What a Week

It has been a doosey of a week, but you guys already know this. I am going to just skip over the crappy stuff and share some of the events that made me smile.

Q had his 4th birthday. What a wonderful sweet boy he is! We are lucky to have such a sweet family. This boy is the icing on the cake:



He really wanted a boat for his birthday. Or a race car he could "really drive." one he could "fit in myself" as he put it. The race car was out of the question (shouldn't Mommy have one first? Or I am being selfish?) So the kid got a boat.

The thing is pretty neat, it comes apart and clicks back together in 100 different ways. It has a submarine, scuba divers and even a shark with shark cage. I saw it a Costco and knew it was destined to belong to Q. It even has a water proof motor that you can attach to any piece you want.



Lets just say that bath time is more fun than ever. I always thought the octopus in the hot tub was Paul, but it turns it came with the boat.



PJ has a sense of fashion that I can not even begin to understand. What I do know is that every day she comes out of her room dressed and ready for the day. I don't need to nag her to get dressed, I just need to be accepting of what she chooses to wear.

I have the other girls in her class talk about PJ's sense of fashion with reverence. I have heard them whispering to their moms, "Mommy look, PJ is wearing a princess dress to school, she always wears dresses." The self confidence that PJ has to wear exactly what she wants is admirable. I hope this does not bite in the but when turns 14.

Here is what she wore to school on Friday:




Work it, work it:

She was totally happy with herself. Who am I to judge? I love that girl.

Sebass apparently flew under the radar this week as I did not have any good pictures of him. He is still adapting to the long school day and is tired and a bit touchy when he gets home from school. This will go away. Won't it?

Change

Fall has come to the Loops and brought that special feel in the air that only Fall brings. It is one of my favorite seasons. I must confess that I feel a bit robbed of summer, it feels to me like we only had about two weeks of warm weather and already it is 40F. Brrrrrr.

Picture below is more cause for celebration: I have worn a hole in my own knitted socks. They are favorite pair of mine. Cherry Tree Hill yarn, washed and dried about a million times, they have served me well. I am so glad I get to knit up a new pair! (Not yet, a few things to get off the needles first)



I took this picture today from the deck in our back yard. We get quite a bit of fog in the Fall. I like the contrast of the yellow trees in the foreground.



The changing colours of the neighbors tree. I am glad to see the change. I am ready to shed the past few months and change a few things myself. I feel like I have been a glass in half empty kind of person the past few months. This is out of character for me, I usually a happy optimist. I am going to make a conscious effort to change my attitude as I watch the world change and brighten around me.



This rainbow graced our neighborhood just a few days ago. It was big I could not get the whole thing in my viewfinder. You see it from end to end. It was double rainbow, but you can not see that here.



The End.

Bye Bye Skype

I uninstalled Skype and I my computer is back to its normal self just like that. I think Skype is a great idea, I need to learn how to set up my Firewall and my IP settings (or something like that) to make it work with Blogger and Bloglines.

I am going to share a few more pictures from Dad and Corinne's visit and show you some knitting and spinning in my next post. I am hoping to post again this afternoon. Shocking, I know.



Funny picture of the kids stuffing their faces with banana muffins. Yum.



As the kids have gotten older they remember everyone better. When they were really little they would make strange when family came to visit. Now they climb right up on laps and are more comfortable visiting with family they don't get to see very often. (The crappy side of living so far away.) It is nice to see them enjoying all of their grandparents more and more as they get older and more confident.

(Whoops I should have trimmed Corinne's feet out of the picture. I was so happy to be able to post more than one photo that I forgot too.)

Give it a Go

I have been trying to post a second picture for a half hour now. That is enough time in my book to call it a day.

I am not sure what is going on, but my computer shuts me out as soon as a photo is posted. I really think it is related to the Skype download. It is not just Blogger that Skype is messing with. I am having trouble with Bloglines and with Hotmail. Anytime I want to move from window to window I get an error and all my windows close.

I looked on the Skype website to see if anyone had complained about the same problem and I could not find anything. Could it be a computer setting? Or do I need to delete Skype off my computer and hope the problem goes away?

Ack!

I have been trying to post a few pictures but blogger keeps booting me off when I try to post more than one.

I am not sure, but I may have been having this problem since I downloaded Skype? Is anyone else having trouble?

Here is a cute a picture of Dad reading a book to Q. I will try to post more Monday.

Company

We have been enjoying out visit with Dad and Corinne. The kids have had lots of fun with them. Here is Corinne reading a book to them at bedtime.



We have been shopping and even went out to dinner last night. I can't tell you what has made us feel so busy but I am feeling a bit pooped out today.

I think mostly we are still getting used to the school schedule, I clock watch all day worrying about which kid I pick up at what time. I know we will slip into a routine, I just hoping it happens soon.

Sebass had a great day at school today, it is the first day he was not in tears when I dropped him and off and also the first day his stomach was settled enough to eat his sandwich all up. He was asking me at dinner how many sleeps he has has until he gets a day off school. I hope Friday ends the week with a good day for him.

There has been little knitting happening but I have been working at the spinning wheel a bit. I have some plying to do but I am not sure if it will happen tonight. I am kind of ready to veg. out with a book or a sock.

Happy Post

I think it is more than time for a happy post. As the kids back into the routine of school and things settle down a bit I am trying to settle in a routine of my own. I am working blogging back in as part of my regular routine so I am going to catch up on some camping trips and try to keep up all up to speed once I get there.

These pictures are from our camping (really it's not camping if you are staying in a cabin is it?) at Okanagan Lake three weeks ago (maybe a month, I could be that far behind myself). Doug and his 2 kids came with us, this pictorial should give you a good idea of how we spent the weekend.

Here is the beautiful cabin we stayed in. I think it is one of those you buy already built from Home Depot and then plunk on the prettiest little spot you can find. The cabin had a loft that all the kids slept in, Paul and I took the bedroom and Doug slept on the fold out couch. It was cozy and everything a cabin on the Lake should be.



Here is the view from the beach, it was overcast with a little drizzle, but still warm enough to swim and sit outside.



Our kids get along really well with Doug's girls, here they are playing by the water, Doug's youngest is hiding behind the PJ and Riley.



There were a lot of Canadian Geese on the water. I don't know if I have ever seen so many in one pace before. They were quite noisy when they all started honking and took flight. It was pretty neat to see.



Here are a few them in flight.

You can't really tell here, but this flower is the size of a dinner plate. It is the blossom of some sort of squash, I thought it was so pretty with a bit of sunlight reflecting off of it.

One more for you. This is my "sucker hole" picture. One of Dad's favorite sayings. When you see a bright a blue in an otherwise cloudy sky, Dad calls it a "Sucker Hole", because you think it is going to clear up to be a beautiful bright sunny day and it never does.

A Lady

I know I have told some of you a little about Lisa. I am going to share a little more of Lisa's life with you today.

Lisa is a friend and a patient of mine. About a year and half ago Lisa was diagnosed with Uterine Cancer. Lisa has been fighting an incredible fight this past for year and half. With surgery and chemotherapy she was doing very well and her tumor markers were going down.

She was doing so well in fact, that her oncologist took her off the chemotherapy after six months of treatment. She had about six really good months after that. Her hair was growing back, she was getting stronger and was full of hope and life.

After doing well for six months or so Lisa's tumor markers started to creep back up. Lisa was very brave and she decided to be part of a new cancer treatment study in Vancouver. A study that worked with treating cancer on a DNA level. She stayed with the study for a about two months and her tumor markers continued to climb.

5 to 6 weeks ago Lisa called me from our local hospital. She was not doing well. I went up and visited her a few times a week. Lisa was always full of hope. I would see her in severe pain and she would smile at me and tell me about her horses and her plans when she got home.

Lisa passed away last night. She did make one trip home to see her horses before she passed away. She was 46 years old, she was a cowgirl, she was a runner, a dancer, a wife, a sister, a friend, she was so full of life I am finding it hard to believe that she is gone. I am glad that Lisa was able to go with so much dignity and grace, Lisa was a Lady to the very end.

I am so sad for the people she left behind, her husband, her sister, her brother...myself and many more. Goodbye Lisa.

Taxi

Summer has wrapped up with a last camp out for the long weekend. I will post some pictures of that later.

The kids started school on Tuesday and it was a bit of a mess. PJ and Q do a gradual start for the first 3 days, they go from 10 until 11. What's the point you ask??? I don't know. Friday they will go the normal time 8:30-11:00.

Sebass started his first day of first grade at 10:30 and went until 12:00. They use the first day to place students who did not register prior to June '07. The Montessori students going from kindergarten into first grade are considered new students even though they have gone to this school already. I don't know why. It made things a bit confusing and Sebass hung in there but he was a bit nervous.

He did really good on day two (today) where he attended his regular hours 8:30-2:30. When I got there to pick him up he was in tears. The teacher said he did great until 2:20 and then he fell apart. She said this is normal and this usually happens to about 1/2 the class every year. They are not used to the long day and are asking to go home around 2:00 she said.

Sebass told me he liked school and he wanted to go again tomorrow, but he missed PJ and Q and that is why he was crying. He said he wanted to have lunch with them and when he found out he couldn't his stomach hurt so he did not eat at all. I thought it was sweet that he misses his bother and sister instead of his mom, but I feel for the kid. I wish I could make it easier for him. I know that he will be fine in a few a days when he makes some more friends in the classroom and gets comfortable, but I still wish I could make it easier for him.

I did not realize that first grade would be so emotional for Sebass and I! I don't think his experience with the long days of Soccer camp and heat stroke helped him out much here. I keep explaining to him that soccer camp was 2 hours longer than his school day is. It will take a few weeks to get into a routine and then things will be fine.