thankful

we had a really nice day today. some old friends came over with their son and also a child they babysit, and all the kids had a great time playing while we chatted and had lunch. not too much fighting, either, which is pretty good for 4 boys between the ages of 2 and 4! then we had naptime and went to the beach with Daddy. those boys of mine LOVE going to the beach!

D (4 in november) starts preschool on monday! not too sure how i feel about it, but it’s mostly excitement, i think! i think it will be so good for him to be in a different environment, without mommy. it will probably be very good for me too.

J (just turned 2) has been potty training himself and doing a great job of it. i have decided to just let him figure it out on his own. im so proud of him!

sirens are blaring right now and all the dogs in the neighborhood are going nuts. they had better not wake up the kids!

bad blogger

so, it’s been almost  a whole year since i’ve blogged. i see that someone actually checked my blog a week or two ago. was that you, mom?

so much has happened this year i don’t even want to go into it in any kind of detail. suffice it to say it’s been one of the best/worst years ever. how’s that for mystery?

both my kids are napping right now which is a huge miracle. D (almost 4) has stopped napping 99% of the time and usually spends his quiet time destroying his bedroom or singing to himself. i should probably go wake him up soon, or he is going to be up all night long. ahhh but i do love the quiet.

i’m going to try and blog more often. i’m starting to hate facebook.

 

old enough to repay

ohhh i am all kidded out. i mean, i’ve had lots of family time and help with the kids over the weekend but today is day 4 of mark being at work in a row and david desparately needs some daddy time. he’s starting to get all owly and mean to john and super not listening to me. ahh well. tomorrow! family day!

in other news, david is on day 4 of being totally dry with no accidents!! woo hoo! so happy and proud of my big boy.

and, john just had peanut butter and he’s still breathing so he’s not allergic. now i can give them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at lunch sometimes.

we jammed with marks brother and his wife this weekend. it was so fun. hopefully we can do some coffeehouses soon. watch out for the family band!

quiet

well, it’s been a loooong time since i’ve updated.

not much is new. mark has been busy chopping trees down in our yard. used to look really gross and now our yard looks so much nicer and bigger. our house looks bigger, too, now that there aren’t ugly trees obscuring the view of half our house. we’d like to paint our house sometime in the spring. peeling brown and white just aren’t that attractive.

we are jamming tonight with graham and heidi. i’ve been workin on my banjo so i’m excited. i need to find some good banjo music thats not bluegrass and not celtic either so if you can think of anything let me know.

boys are good. david is almost totally potty trained (not for night or naps though). i’m so proud of him! it’s his birthday comin up too in a week or so. can’t believe he’ll be 3! my baby, growin up so fast.

speaking of babies growing up, i’ve had to get tough on john at night. no more rocking or snuggling (unless somethings really wrong). he thinks that nightime is snuggle time so i’ve had to stop. i dont even take him out of bed now. it seems to be working. when he wakes up i just give him some water and change his diapie all in his bed then leave him there. he only whines for a few minutes now and sleeps the rest of the night. thank God! there was no reason for him to be up 3 times a night to snuggle. turkey.

he’s talking lots now, too. says “cheese” and “cracker” and some other words. man these kids just change so quickly.

they are both sleeping now so i’m happy to have a rest.

thursday afternoon

i am the worst blogger ever. i blame the non internet…

not much is new. i will be starting to teach camera classes at work soon. pretty excited about that, i guess. nice to do something different from working out front in the store.

i have been pretty sleepless lately. i weaned mr john, and hoped that he’d stop getting up to visit and nurse and snuggle 3 or 4x a night but he still gets up! fortunately all my milk was gone anyways, so i’m not too sad about the weaning but i AM sad that i can’t seem to get 4 hours in a row of sleep. i’m living off coffee and diet pepsi. that cannot be healthy! little turkey. i’ts like having a newborn again! i’m thinking maybe it’s teeth.

had to get rid of our elliptical cuz it was making horrible scary noises and i was afraid it was going to break and i would break my ankle. so we are getting a new one tomorrow. it’s on sale in the canadian tire flier. i’ve been doing a kettlebell workout too andi really like it but my weight loss has slowed way down so it’s obvious i’m missing out on cardio.

we have decided that we’ll never have “enough” money to do anything huge on our house so we’d better get going on the small stuff we can afford. so we are getting our gutters done in a week or 2. ours are so so bad right now. we also got a quote on windows, although there is no way we are affording all of them, but our priority for now is the boy’s rooms for the winter, and maybe the bathroom if money allows. our windows are very poor. on a cold day you can stand in front of the closed living room window and feel a breeze… yikes.

this is from a recent trip to kamloops. it was pretty smoky then. i love the landscape in kamloops. i’d live there in a heartbeat! so pretty.

sunday afternoon

i am so bad at updating this! i suppose it’d be easier if i actually had internets. no such luck. i was stealing it and then someone must have put a password on their connection. oh well. now i have more time for riding my elliptical. mark bought it for me from the thrift store and i work out when the kids go to bed. i have lost about 5 lbs in 2 weeks or so. to reward myself, i got a haircut. my first in months and months. its still long, just way thinner, nicer layers and some bangs. not real thick ones just kind of off to the side. anyways, looks much better.

i can’t believe john will be one on tuesday. how time flies. i almost want another one… har har. maybe in like 4 years!

my friend esther had a baby girl yesterday in kamloops. now they have two girls. wives for my boys!

i should go take the kids outside. finally a day that isn’t super hot and sunny. nor is it smoky today!

monday morning

well, roots and blues was disappointing, as usual. main stage was pretty boring. we were really looking forward to gord downie but it was just super weird. lots of spoken word poetry in between songs that might have only made sense were i on drugs. i did notice his backup singer, a girl, and i recognized her voice and thought, “that sounds alot like julie doiron” and sure enough a song or 2 later gord started talking about her and how she broke her leg in china and came to edmonton to start his tour with him and someone in the band said her whole name and then gord called her the hardest canadian. then they played that song. but i totally knew it was her. i recognized her hair.  they were good singing together, but i still didn’t really like the music.

highlight of my day was the kid’s stage where david and john were dancing and it was so cute. next year if we go i will spend as much time as possible at the kids stage.

monkey john was up at 330 and awake for the day at 630. hopefully i can get them to bed early tonight so i can go too. its pretty bad when you plan bedtime at seven thirty am.

sunday afternoon

we are going to roots and blues today as soon as david wakes up. then we’ll go later after the kids are in bed and see gord downie and his band. haven’t been to r&b for a long time. i’m looking forward just to the atmosphere. i think the kids will enjoy it too.

not much is new. our stolen internet connection doesn’t work anymore, so i can never update.

um i have been trying to lose weight, and it seems to be working thus far. my big secret? exercising and watching what i eat. i wish there was a magic pill. but i have ran a few times recently and i really like it. i’ve missed it!

i’ve been playing a bit of banjo, too. it’s pretty fun. mark and i are getting a couple songs together. i hope we can play somewhere sometime!

your cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch

it has been a long time since i’ve posted. we are now in enderby in our new/old house. it’s great to be in our own place but it needs lots of work. not complaining, though, as even with all the work it needs its still way better than the places we’ve rented. i am really liking enderby. it’s a nice small town and very easy to walk everywhere.

our stolen internet connection is very sketchy at best so i find it hard to update. so i am writing from my folks house.

what’s new:

-we got david a haircut. buzzed it right down. he did so good, and he looks awesome! goodbye curls! but they are coming back already.

-john is walking and has been since about 10 months. (he is eleven months old today) it’s awesome! but also crazy. i predict he will be running by one year. he is also a good climber, shown by how he climbed up the step stool in front of the toilet and stuck his little hand in the toilet water.

-the boys are finally starting to play together and its so awesome to watch. the play a kind of peekaboo together and they both laugh. it’s so sweet!  i hope they become best buddies.

-we are starting to potty train david. it’s awesome and scary. i’m so proud of him but he is definitely growing up and there is no denying it anymore. he’s turning into such a cool little boy. i can’t believe i have an almost one year old and an almost 3 year old! time flies when you’re sleep deprived. or does it?

-we bought a 5–string banjo! i’m so excited to play it. the goal is to have me play it while mark plays guitar. i’m especially excited for this for doing worship at church. i always feel like a nerd standing there singing without an instrument in my hands. and that acoustic-y banjo-ey feel is really what we’re going for. it’s fun already and we just got it today. i think i’m gonna get the hang of it. it’s not as hard as i thought it would be.

early thursday morning

it is 5:30 and i have been up for almost an hour already with john. what a monkey! at least mark can let me sleep in today once john goes back to bed. i’m hoping he’ll be ready for a nap soon. 

this might be my last post till we are all moved in. technically, today, we own our home! but we take possession on saturday morning. i’m so beyond excited! but i also hate packing with a deep passion. i’m very thankful to have some family and friends who are helping me pack, and also with the boys. 

i found some more fun stuff for my new house at the thrift store. i got one of those 3 tiered baskets you hang in your kitchen (going to spray paint it same as the other stuff i did a few weeks ago). i remember we had one in our kitchen when i was little. i’m excited to have one as my counter space is very limited so i can put my garlic and onions and bananas in it and have a little more space. 

i also found a nice wooden chair. it’s already a nice cream color. i might just leave it as is but i’m not sure where to put it. if my kids were bigger i’d put a big plant or something on it. but maybe we will just use it as a chair for now. 

it’s almost criminal how cheap things are at the thrift store here. i paid $2.50 for the chair and basket. i’d have spent $30 at any antique shop for the same items in the same condition. not that i’m complaining. it’s just crazy! and they always have so much stuff there. probably it’s worse now as it is garage sale season… 

i’m most excited about painting my kitchen. it’s pretty bad right now. mark is focused on the repairs that need to be done and there are many. we are going to be busy for a long time doing things to the house. should be a great learning experience. 

well, i should go try and get john back to sleep.