My Mama

 I really love my Mom. I have to say that she is definitely an original, and that's in a GOOD way. :)

Growing

 Eric turned ten months old on Tuesday. He is sure changing quickly right now. As I speak he's yanking on the doors to the stereo cabinet. Yup, time to baby proof the rest of the house. Jack was already past the stage that we had to latch all the cupboards when we moved in here so it's never been done in this house. Time to get busy before he gets too busy! Tonight is his baby blessing, hooray! I'm looking forward to it.

Vacation Photos III

These are all of us at Kin Beach on a beeee-u-tiful 28 degree day. (Which seems like a distant memory as it was 9 degrees here today, brrrr!) I only include the photo of myself to prove I was on this vacation and comment that I am shockingly, blindingly pale, good grief! When I was in the hospital when Eric was born one of the nurses commented that I was one of the palest people she had ever seen. I kind of took offense to her commenting about my person, clearly patient privacy should refrain nurses from commenting like that! But having seem this photo I agree, I'm scarily white!
 
 
 
 

Vacation Pictures II

Slowly but surely I'll get these up on the blog! 


This is my bro, Aaron, with his girlfriend, Amanda, and her daughter Madison. Madison is 10 days younger than Jack and they got along swimmingly. I think these two are only going to get more rambunctious together as time goes on. It was really nice to meet Amanda finally, and to find her so nice, friendly and kind. I think she's a keeper Aaron! :)


 Grandpa obliged the boys with rides on the swing. It is quite charming, this little swing Dad built out by the lake. The trick of it though is that it has a very narrow seat, a slim bottom is required....and admittedly a slimmer bottom than mine in order to ride comfortably for more than a couple of minutes!



 Jack could not be prevailed upon to produce a normal little family portrait! But he was quite enthusiastic about this type of participation!






 Isn't Eric charming, he is adorable if I do say so myself! I love the golden strawberry colour of his hair. Jack's has always been more white blonde, but Eric's definitely has red undertones. I can't believe that my baby is 10 months old as of yesterday! Crazy I tell you.

Vacation Pictures

 The paddling centre next to Mom and Dad's. They store the boats outside, which kind of surprised me.





 Jack, riding Grandpa's "tractor". Interesting that the most energetic of boys becomes a quiet and passive little fellow as soon as he's getting a ride!


 





 Of course we had to try out the John Deere too! More to come later, we are off to Rhymes and Story time.

Ahhhhh, back at the computer!

 Page one of many from our trip photos. I'm feeling my edginess subside already! 2.5 weeks of not scrapbooking was really starting to hit me hard. Jack is playing at the edge of Swan Lake. My parents house backs onto the lake. This lake has a lot of waterfowl, it's quite shallow as well, so not really a good swimming lake, but we had fun looking in the water and stirring it. Jack loved pointing out the birds and looking for boats.

Headin' Home

 
 Well we did it! The boys and I made it home from Vernon in one day. 960km of road, 12.5 hours of travel in total. They really were little troopers. I am very very grateful for modern inventions like portable DVD players, we would not have made it past Jasper without that baby. About 4 hours into the drive I started taking pictures through the windsheild. (Probably not the safest thing to do while driving, I know, but I had to fend off the mind numbing boredom somehow...with all those childrens' videos playing I couldn't listen to the radio or play a CD. 6 hours of Curious George is A LOT of Curious George!) As we left Hinton we went through a rain shower and saw this beautiful rainbow. The picture of course doesn't do it justice, do they ever really? 

I couldn't resist taking pictures of the boys sleeping to document our road. This one of Eric turned out pretty good considering, but the one of Jack is mostly my headrest! Composition is tricky when you are driving! (Darrel you are probably shaking your head reading this, just lets say it was a really long day and I *love* you!)

The Jasper route was fantastic, I don't think I'll ever go the TransCanada route again, unless we have friends/family we want to visit in Calgary on route. The road is a million times better, and look, no mudslide! Which apparently the TransCanada was still doing as of Sunday. Oi vay!

Today was spent tidying, unpacking cars, mowing the lawn,getting groceries and playing together. Jack is very happy to be back home with his papa, AND his toys. He was very excitedly showing them all to us last night. He'd get a ball, run over to us, shout ball, and then drop it right there on the floor and go get another toy.

Home sweet home.

Withdrawl

I have to say it feels like FOREVER since I have digiscrapped. This is killing me!

Darrel, I don't know, I'm trying to figure out how to convince you that I "need" a laptop so I will never have to go this long without scrapping again. LOL!

Grounded

This week has felt somewhat surreal. I have been 'stuck' here in Vernon as the TransCanada has only been partially open since last Saturday's mudslide and continued mudslides. I could take that route home if I could bear the 2+ hour delays that a single lane of traffic through the affected area has created. That sounds like self torture to me, travelling with two young children. This is what the report says tonight...

"Closed in both directions 65 km west of Golden because of Mud Slide. Expected opening time of 6 am Pacific time Thursday May 17th. Confidence level moderate. Next update at 5 am Pacific time Thursday May 17th. Updated on Wed May 16 at 6:38 pm."

So we'll see what tomorrow brings...but at this point I'm not holding my breath.

It feels surreal because you think that in this day and age in a country like Canada you can pick up and head anywhere you want, at anytime. It makes me think about what will/would happen if there was a major earthquake or natural disaster. All trucking could stop, food and produce transport would be haulted, etc etc etc. Yup, time to finish gathering that food storage. My Mom has been doing a lot of scripture reading and study on 'the last days'. For those less aware of our church beliefs, we believe that in the final years/time before the second coming of Christ there will be greater strife, natural disasters, wars, famines etc. That is one of the reasons that as a church we have been counseled to have a food storage and be prepared for troublesome times. Anyway, my Mom heard from a friend that Elder Boyd K. Packer, one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was at a stake conference in Holladay, Utah, this spring and opened the floor for questions from the congregation. Someone asked why the prophet and apostles no longer give talks in general conference encouraging members to get their food storage. Elder Packer said, "President Hinckley," (our prophet), "has told us to not speak on that anymore. The saints have been told to get a food storage for a hundred years; now the Lord will preach his sermon." That put tingles down my spine. I have made a good start on the food storage but I am definitely going to focus in the next few months and finish it off. It can kind of freak you out, all this "end of the world" stuff, but I keep thinking of the phrase "if you are prepared you shall not fear". And so I am going forward with faith and doing what I've been told.

The weather has continued to be wonderful here, we were at the beach yesterday and the boys loved playing at the edge of the water and puttering in the sand. I've been slathering on the 60spf sunscreen, so while we've been out a lot we have only light tans. In some ways I long for the pre skin cancer, care free days of slathering baby oil on my arms and shoulders! Good-bye pastiness! But I guess when I'm eighty I won't be so wrinkly, so that's a plus. But this delayed gratification seems like a long time!

A Lesson Learned

Well, life taught me a lesson today. Always check the road reports when travelling, even if it is summer! I left Vernon at 9:15 this morning, headed toward Calgary. Things were going peachy, both boys fell asleep at Sicamous, about an hour into the drive. And I thought to myself, "Great, I'll be in Golden by 12:30 and we can stop there for lunch." ha About 2 km west of Revelstoke I hit a huge line of cars. Craning my neck out the window I could see one or two vehicles go through every 30s or minute or so, which was strange, not a normal road construction delay. All the semi trucks though were pulled over and waiting. uh-oh. A half hour later when I reached the flag person I found out that there had been a mudslide on the TransCanada and it was closed between Revelstoke and Golden. I went into Revelstoke and phoned Mom and asked her if she could find out more. There were people everywhere in Revelstoke. It turns out that the first mudslide happened on Saturday night and they've been working on cleaning it up but the slope keeps giving way. I had two options. Go south to Nakusp and take a ferry (which there was a four hour wait for), on top of a longer drive of about 11 hours, or go back to Vernon. So...at 2:45 I arrived back at my parents house, making a round trip to no where in 5.5 hours! Oh well, tomorrow it's supposed to be 27 degrees in the sunny Okanagan, and we'll head to the beach. As of right now the road is still closed and there's a "low certainty" that it will be open tomorrow. I think I'm going to stay put and meet Darrel in Calgary on Friday. He is really missing us and we are REALLY missing him. Every once in a while Jack looks at me and does this pitiful little cry of "daddy". :( So I think it will do us all good to have some papa time.

How do you spell Jack?

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

This morning Jack got up about 10 minutes before me. I was in a sleep induced haze and thought for sure my Mom and Dad would be up as they are usually up by 6 and it was 7 ish. Well, Jack pattered back into the bed room, climbed up beside me and was repeating the word water "wawa". I opened my eyes and noticed he was soaking wet. uh oh

I went into the dining room and discovered that Jack has emptied an entire bottle of water from the cooler stand onto the floor. I replaced that 5 gallon jug at 10 pm the night before so now the entire 5 gallons, minus a glass or two, was on the hardwood floor, warping the boards. Argh! As Mom and I mopped he excitedly and emphatically repeated the word wawa numerous times. I tell you there are times you just want to shake your children. At 7 o'clock in the morning I do not have the stamina to deal with crazy antics. Can't you hold off until 10 am or so until Mommy is awake?!

They are both napping now. Ahhhhh, quiet. We are going to the beach to meet Aaron, Amanda and Madison for a play date this afternoon. Hopefully that will work out some wiggles and mischeviousness!

Out and About

I just have to mention how much I love Farmer's Markets. I asked my Mom if she wanted to go this morning, and she said okay but I could tell she wasn't thrilled. But we got there and she ended up loving it, and is even planning to go back on Saturday. She ran into someone she knew from her nursing days here in Vernon and it turns out this woman has an organic meat ranch. Something near and dear to my mothers heart: organic food and all things natural. We bought some bread, rhubbarb and kettle corn as well.

I like farmers markets for a few reasons. 1. They feel so fun, you never know what little gems you are going to find. 2. I am contributing to the local economy and escaping the global machine. It's nice to buy produce that was picked today, here, not last week in Ecuador. 3. People are so friendly. Everyone was smiling and talking with Jack and Eric. A totally different experience than the grocery store. Not that people don't smile at my kids at the grocery store but everyone seems happy at the farmer's market.

Victory

Hahaha, finally beat Graham at Settlers of Catan! He said I better blog this because it was the last time it was going to happen. :)

Siblings

Graham and I went out to dinner together last night. I can't honestly remember when the last time was that Graham and I hung out alone. We had a good time, catching up and really just getting to know eachother. I have lived away from home for 13 years, most of Graham's 20 years, so in many ways I do not know the person he has become. I have wanted to focus on getting to know my siblings better this year so this trip has been a good opportunity.

A couple of years ago Darrel heard me talking on the phone to Cameron and I was pulling the bossy older sister routine on him. Darrel commented on it when I got off the phone and basically told me I wasn't being cool. Since then I've tried to treat my siblings as the adults they are, accept them as they are right now, be interested in who they are and not try to make them be who they are not. Very few siblings actually need a bossy older sister to tell them what to do or not to do! So this has been an area in my life that Darrel has been a very good influence, probably without him knowing.

As a side note, we have been playing the game Settlers of Catan every night while I am here and Graham is kicking our butts. Despite me introducing the game to them and teaching them how to play, Graham has won every game, even the introductory one. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing I tell you! Behind that relaxed, laid back demeanor is shark.

BC Lust

I arrived! The drive was really good, better than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams. Apparently the boys wanted to get to BC as much as I did! We made the 7 hour drive from Calgary in 8.5 hours...which is nothing short of a miracle.

It is so nice and green and warm here. Over and over I've been thinking, "why are we living in northern Alberta when there's places like this in Canada?!" A heads up for Dale and Tina, the place my parents have is next to the Vernon paddling centre, there's about 10 skulls next door and a beautiful clear lake just behind the house. You will definitely have to come some time. Mom has already been apprised of your impending visit! They definitely scored on the house they rented, it's on about 5 acres and has a wrap around deck off the back so you can sit out there and watch the lake...Darrel do you think I have to come home at the end of the week? I was thinking of staying. Seriously. ;)

Jack and Eric are delighting in Grammie and Grandpa just as Grammie and Granpa are delighted in them. Graham thinks their cute as well, but he's 21 and cute doesn't hold attention too long. But it's been fun visiting with my brothers as well.

We went to church this morning and came home, ate, relaxed, played outside and now it's more relaxation time. Ahhhhh, I love the Okanagan.

Housekeeping 101

 I've been going to this scrapbooking message board looking for topics to scrapbook about myself, rather than just the kids. I laughed out loud when I saw the question, "What's your housekeeping strategy?" Strategy, people have a strategy? I guess by default mine is to try and stay only a step or two behind the kids instead of ten. But thinking about it I found that it is not really that simple. By not having a strategy I am in fact making a choice, a strategy by default really, to live in a constant state of upheaval. I feel like I often go to bed with the house semi-messy. I spend the morning tidying up and cleaning, the afternoon is spent by the kids and I messing it up, then supper rolls around, Darrel and I finally get the kids to bed (lately by 9, or 9:30) and then we collapse, leaving me to start over again with a messy house the next morning. Argh! So if there's something to be learned from my introspection on cleaning and keeping my home, it is that I would prefer to have it organized, tidy and ready for the new day at the end of every day. Without becoming too anal, rigid and obsessive this is the new strategy....starting tomorrow...tonight I'm going to bed. :)