Brie's Progress

Here is another wonderful anniversary gift that we received earlier on in the week.

I was trying to explain what an anniversary is to my girls and Brie quickly decided that she needed to write a "card" for John. I then tried to explain further that an anniversary is for both of us, but she still decided that the card was to be only for John.

The only words she needed help with the spelling was "It's For You"....the rest she did all by herself. I love the hearts that she drew all over!! And notice that my name actually did make it onto the page, she just handed the "card" to John instead.

Brie has finally begun to read for other family members. They too can better understand how amazing her talent is. Lately Brie is reading a lot of Beginner 2 type books. She does really well with the exception of a few words that are more difficult to read!

We finally have a start date of Sept 23 for her Pre-K class! I am trying very hard not to stress out before the class even begins, but I am already worried about the ages of the kids in her class. I have yet to hear of another 4 year old, not to say that there won't be any but it is a smaller group, and with Brie's advanced skills this concerns me that she will be placed with a group of 3 year olds. (All the kids that she went to preschool with last year are continuing at the preschool...lots of confusion about the new Pre-K program at the time it was advertised) There is a vast difference in the skills between 3 and 4, with writing, letter/word recognition and fine motor skills, among others. Since we tried our hardest to get Brie into Kindergarten and we were not successful, I want to go into this year with a positive attitude and to keep her best interests in mind.

We will be having a home visit from our teacher before the class starts so I'm hoping to address my concerns with her at this time. She is a former Kindergarten teacher so she should be able to recognize Brie's talents and hopefully address them with a positive approach.

I am anxious to get this school year started to hopefully put my fears to rest. The unknown is usually worse than the actual, but I have a very bad history of creating worse-case scenarios in my mind.

3 more weeks to go.....3 more weeks to go

Amazing Talent

Yesterday, John and I drove to the city to pick up our girls, visit with family and have a date.


My mom had asked if we could stop by to pick up an anniversary gift, so the first place on our stop was her house.


Ray, her husband (my step-dad) has been busy for the last several years working on his art skills. He has been taking university classes each semester and we always enjoying seeing his latest picture in progress.


Here is what he made for us:



Ray took John's graduation picture as well as a picture he had taken of Fort Walsh, which is the headquarters of the North West Mounted Police, which later turned into the RCMP.

We were very shocked to receive such a wonderful gift, especially one that looks so much like John. The photo probably doesn't do it justice. John showed this off to his parents yesterday and everyone really liked it!

This will get added to our growing collection of RCMP art.

Ray said that he will begin taking orders now!!

Seriously, it's really good though. Thanks so much Mom and Ray!

Happy Anniversary To Me!

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary!

John woke me up at 7:30 this morning
a) To say goodbye as he was leaving for work
b) To tell me that his parents were coming to pick up the girls at 10:00
c) To tell me that I have a pedicure at 11:00 AND a massage at 1:15

Can I just say that I love my husband???

I've also been finding notes around the house this morning as I have been getting ready. It's been really wonderful so far!

So I will have a child-free pampered day and I am really looking forward to it.

Happy anniversary John. Thank you for being a wonderful father and husband. I love you!

Goals

Lately my attempts to jog on the treadmill have been more successful!

My goals aren't anything big at this point with the hopes that I can attain them easily, feel good about myself, and then set a larger goal next.

So for now my goal is to get downstairs on the treadmill 3 times a week and jog for at least 10 minutes each time. My other goal is to avoid the evening snacks. Oh how I love the evening snacks, but they really aren't good for me.

It's going well so far. I'm down 1 pound from last week!! I must say that watching an episode of TV on the DVD player makes all the difference to keep going on the treadmill.

We are hoping to make it away this winter to a hot destination so I would really like to not feel so self conscious in my bathing suit. Both John and I want to put in a good effort and just make this a regular part of our week.

So here's hoping that it continues to go well.

The Story Of Us: Getting Engaged

This is the third installment of my "The Story of Us" series.

Click here for Part 1: The Beginning
Click here for Part 2: Dating

So, John finally returned from his second year of treeplanting.

He continued to complain about the lack of funds he made that summer and questioned how we could ever afford to get married.

I was feeling slightly confused and frustrated. We had already been dating for 3 years. How much longer could we possibly date?

Now John has this way of manipulating my thinking so that he can get me to suggest something, that in fact was really his idea in the first place. This is how it was 1 week after he arrived home.

John had a plan, but he didn't want to suggest anything so he got me to suggest it instead. It still drives me crazy how he can do that to me without me even being aware of it!!

So, "I" suggested that we should go for a trip to Beaver Creek and have a picnic one day when I finished work. John liked the idea (I would hope so, since it was his idea afterall!!) and agreed that he would pack a picnic for the two of us. He suggested that I should just pack a change of clothes to work, and that way I wouldn't have to go home first.

This is how our wonderful evening began. John picked me up from work and we drove out of town towards our destination. I don't even remember what he packed for food. I have it all written down somewhere in our wedding album, but I can't seem to find which box it is in right now. He put a lot of effort into planning a wonderful meal that we could eat on a hill overlooking the beautiful river. We were off the beaten path and totally secluded from everyone else. Well, everyone else except for the bugs. The bugs were everywhere. On the blanket, on the food containers, in our drinks, etc. It was literally driving John crazy!

I blame treeplanting for John's psychotic obsession with killing bugs, especially mosquitoes. He literally will stop everything else and track bugs into the wee hours of the night because he can hear that lone bug from just about anywhere! My description really cannot do justice to his psychotic "episodes".

During our bug-infested picnic, John was getting increasingly "agitated". I couldn't understand why he was getting so worked up over some bugs. I can't say that I'm a big fan of bugs either, but I thought that his reaction was a little a lot over the top! He wouldn't seem to calm down and it just didn't really make sense to me.

We finally decided to pack up and head somewhere that wouldn't have so many bugs. I was leaning over and cleaning up something and when I turned around, I noticed that John was suspiciously searching for something in his backpack. I was curious but tried not to focus on whatever he was doing so I continued to clean up. When it was all put away, John turned around and had the ring box in his hand.

John got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I literally jumped into his arms and pushed him down on the ground. The ring box fell out of John's hands and the ring fell out of the box. (Keep in mind that we were picnic-ing on a hill that overlooked the river.) This was a moment that could have gone very very wrong, but fortunately we located the ring and I promptly put it on my finger.

For the remainder of the evening I had a HUGE smile plastered all over my face! I literally could not stop smiling! He had me convinced that we weren't going to get married any time soon, and it totally blew me away with that tactic.

Later on we drove back to my mom's place (my place too) and she was anxiously waiting to hear the good news! I guess John had asked her for my hand in marriage earlier on in the day, which is why he didn't want me to go home after work in case she gave something away.

I'm sure I have missed some details, as this happened 10 years ago this week. I have it all written down and saved somewhere in my wedding album, but I can't seem to locate it right now! But this is the story that I can recall.

My New Favorite Blog

I discovered this blog through someone else's link.

It is absolutely hilarious!!

Check out Cake Wrecks.

It is a blog devoted to cakes that have been purchased from a professional cake maker. I have been laughing and crying from reading through the posts.

Future Star?

At Brie's request earlier this week, she wanted to pose for the camera while we were sitting on the beach.

As you can see...she really likes posing lately!!

I love my crazy beautiful girl.

What An Awesome Week

Yesterday we returned from a fantastic camping trip!

I must say that if you like the beach and you like shallow warm water, Good Spirit Lake is THE PLACE to go!!

Seriously!! The girls could walk a very long distance into the lake.

We all went on a hike in the sand dunes that surround the lake and the sand is absolutely wonderful. I would definitely compare it with resort-quality sand. It was great to walk and play in.


The one drawback to Good Spirit is that there really isn't much else to do. Fortunately there is a great playground that we frequented quite often. There is only the one hiking trail (which splits into 2 at one point) and there is mini-golf or real golf, which we didn't try.

AND...the best part........it didn't rain this time!!

We had the best weather possible. John might would say that it was too hot, but just ignore him. I loved the weather, even when we were all hot and sweaty.

I am one of those crazy people that would ALWAYS prefer hot weather over cold. I just hate being cold!

The girls were good, for the most part, and we had an excellent time away. They loved the lake, the sand and the park. Brie's favorite thing about it was that there were "no leeches"! (At Madge Lake last month, she had one stuck on her) They spent a lot of time on the tire swing at the park too.

Going Away

We are leaving tomorrow for another small camping trip.

I am so thankful that this week's forecast is clear skies, hot and sunny!

Hopefully it will be much more successful than the last rain-filled trip in July.

The girls are pumped. It was almost impossible to get them to wind down before bed tonight, but I absolutely love that they are excited. I just wish that I could bottle up some of that enthusiasm!

I will post pictures and stories when we return.

******Can I just say that I watched Michael Phelps win his 8th gold medal tonight and it was incredible!! I actually cried watching his mom and sisters as they celebrated with him in the crowds. What an amazing story for the history books.******

The Story of Us: Dating

This is part 2 of a series all about John and I.

Click here to read Part 1 "The Beginning".


Dating for John and I lasted for 4 years. I was just about to begin my final year of high school when we started dating.

Things started out like you would expect of awkward teenage kids. We were shy and unsure of ourselves. Yet we (I) did lots of talking. We spent many nights chatting in the driveway before I went in the house for the night.

On our 1 month anniversary, John surprised me with a wonderful bouquet of roses as well as a box of good chocolate. Well after that, I was hooked!

My best friend at the time also began dating her now husband within days of when we did, and slowly we began to drift apart as we spent more time with our boyfriends.

John was working while I was in school but for most of the time, we were together. We were rarely apart.

As you may recall, I was not impressed with my previous boyfriend for using the "I Love You" term just because. So for this reason, I wanted to be Very sure before I would even consider saying this to someone. I was struggling with my strong feelings towards John and I wasn't wanting to admit just how serious this was becoming, even to myself.

It wasn't long after that John said it first.

Was I scared? No. Was I upset? No. Was I relieved? Absolutely! Did I say it back and mean it? Definitely!

I remember still being in Grade 12 when John gave me a promise ring. It's a beautiful little ring with a small solitaire diamond and I still wear it to this day. Friends of mine at the time asked me if I thought it was meant to be more than a promise ring, but at the age of 17 I knew better. We were obviously too young to make any legal commitments to each other, but we always knew that we would get married someday.

When the summer was creeping up, John decided that to make more money he was going to go treeplanting in BC. This meant that we would be apart for several months. I was devastated to let him go and I remember lots of tears thinking that I would never see him again.

We wrote many letters back and forth to each other and occasionally we were able to speak on the phone too. It was a great way to build up the communication between us, and it is true....absence does make the heart grow fonder.

For the next two summers we were also apart. The next year I worked at a bible camp and the year after John went treeplanting again. I guess we were getting used to the distance between us, but we didn't like it any more.

After the summer of John's first treeplanting experience, we both started working. I was saving up to go to bible school and after a boring semester at the U of S which John decided was NOT for him, he decided that he would go to bible school also. So 1 year later, we did go together to CBC (Canadian Bible College) which was in Regina at the time.

I am truly thankful for the experience that was dorm life and Christian education but 1 year was enough for me. John ended up going back for a second year with thoughts of becoming a youth pastor but in the end he didn't think that was where he was supposed to be.

I was able to get a job not too long after my school year at Canada Trust, which I worked at for many years. I was waiting for John to return home from his second year of treeplanting, which was also the end of 3 years of dating for us.

In phone calls and letters, John was fairly disappointed with the funds he was earning this time around. He said that he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to afford an engagement ring so we could start planning a wedding. For the previous year, we had talked a lot about getting married so this left me disappointed as well. I only had a part time job, which didn't bring in much money, and he was going back to his job at a machine shop, also not a lot of money.

How would we ever make it work?

Caught A Bug...

I caught a bug.

A work bug.

I have felt very motivated to get some stuff done around the house that should have been done LONG AGO!!

I reorganized closets and through away some stuff. Boy that feels good to toss things that we don't need or don't use anymore. I took out some boxes to the shed and got everything looking nicer.

After the success of that project I felt like starting up another one. Actually this one was started about 3 years ago when we moved here and seemed to be on hold permanently.

All the doors in our house are mahagany. Dark depressing mahagany. No offense to anyone who likes that color, but for me it's gotta go!

John had begun this project when I was pregnant with Ella. She is 2 1/2 now. I think it's time to just get it done.

So I have been busy sanding closet doors (which have been down for a LONG time!) and priming them afterwards. We also need to work on the door frames which were also dark mahagany.

The girls bedroom doors were finished long ago, but we still need to do the bathrooms, our bedroom and the linen closet, along with all the bedroom closets. Ambitious, yes I know!

Here's what the linen closet currently looks like:


And here is Brianna's door and frame. It's still the same dark wood but just painted over.


This was a way of having some cheap renos done in our house to brighten it up. It's a lot of work (or it will be!!) but I know that it will be worth it in the end. We didn't want to throw away the cost of new doors and know that we wouldn't get that money back when we want to sell someday. We are just buying paint and new trim to go around.

Speaking of trim, hopefully we can get our floor finished (right dear?!?!?) while we are still in "work mode". The floor is 1 year old already. Yep, we are highly motivated and not procrastinators at all.

Target Practice

Yesterday I was able to try something that I have never done before.

John's parents were out for the day and brought along one of our nephews to play with the girls. We had a great visit, and John has now started another homemade wine.

This time it is with sour cherries. I'm not sure how much (if any) I will like that one. The sour cherries came again from my inlaws yard. Last year I tried a cherry and it was awfully sour. The pucker-lips-you-can't-really-swallow kind of sour. But it's almost free and will make close to 30 bottles of wine so I guess I will wait and see how it turns out.

Several times in the last few years, John has taken members of his family out to the shooting range. By shooting range, I really mean gravel pit, but it's far enough away from town and people and is used occasionally for targets.

I have always wanted to try it too! In fact, John invited me to tag along last year, but I wasn't able to go that day as I was busy doing prep for his surprise 30th. He went with his dad and brothers instead and got a big shocker upon his return that evening. I'm so glad that we were able to surprise him.

Last week I mentioned the possibility of the two of us going out to give it a try while his parents were here. So we did! It was a fun experience.

John is very good at accuracy. Each year they have to do a requalification and every year he gets a near perfect score. (Actually it seems he gets the perfect scores during practice right before his qualification) So while I'm standing close and just trying to hit the target, John is aiming for the small corners or pieces of glass bottles nearby. Show off!!

I actually did better than I thought I would. I hit the center several times (and from about 25 feet away) and I also hit the jugular and the head too. I was quite proud of myself.

I also felt like a weak girl. That sucks. I hate being the "weaker sex" sometimes! This may be my stubbornness coming through, but I can be one of those girls that has to prove that I can do it no matter what. Maybe shooting was one of those times.

Pulling that trigger was a lot more challenging than I had expected. It actually takes a lot of effort to pull it all the way back, and I also learned the hard way to use my fingertip and not the joint to pull with. My fingers were very tired!

I remember when John was at Depot in Regina. He would call home telling me about their days and what training was like. They each had some practice pistols that they needed to work on simple trigger pulls. Each person had to do 50 pulls with each hand. He would laugh and tell me that some girls could only do 8-15 pulls each.

I know understand how difficult it is and it's dumb to say that my finger is too tired to pull the trigger again. I just shake my head. John was very kind and didn't laugh once. Well, maybe he laughed on the inside and just humored me by smiling politely. What a guy!

Well now I can say that I have gone out shooting with my husband. Probably not something I ever would have thought I would say 10 years ago! But it was fun and I might try it again someday.

Tagged: Unspectacular Quirks

Tara has tagged me to share about my 6 most unspectacular quirks, so I will play along. I know I have lots of quirks, but when put on the spot it's hard to come up with that many.

Here's the rules (for those of you who aren't familiar with memes, or if you have forgotten how to play along):

1. Link the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

And now for my 6 most unspectacular quirks:

1. When I am making a sandwich, I NEED the bread to come from adjoining pieces in the loaf. They also must face the same way so that they "fit together" as it is supposed to be.
2. I still bite my nails. I hate that I do it, but often I don't even realize it until it's too late. I have no idea how to stop, other than paying for gel nails...but that is just too expensive to maintain.
3. I can go to bed with a dirty kitchen. It doesn't really bother me that much (unless it's REALLY dirty). I have lots of friends who will stay up late just to clean and are almost obsessed with keeping it clean, but that's not me.
4. Until recently, I would only let my kids play with one color of Play-doh at a time. I didn't want them mixing up all the colors. Now we have a lot of "brownish" colors and it's okay. The sky didn't fall when I brought out multiple colors at a time!
5. I need lots of light. I love natural light, and if that's not available I need lots of lighting. I seriously go crazy in dark rooms. I also don't do well on cloudy days.
6. I am constantly judging people in customer service jobs. As a former CSR I highly value great customer service and if I don't get it, I won't go back to that place (if I can help it). I have written praise letters to companies when I do get good service, which also sometimes get me free stuff which is a nice bonus!

Alright now I guess I have to tag some other people. This means that if I list your name, you HAVE to play along, right?!?!?!

Kerrie

Roxanne

Niki

Seanna

Amanda

Colleen

I'm looking forward to reading about your quirks ladies!

Please Help Me!

My sweet little Ella has not been acting so darling lately.

I am about ready to rip my hair out or punch something.

I can't believe she is only 2 and yet she is getting this type of reaction from me!

AGH!!!

We have begun the battle of the wills and I fear that I am losing.

When I was a baby, I was often compared with my dad's mom because of my stubbornness. My grandma was awfully stubborn and apparently, so was am I. I have always been stubborn. It can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing.

I was hoping that my stubbornness would come in handy with raising children. I thought Brie was going to be the stubborn one.

How wrong I was!

Ella and I have had MANY battles this week. One battle lasted for a full hour of crying and punishments but she still refused to cooperate. She blatantly refuses to listen and obey. I have tried timeouts, spanks, and taking away toys. Absolutely nothing is working. She still is very disobedient and quite often she laughs when I am trying to talk to her, or punish her. This, of course, makes me even angrier.

She is going to give me more grey hairs. (Yes I already have a few, unfortunately!)

She is only 2!!

Any suggestions???

Reserved Excitement

When the Olympics begin, I am usually quite excited.

I'm not much of a sports watcher, but I love being able to cheer on our country and the athletes that are representing us.

Today I sat on the couch and watched the opening ceremonies with my girls. It was fun to have them each recognize our nation's flag and be proud to watch our team parade into the stadium.

While I still look forward to watching Canada compete against the rest of the world, these games seem tainted already. China is currently dealing with a lot of controversy over the security, the rules, the treatment of their own low-income citizens, and of course there are always concerns over the integrity of the IOC.

Strangely enough I am already quite excited about the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. John has been told (along with the rest of the RCMP) that there will be a ban on vacations from January-March 2010. The reason for this is due to security as they plan on sending a few thousand members to oversee the city during the games.

John would really like the chance to go and work there for a short while. I have no idea when they will choose members to go, but for his sake I really hope that he will be fortunate enough to get sent there. He may not even get to watch any competitions, but what an experience just to go there! If it wasn't for his work, we would probably consider attending the games. I figure it's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience either way.

I guess we will just have to wait and see.

The Story Of Us: The Beginning

Since this blog is fairly new, I thought I would start a series of posts all about US. You know, John and I, us. How it all began.

I've read similar stories on other blogs, and I find the stories so fascinating. Maybe that is the curious reformed-snoop in me, but nevertheless I am always interested in hearing about people's history.

So here's mine. From the beginning.

*****************************************************************

I remember the year that I met John. I was just finishing up grade 11 and was actually dating another guy. In fact, I wasn't even all that interested in this boyfriend of mine, truth be told. It was my way of getting over a long crush on a friend, and more likely I was hoping to make this friend jealous. It was a good self-esteem booster to know that someone else liked me. Very mature.

Several guy friends of mine had decided in their last semester of high school to join quizzing. Quizzing is a bible verse memory competition between churches. It runs from grade 7-12. So obviously these guys would join in their very last semester. Their reason for joining? Certainly not to memorize scripture. Nope! They just wanted to meet girls. Very noble reasons. It made me so mad at the time. They set out to go to a competition in Regina for a weekend. It was the last conference for the year.

I was never in quizzing. I hate memorizing stuff and it just wasn't for me. Yet now I am so thankful that these guys joined at the very last opportune moment. If it wasn't for that last Quiz Meet, I would never have met John.

During the course of that weekend, these guys did in fact meet up with some girls from Saskatoon. One began a dating relationship shortly after. He began to invite this new girlfriend and her friends to one of our youth group events. She did show up on night and brought several friends with her. Their youth group at church was pretty small and they decided to give ours a try. I'm sure I met John that night, but I don't remember hearing wedding bells or anything. This night doesn't even really stand out in my memory. I just know that this was the first time I saw him.

They continued coming to hang out with our group for the remainder of the school year. One incident that I remember quite clearly was one evening John had a chocolate bar. He offered to share it with me. Yes of all the things I could possibly remember....it is him sharing his chocolate!! But as a chocolate lover, this truly stands out to me. If this guy was willing to share his chocolate with me, a virtually unknown girl, he couldn't be all bad.

The summer began and I continued to date this boyfriend of mine. He was truly starting to annoy me, with comments of "I love you" that didn't mean anything to either one of us. I was very angry with those comments and vowed that I would never say that to anyone until I had felt that way for a very long time.

A large group of us from youth would often hang out together. One night we all planned to go see a drive-in movie. So we piled in to the cars and drove out there. It ended up that John and I shared the back seat of a small car.

I still remember watching Braveheart that night. (Braveheart music was what I walked down the aisle to, by the way) I still remember having to lean into the middle of the seat and strain to see past the rear view mirror to watch the movie. I still remember this odd sensation I had knowing how close I was to John. Throughout the whole movie I questioned what these new feelings were for the guy that I barely knew. (I found out later on when we were dating that John also felt those same things that night)

I went home that night and started some serious thinking. I must not have been very good at concealing my thoughts because I remember my mom saying something to the effect of "it's okay to like someone else, and you don't have to keep dating your boyfriend if you don't want to". Obviously not her exact words, but that is the gist of what she said.

Our youth group was going away for 2 weeks to Montreal on a missions trips which gave me lots of time to process my thoughts. I decided to break up with the boyfriend and just be friends with John for a while. So I did just that. I broke up with the boyfriend. I can't remember if it was the very same night later on that John and I talked, or if it was a couple of days later, but regardless we did talk. He was driving me home one night and one of us decided to open up the can of worms. Where was this going?

I said very clearly that I just ended a relationship and I wasn't wanting to get into anything else at that point. I told John that I liked him, but I wanted to get to know him as a friend first.

Our big group of friends continued to get together on a regular basis and I remember going for a long walk with just John one night. I'm amazed that I didn't scare him off as I think I talked non-stop for the entire time. He's a quiet guy by nature, and I guess the silence was too intimidating for me so I just kept on talking. We walked and I talked. A lot.

The next week (after the breakup) we were starting VBS in the innercity. This was our second year at this location and things were running very smoothly. John and I had made plans to go see a movie one Thursday evening. It was going to be a casual outing for us, but the day leading up to that night made it otherwise.

Thursday's VBS was a blast! We had arranged to bring in snow shavings from one of the skating rinks in town. We had an entire truckload of snow to play with on a hot summer's day. I do know that the kids loved it, but mostly I just remember John that day.

It's one of those moments where time seems to go slower and I can watch things in slow-motion in my memory. We had a snowball fight in August. He would chase me, I would chase him, etc. It went on for a long time that afternoon. I don't remember anything else about VBS that year. Just the snowfight between us.

That night we went and saw Apollo 13. Afterwards we went to the trainbridge, which became "our spot" for a long time. That night we began our dating adventure!

***I believe that 4 marriages (of my friends and us) resulted from that one weekend from the Quiz Meet and you can read about a similar version at my friend Colin's blog***

I Have Officially Begun Christmas Shopping

Okay with my title, some of you are going to think I'm nuts.

But I'm not.

Well, not entirely anyways.

Today I have started Christmas shopping!

I used to be one of those people who was frantically searching for any gift in December, working through the crowds, being grumpy and miserable along with everyone else around me.

When we moved to a small town 3 years ago, shopping became more difficult. There are only a few small stores here, of course a Sears catalogue center, among a few other locally owned stores. So not much selection, and the prices are outrageous.

When we go to the city for a day trip, we make our usual stops; Costco and Walmart, along with any other pressing issues we need to address, and then we visit with friends or family for the remainder of the time. It doesn't leave much time to browse stores or find good deals around town.

So that is when I discovered the joys of online shopping! It is so easy, there are no lines, no grumpy people, I don't have to drag my children around with me and I can find some fantastic deals!! I now shop throughout the year to find great deals (and then it looks like I'm spending more than I actually do!!) for friends and family.

Last year I actually started Christmas shopping in March. It disgusted even me, a little bit, because, seriously? Who starts in March? But I guess I did. The deal was really too good to pass up. I'm not crazy, honestly!

Today I discovered the great finds at the Toys R Us clearance section. I didn't realize until today (maybe you are smarter than I am!) that anything with the notation "Save an additional 50% on clearance items", means that it is 50% off the last price! I am kicking myself for not understanding this in the past, but I'm thrilled for today! So stuff that was normally $39.99 and is marked down to $29.99 will actually be $14.98 if it says that it is 50% off. Isn't that awesome?

I bought some stuff to give away as gifts for birthday parties, Christmas presents, and some stocking stuffers too! Yippee!!

I should also mention that if you too, want to get some great deals from TRU, you can first go through Air Miles Shops with your collector number and collect Air Miles at the same time. I am all about the deals!! There are lots of stores that participate with Air Miles online and I always go through here first. We don't collect a lot of miles, but every little bit helps.

So I wanted to share my great finds with you today...maybe you will find something that you like too.

Sleep

I love sleep.

I love that sleep usually comes quite easily to me now that I am a mom.

It used to be that sleep would take an average of 45 minutes to arrive once my head hit the pillow.

Not anymore.

10-15 minutes is probably the norm for me now.

Which I greatly appreciate!

I love getting my 8-10 hours of sleep per night, but that doesn't always happen.

Take the last 2 nights for example.

Picture me, sound asleep for approximately 3 hours. Enter groggy Ella at 2 am. She tries to climb into bed with me (John is still at work) and I silently protest the rude awakening. I manage to half-sleepwalk her back to her room to tuck her in, and crawl back into my bed and reenter my peaceful sleep.

Fast forward 20 minutes.

Enter slightly less groggy Ella. Since I was just able to fall back asleep I am really not fond of this second visit. I walk her back to her room again.

Fast forward 30 minutes. I still haven't fallen back asleep. Enter Ella again. My patience is starting to wear thin so I take her to the bathroom and give her a sip of water, before tucking her back into bed.

Fast forward 10 minutes. John has just gotten home and he crawls into bed. I try to ignore him, since I've been awake for close to an hour and would rather be sleeping.

Fast forward 5 minutes. Enter Ella. (Are you kidding me?!?) John, who thinks I'm sleeping at this point, gets up to deal with her. He is back in bed shortly.

Fast forward 10 minutes. (Agh!!) I get up, again, and rather rudely protest the frequency of Ella's late-night visits (aka yelling in a whisper voice). I climb back into bed.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Well okay, there was no lather at 3:30 am, or rinsing either for that matter. But this pattern did repeat several times.

Finally John said, why don't you let her stay in bed with us? I won't mind.

Yeah, because she never sleeps on your side and only clings to me anyways, and you can sleep through just about anything.

I replied with a "no, it just makes my neck sore when she sleeps in our bed."

I got up a few more times with Ella and finally at 4:20 I gave in and let her stay in our bed.

There is John, sleeping away and enjoying his half of the bed all to himself. And then, there is Ella in the "middle", squished up against me while I cling to the edge of the bed so that I don't fall off. Obviously I wasn't going to be able to sleep while in that precarious position.

Finally around 5 am, when I knew that Ella was sleeping soundly, I carried her back to her room for the last time.

Fortunately it didn't take me too long to fall asleep after those few hours of frustrating alertness.

Last night began similarly but it worked out well that John was home due to an earlier shift as he gets ready for the day shift today. We each were up with Ella a few times last night.

Finally John threatened a spank if she got out of bed any more.

Yeah, that's right!

We didn't see her again until 8:30 this morning. She cautiously got out of bed to see John, who was already up getting ready for work. Her very first words were "aren't you going to spank me?"

Ah, poor girl.

Even with all the frustration of lack of sleep....I love her dearly.

I love having her tiny little body curled up next to mine.

I love the sound of her warm breath in my ear.

I love the peacefulness she gets when she can just stay near me.

Will I enjoy it when these sleepness nights are over? Absolutely!

Will I miss the closeness we enjoy even at 4 am? Definitely.

Will I always be there to hold her in the middle of the night?

I think of the book "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. It is one of my favorite books to read, and I always get a little choked up when I read it. The mother has this unconditional love for her child, even when she feels like nothing is going the way she wants it to. Every night, after her son goes to sleep, she watches him and all the bad stuff is forgotten and forgiven.

This is the way I want to parent. Even on days when my girls drive me crazy, or I can't seem to get sleep in the middle of the night. In the midst of all of that, I love them!

So the answer is yes. I will always be there for her. Even if I have to sacrifice my valued sleep. It's worth it!

Everyone is Exhausted

Yesterday we arrived at home with TOO MANY things on the "to-do" list.

The girls and I spent 4 fun-filled days in the city. Seeing family, going to the zoo, playing at the water parks, etc. Most of it was great, but the girls were getting quite tired and so it led to lots of frustration, tears, timeouts and spanks. As I was the sole caregiver all week, and I was dealing with headaches most days, I was worn out and grumpy by the end.

I did manage to take a couple of good pictures at the zoo where we had a supper picnic with my mom.

John was off fishing with his grandpa and they had a wonderful time away from society. I am truly glad that they were able to have that time together, just the two of them. They have already been talking about a trip next year, God willing that his grandpa's health still permits. Fishing is one of John's fondest childhood memories. I just bought him lot of new supplies for his birthday this spring since he hadn't been fishing since before I knew him.

Today, by the way, marks 13 years of togetherness for us. We started dating on August 1st in 1995. We actually have a great story of how that day progressed, but I will save that for another post.

Before we left for Saskatoon, I had a busy week with VBS and making a baby quilt. I completely forgot to get stuff ready to mail for my sister Kerrie's birthday, which was yesterday. So upon arriving home, I quickly whipped up a card for her (now that I am in a Stampin Up group, I really cannot buy a $4.00 one at the store anymore!) and got it mailed off after lunch today.

Coming home yesterday we brought with us 2 large Rubbermaid bins full of crab apples. I really wasn't expecting them yet, but the apples on my in-laws tree were falling off very rapidly and I hate to have them go to waste. So we had to cut all 3000 (or some other outrageous number) of them into halves. About 78 Liters (and yes I know that isn't the correct measuring unit but that's how I measured the equal amounts of water we added) of apples. I made juice with apples last year and the girls loved it, so how we are making it again. Can't beat spending less than $10 on 70 Liters of juice! We both have blisters on our hand from cutting the apples in half. My index finger is very sore from holding a knife for so long. A small price to pay for all the great juice though, I guess. Tomorrow begins the straining, boiling and canning. I'm thinking that the air conditioning will be on to help keep us cool!

Here is what the apples look like almost 24 hours into the process.

This will be the finished product:

We also have many pails of Saskatoon berries, also from the in-laws, that John decided to try making into wine. He loves making the wine kits but this time it will be from scratch. He got this started yesterday so we should be able to taste it in November. I love sweet fruity wines, so hopefully this will be a good one! Also cheap to make if we get the free berries. I am looking forward to trying this one out, and I think it will also make some excellent gifts too.

This is the berries (you can see the nylon bag holding the berry skins) and additives in the primary fermenter.

Yesterday I went outside for a brief rest on the deck in the sun and I saw my first hummingbird of the year! I was very thrilled! I don't know why they take so long so show up in my yard every year but I guess part of the thrill is the chase. Hummingbirds are such tiny yet beautiful creatures and I love the challenge of attracting them to my yard. They absolutely love a flower I have called Bee Balm, which just started blooming last week. So my feeders are full again, after a few weeks of neglect, and I will be obsessively checking the backyard for signs of those precious birds from now on.


The girls are very exhausted after a tiring week and a trip to the paddling pool this afternoon. Both of them were fighting almost non-stop tonight which resulted in a very short bath for Ella. She is in a very disobedient stage right now and is getting herself into a lot of trouble lately. She ended up going to bed very early due to the mass quantities of tears she produced.



I am so glad that God's mercies are new every day! I need it for the lack of patience I show, and I need to show his mercies to my own children too in their disobedience.



I am looking forward to a quiet evening by myself. John is working and/or on-call all weekend so I just have to enjoy some peace tonight before the fun begins all over again tomorrow.