Counting again

I've decided that when I'm feeling glum, I should start counting. I'm feeling kinda Eeyore-ish - mostly exhausted - so here we go again. In addition to the previous post's blessings, here are some more recent ones (i.e. the last day or two):

My blessings:

1. Little boys who get up from their naps for the third time in half an hour - he should be sleeping, but at least it means he's potty-trained (because a lot of 3-year-old boys aren't).
2. Being exhausted from being woken up twice by Dustin last night - because it means he's teething and he's developing normally.
3. Being up late tonight baking muffins for the nursery at church tomorrow (J&D are in the nursery while I volunteer at the elementary VBS), because it means my kids will have a healthy snack for tomorrow instead of the sugar-laden alternatives.
4. Baking muffins for the nursery (yeah, I know, I already said this one) - because it means I have a kitchen and a working oven and the money to buy the ingredients to make the muffins.
5. Long volunteer forms - because they make me ponder the past and reflect on how God has worked in me and through me, bringing me encouragement for the day.
6. A baby who isn't napping - when I give him some reeeeally diluted juice for the first time (like 10% juice & 90% water) to fill his tummy and hopefully encourage his nap, he makes a sweet face and says, "Mmmmm....." every 10 seconds - he makes me laugh, and laughter feeds the soul. And I get to have a moment alone with my littlest one.
7. A floor full of books that haven't been put away - because it means my boys are interested in stories and books and reading.
8. An office full of still-unpacked boxes, because it means I have an office!
9. Jesus Christ - who reminds me on days like today that service brings joy, and makes me wonder why I've been hiding all this time!
10. My hands and feet - I can walk and serve - and my pastor can't right now because he's in hospital waiting on his miracle from the God he serves and loves. And I'm reminded to pray for him.
11. A busy week of VBS ahead - because it means that my boys will get lots of non-Mommy interaction, and it will prepare Joshua for his own VBS program next week and hopefully prepare him for being in a different room for Sunday School next year.

Have you counted your blessings today?

Counting my blessings...

Here's the scoop -

I so often get sidetracked by the negatives in life. A messy basement. Friends who drop off the face of the planet. Bad relationships that I've done everything I can to restore, but the other party won't work in the reconciliation process. Sickness. Etc, etc, etc.

So, I'm going to make a goal of counting my blessings. As a well-known hymn says, "Count your blessings, name them one by one...Count your many blessings, See what God has done." When we count our blessings, the miseries and discouragements fall by the wayside. So, in an effort to counteract all the negatives flying my way, I'm going to tell the world about some of my blessings!

Here we go.

1. Graeme
2. Joshua
3. Dustin
4. My home - a roof over my head.
5. This acreage - room for the boys to run around, fresh air, and privacy.
6. Frogs to catch. Tonight, we all went outside (Curtis & Darcy, Charis, Jordan & Carly, Graeme & me, and Joshua) to catch frogs after birthday dinner.
7. Little boys who love to sing themselves to sleep.
8. Poopy bums who sing at the top of their lungs after bedtime in order to let the world know they need to be changed! (Dustin)
9. A messy kitchen - it means I've been able to host family for a birthday party.
10. Our fire pit - to relax outside after a lont day.
11. My voice - I can sing and praise God.
12. My eyes - I can see the wonder and majesty of His creation.
13. My ears - I can hear my boys giggle, and the birds sing.
14. Sorrowful boys who call for their Mommy & Daddy - because it means they love us. When Graeme and I were outside enjoying our fire tonight, we heard Joshua calling us around 10:00. Graeme went into the house and asked "Where are you, Joshua?" - and he was standing on the front porch. He had turned on every single light in the house, looking for us (even though we'd told him we'd be out by the fire pit). We ended up bringing him outside to snuggle with us and watch the fire with us.
15. My office - I have a place to craft.
16. Friends - those who reach my heart - encourage me, uplift me, pray for me, and love me in spite of myself.
17. God - His love is higher and farther-reaching than anything else in this world.
18. Music - an outlet for my soul, an outlet to worship God with.
19. Owls - I'd never seen an own SO close - he was less than 10 feet from my head tonight! Wow!! I got a picture - I'll post it once I download it from our camera.
20. The rain - it means our lawn will be watered.
21. Bats - they eat mosquitos at a rate of up to 600 per hour!

That's all for tonight - it's late and I must get some sleep. I have to be up earlier than normal for church - we have a new worship pastor and he wants the vocalists there at 9:00 instead of the usual 9:30.

Good night!

Ups & Downs

So, here I am again. Since my last post, we've already had over $1500 in expenses to fix the previous owners' messes, with another $1500-$2000 before it's all said and done and fixed. And then the carpet goes in after that.

Our house is still a disaster. I desperately want to be unpacked!

Yesterday was Graeme's birthday. I surprised him in town and took him to Montana's with the kids for dinner. We got out of there with about 3 minutes to spare before one of the kids melted down. You just know when you're about to reach *critical mass*. We got Graeme a hammock for his birthday - he and I set it up last night after the littles were in bed - we had a fabulous time!! It's a double hammock - for two people, but I have to lose about 30 pounds before our combined weight makes us "legal" for the weight restrictions of the hammock. :) BUT, it's a very cool hammock. Something totally out of left field - something we could never use in town - something just PERFECT for relaxing outside on our acreage!

I just found out a friend has a blind baby - could be genetic, not sure yet. They will find out at the end of the month. Matthew may never see.

Graeme's grandfather had a heart attack, followed by an angiogram where they couldn't do the angioplasty so they had to do triple-bypass surgery. Recovery has not been smooth, and it seems like Graeme's parents have to be "on" the nurses & doctors constantly to diagnose this symptom or that.

Our pastor had a heart attack on Sunday. He had an angioplasty done on Sunday night/Monday morning. Was recovering nicely. Then - wham - a stroke hit him early this morning. It's pretty severe - it affected the side of the brain that controls movement and speech, etc. The next 72 hours are critical. He's only 48 (or thereabouts - definitely younger than 50) years old.

I guess my "house woes" are small in comparison to these things. God, may You put things into perspective for me once again. Your hand is bigger than my basement. Your hand is bigger than Pastor Rick's stroke. Your love is bigger than my insufficiencies. Your strength is stronger than a broken heart. Your grace will be sufficient for this day - for Your love is better than all this life has to offer. Bless...protect...heal...God, You are still in the miracle business...may Your will be done....

Moved in...sort of

The "big move" happened on Saturday. We all slept here on Saturday night. The house is still an absolute disaster zone, although with help from Karen, Peter, Matthew, Melissa, Ryan, and Sharon, we had a kitchen that was set up, beds that were made, and tummies that were filled. All of our bedrooms are about 90% in order, and the kitchen is about 99% in order. Yippee!! We had our first home-cooked meal the other night - chicken breast, pasta, and sauteed zucchini. Wow. Yum. Deeee-lish!

We had some surprises, sadly. Graeme spent about 8 hours cleaning up the JUNK the previous owners left behind. It cost us $450 to have it hauled away. Then, when the carpet-layers came on the 2nd (the day after we took possession, and two days before we had the 'big move'), they pulled up the carpet and found some fairly major wet spots with some mold on the baseboards. Can you say, ****ARGH****! We were SO miffed - our inspection showed no water damage or anything, and no moisture readings, so this was obviously a problem that had happened since the time we bought the place to the time we took possession. I.e., the previous owners didn't disclose everything to us. Meaning that we now have a much bigger problem than unpacked boxes.

So, we had to have someone in to rip out all the drywall in those two areas (one was overflow from the foundation, but thankfully no cracks, and the other was a sump pump failure that we weren't told about). They had to determine the cause of the leakage and moisture, and take care of the mold. Now we have to pay someone to re-build our basement walls. Then we get to have the carpet put in at the end of August. THEN we can move into our basement.

The previous owners also let the yard go to pot. It was beautifully mowed and trimmed when we bought the place, but there are weeds upwards of 4 feet high in spots. It's very frustrating - this is not the condition we bought the place in, and as a result, we are having to do days and days of work just to get it back to square one! (Not to mention the in-house cleaning besides the junk hauling - it was quite dirty.)

So, all in all, it's been a really rocky start here. We are hoping for some sort of compensation for all of this, but the likelihood of that happening is slim to none. So, we'll be a few thousand dollars out of pocket...money we don't really have. So, feel free to donate to the "save the LaRue's basement fund". :) Ha ha, just kidding (almost). :)

In a more positive light, Joshua has already caught a frog. I'm not too keen on showing Dustin the frogs - I'm afraid he'll eat one. The kids have been sleeping relatively well here so far, and we've been doing not too badly, either. Graeme has enjoyed mowing his lawn, and we are building our office. A neighbor lady stopped by today to introduce herself and bring by some muffins she'd just made. YUMMY!

My friend Paige is expecting another baby - I'm so excited for you, dear lady! Woo hooo!! Another friend, Jen, is expecting her first baby - exciting times! And friends left, right, and centre are getting engaged! Such fun.

Graeme's grandpa is having open-heart triple-bypass surgery today. He's 83, and healthy as a horse otherwise, but has three 90% blockages from what I've been told. He should be out of surgery by now, or close to it, at least.

I'll post some pix of the house as soon as it's picture-worthy...and I'm on dial-up now, so it could take positively forever to upload pix. So I might burn them to disk and take them somewhere where it will only take half of forever to load onto here!

Cheerio - enjoy your day!

Today's the beginning...

I know I haven't blogged much lately. I suppose that packing and getting ready to move have just taken up too much of my time...oh yes, I neglected to mention the plethora of online scrabble games that are also taking just a touch of my time, too. Nah, it's not so bad, but you know how it goes. Soon enough we'll be on dial-up and e-mail and other such online endeavors will take up but a smidgen of my time.

So, today is the beginning of a dream Graeme and I have had for years and years. Today, we take possession of our new home "in the cunchwee" as Joshua says. We begin acreage life. Peace and quiet will begin. Busy-ness of traffic will cease when we're sleeping. Campfires, lawn-mowing, outdoor games, and open spaces for the children to run (without having to drive to get there).

It's exciting, but surreal. I know I'm going to love it. I'm going to miss this house we're in now - so many memories - both boys learned to walk here. Dustin's first home. Lots of birthday parties and other gatherings. I suspect I'm going to be a bit emotional leaving this house, but I am constantly reminded that we are still taking our home with us. Praise God for His faithfulness and supply!

I will try to post a few pictures once we've settled a bit. The big move happens on Saturday, and we have to be out of our current house by Tuesday. It will be a busy few days!!

How much longer?

So, this past week, the kids were sick. First Joshua, with a fever, and complaining of a sore throat. His fever lasted about 36 hours. Just when his broke, Dustin came down with a fever, and wouldn't eat much, cried a lot, wouldn't nurse. Poor guy. His fever lasted about 24 hours, but he was still grumpy for another day.

Well, then it was my turn. Let me tell you, those kids are little troupers, if they had anything like what I'm going through. The fever, aches, headache, dizziness, and sore throat were quite the little 'sickness'! Everything has gone except my sore throat. Since Joshua and Dustin seem to have returned to normal, but mine is just getting worse, I decided to go see my doctor today.

Well, it's *just* a virus. An appetite-sucking, canker-inducing virus!! Now, I never NEVER get canker sores. I thought I was just getting little red bumps in the back of my throat. Then I started getting them in the sides of my cheeks. I have about 7 or 8 that I can actually see, but I can feel more irritation farther down the back of my throat. I can hardly swallow, eating is incredibly painful, and drinking something cool and soothing provides but a moment's relief.

I know I'm complaining. But I never get cankers. The ones in the sides of my cheeks, I could probably tolerate, but seriously, these ones in the back of my throat are just HORRID! It burns...

Anyway, yeah. Probably the second biggest annoyance (second to the irritation) is that this virus wiped the kids and I out for several days...meaning that I lost several days' worth of packing time. So, now I'm in crunch mode again. Good grief. *sigh*

I must head to bed. I'm exhausted. Busy day tomorrow. Good night!

Quick update

....it's hot. 32 yesterday, 32 today (both days, 36 with humidex)...and 34 tomorrow. i have a heat headache.

....dustin does not like the heat. poor guy does not do well with it. grumpy, grumpy, grumpy.

....joshua is loving running around half-naked. he couldn't quite understand why he and daddy and dustin could run around without shirts on, but mommy had to wear hers.

....packing, packing, packing...i'm currently working on the stuff in storage - purging, repacking, etc. "storage" is the crawl space. my back is killing me, but at least it's cool down there. :)

....we have a new phone number for the acreage. if ya want it, ya gotta ask, 'cuz i'm not posting it here!!

....our house had conditions removed on it on wednesday night - so it's officially, completely, and totally sold!! yay!

....dustin is waking up - gotta give him his milkies. the kid loves his milkies. sadly, i have to quit nursing...some meds i'm taking are messing with the nursing in a very big way. i'm sad. but i know that i have to...i just don't want to....

....i lost my first online scrabble game to sharon. :( i don't lose well when it comes to scrabble. i'm fixin' to whup her good next time, but it's not looking too promising right now. what are you supposed to do when you have 4 e's on your rack?

....we went to the lake with all our 'groupies' last weekend. here's a long exerpt from the e-mail i sent to some friends:

Arrived at "camp" in Mulhurst around 6:00 p.m. on Friday night. Burgers for dinner. Wonderful campfire at night. We'd set up the tent for Graeme and I, and had the kids sleep in a teeny 6 x 10 trailer. The kids finally fell asleep around 9:00 or so, and we had our bonfire after that. My allergies were going NUTS even before
the fire began. Having a bit of trouble breathing - again, even before the fire was started. We ended the campfire around 11:30 or midnight.

Fast forward to Saturday around 1:45 a.m. Woke to thunder and lightning. Suddenly, a downpour. After a few minutes, Graeme went to check on the kids. Yup, they were up. As Graeme is out of the tent, I feel a wonderfully refreshing drip, drip, drip on my head. Blast!! The tent was leaking. So, we ALL are suddenly
piled into this teeny tiny 6 x 10 trailer - Graeme and Josh on the double bed, me on the 2' wide single (praying desperately that the 'bunk' above me, suspended merely by non-permanent poles, wouldn't collapse under the weight of the suitcase and other such items). Dustin's playpen is now on the floor between the single and double-beds, barely fits there. Dustin now knows that Mommy's face is less than two feet away, even in the pitch-darkness. He continually sings and calls, jumps up, falls down, jumps up, falls down, jumps up, bellyflops down. Repeat for at least 2 hours. The rest of us are getting a little cranky. Children finally fall asleep again.
(It should bear mentioning that there was no room in the house for us, which is why we were outside.) Graeme also falls asleep. Just for variety in the night, Melissa starts in on an asthma attack (I can't even remember the last time I had a full-blown asthma attack). Finds her inhaler, takes two deep puffs, and waits for the medication to kick in. The medication kicks in, but also causes Melissa's heart to race and body to kind of get shaky. Melissa finally falls asleep around 5 a.m.,
just in time to grab a quick hour or so of sleep before Dustin wakes to nurse. Melissa is CRABBY!!!!! Graeme takes the kids out ('cuz by now Joshua is awake as well - or maybe he slept a little longer - I'm not sure). Melissa then sleeps till 12:30. Asthma attack combined with no sleep make for one very tired, groggy, confused, crabby, and therefore dangerous woman. Graeme was a smart man to let me sleep.

Melissa gets up in time for pre-lunch breakfast.
Graeme had lovingly saved me a plate.

Melissa goes back to bed for nap around 2:30. Woke around 4:45, feeling like a new woman. Just in time to help get dinner ready. :) Yes, we ate a lot.

The rest of the weekend was actually quite uneventful!! The kids slept great - last night we did SOOOO much better! No storm, which helped. Graeme tented with Joshua. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that we had to de-flood the tent on Saturday morning. Everything was SOAKED. Pools of water. I guess the tent has exceeded its lifespan for dealing with rain, even with the use of a fly and other such accessories. Anyway, Joshua went to sleep on his own in the tent, and Graeme followed around midnight. I slept with Dustin in the trailer. It was a much more successful night. I even got away without a nap today. :)

Don & Shari bought this huge Banzai racing waterslide thingy - yeah. Scared the life out of Joshua and Dustin. But Don and most of the adults loved it, and most of us took a few turns down it. The water was a little frigid, though. I was the only one
who didn't go down - this was Saturday when I was still not feeling human. The last thing I needed was ice-cold water to trigger another asthma attack.

We also did some sprinkler stuff, some hang-out stuff, played some croquet and some cards, a bit of frisbee...but mostly we ate. And ate. I can't believe how much we ate. But it was relaxing for the most part, and it was nice to be away even with the "kink" in the plans in the middle of the night the first night.

So, there you have it. The recent past, recapped. :)

Good day. My baby needs me. :)

Canada Day Festivities

Happy Canada Day! These are some pictures from the big day.














Joshua got to go on a pirate ship float for the parade - his Auntie Carly's dad built it and they put it into parades. And Sid/Carly/Jordan asked if Joshua would like to be on it! So he was - he was quite into yelling "Ahoy Matey!" at people. And his Daddy was yelling "Arrrrrgh!" at loads of people - many of which were his customers! It was fun. Joshua got to have a pirate sword and a hook, and Graeme had a hat and a sword. It was a good time!















We also went to the pancake breakfast, and the church service that was held at noon at the park. It was - umm - interesting. Let's just say that it's OK that it didn't work out for me to sing in the service after all.



















I'm a little crispy-fried from the sunshine, but I feel OK. I'm still sluggish and foggy and not sleeping well, though, which is NOT good. But overall it was a very good day, lots of fun, and the boys enjoyed themselves immensely!

Good night!

....Tired....

Another round of bloodwork. Another cup to pee into. I took the boys with me this morning to the lab, and they were quite the little entertainers. Joshua was quite enthralled that I got a needle and didn't cry!

So, I think I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I'd been asked to sing for the Canada Day service - well, that has now fallen through. The organizers didn't tell Dan (our worship guy) how many singers they needed from our church, so when he told them that he had a soprano (that would be me) and an alto (Melanie), they told him that they no longer needed another soprano. He was disappointed, as am I. I was looking forward to it. But you know what....God knows anyway. God can see what will happen this Sunday, and for some reason, I'm not supposed to be up there. It's all good. I can spend the morning at the pancake breakfast with my family, then. I'm OK with that. I love family time. I love my boys. They make this mama proud.

I must run - time for lunch (almost) for Joshua. Dustin is napping. I am desperately trying to round up some energy for the rest of the day. *sigh* I hope this ends soon.

Labels

I did something to my blog last night and this morning - I went through all my posts and added labels to them. Then I added the labels to the sidebar. SOOOO, if you're looking for something specific (contemplation, for example), you can scroll down and you'll find a list of all the labels on the right hand side of the screen. Click on 'contemplation', and up should come a whole list of blog entries where I've thought about something! :)

Of course, this info is for the non-techy amongst you... and completely elementary for the rest of you...

Thanks for bearing with me!

I'm kinda sick today again - almost flu-ish - I don't know what's going on. Graeme actually came home for about an hour so I could get some rest. Thankfully the boys have been pretty good. A little nap helped, and after Graeme left, I gave the boys haircuts and baths. I still have to clean up from that. So far, there are no showings today, so the cleanup might just have to wait till Graeme comes home in a couple of hours. At any rate, I'm going to lay down again now. The boys should sleep till around 3:30 or 4:00, and then maybe the world will look a tad less green!

Time for an update

Much has happened recently, but I've just not been in a blogging mood. Not even much in a facebooking mood, either. What's wrong with me? Actually, I think I've just been so busy and pre-occupied with the house sale, constantly cleaning and shining things up after the kids have gone through *just in case* someone comes to look when I least expect it, and catching up on laundry and other things after our Victoria Vacation.


Our family - day of the wedding:




















I finally have two sisters!!
















Anyway, uploading pix to Facebook is SO much faster than doing it here. This is not to say that I won't still post a few pictures on here, but for BIG projects, I'll just give a link so you can go see the album at your leisure. You also get to see way more pictures for the time it takes me, if you just go to the link! As promised, here are some pix from Jordan & Carly's wedding. There are lots of people you probably won't know, but there are tons of cute pix of my own darlings, too! So, as before, click on the link, click on the first picture (it will bring up a larger version), and then click "next" at the top of the picture to view the next in order! Easy as pie!!

Jordan & Carly Wedding Rehearsal

Jordan & Carly - Wedding DAY!!



My Cool Dudes:
















Joshua got to go to a Teddy Bear Picnic three days after we got back from Victoria. There was face-painting, all sorts of crafts, a big inflatable jumpy thing -and tons of other things! It was such fun - and I didn't bring my camera as I had a thousand other things to take care of that day. But I did take a pic of his face after we got home, and he's holding his sweet little "Blue" -that's his favorite "teddy" that he brought with him for the picnic.


Josh, his paw prints, and his bear-ears (doesn't he look MEAN??)




















I've also included a picture from Joshua's birthday party. Unfortunately, I was so busy making pizza that night (Joshua wanted pizza for his birthday, and I LOVED making it for him!) that I relied on others to take pictures of the special event for me. However, I've not received copies of the pictures from anyone yet!! So, here's a picture of Joshua's cake, and I'll proceed to hound everyone who took pics that night to burn me a CD of J's birthday party pix!


J's birthday cake:























So, other than that, it's business as usual. Constantly cleaning house. There were about 3 or 4 showings today, and a couple of really promising ones. And two showings booked for tomorrow. I pray that this home sells by the end of the week, so I can get on with my life - the kids are getting frustated with me always cleaning!! I love a clean house, BUT cleaning to to this calibre every time I want to leave the house gets to be a bit much. Once a day is fine, but three times a day is just OCD under normal circumstances. :)


I packed 8 or 9 boxes of books tonight - books are easy and it makes it look like I've accomplished something. :) I'll get Graeme to bring them downstairs before he leaves for church in the morning.


Speaking of church - I've been asked to sing on the worship team for our community-wide church service that we're having on Canada Day! Eek! How humbling, and what an honor! Three big churches here (the Alliance Church, a couple thousand people; our church, about 500 people; and another Alliance church, about another 1000 people) are collaborating to put on a celebration service in the middle of the 'hamlet' for Canada Day - at noon. There are a few musicians from each church being asked to participate (which I didn't know till the other night), and I can't believe that I've been asked! Maybe it's just because no-one else was available...heh heh...Keep me humble, Lord!

Not much news...

...I know it's been a while since I've blogged. I'm in a lull. I think all bloggers go through them sometime.

Next time, I'll post links to my Facebook photo album so that you can see pictures from Jordan's wedding. I got lots of great ones of the bride & groom, as well as oodles of cute kid pictures!!

Quick update - still waiting for our house to sell...it's hard keeping it clean on a moment's notice *just in case* there's a showing booked...

That's all, folks...come back soon...hopefully the lull will be over in a day or so!

Oh, hey - Joshua turns the big 3 tomorrow!! Party-time!!

G'night!

Amendment to last night's post...

I realized that I didn't say WHY we're opening a new chapter in our lives...and why the cleaners were coming (which they aren't after all - they were given a wrong number and have been harrassing some poor man somewhere in Sherwood Park)...

We're moving!! Yes, again. We bought an acreage two days before we left for Victoria!! We'll still be close to Sherwood Park, but we'll finally have our dream of acreage living. We'll take possession on August 1st. More on that later!

Anyway, our realtor will list our house this week, and has offered to pay Molly Maids to come in and clean for me since I'm stressed about the "quickness" of the whole process. So, the cleaning ladies will now come on Tuesday morning to get our house picture-ready and listing-ready and showing-ready!! If all goes according to plan, the house will go on the market on Thursday morning, realtor open house on Friday morning, and public open house on Saturday morning. Best case scenario is that we end up with multiple (competing) offers on our place, upping the price, and the place will be sold on Saturday! That way I won't have to keep the place spotless on a moments' notice...

Okay, I really must run now. I'll post some pictures from Jordan & Carly's wedding soon...just not right now.

Whew!

Home from Victoria!!

WE'RE HOME!!

What a day it was. Dustin and plane rides do not get along. Joshua and napless afternoons do not get along. Graeme and the flu and the last day of holidays do not get along, as it leaves Mama to do all the packing, kid-watching, luggage-lifting, kid-and-luggage-carrying, diaper-changing, entertaining, and cleaning in the hours preceding our departure from Victoria, the ferry ride to Vancouver, the flight home, and the drive home.

I'm glad to be home. I was glad for the holiday, but returning home opens a brand new chapter for us. I just found out the cleaners are coming TOMORROW - ACK! - instead of Tuesday like we expected. Which means I have a boatload of tidying and unpacking to do before morning. And it's off and running tomorrow - J's thing in the a.m., although I might skip depending on how he does tonight (he's super-grumpy and spent a long time tired-crying before bed), etc. And Graeme doesn't think he has someone to cover him tomorrow if he's still sick. He threw up all over the airport this afternoon....eww. I'm glad I wasn't around - he had taken off in search of an emergency bathroom, but didn't make it. I'd have thrown up, too, if I'd been there to watch the whole thing go down.My allergies sprung up within about 20 minutes of touching down this evening....hmmm.....I didn't even make it into the van before starting to itch, and my first run of sneezes hit before I pulled into our driveway.

HOWEVER, all in all we had a really good trip. It rained a bit, but that's OK. We went out and enjoyed the days anyway. We went to the Butchart Gardens, the children's petting zoo, Joshua went to the bug museum (Graeme got some NEAT pictures!)...and we did some walking and sight-seeing, and some swimming in our pool at the hotel. And I made really good use of the gym. :) Oh, and we did lots of sleeping!! It was really good. Some minor troubles with the boys throughout the week, but not anything unlike what we'd see here at home.

I've posted some pictures of our trip on my facebook account. Click below to see the two sets of pictures. There are just WAY too many to upload to my blog!! You can also see quick descriptions with each of the pictures I've put on facebook. For those of you unfamiliar with facebook: If you want to see the descriptions and the full sized versions of the pix, make sure you click on the first picture in each set, then you can scroll down to see the description. You can then click on "next" at the top of each picture to see the next one.

Victoria pictures, Set 1

Victoria pictures, Set 2

Well, that's all the new news for now....must run!!

The end of my proverbial rope...

I have good days, and I have bad days.

What's not good is when the bad days turn into bad weeks...

Yes, my status on facebook says "Melissa is stressed. Long story." I think my status has said that for a few days. I haven't bothered changing it because I haven't had to. :(

Yes, I'm done. I have days/weeks like this where I just wonder, "Where are you, Lord?" I have no peace, I have no rest, I have no joy...in their place are tension and feelings of overwhelm. And cravings. I've been doing so well, but off the wagon I go! *sigh*

I'm exhausted - more mentally than physically. I love my family, but these last few days have been so inconsistent in routines and such that the boys are a disaster...I'm a disaster. All I want is a few moments to be still with God, instead of trying to run around to the next time-sensitive task. It's like all the inflexible things needed to happen all at the same time, and it's wreaking havoc on our home. I hate it. I just want to be still. Just for a few simple moments.

It's not that the things I've been needing to do are stressful in and of themselves - there have been 3 bridal showers for Carly (my almost sister-in-law), a garden to plant (which I had so much fun doing!), lots of prep to do for the boys who will be ring-bearers in the wedding, a big birthday party to go to for some close friends, etc. And Graeme has his pharmacy fiscal year-end coming up this week. I enjoy doing the tasks, but with either Graeme or me constantly coming and going, the boys have no idea which end is up anymore. And they're acting out more (especially Joshua), which makes me resent the busy-ness that's befallen us.

I just want to be still.

"Be still and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10. Oh God, I need stillness right now!!

Dresses, rowing, and baby parties

Update: I found an outfit! It's not a dress, but a skirt and a co-ordinating shirt. I got it at Cleo in the mall in Sherwood Park on Monday. Now I just have to find some shoes to go with it...does that mean I did this all backwards, Paige? Eek....














Update: I've officially cut a whole 7 minutes and 46 seconds off of my 10K rowing time in 15 days. Wow... Even I'm amazed. I tell you, though, I think I've met my match in my newest time...I only shaved off 8 seconds yesterday. No, I don't do a 10K every day - I don't have time for that - but maybe every 2nd or 3rd day I do a 10K. And otherwise, I do some 2K or 5K rows. Maybe someday I'll be able (and have the time) to do a marathon row, which is over 41K. Maybe that could be my goal a year from now? I can't imagine how sore my butt would be...














Anyway, I went gardening after my row yesterday - helped Sharon weed and such, and today we (as in I, she's pregnant :) will rototill and move all the compost from the bin into the garden. Then we (yes, both of us) will do some planting. The point is that after my long row yesterday and then the cultivating and gardening, I'm kinda SORE today!!!














Yesterday we had a Moms & Little Ones party at Karen's house. It was so much fun! Sadly, Dustin needed a nap the second we got there (it was sorta planned that way - he got up at 7:30 and I knew he'd be ready for a sleep by 9:30 - perfect!), and so he spent the entire 2 hours of the official party napping! But then he got up and we hung around for a little while. My absolute favorite picture of the day yesterday is the one of Karen snuggling Joshua. He'd gotten in trouble from me for throwing rocks at Charis (and Charis got in trouble for throwing rocks, too)...once I was done with him, he said he would like a hug from Karen. Karen is the angel that transformed my Joshua from a shy, clingy 18-month old into a joyful and more outgoing boy within a matter of weeks. She made him feel safe and loved, and also gave me the courage to leave him even if he was mad at me for doing so!














I must run - I have some facebooking to catch up on - it's very addictive so I try to only go on once a day. I really need to curb my computer time!















Enjoy your day - be blessed!

Dress shopping for Jordan & Carly's wedding...

*sigh*

'Nuff said?

I was literally at the mall for 2 1/2 freakishly long hours yesterday...I must've walked miles and miles...

If it's my size, it's strapless. Or spaghetti straps. Sorry, but no thanks.

Or if it's my size, it might be too short. Sorry - I've been told my my physiotherapist that I have "strong" calves...LOL! Yeah, I know I have big legs, thank you very much.

Anything that I really liked...too small. Even if only by one size. And I don't think I'll be able to lose a size in the next two weeks.

Where's my root canal sans anesthetic?

*sob...bawl...pulling hair out*

It was so easy for Jordan's other brothers' weddings - for Graeme's, well, I wore WHITE (hee hee), and for Curtis & Darcy's, I was a bridesmaid. Decisions made! This is a little different...I still need to be beautiful, but nothing I own fits anymore!!! :(

Time for dinner!

New Camera! (and other stuff)

Here are some pictures we took with our new Canon S3IS Camera. We still liked our old camera, but wanted more zoom and faster capabilities...and, the big bonus is that we got it for FREE! Yup, a $450 camera, and a case, for basically nothing - I had to invest about $30 extra into 2 gigs of extra memory - the 16 megabyte card just wasn't going to cut it.

So, today I played with the 12x optical zoom... different lighting settings, etc... I haven't even read the manual yet, and I'm thrilled! We just picked it up last night.

Of course, my favorite subjects are my boys...but I thought I'd throw in a shot of some grapes I took, too. Other than that, the one of Dustin with his finger on his mouth is an example of how he blows kisses. Quite a character!

Other than our new camera, life is...well...going. Have you ever noticed that some days you just keep thinking, and thinking, and thinking....? Well, I had a day like that the other day. My dear friend Karen bore the brunt of a lengthy e-mail that I sent at midnight while I was waiting for laundry to dry. She got the e-mail first thing in the morning, and came and visited me that afternoon. It was nice to have a visitor! At any rate, all is well - my thoughts and ponderings just sometimes get the best of me. *sigh*

The workouts are going quite well. This morning I did a *long* workout - rowed 2K for a warm-up, then spent about 15 minutes on weights, followed by a 10K row. I chose a different tactic for my "long" row today, and it paid off - I finished a full minute and a half ahead of my previous best time, and I didn't even feel like I was pushing as hard as my last 10K!

My one complaint is that by now, I thought I'd be seeing a difference - it's been 2 weeks or so, and I've been working out almost every day - at least half an hour a day, plus walks with the kids, etc, and absolutely nothing has changed as far as the scale goes. *grr* I know that the scale shouldn't be the measuring stick, they say your clothes should be (and how they fit, etc.), but not even my clothes are noticing a difference! Oh well, at least I know I'm getting into better cardiovascular shape! And....the stress release is good. Excellent. Great. I feel good. There's just too much of me. :)

I must run - I need to cut Graeme's hair, and do a bit of clean-up before bed tonight. Tomorrow is a busy day... the boys have their annual checkups with their pediatrician tomorrow! Sleep well, my sweets!! <--that refers to my boys, not my readers!!

Nighty-night!

Lasagna, anyone?

When I make lasagna, I don't do just one pan. Graeme likes my lasagna, and so whenever a friend has a baby (or needs a meal for other reasons), I make a pan of lasagna for them. I figure, if I'm making a mess anyway, I might as well make an even bigger mess and get a whole schwack of it done!














So, one pan went to Sandra and her family tonight, and the rest goes in the freezer. I have plans for a couple of the other pans, but then the rest will be easy to pull out for guests or just for an easy dinner for ourselves!

Good thing we like lasagna!

Crash!

Well, the last several nights have gone well. Good workouts. Resolve not to eat after a certain time at night. Tonight, different story.

Today I felt that I shouldn't work out - I wanted to, but my body was telling me that if I did, I'd likely put myself further back than where I started from a couple weeks ago. I'm not used to a consistency of such good workouts, and I can sense my body would not do so well if I worked out again tonight. So, I skipped a night. Not bad, I think I've done 3 days on, one day off, 3 days on, then tonight off.

Well, my resolution not to eat after 8 p.m. fell miserably tonight, too. Now I feel icky.

The connection? Work out, and I won't be tempted to snack after dinner.

Not that there's anything wrong with snacking after dinner - no sir-ee! But, for me, I need to totally curb pre-bedtime calories. That's just another 'minor' change in my lifestyle that will hopefully help me to be more fit overall. This is not to say that I can never indulge past 8 p.m. - just under normal circumstances (i.e. at home when there's no special occasion like a birthday), I really shouldn't.

*sigh* It was actually a tough day. Joshua has been tough after his naps these last couple of days. Very defiant, and very destructive towards Dustin. Yesterday he deliberately slammed Dustin's hand in the dishwasher not once, but twice, before I could get there. (J opened the dishwasher and Dustin stuck his hand in, and WHAM!) Today, he ran over Dustin with his car. Knew exactly what he was doing. It makes me sad that Joshua would be so mean towards his little buddy.

Tomorrow, Graeme has the day off. Maybe I can actually get some things done around here. I've been putting off cleaning up some of the hot spots in the house. What I really would like is an entire day sans children so I could get it all done. Even at that, one day might not do it. But it would help!

I must get to bed. 7:00 will come all too early!

'Nighty-night...ZZZZZzzzzzz......