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.