can still participate in their field trips etc and some of their school events. We'll see how we feel after tomorrow. Stay tuned....

And about the race:
It was great! Honestly I was a bit worried as I really didn't enjoy the last one. I felt sick for days after it which I think now was partly a bug that was going around, but still. It kind of scared me. I was glad we'd preregistered for this series of trail runs because I'm not sure I would have raced the next one.

It was in our regular running spot but not our regular route (they made us loop twice over a nasty hill - meanies!) so we were all pretty comfortable with the course.

Angela finished first of course. I managed to stay with her for about half the race but she out paced me after a while.

She's a tough one! I think her time was 53 something...we'll have to check the final times.

Here comes the next one...ME!!! Check out the guy behind me. I did beat him!!;-)

...with a time of 55 something (again VERY hard to remember when you're panting and sweating and gasping for air!)

And following close behind me with a time of 58 something, was Moranda...

She had her whole family there to cheer her on, even the dog! But especially her hubby!

We'd have more pictures of our largest cheering section to date: my girls, Moranda's hubby, my hubby, and both the dogs but of course, the camera died! Perfect.

But here we are....

the intrepid runners. This is the final race in the trail series and it was a fun positive note to end on.

Next we're running the Vancouver Sun Run. It should be a completely different experience as it's one of the largest 10 k's in Canada. The close down a good portion of downtown and people come from all over.

We are still here!

2008-03-04T21:31:00.000-08:00

I attended a weekend women's retreat on Friday and Saturday in Vancouver. It was encouraging inspiring and and bit of a kick in the pants quite frankly.

We're doing quite a bit of soul searching/praying about what to do with our kids schooling next year. (For those of you who don't know, we have always homeschooled our kids.) My oldest is going into grade 8 in September and I've been feeling slightly uninspired and was thinking maybe this would be the year to give up my responsibility, to hand to ball to someone else so to speak. My nephew has been attending and loving a small private school not far from our house. It seemed perfect for me. Not a huge school, a safe place to put our toes into the school pool so to speak.

We're still talking and praying about it but it's becoming more and more clear to me that taking the safe and easy route of sending him to school (keep in mind this is something for ME not a comment on anyone else's schooling choices!) would sort of work against our desires for him as a person and for us as a family. We want to encourage him in the areas he's showing proficiency in (computer programming) and have the flexibility to travel as a family.

It feels a bit like jumping off the cliff and hoping my parachute will open in time to me. I feel God challenging me to put my money where my mouth is and trust Him in this.

Stay tuned as I seem to change my mind daily but as of today we will be homeschooling next year but in a somewhat different way. So here goes...wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee........

Oh and if anyone knows of programming courses for kids. I'm on the hunt:)

In other news, my bff's and I are running another 10 K on Sunday but this one I feel completely unprepared for. I'm not sure why but I seem to struggle with balance in my life. If I feel sort of centered and settled spiritually than physically I'm struggling to find time to exercise and if I'm all fit and trim ... well you get the idea:) If I could only get it together all at the same time, imagine the damage I could do?!

Morning stuff...

2008-02-28T08:29:00.000-08:00

Mom: Amelia why are you crawling on the floor like that?

(looks down at smallest daughter doing the army crawl beside the dining room table)

Amelia: Because I'm rock climbing!

(oh of course! Sorry for asking such a silly question.)

about that run...

2008-02-25T23:20:00.000-08:00

whew. Thanks for all the wonderful comments about how I'm not posting drivel. You certainly know how to prop a girl up:)

Well the run was fantastic and the hardest thing I've ever done! It turns out it was 8 km instead of 10 which is good because I think 10 would have killed me. Seriously! The hills. Our first "race" I mostly just ran. I think my time was 64 mins to do 10km which is fine but certainly doesn't break any land speed records. My time on this race was 42 something. I have to wait until the times are posted to give an official time. She said it to me as I panted across the finish line but I was in no shape to remember numbers which isn't my strong suit at the best of times.

here I am coming across the finish line

I can honestly say I ran HARD and it was a hard course! There were so many hills. At one point I felt like I just wanted to stop. and sit down. and never get up again. Crazy right?! Obviously I'm not that mentally tough.

here's Angela coming in for her stellar finish.

Ange, who is tough when it counts, beat Moranda and I with a time of 42.13 (I think, again not great with numbers)

There will be no photos of Moranda crossing the finish line as she made me promise not to post them. I think she looks fantastic but you'll just have to take my word for it.

here she is with her cheering section.

Ange and I (Moranda will NOT get involved in the discussions, smart girl) have been talking about doing a half marathon but I'm not sure I have what it takes to run for 2 -2 1/2 hours. We'll see.

Look at us. YAY we finished it alive and well!!

It did show us that our leisurely 11 km runs a couple times a week are not going to cut it if we want to race. We're going to have to train to race. The next one is a 10 km trail run in two weeks and I'm going to try to get some hill training in. I don' t want to feel like I'm dieing again.

My cheering section spent most of their time running around the park. I think they came for the coffee and cupcakes after.

So there you go. Race was great! I'm totally seizing up today so my run tomorrow should be interesting. If you see me in the fetal position by the side to the road, please take pity and dial 911.

The race was sponsored by Peninsula runners and they wanted a group shot for their website. I'm in the bottom right hand corner under the kids.

I'm amazing in my own mind...

2008-02-23T22:44:00.001-08:00

I think maybe I'm loosing it but some days (mainly while I'm running alone and trying not to think about how much longer my route is) I write my blog in my head. I'm so witty and wonderful. My thoughts are terribly deep and insightful. In my own mind, I'm truly amazing, plumbing the depth of my soul in order to share it with the world (or the three people who read this but..details, details..whatever).

When I finally sit down to really write, you get what you read here. Drivel. Pure unadulterated drivel. and pictures don't forget those. The kids are cute though so how can I not share their great cuteness?!

Forgive me for the disjointedness of this, I'm just so tired tonight. The girls didn't sleep much last night. They were in and out of our bed from about 2am on. Some nights are just like that in this crazy house.

And I do have many thoughts swirling. We are praying for direction in many areas, mostly wondering what to do about the kid's schooling next year. Our oldest is heading into grade eight and both Kev and I are feeling a greater need to look at where his strengths are and how to help him work towards being a man. It's crazy to think of us having a teenager. I think his voice may be starting to change - YIKES!

Also, I'll have a new race update tomorrow. We (the running gals and me) are off to our second 10 km trail race in the morning. This has been a bit of a sluggish week for me so I'm a teeny bit nervous about the run this time. My distances have been shorter this week too so hopefully I'll be raring to go in the morning.

Over and out....

Wonderful weekend...amazing husband!

2008-02-20T18:11:00.001-08:00

Full marks for wonderfulness (I know, I know but it's my blog and I can make words up if I want to) goes to my husband...Kevin!

He planned a (semi because he did tell me about it a day before) surprise evening away for the two of us in Seattle. We had a lovely, relaxing, day and a half.

We stayed here bordering on downtown in an old area of Seattle. It was quaint and beautiful loaded with old fashioned charm. We got to walk up to our third floor room because the building was built before elevators, the floors were hardwood and the plumbing reminded us of the house we left at home and are renovating, in otherwords, we loved it!

What did we do with all our glorious free time? Well, mostly we ate...yummy! And walked and talked and looked at the sights. It seems just about the perfect one day get away to me!

Kev even got some work in....

I loved some of the old buildings. It's much like Vancouver but I rarely have time to look when I'm at home. We're always rushing from one place to another without stopping to enjoy the history around us.

We decided to take the long way home. We drove and drove wondering why we chose to do this extra long journey when we came accross this....

A bridge joins the Island to the mainland and we happened upon it suddenly as we came around the corner. It took my breath away.

Thanks hon for the amazing President's day (hey we can celebrate it even if we aren't Americans!)

introducing the kids to our obsession....

2008-02-16T21:35:00.001-08:00

We have Angela to thank for this. She's my friend, running pard. and a manager at Canadian Tire who hosted this event....
Here she is taking a photo of the big craziness.

Isaac has been asking to run a race. "Please mom. When can I run?" Well Ange caught wind of this and mentioned (read: strong-armed) her sister-in-law and myself to put the kids in this fun race to celebrate B.C.'s birthday. None of us were too hard to convince...

except Maddy but she decided in the end that she really wanted to try. The event was held at Fort Langley which is pretty cool all by itself!

The kids got to start the event by building a play house while they waited....

Then they warmed up with some of the Langley Chief's (Junior hockey players???? I'm pretty out of it when it comes to that so I really had no idea!) and Angela's daughter and friends....

Time to line up to start!

Ready....set.....

GO!!!!!!

And they're off! Isaac broke away from the pack immediately....

I think the kid behind him ended up beating him but he came second so he was pretty happy about himself!

Emilee ran/walked her 6 laps like a trouper! Go Em go!

Maddy did great too! She didn't quite make the whole 6 laps but she made it for 5 and we're very proud of her....

...and what of our tiniest racer you ask? Well she won my vote for the cutest racer (well unofficially in our family anyway) and did her two laps like a true runner:)

She needed her mom to run with her for the last lap because she was "scared". I was happy to!
Here she is at the finish line with dad...

All the kids got a medal because everyone in this event is a winner! I was so proud of all of them! YAY kids!

"What did you get? Really?! ME TOO! COOL!!!!"

...and there was food. I mean, who doesn't want a huge hot dog, cookie and juice box after a good run?!

I think that might be as big as her head!

It was a great day!

Here I am surrounded by my cute runners...

(My oldest son was home sick. Just in case you noticed that I'm missing one. He was thoroughly enjoying his precious alone time!)

better late than never....

2008-02-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

Well I meant to come by and wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day or as it's better known at our house....gorge-yourself-on-candy-day.

We started the day late. We all slept in. That silly alarm just rang and rang. Didn't our alarm realize this was a fake, Hallmark holiday? I mean, have some respect!

We had a couple of sick kids today so it was good that there was not much planned for us. Troupers that they are, they managed to eat their candy even when they couldn't eat much real food. I know, they have real commitment to our special non-holiday.

I put my running kit on which is as much exercise as I actually got today, unless you count the lifting of hand, to m & m bag, to mouth. Have I mentioned my inability to say no to m & m's? (only rivaled by my addiction to those Mini Eggs!)

I made an amazing meal, red meat (special treat for the men in my life), amazing garlic mashed potatoes and chocolate cake.
We are not quite the eaters we used to be and couldn't even tackle the cake! I actually had to lay down for a bit after the steak. I'm hardcore, I know!

In all seriousness, I am truly blessed by all the love that surrounds me. It was a wonderful, restful, uneventful day. It was perfect! My hubby even brought me flowers.

Thanks sweetie:) I love you too!

trying to enjoy the ride....

2008-02-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

It seems I'm always blogging about how I haven't posted in a while because it's gotten so crazy around here. I think it's just how it is at my house. We're busy and some days I cope better than others.

Kev went away for a couple of days on business and that always sends me into coping mode but the weird thing is that for some reason I seem to try to do more. We're out later and have more things planned. I'm not sure why or if it's just always busy on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and I only notice when he's gone.

Friday was especially busy because I took these good time boys....

(Levi, Isaac, friend John and cousin Wylan)

....to the IMAX. We saw a cool informative film on Egypt and an amazing one on space. It was all filmed by astronauts on the space station and I've never seen anything like it! We felt like we were there and it was all in 3-D which only added too the effect. Isaac and John loved it. They were especially excited to learn that you didn't have to be an amazing athlete to be and astronaut, you could be a doctor, scientist or engineer too.

I was a bit frustrated with son #1 because he sometimes gets attitude if he's not totally into whatever it is I have planned. Here he is trying to keep the cool while I was teasing him about not smiling!

It was a beautiful day in downtown Vancouver. The wind was blowing and the sun peaked out now and then. The IMAX is right down on the water at Canada Place. It's lovely to stand and look out over the water towards Stanley Park. Not surprisingly it was pretty much lost on the boys.

As we headed back out to Langley the good weather didn't stay with us but the boys wanted to hit a skate board park so off we went. They had fun but I think they're a bit better in their own minds than in real life so...they do get frustrated with it.

Anyway, the girl had their dance rehearsal for the big Diva show on Saturday so my sister-in-law and I had to race off to Abbotsford, leaving the dogs and boys at her house.

Maddy danced to "Rockin' Robin" and Emilee was in the "Cotton-eyed Joe" hoe down. They were so excited and cute in full costume and make up.

Here's Maddy and a few from her troupe. I don't know the other kid's parents that well so I had to black out their faces. They were all done up and excited, just like Madeline!

Saturday we weren't allowed to take pictures of the actual show so all I have is my memory of her dance but all the kids were wonderful!
Last year Maddy was awed by the stage and lights and mostly just stood there. This year they all remembered most of the steps and did so well. She was terribly nervous for days before hand. She cried and screamed and insisted that she didn't want to do it. "Everyone will stare at me and I'll be so embarrassed." she yelled at me on Thursday night before the big practice.

The make up and costume seemed to transform her and give her confidence. After the rehearsal on Friday she was excited rather than scared. All she asked for was her own BIG bunch of flowers. I guess last year Uncle Albert only got her a lone rose which was more than she would have gotten if I'd been in change. They have the flowers for sale at the show and I had no idea she would care let alone remember for a year.

Daddy got home early Saturday morning so he was able to join us at the actual performance. She was delighted when he gave her a big bunch of flowers after her first Diva show!

Amelia wants to know when June will be? Not being a competitive dancer she has to wait to the year end show and is already counting the days.

and here comes the sun!!!

2008-02-07T10:24:00.001-08:00

whew! Maybe we made it? Maybe the rain will stop for a day? Maybe it won't snow, then rain, than freeze again? Maybe my bulbs will begin to come up?

I'm not whining, believe me! I love living here. It's everything I hoped. I just get a little dragged down by the gray, the gloom and the rain. Just some days. I don't even realize until I read this and realized, THE SUN WAS SHINING!!!

I'm still in a bit of shock living here in this gentler climate. We lived in Calgary (above Montana for you Americans) until a year and a half ago. It's a great place with terrible, unpredictable weather. We would go to bed with the sun shining and the grass staring brownly at us and wake up to a wind so cold and stiff that it could strip paint off the house. Or there'd be snow drifts up to the steps one day and plus 15 the next. I have to admit I do miss that prairie sun! Now I barely even have to take my sunglasses out of the case from about November to February. I think I've made a fair trade though.

I can hear the boys out jumping on the tramp and the girls are dancing to their new favorite CD behind me.

Maybe even the soccer games will be a go this weekend?!

A little pat on the back...

2008-02-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

It's kind of embarrassing to post stuff specifically about me but...
I'm proud of myself and excited about my first race plus it's a great way to send my mom pictures. "Hi Mom!"

On Saturday after our company left I was sick as a dog. Why does this matter? Well it doesn't really except that I had entered myself and my two running pals in our first 10 km trail race. We were all set and here I was puking up a lung. UGGG!

I set the alarm super early so that I would know for sure if I could do it and all seemed well. Must have been a 24 hour bug. Maybe my body was on it's own cleanse? Who knows? I had hubby pray for me and I woke up all better - yay!

Lucky for us it's just a local trail race, so no chips etc because being the brain surgeons that we are, we

1. got there late
2. parked in the wrong parking lot
3. had to run 2 -3 km just to get to the race start
4. were not on the list of runners (okay so this one was NOT my fault)

But all this aside...

WE DID IT!!

Ange, the most competitive of our little bunch ran ahead of the group and finished 9 mins before us, that's why she's not in these end of race photos.

Randa and I got caught behind tons of hill walkers on the first 5 km and finished in 64 mins

.

Not bad for our first race I thought!

I had such a great time! The next one is the 24th so wish us luck and less snow:)

Snow, rain, oceans, ski hills and old friends....

2008-02-04T10:21:00.000-08:00

Sorry I'm been a bit mia. Our friends arrived Wednesday afternoon with their eight great kids in tow and I've been otherwise occupied since then.

We had a wonderful time!

Thursday was supposed to be spent at the Vancouver Aquarium BUT the dad's ended up working too long and the aquarium is on winter hours so....

Off we went to the beach. It was raining and windy but oh so fun! The kids made discovery after discovery in the tide pools.

Check out all the great shells we found!!!! (remember these are prairie kids!)

The ran through the sand and puddles getting water into their snow boots and not really caring in the excitement of it all.

It was cold, and relaxing and beautiful...

Check out this angry sky as the rain began to come down...

It was amazing. We could see the weather coming on the horizon long before it got to us!

Bree is officially a beach dog. This was her first beach trip and she ran and ran, loving every minute of her adventure!

A trip to the beach is not complete with out a snack! The sea gulls almost mobbed us when they noticed the kids got more chips on the ground than in their mouths!

In looking back at all these photos I was suprised at how much the light changed. It went from light to dark back to light again, all in the course of two hours. We had sun, rain, hail and wind but no one minded, we were having too much fun exploring!

---------------------------------------

The next day the older kids spent at Mount Baker skiing and I have no photographic evidence. Hopefully our friends took some snaps?!

---------------------------------------

Then we had to say goodbye. It was a short visit but wonderful. There's nothing like old friends!

the girls....

some of the Boys.....

moms....

The whole gang one more time....I just realized we are missing one boy from this picture....CRAZY!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sniz gave me this...thanks girl!

SNOW DAY!!

2008-01-29T16:01:00.000-08:00

Look what we woke up to!!!

Well I'm a homeschooler so it's not like a snow day should affect us in any real way, but it does. With all the beautiful glistening white play area beckoning just outside the windows, it's almost impossible to get any school work done...and why should we?! The kids suited up and went out!

In my defense:) the snow won't last that long here on the west coast so you have to enjoy it while you can. Hopefully it will stay for a couple of days but there are not guarantees!

Even the dog got into the action...

She loved it! Crazy mutt! Jumping and sniffing and eating the strange white stuff.

They were red, cold and very very happy.

Yummy warm soup on a cold snowy day!

The neighbor kids got to stay home too which is an extra treat so back into their gear and back outside them went!

I've had a couple of uninterrupted hours to vacuum and clean (and blog, but I finished my work first!). We have good friends coming tomorrow, with their 8 kids,to stay for a couple of days so this time to clean and organized was very appreciated!

There is nothing like old friends and I can't wait to share and laugh and pray together. (if we have a moment of quiet which is doubtful with 12 kids running around). We haven't spent any time together for over year and I miss them!

Another week...another crazy amount of food prep...

2008-01-28T11:15:00.000-08:00

How do you keep your food bill down? Do you try? Is this an issue for you?

We're a family of six so naturally we eat more than, say the average family although most of us (Isaac and Amelia I'm looking at you!) eat almost nothing. It's more like an average family of 4 or 5 but whatever.
I'm not a crazy health food lady by any stretch but I try to feed everyone as nutritiously as I can. I try to feed them whole foods and lots of fruit and veggies (Okay so I do have nuggets and fries in my freezer but other than that...)

I drive out to a special grain store to by my freshly ground organic flour (look I'm not insane, it's just not that far from my house.) I try to by local, organic and fresh as much as possible. I'm not independently wealthy, however, so there is a limit to all of this of course.

I'm just finding we are struggling to stay within our food budget every month. Granted we have tons and I mean tons of company ... but I love to bake so I don't buy much prepared stuff. We also don't eat out very often. Have you take 4 + kids out to eat lately? It's expensive and not at all my idea of fun! It costs us almost $30 at Tims or Wendy's and to quote my husband, "it's like paying for the privilege of being in a food fight." I don't think it's quite as bad anymore but we still throw too much away for me to justify the whole thing very often.

I probably feed my brood plus at least 2 or 3 others at least three times a week and I feed 14 (the size of our extended family that lives near us) probably weekly. Plus we have company that comes to stay once a month.

I refuse to stop doing this.

I love that people feel they can come, hang out and stay for a meal. I like feeding people, which if you knew me when I first go married, you would be surprised to hear. I could just barely make toast and ... I'm NOT joking! I see it as a way to create community. It's not fun to prepare everything but it's a blast to have everyone over and get to know people better.

I'd love to hear any tips, websites, recipes that you swear by...leave them in the comments. It will be greatly appreciated. I have a link to an amazing recipe blog on my side bar. Her pot roast is to die for!!! Actually everything I've tried has been great!

Oh and I have one last question. Why when I have a house full of food, do my teen son and nephews think there's "nothing good to eat", if we don't have chips???!!!

Details, details....

2008-01-25T09:50:00.000-08:00

I was so proud of myself I just had to share this. I know I'm probably over my limit on birthday posts but it took up so much of my time this weekend, what's a girl to do?!

(Yes Chey. That is a NEW bag of Mini Eggs. I didn't even eat most of them...baby steps!)

I've never attempted anything like this before, mostly because I'm notoriously bad at decorating cakes. Don't get me wrong, they're always super yummy but in the looks department, they fail miserably. I realize these ones are pretty amateur to the the seasoned pro but for me...they're as close to perfect as it gets.

The big problem is...
1. I'm not really a details person
2. I'm not a perfectionist...
3. I'm a procrastinator.

I marvel at people who are able to think of the minutia and who care to pull it off. You know her, the lady who remembers to paint her toes or who remembers that you might need a thank you card two weeks into your vacation...someone like that. I'm the one who forgets to bring my toothbrush or a hair elastic or underwear.

I figured it out though, as far as the cakes go. Do as much before hand as you possible can, freeze the layers and decorate frozen. It's amazing how well this works. It can be applied in all sorts of situations actually. If you get as much done before the actual event, you're much less likely to forget something. It seems my mother was right (again) after all!

I did almost forget to serve the cake though! BUT that's another story....

Click here for my inspiration...

Happy Birthday Amelia!!

2008-01-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

I'm a day late with this but we had such a day yesterday, full of kids and cake and family and love.

She was terribly excited. Maybe I'll get time to post some pictures of the madness....

I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate my baby as she moves from toddler-hood to preschooler. She's moving away from baby-hood at break neck speed. It's bittersweet for me. I've never been one to wish my kids were younger than they are or that they'd stay small but at the same time I'm aware of how fast the years are going by. Please, Lord give us the wisdom to raise her to know who she is and how to be that with grace.

Here she is on the day of her birth.

Welcome to the world Amelia Lillian....5 lbs 14 ozs
January 21, 2004

Getting love on her first birthday from her big bro.'s.... (2005)

My big two year old....(2006)

I couldn't find one of her turning 3 so here she is just before her third birthday, decorating cookies for Christmas .... (2007)

And here is our birthday princess and her attendants yesterday....(ignore the background disaster)...

And opening the Polly's at the night time party...(2008)

She asked me this morning if she could take Jazz dance now (like her sister) or be on the soccer team? The problem with being the youngest is you have to wait for things a lot!

We love you our four year old. Enjoy every moment and don't try to get older too fast:)

Celebrating the smallest all weekend....

2008-01-19T20:13:00.000-08:00

We have a funny phrase in our family. We don't just have birthdays, we have "birthday weeks" or "birthday months". So this is our youngest girlie's birthday week. I can not believe that four years ago I looked something like this...

and she looked like this....

I was so anxious to meet her and find out what that girlie who'd been kicking and moving around in me was really like. She's still dancing up a storm and now we can't imagine our lives without her joy and energy.

She's pretty excited about celebrating her birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Reid this weekend.

Getting up in the morning and opening some presents with her peeps...(that's for my gangsta boy in his gangsta hat...what is up with those hats anyway?!)

trying on the new clothes...

getting into the new chef wear...

and helping mom make the cake...

Then, of course, after Chinese food and laughter and love...

"Happy Birthday to You..."

Amelia Lillian we love you more than you can know! Happy Birthday week to you my precious girlie!

counting all kinds of blessings.....

2008-01-12T23:03:00.000-08:00

My kids have no idea the amazing life they have and nor should they really, they're just kids living their lives. But it is great! They're safe and happy and loved.

They're surrounded by love actually.

Why am I even thinking about this? My mom and dad just sent these pictures taken while they were here for Christmas. Because the boys had friends coming from out of town Grandma and Grandpa decided to take the girls on a special trip to ride the "horses". It was amazing! They talked about the cool old carousel and how it was restored (I guess there was a movie) for weeks.

I mean how great does this look?!

Grandma and Amelia

Grandpa and the girls going around and around

Maddy and her new friend.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Although, I don't have any pictures because I'm kind of out of picture mode these days, (I spend months documenting everything and then inexplicably I'm just done) the younger kids spent the day on Friday with their Grandparents on my husbands side. They are still talking about it today. Secret plans for Valentine's Day and long tea parties and rides on the swing were had by all.

....surrounded by love....

Both sides of our family love and treasure them as intensely as we do! It's so great for the kids because they feel totally loved and cherished and it's so great for me because it takes some of the pressure off . I don't have to be quite as fun cuz that's Grandma's job - both Grandmas. (and Grandpa too but these days it's mostly about Grandma- don't you worry Grandpas, your time will come...)

It works great for everyone and the kids win! Thank you Lord for Grandma's and Grandpas! YAY!

(edited Jan 17 to answer Chey's question)
The carousel is in Burnaby Heritage Park. It's been totally refurbished and costs $2 a ride although I believe you can buy a pass.

Hopefully I'm doing this right...

2008-01-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

Okay so I've never done one of these bloggy mems??? (is that really what they're called?) but seeing that I love to talk and especially about myself....here goes.

The rules are as follows: Simply link to the person who tagged you. SHARE SEVEN WEIRD things about yourself. Tag SEVEN bloggers to do the same AND include a link to their blog. Let each person know that they have been tagged and finally post the rules on your blog.

Miss Sniz, who rocks btw, tagged me. Check her out, oh and her hilarious hubby too. Totally funny guy.

Now I'm pretty open about how truely strange I am BUT the reason this took so long for me to actually do is...I can't think under pressure. NOT AT ALL! So I couldn't think of anything weird...

1. which brings me to #1....sometimes when I'm asked, many (and I mean many) times I can not remember my phone number. I'll remember one from years ago but not the current one. This can also happen with my address. Why does this happen to me? HELP!

2. I didn't realize this was a problem until I actually read it on Sniz's list but, I'm a loud cell phone talker too. I go one beyond though an sometimes forget people around me can hear me at all. Like I'm in my own personal bubble.

3. I can't sleep well if I'm naked. I have no idea why and I've tried but I just can't.

4. I can't sing. Not at all. NOT A NOTE. Don't ask, it's a terrible thing!

5. I am a terrible coffee snob. I can't have anything in it, no flavor, no booze, no cream...nothing. and it MUST be dark roast. YUM!

6. I really can't spell. It's so strange because I read very well, am pretty well spoken BUT my spelling is terrible!

7. I love to re-read books. When i was a kid I used to read the Secret Garden and the Narnia series all the time. It was like comfort food for me. I still love to read them from time to time...

I would love to read some of my fav blogger's weirdnesses, bared for all to see so...
Kristen, Cheaty, Chey, Lori, Kellen

I read loads more but that's all I got time for today.
I'm trying to spend more time on the whole homeschooling thing and less on this. Obviously, it's not going well ;)

Normal goings on for my crazy house....

2008-01-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot to even take photos or even mention this. It's been so common place in my life over the 7 or 8 years we've been home owners that I hardly even notice anymore.

The day after (thank you hubby for waiting!) our big party for all his cousins, my husband took a wall out! I think it helps him relax and although the process is NOT relaxing for me, I love the final results.

I'm sure I mentioned this but we didn't by our dream property for the house. In fact our pet name for the place even before we'd put an offer on it was "the crazy house".

I remember telling everyone, "Hey we bought the crazy house." and they totally knew what I was talking about. We try to play up the yard....which is why we bought the place. After living in Calgary for 8 years, it feels like paradise!
part of the back yard

part of the front

Back to the house....
It was painted all different colors inside, like some insane preschooler got to pick the paint and carpeting. One basement room was purple, one was a pink and a reddish brown carpet covered the play room floor (these rooms all connected) and don't forget the chandelier dangling in the entry or the mural wallpaper in the office. We had a planter built into the living room, crazy disco lights and more than a couple of structural issues. Nothing too serious but I'm sure whoever did the last few renovations had never heard of a level. It wasn't even like he/she eyeballed it...sorta seems like they just leaned it up and nailed it in. Needless to say, it needed some work before we could move in. My hubby did as much as he could in the 6 weeks before we came out but there it sat, mostly unfinished.

We don't plan to keep the house so it seems foolish to spend too much on any major renovations, however I've been finding the kitchen increasingly hard to live with ... so that's pretty much brings up up to the wall removal.

Now you see it...(sorry couldn't find one without kids in it. We never think to actually take real before pictures.)

now you don't...(please don't look into my poor door-less pantry and crazy horrible fridge - yikes)

Way better for having 25 people over! Not the same congestion around the table and kitchen which is where everyone seems to want to be.

Oh and then there was the door to the deck that wouldn't close properly or stay closed or seal.
So he did that today. You can tell from these pictures that there were many projects that came before this one and many that will come after.

all in....

And here are the dogs. See our dog Bree and how happy she is to have cousin Molly over?!

We had to put them behind the gate because they kept trying to eat the wood chips and nails and yucky old insulation. The gate sort of keeps the kids downstairs too... okay it doesn't really but it makes them have to slow down as they race through the dining room.

We have a plan to do a complete addition and renovation but these are still a few years out, until then this should help me use my space a bit better. It aint perty but it works ;-)

I'm very thankful to be married to a handy kinda guy. Stay tuned for more from "the crazy house".....

WARNING!!! whining about weight ahead.....

2008-01-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Ugh!

I've gained 4 lbs this holiday season. I know 4 lbs sounds like nothing, like something I could loose in a weekend but...what if I don't? And why does the terror of this not drive me to drink water and eat carrots? And 4 lbs is a lot if you're running 10 km +. It feels like boulders in your a$s, like each leg now suddenly wears ankle weights. Ugh!

So mission January is ... loose the 4 lbs! Just when I was getting used to the odd Black Russian at night - poo!

...and in other random news....

I'm off to buy new shoes and to sign up for those 10 Km runs that are on my Jan. goal list. If I actually pay for the races, I can't back out OR that's the theory anyway! I'm still in a bit of shock that I'm still running after a year.

Last year at this time me, my sil and her sil all started Weight watchers together. I needed to shed those last 10 -15lbs for good and they both needed to loose 30. .. Amazingly we did it!

Here they are the fab girls, now a combined 60 lbs lighter. I found a nice before one of Randa from a year ago, double chin and all BUT .... she knows where I live!

Ange and Randa celebrating the big 3 - 7 for Ange. I'm behind the camera:)

Last year we started to run together. Slowly at first but eventually added more and more km's and more often until we were running 11 km - 3 times a week together and doing our own thing on the other days.

Despite the 4 lbs I've replaced over Christmas I feel great! Better than I have in years:)

...in other unrelated news....

This is Molly. We're dog sitting her this weekend much to our pooches joy and excitement!
She's our cousin dog so family, really.

We hope to teach our doggies to run with us:) Eventually we'll all be running fools:)

yet another New Year post and other random stuff...

2008-01-02T19:59:00.000-08:00

Here's a pic me and the kids with my mom and dad for Christmas dinner.
I'm not sure where my bro was ... hubby is the super duper photographer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Have I told you how much I love the new year?

I feel the same way when I get a new book or make a new friend. It's all shiny and new and anything is possible. Because it's a new year I can loose 20 lbs, or make a new great habit or learn a new language or because fabulously rich. ha ha. Of course these things aren't going to happen and if I'm truthful I don't even want them too but it's just the possibility of it all. It's like leaving for a holiday, getting up early and getting into the car. I'm all tingly with the expectation of it all:)

I love it! Obviously I'm one of those cup is half full people so please bare with me!

What brought all this delayed happiness on you ask? Well, I feel like our real 2008 is finally starting. Hubby and I try to go out on New Years Eve and write down our family and personal goals for the year, have some yummy food and some great uninterrupted talk (with 4 kids this is harder to come by they you might think). Since we moved here, nearer to family, my holiday has become less about Kev and I as a couple and more about me focusing on our company and hosting various events. I love it but it leaves very little time for planning and talking. We also don't spend the evening alone anymore. We're adjusting our traditions so....

Today we went out for sushi at lunch and did our pow wow ... and my mom and dad finally left to go home. As much as I love my mom and dad, it's great to be just us again after two weeks of company and events. Here's hoping we can get the kids back into the habit of going to bed and getting up at regular times....okay and myself too!

One of my personal goals this year to to run at least 2 - 10 km races. I've managed in all the craziness to maintain my running schedule so of that I'm very proud.

What are your New Year traditions? Do you set goals?
I hate the whole resolution thing. I was never good at keeping them and find goals much friendlier. I'm sure it's just semantics; please don't burst my bubble!

Onward and upward into a new year....

2008-01-01T11:38:00.001-08:00

2008! wow!

I feel like an old timer saying this but time is literally flying by. Now it years instead of days that seem to just slip through my fingers.

2006 ended our time in Alberta and brought us back to BC. It saw us buy our dream property and attempt to get settled on the West coast.

2007 continued our journey. We made some major changes in our financial life, took on a lot of risk and learned some hard lessons about partners. (If I sound a bit cagey on this one, it's on purpose. It wasn't a fun time but hopefully lessons hard learned are the ones that stay with us!)
We also began the huge project that is our "dream property". When I speak of it in this way, I'm thinking of what it could be not what it is at this minute. At this moment it's lovely but...needs tons of work.

Here's the new driveway we put in, in the spring....

I love history. Of all kinds. I think it's important to look back as nations and as individuals in order to move forward. I love seeing God's hand in our lives. When I'm right in the moment I don't always see it but when I look back I can see His purpose being realized in our lives.

I wish everyone a Happy beginning to 2008. I hope this year brings you joy and new possibilities. Every year brings some new adventure. I just have to remind myself that adventures are not supposed to be safe:)

Happy New Year!!!

Joy and family and a couple extra pounds....

2007-12-27T14:45:00.001-08:00

What a wonderful couple of days. Our Christmas always starts on Christmas Eve as Kev's family celebrate in the German (?) tradition of opening all the presents etc after dinner on Christmas eve. It's pretty magical.

Super Sister-in-law (I think that may be her new name) came through with the most amazing dinner! She wins hands down as the cook of the season!

Yes, even the dogs joined in the celebration. See we're "those" dog people now!

We mostly watched her work her magic (I think Amelia took this one)

and hung out getting Christmas cuddles from our last baby. (Can I still call her a baby once she's four?)...

At the kids table, crazy mayhem ensued...

So it was pretty much business as usual:)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have a tradition where Papa reads the Christmas story from a huge old coloring book that my hubby and sister-in-law colored as kids. It was touching and precious this year to have the four older boys each take a turn with Papa in reading. I remember when they were tiny boys and could barely sit still long enough to read through even a page and here they are, on the cusp of becoming young men... amazing!

And then came the crazy, exciting present bit! They were all pretty excited. We don't go overboard on presents but they all loved everything so much it was fun to watch!

Here's the, "oh, I can't believe how much I love it!" face...

followed by the, "waaaaaa-whoooooo. You rock! You totally rock" dance and song....

Wonderful, magical evening.

The second half of our Christmas tradition started when we came home to fill the stockings with my mom and dad and brother.

"And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...."

In the morning, we got up too early and had a wonderful day of more gifts and more food.
My dad took the pictures so hopefully I'll have them later!

It was a great couple of days filled with love and family.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-23T16:25:00.001-08:00

I just finished my 4 pies and am going to start on a cake and maybe venture onto these. If you don't hear back from me it's because my bum is suddenly much too big to get into my computer chair:) From the sounds of it, it will be well worth it. Seriously check that blogger out! I may have to try everything she chronicles but I plan to pace myself because it don't wish the diabetes and heart disease on my nearest and dearest.

We have tried, just like every year, to make this season less about "stuff" and more about our faith. As usually I am failing miserably. I wonder if everyone feels this way or is it just me? I am failing to pass on the importance of Christs birth to my precious, sugar filled offspring. Will they even know why we race around like crazy people for a month, buying, buying, buying? Can they feel that underneath it all should be a deep sense of peace, joy and mostly love? That we give gifts because the greatest gift of all was given to us? I'm not sure but I hope so.

I hope this Christmas is filled with love and joy for you and yours. I pray Gods peace and blessing for those who I know are grieving this season. May you be able to rest in God's great love.

Over here we will be celebrating our savior's birth in the fashion we've grown accustomed too. It mostly involves a revolving door of family and tons of food. I can't wait! My poor sister-in-law has taken on the unenviable task of Cooking The Turkey. Yes, she may need psychiatric help at the end.

"Merry Christmas from our family to yours!"

Trying this again....

2007-12-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

So I was going to tell you about our day of Christmas performances. I wish I had pictures of the younger kids doing theirs but it's hard to capture it anyway. I think there might be video but seeing how fast we get on that stuff, it could be next year before that makes it's way OFF the video recorder! It's probably less painful for you this way anyway. Their my kids so it's my job to sit through all this and love it but not so much for anyone else.

My middle two have been practicing and working on a Christmas production "The Mystery of the Manger" since October. The big unveiling was on Sunday. Son #2 had a dancing role and choir duty while daughter #1 sang in the choir. Although wonderful, Isaac's dance was so quick that most of our guests missed it (I didn't and thought he was amazing) but no one missed the larger than life blond girl singing in the front row. I'm not sure if the choir director told her to sing loud AND smile but whoa nelly! She was like one of those badly dubbed martial arts movies from the 80's. So cute and hilarious. I had quite a few people come up to me after and tell me they loved watching her. She's a born performer that one!

It was like every Christmas production you've imagined. Poor singing by the soloists, the sound was terrible, you could hardly hear many of the kids talk BUT it was wonderful! Because it was my precious kids and for me, they were wonderful.
The extended family was somewhat underwhelmed, I think, but...I thought my kids shone like stars because...that's my job:)

I was surprised actually by how much Isaac enjoyed it. He is the kind of kid that you have to make do things because he hates them and doesn't want to but once you get him into it, he enjoys himself so much and does a great job. It's exhausting for me at the beginning but worth it in the end.

Oh and the littlest girlie even had a part. The 3 and 4 year olds went on before the bigger kids and knocked everyone's socks off with their incredible cuteness. They had a little poem to recite which Amelia knew at home but I noticed as I watched she didn't say on stage. AND a song. I think they stole the show! SO CUTE!

Everyone migrated over to our house where we had lunch and the older boys did something that involved this:

and a bit of this:

I think Amelia (the three year old) took these.

....and then it was off to cousin #1's Christmas production. In this one the small kids were safely used as sheep with, I noticed, no lines and everything went without a hitch. Can you still say a fourteen year old is cute? Cuz he is! I was so proud!

I'm pretty sure he was a shepherd.

But look at the audience...

Yes this is what we're dealing with folks! They managed to sit the whole time AND listen ( I think) but I'm pretty sure they have enough sugar coursing through their veins to cause diabetes is weaker souls:)

Of cake and architects etc...

2007-12-17T22:03:00.000-08:00

I'm a binge blogger. I do so great and then...nothing.

I'm a binge eater too. My mil made a cake for the lunch I hosted yesterday. She was totally sweet about leaving it for me so today...I ate it. ALL! Well, everything that was left anyway. I didn't eat much real food. Just cake.

YUM!

Oh and I DID NOT run:( So for those of you impressed by my wonderfulness (not a word but I can use it if I want!) don't be.
BUT...

It was worth every bite. Seriously mil makes the best cake ever!

Oh, we had an architect to our house today to do a consult on what we can do with the "crazy" house, as we affectionately call our home. The first meeting is just an brainstorming thing where we tell him what we want to do and our hopes, dreams,~~crazy insane ideas~~,wishes and he (kindly) tells us we're insane he then drew out some concept stuff that blew our socks off. Since I'm NOT the money person in our relationship. I turned to hubby after he left and said, "I so want them to help us do this". And he said, "Do you understand how much money they cost?"

Of course I don't. He's been married to me for 13 year this should NOT be a surprise to him!

Anyway, he blew our complicated little plan away with his equally complicated but much more logical ideas and then when we are convinced he understands and loves us breaks it too us that he costs a boat load of money to manage our renovation. Hubby figures between himself and my brilliant bil (who runs a Commercial construction company and actually knows what he's doing) they can go solo on it.
No huge coin to architect dude for pretty booklet of ideas which will later turn into more large dollars for detailed drawings etc. and I get to live through yet another renovation. I did willing choose it this time though so I have no one to blame but myself.
I can imagine how amazing our beautiful little acre of trees and lawn will look in the end though so...that does help.

On other fronts And because I'm being to panic....

Who else is not done their Christmas shopping? I was doing so well but I am down to the last few and I seem to have stalled out. HELP!

2007-12-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

I think I'm loosing it a bit. My groove. My drive to run. I'm still running but not as far. I only ran 6 k instead of 10 on Monday and for 45 mins on my tread mill Thursday instead of my hour outside. I think this would all be fine if I wasn't eating so much but I just helped eldest son to polish off a bag of M & M's. Have you tried those new dark one??? YUMMY!! Worth every bite! YUM.

So I want to stay in shape but I also want to enjoy my holiday and the food is a big part of that. Is this just going to be a constant tension in my life? I don't think I'm quite ready to give up chocolate, wine or the odd cookie.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm trying to find some balance. A way to be fine with the way I feel and look while NOT sending the wrong messages to my kids, especially my daughters. I want to be able to enjoy a great meal with my friends and family without talking about how I have been "bad" or shouldn't be eating it. I also want to be able to turn off my craving for sweets when the season is over.

Mostly I'd like to do more of this:

This is from our family walk last weekend. We just put aside the baking and the house cleaning and went outside.

Maybe that's my answer. Just get outside and stop worrying so much about the whole food thing.

Tomorrow's going to be a crazy busy day BUT it will start with a nice long 11 km run followed by our tradition of a coffee and muffin. I can't wait!

sorry for the rant....

2007-12-13T10:52:00.000-08:00

The meeting with my teacher went great! Kids are all good and the war hammer table was a HUGE hit! YAY kids!

You should have seen us in there! We're such a gong show AND we brought the dog. Lucky for me our teacher is amazing. She's flexible and fun and loves the kids (and dog)!

Maddy (my six year old) is not really reading yet which gives me a bit of worry. There's nothing wrong with her brain and she's very bright but oh so stubborn. I think she doesn't like being told what to do? (who do I know like that?) and she wants to be able to do thing well, first try (also... no idea who she gets that from!) The boys also didn't read well until at least grade two and now are both voracious readers, so I do know it will come. It's just hard to wait for it to come and frustrating fighting with her to practice:)

So onto my new rant.

Christmas shopping!

Which actually, I like doing. I love finding the perfect gift for someone, buying it and then watching them open it! I LOVE that! I don't like having a budget but then who loves that at Christmas time but I seem to always find something great for almost everyone.

What I HATE and I mean dislike so much it makes me want throw things and then drives me to drink?
Are you ready?

Shopping with my three year old!

Don't get me wrong, I love my three year old, just not in Winners! 'nuff said!

The one where I actually talk about homeschooling...

2007-12-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

I am a homeschooler. I know I mentioned it in my profile but if you're like me, you don't read it first thing. I usually remember after I've read a post or two. When I'm thinking, "now, how many kids does she have? Where did she say she's from?"

Anyway, I am.

I'm not one of those outwardly militant, jumper wearing homeschool mama's but that side lurks somewhere in me. (well maybe not the jumper part but I can get a bit militant on an off day). People usually tell me that my kids and my self don't seem like homeschoolers. I'm not sure this is quite the complement they mean it as. OR it could be a serious put down to other homeschoolers. What does that mean anyway?

When I start hearing things like, "Oh wow. You homeschool. I could never do that." Seriously, it's the craziest thing to say really. Like any of us feel we're equip for anything our adult lives have thrown at us. We usually just do the best for our individual families with what we have.

I usually say," I don't feel like I can do it most days either." I'm thinking all sorts of snarky, sarcastic things at them though cuz, that's just the way I roll. I'm not mad really. It's just fun to think up smart alec responses to stupid comments. Try it. It's so fun! I wish I was so quick in real life but then people would not think I'm so nice after all:)

We meet with a teacher once a semester. I guess the government has to check to make sure we aren't actually using our kids for manual labor on the sly or something. My meeting is tomorrow. I'm a bit stressed about it for a couple of reasons.

Number one: I have a ton to do tomorrow and don't really want to take the time to meet with said teacher. I want to run, help a friend celebrate a birthday, hubby is away and I just don't feel like it :)

Reason number two: For those of you who don't homeschool, this will make NOT sense to you but for those who do....

..... how to show what my kids have been learning. What I've found in my years at this gig is that real learning has very little to do with the stuff kids put down on paper. Why is this a problem you wonder? Well, the only way people, like myself who come from the institution of public education, have to measure learning is by the stuff kids write down on paper. Mostly fill in the blank, story writing type drivel that non of us remember anything about now that we're not in school but for some reason was crazy important to have studied and re-studied for years and years. Well we don't do a whole lot of that as you can imagine. Mostly because it's not fun and has very little long term value. I have to admit it does look cool though AND so fun to show people! My girls seem much more inclined in that direction so maybe I will have some "hard copy" to show people in years to come.

Here's an example of what the boys are up to:

The boys have created a panorama for their Warhammer game (It's okay I'm not sure what warhammer is either. It's about painting little figurines and war, no hammers are involved though so, not sure about the name.)
It's a massive thing created out of Styrofoam and paint. This took countless hours and is totally self directed. Cool eh?!
They started with this piece of styrofoam:

painted and carved and glued:

and viola! They still want to add to this but here it is so far...

I think it's out of one of the final scenes from The Lord of the Rings. It's the black gate I believe.
Here's a better angle:

Can you see how this is a tad hard to represent in a paper answer type form?

Lucky for me they both do well at math and we have bucket loads of that.

Do you think I can get girl #1 to read novels by tomorrow? No. Me either. I guess we'll just keep going along at our own merry pace then.

I love the lifestyle we get to lead as homeschoolers. The relaxed way the kids get to approach life and their relationship with one another and the joy they can take in exploring their world.

I don't like having to prove that they are learning and the second guessing that comes with all of that. There's a lot of faith involved in raising children, multiply that by 10 when you homeschool.

I know I need to spend more time in prayer....

Tree Day!

2007-12-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

It was time! Time to get a tree. I was feeling so out of the Christmas spirit. I could have been my heavy heart (see last post) or just my feeling of being overwhelmed by all I have to do but whatever the reason, I needed a boost in the Christmas directions.

We headed out, in the dark (it gets dark so early here) to cut our own. I'd love to pretend we hiked deep into the snow filled woods to find our perfect tree but as someone who has actually done this as a child, it's highly overrated! We went to a tree farm about 5 mins from our house. Somewhat less romantic but way more practical.

Here is my troupe trying to decide what tree is the most desirable. Notice the flashlight in Hubby's hand. He's always thinking.

I'm pretty sure the whole trip was all about this for son #1...

How about this one mom??? Too small? Really? Cuz it seems just right to me!

After tramping around in the pitch black, trying not to trip on the stumps of already cut trees....
WE FOUND IT!!! YAY! Gather everyone for a picture!

And yes, we do everything is a group. We are quite the sight everywhere we go!

And then it was down to business...the cutting involved a lot of laying on the ground and hunching over with a flashlight.

Mission complete! Back to our house for chili. And wine, don't forget that.
Christmas is officially ON!

This is the one I've been wondering how to write....

2007-12-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a month, a whole month and I've been wondering how and if to write this but I feel I need to honor Callum's short life with a post.

Behind the fun posts about dogs, kids, coffee and shopping is a deep sadness. A grief that is not my own but I feel it all the same. C. who should today be sending out emails of all the crazy sleepless nights and milky sheets that come with the celebration of a new baby is sending instead pictures of her beautiful stillborn son. I should be reading of her labor and thinking back to my own. I want this to be the news I'm getting. I want to go back and make this month all a bad dream for her. Instead we are supporting her in her grief and lose and celebration of a life that ended before it really started. All her hopes and dreams for Callum will never be realized in this life because on October 31st she got the news that every pregnant mother secretly dreads. Her unborn son, the one she agonized over having, the one she aches to hold, had no heartbeat. He was delivered on November 1st. You can read her story in her own words here. Please do. C. is and amazing writer and Callum was so loved and wanted.

I believe that God holds Callum in His arms. That His heart aches as well for C. and her husband and children. I pray they can feel His peace.

yummy dinner. time with hubby. wonderful!

2007-12-04T23:31:00.000-08:00

Well what a nice evening. Isn't it interesting that the planned events, birthdays, anniversary's, Valentine's Day (I hate V -day but that rant is for another time!) are some times forced and stilted? They're always nice enough but there's so much riding on them. Too many expectations and sometimes the timing is off.

My mom and dad are still in town after watching my kidlets for my girls weekend and they told Kev and I to have an evening out. It was so great! We went for the best dinner ever and had a wonderful chat. I forget sometimes why we fell in love. He's wonderful! So smart and fun. I can't imagine my life without him by my side! Love ya babe! I love that we can talk about nothing, our business, our kids and years into our future all in the same hour. We have so many fun years ahead of us.

We went to The Lamplighters in Fort Langley. My bil and sil told us how amazing it was and we'd tried unsuccessfully to get a table a couple of other times. It seems Tuesday evening on a cold dark rainy night is exactly the time to get a very popular restaurant all to yourself.
We had a lovely bottle of wine and an amazing meal! I had the seared Tuna and Kev had "the best steak of his life!" - YUMMY!

At the same time as we were out dining, boy number one went to his first ever formal Christmas banquet. We dropped him off and watched him go in. He's like me in so many ways but I see his confidence emerging and it that he's nothing at all like his mom. I'm so glad! His good friend couldn't make it so he went alone. He doesn't really know anyone else there very well AND he still had a great time! YAY Levi!

As we arrived our neighbor drove up to drop off his daughter. She's only a year older and is many feet taller but looks 18 while our son looks 10. I remember the days of towering over all the boys. I tell Levi just to give it time but I'm not sure he believes me.

Well, I'd best sign off. I finally get to see the end of The Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest. We went to the cheap theater in Vernon but they had some weird alarm go off just before the end. VERY strange that!

So good to be home....

2007-12-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

It was a fun, crazy weekend away. We shopped like mad women and ate almost nothing and drove through a snow storm but we made it! The wallets are many many dollars lighter and hopefully the kids will love their Christmas presents.

It was funny (as in funny interesting) to watch us on this trip. Two of us were on a mission. We had lists in our head, things to buy, people to cloth and stockings to fill, while two of us were on a girls weekend away, filled with trying random things on, coffee breaks, having their make-up done and leisurely shopping for cool stuff. We would laugh amongst ourselves about this when we met up in food fairs or accidentally in random stores.

Can you guess which category I fell into? I'll give you a hint, I stood for over and hour in Build-a-Bear.

One thing none of us did much of was...enjoy our food. The food was terrible! I'm not much of a foody and mostly it just needs to keep me going but...woah there are some BAD places to eat in Arlington, WA. We had some great chocolate though which (almost) made up for it.

Before last year, I had never taken a trip away with friends. I think it's a wonderful refreshing thing for moms to do. I feel ready to tackle what the rest of the month has to offer.

When I came home and started to read some of my close friend's blogs I realized how trite and sort of flaky my little notes are so, consider this your cookie break for the day. In-between reading of the sorrow and pain and deep considerations going on in other women's brains come to my little place and have a coffee. I am thinking those things, I'm just not sure how to share them in this format.

I also realized, when I got home, that I'd hardly taken time to think, or to pray. I'm not completely done my Christmas shopping but I hope I'm almost there so that I can take the rest of the month to treasure my family and do the things that really matter:) Enjoy the snow! We got some more here and it's lovely.

Off for a wonderful weekend...

2007-11-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

I'm just leaving a quicky post. Oh okay, you got me, they're all pretty quick. I thought maybe with all the pictures no one would notice:)

Anyhoo....my sil, myself, a friend and her friend are all heading out on a hunting exposition. We are hunting wild coats, and shoes, and jeans and hope to return with a catch to last us the whole winter through.

I'm so excited about this girls trip! It's funny whenever I go on these things though. I never have time to do all the things I planned to do for me. I wanted to get my hair cut and tweeze my eye browns. You know so I look like a human rather than a mom. I actually don't even think about it much until I'm actually out on my own, no kids in tow.

Seriously, how do those women do it?! You know who I'm talking about those ones in the mall with their high healed boots and skinny jeans, highlights all in place, nails & eyebrows all done. Some of them even have kids which amazes me even more! You know those ones we all look at and think mean things about ("I bet she's not really happy...") because secretly we're green with envy!

So I'm not one of those AND I won't have my kids with me. I'll just be one of the unwashed masses, bad hair, slight roots, hint of a mono-brow... shopping the outlets with my buds.

And I CAN'T wait!! Wish us luck on our hunting and gathering trip!
See y'all after the weekend.

Oh and check out Kristen's blog while I'm gone. She made the trek with us last year and it won't be the same with out her. Miss ya Kris!

Waking up...

2007-11-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning, stretched and glanced over the sleeping three year old who had come in sometime in the night to see that it was...7:50!!! What?! Then I remembered that really we have no where to be yet today, so I rolled back over and enjoyed waking up.

These are the mornings that make me love homeschooling. Levi does have a class at 12:00 and my sil and I usually run (I will probably just hit the treadmill today) but today we can take our time waking up, getting going. Even the dog slept in.

I think I'll go have a leisurely morning coffee before I officially get started.....

I'll try this again...

2007-11-28T17:42:00.001-08:00

This whole blogging everyday is harder than it looks. (I can't even seem to do it every day so how would I know right?!)

I'm casting my mind around for something...funny...sweet...profound...There are so many images and thoughts in my mind and heart simultaneously. How do I process all this stuff and stay on track? Maybe I can use this excuse for my lack of any visible forward motion on most days:)

I'm noticing more and more that I am completely motivated by connection with other people. I almost crave it. Both in my off and online life.

I read all my comments and visit their blogs. I have to admit to checking daily to see if anyone else has left a note. How sad am I?! It makes me feel like I'm not just whistling in the dark somehow. I'm not sure if all this counts as "real" but thanks to all of you who are reading and to everyone who's leaving a note:) You are making my day!

Check out what we got yesterday! The kids were thrilled and couldn't wait to get out there!

We live on the west coast so when we get snow it doesn't stay long. What a fun way to "jump" on the tramp!

Dogs and kids and other great pleasures...

2007-11-26T16:23:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure who said this but I keep running into it so I thought I should share it with you. It was on the white board at the local pool on Friday, of all places.

"Dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no one were listening, and live everyday as if it were your last."

I am struck at how little my life looks like this. I don't "live out loud" in anyway that I can see. I don't think this was always true of me but I learned at a really young age that being expressive was not safe or acceptable.

I watch my oldest daughter and think that she has not learned this lesson and I'm glad. Maybe I haven't passed my fears onto her? She is all personality and it's wonderful to watch. No one says "Maddy? Hmmm. Which one is she?" People say things like, "Oh you're Maddy's mommy!" lol. I love her spirit!

And her younger sister is right on her heals. The two of them are a force to be contended with. My desire for them is that they grow up being able to fully be who God has created them to be. Without self consciousness!

My sister-in-law and I took our younger kids and our dogs on a big long walk yesterday. It was a blast and the kids did great! Amelia snapped a photo of us. How great is the light in this one?!

I love watching son #2 when he's the oldest or the only boy. He's really wonderful and truly shines.

I'm humbled and kind of freaked that I've been entrusted with these kids! CRAZY!

poop on the deck and other strange things...

2007-11-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

Saturdays are a bit crazy for us and I know I add to it but I feel like I need to be selfish in this one area. Saturday mornings I run 10 K with my sil and her sil. I'm pretty proud of myself actually as I pretty much never stick to what I've started. I'm an amazingly fabulous starter, one of the very best, but finishing...not so good. So when we started weight watchers last January I knew I could loose the weight and probably keep it off more or less BUT I never thought I'd still be running. We run in the rain, in the frost, in the fog and even in a wind storm (once and probably never again - sorry Ange!) I don't just run. I'm kinda sorta an actual runner - weird!

Anyway, Saturdays are soccer day. It starts early with Maddy at 10:30, Levi at 11:30 and Isaac at 12:30...yup crazy! So if I DID NOT run it would really make things easier but then I wouldn't get to run. And I love it! Or maybe I just love to eat so...I love to run so I can eat and not gain...whatever, same thing!

I love my hubby though, he is happy to do whatever he needs to do so that I can indulge in my fav pasttime! Love ya babe!

What Friday already???

2007-11-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

My plan was to write every day. Opps, I didn't even make it every other day - YIKES! Good I don't work for a paper or anything.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have so many thoughts swirling around in my head and none of them are really that interesting or witty or even worth writing. Maybe that's more why I haven't written since Tuesday? BUSTED!

I came across a quote in a book I'm reading that really impacted me. I keep sitting down to read it and start at that same line. I'm pretty dense, maybe I need the reminder.

"Now - listen carefully. Forgiveness is a choice. It is not a feeling - don't try to feel forgiving. It is and act of the will."
From Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge

It's strange that this line would hit me so hard because I don't actually have trouble forgiving people. Anyway, thought I'd share it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We meet with a group of people from our church ever second week. It's a great idea actually because these are mostly not people we'd ever really get to know in any other way. We have dinner together as families, do a short bible study together, and pray for one another. It's good but I feel like it's so hard to really get to know each other. That we're always kind of staring out at each other from behind our windows.

It has sort of lead me lately to think about community and connection with other people. How do we form communities? Do they really matter (I think they do)? Why do I never feel like I truly know people or that they know me? Do we ever actually let people in to "know" us? I am shocked and humbled by the blogs I read sometimes. They are so raw and real. People really letting you into their heart of hearts. Is this just something that's easier to do in the anonymity of the blogosphere?

These are my random thoughts for today. No pictures or witty repartee from me:) Chat among yourselves.