Our family has found JOY!

I am going to be a Mother-In-Law. I am so excited. Tyler and Joy are going to be husband and wife. We had a weekend together with her and it was such fun getting to know her. On Sunday evening we had the family over for coffee at Joy's request. She wanted to get to know them all. She has an amazing memory, too. By the end of the evening she could tell Tye each person's name. When she found out that this wasn't even close to half of them her eyes nearly popped out.

They are not wasting any time with long a engagement, either. They were thinking of a May long weekend wedding until I mentioned that Erica is getting married then so they decided that if they can't get married that weekend they would get married on May 1st. That way Tyler is at semester's end and they are planning a month long honeymoon here on the Island. So. That is the weekend everybody. I was given permission to put that in writing on here.

I have some pictures of her and him from this weekend, but they are still on my camera. When I get then onto my computer, I will write a new post. With pictures. Soon. I promise.

Too much fun.

On the 19th I had a really lame post, but told you that I would try to do better on the 20th. The 20th came and went with no post. All I can say is...Oh well. You'll have to get over it. My Mom is here and I don't want to write a long post when i could be playing skipbo or golf with her. So in the future, if there is nothing written here, you'll know why. OK. Gotta go. I think it's my turn to deal.

Mocha.

All you who think this blog is going to be about Tim Hortons or Starbucks, you are in for a disappointment. I love both of those places and I love a good mocha. Not too often because they go straight to the hips.
The Mocha I am talking about is Alethea's pet rabbit. She is cute enough as rabbits go, (actually she is cuter than most) but she is still a rabbit. She is a dwarf with perky little ears and a very nice color.



So she's pretty cute, right? Well, I think this rabbit has issues. She has a nice big cage with beautiful clean wood shavings, a water bottle, a little house for that safe feeling, (which she never uses) and even toys for entertainment. In the summer I don't even mind her, but now that it is colder and rainy outside, she lives in the house. She puts her nose down in the wood shavings and pushes them around until she has a pile of them on the floor. She doesn't seem to care that she pushes her nose right into the corner where she poops and pees. So now I have wet wood shavings and little round balls of poop on my floor. And she stinks. Not her cage so much because Alethea cleans it regularly. She, Mocha, stinks. If Alethea or Grace hold her while they watch TV, I can smell it on their cloths later. I don't know why she stinks. She just does. I think I would rather have Chris's Frankie in my house. I might change my mind if I tried it for a while, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't.

Anyway, this is what you get for a blog when I am supposed to do this every day. I know, I know. I missed yesterday. I was busy with Mom. And then later with Jack. So this is all I have. I need to go get ready for Shawn and Steph's wedding.

Laundry.

I hate doing laundry. I mean I really hate doing laundry. Most of all I hate putting it away. I wash it, fold it and put it in the laundry basket to bring to where it belongs and then . . . I just run out of motivation. I would rather rearrange my basement, clean the bathroom, wash windows, almost anything besides laundry. But, I did laundry today. Five loads of towels and sheets. I have the last load in the dryer as I write this. All the other loads are folded and in a laundry basket and on neatly folded stacks on the coffee table in my living room, waiting to be put away. It would help if I had a proper place to put them. I would, too, if I had a good place to store all my small appliances and other kitchen gadgets, but I had to store these in the linen closet because it's just outside of the kitchen. So my linen closet is full of small appliances and kitchen gadgets. I like kitchen gadgets and small appliances. I mean I really like them. But I digress. this is about why my laundry is neatly folded in my living room. Oops. It's not even about that. It's about me hating laundry. This is one thing I did NOT inherit from my mother. She loves doing laundry. She will go around asking people if they have laundry to do. I know that you all know how much she loves doing laundry. Dad used to say that she wouldn't even wait for him to get his socks off at night before she was taking them to the laundry room.
So, you might wonder why I am posting about laundry. Well, my Mom is coming here tomorrow and is staying for just over a month. I did not want her to come over and head straight for my laundry room and start washing towels. So I am depriving her of one of her greatest joys and doing something I hate. Why am I doing this? Because even though I am over 50, I still look for my mother's approval. Weird. I don't so much in other areas, but this is one area that I do. I'm not a great gardener and Mom loves it, but it doesn't matter if she thinks I'm a loser in this area. Just my laundry. I think I might need some therapy regarding this.

E-Harmony

There are many opinions about dating sites out there. To some it is a place to meet people and maybe, if you're lucky, find a person you could date, get to know, and again, if you're lucky, actually get married to. To others it is a shopping mall for sexual predators. To others, still, it is a multitude of desperate people to pick up, use, abuse and toss aside. BUT, to some, very select people it is a chance to find their soul mate.

My son, Tyler has been thinking of the whole possibility of getting a "girlfriend" and maybe, some day, getting married. Last year at school, he met a girl at university he thought might be that girl. Her name is Ruth, she's a Christian and she lived in his building. He tried. He talked to her every chance he got, he even drove her to her Bible camp (where she worked for the summer) in Cowichan, but no luck. So this summer, he went on e-harmony on one of their free weekends. The way e-harmony works is, you have to fill out a very lengthy, detailed questionnaire about yourself and the person you are looking for. Then there are 5 steps to go before you even get to email each other. If both parties are not quick to respond to each other the weekend is over and you lose the opportunity to connect. Thankfully, for Tye, they both were quick enough to get to the email section before the end of the weekend. And that is how he met Joy.
Joy is exactly what Tye has been looking for in a woman. She is a very strong Christian, loves the outdoors, hiking, climbing, camping, swimming, snowboarding and even white water rafting. She is a little shy, but opens right up when she gets to know you. She isn't a girly-girl who likes all the attention focused on her. She almost never wears dresses or make-up. She has long strawberry blond, almost red hair and freckles. Tye said it was as if God looked around the planet and found Joy for him.




So does e-harmony work? It would seem so. So I got to thinking...maybe I should give it a try. So I joined and . . . nothing. Three profiles were sent my way and they all live in either Washington State or Vancouver. None of them are willing to relocate and neither am I, at least not to either of those places. So I'll wait until the year is up and then maybe I could be in a TV commercial telling about the ones that don't work. I think I should have stuck to the free weekend.

I am sad.

I cannot believe that it has been this long since I have written here. I am on Face Book almost every day, but the only blogs I have been reading for months are Chris's and Becky's. I am sad to say that I stopped checking John's after he stopped posting for a few months. I wish I had checked more often.
John tagged me on his last post about "Honest Scrap", so I am going to do it now.

1. I love the ocean. Last Night I took Grace to her school for an evening function and had to drive along the Island Highway along the coast. The wind out on the ocean must have been pretty strong. The waves were crashing onto the rocks along the sea wall and I just had to stop and listen. I walked out onto the rocks a little way and sat down on a log and listened. Did you know that when the water retreats between waves the rocks make a tinkling noise? It is so beautiful. It's as if they were singing. So I sat there and sang the song "Give Me Jesus" and cried. I miss my brother and my Dad.

2. I love my house. It is on a very quiet road. It has big rooms and lots of sunlight. I really like my kitchen. My back yard is very nice. My front yard will be by this time next year. I have fruit trees in my back yard. Apple, Yellow Plum, Green Grape, Kiwi, Bing Cherry, and I have been told a Peach. I can't wait for next Spring.

3. I have many regrets. I usually don't waste a lot of time on regrets. Just long enough to realize that I need to make some changes. One of my biggest regrets is not calling my family in Saskatchewan and Alberta enough. We always say we are going to do better, but then when it really matters we find ourselves busy with everyday life. I really, really want to change that. I am a little envious of my sister Sue, who spent a lot of time with John and Chris before John passed away and the same with my Dad. I am going to try to do better.

4. I hate driving in snow. I am not the world's worst driver, but neither am I the best. That isn't what makes winter driving so terrible though. It's all those drivers on the road who think they are the world's best drivers that frighten me. I am really hoping for very little snow this year. Living closer to the water does make that a little more realistic than last year when I lived close to the mountain.

5. When I was young I wanted to be a missionary. My Mom used to give my sisters and I the Sears catalogue when it would expire. We would cut out our favorite moms and dads and kids and furniture and paste them to pieces of cardboard paper Mom would save from her packages of nylons. Then we would cut them out and make our little families. Susan and Mitz would have a Mom and Dad and 10 - 15 kids. I would have only as Mom and about 35 -40 kids and would be the owner of an orphanage. Now you all know why I am a foster parent. God created me to be a missionary.

6. I drive a two-tone, panel-sided, 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass station wagon. I love my car. I bought it 4 years ago at an auction for $600. Two years ago I paid $1200 for and engine repair and other than that it has been normal maintenance. So let's say then that I paid $1800 for my car. It has almost 400,000 kms on it. When it was new it was a very fancy care. Everything is power. Seats, A/C, tilt, cruise, pretty much loaded. Everything still works accept the cassette player. It does 27 mpg weather I am driving just around here or all the way to Sask. It doesn't use oil. It is like the energizer bunny. It just keeps going ang going and... I love my car.

7. I have a need to help people. I don't know if it's the "missionary" personality I have, but it's not always good for me. I let people use me and take advantage of me. They suck me dry. It's not as if they want to spend time with me. They only call me when they need something, never just to spend time together. I have a hard time saying no because I hate confrontation.

8. I, like my Mom and apparently my brother John, am a pack rat. I am getting better, but I am still a pack rat. It used to be I had a hard time getting rid of things and in that I am much better. My main problem now, lies in that I see something that I think would be useful and buy it. I do a lot of shopping (browsing) in second hand stores and I love garage sales. My main weakness is kitchen gadgets. I have so many gadgets that I have never used, but can't see any good reason to get rid of them. After all, they don't take up a lot of space and I keep thinking that I will need it one day and then I won't have it. That is not good.

9. I am very, very afraid of spiders. i hate all insects, but nothing can freak me out like a spider. Even if it is no bigger than the end of a pencil. The bigger the spider, of course, the worse it is. Over the years I have gotten to where I can kill a small spider, but we have Wolf Spiders here and they can get pretty big. I killed one about a year ago, but only because I was home alone and I knew that if I didn't, it would be in the house and I wouldn't know where. That is more than I can stand, so I killed it. With my shoe. It took about 2 minutes of deep breathing and praying for me to be able to get close enough to hit it. Even then I just wanted to throw up, because I had to look at it to kill it. If I am watching TV and there is a spider on the screen, I can't look. My throat closes and I feel trapped. I hate spiders.

10. I love the name Meemo. It was given to me by my nephew, Ethan when he was 2. Now I am Meemo to all the little children in my life. When I become a grandma, I am going to tell my children that I am Meemo to their children.

That's it. I am done. I had a hard time coming up with some of this. I know. By the amount I wrote you wouldn't know that, but I did. So, I am going to tag a few people.

1. Sue
2. Mitz
3. Carol

Gimme a Break.

I have had such a busy Spring Break that I am thinking, I need a break. Yes, I need a break from Spring Break. Don't get me wrong. I have had a great time. I'm just tired from all the fun. I'm sick, too, but I refuse to acknowledge it. I don't have time to wipe my nose or cough so I just don't have a runny nose and I don't cough. Talk about self control. Yeah, right. I should be so lucky. The part about not having time to be sick is true. The rest? All I can say is "cough cough" "sniff sniff" "I wanna go to bed". That last past is said with a nasal whine. Did you hear that?

My Spring Break started out with 3 day, 2 nights in Vancouver at the Teacher's Convention. We stayed at a 5 star hotel overlooking the Water, downtown and Stanley Park. The beds were amazing, the service was perfection, and hanging out with friends during and between workshops was pretty cool, too. We went to "The Old Spaghetti Factory" in Gastown for lunch one day. We walked along the sea wall during the one hour that we didn't have rain. It was quite relaxing. Then I went home.

First thing to do was a thorough house cleaning. After all, Tye was here and "in charge" while I was gone for 3 days and he is a guy, after all. So Monday I cleaned the house, Tuesday I did all my shopping, Wednesday' Thursday and Friday I tried to have some time with my kids and my Mom. Then on Saturday I went to the airport in Comox to pick up Brent and Rhea and their twins at the airport. About 10 kms before the exit into Courtney I noticed that my car was no longer heating. I checked my engine heat gauge and it showed just below 100* which is where it is supposed to be. Then I slowed down to take the exit and the needle suddenly jumped to the red line. I pulled over and I could hear the fluid bubbling. Now I was still about 20 minutes from the airport and my car broke down. The first thing I did was call Tye in Nanaimo, who dropped everything and came flying, and I mean flying, to my rescue. I tried to call the airport to see if I could get a message to Rhea, but all I got was voice messages. Then I called Carolyn for some numbers for tow trucks and arranged to have my car towed. Just at that time, a good Samaritan pulled up and drove me to the airport. Tye got there about 15 minutes after me. We had a few days with Brent and Rhea, but couldn't take them anywhere because my car was parked in Comox and the van doesn't seat 10 people. So we went to a few places close by and the rest of the time we stayed around town or at the beach. On Monday I took them to the train station and then had the rest of the day and the next day to spend with Mom and my kids. Then on Wednesday I picked up my friend Marge Giesbrecht, at the Nanaimo airport. She is going home tomorrow around noon and then I get to spend a few days with my kids and see my Mom again for a few days before I start back to school.

So, I need a break from my break.

On another note, which you Saskatchewanians are going to enjoy and you BCers aren't going to believe. Yesterday, I was going to take my friend Marge to the Cathedral Grove and got just past the gas bar at Whiskey Creek. It started to snow! I'm not talking about a few flakes that were rain and then turned a little flaky. I'm talking big, white, heavy snowflakes, and lots of them. I stopped my car and decided that I didn't want to get caught in a white out. I took some pictures with my phone, which didn't do it justice, and turned around to go home. As I turned around and started to drive the snow disappeared. I looked back at a wall of white. Again, I took a picture with my phone, but you can't tell what it was supposed to be. I am so ticked! Snow in March! Lots of snow, not just a few flakes. It stuck to my windshield and to the grass at the side of the road. To top it all off, as i am sitting here writing this I looked out the window and, you guessed it, SNOW! What in the world is happening? I feel like I am back in Saskatchewan! I think they should change the name of this province to British Saskatchewan. B.S. Yeah. That's it. "Where do you live?" "I live in Qualicum Beach, B.S." That's all I've got to say.

Gimme A Break!

My Amazing Mother

This picture was taken last year in March. When we all heard that my brother John had cancer, we went to Saskatchewan to visit him. I stayed with Mom and Dad and one day we went to Jake and Colleen's to visit them. Jake and Dad were sitting in the living room and Jake was playing a bunch of old songs. Mom and Dad were talking about how this was the kind of song they used to dance to. Then Dad got up and asked Mom to dance with him.



I'm not sure what event this was taken at, but it just seems like they are thinking their thoughts to each other. Such a deep connection.



I have listened so often to Becky's song "My heart Knows" and every time I hear it I think of Mom at the River at Dad's memorial. Becky, I think this song speaks so deeply of your Grandma's heart and I am sitting here crying for her as I listen to your song, again. You have blessed me beyond anything I can put into words. Thank you for sharing the gift of music that God has given you. You should go share it with your Grandma.

Please, family, don't forget to pray for Mom. She is so lonely for Dad at times and I think her heart must be breaking.

Sorry this is such a weepy post, but I just wanted to say how much I love my Mom and wish I could take some of her pain for her. I just pray that God will lift her head.

Chris made me do it.

I am not the best blogger. This is evidenced by the time laps between my posts. I like doing it, but just can't seem to find the time. I have time for reading other blogs, but with blogger, Facebook and email, I just don't seem to have a lot of time for posting. But, Chris tagged me and that means I have to do this, so...here goes.

Famous Singer - Micheal Jackson. Not much of a start to this list, but there are 19 more to go so I'm not going to hurt my brain this early in the show.

Four Letter Word - Mine. I hear this word quite a lot in my house. "Hey! that's mine! Give it to me." OK. I know this one is kinda lame, but you come up with something better.

Street - Memorial Ave. This is the street that runs right by my house on the way to the most amazing spot in all of Canada; the Beach Hut, which I hope opens in early March. I can't wait to sit on the deck with a coffee and a smokie smothered in sauteed onions and cheese. Their poutine are also totally amazing. Then there's the Screamers. A cold drink made of 1/4 slurpy and the rest is ice cream. They have over 30 flavors to chose from and my favorites are Black cherry and orange creamsicle. Oh man. I wish it was open right now. I would take a warm blanket and go there even if it's freezing outside.

Color - Magenta. All I can say is . . . phewey.

Gift/Present - Mini-van. Tye drives it because I like my Oldsmobile better. It was given to me by one of the teachers at my school. Donna Beauvette is the Special Ed teacher and she got a new van and heard that Tye needed a vehicle so she gave - yes, you heard right, gave - me her '91 Chrysler mini-van. It runs great and was well maintained.

Vehicle - See above. LOL Just kidding. Mercedes. I drive an Oldsmobile, but I dream it is a Mercedes. Then, when my car starts to go in the ditch I open my eyes and realize, it was only a dream.

Things In A Souvenir Shop - Marbles. I know you probably think this is lame, but I found a bag of marbles with a Canadian flag inside of them at a little shop here in Qualicum Beach. They were actually quite pretty.

Boy's Name - Micheal. I have always loved that name. Even if you shorten it to Mike, I still like it. Mickey Mouse Micheal the police man? Well.. still pretty cool.

Girl's Name - Mavis. I only ever knew 2 girls with that name. One was a girl from Langham school, whom I don't remember well enough to even remember her last name. Wait a minute. Her name was Avis Blushki. That means I only ever knew one Mavis. The one and only Mavis Braun. My cousin who went to be with the Lord. For all who were privileged enough to know her, she was amazing.

Movie Title - Maverick. A funny Western adventure with James Garner, Mel Gibson and Jody Foster.

Drink - What else would I say, but a Margarita. I don't like them much. I like a Monkey's Lunch. Banana liqueur, Kahlua and milk. You should try it.

Occupation - Musician. I love to sing (even though I'm not spectacular) and wish I knew how to play the piano.

Celebrity - Mel Gibson. I like that he doesn't get talked about a lot in all of those celebrity "rags". He's still married to the mother of his children and to my knowledge, has not had an affair. I'm sure that would be "news" in the Inquirer. Plus the "Passion Of The Christ".

Magazine - Mademoiselle. I have seen it on the racks, but have never read one.

City - Melbourne, Australia. One of the places in this world that I would like to visit some day. My first thought was to say Martensville, but I didn't know if a town would qualify. I would really like to visit there some day, also. :)

Sport - Mud Wrestling. This is a pretty poor excuse for a sport, but I challenge you to come up with something better.

Fruit - Mango. I don't eat them very often, but I do like them. Especially if they are the flavoring in a Screamer at the Beach Hut. Mmmm.

Reason For Being Late For Work - Migraine. I used to get them often when I was in my early twenties and then they stopped when I got pregnant with Tye. In the last few months I have had a few again. I'm not sure if it's stress or age. Maybe a little of both. All I know for sure is that I won't get pregnant again to get rid of them. Advil Liquid-gels is my new best friend.

Something To Throw Away - Mittens. It almost never gets cold enough here to need mittens. This winter is the exception, though.

Something You Shout - MOM!!! OK. I don't shout it, but I hear it. Often!



There you go. I found some of these quite difficult. You probably don't need me to tell you that, the words speak for themselves. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to come up with so many M words. I would tag a couple of people, but when I check my blogs every morning, I don't think too many people even read them very often, let alone post anything. So, I won't. Just . . . I hope you found this entertaining.

Oh Spring, Where Art Thou.

I don't want to sound whiny or ungrateful, but I am seriously tired of rain and cloudy skies. This week, we had one day - yes, only one day - where the sun shone for any length of time. I came home from work, grabbed my old shoes and Grace, she was the only one who was home and wanted to come along, and went to Englishman River Falls. With all the rain, not to mention the snow, we've had, the Falls were pretty amazing. The logs that have been caught in the crevasse for years were shot out last year by the huge amount of water coming off the mountain. That means that this year, even though there is still a huge amount of water coming off the mountain, the spray is not quite as high so the bridge across the Falls isn't as slippery, but the view isn't quite as "Wow!" as it was before the logs were moved. Is that a run-on sentence? It feels a little run-on. Oh, well. Anyway, this is what it looked like from the bridge. As you can see, there was even some sunshine.


So, to continue with my whining, Grace and I were going to go for a walk around to the Lower Falls, but I was not willing to let my nine year old slide down the "switch-back" part of the trail. It was so muddy and slippery that we had to turn back and go back to the car. We did walk around the back side of the falls a little way, but again, the path was so wet and muddy. So we went to the beach and sat and threw rocks and talked. This actually turned out to be quite fun, until it started raining again. Oh, well. I guess we can't have everything good. Carolyn's roses are blooming in front of their house and I have an amazing view out of my kitchen window, so I guess I'll quit whining now. Anyway, I read that the Beach Hut is supposed to open in early March and Coombs Market has been open all Winter so things are still pretty good. To continue on with my complaining actually seems quite ungrateful. I have a house full of healthy children, I am mostly healthy, I have a great job, great friends and a great family. On that note, putting up with a little rain seems kind of small and unimportant. I guess I just would love to get out and hike more than the rain allows.

I would have posted some new pictures I took, but somebody borrowed my cable to connect my camera to the computer, so my pictures are there, but inaccessible. When I find said cable, I will post again with more pictures.

Christmas Hoopla

Ok. Chris tagged me so here goes.

Christmas Baking.
First we have this project at school called "Cookies for Inmates". We get the kids and their families to bake a ton of cookies and then the kids decorate those brown lunch bags with a Christmas scene. We put a bunch of the cookies in each bag and send them to the Correctional Centre in Nanaimo for each of the inmates there. Not only have I baked for that, but I also baked 10 dozen cookies for The Bethlehem Walk. Needless to say, I haven't gotten a lot of baking done for my own family, although I did keep some of the other baking for us. As usual it disappeared about as fast as i could bake it.

Decorating the Tree and the House.
I have had the same tree for about 15 years. It was quite expensive when I bought it so, to me, it still looks fine. Jack is my Christmas Critic and this year he decided that we needed a change. My rule of thumb is, "If it's not broke, don't fix it." However, now that Jack has a full time job he has gone a little nuts with his buying decorations. So we have a bunch of new stuff to put up this year. Sadly, for Jack anyway, we still have our old tree. I think it looks quite nice.

Christmas Shopping.
I made myself a promise last year at this time that I was going to be done my shopping by December 1st. Sadly these promises go the same way my New Years Resolutions go. Real strong until it just isn't a priority any more. I have to go shopping with Jack today. We have to get some groceries and I still have all my stocking stuffers to buy. Jack also has one more gift to buy, but that doesn't concern me. Oh, wait. It does, since he is shopping for me.

Cleaning my House.
This gets done almost every day, but then along comes a family gathering and any of you who have been to my house know that I have quite old carpets. They look exactly like the carpets Mom and Dad had in their house in Osler. The brown, sculpted ones. I have shampooed it 3 times in the past 2 years, but it still look like garbage. So, at each family gathering I spray it with Febreze Alergen and then vacuum like crazy. Somehow, though, my bedroom always gets left to the absolute last. I'm not even sure if I will get it done this year. So all my guests will have to out their coats in Jasmine's room.

Relaxing
Another thing Jack did this year was buy a bunch of Christmas movies. So we have been watching the old Christmas Classics like Miracle on 34th St., It's a Wonderful Life, The Grinch That Stole Christmas, and then a truckload of Claymation Christmas Stories. On Christmas Eve we will watch A Nightmare Before Christmas, The Nativity, and if we have time The Polar Express.

Christmas Eve Party.
Ever since Emmett moved in with us we started having a Christmas Eve party with just me and the kids. Every year this party has become more and more elaborate. Now we have reached the stage where we have a feast of snack food like crab dip and chips, taco chips with melted cheese and salsa, candy, candy candy, punch, fruit platter, veggies and dip, and the list goes on. This is also when we watch the list of movies from the previous paragraph. Just before we start to wind down we each open one of our small gifts. Then I read the real Christmas story form the Bible. Then we pray for a blessed Christmas for our family and friends. Then it's finally bedtime around 11 PM.

Christmas Morning.
I had to make a rule years ago that the kids could not wake me up until 6 AM on Christmas morning. Well, I have gotten older and since I had the car accident almost 3 years ago, I wake up every morning at about 4:45. So, for the last couple of years my wake up time has shifted a bit, to 5 AM. Tye is usually the first to get up and he wakes up Jack. The the two of them wake up the girls and they all crowd around my door ready to "surprise" me awake. The girls have not had much for Christmas traditions so this one seems really important to them. Once we are all up, we go into the living room and open gifts. It is wonderful to see how the kids all want me to open their gifts first> I will get a gift for Gracie and she opens it. Then she gets a gift for Jasmine and she opens it. Then she gets one for Alethea and so it goes form youngest to oldest until we are all done. Then I make pancakes and bacon for breakfast and we all eat together. Then it's time for relaxing again with a movie, which someone got for Christmas or a board game.


So that's my Christmas Hoopla. Now I will tag;
Jude Saskwatch
Abe This WOrld is Not My Home

Holidays!

I am going to Sask! The ministry gave me money again this summer to take the girls to visit their relatives in Regina. That means I get to see my family and friends as well. So we are leaving tomorrow evening, spending the night at my friend Pauline Meakin in Vancouver and leaving early Sunday morning. We will stop for the night in Vermilion with my "adopted" daughter, Allysyn. Then we will leave for Saskatoon on Monday. We will meet the girls Aunt and Uncle in Saskatoon and the girls will visit there for a week. Then I will go spend a few days with them on the farm. Then we will come back to Saskatoon for a day or two and then leave again for home. On the way home we may need to stay at a hotel, though. Getting to Sask late at night is one thing, but if we get to Vancouver late we don't get a ferry. So, I will see all of my Sask family in a few days. I have a new motor in my car, new tires, transmission check and new brakes a couple of months ago so I pray we will have a safe, uneventful trip. See you all soon.

My Big News!

Some of you are very confused, like Melanie. I wasn't going to say anything until it became official, but I guess the cat's out of the bag. That'll teach me for not telling people that this is kind of a secret. My girls don't read my blog, so I will share my news. Now I will say to all of you who live here and see my girls, this is a secret from them until the social worker comes and talks to them and gets them to sign their consent. Then they will officially be mine. I have been approved for adoption! It has been about a week since I found out and the girls should find out today after school. So that is my good news.

I do have another little praise item, if you all are interested, I found out yesterday that the funding came through for my student, which means that I will be back at work in September. I will also get a raise, which will be nice.

So, I hope I have stopped the confusion for everyone on my pregnancy and labor. I will post again soon with an update.

Just for Footsack

Since you were the last one to comment on my blog I will dedicate this new post to you. You asked what I do with all my spare time. What the heck is spare time?!! I go to work, come home, check my blogs and emails, make sure dinner is at least started, try to do a little housework, finish making dinner, eat, clean up, start putting kids to bed and then go to bed myself. SPARE TIME!!! Oh. I forgot there are actually weekends. That's when I do laundry, spend a little time trying to have fun with my kids, and . . . you guessed it, do a thorough cleaning of the house. Maybe we should try to get together some time before I forget what it's like. I'm off Friday the 15th. The sun is supposed to be out and my kids will all be at school. How's the Beach Hut for coffee? Call me.

Canadian, eh?

What do you know? Like Becky, I am often mistaken for a Canadian. Unfortunately, unlike Becky, I am never mistaken for a computer whiz. I don't know how you are supposed to copy your test results to your blog. I hope this works. What American accent do you have? Your Result: North Central "North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
The West
Boston
The Midland
The Inland North
The Northeast
The South
Philadelphia

Jack's recovery

First I want to thank my family and friends for all their prayers and support. We are at the end of that dark tunnel. Jack has been getting stronger every day. Yesterday we went shopping and he actually came along. OK. He's 18 and that is rare for any 18 year old. The real proof that he is getting better is that he is back to teasing Grace again, which she enjoys immensely. He is also the most difficult person to go shopping with. I don't know why he wanted to come with me. I even told him I was going to buy groceries and he still wanted to come along. I thought he'd be happy to have the house to himself, but "No". I think he was tired of being cooped up inside. I hate grocery shopping with my kids. So, with all that evidence I would say that Jack is on the mend. The tests are not all back yet, but the drs think it was a mutated virus that attacked the fluid surrounding his brain. It caused severe headaches, fever and all the other strange things that happened to him. They have no other evidence of anything medically wrong with him. They call it "idiopathic symptoms". My doctor said they call it that because it makes them feel like idiots when they can only find out what isn't wrong with a person. They know it is not an aneurysm, a brain tumor or meningitis. It is not the bird flu, toxoplasmosis, or the Rocky Mountain virus. They are still waiting on tests for a rare virus that could be transfered by pets that have access to water inhabited by birds. I don't remember the name, though.
Anyway, Jack is much better. He is going back to school on Monday and a little worried about catching up all the time he lost there. So, thanks again for all your prayers and concern. I love you all.

Thanks for praying.

On Monday morning I took Jack to see my doctor, Dr. McCarri. While we were in the examining room with the doc, Jack went totally pail, his lips were completely colorless, his fever temperature went to 40.5 C (which is about 105 F). He started slurring his speech, and lapsing in and out of consciousness. His blood pressure went to 60/20. That was when Dr.McCarri said he needed to go to the ER and he needed to go in an ambulance. He called them and they picked Jack up and we went to Nanaimo General. They did a CT scan, blood tests, and a spinal tap. That was the worst. As if Jack's headache wasn't bad enough, the spinal tap was terrible. The results, so far, are good. The doctors at the hospital all believe that he has a mutated virus that attacked locally and on Jack it went to the brain. His white blood count is normal, he does not have bacterial meningitis or viral meningitis. He does not have a tumor or an aneurysm. They are going to test for a few other rare, but serious viruses and call Dr. McCarri with the results in the next day or two. We got home at about 9:30 last night and Jack has been sleeping most of the time. His headache has gotten a lot less severe, but yesterday they gave him Tylonol3 with codeine and it didn't faze him. by this morning they were helping, though so I pray he is on the road to recovery. He is still running a fever, but it is manageable with the Tylonol3s. He is still not eating, but he is drinking loads of water, which is good. I am quite sure he will not be going to school tomorrow, but hopefully he will be well enough to go on Thursday. So thank you all for praying for him. We did a lot of that yesterday and the day before and God is faithful. I am so thankful for my family and friends that prayed. The staff at my school also held a prayer vigil for Jack yesterday morning.This has been a difficult couple of days, but I can't imagine going through it without the support of you all if things had not gone well. So thank you all. I love you.

Please pray for Jack

We have all been fighting the flu here for the past 6 weeks. I have been coughing since mid January and now I am getting another cold. I haven't even gotten over the last one. Alethea has a bad head and chest cold and has lost her voice since Thursday. Jack, however has me quite concerned. He didn't get a bad cold and it has been gone for about 3 weeks. Then last weekend he got a headache that completely stopped him in his tracks. He went to school on Monday, but came home after his first class. All week he has tried to be in school, but every day ends up coming home and going to bed. Now he has such a bad headache that most of the time he can't even lay down. He sits up with ice packs over his eyes and often holding one to each of his temples. Yesterday, he could barely see from his left eye, but didn't tell me until this morning. He has been taking Advil, Tylenol, and Ibuprofen and nothing helps. In the morning he gets up around 6 and takes something for pain and goes back to bed. By around 7:30 he can function enough to go to school, but then ends up at home again by 11 am. He is worried, but hopes it is only because he needs glasses. I am worried because I think it may be an infection from having the 'flu. So please pray that he will be alright. We are going to the after hours clinic as soon as I finish posting this.