Just another boring ol' weekend

I was so happy to get home, get unpacked and relax for the rest of the summer. It lasted almost a whole week.

Last week, my Auntie and Uncle from Ottawa came for a visit. We had a great time. We went to see the steam train and they loved it. It was so nice to sit and catch up. I really loved having them visit. Maybe someday Graham and I can take the girls out to Ottawa to visit them.

We drove down to Cardston, AB last weekend. Graham's dad was in the Cardston parade and we wanted to see Graham's brother and his family before school started again. It was a great parade...loads of candy and beautiful weather. It was fun to watch Graham play with his family - his brothers and Dad and all the kids. We had a great visit and as we were just sitting around talking on Saturday evening the town had a fireworks display. It was great because we had an amazing view from the living room window.

And now we are home

Well, After all the fun we had on the coast it was time to head home. The girls missed Daddy, Mommy missed Daddy, Daddy missed us, it was time. We had a great trip back, we stayed at Peeks Lodge in Revelstoke, BC which is a lovely little town if you ever get a chance to go through there and made it home before the thunderstorms hit Stettler. Which was really nice because It cooled the house down to "acceptable to sleep". I am happy to be home. I'm trying to catch up with paperwork and enjoy the last few days of summer before the girls start school.
My Sister-in-Law Audra is expecting her 3rd child in a few weeks - She looks so adorable pregnant and I know they are so excited for this baby. We where talking about how big we can get and I promised I would post a picture of me the night I had Ivy...just to make her feel a little better about her size...this is for you Audra - I love you!

Our Summer Part 2

Just three days after getting home from Manitoba, the girls and I took off for the coast to visit with my Mom and brother. It was a great visit. Mom and I borrowed a motor home from a friend of hers and took a little trip down the Oregon coast. the motor home is older than me - with lovely shag carpet...but it worked great.

We stopped at the Tillimook cheese factory. Ivy was so excited to go see the place where they make cheese...and then they found out that milk also makes ice cream. We could hardly hold them back. It was wonderful.

The next day we drove to the Oregon Aquarium. If I thought the girls were happy about the cheese factory, they were ecstatic about the aquarium. They loved all the tanks of fish and sea life. Ivy was most excited about the sharks...and they even got to pet a baby shark. It was great. To top it off, the RV park were we stayed that night was right on the water and we were able to go out during low tide and see a bunch of star fish and sea anemones. The beaches in Oregon are amazing.

This is the beach were we stayed the second night.

So after two very successful days we were excited to go to the world famous Sea Lion Caves. Everyone went down to the lookout and saw the sea lions from up above and were amazed at how many there were and we almost had to run to the elevator to go down and get in the caves to see them up close. We got in the elevator, rode down about 220 ft, and the doors opened...
it was dark, very loud, and very very smelly - of course! That's were the sea lions live...we are the ones in the cage. The girls HATED it. "Get us out of here!" Since I am a mean mommy, I made them wait until I had my fill of the smell and noise. It was really an amazing thing to see and hear. I may not ever get the kids to go back there, But I would go back in a heart beat.

We saw a bunch of light houses and sat on the most amazing beaches and when it was time to go back it was so hard to leave. I will definitely be making a trip down the Oregon coast again, next time with Graham!

ok Mom...are you happy now?

It has been forever since I posted. I have been hounded by my mother to "please update"...so here it is...
We have had a very busy summer. Lots of travel, lots of fun
School ended in June and my little girl (Alma) graduated from kindergarten with all smiley-faces. I am so proud of her. She is going into first grade the last day of August. We even bought a pair of tie-up shoes for school.
We decided that a new deck would add a lot to our house, so tore out our old deck and build a new one - I am really pleased.

the old deck...

in the process

the NEW deck

The first week of July we went to Graham's Dad's cabin in Manitoba. It was beautiful. The girls love playing with their uncle Parker and Auntie Devin and most especially the three dogs. It was a bit colder than last year, but the girls still had a blast at the beach.

Graham brought a volleyball and we had a hard time keeping him away from the beach volleyball net.

I really enjoyed being with the family, riding bikes and playing games. We had a great visit.

part two coming up...

I love May!

I love May. I know it isn't May any longer, but it is my favorite month. I love Mothers day. My Husband makes me breakfast in bed and then he tries his hardest to get the girls ready for church all by himself. That is a big big thing for him. Also, my birthday is at the end of May. I still love my birthdays. I like that Graham does all these sweet things for me and he is so agreeable. This year my Mother in law and her husband came for a visit. We went downtown to the Stettler Art Walk - which was actually pretty awesome. Then we saw the old steam train station in town and went out for a nice dinner. I had ribs. Oh - I love ribs. Kathryn (Mum-in Law) and the girls made me a carrot cake. I love birthdays!
Also - My Sweetheart Graduated again on June 2nd. This is his second degree. We are so proud of him. We all went to Calgary for the day. I got to see my good friend Susan while we were waiting for Graham to do his Ceremony thing, and then we all went out to dinner after. It was great. Five little kids in Olive Garden. We thought is was great - I'm not sure what the other people in the restaurant thought.
One of the craziest things happened. Before we moved from Calgary, we sold out little car to this guy going to school there. While we were driving around a parking lot after the ceremony on Tuesday, we saw this car and laughingly said - hey that looks like our old car. it was! It had the same roof rack on top and the same (very unique) sticker on the back. The new owner is taking very good care of this car...we are pleased.
Well, that's all the news for now.

Here is my hubby looking very grand indeed.

Where does the time go?

It has been a long time...I'm not sure If I can remember all the crazy things that have been happening in our little neck of the woods.
last weekend we went for a visit to Cardston, Alberta. It is so nice there. We stayed with Graham's brother and his family, who we get along with very well. They have the most amazing view of the Temple.
I am going to be finishing my movie job in June. The good news is that I have to stop because I am getting too busy with my real job (bookkeeping, well - and being a mom). I just don't have time for it anymore, and frankly the overnights are killing me. Not actually killing me mind you, just making me irritable and absolutely no fun to be around - and I think it was giving me wrinkles, so NO more of that!
I am in home renovation mode at the moment. I keep seeing things that need to be done around the house and making plans. The big one this year is the front porch. I am so excited to tear off the monstrosity, the death trap, the hideousness that is our current porch and put on something new and pretty. I have a bookkeeping client that is going to help us build. And don't worry - he is actually a builder, so people usually pay him for this kind of thing.
Speaking of home renovations...the coolest thing happened the other day. I was sleeping in a bit because I had worked an overnight and someone started knocking on the front door early in the morning. That isn't the cool part. When I got to the door, the guy said - I'm here to put a door knob on your front door.
I guess I should back up and say that when we bought the house, the front door had a flimsy little piece of junk bedroom lock on the front door, so we replaced it with a dead-bolt. But we did not have the tools, or whatever to drill another hole and put in a new handle. So for about a year or so now, we haven't had a door knob.
On with the story...This guy says he has been asked to put a knob on the front door and asked me what kind I want. I looked at him a little funny and he just smiled and said a friend wanted to do this for me. I am pretty sure I know exactly who set this up, so I let him go for it. I know have a wonderful, pretty new door knob that keeps us safe and secure and will look wonderful with my new porch when I get that done.
I also now know a handy man that is willing to help out a little with other things that are a little beyond my husband - and the potential for another new client!
Life is so good in a little town. I know my neighbors, and they know my kids, we watch out for each other and there is a togetherness that you don't get in the big cities as much. Now, if only we could get a Costco out here?
One final note. I'm sure as parents we have all said "I'm not the Maid!" when our kids get a little bossy. yesterday, Ivy was a little off in the morning. Just a bit grumpy and not in the most co-operative of moods. I asked her to go get dressed, and she looked at me and put her little hands on her little hips and said "Mommy, I am NOT the maiden!"
I tried so hard not to laugh, but it ended up she wore her footie pajamies all day. Another point for the kids. I think that makes it 300-7 for them. Sometimes there are bumps raising these kids, but it sure is worth it when they tell you - I love you Mommy.

I have attached the girls dance photos for your viewing pleasure!

Leprechauns!

The important things first - we get a refund this year - yay!

So Saint Patrick's Day is a little special in our house. Graham served his mission in Ireland, so we feel a little closer to this holiday than some others. I had all these grand plans about making green eggs and ham, and doing lots of fun stuff, but it all fizzled when the girls woke up in horrible moods (all three of us) and it was all I could do not to put everyone back in bed and tell them to start the day over.

For those of you who don't know, Alma is in part time Kindergarten, so they are both still at home with me on Tuesday and Thursday. Alma learned about leprechauns in class on Monday. So when she got home, we had to make a leprechaun trap - to catch one. She wanted to leave some chicken out to lure the leprechaun into the trap, but I though we should ask Daddy, because he would know more about trapping leprechauns (he lived in Ireland, remember) It turns out Daddy doesn't know too much about trapping leprechauns, I guess that isn't what he spent his time in Ireland doing - go figure. Anyway - after we spent all this time making a trap - Alma was to scared to look to see if we caught one. It is still in our living room. Maybe we didn't catch one because I would let her put any chicken in there.
Oh well, there's always the Easter bunny.
By the way Mom, if your reading this - we are planning on scouring your lawn for shamrocks when we come to visit in the summer. The girls really got into the St. Patrick's theme.
The girls and I went to a play today. Sussical the Musical. It was wonderful. It was performed by a high school from Red Deer (about an hours drive west of us) and they were really great singers and actors. The girls just sat with huge eyes for an hour and a half - spell bound. After wards they got to talk to some of the kids and they had so much fun.
Well, I guess that's all for now...back to the books for me. That would be the record keeping kind, not the fun to read kind.