Anniversary

Yesterday was the 12th anniversary of our marriage. So many wonderful years, many tough moments and two beautiful children and we would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Marriage is sometimes tough but by far the best adventure I have ever known.




We never got to spend a lot of alone time this last weekend but we did celebrate it in true fashion. Yep, we went boating! But I am proud to say that I am the mother of TWO wakeboarders!!! Yes sir ree! Just like the beginning of the summer, J-Bear decided he wanted to go wakeboarding. AND HE DID!!! We sure wished grandpa S. could have been there to see it! I wish that more so than anyone, so he could have driven the boat and Regan could have been in that iceberg of a lake!! Lol It was very exciting to see all the “firsts” this summer, as 3 more of my nieces tried waterskiing this weekend as well. My sister’s two little girls and my niece GG too!


On Sunday we also got the opportunity to drive south and support our new niece’s decision to be baptized. Ok so she is not my niece yet, but that will be rectified shortly. It was nice to finally meet Deb’s family! It is funny how you can talk to people you have never met and when you do meet them it feels like a long lost reunion!


All in all I can’t think of a better way to spend our anniversary! With family, friends and a boat! LOL

A full weekend

Yeah my kids are home with me! I have missed them dearly. It has been another busy weekend for us. We got the boat out on Saturday. We were joined by family on both sides which was nice. It is always more fun when you have more people with you. BB had a couple good ski runs and J-Bear went knee boarding again. Deb and I had a good tube ride where we laughed so hard our abs were hurting! The only tragedy from the tube was the loss of my baby toe nail. :( It is amazing how something so little can be so tender!

Unfortunately Deb and Will hit a deer on their way home from the lake. Like they needed anymore expenses added to the situation of moving, wedding, selling house, back to school fees, 7 kids, etc.. Hopefully things will start looking up for them soon.

Yesterday at church was filled with mixed emotions again. On the bright side, a lady in our ward came to see me in the library and offered to take my kids to school in the morning. She will come and pick them up and drive them to school, so NO bus at all!! YEAH!!! I couldn't have asked for a better situation. What a huge relief!

We joined Regan and his family yesterday for dinner and visiting. Regan's parents leave on Wednesday for China for the year, so it was great for the kids to be able to see them before they go. Hopefully they will get one more chance before they go but you never know. Here's praying that they have a great and safe year over there.

Top 10 Things Said at Work

As many of you know I work in a dental office and over the years I have heard and said many funny things that weren't intended to come out the way they did. So I thought I would write some of them down and share them with you.


Number 10
I have a cold so I have frequent urination.

Uhh... ok?!? Don't really see the connection there but I'll play along



Number 9

Look at my boobs! They're huge!

Lol- a patient said this to EllyMay when she came in shortly after she had her twins. Awkward...

Number 8

oooh.... you have a very active tongue.

haha, probably wouldn't have been a big deal except the hygienist panicked and started blushing


Number 7

You have a very gentle prick.

ROFL! A temp assistant said this to EllyMay about his freezing skills. (I hope)



Number 6

My broken tooth is cutting up the side of my tongue. Look. Put your tongue in and feel it.

This was said by a elderly lady to Dr.G (other dentist at my office) He said later why couldn't she be younger... lol


Number 5

What color were you before you were adopted?


LOL this was said by a elderly lady to one of our receptionists. She was commenting on her sking color and asked about her parents color. When she told her she was adopted, this question followed.



Number 4

I like 69

Ok this was me. EllyMay and I were picking shades and one of the shades is B69 and I forgot to say the "B". Again it wouldn't have been so bad until the patient cracked up laughing.


Number 3

How about I lay you back and do whatever I want then?

LOL One of our hygenists had a very quiet patient and couldn't get a response out of him so she was just going to get started and those are the words that came out!


Number 2

I'll be right back with your flouride and then I will get you off!

ROFL- uh buddy- skip the flouride! LOL



and



My all time favorite...



Number 1


Does sperm cause cavities?

LMAO... it's a good thing I was out of the room for this question or I may not have been able to keep my professionalism. Is this really a problem? However we did look it up on the internet afterwards and it is a "basic" solution and since the mouth is "acidic" it would in fact help! who knew?!?

Questions, Venting and Stress

I have been trying really hard to keep my blog positive but I have had so many things going through my mind lately that I need to express them somewhere. So if you don't want to read about the realities of life you may want to skip this entry.

I am so stressed about the kids in the mornings before school. Our babysitter has recently moved and I haven't had time to even look for a new one nor do I know if that is the best thing anyway. The kids are now 10 and 8 and have proven themselves to be fairly responsible. Do I trust them to get themselves to the bus on time? Will they be safe walking by themselves? Brook's bus comes almost a half hour before J-Bear's. Is he OK to get out the door on time to make it to the bus? What happens if one or both of them misses the bus? Who do I have as an emergency contact? Do I get them cell phones so they can both call if there is a problem?

I got a letter from Revenue Canada last month. I have been randomly audited for my child care expenses. Apparently I have misfiled them. So I am having to redo that part of my taxes and wait for my statement to tell me how much I have to pay back. What if they audit me for the last 7 years because I did this wrong? Will I have to pay back thousands of dollars? Will I go to jail for tax fraud? How sticky are they?

As you have read over the last few entries, my close friend, babysitter, back up for the kids has moved. I obviously am struggling with this. I know I need to just get over it and it is what it is but if I have one more person tell me that I should be happy because she is going to be family- I am going to SCREAM. I don't visit my family lots so that is not a plus!

Family- where to start! I don't want to say too much at the risk on offending anyone, but I am going to vent a bit. We have such opposite extremes on our family. We have people who don't even acknowledge you when you are in the room and people who are so involved its frustrating. I think the thing that is getting harder is that my kids are of an age where they "see" things around them. Questions like :Why doesn't so and so come over to our house? Why doesn't so and so want to spend time with us? How come we never get to sleep at so and so's house? How do you answer questions that you don't fully understand? Children see things so black and white and its hard to explain the grey. It still hurts none the less.

Money- We are hurting right now. I know, I know who isn't. With back to school supplies and clothes and with actually taking some summer holidays this year, we are hurting. So I don't think it is my responsibility to have to worry about taking care of anyone other than those who solely depend on me at the moment. Regan and I both work full time- not because we want to, but because we have to. It was never in the plan for us to have me work this long. Yes I would love to be able to be a stay at home mom but we live in the city and big places come with big expenses. Yes we have two incomes but we also have 4 people to take care of. How much am I going to have to pay back to the government? Maybe jail isn't that bad of an option!?!

Work- Regan is an electrician and there is a recession. It is scary. If he takes a day off will that be the last day? It is that touchy at work right now. I am fortunate to have been at the same office for almost 10 years. I have a good job and have good co-workers. But even in the best of situations you can have your off days. I have been very sensitive to little comments made here and there lately. It makes it tough, especially in light of the whole childcare thing. However the whole money thing keeps me here. Although I have been entertaining the idea of something closer to home or to the school so I can be near the kids if there was a problem.



Tomorrow will be a much happier post. I promise!

Just another day in the life

Yesterday started off great. I had a great morning at work followed by a long lunch and an easy afternoon, of which I got off work early. Regan met me at work at we headed out to the matinee to go see Angels and Demons. We both really enjoyed the movie. It wasn't quite as intense as the first one but still carried our attention throughout the whole movie.

We then headed over to the in-laws and helped them get a few more things crossed off their list before they head to China next week. I would imagine that it would be pretty overwhelming and scary to leave everything behind for a year. They have lots to do but are getting that list smaller everyday.

Talked with the kids again last night. They got to stay at the pool after hours for a water polo game. Apparently both my kids are good at it and really enjoyed it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering how much time they spend in the water.

Update:
I just got a text from my sister saying that the kids passed their swimming lessons! Yay! Brook passed level 6 and J-Bear level 3. I am so proud of my little swimmers!!

Working Out

Since the beginning of the summer going to the gym has been a bit of an obstacle for us. Mostly because we haven't been around. For me it has been longer because of my knee. Thankfully that is finally feeling better (for the most part anyway). We made it to the gym last week for the first time in weeks. We had a sub teacher for our class which admittedly was nice. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy our regular teacher but the subs tend to be a little easier on us than she is. So I figured it would be a good introduction back into the gym life. HAHAHA Geri (our teacher) was back last night. Needless to say walking is a struggle this morning. So is sitting, standing, bending and lifting! It is going to be a funny day at work for both me and Regan I am sure!

We were so tired after the gym that we called it an early night and went to bed. Not before Regan cut the grass and I talked to the kids though. The kids are still having a great time. Brook was so tired when I called at 7:30 that she had already put her pajamas on and brushed her teeth and was trying to go to sleep. That is a bit of a challenge with all the kids there! J-Bear was also pretty tired, he too was in his pajamas but wasn't quite ready for bed yet. He was excited to tell me every detail of his day. How he can climb to the top of the climbing wall at the pool and how he did a perfect dive in swim lessons today. Only two more days of swim lessons and then I can bring my babies home :)

Yay and Nay

Yay that I got to sleep in yesterday because I was tired after the wedding. Nay that I was the only one home and the house felt very empty.

Yay that I was able to see Deb and help her get a few things packed for the new house. Nay again that she is moving (moved).

Yay that Regan finishes work just after 2:00pm so I wasn't home alone. Nay that he has to wake up so early to start work.

Yay that we could just pick up and go to the movie. We went to see Star Trek. Neither of us are big fans of the series, but the movie was pretty good. Nay that Regan dropped a piece of popcorn in his shirt pocket and now has a big grease stain.

Yay that we went to go visit Regan's parents after. We had a nice time visiting and making sure things were taken care of for the next year while they are away. (China) Nay that we stayed till after 9:30 and almost missed talking to the kids at Aunt Leigh's house.

Yay that the kids had a fun Family Home Evening with the cousins. Nay that we couldn't be there with them.

Yay that they are having fun with swimming lessons, rollerblading, skateboarding and bike riding. Nay that they can't have the same freedom at home in the city as they do in a small town.

Yay that we were able to go straight to bed after we talked to the kids. Regan was especially tired from not getting to sleep in after the wedding. Nay that we forgot to eat supper! (Or maybe that is a Yay! lol)

Good Times

It was so nice to have my children home for the weekend. We were able to get so much done while they were here. We got ALL the back to school shopping done! YEAH!! It was nice to just even have them in the car while we did some errands. It's funny how you can miss the little things that people do. We got to spend some family time together as well, ordering Chinese food, watching movies, popping popcorn, walking to church together...etc. They are now back at my sister's house for the remainder of the week to finish off their swimming lessons. Which they are both doing super good in! Yay for swimming lessons in small towns with smaller class sizes.

Yesterday was the first time at our ward (church) in over a month. It felt almost awkward being there. In such a young, transient ward so much changes in a short period of time. There were tons of new faces and new babies and even new pregnancies. It was also my first Sunday without my partner in crime. Have you ever found a friend that just really gets you and supports you and helps give you a reason to keep going. I would like to say everything will be fine, but as I looked around the chapel I couldn't help feel this overwhelming sadness and longing to be anywhere else. I struggled to hold back the tears. I feel like someone just took one of my life lines . I think a few people may have recognized that insecurity as a couple of them came to talk to me. Either that or they were avoiding going to class and came to the library to hide! LOL Either way I'll take it!

Regan and I had a wedding to go to last night. We have never been to a wedding on a Sunday before. It was a Jewish wedding and apparently they don't have their weddings till after 5:00 on Sundays. It was really beautiful and neat to see the traditions of a different faith. In this case not only was the bride Jewish but the groom was from Nigeria so there was lots of different traditions. It almost made me wish I had incorporated some of there traditions into my wedding. I want to be lifted up a chair around the room and have money thrown at me while I dance!

It was alot of fun and they played great music to dance to after. Me and my co-workers danced till almost midnight, till our feet gave out on us. I had just bought new heels and were wearing them for the dance. My feet were killing me, but they sure looked cute! lol

We got home around midnight. Regan still had to get up at 4:30 for work this morning, so I feel bad for him. Thanx babe for letting me stay so long :)

Playing Dress Up

I have been kid less for almost a week. I really do miss them! I am grateful that my sister was willing to take them for such a long period of time. Turns out it has been a good thing for them because if they were at home they would be so bored from all the things Regan and I have been doing and getting caught up on. I am excited that I am going to go see them tonight though.

There is a wedding fast approaching!! Will and Deb are getting married in less than 4 weeks and there is lots of little and big things to do. The last two nights have been preparation days for the event. Shopping for little final touch details and playing dress up after! :)

I went to Deb's house last night to see if I could help with some of the alterations needed on the dress. We got her all decked out in her dress and shoes and played with different ideas on how alter the dress. Yeah, I think she needs a real seamstress. Pinning a wedding dress is one thing but cutting and sewing it is completely another! Very intimidating to say the least. But that wasn't the fun part of the evening. Next we played with her hair. Oh the possibilities! Do we keep it long or short, straight or curly, up do or down. hehehe- I can't tell you what we decided- but its beautiful!

While Deb and I were doing that my wonderful husband was at home changing the brakes on my van and rotating the tires so the van would be safe for me to drive down to see the kids tonight. I sure love that he has become so mechanically inclined. He has been a good sport the last couple days. He has driven me and Deb to the mall and patiently waited for us at several stores. Although he did get to pick the restaurant that the three of us went to on Monday night. Good trade off! lol

Regan and I made it to the gym yesterday for the first time in weeks. Wow- that was harder than I remembered! I guess that would explain the feeling in my muscles today. OWwww! Hopefully it will be better by tonight when I am loading up my van with boxes, clothes and furniture to start Deb's move to Cardston. They got possession of their house this week and on top of wedding plans we get to find a way/time to get her moved into it. Have I mentioned how much I don't want her to move :(

How do bloggers do this?

I am so far behind on blogging! I don't know how people have time to do this. I am more than a week behind so I am going to have to do a "week in review" type of entry.

The week started off visiting with family in Red Deer. We had a chance to go to the Collicut Centre for a fun swim. We finally headed back to Calgary. Home at last. Even the kids were happy to have a bit of normal life again. Albeit it didn't last long!

On Wednesday my sister and mom picked up my kids and took them down south for a couple of weeks. My sister has them enrolled in swimming lessons in her town. She has been under a lot of stress lately with her husband working out of town and was looking forward to having Babbling Brook there to help her. BB is a great helper! Especially with the younger kids. J-Bear is doing what he does best, keeps her laughing. lol

The World Waterski-Wakeboard competition started on Tuesday and Regan has been looking forward to this for almost 2 years! He went out on Tuesday by himself to catch the action and I joined him on Wednesday after the kids left. We spent Thursday night, all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the competition. It was super cool. Being with Regan was like being with a kid in the candy store. This was definitely up his alley! He got some pictures and autographs of skiiers he has idolized for years and some new ones too. Canada made us proud and won first over all! It was cool to see the athletes receive their awards and hear the anthems playing. It's cool to see it on TV but in person its even that much more powerful!

We had one night that we made it to the late show of the new Harry Potter movie. The movie ended at almost 2:00am so you can imagine how tired we were the next day. Good thing all we had to do the next day was sit and watch the skiiers!

When we got home last night, we had a chance to look around the house for the first time in weeks. Our house was a disaster! We finally took some time to clean the house and get some laundry done. I can't believe how much better I feel when my house is in order. Now if I could just get caught up on everything else... lol

Saturday August 1st

Saturday morning started off a little later than we had hoped. We wanted to see the Jasper Fairmont Lodge so we drove out there first. It was uneventful. I was expecting something cool like the Prince of Wales hotel in Waterton or The Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, but nope just some condo looking cabins. Meh.

We then headed over to the Jasper Tramway. I think this part was the highlight of our whole vacation. If you are ever in the area and want an amazing scenic view, that is the place to go! Just make sure you get there first thing in the morning cuz there were tons of people who had to wait more than 2 hours to wait for their ride up.



The tramway is different than the gondola in Banff and definitely goes ALOT faster! Once you get to the top there is a hike (1.8km) uphill on shale. The air was pretty thin so it was not a fast hike and it was pretty steep so it was a good work out. J-Bear and I made it most of the way, but opted not to keep pushing it so we stopped after we got to the first peak. We ended up wandering a little bit and had a very cool, peaceful moment just the two of us and the 12 baby birds that we found. My adventurous husband and daring daughter kept going. No surprise there! But they were able to get some amazing pictures and had a great time together.


The next part of our trip led us to Horseshoe Lake. There are a lot of cliffs there that are well known in the area for jumping. And wouldn't you know it...


Yep that is my 8 year old J-Bear following in his daddy's footsteps! The 3 of them all had a couple of jumps. I elected to remain behind the camera!

We then headed over to Athabasca Falls. What an amazing waterfall! It was a really hot weekend so the glaciers were melting tons- literally. The melted glaciers fill up the falls. It was at its peak flow level so seeing the power of the water was really cool.

We next headed off the Red Deer to spend some time with my sister and her family. It felt like a very long drive. We were all getting a little sick of being in a vehicle at this point. Once we got to their apartment we quickly ate and put the kids to bed. We had hoped to be able to play some games or cards or something but Regan and I fell asleep shortly after the kids. Too much driving in the sun!

Friday July 31st

Friday we got up early and finished packing up at the time share. We knew we had a long drive ahead of us so we checked out of Fairmont and were on the road by 9:00am. Off to Jasper!

I expected the drive to be scenic, but I never expected it to be as beautiful as it was. Every twist and turn of the road seem to bring new beauty with it. There were so many roadside turnoffs that we couldn't possible stop at as many as we wanted too. We did manage to stop at a few though. My favorite stop was at the Columbia Icefields. I have seen it on the news and commercials before, but honestly I just thought it was a block of ice. lol I would never have guessed that it would capture my attention the way it did. The picture below shows me and the kids walking up toward the glacier from the parking lot. The glacier used to extend further out and much taller than where we are standing in the picture. It tells you how much it has melted over the years. But even the thought of what was still there has been there since the ice ages is purely amazing to me.

After several hours of driving, we decided we were never going to finish everything that we wanted to see in just one day. We decided to stay over night in Jasper. Uh... Friday of a long weekend with no reservations in a tourist area. Can we say $$$$$$$! :(

We did find a nice little place to stay right as you first enter the town. We were relieved to be able to at least find something, it was filling up quickly. We needed to stretch our legs as it was now after 5:00pm (that's a LONG time driving) so we walked around the town site for a bit and got some ice cream, fed the bears...


After we got something to eat ourselves we headed off for the Jasper Hot springs (Miette Hot springs). That was another hour drive each way! The hot springs were nice. The kids had a lot of fun jumping from the hot springs into the cold pool. Which I may add could not have possibly been the 21' it said it was! I am surprised there wasn't ice on it, it was that cold!!

There was a little cafeteria at the hot springs and the fellow running the place was SUPER nice. He gave us tons of ideas as to where to go while we were in Jasper, what stops to make and how to get there. His first suggestion was just down the hill from where we were. We left the hot springs on foot down a path towards the old abandoned hot springs. They closed them in 1984 and have just let them fall apart since then. The hike was about 10 minutes down the path and it was getting dark so we didn't stay long. Plus me and the kids were starting to lose our voices from trying to make enough noise to keep the bears away!

After running like crazy walking back to the van we finally headed back to Jasper and went to bed. The beds were hard as rock but we were all so exhausted it didn't matter. lol I Couldn't even tell you which one of us fell asleep first.

Thursday July 30th

Regan, Babbling Brook, J-Bear and Grace all rode their bikes this morning. Em and I drove them up to the base of the ski hill and dropped them off. While they rode down the hill, Em and I went shopping. We tried on some really cute dresses that go over your swim suits. Just as I was almost tempted to buy something the bikers showed up. So instead of buying a dress, we bought cookies and drinks.

Again it was really hot today. It must have been over 30 degrees at least. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the pool. They had some timed trials for the water slide, so everyone (except me-cuz I was the camera girl) took a turn trying to be the fastest.

While some of us will be remembered for our craziness,

others will be remembered for other things. LOL

In his defense though, he is trying to help Deb plan their wedding. After supper, Will and his kids packed up and headed off to Calgary. This gave me plenty of time to pack, clean up and get ready to leave Fairmont in the morning. Regan and I weren't ready to end our vacation yet so we decided that instead of going home in the morning we would head over to Jasper. Regan and the kids had never been there before and I had only been there once when I was about 8 and we drove through it. So, we are off for another adventure. Yay!

Wednesday July 29th

Regan, Babbling Brook, J-Bear and I started off this morning at the driving range. We had a tee time at 11:30am at Coy's so we wanted to hit a few golf balls before we headed over there. Once we got there we had made it to about hole 3 when out of the bushes Will and his kids showed up. They were looking for golf balls around the perimeter and saw us and came over. We visited shortly and kept going so we wouldn't make anyone wait behind us. Will took his kids to Coy's driving range while they waited for us to finish golfing. The kids and I have really improved on our golf game. Not that we are good or anything but we definitely each had a couple of good shots. Regan is already a pretty good golfer, so his challenge was just having patience with the rest of us.

When we were done we all headed back to town for ice cream. Mmmm. It was so hot out that it was the perfect treat. We came back to the condo and hung out at the swimming pool. At supper time, while Regan was setting off the fire alarm cooking on the BBQ the 4 youngest kids made some new friends and were playing soccer. It was hard to tell them to stop and come eat because they were so fun to watch.

After we ate we headed over towards the original hot springs. We did some hiking up the hill and checked them out and took pictures finally.

We then headed over to the waterfall where they drain the pool at the end of each night. We stayed there for a while into the evening until it was almost too dark to hike back to the vans. We remembered to bring towels but didn't think about a flashlight. Good thing I had the camera light.

Tuesday July 28th

Ok so it has been a while since I blogged and I have alot that I want to journal, so I am writing several posts on the same day but changing the date in the title. Hopefully that makes sense to more than just me!

Tuesday morning was off to a good start. Grandma made breakfast for everyone so that was one less thing I needed to do. Yay for Grandma!! Today was a much more relaxing day. Grandma, Em and I did an aquafit class in the morning. We had a lot of fun doing that. It was the instructors first time teaching aerobics in the water and it was funny to try and keep up with her when you are so much slower in the water. During the class the swimming pool was open to the public in other areas and it didn't take long before *Bigguy, *Taylor and J-Bear were watching us and pretending to join us. It was fun to hear my mom laugh and enjoy herself.

Regan and Grandpa spent a little one on one time together and went golfing down at Coy's Par 3. J-Bear and I went over to the driving range at the Fairmont Golf Course and hit a couple buckets of balls while we waited for them to come back.

Sadly when Grandpa came back, him and Grandma packed up and headed home. They needed to be home for Wednesday so they could go work at the Temple. They left before I could really play some serious cards with my mom. Good thing mom knows I would have won! LOL

Will and his kids and us all headed over to the Fairmont Hot Springs. We watched as Babbling Brook showed off and as Taylor tried some pretty wild and crazy moves on the diving boards. He did a not so pretty dive off the 3 metre and had a good headache for awhile. Poor thing. We had a great time playing in the water together. The boys had several challenges to each other as to who could stay under the water the longest or who could swim the farthest without coming up for air, and so on. I wish I had my camera with me, but alas I had forgot it- AGAIN.

We were all so exhausted after we got back that we quickly ate a late supper and everyone crashed into bed.