My beautiful boys: 7, 9, 39....and I am now 38!

We spent some time watching old videos of when the boys were 4 and 2....what a different time of life!  Much of our house looks the same with a few updates, but these beautiful boys I watched on the screen seem like other people in another lifetime.  How did they grow up SO fast?  They are so much fun now.....but what a simple and beautiful time of our lives!!

First full day of holidays together.....

Chris and I dropped the boys off at school this morning and continued to spend the rest of the day together waiting until school was out.  We ran a few errands, had a nice lunch out, and spent some time out in cowichan station - he went metal detecting - his new passion.

The boys skipped to the car at 2:30 and Elliot passed me his awesome new drawing....I was very proud of his helicopter!!!

Tonight, my sweet friend Jinny took me out for my birthday dinner!  We always talk about carving time out for eachother and it took some planning, but it finally happened tonight!!  2.5 hours later of an evening that whipped by, we covered many things and I feel like we finally had our time together.  She is a woman who has been important to me for over 12 years.....she has seen Chris and I through all of our time here.....

Home now, in my happy place......in bed, with Isaac sneaking in for a cuddle before he falls asleep.

Day in Seattle!!

Started out at, of course, STARBUCKS for the morning coffee!!! Susan was out the door before 7, busy getting accosted for diapers by a dad with a baby on his back on her way to starbucks....he said he had no money for diapers, but was able to pull into starbucks a little later for a big brownie for his boy and a coffee for himself......Laura and I slept in a little more and took our time meeting up.  

We saw these awesome 'cabbage' flowers at Pike Market.  We couldn't imagine having to set up our booths every morning and tearing down every evening..and that is the reality of many of the vendors here.  Man, the dedication!!

Mid morning cafe we stumbled into.....we all loved the chair and took our turns getting our pictures in it!!

Yes, yes, we all think of Lily Tomlin....and thats cool, I liked her.

Laura and I decorated Susans tree while Susan and HER sis-in-law played peanut gallery about the job we were doing....at one point, I was astonished at how many ornaments she wanted to put up...I was conspiring to shove the rest under the red mat under the tree, but Sue asked why were whispering, and Susan shouts out "Are you planning on hiding any of the ornaments under the couch?".....I say of course not, because I was thinking more the mat....but then she says she would have checked under the mat. Hahaha....just kidding, we were both very happy to do whatever she wanted us to do after the weekend she had shown us!!

Time for dessert....Susan made a European "hot chocolate", that was similar to a very rich, hot pudding drink. 

After the 'hot chocolate', I don't think anyone touched the dainty tray!!

Susan introduced us to a cool travel game that Laura and I both want to get called Quirkle, the small travel version. It was fun and we could both invision our kids playing it with us. 

This morning, Susan got up and made us breakfast burritos to go but went back to bed because she wasn't feeling well as her chest cold was starting to take over.  Hope she felt better before she had to get on the plane this afternoon for hawaii......so Mike drove Laura and I back to the ferry and stopped at his favorite Donut House and bought us a donut and a coffee for the ferry.  Love mike and susan.

The ferry ride home went as fast as the trip over.....again, my book was out, but we talked all the way back.  As we were getting our bags together and waiting in line for customs, Laura was quite nervous, I guess we all always feel guilty for no reason....but we are almost to the door and her eyes go WIDE and she turns her new passport towards me and shows me that she hadn't signed it yet!!!    She starts to pat herself down looking for a pen, so then MY eyes go wide, and through clenched teeth, I smile and say "you are NOT signing that right now....." as we are called in.

We passed....but oh I laughed.

It was a great weekend.....time well spent.

Turning 38.....

Decided a while back to take this lady with me to spend the weekend with Susan.  She surprised me with a beautiful birthday picnic on the ferry.......

Complete with hot tea and chocolate cheesecake for dessert!!!  The 3 hour ferry ride went super quick, I had brought a book to relax and read, but we ended up talking the whole way and I was surprised to see how quickly we arrived.....

We made it!!  Susan often takes the 'token' picture of me right off the boat......

She surprised us by hustling us into the car and getting us to Seattle in time for the Macy's light up and fireworks!  We made it JUST in time!  Literally were talking and walking down the street from the hotel and figured we missed it because it was all supposed to start at 5, and it was 5:30.....but when we noticed the Macy's Star hadn't been lite, we ran and made it just in time for the fireworks!!  All for my birthday!!  Sweet hey?! 

LIGHT UP!!!

MACY'S!!  It was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade that morning, so all the streets were all closed off, and people were just congregating around with eachother, taking pictures, enjoying the atmosphere....it was quite nice.

Susan booked this sweet european-type hotel right down the road, so we walked everywhere.
Hotel Andra, i loved the lobby;

Here we are just layering up, getting ready to head back out for dinner....

Checking in at home.....the boys were enjoying time at grandma's, and Chris, well, he and the girls skyped a little......Laura thought it was hilarious.

We settled on the most amazing restaurant that didn't have a lineup out the door (common for many of the places we considered)....and it was all decorated for Christmas and right around the corner from the hotel.

I tried for a good 1/2 hour to upload the 2 pictures of Susan, one with her and Laura and then the 3 of us, and it is refusing to load.....Susan let the waiter know it was my birthday, and he brought out a cupcake with icecream at the end......

The highlight of the evening, was the piano player to the left of this shot....he had me at piano man.

As Susan and Laura went to wash up after dinner, I went up to the balcony and sat with him for a few minutes.  He was very friendly and asked what he could play for me, and I, of course, say anything Billy Joel because it reminds my of time with my dad, and I was missing my dad with all the piano playing going on that evening.  He played me "for the longest time", and we sang it together.  After it was over, he looks at me and smiles and says "So, you are wearing a red scarf and a grey shirt, are you a Cougar?".....I was a little taken aback, consider I had JUST turned 38, I didn't see any younger men around, and honestly still felt a little young to be a cougar, but I still chimed in 'naw, but it IS my birthday today'.  He laughed and realized that I didn't understand that grey and red are the "cougar" colors of the local football team around there who had a game tonight!  

We laughed, and he sang me Happy Birthday with Laura and Susan, as they had come out from the washroom by then....and it really was a super night.

Love my kids artwork....

.....just a "bow tie and a belt".

....yes, it's a belt, what did you think it was?  And here is Isaac at the end of a week of staying up late.... Looks like he has lost his vigor!!

Tu es tres mon ami.....all on his own!!!

As the wrapping up of November comes along, I was interested to see this little icon pop up from my 'other brain' from Nanaimo.  She was having a rough day, so I matched her icon and waited for further explanation....and when none came...I asked..

There were a few things wrong, and hard, and just part of this job...though Mary and I have always taken turns getting overwhelmed.  I guess this was her day....life is always tougher when you are solo parenting it and working full time...I don't know how she does it!!

Last night was Gold Rush night, so the boys rocked out to dance central while rach and i prepped dinner.....Tortilla soup, with fresh lime, avocado, taco chips, cheese.....

Elliots little friend John is turning 8 next week and having his birthday party on the Saturday we are gone - so for the second year in a row, the poor kid has been in either hawaii, or will be in florida, missing the party...so he took it on himself to find a card, and write to his friend.  It says "Dear John, you are very much my friend" (along those lines....)  Isn't it so sweet!!?  He asked a whole bunch of times if he could just give $5 to him (its from his disney fund), but i said "$8 would be better because he is turning 8!!".....he wasn't too impressed with that answer as he was only willing to give up 5.....

I just love how he didn't just do "to john from elliot"......all on his own!!!  love it!!

A Good Thing.....Ecclesiastes 5:19

Just bundling down in my cozy bed after a long and productive day, I opened my devotional app that I often read before bed and I was pretty humbled to read the following and its utter and complete truth.

"And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God

 and the good health to enjoy it.  To enjoy your work and

 accept your lot in life - this is indeed a gift from God."

It's Friday!! Friday!!

Jinny visited me at work and I served her lunch in my little office.  Then we walked to the pool to let Elliot know that he and Isaac were going to after school care at the school so mama can work late and finish some contracts!  

So I am well fed and exercised after our walk and ready to finish a big agency contract!!  Here I go!!!

Contracts. Contracts.

If I can't get this huge agency contract all finished before I leave, it will be left to my co workers and I couldn't handle that considering everyone's load is so heavy.  Randi brought me a Starbucks latte and we set our computers up in the boardroom and worked away together.

It was a productive day, but they didn't get done. So I will go in again tommorow and give it another shot!!

Family Dinner.... Last of 2013

Welcome Baby Bennett!!!  He was one week old today and we were all excited to take a turn holding this little sweet bundle!!!  Here was Lynne who just finished bullying me into handing him over (i had been hogging him I suppose....but it was so everyone could eat!!!  ;-)  This boy is already very very loved.

Madi sat next to the soup pot tonight.....it made me laugh because it looks like she was sick.....

Rook night........nice to have them occupied and spending some good time together tonight while the rest of us chilled in the livingroom.....nice to have such a laid back atmosphere after the initial dinner rush ended.

This girl was SO please to have CJ on her head....she loves the birds, just like her dad.

Dave is here teaching the students this week.  Its been good to have him around, he's hung out at the house most nights this week.  He has tea, plays cards with me, and I tease him alot.....so its fun for me.  He thinks I'm funny, so I like him

Cutest boy ever......hard to believe he is turning 5 in a little over a month!!!  This picture was taken only moments before Libby took off flying off his shoulder and flew past the fireplace, took a couple rounds around the room and I think landed somewhere in the kitchen.  I yelled "I hope you enjoyed your final flight"

Which is when Rachel and I went to work.  Here we are after the work was over....note the feathers, scissors, towel, and a little bird no worse the wear.  My armpits were sweating, I don't mind doing it, but I hate to think I could hurt them.  I actually thought Paul would be the ideal candidate to help hold the birds while I trimmed them, but as we got down to it, he looked up and says "umm....I think Rach would be better at this than me".....Rachel agreed and sat down and awaited her instructions.  She did fantastic.  We are a good team.

Even the corn starch lid stayed on....no blood here!!!

It was a good day.....with a great community.

Winter is here....almost time to find some sun.

This morning before we all headed out, Marty and Elliot were able to steal some time to jump on some ice puddles together.  

The day was good.....movember breakfast at work today followed by a super long meeting that took us until lunch.  

Mary and I had a too quick lunch and then I raced to grab the boys while she went into a site visit.  

It's day three of fiscal fast and it's going great..... I like it and will probably do more of these in the future. 

Sis and I checked in together this evening and it pretty much went like this : hi.....hi.....you good?  Ya, you?  Ya.....want to talk Tommorow? Ya.....and there we go. We are both pretty bagged ....not sure how she's doing it since her kids are so young and in one of the most labor intensive stages ....but I miss her a lot.  I miss laughing like I do with her when we are both awake and 'On'.

3 huge pots if chilie are ready for all the camp staff to descend on tommorow.  

Good night.  

Hello again Croup - we still hate you.

But we aren't as crippled anymore when croup comes calling.  Woke up with Elliot staring at me while I slept.  Doesn't happen often, but it was Chris who woke up first and noticed 'eyes on us in the dark'..... Yes, it's still creepy and you never get used to being 'stared awake'.

It's good to wake up and make him honey and lemon tea for his throat as he asks, (he loves that drink),  some Tylenol and rub Vicks on his chest and tuck him back in.  We used to wait in the yard for the ambulance......(scariest night of my life right Cristin?)....then we progressed to sitting on the deck, wrapped in blankets for hours, listening to him fight for air.  As scary as that was, if we stayed calm and reassuring, he would just muscle through it and fall asleep and croup is easy to live with during the day.   So we would just have to make it to daybreak.