Rainy week

What I was planning on doing as soon as we got back from Edmonton was getting at the yard work and planting. But...

I am facing indoor tasks; you know the ones I have been putting off all winter while dreaming about what I'm going to plant in my tiny garden. I did get a couple things done today and now I am busy hovering over my oldest child as he does his home work. Not sure how long he will drag this out.

Bronwyn is almost done her preschool. Tomorrow is her last class and on Monday she has a picnic. I am hoping for less rain on Monday!

Gavin is on the home stretch too. We are all tired of school and ready to be done, although not sure what I'll do with them once we are done. I think we'll just veg out for the first while.

I best stopped typing and start nagging, or this will never end.

Tired out

I am TIRED. We arrived home fairly late last night (9:30ish) sent the kids off to bed and collapsed.

The speech went well as did the remainder of the day. It was fascinating and I am impressed and proud of the people on the cardiology team at the Stollery. What they are trying to achieve and how they are going about it is admirable. I didn't need more evidence to prove to me how valuable they are, but I got it any how.

The kids had such a wonderful time visiting all their cousins. In fact, they are also pretty low key and tired today. Ha ha!

I will post picture later, today just a quick update.

Thanks for all the encouragement. I really do appreciate it.

A bit preoccupied

I have been a bit preoccupied lately. We are headed to Edmonton tomorrow. I was asked to put a presentation together for a cardiology conference being held on Friday.

I am nervous! I am not only supposed to speak, but also participate in the balance of the discussions through the day. There are 4 other parents that will be there also. I am excited and totally worried that I won't be able to concentrate or talk intelligently. I deal with wee people all day and a room full of adults having adult discussions is rather intimidating. I guess as long as I don't put anyone in time-out, I should be OK.

I will let you know how it goes. I have included two pictures of my little heart patient. How she started and where she is now. I'll share them with you too.

It has been a long and interesting road. Doing this presentation has forced me to be reflective and to dwell on much that has transpired. All I can say is that I am proud of my family. As I look back at our journey they have each been so great in their own way.

Wes. Well, Wes is our rock. He may be quiet but don't under estimate what he does for his family. He is steady and strong!

Gavin. Wow, Gavin has been so flexible and easy during many stressful times. He really is a joy of a child.

Bronwyn. Sigh, couldn't have asked for a tougher and more resilient little girl. She amazes me.

Mari. YIKES. Mari wasn't around for too much of the drama, but she has brought levity and yes, more drama into our lives.

Me. I do the best I can.

I am blessed. So so blessed. Not only to have my family, but my extended family and friends too.

Most of all, I am thankful. God has given us rich blessings and we thank him.

So, wish me luck!

Happy Mother's day

I have the best Mom in the world. I love her very much. Betty is the world's most fun Grandma too. I don't have a words to express how wonderful she really is. Happy Mothers day to my Mamma!

Wedding thoughts

It is supper time. Wes has taken the kids out of the house, to get something to eat. Mommy is not cooking tonight and the kids were making me crazy! So Daddy to the rescue. I may not admit it to him often, but I am married to one very fine man.

So I am watching clips from the royal wedding. It reminds me of my own. I mean, who wouldn't think of their own wedding at such a time. Although, I think I could have used a bit more money to throw at our wedding. I mean, if I had at least a million (not the lofty 70 million I heard estimated for Will & Kate's), just a measly million, wow, what we could have done. It makes our day feel a bit shabby. There wasn't even a crowd waving at us as we drove down Deerfoot after the wedding. Humph!

Bronwyn was watching a wee bit this morning before the kid's shows came on. She thought the bride was very pretty. I replied, "That young lady there landed one very large fish!" I thought internally, and she landed a very large responsibility and public life too. I wish her well with that.

Oh well. My memories of my wedding are wonderful and I am so happy with my life. I don't live in a glass palace, a real blessing when you come down to it.

I do wish them well and I truly hope they have a happy marriage and life together. After all money and position can't buy you happiness, although... it could speed up the renovations (I'm kidding!!).

A life long dream

Well, a life long "I'd like to do it."

My mommy group, as we call it, got together last night. I thought it would be the normal eating and visiting, but Julie pulled out a craft. NO NOT A CRAFT! To my delight it was all the necessary tools to do traditional Easter eggs. I have always wanted to do this and never had a chance. In fact, I felt rather smug because I knew it was something that Wes would also love to do, but for once I got to do it first!

At one point I said, as we sat around a table waxing eggs and visiting and laughing, that this is what all the old country ladies were likely doing a hundred years ago. It made me feel connected to history, even if it isn't my own.

I love these gals. I feel privileged to spend an evening with such a group of intelligent, passionate, and talented ladies.

April is a blur

So far April has just whizzed by. I'd love to say its because we have been busy playing outside in the sun. But instead we have been outside building snow forts and shovelling. There has been much whining and crying over the weather, the kids haven't loved it either.

I have taken a few pictures. So here is the recent history in photos.

It is what it is!

So, its April 3 and we have almost a foot of fresh snow. By fresh snow, I mean that the snow from the rest of this blissful winter did not completely melt before the new stuff arrived. Well, there you have it.

Wes braved the roads yesterday. I was actually going to go out and I could not get the van off the side of the road. So I came in and asked if he could run my errands for me. He is such a good man and obviously a better driver than me. We got several inches more after that.

We had our new Irish friends, from a block or two over for supper. It was a wonderful night in.

Today we just did not have it in us to go out. So we stayed home. Gavin is still not doing so good. I see improvement by times, and then he seems to decline again. I will likely keep him home tomorrow. If he goes to school and has a hard time I am concerned it will set him back. Better safe than sorry.

I got out in the beautiful sunshine though. I went out and shoveled our walk (again), and several neighbors, including one of our elderly neighbors, who lives on a corner lot and it did not get any shovelling yesterday. Heavy heavy snow. So that counts as both my exercise and my good dead.

Bronwyn and Mari and I made spy cupcakes. Spy cupcakes are just coffee cake muffins with a special ingredient (a touch of powdered ginger) as a truth serum. When you eat one you have to tell the truth. A great spy tool.

We delivered some of our cupcakes to the neighbors while Wes push a poor delivery guy out of the deep snow. Then the girls had a snowball fight with Daddy. Mom tried to get photos, but the girls thought it was pretty funny to throw snow balls at the camera lens. And my butt. And they even tried to jam snow in my boots.

Gavin is sleeping now. I am hoping he improves. Maybe we can still have a quiet movie night with the neighbors, we will see. He did have a better night. The first in 5 nights. I actually got 7 hours of sleep. That is probably why I feel better about everything today.

It may be seasonably snowy, but I got some sleep. All is well.

In case I wasn't already grumpy

We woke up to this.

Yeee haaaww!

Sick little boy

I have a sick little boy on my hands. He has two, "very infected" ears - the doctor's words not mine. After the third sleepless night in a row, I buckled and got him in to the doctor.

It wasn't our usual doctor, but another from the same clinic. Bronwyn was really pleased with him. She said, "He looked really cool." Oh. There you are.

I always feel like I have left it too long when I take Gavin in, but to be fair to me it was only roughly 48 hours since it began, OK slightly longer, but I couldn't make an appointment yesterday evening. So first thing was the best I could do. I always feel like he's about to turn the corner. Maybe its because I'm an optimist. Maybe its because I really don't like going to the doctor (sorry Ali). Who knows?

So much for our spring break. We didn't do much last weekend, thanks to the stupid weather. As the weather improved, Gavin's health declined. He will get better soon, I am sure, and now the weather is tanking again. I'm feeling rather picked on.

Monday we will be back at it, our lovely vacation a waste of bad weather, sleepless nights and sick kids. GRRRRRRR!!!

Pictures

Haven't posted pictures in a while, so here ya go. Promise I'll be better!

It feels surreal

Sometimes it feels a bit surreal to be worrying about whether my kids have rubber boots when there is chaos and fighting in one part of the world and tragedy and loss and devistation in many others.

This makes me feel thankful, but a bit guilty too. I'm not sure that our access to world wide media is always a good thing. I guess it gives us a chance to help where we can. Or just feel helpless when we can't.

But for today, I have a little girl who doesn't have rubber boots that fit, so that is top of my list.

Spring is here.

Spring is here. Spring is here. Spring is here.

I had all the windows in the house wide open. Until Wes returned with the kids from the library and shut them all, claiming that it was colder in the house than outside. Breath the fresh air! BREATH. Hmmmm.

It is going to be a sloppy spring, but who cares, it is spring.

We had a bit of a slow week. We all took our turn at a mild cold. Nothing major just caused us all to be a bit low key. Thankfully Dad had picked up a bunch of movies from the library. So we had lots of watching materials. On that note, if I have to watch Barbie and the Diamond Castle one more time I may, just may put my eye out with a fork. Maybe!

We are busy cleaning today. Those who know me well also know I only clean when we are getting company. Wes isn't what I would describe as a people person and when we first married resented all the company we had over. So we stopped having so many people. Then he figured out that I only clean when threatened with company. He is now very much in favour of company and the somewhat clean house that comes with it.

I have a few spring projects I'd like to get at. Get rid of toys. Go through the art box and weed it out. Reorganize things. You know SPRING stuff.

I best get back at my work.

Little fink

OK, Mari is a little fink.

The other day the girls and I went to the grocery store after dropping Gavin off. It was COLD. On the way home Bronwyn asked if we could stop and get timbits. I only had about a 1.50 in my wallet so we stopped and I got them each one timbit. Bronwyn was very specific about which kind she wanted. I got two of the same type.

When we got home I brought in the girls, the groceries and the two wee timbits. I put them up high and told Bronwyn to pull them down and give one to Mari when she was ready. I headed back out to clear the walk. As I returned to the house half frozen I was met by some tears.

Bronwyn explained that Mari had eaten her timbit. I asked her how that happened. She said she got the bag down and gave Mari a timbit, then remembered she had to go to the bathroom. When she came back Mari had also eaten hers.

Mari didn't look very apologetic. She got a time out. I'm not sure she understood what it was all about. I mean, that timbit was just laying there!

Life lesson I suppose.

Purpose

I often struggle with finding a sense of purpose in my life. I struggle with seeing value in what I do and having that value acknowledged. I guess I struggle with feeling important.

This weekend I thought a lot about this need in me. And I wondered, did Abraham or Moses ever feel like they need to find their purpose, their God given talents, their full potential. From what I can see they didn't. They lived their life, did as God commanded and made a few mistakes on the way. Could it be that simple?

Maybe, I need to just live my life and do what God puts in front of me. As my parents often remind me, I have three little lives (four if you include my good husband) that rely on me. It might not be as glamorous as I'd like, but maybe its more important than I can imagine.

I don't think my job is to play with my kids or make their world happy and trouble free. Rather to teach them to know and revere God. OOOH. Big job that.

So maybe its not about finding my way, but showing God's way.

(I promise I'll post pictures soon)

Life seems busy

Gavin had a few days off school. It was so nice to have a break. At the beginning of the break we had no plans - none! Yet we were so busy. We saw so many people and had such a lovely time off. I love it when a non-plan comes together.

Just a quick update to let you all know we are fine and well and busy.

Happy valentine's day

Four years ago today, we gave Bronwyn's surgeon a valentine. He had just 24 hours earlier completed her second surgery, the Glenn. We felt it only appropriate that he receive Bronwyn's first valentine card. I can't get through valentine's day now without remembering this and remembering Dr. Rebeyka. He will forever hold a special place in all of our hearts.

Happy valentine's day to all of you who have touched our hearts.

More technical difficulties

I have a ton of things to organize and do today. We've had some technical issues with our computer and not so technical issues with the kids. Bronwyn had the flu the other night. She is thankfully on the mend. Last night Mari had a coughing fit that could only be resolved by holding her upright for a half hour or so. Gavin had a series of bad dreams that necessitated screaming at his parents every time his eyes fluttered open.

So I'm tired. Good news is we got a new computer and Dad spent a good deal of time helping us get operational. The one downside is that I haven't been able to retrieve my email addresses. So I have nothing.

If you know me, and want to be in contact via email, or if you think I may want to contact you via email (when in doubt presume I do) please email me. If you don't have my email address leave a comment and I'll make sure you get it.

PLEASE!!!

Thanks.

Different types of technology

After school the kids and I were in the front yard making a snowman. It is the first time this year the snow has been sticky enough for us to make one. Dratted Calgary and its dry dry weather. We were almost done when an oldish transamy type car (I don't know my cars so I have no real clue what it was) pulled up and a young man in a toque jumped out. It wasn't alarming as I was expecting a visit from a computer tech. I didn't expect him to be 19, but I guess this is how these things go. He was not Canadian born (this matters in this story).

I showed him in to the dreaded dead machine. He looked at it and said, "Wow, this is old." I said, "Not that old, we got it just after my son was born, he's only 6. I have bed sheets that are twice as old as that!" After much inspection he announced that the mother-board was "toasted." I suppose that is tech speak for not working and not likely to work ever again.

As I saw him to the door and asked him to say good-bye to our snowman. He said, "I've never made one, how do you make one?" I didn't understand him at first, it was such a strange concept he was sharing with me. Finally, in my sock feet I went out to the sidewalk and made a snowball and started rolling it to show him how it sticks. I explained that it had to be the "right" kind of snow.

So, I gave him a lesson in making a snowman and I didn't even charge him!

Technical difficulties... sort of

I am having technical difficulties uploading my little video clip from the video camera to any of the computers in our house!! Grrrrr.

I have also been having technical difficulties with the kids. Two out of the three have been sick since last Thursday. Minus a couple of outings that we couldn't avoid we have been pretty much stuck in side. And its yucky outside, so taking the kids out is difficult even without the sickness factor.

They have today to get better and that is it! I'm done.

Its not that I'm unsympathetic, I'm OK with really sick kids. Its the sort of sick kid that drives me bonkers! So here is to better weather, they say it is coming, and healthier kids. Next step the garlic! I have horrible childhood memories of my mother making us drink garlic laced orange juice. Apparently the orange juice was supposed to mask the chunks of fresh garlic floating in it. Ah, no!

At the time I thought she was CRAZY. Well, in fact, I still do think my Mom is crazy, but for other reasons. I now understand the frustration of sick kiddos. You get to a point where you will do almost anything to get them back up to steam and out of your hair! Yesterday Mari emptied a full kleenex box. Not blowing her nose, I guess just pulling them out so she could have them handy - who knows?

Oh well. They all seem to be a bit better today, well Mari and Gavin are, Bronwyn didn't get it. She rarely gets sick, strange but darn lucky!