made a change

decided to change my background and stuff. I was getting bored. It's supposed to be Spring, but it's been snowing for the last 5 days! And cold. Today at least there is no new snow. I shoveled the front walk on Saturday morning. It was really light and fluffy snow, but still a pain to shovel. I started the driveway and then just gave up. Besides, the car can just drive over the stuff!

I'm so tired.

Norah cut her first tooth somewhere between Sat midnight and Sunday morning. She hasn't been sleeping well lately. Therefore, neither have I. I am tired. Any why can't I get both kids to nap? At the same time? I'm just so bagged right now, and all I need is more sleep. A quick 20 minutes of shut-eye between 4 and 5-ish would totally help me get through the day. Sigh.

Norah is almost sitting up - she will do it for short bursts before falling over. It's really fun, and Isaac is totally encouraging her too. He keeps saying "you can do it" and clapping for her.

We had a bit of a tragedy here last night. Rob's parents sent us a care package last week, and there was a toy Hummer for Isaac. His new favourite toy. It's one of those cars that you push and it keeps going type thing. It even has under the hood sparks! He and Rob were playing with it last night (his new after dinner activity) when the accident happened. Rob revved it right up and it went flying...hit the not quite fully attached heating vent by the bathroom and fell down it. Gone down the vent into the duct work. Rob tried and tried, but couldn't get it back. We're not sure where it is now, but Isaac keeps walking by the vent and stopping while muttering "oh Hummer where are you?". It's pretty funny, but a pain too. Anyone know how to get a vehicle out of duct work?

have to run now, my mom comes to visit tomorrow. Still have 2 loads of laundry to finish (thank goodness I have my helper Isaac, he's great at starting the dryer and transferring clothes) and 2 bathrooms to clean, plus groceries. No wonder I'm tired!

about Isaac

This kid is something else. He is so confident and secure - it's hard to believe he's ours! He has such a great sense of humour too. Last Sunday night we were at a dinner at the United Church (went as the guest of a possible-future parishoner). He wasn't that into the food, fine it had been a long day, but there he is - off making friends. He found the table that the youth group was sitting at (in the youth room off the hall), went in, introduced himself and just made himself at home. I went to get him and he said "bye mom" and shut the door. One of the girls said that he was the best entertainment she had had in weeks, especially when he showed off his counting abilities...up to 40 no less.

Tonight, he was in the bathtub singing Eddie Murphy's "Party all the Time". OK, not sure where he heard that one...must be from when Rob sings it with some other lyrics...anyhow, something really funny about the sight of a little boy, playing with his bathtub boat and singing.

I love how great he is as a big brother. He loves to come and see Norah as soon as he wakes up in the morning, when she wakes up from naps, and when she is crying he likes to help her out by giving her toys or asking "you otay Norah?" or "waast a matter?". I really didn't expect the transition to being a big brother to go so well.

And now with the reading...spelling out words with his letter blocks, identifying some words on signs. He's blowing me away!

What can I say, I love my son and I'm so proud of him. What a blessing he is to Rob and I, I couldn't have asked for a better little guy.

But...had to add...he is so accident-prone! (must be Rob's influence). In the space of 3 days, he managed to get a nasty bruise on the left side of his chin and a gash/cut on the right side of his chin! The bruise was from a run-in with his train set (wiped out and landed on one of the bigger pieces), the cut was from rolling off our bed around 4:30 in the morning...and we didn't even know he had come in! Poor little guy...wonder what next week will bring....

stuff I forgot last time...

In my rush to finally get an updated post on here, I forgot some stuff!

We had our first road trip the other weekend. We drove to Cold Lake, AB for a WalMart trip. It was a quick hour and 20 minutes or so to get there. however, the road wasn't that great. Pretty bumpy - but it's our closest WalMart and other big stores! (not to forget, Alberta is the home of no provincial sales tax). Not a bad outing.

We have decided to get water - you know, those free-standing water coolers? Totally needed - the water here is nasty for drinking. So chlorinated, when you shower it sort of smells like a swimming pool. There is a local supply place, and the water is really tasty. It's so funny how much water tastes different from place to place... I think the price of it is worth paying, beats dehydration!

OK, kid waking up from nap...gotta run!

2 weeks? how has it been that long??

Wow - time is passing so quickly...

Lots going on here. Rob has now officially started working. It's hard not to think he's leaving the house *in costume* in his clergy shirts. Strange, but they do look good on him. Tomorrow is his first real *driving day*. He is going to Spiritwood for a deanery day. Apparently it's a 90 minute drive, and he's leaving at 8 am. With any luck, Isaac won't wake up as early as he did this morning (yelling Dad get up no less).

Took Isaac for a hair cut today...um, he's had better ones. We are having photos for the parish directory tomorrow, so I think I will need to take him back out to get it fixed up in the morning. It's not horrible, but we don't like it. The woman at the salon told me she was great with kids...apparently only kids that never move and are not alive. Oh well, it was only $10...

We went to Holy Trinity the last 2 weeks for church. The first week was for Rob's dad's cousin, who is filming the documentary on Rob's great grandfather. Richard was in town over the weekend, and spent some time at our place. A little strange, since we don't even really know the guy and he's not the most...um, friendly guy out there. But who knows, maybe Rob's true calling is documentary star!?!

Am starting to figure out what is going on here in town, kidwise. Not much it seems. I took the kids to a playgroup on Tuesday. Isaac had a blast, even though he really didn't get the craft. Lots of running around and playing. Some really friendly moms there. I'm really hoping to really MEET some other moms. I'm starting to get a little stir-crazy in the house with the kids. On the upside, the weather is getting pretty warm in the daytimes, so we can be outside for a decent stretch of time. AND Isaac is starting to *get* snow now. He is way less stressed about it these days, he used to just freak out walking in it. Too funny. Now he likes to slip on the ice for fun, yelling WOAH!. Problem is, there is SO much ice right now, I'm slipping too. Wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have Norah either on my back or my front. With the nice afternoons, so much is melting...only to freeze again at night. You could almost ice skate through the entire town right now. I'm not kidding, on the side roads, it is totally possible.

I can't believe Norah is already 5 months old. The last six months have gone so fast, with Rob being off work and home with us. And now she's not a newborn anymore, and he's working again. Wow...how much life can change so quickly. As for Miss Norah, she is trying so hard to sit up. She has mastered rolling, but has some trouble with banging her head on the hardwood floors, so she gets pretty ticked off at them. She LOVES Isaac. Her face lights up when he is around and he can make her giggle in no time at all. I love the sound of them laughing together. :) Best part of my day is that sound.

Our computer is doing something funny. I blame Rob. ;) I think (and he actually agrees), that he did something that messed up something...long story short, we can't get into our hotmail or our bank info from our main computer. The laptop, however, is filling in the gaps. But it's a pain.

Anyhow, I need to run to bed. I am so tired, now that I'm fitting in early morning Curves workouts, I need to catch up on the sleep.

Be my Valentine

Today we went to Loon Lake to visit. We went to the house of a couple from the church and spent a couple of hours at their place and had lunch. Then we were off to visit the church. It is so cute! Such a lovely building. It's too bad that there isn't a hall of any sort (or running water for that matter), which would really make any sort of Sunday school much easier. It will be interesting to see how things work out there. It's really hard to wrap our heads around 2 parishes....

With today being Valentine's day, I made a nice breakfast for my Valentines. Eggs, ham, hash browns and (pink) pancakes. Rob got heart-shaped eggs, done over easy. That was harder than I thought it would be...the cookie cutters I used were still pretty sticky despite all the cooking spray. Oh well. Rob brought me some lovely flowers and got dinner for me. Nice.

Tonight, I was invited to join in at a Women's service in town. Apparently, the United, Anglican, Lutheran and Catholic churches have a little annual gathering. They do a service, then have fellowship and sign up for secret prayer sisters for the year. Neat idea, and I was pleased to be asked to go. Well, I was pretty much the only woman there of child-bearing age but that was ok. Really nice women, and I'm looking forward to praying for my prayer sister over the coming year. At one point, they had us stand up and state our names. It was really funny when I did - there was an audible buzz of "that's the new minister's wife" and other such comments. Small town, and a new person really seems to stick out. Apparently the day we arrived in Meadow (as we now call it), the A&W was buzzing with the news.

We have officially kissed any anonymity we ever had goodbye.

the first week in Meadow Lake

We have now been in Meadow Lake one week. The night we arrived, our contact from the parish called and invited us out for dinner. Very nice! We got to finally meet her and her husband, and I got to meet one of the women from the search committee as well. At the restaurant, we also met the pastor of the United Church in town, and Flo, the Salvation Army captain for Meadow Lake. The next morning, Rob was at the house really early for our things to arrive. Strange about being in SK, they don't do daylight savings - we dropped Rob at the house by 8:30 am and the sun was just coming up. However, late sunrise makes late sunset!

I got our long distance, high speed internet and all that phone stuff hooked up with Sasktel. I also called the cable company and they came out to hook us up on Wednesday. Still need to get the car insurance thing taken care of - and say goodbye to our BC plates!

People are really friendly here. Really. We have already had a couple people from the church stop by. One man and his 9 year old daughter came by on the Monday night and helped us unpack. Well, he helped us unpack, his daughter kept Isaac occupied! Another member dropped us off some meat and potatoes. The church also had some basic food stuff here for when we moved in. Also, the pastor of the Alliance Church came by to say hi this week too and invite us for dinner.

We went to Holy Trinity's shrove Tuesday dinner and got to meet lots more people. They are really excited about meeting us, and they all seem to love the kids.

We also checked our our local coffee shop. Both of the women working there (one is the new owner) attend the Alliance church. Not bad coffee, and it's a cute place. It's no Starbucks, but they do know all of our names!

For church this week, we went to the Alliance church. Isaac loved the worship music, and he knew most songs. He stood on his chair, held our hands and sang along. It was so cute, I have to say, to hear him sing Hallelujah along with the praise band. Once again, lots of friendly people at the church. We were asked out to lunch by the women from the coffee shop, and they treated us to a nice little lunch there. I mentioned that I worked at Starbucks and they are all over having me come in and make sure they are doing things right. Too funny. Apparently, the owner has only been in charge since Feb. 1, and they are really new to this whole thing. I may just have to take them up on that...especially since my espresso machine seems to be broken again!!! I have to call Saeco in the morning and tell them that I need them to fix it again. So glad there is a 6 month warranty on the repairs! Just have to have that latte fix!

There is lots of work that I would love to do on the rectory. It needs some TLC in the basement for sure. They are talking about renovating the kitchen come summertime...I really hope they ask me for lots of input...ok, I will probably give it anyhow!

Have to run and finish up Rob's Valentine's gift!

long time no post

it's been ages since I've been on here. The last 10 days have been crazy for us. But now we are in our new home, I can't say settled there though. Maybe I'll just give the highlights of our trip here.

Feb 1. Vancouver. Isaac had his evaluation. Apparently he may have a 3 month delay in some areas of his speech development. However, combined with the areas he is ahead, he averages out ahead of his age. He just isn't a talker. Um, I needed an expert to tell me that? Oh well, we know for sure. She recommended a preschool as a good way for him to need to use his verbal skills more, and was totally shocked that he is showing early reading skills at 30 months. Then a goodbye with Mike, and off to Garth and Mary's place. Leg 1 of the trip - 60 kms. It was great to visit with them, and Paul and Tammi came over too. Girl time in the hot tub, all is right with the world.

Feb 2. Omnious sign. Isaac throws up just beyond Hope. He's a mess...why didn't we think to bring the Gravol? Changing a kid by the side of the road in rainy fog by a rushing river really makes one have to pee. somewhere along the way I started to cry when I realised that there wouldn't be a *on the way back* for this trip. Then we saw a rainbow, took it as a sign that things would look up. But then again, after a big vomit session in the back seat, there wasn' anywhere to go but up. Purchased Gravol as soon as we hit Merritt. The drive was perfect weather-wise. It was snow-free and dry pretty much the whole way past the toll booth, better than the last time we were on the Coquihala and it snowed in May. Stopped for the night in Revelstoke.

Feb. 3 Again, amazing road conditions. I really feel that God was watching out for us, the roads could not have been better in June! Revelstoke to Okotoks. A couple of stops once we hit Calgary for crying kids, but it wasn't too bad. Great to see Scott and Corie...oh and a load of laundry too. Isaac loved playing with Jake (their puppy for those not in the know). The work they are doing in their basement is exciting, and the painting and stuff they have done to their house looks great too. They seem so happy in Okotoks - I hope that we can be that way in Meadow Lake.

Feb. 4 Snow on the highway from Calgary to Edmonton. Not great conditions, but not terrible either. I was tired by the time we hit Edmonton too and we were all done with the car. did some grocery shopping and I cooked dinner - nice to have a suite - and it was nice to eat homemade food again. I get tired of restaurant food so quick.

Feb. 5 West Edmonton Mall. Shopping and play day. Thank goodness for the rental strollers shaped like cars. Not only did Isaac love to be in it, it had a great sized storage bag. Totally worth the $5. I finally got winter boots (on sale no less)!

Feb. 6 Drive home. Wow, that sounds strange. The roads were good, except when we were close to a large truck. They caused lots of blowing snow that made visibility really poor. Took a minor detour off the highway to some small town (can't remember the name). Bought breakfast. They had the world's largest pysanka there. What a claim to fame. (pysanka= those Ukrainian Easter eggs)

saying goodbye sucks

this goodbye thing is really starting to stink. Yesterday Leslie hosted a little goodbye party at her house. I was doing alright until Lauren hugged me and made a bit of a cry-like noise. Then I lost it. By the time I hugged Les goodbye, I was pretty much a sobbing wreck...who had to drive the car. It's hard to say goodbye, but it's also nice to have relationships that mean enough to make you cry. And it's not like we are leaving forever, never to be seen again (I hope!!).

Kind of got me thinking about way back when people used to leave their families. It would sometimes be forever. They would head off, sometimes never to go back home again....I can't really imagine that at all. We are so blessed to live in an age of instant communication with the internet, cheap long distance and air travel. Goodbye isn't for ever anymore, it's more of a *until we meet again*. However, that doesn't make it any easier to say.

I think the kids are stressed, life isn't that normal right now at all. I would be stressed too if I were them....but I'm not stressed today! I had to use up the gift certificate that Dad gave me for my birthday today (had to, it was tough). I had a wonderful 3 hours at the spa today! A lovely facial and an hour long massage. I was a little worried how Norah would do with me being gone that long, but she was great. Feeling so good right now, aside from saying goodbye to my sister and Dad tonight. It does help that they aren't the most emotional goodbye-ers around.

Lots to do tomorrow though, so I'm sure I'll be stressed again in no time...oh yeah, and dinner with Rob's family. More goodbyes.

headsplitter of a day

I should have known that yesterday would suck when Norah threw up as soon as I put her in the car.

We are tired and sore. 2 days of frantic last minute packing and organizing and errand-running will do that. Mix in a tiny bit of sleep (for all 4 of us)....not a good recipe. Anyhow, by noon I was calling the BC nurse line to ask how deep a cut needed to be to need stitches. Isaac had fallen at my mom's and split his forhead open on her tv stand. Blood all over. Nice. It wasn't that bad, but I took him and Norah down to the parkade to head out for stitches...and slammed 3 of his fingers in the door of the car. Can you say guilt? Anyhow, fingers were ok. Head was ok after some surgical glue. No naps for anyone though. Long, tiring day. In short, it sucked. And while all this was going on at my mom's, Rob was at the house dealing with the packer.

So strange to see all your stuff boxed up.

It's all getting moved out as I'm typing this. Today is a better day with the kids. I could use a nap, but we did make it out to the grocery store! Can't wait to get the house emptied out and cleaned....then we move on!

good news/bad news

good news: there will be lattes in Meadow Lake! My espresso machine is fixed and back home again. Needed a new pump and some seals. Not cheap, but way cheaper than a new machine. Not bad for a 10 year old machine I got for free at work.

bad news: we have to stay in Vancouver until Feb. 1. That is the earliest we can get the boy in for a speech assessment. After talking to one of the speech pathologists in North Battleford, the wait there would be over a year, so I guess a couple of more days won't be that bad. Just annoying to have to live out of a suitcase for longer. Now if we can only get our furniture arrival to work out.....

On the whole speech thing anyhow....I'm of two minds about it. Since he's been on the wait list for assessment, his vocab has totally exploded and his sentence length has taken off. Great, right...but I still worry. His pronounciation is not where it could be, beyond the typical toddler-speak. I know it's not likely to be a hearing problem, with a kid that has never had any ear infections and can pick out most songs by the first few notes. I think where I do worry is that he does have really strange learning patterns - really ahead in some areas, and not quite there in others. I'm a mom though, so it's my job to worry. But this alphabet/number thing he has is really not typical. I haven't yet met another kid who could identify all his letters at 25 months, most of his peers are nowhere near that yet. Not to mention his counting...forward and backward to 12 and forward to 23, and to 7 in Spanish. Ok, for the Spanish I give credit to Dora the Explorer. :)

I think that it's probably just worth a check to make sure he's doing ok, or how we can best support and encourage his learning style, which doesn't seem to be totally typical. Who knows, maybe we have a genius on our hands....either way, I think just getting a professional opinion will be a good thing. Just a pain that we can't do it earlier. On the upside, maybe we can do a going away party-thingy to be able to say goodbye to friends...

it's getting close

This whole move thing is getting closer faster than I thought it would. Now, logically, time passes at it's usual pace, but this month is really going quickly. Today, I had my first real start at tears over leaving. I think it's finally starting to sink in that we are leaving. I had a little emotional moment as I said goodbye to my hairdresser. My hairdresser. Really. She is wonderful, I have been seeing her for over 2 years now. I just wouldn't have guessed that she would be the first person that I said goodbye to that brought me to tears. (shallow thought alert - now, what if I can't find a good hairdresser in Meadow Lake? Someone who understands my hair and gives me great cuts that grow out as nicely as they look the day I get it cut?? I know, get over it, it's just hair. Then again, there was the great hair fiasco of 2001....)

Oh yeah, after getting the body work done on our car this week, guess who backs up into a wall in a parkade. Rob assured me that the damage is very minimal....but I still feel like a moron....

tomorrow will be better, I'm getting my espresso machine back! Also a playdate with the Yummy Mommies and kids, Sebastian, Baz, Ella, Gracie and Maddie. Yay!

seriously...

after I mention that Meadow Lake is lacking in the coffee department, how many people are going to tell me that I should open a coffee shop "for something to do"??? I'm sure they are well-meaning, but last time I checked I had 2 kids under age 3. Between them and creating a home for their father who will be working a priest's hours, I somehow don't think I'll be on the lookout for lots of things to do....

Norah and mom
Posted by Hello

baptism day

We had Norah baptised today. It went well for the most part. Unfortunately, her Godparents couldn't make it. Monika called on Saturday, Paul and the girls were all sick. Totally fair reason for not making it out! I'm also glad they didn't share the sickness with us...but then again, we have had our own cold-like issues around here. I think I'm next. Anyhow, we had Jinx and Val stand in for them, we figured that as Isaac's Godparents they would be a good stand in!

Norah was great, if hungry at her big moment in the service. She was totally trying to have a snack. Fortunately, my finger held her over until we could be in more private surroundings. :) She was crying a bit when John took her, then totally stopped when he poured the water on her head. She was completely stunned, it was pretty cute. People after commented that she was so mesmerized by John...but Rob and I know the truth. She was making her "where the heck am I?" face.

I'm really glad we didn't do anything major for the baptism. I was really tired afterwards. It's a major accomplishment getting 4 people up, fed, dressed and out the door by 8:45 am! Especially when it's almost -10 and we have to really scrape the windows, warm up the car, and drive on uncleared roads. Darn snow. Love to look at it...but driving around here is a pain with the hills!

Isaac sort of used his potty tonight. He actually went *on* the potty. Poor Rob, he was dealing with him when it happened. He did get Isaac to help him clean up...guess we will be teaching him how to lift the lid!

Again today we heard lots about how great people in Saskatchewan are. I hope so! Can't believe it will only be 3 weeks until we leave. Today on the drive to church, I turned off 16th on to Hemlock...the view of the mountains was amazing. I will miss that for sure. Then again, I can't wait for the quiet of a small town either!

sick kids?

I think both kids have a cold or something. They both woke up snuffly with snotty noses...nice. Norah is taking extra naps...Isaac, of course isn't napping at all. I need a nap myself. Hard morning playing cars with the boy. Ok, actually it was really fun.

I loved waking up and seeing the snow falling. Made me so glad we had nowhere to go at all and a breakfast ready to pop in the oven. After Rob made crazy numbers of phone calls, we took the kids outside to try out the winter gear. As I don't have boots, this was going to be fun! Isaac and Rob had a great time playing in the snow. His (Isaac's that is) boots and snowpants were great...if only we can keep his mittens on his hands. Rob was pleased with his boots too. Norah decided she wanted nothing but to go inside and nurse.

I managed to get a box of toys packed up and put away, while playing cars. We need to get the moving company to get us some boxes so we can really start packing. I'm feeling the need to get going already! Rob has been making lots of calls about the ordination service, and been getting lots organized with John Oakes. So many details...but we do have an organist! That is good news - and he's good too. There is just so much to be worked out though...it's the good kind of stress :) I think this whole move is actually the good stress kind.

Rob got a call today from Pete Molloy. He is a priest in our new diocese and a Regent grad. Rob has actually heard from Pete before, when they tried to recruit him a few years back. Pete graduated the year after Rob started at Regent (I think that's right) and he is in town in the next week or so. Wanted to get together with Rob and do the coffee thing. That will be good to do I think - get some insider info on stuff!

Funny - there was an article about Rob in the Saskatchewan diocese's webpage. Well, the title was funny to us. http://www.saskatchewan.anglican.org/ It's in the news section. Had us laughing....ok, off to get dinner happening.

random

I got George Clooney.... http://www.magnum7sins.com/theSun/ddate.html

10 pm

Kids in bed, Rob is out and I'm on the computer. Peace and quiet - how nice! I'm catching up on the posts on www.gentlemothering.com My hang-out, reference and resource for parenting issues. Love that site...

Anyhow, more shopping today. Long underwear and wool socks. How sexy! I haven't got boots yet, there doesn't seem to be any warm enough boots in the Lower Mainland right now - most places seem to have shipped them off to colder parts of Canada. Might have to wait until we get to Kamloops or Edmonton or something. I just hope I can find cute ones! Is that too much to ask?

I'm feeling a little torn about all that is going on right now. We were at the Vibe on Sunday (minus Isaac, who was playing with Auntie Kendra) and it was sad knowing it would be our last service with these people. Then again, not sad at all, but excited to leave. To go to our new home, not excited to leave the people here. It's strange though, I think that God has really been preparing us to go for a while now. We have both been feeling like we have been...I don't know how to word it...distanced?...from people/things lately. Not in a bad way, but more in a "hey, us two are in this together" kind of way. (scratching head...not sure if that's what I meant) We have referred to the last few years as our wandering in the wilderness years...wait, does that make Saskatchewan the Promised Land? that would be too funny. I'll have to reflect on that one....

Oh my goodness...we are going to be living here really soon! Crazy. But exciting. Isn't it cute???
Posted by Hello

new year...new changes

11 pm on January 1, 2005. This time last year, I had already made a big oops by replying to an email that I should not have replied to. So far, 2005 is starting out better :)

Garth, Mary and Tammi were over for New Year's. Lots of fun, great board game play and yummy snacks...and a little too much wine for me. Actually, it was only about 3.5 glasses spread over about 4 hours...but more than I have had in a long time. They were here late (for us anyhow), and I didn't get enough sleep. I'm so thankful that I was able to not be short tempered with Isaac at all today.

dinner tonight at my aunt and uncle's place, along with my cousin and her fiance. Both kids were great - even in a not-really-kid proofed home. I'm so in love with my little family. Great kids, wonderful husband - I couldn't ask for more in life! Isaac is communicating so much better these days, and that makes dealing with him way easier. Norah is just a sweetheart who totally goes with the flow. They are just fabulous - and cute to boot!

We're not going to go to church in the am, maybe we'll sleep in a bit. My sister has offered to take Isaac for a few hours in the afternoon, but we'll have to play that by ear. It will depend on the weather I think, and his mood. He's had so many *no* days lately. With the holidays and visiting and all our move prep, he's been stuck doing too much boring stuff, or been in lots of *don't touch* situations. He really needs a good day to run and play outside like a wild monkey, which will be pretty much impossible at her place.

OK, just checked the weather forecast. Supposed to be 1, but feeling like -3. Brrr. (Insert new mantra here: that's not cold!) Put this into perspective - they are calling for -27 in Meadow Lake tomorrow morning. What are we thinking??? Minus 27! With a high of minus 24!!! If SK wasn't so cold, I would be really excited about going. As it is, I'm pretty excited, but really hoping I don't freeze my bottom off...then again, easy way to slim down....