I am becoming a professional tooth yoinker.....and other stories of awesome.

After days of Isaacs dirty paws constantly being in his mouth, I am happy to say that tonight, he excused himself mid-Atom Ball game, to come over to me with blood on his fingers and his tooth hanging by a 'thread'.  We got home, I washed my hands, sat him in front on my on our little stool, and he looks up at me and says "Will this hurt?"  And I respond "only for a second".....he thinks for a moment and says "I've been through worse"   I am still cracking up re-reading that.

Another awesome moment with my boys tonight, Elliot is playing with the new tetherball.....I see he is alone, and I put down my shovel (I had been helping Chris fill in the bark mulch around his new bouldering wall, see below)...and I say "I will play you!!!" {in a deep, foreboding voice....}.  Now it's HIS turn to think for a second as I come lumbering towards him, he is obviously able to see I was a champion at this as a kid, and he says "Take it easy on me....."

I didn't have the heart to tell him that once I had a metal pole in my hand and took a swing at the tetherball, and it hit the post enstead and ricochet back and smacked me in the head so hard I passed out and was rewarded with a shiner.  Not the most impressive story to explain the black eye....but it was better than the one where I tried to do a backflip off a diving board, chickened out half way through, landed on my face and got a shiner from that too.

Little Boys Paradise....

My dad and I built a small play area down by the water with a cast-off dock that we weren't going to use.  The boys have made it their own.....here they are enjoying their Saturday afternoon.  {i was napping in the hammock at the time of this picture....thanks for capturing it Rach!!}

They have built a tent (with my sheets), gathered wild flowers in a jar where the petals taste like honey......it will continue on.....

Work Conference....

So I had never been to a work conference that included choosing your own sessions (I choose public guardianship on day one, and supporting individuals with mental disabilities on day two...both very interesting that included no dry textbook readers real scenerios!!  I love the people I work with...Linda didn't come to the conference, but Catherine from the office did, she is the facilitator to my left.  Since day one, I have wanted to get to know her better, she is always buried in the phone or on the computer talking with people who need the support, and then she put the requests forward to me.  But this was the first chance we were out of the office together....I worked my way into her car for the ride up to the conference, so we had a good hour to talk.  And that is Randi, beside her...Randi is another girl who would be my friend if we weren't already collegues.  We have much in common and we laugh alot together.   And there is Mary.....my other half.  We call eachtother the other part of our brain...if I don't know something, she does, and visa versa.

 To start the conference, we actually were given a DRUM LESSON!!  Random right?  It was so much fun....loosened up the group, and we sounded amazing by the time we finished.

Today I worked hard all day, steady, and by the time I left at 3, the walls were starting to close in on me.  I have been eating REALLY well this week, no sugar, no coffee, and i got hit with a huge headache and by the time i got the kids, felt like throwing up.  I dropped isaac off at his chiro appointment and went to drive elliot to piano....and as I was driving up the road to piano, I didn't for-see lasting another hour in town plus a half hour ride home....I was close to passing out.  So, I did a U-turn, went in to get isaac who was already in the room waiting for Tanya.  I laid down on the table, figuring I could wait til after the adjustment....nope.  Isaac was so sweet...he was like 'we can go'.....as we drove home, Isaac shouts from the back 'don't pass out mom!! It looks like you are falling asleep!'.  I made it home, barely, crawled into bed and slept for an hour.  Isaac got me a glass of water and a bucket, Elliot says to me "don't barf on me", and walked away.   I feel much better now...but I would hate to get up and start walking around and finding out I was wrong!

Chris is off caving today, and I am bummed that he is still gone....he left 10 hours ago...hope he is ok.

Snapshot of right now.....

Worked hard this morning and finished all the 'tasks' (aka corrections) on my task list in upside for my contracts. Answered emails, returned calls, wrote up a few critical incidents, put together another funding request for someone who needs a little more support right now, and left work at 1.

1:15, hands were done to perfection from a woman who has magical abilities (you would know this to be true if you have ever seen my fingers during certain stressful times!!).....i love that my girlfriend has a spa....

2:48, picked up kids from school, headed home to see this girl; oh look at our tans....we shall be there again soon...very soon.  We laugh all the time.....its nice to have her here, i wish i didn't have to work!!  Jeff brought his school group up, so she came along with the kids!!

Kids played outside til dinner......kids started dinner while I buzzed down on my quad to get hubby for dinner...he had just finished staining this: the new Atom Ball court.....kids LOVE it!

Now my boys are down with the guest group playing the night game, Chris just made an orange juilius with our juicer as he is feeling a little cold may be coming on...so he thinks a litre of fresh orange juice will save him!!  ;-)  And here I am, in my happy place, warm in bed on my hot pack...its cold out, I should be down playing the night game too....but I'm not....I am sick, and a little tired, and very happy right here.

Birthdays.....Isaacs and Nics....

Been hard to feel motivated to write things down lately with trying to keep everything running around these parts without Chris being around much.  I am also fighting a cold (perhaps losing a little bit).....that time of month where I am very sad for no reason in particular, there is just a gray hue around everything.....kids are happy and healthy....but its hard when mom is sick, only mom takes care of herself.  But here are a few shots of some things happening around here since last week:
Isaac had his birthday in Nanaimo as I had a conference with work (which was awesome)....but we got out of throwing him a birthday party because we agreed to all his 'demands': Mussels for his birthday dinner and a 'shopping spree' at Toys R Us and a stay over in a fancy hotel.  (Found the mussels easily enough since we were down at the harbor anyways, he had birthday money to spend and ended up purchasing his current fav movie "Wreck in Ralph", and work paid for the sweet hotel.)......

This was a funny with my boss Mark and his son Jonathan......lunchtime at the conference, Jon texts his dad to see if he can meet for lunch while Jon was on his break from work, dad texts back "sure, how about the Bastion hotel?"....Jon thinks "sweet, dads gonna pay for lunch...", and then he walks into the conference with all his dads co-workers (myself included)--haha.....such a nice family, I really like my kind boss......

The conference was very informative and I met many of my collegues who work at head office and down in Victoria.  Not a bad apple have I met...everyone seems happy to be there, striving to make things better for the most vulnerable sector of our communities, it's been a really neat spot to land in the way of employement.

When we got back on thursday, I had caught that cold and when you go away for 2 days, it takes 2 days to get back to 0.  So, its Sunday now, and I am not yet there, but it's coming.  Friday night was Nics birthday, and I saw it on facebook!!  This girl has been so busy planning her husbands birthday (tuesday), and her daughters birthday (Sat), that she didn't tell anyone about her birthday (friday).....so I planned a little party at my house, got food, cheeses, cake, guests....but in the end, she didn't want to make the long drive on her own, and the guests cancelled, so I drove into town and had a make-shift party together in the sun. 

{the little cake I got her says "Yo Nic" since I thought Happy Birthday was too predicable and long to fit on such a small cake!}

 The glasses and the boa made it to the party too......yes, we are sitting on the back steps of a school....

 Jenny brought her class up to the camp this week......

I want to the warm weather to come back...life is easier in the sun.

"6 and 8 .... Grade 1 and Grade 3.....after school, before piano lessons" pictures c/o sweet photographer friend Ashley.

Isaac turns 9!!

Well, he isn't officially 9 until this afternoon.....boy, that day is etched in my head forever.  It was yesturday morning, 9 years ago, that Chris and I walked around camp, trying to calm down the contractions that were coming.  Who knew the experience of the next 36 hours with be filled with so much excitement, pain, then terror, then a wash of relief with overwhelming love for this little guy.  It's all a bit of a blur with snapshots of these amazing moments.

Similar, I suppose, to the last 9 years!  It's gone by in such a blur, but with these beautiful snapshots of his life, so far.  Words can't express how thankful I am for this guy....he makes me laugh every day....I can't wait to see what kind of adult he turns into.  {well, I can wait....it's already going too fast already!!}

He hasn't woken up yet, but he will wake up to a few post it notes down the hall way, directing him to his gifts....then he is off to school, and I am off to a staff conference in Nanaimo.  Chris will pick them up from school at 3 and meet me in Nanaimo.  He has requested a toy from Toys R Us, and mussels for dinner.  Then, thanks to work, we will be staying overnight in the harbor in downtown Nanaimo tonight...sortof a mini-holiday to celebrate our little guy!!!  Happy Birthday Isaac!!!

As I finish this blog, I can hear Chris softly singing happy birthday to him in his bedroom as a way of waking him up....gonna be a good day!  He's about to come tearing in here for his gifts....yup, here he runs!

Typical morning at work.....

It's a typical scene.....bullet cup with my pre-made smoothy...heater under the desk plugged in......the waterbottle to remind me of when Elliot hiked us down into the canyon in Haleakala park in Maui.....flowers picked and put on my desk by a sweet facilitator.  {She has been at this office for years, but mainly alone, so she is pretty happy that Linda and I are here now}.......

It's a mass of paperwork, emails, phone calls and prioritizing...and sometimes I try to do all things at once, and then I lose the battle.  But its an amazing job that is full of pitfalls and cracks for people to fall into, unless I can catch it, or see the pitfall coming.....its crazy....and kind of perfect for me.

Mom and Dad and Jack and Daisy.......dads stolen blog.

 It was a fantastic weekend!!  

**************************************************************** 
You know the motto that was instilled in me from a very young age, work smart not hard....well, my dad worked very hard on this blog, and I want to commemorate him by giving him the status of 'guest blogger' on this round!!  So, here we go:  our visit together this past weekend, from my dads perspective, but with a few of my own shots peppered in throughout, the my writing will be in italics!! 

I woke up at 5:30 and didn't know it. We don't have a clock in the bedroom. While at Sharon's place I have to share a room with Ruth , Jack and Daisy. Daisy barks when the first up walks past the bedroom  and that wakes up Jack who wakes up Ruth so I decided to get up and take Daisy out of the bedroom  before that chain of events happened. I was sitting in the kitchen reading my morning mail when Isaac comes out of his room and sees me in the kitchen. He promptly turned around and went into his parents bedroom. He stuck his face in his mom's face and asked if she was awake. So I see him come quickly down the hall and run into his bedroom. About one minute I see Sharon come down the hall with a NOT HAPPY face on. That is how we ended up in Tim Hortons at 6:00 A.M.

I literally had tears running down my face at one of the stories he told me at the table over coffee that morning, something about his buddy visiting him at the store in Winnipeg, and he was coming back from the gym and wanted to show off for my dad by launching himself over the half door leading back to the office, but he didn't take into account that when you jump that high, your face goes that much higher....and doorframes don't grow upwards to accommodate the launch.  He tells stories better than anyone I know, I love when he graces me with an oldie but a goodie!!

So we got back home at 7:30 just to see Jack coming out for breakfast.

He loves his Fruit Loops. (It was saturday and we bought the mini-boxes of the fun cereal since Carrie promised him we had crazy treats at this house!  Couldn't disappoint!)

 Daisy is up and still hopes to eat a bird.

 (She was one focused dog this weekend, but alas, the birds lived to die another day!)

Time for lunch at Alderlea Farms with the kids and then a walk at Bright Angel Park:

When we got home, kids played.....more play! more play!

 Elliot chose to make noodles with Nona.....

Sharon put on Dance Central and Ruth was there immediately. She has always loved dancing. I don't know if she was following the program properly but she sure was dancing up a storm. I didn't have the nerve to disturb them but they gave me a great mirror shot.

Sharon and I had a project as our morning activity. We are going to push the end of the dock out from the shore and tie it off.

We used the poles like Tom Sawyer moving a raft. 

I had just finished telling Sharon how the planks were a little spongy but still strong. If they can hold me they can hold anyone. 30 seconds later I went through. She says I go down gracefully for a big guy. I say it is from all that yoga I do. A controlled lunge.  (and he didn't even get his new boat shoes wet!)

When I went down she looked worried. She said she feels that she is now the adult and I have moved into the next stage. That scares me. I know she is happy that I sold my Harley. Ha (Its a weird and scary transition to be the one who feels compelled to look out for the well being and safety of ones parents, enstead of the other way around......this guy gave me a real run for my money this weekend.  From taking a 3 foot skate along the mud path at Bright Angel park and then teedling along the ledge that lead down to the river through the bushes (he recovered, such a gazelle) .....and then while helping on the dock, he starts with dropping the hammer into the water on first swing, then he launches himself through the dock (see shot below for my after-reaction)....then, while pulling the rope to align the dock with the land, the line breaks, and back goes my dad - yeah, that was awesome, but I will hand it to him, he is very graceful and its probably all due to his yoga classes)

Anyways , we got the dock realigned , rotten planks changed and everything anchored. It turned out great.

Around 1:30 I am starved and want lunch. She is so proud of the new locking system that they have installed on their home. Now no one has to carry a key. We headed home for lunch but there was a problem.

She loves the lock but never bothered to learn the combo. She figures that it is using up too much brain space. She has her own private entrance that no one else in the family knows about. I wish my camera turned on a little faster. 10 seconds earlier I would have won a major award for the photo I could have gotten.  (I guess I still don't know the code, got locked out again this afternoon until Elliot got there.....)

So Jack is learning how to use the zip line. He sat up on the platform for about 10 minutes waiting for some help.

This is why little kids are not allowed to do this on their own. They don't improvise well.

Chris saw what he was doing and came running out to help. I had been sitting on the deck watching for a while so I knew he was safe. I was about 3 seconds away if he went too far but Chris on the other hand wasn't that sure.

Chris is such a nice guy. He talked and helped Jack on the zip line for a long time.

The kid loved it. 

Elliot climbed the fence to show me their rope swing. He did a little song and dance before the big event. He is such a cute kid. 

I couldn't resist this photo. He is just like his grand dad.

So after lunch we finished the dock. I invested $3.00 for bolts to fasten the ladder onto the dock. Sharon brought the tools to do the job and I watched.

The repairs are great. We took the old rotten section over to the other path and tied it up for the kids. Now they can have their own Huck Finn  raft in the bushes. It looks like a hit for the little guys.

The main dock had one corner sinking so we found a big piece of styrofoam in the bush that should fix the problem. I made Sharon carry it.  (always the gentleman)

I found an old 2x6 that made a great lever.

I sat on it while Sharon jammed the foam under the corner and it worked great. Mission Complete.

Back at the house Jack has the zip line mastered.

So fun.

We got a nice fire going in the pit.

Jackson from next door came to give us a hand.

His older brother also came over. They were great. Such nice boys.

Jack had a bath and came out to entertain us with his stories.

I loved his hairdo.