Everyone's been busy......

Double dictee tests by the fire

Elliot's grade 2 dictee

Isaacs grade 4 dictee

And Chris finished his beautiful brochure. The front cover blew me away .... He is so fresh and creative.  

And me?  Well, you think this all gets done on its own?  Call ME the Admiral. 

Crepe making lessons.....

After school/work, we were all starving.  They requested crepes, so that's what we did.  

Sunday afternoon with the Fitzpatricks...

After Quinn's dedication, we spent the rest of the afternoon with Steve and Nicole.... Always good time spent, we find them very easy people to be around. The kids watched monsters university while the parents did other things.

 At one point Steve and Chris went to maple bay to check on Steve's new job site, and when they got back, nic and I went for a walk....

The evening was spent cleaning chiro for me, metal detecting for Chris and Elliot and homework at the chiro office for Isaac.  

Loving learning this song....

Its from a silly movie called Twillight, but I just love this song....I can play most of it, in fact, I tried taping myself playing it for my folks, but it didn't open for them....but here it is!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnxCLcWK29c

Beautiful Quinn Lynne dedication.

They have such a sweet church family!!  At the point of dedication, Edgar takes Quinn and walks her around the congregation, showing her to everyone .... As in so proud to show her off to her people....he is saying 'these are your people, they will love you and support you as you grow.  I loved it.  It made me so happy for Jon and Mel that these people have taken them in and love them so much.  

Imadene Appreciation dinner.

Our fearless leader speaking tonight. He just finished announcing the birth of his new baby boy Bennett, which means blessed.   Absolutely.  

Denise Scott bringing back 'Charlie'.....it was a sweet presentation as he spoke about generations that are growing up through imadene and becoming the leaders of tommorow.

 Denise was the  junior camp speaker a few years ago, so it was sweet to see the boys peak out from their roost to watch.  

After the evening was over and all was being wrapped up, Isaac sat down and played away on the grand piano. 

Life in the bottle.

This morning I helped with French reading in Elliot's classroom.  He celebrated by doing a luah dance.....

After that my sweet friend bought me a Christmas coffee and we caught up on a trail walk.....

After a doctors appointment for things we shall not speak of, mainly out of embarrassment that what many women fear during exams, happened to me..... Yup, I farted during the exam....and yup it was while she was down there.  I tried so hard to hold it in, and it was silent and am not sure if it was violent ( my face wasn't in smelling distance ), but I just closed my eyes and said nothing.  

I headed to work after that gem of an experience for a few hours of work.  After school we all hiked up mount prevost. 

Tonight Elliot took it on himself to draw a picture of jennielynns baby who was 6 days overdue.  He came in, grabbed my phone, took a picture, found JL's number and texted it her......I was amazed and impressed at his speed;

Bennett Stephen Thomas was born only minutes later!!

And so.... Life goes on. 

Such nice friends.....

At pick up this afternoon, this is how I found them. 

Egg morning

It's the early morning.....bus catching at 7am, long drive for 9am meeting....Elliot and I shared a plate of eggs.  

Crock pot is on..... It's set to be a good day.  

I never fall asleep alone these days.....

Not when this kid is around.  

He puts his brother to sleep and crawls in with me.  I have always been amazed at this night owl of mine.  

Little visitor from the fire department....

Funny thing: when we encouraged Paul to join the local fire department, we were hoping they would stop asking Chris and I to join!  Halloween at the community hall, we were asked again.  

Tuesday...

Big day at work...the to do list is so long, I love it.  After I arrived this morning, I had about an hour before I had a meeting with a mom of a child with disabilities who will soon be 19....CLBC eligible.  She is nervous and new to the system and I loved sitting with her to help plan her sons future.  I had to leave early for a home monitoring meeting in cobble hill.  

I meet the coolest people in his job.  This is what I saw in their basement:

These huge racetracks!!  One racetrack modelled after a track in Ireland where the homeowner grew up watching racing as a child.  

Few hours left of work, piano lessons for the kids, home to make the best butternut squash soup with cheesy croutons made out of a fresh multigrain baguette with a big Caesar salad.....we are all well fed tonight!

Never did like lizards.....

But meet dot.   She seems to have found a friend in Isaac.   Such a cuddler, as much as a lizard can cuddle!!

Remembrance Day

It was quite humbling standing with our community .... in silence ... remembering why we have the lives we have.  That every person who fought for our freedom, was somebody's son or daughter.  Hits home so much more now that I have beautiful sons of my own.

 I teared up thinking of all the parents who had to watch their kids march off to fight.

Isaac is learning Photo Shop....

He decided he would like to be a centaur!!  Chris put up the white sheet and the lighting to take the proper picture to edit out the back ground easily.....these were their finished projects today!

Perfect....

I picked up this treadmill this past week because of how dark and rainy the days are lately.  Turns out Elliot loves it too......

Lunch with Elizabeth

Elizabeth treated me to try out eyelash extensions.   They are pretty cool waking up every morning and not needing to put mascara on.  She is a very hard worker and putting her heart and soul into this spa of hers.   And it's a beautiful spa.  

Who needs warts?

Waiting for doctors.... It's really a wonder they still leave things lying around for their bored patients to play with.  

He was quite brave when the liquid nitrogen came out.... Mainly because he was expecting a needle ( well how should I have known?? I've never had a wart removed!!)....so he was pleasantly surprised for the q-tip.  

Such a brave kid....

Request for Service Paris training....

I love when we gain an extra hour of sleep because getting up 'early' is a lot less painful!  Run on the treadmill and 25 laps in the pool was a great start to the day!!

It's a bit of a stuffy classroom, but we are all pretty quick to laugh so that makes things easier.   

Mary advocated for an earlier dismissal to attempt to catch the last float plane home... We shall see if we make it!!!  Next photo will show!!!

Here we are tired and spent at harbour air.  Thankful to be home at 6 enstead of getting ready to board the 5:45 ferry......

Kindergarten JACK!!!

His mama forgot it was picture day --- yet here he is REPRESENTIN'!!!!!!  

Man, he is getting so big so quickly!!!  Such a cutie pie!!

Day in Vancouver with Mary.

She and I have much fun when we are together, our energy is often matched and we often can finish each others sentences or thoughts.  So when the chance to get to Vancouver for some more work training, we decided to come over as early as possibly today to make the most of the time!!

Thank goodness for the time change and the extra hour of sleep.  Coffee in hand, we flew out at 9:40am this morning and arrived at 10.   

We got to the hotel and dropped our bags and went out for lunch.  Putzed around a bit and bought some leg warmers and then we crashed at the hotel for a few hours for a nap. 

It was time to hit up the gym so we could eat what we wanted.   

We had such a nice night.  Hate to type stuff out on this tiny iPhone, but we ended up having an adventure on the sky train and then a taxi, who dropped us off at the wrong pizza place and movie theatre.... But the pizza was the best wood fire pizza ever, and we skipped out on the movie to get back here.   

One skytrain and taxi ride later, I said goodnight to my sweet family and will now prep for a big day of training tommorow.  

Goodnight!! 

Could have filled a "scare tank"......

So, the boys just finished watching Monsters University on Shaw.  We rented it last night for our movie night so we had it for 24 hours.  Saturday morning, the boys wake up early and play video games and watch movies.....its their favorite day of the week (as it was mine as a kid too).

But by noon, it had been almost 5 hours of straight screen....enough to make me feel the mom guilt.  So, at noon, Elliot and I finished his school reading, and Isaac started dragging his feet with his test material for monday.  He starts lamenting that he wants to do it Sunday, but I am gone tommorow and monday, so 2 days that boy will not get much instruction from the other parent to do what he needs to do.....so we had to do it today.  He is dragging his big blanket around, frowning, moving slow and annoyingly.  So, when Elliot comes out from his bedroom, fake crying that he can't make his bed, as he was instructed to do, my heat meter went straight up.

My thoughts?:  "You have the nicest morning ever and now that its time to do a TINY bit of work, you both are throwing up your arms, dragging yourself around, and just making me MAD!!!"

So, when I try to keep my voice level and address the youngest boy, who is crying by now because I am looking at him like he's crazy when he tells me that making his bed is too hard, I kinda lose it (please note kinda, cause I am still sitting)...so I instruct him to just go read books on his bed til I am finished with Isaac and the work we are doing.

That's when Elliot turns on his heels, and runs to his room, and SLAMS THE DOOR.  (!!??)  Well....that was my ON BUTTON!!!!!

My chair nearly goes flying as I take off for his room and rip the door open!!   His eyes are wide as he watches me crash into his room and tromp towards him.  (Right about here this mama could of filled a "scare tank" with elliots look of fear at my approach).  I grab his arm, yoink him off the bed and place him against the door frame....wordlessly.  I stared at him for a moment, and in a low voice say "Now, you show me how to close this door".  He showed me.  We then went and made his bed, piled a bunch of books and he has been there since.  Once I sat back down with Isaac, he was sitting up straight, pencil in hand with wide eyes awaiting his instructions.  I was laughing alot on the inside......its nice to be well fed and well rested while dealing with this kind of stuff.  I remember a time when I had nothing in the tank...those were scary times, for everyone.

I went in a few minutes later and sat on his bed.  I asked if I could have filled a scare tank?  He gravely nodded YES.  We laughed about that.....Talked about how mommy gets super mad when she makes sure the boys have an awesome morning (including bacon and eggs and milkshakes for breakfast), and then is rewarded by grumpy boys.  A few minutes later, he comes in with this for me.......

So, hopefully no long term damage has been done this morning.  You never know what they will remember....I am sure it will come up in their therapy sessions as adults.