The Preville-Hall Family Blog

En Francais

2011-06-04T13:29:00.001-07:00

When the time came to register Greta for Kindergarten I had huge reservations. It seemed like so many decisions to make all at once and my mind was spinning. Catholic School, Public School, English, French Immersion, mornings or afternoons... The list went on. I'll admit that Jeff wasn't much help (and I'm sure he'll admit it too). The only thing he said at the time was that he preferred Public school over Catholic school but didn't really give a reason why. So after much thought and bugging numerous friends about what they were planning to do with their kids we decided on Public French Immersion. Even though Jeff and I don't speak french and I was worried about how I would help my kids with homework later on I now feel we made the right decision for Greta. The school she attends is great. She had an amazing kindergarten teacher and now that she's almost done Grade One she is speaking and reading in French. My favorite part of the day is homework time. Greta has to read a page in her La Route book every night and usually has a book in french to read as well. I love sitting there listening to her read. She is so attentive to make sure she is pronouncing the words correctly. One of the reasons I choose French Immersion was because it would eventually create independence for my girls. I can't help them/do it for them so they have to learn to do it themselves. But the one good thing about French Immersion is that it is designed for anglo families so the teachers expect that the parents don't speak french. They are understanding when it comes to kids and homework and for that I'm greatful.

Greta has also started teaching Carmen some french words and it's so cute. Carmen is a very good student for Greta. I have a feeling later on in life they will have secret conversations with each other and Jeff and I won't know what the heck they are talking about. This morning I came downstairs to check on the girls and they were both cuddled up on the couch watching a cartoon on TV in french. I thought it was a great idea, and will probably encourage it more often. "You can only watch french TV."

Carmen's Preschool Graduation

2011-05-31T19:58:00.000-07:00

So we attended Carmen's preschool graduation last night. It was so cute and I was all teary eyed at the fact that this was the last time I'd be doing this sort of thing. My baby girl is growing up. Carmen was especially cute as she took center stage and curtsied just before she was handed her diploma. I loved it. And I love the teachers at Thickwood Heights Preschool, they are wonderful people.

Facebook Woes...

2011-05-31T19:43:00.001-07:00

When I discovered Facebook I ended up neglecting my blog. I didn't mean to, it just happened. It was so much easier to post quick status updates throughout my day of what the girls and I were up to. It was also easier and quicker to post pictures for family and friends to see. However, for quite sometime I've had a love/hate relationship with Facebook. My "friends" would post things like what they were making for dinner or that they were "going to get my hair did" or other meaningless things that I really don't care about. But I was afraid to delete my account, I didn't want to be left out of anything. I didn't want to not be invited to a playdate with the kids because I didn't get the message on Facebook. Or miss out on a mom's night out. I felt Facebook was my link to the outside world. I have, not quite so recently, discovered that Facebook does not need to be the "be all, end all" of communication. We survived before, we can do it again. I decided to use my blog again as a form of communication when it comes to the happenings of our family life. Those that really need to know what's going on can check here.

Swimming Lessons!

2010-01-04T20:05:00.000-08:00

In the fall I signed the girls up for swimming lessons and our first day was this evening (yes, I know, pretty far in advance to sign up for swimming lessons but this is Fort McMurray and this was the soonest I could get them in without being in line for 8 hours the day of registration). Carmen is under 4 so her and I went in the Parent and Tot class while Greta was at the opposite end of the pool in her Sea Turtles/Salamandar's class. It worked out well timing wise, I didn't have to worry about what to do with Greta while I was in the pool with Carmen. And both kids did exceptionally well in their classes.

We tried swimming lessons with Greta last fall and it didn't pan out that well. She was really afraid of the water and to be honest she didn't have the greatest teacher so we let it go after two classes. But this time it was a different teacher and she REALLY enjoyed herself. A good teacher makes all the difference in the world! She got her face wet (which is huge for her since she still fusses when getting her hair rinsed in the tub), splashed around AND at the end of the class she went down the water slide BY HER SELF!!!! I'm so proud of her. She's come such a long way from last year.

Carmen, on the other hand, did good. But not that good. She didn't like getting her face wet or try to blow bubbles in the water. But she did eventually let go of my neck a little and managed to "float" and kick her feet a little with me holding on to her. I think she'll be ok, we just have to keep at it.

This session that we are in now is once a week for 8 weeks and I'm hoping to get them into the next session if I can. I think it'll be good for them and I'm excited for them.

I Went Back to Work!!!

2009-12-30T20:56:00.000-08:00

So I got a phone call in the beginning of November from one of my old bosses from the College. They were super short in the Community and Upgrading Education (CUE) office and asked if I'd be able to help out. One person quit over the summer and they hadn't replaced her, another woman lost her son in a car accident and just needed some time off and the third person was having boyfriend troubles and headed home to Newfoundland (or Ontario, I can't remember which) with limited notice. So they needed help. I hadn't worked in that particular office since I was pregnant with Greta. After my mat leave with her I went back to a different department which suited my part-time hours better. But they thought I would be a quick learn since I had worked in that office for quite some time before.

When I got the call I was feeling a little antsy at home. As much as I love my kids and my husband (and I know they love me too) I was feeling like I needed to "do" something. The same issue popped up in my head that has been popping up over the last couple of years... Childcare?? I don't want to have to worry about it. I don't want to have to drag my kids out of the house so they can spend the day sitting in someone else's. I don't want to worry about how to get Greta too and from school or rely on friends to do something that is obviously mine and Jeff's responsibility. So I called my old boss back and gave her the dates of Jeff's days off for November and December and told her I would only be available for those dates. Surprisingly, she said OK! I was thrilled and nervous at the same time. Going back to work!?!?! How would I handle being away from the girls? How would Jeff handle being the "full time" parent? Would Greta get to school on time? Would Greta get picked up from school on time? Would Carmen get her peanut butter sandwich just the way she liked it, cut into triangles with the crust cut off? What would I wear??

Surprisingly, we are all surviving! I bought a couple new shirts and found some old dress pants in my closet that actually still fit. And Jeff learnt the kids routine quickly. My first day was a little overwhelming, I missed the kids terribly and was struggling with the new "technology" the College has brought on since I quit in September of 2006. But all in all, they liked me and extended my contract until May 2010. I think Jeff is finding it to be more of an adjustment than I am though, being a full time parent is hard work! But he's doing fine and the kids are happy.

They definately need someone more permanent in the office so I'm not counting on this opportunity lasting forever, but I'll take it as it comes. As long as they are ok with me working casual I'll stick with it for now. It seems to be good for my mental health!

Another Reason Why The System Fails Us

2009-09-18T19:14:00.000-07:00

I hear back from an Athabasca RCMP Officer. The Peace Officer who hit me on the highway and distroyed my vehicle was charged with a $115 fine for "backing up unsafely on a highway". Kind of like a parking ticket. I'm beyoned heart broken. I had to buy a new vehicle and it cost me a lot more than $115. Not only that, I don't feel safe on our roadways. My annual Christmas shopping trip is supposed to be coming up in November and I don't want to be alone on that road. Ugh, this sucks.

Life Is Moving On...

2009-09-15T12:23:00.001-07:00

I'm still reeling from my accident. I'm having a hard time with the fact that it was a Peace Officer who hit me and the fact that my tax dollars go towards paying a person like this to keep our roads safe. I called the RCMP last week to see how the investigation was going but they hadn't assigned the file to an officer. I am hoping to hear from them this week but I'm sure I'll have to be the one to call and ask what's happening. I also mentioned that when the accident occured the RCMP didn't attend because we didn't need an ambulance. I said that I understand policy and proceedures but this was a HIGHWAY collision, I expected more out of my tax dollars. The Sergent I spoke with said he will look into it and see if something else was going on that day at that time and the Officers might have just been too busy to attend. I'm still waiting to hear back from him... But as with everything, life goes on.

It was becoming a chore with the Jeep. I love the Jeep. It looks cool, it's fun to drive and it has a backseat so I could put the kids carseats in it and I'm greatful for that. But it's not a family vehicle. We bought it as a second vehicle. Groceries with the kids was a chore, I had to be careful of how much stuff I bought because it might not all fit in the Jeep. I received a comment from a guy in the parking lot at Safeway saying "that looks like the clown mobile!". I was so close to saying "I had a perfectly good vehicle until a Peace Officer hit me on the highway". But instead I just smiled at him and squished into the Jeep with kids, groceries and coffee from Starbucks.

The insurance company has indeed written the Mitsubishi off. I'm not sure how much we'll get for it though, it's still in the analyzing process. It's kind of tricky because they only made that particular model in Canada for a year and ours actually came from the States. The process is taking longer than I would have expected. But we went ahead and bought another vehicle. We picked it up yesterday afternoon. It's ..... dun-dun-dunnnn..... A 2006 Cadillac Escalade!!!!

Who would have thought we'd ever own a Cadillac?? It kind of feels like when I purchased my Manolo Blahniks for Jocelyne's wedding, it's just not like me. But the Cadillac was in good condition and a fair price so we grabbed at it. A guy from Jeff's work was thinking about selling it and it just happened that we needed to buy something right away so it worked out. It's a 2006 with 75000Kms so it should last us for awhile and the best part is that I can fit extra kids in there and it will easily pull our trailer. I'm not crazy about the color, it's kind of a green/blue color. But whatever, that's minor. It's fully loaded with everything you could imagine and more. Greta loves it because it has the DVD screens built into the headrests. We still haven't figured out all the buttons and switches and I'm not sure we ever will but that's ok. When I get a chance I'll take a picture and post it!

They Are Supposed To Keep Our Roads Safe...

2009-09-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

I spent some time in Edmonton earlier this week. It was a ME trip. Dedicated to doing things I wanted to do and not catering to anyone else. As a mom we sometimes need these little getaways to freshen our outlook on our parenting skills and to keep the motivation going when dealing with our children and household chores. It was awesome to get away, I recommend it to all the parents out there.

However, my awesome trip ended horribly in a vehicle collision with a Peace Officer. What's a Peace Officer?? Well, a Peace officer is a person who works to uphold and enforce certain laws and regulations in Alberta. A Peace Officer is given limited powers and authority under the current Alberta Peace Officer’s Act. They are not to be confused with Police Officers who have a wider range of authority. This guy’s official title is Alberta Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Peace Officer. He’s kind of a bylaw officer for semi's and transport trucks. He pulls semi's over to inspect them to make sure they are safe for our roadways and makes sure truck drivers have valid paperwork on them and that their rigs are maintained well.

Wednesday afternoon I was driving from Edmonton to Fort McMurray on HWY 2. About 40Kms from Athabasca a Peace Officer was parked on the shoulder with his red and blue lights flashing. There was a semi and a minivan in front of me. We all slowed down. They pass by the Peace Officer with no problems. I'm going about 60km/h and was veering to the opposite lane and about to go around him. He all of a sudden throws the truck in reverse, turns the wheel and hammers on the gas. He was trying to turn around to go the opposite direction. The back of his truck hit the passenger side of the Mitsubishi. I immediately slammed on the breaks, I can feel glass hitting the back of my head and feel my duffle bag and shopping bags pressing against the back of my seat. I end up finally stopping in the opposite lane and realize oncoming traffic is going to be coming soon. So I move over to the lane I'm supposed to be in. Then realize I can't really stay there so I pull off to the shoulder. I notice the time is 2:43 p.m.

I’m shaking and feel like I’m going to throw up, all the while thinking: “Thank God I’m by myself, Thank God the kids aren’t with me”. I get out and see the Peace Officer parked on the shoulder in the south bound lane facing south. I go around to the side of my car that was hit and check out the damage. The window is blown out, the tail light had exploded and what was left of it was hanging by the wires. The entire rear side wheel well is crushed inward and the door that we usually get Greta in and out of is dented. I proceed to the rear of the car and stand by the hatch to wait for the Peace Officer to come see if I’m OK. At this point he is still in his truck. After a few seconds he gets out and goes immediately to the back of his truck to check out his damage. I’m still standing on the side of the road waiting for him to make his way over to me and when he finally does he’s older than I expect. He looks like he’s close 60. I was expecting some young know it all, not a guy who looked well experienced and should have known better. He picks up the broken pieces of my Mitsubishi lying on the road as he crosses it because, I guess, it’s not that important to see if I’m OK. Unbelievable.

He finally makes his way over and says “I turned my lights on but I guess you didn’t see them”. I was blown away. I said “Yes I saw them, that’s why I slowed down to 60km/h like you are supposed to when passing a parked vehicle on the highway. What were you doing?” He said he was trying to turn around and I mentioned that there are safer ways to turn around on a highway. We were on a bit of a decline, not really a hill but sort of down slope in the road. He says he’s going to pull his truck around to come behind my vehicle so people will see me and more accidents will not occur. Me being me, I said “Fine, do it safely this time”.

He pulled his truck around, parked on the shoulder behind the Mitsubishi and sat in the drivers seat talking on his phone. I’m still outside in 30 degree heat while he’s inside his truck with the engine running and the AC going. Nice. I grab my cell phone and call Jeff. I’m shaken up still and as soon as he answers I break down and tell him I’ve been in an accident. He’s worried that I’m hurt but I assure him I’m fine but the car is destroyed. I ask him what I should do, the car is still drivable but with the missing tail light he’s worried I’ll get a ticket or something. Plus with no window and all that glass flying around back there it would suck. We discuss getting it towed but where do we tow it?? To Athabasca (30 minutes up the highway) or to Fort McMurray (3.5 hours away)? While I’m on the phone with Jeff the Peace Officer decides to finally get out of his truck and come talk to me.

The Peace Officer says that he’s been on the phone with his boss and the boss is putting a call into the RCMP. But the RCMP don’t usually respond to a collision unless an ambulance is needed. Since it was an Alberta Government vehicle that hit me the boss was really trying to get them to come. I let him know that I have two kids waiting for me at home, my daughter starts Kindergarten tomorrow. I need to get home. He said he’ll call his boss again and goes to his truck. I have a sinking feeling that he’s not going to help me get home. We wait and I call my dad who was in Edmonton at the time. I leave a message on his cell phone but he calls me back right away and says he’ll be on his way. At this point I’m think if Dad can get me back to Edmonton I can take a bus or something to make it home in time for Greta’s first day of school.

A little while later the Peace Officer says that his boss said the RCMP will not be attending. I ask him how am I supposed to get home? What happens to my vehicle? He said he can’t answer those questions, he doesn’t know. I say “you’re a Peace Officer and you caused me these problems, I think you should be working harder at helping me get out of this situation.” He says nothing and goes back to his truck. He comes out a few minutes later and tells me that like any other collision that happens it is the owners of the vehicles responsibility to take care of themselves and their vehicle. Nice. The Peace Officer hit me, wrecked my vehicle and was now going to leave me stranded on the highway three and a half hours away from home. What happened to the Good Samaritan Act!?!?! I was furious. He also said that the boss is on his way to take pictures. I tell him again that my daughter starts kindergarten tomorrow and I need to get home. I ask him if I drive my vehicle damaged like this will I get a ticket. He says something about the axle being damaged and I tell him the car is already fucked, I’m not worried about the axle. He says nothing and goes back to his truck.

A little while later the Peace Officer gets out of his nice air conditioned truck and starts trying to talk to me. He tells me that he’s doing his best to make sure he follows the correct procedures in this situation. I guess because he’s already REALLY messed up he’s making sure he doesn’t screw anything else up. At one point he tells me he’s “going to be 100% honest in his report to the RCMP”. I tell him that he’s not doing me any favors by telling the truth, if he isn’t 100% honest it will be 10 times worse for him. I think he was scared of me or something because every time he tried to talk to me I’d have some snooty remark for him. I was just so furious I couldn’t help it. I mean, a man of law dangerously and illegally turned around on the highway and hit me and was now not helping me get home.

He hands me a clip board and a piece of paper and says we need to exchange information. As I’m writing out my stuff Jeff calls my cell phone and says he’s called Jean our insurance lady and she said to make sure I get his insurance company’s name and policy number. He said she also said to get to towed to Athabasca. Jeff then tells me that he’ll pack up the kids in the Jeep and come get me. I didn’t like that idea. It was really hot out and the Jeep doesn’t have air conditioning or a roof, it only has the soft top on it and I’m worried about the kids being on the highway like that. He said he’s been trying to get a hold of my mom at work so she can come babysit the kids while he comes to get me but she wasn’t answering her phones. He left messages for her though so I was hoping she’d call him back soon so I would know if someone was coming for me.

I go over to the Peace Officer’s truck to give him my information and ask for his. I look at it and realize he didn’t write down an insurance company or a policy number. I ask him for it. He looks through a binder of papers he had and finds a little slip that says his insurer is Alberta Government Risk Management Insurance Investigation Division and a phone number. He says I can call and ask if they have a policy number. I tell him he should call. So he calls someone who tells him that the Alberta Government doesn’t have policy numbers. Fine. I call Jeff back to give him the info so he can call Jean, our insurance lady, so she can open a claim up right away. As I’m talking with him my sister just happens to drive by. She was in Edmonton for the day and was on her way home to Fort McMurray. Thank God!! Of course she will give me a ride. I tell Jeff that Nicole is here and she’ll wait for me to give me a ride home. I get off the phone with Jeff and load some of my stuff into her car and send her and her boyfriend Steve on to Athabasca to wait for me. I knew Dad was on his way and I didn’t feel the need to have them sitting on the side of the road too. It was getting busy and traffic was getting backed up a little as they were trying to get around us so I sent them along.

Turned out the Peace Officer’s boss was not on his way to the accident scene but some other Peace Officer was. He looked younger than me. He took a crap load of pictures of the Mitsubishi, the highway and of the Peace Officer’s truck. He didn’t say a word to me, didn’t ask if I was ok, didn’t ask if I needed any water or anything (since it was plus 30 out and scorching sun), didn’t ask if I wanted to sit in his nice air conditioned vehicle to cool off since I was obviously over heated. Nothing. Neither “Peace Officer” helped me in any way.

I tell the Peace Officer that I’m tired of waiting and to give me a phone number for a towing company. He hums and has and then finally calls someone to look up a number for me. In the mean time my sister calls me to let me know of a company and gives me the number. I call and ask for a tow truck.

As the young Peace Officer was taking pictures, my Dad arrived at around 4:30 p.m.. I felt a little better once he got there, not so alone or stranded on the side of the highway. I told him that a tow truck was on its way and should be here soon. It was coming from Athabasca so it would take at least 60 minutes, probably longer, as the drivers were busy. So we wait. Eventually the tow truck gets there and the Peace Officer immediately walks over to the tow truck driver and asks if he will tow Government vehicles. He was having trouble finding a company that will tow him (he had a broken tail light and was advised to not drive it due to safety reasons. Now he’s worried about being safe.). The tow truck driver says they will tow his truck and they start chatting about it. Again blown away buy this guys manners I butt in and say “now you’re stealing my tow truck!?!?!” He started to back peddle and says “oh no, do what you need to do for her first, I can wait.” By this time I’d been on the side of the highway in 30 degree heat with scorching sun for over 3 hours. I wanted to go home. The tow truck driver said their was another tow truck on the way and would be here shortly. He starts hooking up my vehicle. My Dad and I wait around for a little while but eventually tell the tow truck driver that we’ll meet him in Athabasca at his office. My cell phone is a pay as you go phone and I was running out of minutes. I wanted to get more before I got on the highway with Nicole and Steve so I could call Jeff and let him know what was happening.

We head into Athabasca and stop at the store so I can get a phone card. We proceed to the towing company’s office to meet the tow truck driver. I wasn’t sure if and how much I had to pay him. Once we met up though he said since it’s going through insurance I didn’t have to pay. He gave me their business card with their info so I could get the insurance company to call them. My Dad and I make our way to the RCMP detachment to meet up with Nicole and so I can submit my report. By the time we got there though it was 7:00 p.m. and they were closed. I’d have to wait until the next day and do it in Fort McMurray. We said good bye to my Dad and headed out on the highway. Nicole and Steve dropped me off at home around 10pm that night. It felt like such a long day. My back was sore and I had a headache but I was so glad to be home. The kids were already in bed but I snuck into their rooms and watched them sleep for a little while. Again the gratefulness of them not being with me earlier overwhelmed me. I can’t help but think about how much worse it could have been.

I’m annoyed that this accident happened in the first place but the fact that it was a Peace Officer who was the cause infuriates me. These people are supposed to be setting an example for the rest of society. The sad thing is that they all do it. RCMP, By-law, Peace Officers… They all try to be cool and do dangerous and illegal driving procedures all the time. Many times I’ve seen them flash their red and blues at intersections because they feel they don’t have to wait for the light to turn green like the rest of us on the road. In my report to the RCMP I’ve asked for an investigation into the accident and for subsequent charges to be laid. I probably won’t hear anything until next week though. I’m also curious as to what’s going to happen to the Mitsubishi. I figured it’s be a write off, no questions. It’s now at an autobody shop here in McMurray waiting for an insurance adjuster to have a look at it. Jeff went up there to have a look at it and ended up talking with one of the employees there. They said it might not be written off, it depends on how much they figure the vehicle to be worth. It can be fixed, they’ll cut out the bad side and weld a new side on. And then replace the door and window. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the insurance company says.

Camping

2009-08-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

I love camping. I love that my family loves camping. Something about being away from the T.V. and computer and pretty much all communication from everyone except who you want to be in communication with that envigorates me. It revives me. The fresh air is amazing for my mental health, I just feel good while I'm camping. I love the special camping snacks we have and the meals cooked over the fire in our dutch oven.

Jeff and I used to camp alot when we were dating. He used to work in Hinton, AB so I used to meet him there (from Edmonton) and we'd head on to camp in the mountains in Jasper National Park. One summer we did a tour of the mountains. We took a week and started in Banff and made our way to Jasper. Our little orange tent served us well.

Then we had Greta. Our little orange tent wasn't big enough for the three of us, so the summer she turned one we bought the big red tent. Tenting with a baby wasn't as easy as tenting with just the two of us. We needed a lot more gear. So we only went once a summer until this year.

In May we bought a tent trailer. I had wanted one since before Greta was born and after last year's trip Jeff said he wasn't keen on sleeping on an air matress on the ground any more. FINALLY!!! So we purchased a 10 foot tent trailer. The top pops up and the bed slide out. It has a king bed on one side and a double bed on the other. It has a table, a sink, a fridge, a two burner stove, a furnace and a hot water heater with an outdoor showerhead. I am in love with it! It's perfect for us.

I look forward to so many more camping adventures with the kids. I can't wait!

Depressing Recession

2009-07-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

Thinking back on our vacation to Ontario and Quebec I realize how lucky we are to be living in Alberta. Especially Northern Alberta. I know I've always been a little sheltered growing up and living in Fort McMurray (the Fort McMurray Bubble as Jeff calls it) but it really was kind of depressing touring around Ottawa and the Laurentiens. My Aunt was surprised when we didn't have to wait for a table at the resturant in Mont Tremblant and kept mentioning how non busy it was there. I guess usually they have line ups for everything but when we were there it was nice not to have to wait for anything. I quiet liked it while I was there, but thinking back it was quiet depressing. Such beautiful scenary, and activities for kids but not too many people enjoying it. I guess I'd rather live a five hour drive away from "civilization" (as my relatives seem to think) than have so much to do around me but no money to do it.

Ottawa/Quebec Vacation

2009-07-26T19:29:00.001-07:00

We spent 5 nights in Ottawa for my Grandpa's 80th birthday party and then another 5 nights in Quebec at my grandparents home and touring around the Laurentiens a little. The kids were great! It was our first real vacation as a family and the kids first time on an airplane (such sheltered children, I know.) I was actually surprised how well they did. We had some pretty late nights and not a lot of rest between activities but they handled it well. I think it helped that in Ottawa we stayed at a hotel with a 1 bedroom suite and had a chance to grab little rests when we could. We stayed at the Minto Suite Hotel in downtown Ottawa and had an amazing view of the Ottawa River. I was really impressed with the room we got. It had a full kitchen and two bathrooms. Along with living room/dinning room, bedroom AND a washer and dryer in the suite. We were pretty comfortable there.

The day of my Grandpa's party we had a family photo shoot before the party began. Trying to get 25 people to cooperate for a family photo was not as impossible as I thought it was going to be. The hard part was doing the individual family's photo's. Like my Dad and his family, then his siblings and their families... And because I have the only great grandchildren it was a little confusing as to who was in what picture. Luckily my Aunt Mary had a gigantic list of who was to be in which shot so once she arrived to "organize" us it went a whole lot smoother. The photographer was still shooting away with his camera as the guests started to arrive for the party. He got some wonderful shots of my grandpa and his friends. Apparently we are all getting the pictures on a cd so I can't wait to see them.

11 Grandchildren and 2 Great Grandchildren

The party itself was a good time had by all. It was held at my Aunt Jane's house and we probably had about 40 people there including the 25 of us. She had rented an outdoor tent, some tables and chairs and had it catered with dishes and cutlery included. The weather cooperated for the most part. We did have a little rain but it cleared up before dinner was served. My Grandpa is really into geneology, he's researched our family history back to the 1600's. So to honor him, my cousin Heather made a fabulous card for him. It was a family tree with all of our pictures inside and we all signed under our picture. I think he really appreciated that. He gave a small speech about how thankful he was everyone could make it and that he was a little overwhelmed by the attention. Well Grandpa, you've come a long way in life and you deserve it! Happy Birthday!!!

The card my cousin Heather made

After all the guests left and it was just family again my Aunt Charolette organized a game of "Ross Trivia". She asked questions such as what is Grandpa's real name... where was Grandpa born... The winner was to take Grandpa to Tim Horton's and treat him to coffee and his favourite donut (which was one of the questions in Ross Trivia). It was a good laugh and I think Grandpa liked it. Charolette didn't have the answers so we were relying on Grandpa to tell us if we were right or not. I didn't win but the next morning we stopped for a coffee at Tim's on our way to meet everyone for Brunch so we picked him up a Maple Cream donut (we discovered it was his favourite during the trivia). Extra brownie points for me!

Grandpa and his Maple Cream Donut

While in Ottawa we took the kids to this neat little place called Saunder's Farm. It was a kids paradise I tell ya! Tons of stuff to do. It sort of reminded me of The Little People's Roloff Farm. They had giant tree houses to climb and other wooden play structures to play on. The had a wagon ride pulled by a tractor through a "spooky town". They had a small sprinkler park and a bunch of different mazes to explore through. It was fun. The kids kind of lost steam by the time we got to the mazes so we only did three out of the eleven mazes they had. But it was still cool.

One of the mazes at Saunder's Farm

We also made it to to Tubes and Jujubes which was across the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Quebec. It was like the ball pits and slides part of Galaxy Land in West Edmonton Mall, except WAAYY better. Greta and I had looked at their website for a couple of months before we left so their was no way we could get out of going. They had a YMCA daycamp there that day so it was a little busy. Greta was fine with all the kids but Carmen got pushed around a little climbing up some of the structures to the slides. The toddler area was really more for babies so she didn't last long there, so off to the big kid slides we went. She was fine for the most part and Greta was a great big sister by helping to ensure no over eager kids trampled over her little sister. Over all they had fun. On the way back to the hotel we stoped at McDonald's and I placed my order with an employee who assured he could understand english. We did pretty well communitcating with each other but in the end we ended up with an extra Happy Meal. Oh well, the extra toy kept the kids busy.

After the festivites of the family functions and the big birthday parties we headed to my Grandparents house on Lac Sir John in Lachute, Quebec. One of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed. I just love it there. My Grandpa started building that house in 1965 and it took him four years to complete. He did everything. Inside and out. The detail in this house is amazing. he even made the toilet paper holders! The view of the lake is so peaceful and the water is crystal clear. It's a fairly small lake and the association doesn't allow big motor boats or speed boats. The biggest boat we saw on the lake was a row boat with an electric motor on it. But that's a good thing, it keeps the water clean. It's probably cleaner that Fort McMurray tap water LOL.

My Grandparents home

Although we didn't have the greatest weather while we were there it was still a nice visit. Gramma and Grandpa babysat for us while we went into town to the weekly farmer's market. We browsed around and some unique antiques and furniture but quickly realised how depressing that was since we couldn't bring anything home. We hit the fruit and vegetable stand on our way out and picked up some strawberries, raspberries, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and green beans. AND it only cost $12. In Fort McMurray that probably would have cost at least $40!!

Jeff and I took the kids to Village du Pere Noel (for my english only readers... Santa's Village!) They had a blast. It's about an hour's drive from my Grandparents house and well worth it. They had all sorts of climbing structures and rides. They had little mini paddle boats in a pool, they had a zip line set up and mini go cart tracks. A petting zoo and pony ride were a must to do and also meeting the big guy himself, Santa Clause. The kids were so tired by the end of that outing they both slept the entire time back to Lachute.

In Santa's Sleigh at Village du Pere Noel

While in Quebec we also took a day trip to Mont Tremblant. It's only an hour and a half away from my grandparents house so we took the opportunity to go. It's such a neat place. Very touristy though. But, again, well worth the drive (even though Carmen threw up in the car on our way there and we had to scury to buy her some clothes once we arrived, but that's another story!). The village of Tremblant is based on Whistler, B.C. It's like a mini Whistler actually. The same people built both villages. They had a mini gondola that went through the village so you could get a birds eye view and then a bigger gondola that went up Mont Tremblant. Once up on the mountain you could climb up a look out tower and the view was really cool. Not quiet the rocky mountains but still pretty amazing. It was a nice outing.

Village of Mont Tremblant

Our last day at my Grandparents was spent relaxing around the house. We made a short trip into the town of Lachute to hit the Dollor Store for some treasures for the plane ride home the next day. We had some spare time so we decided to take the kids on their first fishing excrusion in the row boat which turned out to be not a great idea. The boat didn't have an anchor so we kept drifting into shore and would have to row out again, the kids fishing rods were kind of in the way of the ores so that was short lived. We ended up fishing off the dock and everyone was much more pleasant about that. No one caught any fish but Carmen did have her bait stolen and she was super excited about that. Aside from we worrying about the kids falling off the dock into deep, deep water everyone had a good time.

Our Little Fisher Girl

The flight home was uneventful and we even made it into Fort McMurray a half hour ahead of schedule. A perfect ending to a great trip!

Anniversary!!!

2009-07-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

So today is Jeff and I's 6th wedding anniversary. Can't believe it's been six years. Happy Anniversary!!

Been Awhile

2009-07-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it been almost a year since I last blogged. It's been hard to find the time to sit down and type out my thoughts and the happenings of our lives. I also went throught a self concious period where I thought "I'm a horrible writter, why would anyone read what I write??" But I guess it's time to get over it. A lot of our family used to read my blog and I get comments once in awhile about how haven't posted any stories about the kids or the regular day to day stuff we do.

So here goes... a fresh start...

Greta will be five years old at the end of August, FIVE YEARS OLD!!! Can you belive it?? I can't. I'm still having trouble with the thought of a kindergartener. She'll be attending French Immersion Kindergarten at Ecole Dickensfield in the fall. In April we went to the open house to see the classroom and meet the teachers. I must say I wasn't thrilled with the classroom. Her preschool classroom was literally triple the size of this one and had windows. But its only one school year in that room and then she moves on to other classrooms. AND the teachers were really nice. It was a tough decision to put her into french immersion but in the end we decided that it can't hurt, we can always switch her for grade one if we feel it isn't for her or us. Deep down though, I'm hoping the challenge will be good for all of us.

Recently Greta and my mom went on a road trip to Edmonton for two nights. Greta LOVED it and has not stopped talking about her trip. They went to Chuck E Cheese and Toys R US. They went to West Edmonton Mall and ate cinnamon buns. They had a blast and I'm so greatfull Greta was comfortable enough to spend that time with Gramma Lucy. THANKS GRAMMA LUCY!!! Next time it's Carmen's turn, she's been talking about it since Greta got back LOL.

Carmen is two and a half, she'll be three in December. Hard to believe that as well. She is such a character. She loves to do everything her big sister does but also has a mind of her own and knows when she's being bullied into something. I love watching the two of them play. Carmen is no where near being potty trained and it seems like she is following in her big sister's footsteps with that issue altogether. Carmen has no interest in peeing on the potty, she fights it when you suggest it. And she'll always bring you a fresh diaper when she needs to be changed. I'm not pushing the matter until after our summer vacation though. We'll leave it for a few more weeks and tackle that matter when we get home from Ottawa and Lachute.

Speaking of summer vacation... next week we are headed to Ottawa for my Grandpa's 80th Birthday party! We'll spend about 5 days in Ottawa and then head to Lachute, Quebec for another 5 days. I'm excited to see family I haven't seen since our wedding in 2003 and I'm excited to show off my girls! I can't wait for everyone to meet them. We have lots planned while we are away. I want to do some activities we wouldn't normally get the chance to do here in McMurray. Jeff and I plan to take the kids to Tubes and Jujubes (a gigantic indoor playground with a CANDY STORE attached) and to Saunders Farm where they have a bunch of mazes and some other kid friendly activities. Once we get to Lachute where my grandparents live I can't wait to head to Santa's Village where it's Christmas all year round and to take those momentous photo's of my kids around the area where I spent some of my summers as a kid. My Grandparents live on this beautiful lake in the Laurentiens where the sun always seems to shine but it's never too hot. The rain only happens at night when we're sleeping and the water on the lake is always calm. I love it at my grandparents house, and I hope my girls will too.

We leave on Wednesday and I'm so anxious to "just get there". I'm not sure how the kids will handle and airports and the traveling. This is really our first family vacation. It'll be good that my sister and her boyfriend and my parents will all be there as well. At least they will have some familiar faces around them.

Big Girl Mattress On The Floor

2008-08-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

So when we got back from camping a few weeks ago Carmen was having "issues" sleeping in her crib. She would fight going to bed in the evening and then be up every two hours on the dot screaming at the top of her lungs to be "ou" (out). It felt a little Deje Vu from when Greta was younger. After two nights of this I took the crib apart and put her crib mattress on the floor. The first night it was hard to get Carmen to go to sleep, I refused to give in to lying down with her to get her to sleep. I had done that with Greta and it was a HUGE mistake. (In my defence though, I was eight months pregnant when we switched her over and I just didn't have the energy to be consistant with her to get her to go to sleep on her own.) But with Carmen I stuck to my guns and after a REALLY bad week she is doing great in her "big girl mattress on the floor". Naptime and bedtime are routine again and she is sleeping through the night again. THANK GOD!

We are thinking we'll get bunkbeds for Greta's room and then Carmen can have the single bed that Greta is in now. That way if we ever do eventually have another baby Greta and Carmen can have the bunkbeds and share a room. And if we don't have another baby...bunkbeds are still fun. I always wanted a loft type bed when I was a kid so I'm living my dream through my kids and getting them bunkbeds! But I think we'll hold off on the buying the bunkbeds for a little while longer. As it is, Carmen doesn't even sleep on the mattress she ends up sleeping on the floor. She is such a restless sleeper and I'm worried she'll just fall out of bed. So we will wait a little longer.

A Great Summer...

2008-08-10T18:42:00.001-07:00

I've been MIA on the blogging scene the past few weeks because it's summer!!! Who wants to be inside on the computer when it's so nice out?? I always seem to have time for Facebook though.

We've been having a great summer now that that silly shut down is over and Jeff isn't working so much. He had four weeks off between June and July and it was great. The first week or so was spent staining the fence and doing some much needed yard work. I guess it paid off becuase we got nominated for Communities in Bloom again this year!

We also spent that first week of Jeff's holidays trying to figure out how to be a family again after those six weeks of nights. While Jeff was working the kids and I got into a routine of heading out to the park or playgroups so Jeff could have a quiet house to sleep. We'd come home for quiet time and then Jeff would be up later in the afternoon to "visit" for an hour or so before he left for work. We were great as a threesome getting out the door in the mornings. As much as we missed him when he was at work, once he was home he was kind of screwing us up a little. It took the better part of a week for all of us to connect again. I felt I deserved some much needed "alone" time so I left Jeff and the girls at home while I did groceries or other errands and while I was away Jeff was missing the signs of the kids being tired or hungry and they turned on him. After a few days he got the hang of parenting again LOL.

The first week of and a half of July we went to Edmonton for a little "vacation". We did lots of fun stuff with the kids. The Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, Telus World of Science, Chuck E Cheese, visited with friends, a small amount of shopping... it was really relaxing actually, just what we needed. QFT (Quality Family Time)!

When we got back from Edmonton it was much of the same. Picking away at stuff around the house and relaxing as a family. Those four weeks off went by fast and Jeff has been back to work but on his normal 6 on/6 off which seems like a breeze in comparison. We've still been hitting the playgrounds and playdates with our friends and the odd trip out to the beach. I just love summer.

On Jeff's last days off we went camping! We went to Long Lake Provincial Park (near Boyle) for three nights. Quite remarkable actually since we still tent (never did get that tent trailer a couple summers ago so we still tent...for now) to go that long, we usually only for two nights since the kids came along. The kids were amazing! They slept well, ate well and played nicely with each other. Jeff and I on the other hand... We ate all the wrong foods (lots of food, but the wrong ones), didn't sleep all that well (something about sleeping in a tent with kids who are generally light sleepers and needed to go pee in the middle of the night but really not wanting to crawl through a bazillion zippers and risk waking them up), and we didn't always see eye to eye about the "tarping off the campsite" issue. But generally we all had a great time. We brought our Dutch Oven this trip and made bacon and eggs over the fire for breakfast. We met up with our friends the Tucks and all enjoyed a vat of chili and buns, again made over the fire in the Dutch Oven (I came to really love food cooked over the fire, we should do it more often in our fire pit in our backyard). Even though the weather didn't cooperate all that well (we only had one day of absolutely no rain) we still had fun.

When I can I'll post pictures of our summer for those "fans" that aren't on Facebook LOL.

Hope everyone else is having a great summer too.

Surviving...

2008-06-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

So we're surviving. Jeff only has four more night shifts and is then on "vacation". Four more doesn't seem so bad after the six weeks of night shifts we've just endured. Why do they always plan shutdowns for the beginning of summer?? Then you're too tired to actually enjoy summer after working so much. Jeff figured out something pretty interesting the other day... based on a regular 40 hour work week, he worked 5.4 weeks in 18 days. Crazy! (I'm sure you are all sick of hearing me complain about this but I can't let it go).

Not only are we surviving the night shifts we are surviving a massive head cold. I got it first and of course passed in on to the girls. Poor Carmen is so stuffed up she had bugaboos (our term for snot) coming out of her eyes. I took both kids to the doctor yesterday just to be sure it was a common cold and not some sort of weird illness. It is a cold and has to run its course but the doctor did give me prescription eye drops for Carmen. Luckily both kids have been sleeping pretty well which is surprising. They are usually up constantly when they are sick. I guess drugging them up before bed is helping hehe. For me, it is starting to break up a bit thanks to the Neti Pot. And today is the first day since Saturday that I can somewhat breath through my nose. Yay!

We also survived Greta's first Dance Recital. She was awesome! Totally messed up the routine but whatever, it was cute. I took a little video of her performance and some of you have probably already seen it on Facebook but I'll upload it to YouTube too. Speaking of YouTube, I've uploaded some home videos on there. I was slacking majorly in that department but I'm starting to get caught up again.

Other than the night shifts and the colds we are doing well. Looking forward to Jeff being home more next week. I can't wait!

A Scare, A Dance Recital And A Bully...

2008-06-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

Things have been going steady at the Preville-Hall household. Jeff is still working all those nightshifts. He had three days off at the end of May and we managed to get our annuals in. Now we are just watching our garden grow!

Jeff doesn't want me to go into too much detail on the World Wide Web, but he had a pretty big scare at work a couple weeks ago. Such a big scare that I'm surprised he's still alive! No exageration. He's fine though, thank God. And we are trying to move on. Though the thought of how dangerous and negligent the company he works for is is hanging over our heads constantly these past few weeks. Not sure what we will do about that but we've agreed something has to change. Will keep you posted.

Greta's dance recital is coming up. We got the costume on Saturday and I must say, Greta will be such a princess on stage. We aren't allowed to take pictures during the show but I'll at least get some of her all dressed up. Full hair, makeup (yes makeup on a three year old!) and costume! Can't wait.

Carmen is becoming such a little devil. We were at the park a while ago and I was chatting with another mom. All of a sudden I hear Greta screaming at the top of her lungs. I look over and Greta is lying on her back on the park equipment and Carmen is on top of her trying to pinch her neck. It was a sight I tell ya! Gosh, Carmen is so strong. Along with the pinching, she's also biting and pulling hair. She beats up Greta at least twice a day! And as soon as Greta starts screaming that it hurts Carmen gives out an evil little laugh. Little buggar. We are using time outs with Carmen and it's working a to some extent. She's starting to at least stay in the time out area for more than three seconds and she usually goes right up to Greta and pats her gently in the spot where she pinched, bit or pulled. I am really proud of the fact that Greta has not retalliated and hit her back. I think by her seeing Carmen get put in time out she is seeing that it is not acceptable to behave that way. I just have to make sure I'm consistent with Carmen and hopefully she'll learn not to do that soon. It's exhausting being the parent of a bully!

Other than that we are just plugging away at life. Jeff is just as tired of being at work as I am of being alone. He has a day off for Greta's recital then goes back for 6 nights and is off for vacation!!! I'm just looking ahead to June 22nd.

Tough Time

2008-05-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

Prepare yourselves, it's going to be a pity party...

I'm having a bit of a rough go. Jeff has been working a shut down at work and tonight is his 12th shift in a row (9 of them have been night shifts). He still has another 7 nights before he gets a day off; actually three days off but one of them will be spent sleeping as he just gets home that morning. Then goes back to work for another three weeks of night shifts. I'm really trying not to lose it. I should probably be used to shut downs by now since Jeff has been at his current job for almost 7 years but I hate, hate, HATE shut downs. It's mandatory for him to be there that much (as per "wonderful" Suncor Union contract). The crummy part is that he will work 18 days in a row and only get overtime pay for six of them (again, as per "wonderful" Suncor Union Contract). Because he works six on six off, he only gets paid overtime wages for the six days he would normally be off. Back in the day, before we had kids, Jeff would work an average of six days of overtime per month and I'd be OK with it. At the time I was in school and only working part time so the extra money came in handy with the mortgage and tuition and stuff. But since having a family it's really hard on all of us when he's at work this much. He's cranking from being at work so much, I'm cranky from being with kids ALL THE TIME and the kids are off because this isn't our normal routine. They only see Jeff for maybe an hour and a half before he leaves for work late afternoon and sometimes for an hour or so at breakfast when he gets home from work in the morning. The miss him terribly and I do too. Night shifts seem to be exceptionally hard since Jeff is around yet unavailable. But if he were on days chances are the kids wouldn't see him at all. They would still be sleeping when he left in the morning and they'd probably be in bed before he got home in the evening (he works 12 hour shifts). So at least with night shifts he gets to see the kids a bit. Thank God for that, otherwise they might not remember who he is LOL.

Lately Carmen has decided she only wants to eat supper while sitting on my lap. If I try to make her sit in her own chair she screams her head off until I can't take it any more and go and put her on my lap. She's also developed a fear of the tub and bath time has become a huge, dramatic event. But since Jeff is on nights we try to play outside for part of the day and of course the kid can't stay away from the sand box and REALLY needs to have a bath every day. On top of it all Carmen is getting some fabulous new teeth in and is not sleeping well so is uber cranky at times throughout the day. Perfect! (Are you catching my sarcasm throughout this blog? Hope so.)

Greta has decided I'm not allowed to pick out any of her clothes in the mornings. She's at the "I will dress myself" stage and is usually dressed before I even come out of the bedroom in the morning. I'm trying not to let it bother me. I have to keep in mind that she is not my puppet and I can't make her do absolutely everything I want her to do. Even if it means I have to take her grocery shopping with pastel pink Capri's, a bright red t-shirt and black patten dress shoes that are a little too small for her and make her walk funny but she insists they fit, I will let her explore her individuality. Really, I will. Actually, I just don't have the energy to fight with her about it.

My fence staining project came to a bit of a hault. We got rain for a couple of days. Great for the grass and my gardens but horrible for my timeline. I was hoping to have the first coat on by the beginning the June. I've only done the front gate and half of the back fence so I don't think I'll make my deadline.

Exactly a month from today (June 22nd) Jeff starts his summer vacation and will be off for four weeks and two days. I'm so looking forward to it. I can't wait to be a family again.

Life Is Good

2008-05-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

Since we are almost half way through May, I thought I'd better update.

April was an amazing month. Jeff and I attended Ryan and Joanne's wedding. THE event of the year I tell ya! The wedding was in Edmonton and mom so graciously said she would come and babysit for us for the day in Edmonton. A few days before the wedding she asked if her and the girls could stay home in Fort McMurray while Jeff and I headed off to Edmonton for the weekend. Two nights to ourselves!!!! We had a blast at the wedding and in Edmonton. We got some things checked off our "list of things to do" while we were there since it's SO much easier to do stuff without the kids. They are getting better but they are still not GREAT travellers. Anyway, it was a nice break and we enjoyed it. Congratulations again Ryan and Joanne!

At the end of April Jeff and I got another break from the kids. We spent five nights in VEGAS!!! A group of us met down there for a 30th Birthday Extravaganza (as Pat, the organizer, called it). Their were eight of us all together and it was great fun. Jeff and I drifted from the group to spend some much needed connecting time; we don't get too much alone time in our regular lives so it was nice to just spend time with each other. We found five days in Vegas to be a little long though. I don't know if it was because we were missing the kids terribly or if because five days in Vegas is just too long. We always found stuff to do though, so much to do, but we were ready to come home by the end of it. The kids did great while we were away. My mom moved in and babysat for us. She took such good care of the girls and I can't thank her enough for it.

While in Vegas we saw the Cirque Du Soleil show "O". It was amazing. I don't even know how to describe it in words. I wanted to see a Cirque show, I didn't even care which one, and I couldn't have been more happy sitting there watching the amazing talents of the acrobats/gymnasts and performers. It was incredible.

Since Vegas was our first trip since our honeymoon (almost five years ago) we decided to splurge a little and take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. Flying in a helicopter is nothing like flying in a plane. You could see so much as we were flying into the Canyon. On the way there we got to sit up front with the pilot! Once we got there we landed in the bed of the Grand Canyon and they served a champagne lunch. We each got individual picnic baskets! It was so cute. The Grand Canyon itself was pretty amazing. It kind of reminded me of Drumheller but way bigger. WAY bigger. The terrain was similar though. It was kind of expensive but well worth it, I'd do it again in a heart beat.

As we are well into the month of May we are busy getting our yard work done. Jeff is starting a shut down at work and will be working night shifts for almost six weeks straight so he wanted to get the flower beds ready for planting. It's still way too early to actually plant anything (too cold at night still) but at least once it does warm up the beds will be ready.

Our fence desperately needs to be stained so I'll be working on that over the next few weeks while Jeff is working. I want to get it done so that when he finally is off we can just focus on some much needed family time and not worry about chores too much. I'll pick away at it in the evenings after the kids go to bed and maybe I'll cash in on some babysitting favors from friends (you know who you are LOL). It will probably take me forever but that's ok. I'm prepared for it to take forever!

Last week we took the hard top off the Jeep and put the soft top on. We put the kids carseats in it and took them for a spin with no roof! At first I was a little leary about it, not knowing if it would be safe for them. But Jeff said it even says in the manual that the hardtop is no safer than no roof at all. The safety is in the roll bars if we were to get in an accident. Plus they were strapped in their carseats, they were fine. They LOVED it by the way. We were even able to swing by Greta's friend Nate's house and take him and his mom for a spin. Apparently he is still talking about it LOL.

With the nice weather, we have been spending an enormous amount of time outside these days and it is so good for the girls. They are eating better with all the increased activity and sleeping better with all the fresh air. It's great. Carmen has mastered climbing up the ladder on the swing set and going down the slide BY HERSELF (my baby is growing up!); and Greta has mastered pumping the swing by herself. I no longer have to push her (yay!). Our outside time consists of the girls playing and me raking, picking up dog poop, weeding or other yard work type things. It is actually a good thing. I feel like I'm getting so much accomplished just because they can entertain themselves more easily this year.

Summer is getting under way and life is good!

Our Worst Fear...

2008-04-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

Well maybe not our worst fear; but it was something we were worried about.

Tuesday morning I woke up and went into the kitchen to start the coffee and noticed that Nemo was floating upside down. He was dead. We were so worried this would happen. We weren't sure how Greta would handle it so we decided to leave Nemo floating upside down in his fish bowl during breakfast. Greta didn't even notice that something was wrong. Later that morning I look Greta to her gym class at the Syncrude Sport And Wellness Centre and Jeff took Carmen to the pet store to find a replacement Nemo.

By the time Greta and I got back from her gym class, Jeff had cleaned the fishbowl and changed the water. New Nemo was in his little plastic bag on the counter waiting for the new chemicals Jeff bought to neutralize the water in his new home. Greta didn't seem to remember the plastic bag from original Nemo. She asked why Nemo was in a baggie and Jeff just plainly said "Nemo's in a baggie so I could clean his bowl out". And she excepted that as an answer. A few minutes later we released Nemo into his new habitat.

Jeff did a bit of research on what might have been the problem with the fishbowl and has come up with too much ammonia. We were using tap water for Nemo's fishbowl and then putting in some chemicals to help keep the water clean. Turns out that Fort McMurray's tap water has a ton of ammonia in it and it killed the fish. We have since bought a testing kit to test the water to see what level of ammonia it is and some solution to help neutralize the ammonia. Oh yeah, AND we've started using distilled water. CRAZY.

All this stuff about the tap water killing our pet fish has made me wonder how good for you our tap water actually is. With Fort McMurray's increasing population the Municipality keeps saying that our old water treatment plant is at max. It can't keep up, we need a newer and larger facility to service all these new homes and subdivisions that keep going up. At this point, I'm just glad we drink bottled water.

What to do, what to do…

2008-03-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

For a few weeks now I have been contemplating going back to work on a permanent part time basis. As much as I love my kids and husband I feel I spend most of my energy doing something for someone else and it’s starting to take its toll on me. I’ve noticed I’m a bit cranky and my patience level with the kids isn’t what it used to be. I’m thinking that focusing a bit of energy doing something other than the usual hum drum day to day household/kid stuff might make me appreciate my family a little more and make my family appreciate me a little more LOL.

A couple weeks ago I got my chance to find out what working out of the home would be like with two small kids. My old boss called and ask if I could help cover the office as a few people were away unexpectedly.

It was kind of nice to go to work. I was a little lost with some new stuff they have implemented in the last 3.5 years since I had worked in that particular office. But it was kind of like riding an old bike. I fell into booking CSTS and OSSA training like I’d done so many times before. I gave people information regarding ESL classes and the Computer Skills Workshop we offer. I even helped save the day and found a missing central file that someone had been looking for for a couple of days! LOL. It felt great and everyone was asking when I would be able to help out again.

Unfortunately, for my former co-workers, I have come to the conclusion (yet again) that my part time wage would probably not even cover childcare for Greta and Carmen. Plus, Jeff could work three days of overtime and make more money than I would in a month. It just doesn’t make sense for me to work outside the home while our kids are still so young.

I would however, LOVE to work from home. My dream is to start up a Virtual Assistant Business. A virtual assistant is someone who does administrative work for other (small or large) businesses. They would email or phone me and tell me what they need done and I would do it for them. Typing letters, formatting documents and reports, data entry… and so on. BUT I’m discovering that it would be a full time job just to set that up and establish a client base and I don’t want to work full time at all right now. Am I sounding picky??

I think the best way for me to start doing anything at all would be to try and get contract jobs from the college that I can do mostly from home. I mentioned this to my old bosses and most of my former co-workers and they all agreed they can use the help and would most definitely have stuff for me to do. It’s just a matter of getting it organized and set up. Hopefully I will hear from them soon! They have since called and asked if I could come in to the office though. LOL It feels great to be appreciated!

Soother Free!!!

2008-03-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

We have been soother free for five nights now! Congratulations to us!

Greta loved her soother to bits and it broke my heart to make the decision to FINALLY take it away. But lets face it, she’s three and a half and it was time.

We had been working up to it for a couple of weeks. In passing I would mention…

“Soo’s are only for little tiny babies; you’re a big girl.”

“Little tiny babies need soo’s more than you do, which little tiny baby would you like to give your soo’s too?”

“If you are very generous and give your soo’s to a little tiny baby who needs them; maybe we can get a fish!”

The last one sold her.

Friday morning we wrote a lovely letter to Baby to say that Greta no longer needed her soo’s and that she is giving them to a little tiny baby who needs them more than she does. Of course in the letter she wanted to mention that Mommy and Daddy said she could get a fish if she gave her soo’s away to someone else.

We then packed all 11 of them into an envelope with the letter and headed off to the post office. The envelope was too thick to go as regular mail so it had to go as a package. It cost me $8.12 to mail 11 crusty old soothers to my parents house. I almost cried.

Once we got over that part we headed off to the pet store to get the beloved fish Greta had already named Nemo. I had a fish bowl from years ago so I really thought we would just buy a $2.00 gold fish and some food and be out of there. But no… We “needed” to buy an air pump, a hose for the air pump, some decorative colored rocks, some special solution to help keep the water clean, fish food and the $6.99 fish that Greta fell in love with immediately upon entering the store. It ended up costing $46.82.

We got Nemo home and all settled into this new environment but the next day we noticed how foggy and cloudy the water was. Jeff took a trip to Walmart to see if he could find a small filter to help keep the fish bowl clean. He came home with a filter, a new quieter/slower air pump (Nemo was having trouble swimming with the forced air coming into his fish bowl), some more decorative colored rocks, a plastic aquarium plant and a syphoning hose. $36.57 later Nemo is finally set up. After all that Jeff and I are just praying we don’t find Nemo belly up any time soon.

This whole experience has kind of reminded me of one of those Mastercard commercials.

Goldfish
Air pump #1
Air hose for Air Pump
Colored rocks
Fishy solution
Fishy food
Filter
Air pump #2
More colored rocks
Plastic fish tank plant
Syphoning hose
Getting three and a half year old to give up soother and be somewhat ok with it…. PRICELESS

Holy Jeepers!!!

2008-03-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

No it isn’t the most practical vehicle for a family and it isn’t the most sensible thing we could have spent our money on. But what fun is that!?!?

Old Blue (Jeff’s old Ford Ranger) is still running but we decided it was time for an upgrade. The only thing on my wish list for this second vehicle was that it must have a backseat so I could put a carseat in it if I needed to. And it does! It has the latch and teather hooks already in it. We can fit the two carseats in it perfectly. Jeff has always wanted a Jeep so I said we should go for it. Maybe it will help his stress level a bit and his hair will start to grow back LOL. Besides, when do we ever do anything fun?? I’m looking forward to the summer when we can take the top off!

P.S. Anyone want to buy Old Blue?? We will be reasonalbe with the price!

2008-02-13T20:57:00.000-08:00

I attended a funeral today. A woman I have known since I was nine years old passed away from Cancer. Her daughter Christy and I were in the fourth grade together and were instant friends. Our backyards were very close to each other's and we used to hop over the neighbours fences to get back and forth. It was always a bit of a race because sometimes the neighbours didn't like us tresspassing and would yell at us through their windows. Over the adolescent high school years we drifted apart but I saw her today at her mother's funeral. I didn't get a chance to talk to her for too long, Jeff was home with the kids and still had to work a nightshift tonight so I wanted to get home so he could rest a bit before he had to work. She was clearly and understandably upset, but their was also a bit of relief on her face. Laurel had been battling cancer for a number of years and I think the simple fact that she isn't suffering any longer is a huge weight off Christy's (and the rest of the family's) shoulders. When someone you love dies suddenly you feel struck with shock and disbelief that you really will never see that person again. You feel angry that you didn't get so say good-bye and you feel lost. When someone has a slower death, where they know they are going to die, they can wrap up loose ends (so to speak) and get a chance to say good-bye. But in most cases, they suffer and are in pain. And I think that's what Christy and her family felt today, greatful that God has ended this long unbearably painful journey for this woman who was their wife, mother and grandmother.

I give my sincerest sympathies to the family. I know how hard it is to loose someone you love and I know how hard it is to get over that loss. I hope,eventually, that you heal.

Holy Smokes!

2008-02-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

Carmen got her first pony tail today!

She beat Greta by a over a year. Greta was two and a half and Carmen is only 14 months old LOL.

We Figured It Out!

2008-02-04T18:55:00.000-08:00

After owning our Mitsubishi Montero Sport for almost four years we have finally figured out how to lock the doors while the vehicle is still running! I know it sounds simple and we should have figured it out long ago but this is our first vehicle with power anything. It has some sort of mechanism so you supposedly can't lock your keys in the car while it's running. Let me tell you how annoyed we were that first winter when Greta was four or five months old and we couldn't warm up the car before we brought her in it! Turns out you just can't use that button on the remote keyless entry to lock it. You need to use the actual key. Who'd a thunk it!

2007-12-27T12:09:00.000-08:00

I know, I know... I'm a slacker. I've been slacking in my blog.

Carmen's 1st birthday has come and gone, Christmas has come and gone and the ugly purple carpet in our living room is GONE!!!

About three weeks before Christmas we decided to turn our entire main floor upside down and install laminate flooring. Uh...can you say crazy!? Things still aren't put back in their "normal"spots. We got someone to come do it for us (the same person who did our fence and our deck) and it really didn't take that long at all. It was done in about three full days and two half days. I'm glad we paid the extra money and had someone come and do it. As handy as Jeff is he would have taken alot longer to do it. We even got new baseboards in the entire main floor and it looks great in here. We are really happy with it.

My baby turned one year old on Dec. 7th! And shortly after Carmen's birthday she started walking. She is starting to pick up speed now and it is so funny to watch. I love it. I took a little video of her the other day, I'll try and upload it to youtube sometime in the near future.

My one year old on Christmas morning.

Christmas was so magical for Greta this year. We sprinkled "raindeer food" (a mix of oatmeal and sparkely sugar) on the driveway on Christmas Eve so Santa's raindeer would find our house easily. And on Christmas morning she was so impressed with the drum set Santa brought her. She would take a break from open gifts to play her drums. Carmen however, wasn't as excited about the drums. After awhile she would whine a bit every time Greta played them. Eventually we banished the drums to the basement.

Greta sprinkling the raindeer food on the driveway.

Greta and her drum set!

Somehow Gramma Lucy and Grandpa Ken knew that Santa was bringing a drum set to the Hall household so they went and bought a keyboard to go along with the musical intruments. Of course they didn't get a plain keyboard, they had to get one with a spinning rappers disc thing and a microphone. I can live with the screeching sound of the spinning disc but that microphone has to go. Unfortunately their is no volume on it and Greta can tell when you turn it off and (of course) doesn't like that. We have a "not in use while napping" rule cause it wakes Carmen up. Then I have a kid shouting in a really annoying microphone and a cranky baby. Oh well, at least Greta likes it and I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually and she won't want to play with it day and night.

Greta and her musical keyboard.

Jeff spoiled me for Christmas this year. He bought me a brand new LAPTOP!!!! Can you guess the excitment their!?! I'm really loving the freedom of not being confined to the computer desk in the living room. Right now as I type this, I'm curled up in a chair in front of the TV! So exotic for me. I'm still trying to get used to typing on this thing. It is definately not like a regular keyboard.

Anyway, I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we did. We wish everyone all the best for 2008!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Random Act of Kindness

2007-11-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

We received a card in the mailbox this week that was addressed to "The Gardener". When we opened it up their was a thank you note saying:

"I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed walking past your garden all summer long. Every time I passed I stopped and enjoyed the view. So thank you for creating something so beautiful."

Along with the nice words was a $15 gift card for Starbucks!

Jeff and I were blown away! We talk about how long it takes us sometimes to plant, weed and fertilize. And sometimes we talk about letting the flower beds go to grass so we can quickly mow it and be done the yard work in a half hour, instead of the (sometimes) two or more hours it takes us.

But this little random act of kindness makes all the effort worthwhile. I hope I meet this person someday so I can return the kindness and buy them a Latte.

Birthday Pictures

2007-11-05T10:26:00.000-08:00

Blogger was being difficult the other day when I was posting about Jeff's birthday. It wouldn't let me post pictures so I'm doing it now.

The basement crew watching the baseball game. These guys vegged out on our hidiously uncomfortable futon for the entire baseball game.

Poker faces. Not sure who's winning. Probably none of them.

What party wouldn't be complete without a visit from Austin Powers.

Birthday Cake.

More birthday cake. During their sleepover, Greta and my mom (gamma ucy) made Jeff a VERY colorful birthday cake.

2007-11-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

Halloween has come and gone. Carmen was a cute little pumpkin and Greta was Elmo at first but then just before trick or treating she decided she didn't want to be Elmo and wanted to be a princess. It seemed a little deja vu for Jeff and I.

Last year we got Greta a really cute Chicken costume from Old Navy. We LOVED it. We get it home and show Greta and she freaks out. Screamed "NO KICKEN MOMMY!" and literally ran away every time I brought it near her. I managed to bribe her with chocolate to at least put it on a couple of times so we could get a picture but when it came to actual Halloween night she wanted nothing to do with it and was not going to take any bribes. It so happened that we got a package from Jeff's dad that same day and it had a really frilly dress for Greta. She imediately put it on and became a princess. Thank goodness we weren't planning on heading out trick or treating that year, or she would have froze.

Greta as the dreadful Chicken and Baby Claire as the beautiful Catepiller (October 2006)

Greta as a princess (October 2006)

This year we took her to the store to pick out her own costume. She picked Elmo. Jeff and I were thrilled, it's such a cute costume and since Elmo is her very best friend these days, it totally suited her. She wore it to dance class last Saturday and also to a Halloween party on Monday. BUT... on Wednesday evening when we were trying to get her ready to go trick or treating she decided Elmo wasn't good enough. She wanted to be a princess. Luckily she is very into dressup so we had a few princess dresses, tiaras and magic wands to choose from at the last minute.

Along with Halloween comes Jeff's birthday. He was privlidged enough to be born on October 31st. This was a big year for Jeff, he hit the big 3-0. We discussed it months in advance and he said he really didn't want a big party but I couldn't let this milestone be passed nonchalantly. I talked to Jeff's friend Jason and asked him if he would help me plan a surprise party for the 27th of October. Jason is always up for a good time so of course he agreed to help me (thanks again Jason!). The plan was that I would take Jeff out for dinner, just the two of us. My parents were keeping the girls for a sleepover (Carmen's first, and she did wonderfully by the way). While we were out Jason and another friend would be setting up the garage for poker night. Jeff was totally surpised when we got home and I think he really enjoyed himself. It was a nice small gathering of his usually poker buddies and a few other friends dropped by for a quick hello on their way to the next halloween party. It was a nice evening and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Silly blog is a curse...

2007-10-01T13:40:00.001-07:00

It seems as soon as I blog about anything the exact opposite happens (or actually it doesn't happen at all). I blogged about renovating our basement bathroom this summer...that never happened. I blogged about the playroom being done by the end of the summer...that never happened either. I blogged about staining the fence this year...you guessed it, that didn't happen. But I guess we do have a fairly good excuse. Jeff ended up getting a little sick. Near the end of May and beginning of June he was complaining that his hair was hurting so he started wearing his hat less and less thinking it was maybe something to do with that. In the middle of June he went for a hair cut and at the back of his head was a small patch. It looked like the barber nicked him with the razor so we thought nothing of it. At the end of July, Jeff went for another hair cut and came home with the patch at the back of his head bigger. Of course I'm the one to say "maybe you should try a REAL hairdresser since this barber you go to keeps shaving chunks out of the back of your head." He just shrugged it off. A few days later we notice a lump near the bald spot and if you pull, even in the slightest, the hair in that area just fell out. Quite a bit alarming. We went to the doctor, had some blood work done and the diagnosis was Alopecia Areata.

Alopecia is an autoimmune disease where the white blood cells attack the hair folicules. Esentially, the white blood cells think Jeff's hair is a disease. Years ago they thought Alopecia was stress related. Meaning only people who were stressed got it. But in more recent research it seems that anyone can get it. It is mostly diagnosed in children so it is a little weird that Jeff got it just before he turns 30. But from what we've read, it can happen to anyone at anytime in their life.

In August, Jeff had to take some medication to help unconfuse his white blood cells. The medication had a few side effects (similar to a nasty stomach flu) but it was manageable. The hair isn't quite growing back just yet (it can take the better part of a year for it to grow back, if it even grows back at all) but he isn't losing any more so that's a good sign. For a brief moment we thought he would lose all body hair too, but it seemed to just attack the hair on his head. He goes for more treatments next week and the doctor did mention that he can be refered to a specialist to try and get the hair growing again. But Jeff said from day one that it is only hair and he doesn't want to do anything too invasive or painful just so he can have hair. I have to say I agree with him. I'm getting used to the new bald Jeff and I kind of like it now. Plus we are saving a ton of money from him not going to the barber every three or four weeks! hehe.

So in reality who cares if we didn't get all the things we wanted to get done this summer. Jeff is not dying and I won't be a widow with two small kids. This whole sickness thing was a little scary and did make us realise what really is important in our lives. I would really like a new bathroom but I really LOVE that my husband is going to around in good health for a long, long time!

Pictures...

2007-09-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted pictures in awhile so thought I'd share a few with you.

Our garden came in quite nice this year. I still have to go to the community garden plot to harvest my vegetables, guess I'll try and do that this week.

We stained our deck. It's grey to match the siding and the parging we did last year.

Greta was quite the helper...

She was also quite the helper in the kitchen this summer...

We made a quick trip to Edmonton in August to have the car serviced and to do some shopping. The kids are getting to be such great travellers.

Greta and Carmen are starting to interact with each other. It is amazing to just watch them play. I don't think Greta realises how much younger Carmen is because she will start playing imagination games and get sort of irrate when Carmen doesn't follow along. But they seem to be becoming great friends.
The big news of the summer... Carmen started crawling!

Fishing Trip and Girls Night

2007-09-09T10:25:00.001-07:00

So Jeff is on a fishing trip in Northern Saskatchewan right now. He left Thursday morning with some friends and won't be back until Monday (late afternoon/early evening) sometime. I haven't actually talked to him since Thursday evening when he called to let me know the drive was uneventful and they made it safely, but I'm really hoping he is enjoying himself. He loves, loves, LOVES fishing so this is good for him since he hasn't done much of it since Greta was born. Hopefully he'll come back with some pictures I can post for you all.

Since Jeff is away I decided to host a little "garage party" girls night last night. I put the kids to bed, brought out the baby monitor and started a fire in the wood stove in our garage to make it nice and toasty warm. I found a recipe for a hot chocolate made out of a slow cooker so we had some of that (with whipped cream of course) and some snacks. Most of the women that came were moms and were just happy to get out of the house and be able to hold a conversation with no interruptions from the little ones. I thought it was great and I think everyone else did too. Lots of laughs, lots of food and lots of good company. I think I might start doing that more often. I can see Jeff and I fighting over the garage now. He'll want to host poker night and I'll want to have another garage party lol.

Took a Little Break...

2007-09-06T19:16:00.000-07:00

So I don't know if anyone noticed but I took a little break from blogging. The summer was just too nice to be inside at the computer. Actually, the computer time I had through the last six or so weeks was spent on Facebook. Darn Facebook is was too addicting and user friendly. For those few people who haven't discovered the Facebook phenomenon, it's a networking website similar to Classmates or Hi5 where you find old friends and reconnect with pictures and messaging and such. I find it very addicting in the sense that I'm getting in touch with people I haven't even thought about in years. It is cool to see what someone I haven't seen since kindergarden is up to these days.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get back into the blogging again. Check back regularly again for updates and pictures.

Picture Post

2007-07-21T14:09:00.001-07:00

Carmen and I in Lac La Biche on the way home from camping in Bonnyville.

Greta learning to juggle at the Edmonton Street Performers Festival

Greta not sharing her popcorn with "gamma ucy" at the Edmonton Street Performers Festival

Greta and I in the mouth of the Worlds Largest Dinosaur in Drumheller

Greta and the Worlds Largest Dinosaur

Greta in the car watching her DVD's. It's great now that she'll keep the headphones on Jeff and I don't have to listen to it.

Carmen still has to face backwards in the car so she doesn't get to look at much. No wonder the kid gets a little cranky in the car sometimes.

Greta exploring the HooDoos

Lets do a "Where's Waldo" type of thing... Can you spot Jeff and Greta?

One of the breathtaking views we stopped to enjoy as we toured around the badlands.

Jeff took this picture himself. I thought it turned out quite well. Who knew he was such a photographer since he NEVER takes any pictures.

Jeff and Carmen on one of our many stops to let the kids out of their carseats.

The view from my parents balcony

Sleepy Carmen after an evening at the Legislature wading pool

Hanging out at the Legislature grounds by my parents condo

We're Back...

2007-07-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

from vacation!

Our Canada Day camping adventure with the Tucks didn't turn out as completely expected but I think we all had a great time anyway. After a very long round about day in the cars we ended up at Muriel Lake just outside Bonnyville. The lake itself is nothing to brag about (to be honest, it's pretty much dried up) but the campground was very appealing. I wouldn't mind going back there again someday. The campsites were huge! In one site we were able to fit two vehicles, our gigantic tent, the Tucks family tent, a gazebo, a play tent for the kids, the picnic table and fire pit and still have a fair bit of room for the kids to run around. It was great. The campground had free fire wood, a playground, a beach area and washrooms with coin showers. It was also literally minutes from Bonnyville. The sleeping didn't go so well. I was not expecting to get great sleeps with two small kids in a tent but by the second night of absolutely no sleep I was ready to go home. Two nights is definitely enough for us when we're tenting. Even though we were super tired by the end of it, it was still enjoyable and Greta still talks about her camping trip with her friend Nate.

We came home for two nights and then headed off to Edmonton. We stay at my parents condo in downtown Edmonton when we go and are so greatful because we wouldn't go for nearly as long as we do if we had to pay for a hotel. My mom is working in Calgary these days and goes to Edmonton on the weekends so we had nice visits with her when she was on her days off. It was awsome actually. She babysat for us alot so Jeff and I were able to get quite a bit of shopping in. We even left Carmen with her for an afternoon so Jeff and I could have a nice lunch, just the two of us. I think that was my most favorite part of the whole vacation. It's been a long time since Jeff and I spent time completely alone. We had a chance to talk and not get interrupted by a crying baby or a whiny toddler. We were able to finish sentences the first time around and not lose our train of thought. I don't think we stopped talking the whole time were by ourselves AND we got to eat our food while it was still warm lol. It was great.

We spent a couple of days in Drumheller. Greta was still a little too small for the Dinosaur Museum but she really loved the HooDoos. She got a big kick out of climbing up high with Jeff. She found lots of "special" stones that she had to bring in the car with her. It was too cute. On our way back to Edmonton from Drumheller we took the round about way and stopped by Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park. That was another highlight for Jeff and I. We remember reading about it in school. It's part of Alberta's history and we actually got to see what all the fuss was about in our school textbooks. We were the only ones there for a little while and it was so peaceful. I really don't have any words to describe just how beautiful the scenery is there, and the pictures below really don't justify it either. It was well worth the detour off the main highway.

Everyone did really well with the enormous amout of time we spent in the car over the last couple of weeks. Jeff and I were extreemly impressed with Greta and the potty training during our travels. We did have to pull over a few times for her to pee but at least she didn't pee in the car. We had her little potty in the backseat with her so it was easy to pull her and her potty out of the car at the same time and let her pee. Carmen needed a couple of little breaks from her carseat so we made sure to stop lots but over all she slept most of the time. It was nice that we weren't in a hurray and could stop whenever we felt the kids needed a break. That is what I think vacations should be about. Not having to rush around to see everything and everyone. Taking our time and doing what we want when we want. We got back and felt more relaxed and better connected with our family than we have in awhile. It was nice.

We've been back home for a week now. It took the girls a couple of days to get back on schedule somewhat. Greta is a bit of a lazy bones these days and is sleeping in lots. She doesn't sleep that well when she's not in her own bed so I think she's just catching up. Then again it could be the heat. Fort McMurray is in the middle of a bit of a heatwave. I'm dying and I think the kids are too but Jeff seems to be handling it ok. He prefers the heat to the cold anyday. Oh well, when it's 40 below again we'll be wishing for this heat.

I think Carmen is going to be crawling sooner than later. She is really starting to hold her upper body up and can be on her hands and knees for short periods of time. She can get to a sitting position from laying on her belly which means we need to lower the mattress in her crib right away. I remember when Greta started crawling I was so excited. Then it became more of a pain in the butt. I have since learned that I like my babies to be able to sit up so they can see everything around them but not be able to move anywhere. I don't like moving babies. Now we're going to have to watch our for stairs and small toys that could be potential choking hazards. I prefer to be able to plop Carmen on the floor with a bunch of age appropriate toys and continue to ignore her as I've pretty much done her entire life so far lol. Aaahhh, I guess we all have to grow up sometime!

Summer is in the air...

2007-06-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

We've been a little busy the last month or so. Jeff has been working like crazy for the month of June. He's been working 9 and 3 pretty much since the end of May. Which means he works 3 dayshifts, then 6 nightshifts and then gets 3 days off. All 12 hour shifts. But that first day off he just gets off nighshifts so it is pretty much a dead day because he just got home that morning and needs to sleep a little. Then on his two days off we are both running around trying to get organized for the next week and a half of 12 hour shifts. Not to mention give our girls a little family quality time. Anyway, only three more nights and Jeff is on VACATION! YIPEE!

We are heading out camping for the Canada weekend and are extreemly excited about that. We are camping with the Tuck family so Greta's friend Nate will be good entertainment for her. Actually they will be good entertainment for each other. I'm just looking forward to the great outdoors, the campfire and roasting marshmallows. We come home to drop off our gear, attend a birthday part for a family friend, an eye doctor appointment for myself and then we are headed off to Edmonton, Drumheller, Edmonton again and then home by the middle of July (Jeff has to be back at work by the 16th) Lots of family quality time in the car, I hope we can all survive.

With summer seems to come birthdays. Since April we have been invited to seven, that's right SEVEN birthday parties. We have another two that we have to decline because they are in the middle of our holiday. I'm not complaining here. I like birthday parties and so does Greta. She especially loves singing Happy Birthday and eating cake. However, this past week we attended baby Claire's birthday. She turned the big One Year Old. Greta was extreemly into her party, she opened all of Claire's gifts while Claire just sat back and watched. I was mortified but thankfully Claire's parents are very good friends of ours and were so happy to see that at least someone was into the whole party thing. Of course since Greta opened all the gifts she thought they were hers and had a minor meltdown when she realised they weren't coming home with us. Here are a couple of pictures of Greta at Claire's birthday party. In hind sight it is hillarious but at the time I all I kept thinking was that we are going have "issues" when we leave without all those presents.

Some pictures of a summer day in the backyard...

A rare photo of moi...

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far. Lots more summer days ahead of us!

2007-06-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

Teething baby + potty training toddler = NO SLEEP FOR ME

Ugh, I'm tired. Between Carmen waking up every hour and a half to two hours because she's in pain and Greta screaming at the top of her lungs "I HAVE TO PEE" multiple times in the middle of the night; I'm getting no sleep whatsoever. AND on top of it all Jeff has been working overtime (nightshifts, of course) so I'm sort of on my own here. Oh well, they won't be this little for ever. When I was growing up my mom's favorite saying was always "someday, when you have kids of your own, you will understand." I'm starting to see what she ment by that.

We spent Jeff's one day off last week working in our yard. Our flower beds are really starting to take shape. The perenials are starting to green up and grow a little and we've finally gotten our annuals into our flower beds. They look awesome if I do say so myself. I can't wait for everything to be in full bloom. We have about 6 dead daisy plants that need to be pulled out and replaced with something else but we aren't sure with what just yet so we are ignoring them and hope that everyone else doesn't notice they are dead lol. Jeff wants to replace them with something green and bushy but I like color and want something that will flower.

Farmer Jeff (he looks so cute in his overalls)

Flower Bed #1 (the dead daisies are in this bed up near the deck.)

Flower Bed #2 is the one that rounds the corner of the deck. It looks really nice later in the summer when the stuff has grown a bit more.

Flower Bed #3

My herb garden at the side of the house. Nothing there yet but it will come. I'm sure of it. I just have to remember to water it, the rain doesn't get to it because the roof blocks it.

I'll have to remember to take more pictures later in the summer once everything has grown a bit more. Last year we got nominated for Communities in Bloom and I'm hoping people see the effort we put into it again this year and will nominate us this year too. Hint, hint...someone nominate us! lol.

This and That...

2007-05-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

I don't want to jinx it but...Greta is doing so unbelievably well with potty training. I'm so proud of her. It really is true when they decide they want to do it, they just do it. Last Saturday I told Greta that we didn't have anymore daytime diapers so when she had to pee she'd have to go on the potty. A little coaxing from Auntie Nancy and Greta finally took the plunge and has been pretty much going on the potty ever since. Periodically she would say "I need a diaper" and I'd just very calmly and patiently say "we don't have any daytime diapers, you'll just have to go on the potty". And it worked! I was surprised. She still wears diapers at bedtime but as the potty training days progress she is more and more dry each morning, so that's a good sign.

As much as I wanted to keep her napping until Kindergarten, we've taken Greta's afternoon nap away. She was napping for 2-3 hours in the afternoons but then she'd be up until 10:30 p.m. or 11:00 p.m. If I woke her up after an hour she'd be miserable. It was driving me crazy because Carmen wasn't napping at the same time as Greta so I was dealing with kids from 6:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. with no break in between. It was horrible and I was at my wits end. So a couple of weeks ago we took Greta's naps away and started initiating quiet/TV time. The first couple of days she was pretty cranky around supper time but I just struggled through it and she is usually fine now. As long as she gets her quiet/TV time in the afternoon she is much more tolerable in the early evenings. I'm still with kids ALL DAY LONG but at least I have my evenings back to relax and Jeff and I have some one on one time with just us. Usually both kids are asleep at the latest by 8:00 p.m. so that gives Jeff and I a good two to two and a half hours before we head to bed ourselves. Much happier household around here.

Carmen is still pretty much breastfed all the time but we've started her on baby cereal so Jeff feels a bit more comfortable being alone with her. He was always so worried about me going out and leaving her and him not being able to feed her (she hasn't been taking a bottle too well). Now he knows he can just top her up with a bit of pablum if he has to and she'll be fine until I can get home. On his days off this past week/weekend I was able to get out a bit in the afternoons and in the evenings after I put Carmen to bed. (Jeff usually puts Greta to bed when he's home anyway so I don't worry about her). I had coffee with my girlfriends, walked with my friend for a bit at the Relay for Life, did some shopping alone :) and got myself a hair cut! It was fabulous, I haven't had that much childless freedom in a VERY long time. I felt like I was forgetting something every where I went LOL.

Carmen testing out her cereal. She eats the best when Jeff feeds it to her. Apparently I have something better to offer so she doesn't really eat when I try to feed her.

We bought the kids a swing set and Jeff was busy putting it together on Saturday. It is great for the kids, Greta LOVES it. We even got a little baby swing for Carmen and she is quite content in it.

Mr. Handyman himself!

Seems like with the nice weather finally coming we are always outside. Not a bad thing, I love the outdoors and I feel the fresh air is great for the kids. We've been to countless parks in the city and just hanging around the backyard is so enjoyable. Our garden beds need to be tended to shortly, the tulips are already up but we really need to weed and get the miracle grow going on the rest of it. But it will come. This year I've also become involved in the Community Garden which is located pretty much across the street from us. You can reserve a plot and grow you own veggies. I'm so excited about that. I still have to get out there and plant my seeds, I'm planning for tomorrow depending on the weather, but I think this will be great for me. Jeff tends to take over the flower beds here at home because he's a little anal about how he wants our house to look. So my little veggie patch is going to be all mine, and if he's nice to me this summer I just might share some of my fresh veggies with him LOL. I've never done this before so I'm really looking forward to seeing how it all turns out by the end of the summer.

Just some random pictures that I liked, thought I'd share...

Greta and her friend Ethan getting ready to go in the bike trailer.

Tub Time!

I love this picture. My dad is so happy and Carmen looks terrified LOL.

Carmen looking terrified again.

2007-05-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

Wow! Been awhile since I blogged. I'm terrible.

So we finally, FINALLY got new carpet in our bedrooms this week. Yay! Boo :( at the poor customer service. Most people complain about the customer service here in McMurray but I've been trying to be positive the last little while and be the better person when I get poor service. I'll be the one to ask the cashier at Safeway how her day is going and I'm always sure to thank them for their service and tell them that I really do hope they have a good rest of the day. When I get carry out service for my groceries I'll let the clerk know I don't need help getting the groceries into the car, I just need help getting a cart full of groceries and my two kids (one who can't walk and the other who refuses to walk) to the car. I'll try nicely to explain to the waitress at Earls that I have two small kids who are about to lose it so I need the bill as soon as she can get it to me. But the carpet fiasco of 2006 and then again of 2007 have Jeff and I at our wits end when it comes to customer service in the floor laying department.

We have been trying to get carpet installed in our house since October 2006. We thought it would be nice to have nice fresh carpet for when Carmen arrived in early December. After many, many delays, two different carpet companies and a fight to get our money back we decided a week before Carmen came that this was not going to happen now. We gave up and thought we'd wait until things calmed down after the baby was born. A couple of weeks ago we went to the third and last flooring company here in town, picked out a nice neutral, biege, berber carpet and set up an installation date. I called the day before said installation date to confirm they were coming and to see if I could get a time frame out of them. All was confirmed and we were happy so we started moving some of the furniture out of the bedrooms and into the living room.

Then the morning of the installation date they called with not so good news. They were 6 feet short of the carpet we already bought and paid for. They sold the same carpet to someone else and didn't leave enough on the roll for us (even though we bought it first). Jeff was quite annoyed because this had been literally the 6th time we've moved the furniture to get carpet installed in the same three bedrooms. He told them he'd be down to pick out new stuff because he was not putting the furniture back into those bedrooms without new carpet installed, and it was going to get done that day. He raced down there, picked out a different carpet (which we both like better anyway) and two hours later the carpet installers arrived. I had taken the kids to a friends house for a playdate to keep them out of the way and when I returned home at lunch time it was complete caos around here. My brand new carpet was sitting on the front lawn and the old stuff was sitting on the front deck. The installers radio was blaring so loud you could hear it three houses away and I actually had to ask one of them to make sure they lit their cigarette OUTSIDE of my house. I'm still a little frustrated with the whole fiasco that I'm not going to go into detail about how we paid these guys to install carpet but Jeff had to help them bring three 12' rolls of carpet into the house. I'm not going to elaborate on the giant hole in the wall in Greta's room or the fact that Jeff had to scrub the carpet layer's blood out of our BRAND NEW carpet because he cut himself when he put said giant hole in the wall. But on a positive note, the carpet looks great. I really love how it turned out and it will look even nicer once we get the baseboards on.

Here are a couple of pictures of the carpet in Greta's room. (Our room was way to messy and Carmen was sleeping in her room, so you only get a pic of Greta's room LOL)

We also got a new deck! No fiasco there and we are really happy with it. The same guy who replaced our fence last year came back and did our deck. It turned out fabulous. The deck boards are on an angle and we love the look of it. That part was my idea :) Having them on an angle prevented butt joints so if and when shifting occurs the boards shouldn't lift or twist. The little table and chairs set was my Mother's Day gift (I think), along with flowers and a beautiful card :) Not sure if we'll stain the deck this year (since we are staining the fence thought we might as well just get it all over with at once) or wait until next year like you're supposed to (because they used treated wood), either way it looks way better than what was there before.

And on another positive note, because I hate to end blogs with negativity, Jeff has been picking away at the playroom. The ceiling tiles, light fixtures and laminet flooring are all installed in the playroom. It is really coming along nicely. We just have closet doors, baseboards and moldings to do then we can start loading in the toys :) I'll post a before and after pic when it's all said and done. I don't want to ruin the surpise by giving you a sneak peak. Although most of you have already seen the work in progress in person LOL.

Hope everyone is doing well and I will try not to leave it so long between posts.

Toilets and Trucks...

2007-04-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

We had potty training success the other day. Greta went #2 on the toilet! We have been having a hard time even getting her used to the idea of the potty or the toilet. If we even mentioned potty she would freak out and start screaming "NO, POTTY! I NEED DIAPER!". It was very trying to hear your two and a half year old refuse to go anywhere near the toilet. But last Sunday we had success. I could tell she was trying to go #2 but was having a hard time with it so I suggested the potty. She said "noooo, nnnnoooo poootttttyyy". I said that it might feel better to go on the toilet. She gave me one of her "you're out to lunch mom" looks and ignored me. A minute or two later she said in sort of a panic "I go on potty NOW!" so we rushed to the bathroom and as soon as I put her on the toilet she relaxed and out it came! I was so excited. I took pictures and everything! And when she was all done I gave her four mini marshmellows. I think she was pretty proud of herself too. Ever since then she has asked to go on the potty at least once a day. She hasn't actually done anything but at least she'll sit on it now and won't get so freaked out when I mention the word "potty". I'm thinking if she keeps up wanting to sit on it then I'll put panties on her next week and give that a try. (I tried a few weeks ago and all she did was pee in the panties, and on the floor, then freak out cause she was all wet.) I'm hoping she is more ready.

Big girl Greta on the potty! This is the bathroom in the basement we want to renovate and yes, those are paint cans in the shower. It leaks so the only thing this shower is good for is storage LOL.

A couple weeks ago Jeff's 1995 blue Ford Ranger died on his way home from work. He was pretty discouraged because this was the first truck he bought with his own money, this was "his" truck. I mentioned letting the Ranger rest in peace. It's 11 years old and has a bazillion Kilometers on it. It has no power windows, no power locks, no power steering, no power in the engine (it's a four cylinder) and is horrible in the winter because it's two wheel, rear wheel drive. I suggested we scrape up some money for a minivan and he could drive the Mitsubishi (our family vehicle) back and forth to work. He said the Mitsubishi is hard on gas and that we couldn't afford to buy a minivan right now. He's right to an extent, but I'd be willing to let go of some of the renovations we have planned to be able to get a minivan. Jeff really wanted to get old blue running again. He picked away at it for days, thought and thought about what could be wrong. mentioned to guys at work how it died and what they thought could be the problem. They all came up with the timing belt. So he spent another few days trying to get the timing belt off (it went so much easier once he found the right tools, thanks Vic) and putting on a new one. And........it runs perfect again. I had mixed emotions when he came in the house with a huge grin saying he got it running. It's nice to have two running vehicles again but I have been hoping for a minivan for what seems like forever. I When I was pregnant with Greta we knew my two door Chevy Beretta was going to be a pain to get the carseat in and out of so it was time to upgrade. I suggested a minivan because I knew we would be having more than one kid and I also knew we wouldn't be getting another new vehicle for awhile (since you never get your money back in cars we usually just run them into the ground as much as we can then buy a used new one). Back then, Jeff's famous words were "I'm not driving a minivan!" so we went with the Mitsubishi Montero Sport. Now, with two carseats in the backseat and no room for anyone/anything else he sees the practicality of the minivan. I guess I'll just have to get pregnant again in order to get the minivan I've always wanted LOL. Oh yeah, now that old blue is running again I've put a "Do Not Resesitate" order on it. The next time it goes into failure Jeff is not allowed to jump start it at all. Unless we really don't have the money for a new vehicle, then I guess he'll have to operate and try to get it going again.

Old Blue

Fairwell

2007-04-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

When you have a baby, that baby consumes every single molecule of energy you have. EVERY. SINGLE. MOLECULE. So you find yourself becoming friends with other people who have children around the same age just so you can converse with someone who knows a little about what you are going through with your new baby. Haley and I worked at the college together so we knew each other before we had kids. Her daughter Sierra was born December 27, 2003 so I was glad to know her when Greta came along almost 8 months later. Haley lent us everything from a swing and bouncy chair to baby bottles and baby clothes. She was also a wealth of knowledge. Any questions we had Jeff would say, "did you ask Haley?" Over the last few years we have become friends with two other moms. Judith and her son Nate came into the picture in the fall of 2005. I had a lot in common with Judith, we both wanted to work part time but were not exactly "happy" with the childcare arrangements we had. We started up the babysitting co-op and started caring for each other's child when the other one was at work. We didn't have to pay for childcare or leave our kids with someone we didn't really trust. We met Amy and her daughter Clea last summer at the park. The two of them fit into our little group extreemly well and now we get together for playdates every couple of weeks.

Since then Haley gave birth to Chase, he is 8 months old. I have birth to Carmen, she will be 5 months coming up May 7th. Amy gave birth to Taryn, she is 3 months old. And Judith is expecting her second child somewhere around the beginning on November!

Well, a shift in our little group came about this week. Haley and her family are leaving Fort McMurray. They are off to Australia for at least a month, maybe longer if her husband can find a job there. If they are not Australia bound for good then they are headed to Ontario to be closer to her family. Either way, they are not going to be back in Fort McMurray anytime soon. I'm going to miss them but I really hope the Australia thing works out for them. I think it would be such an amazing experience to live in a different country for a few years. Their kids will learn all about ocean's and beaches and surfing and probably start talking with an Aussie accent...I love little kids with accents.

To the Culvers...I wish you safe travels and the best of luck. Keep in touch.

Greta(10 months old) and Sierra (1.5 years old) July 2005

The whole crew, except for Judith's belly! Sierra (3.5 years) Chase (8 months) Clea (2.5 years) Taryn (3 months) Greta (2.5 years) Nate (2 years) Carmen (4.5 months)

You Tube Videos

2007-04-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

I was having trouble putting my videos on blogger so I made a You Tube Channel to upload my videos for you all to see. The link is to the right. Enjoy!

Thumb Sucker

2007-04-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

So I'm pretty sure I have a thumb sucker on my hands here. Not sure how I feel about that. I was the thumb sucker as a kid and I actually remember my mom telling me I was too old to suck my thumb and it was time to quit. I still sucked my thumb secretly for a long time after that. Jeff says sometimes when I'm deep asleep I have my thumb out and very close to my mouth like I'm going to suck it. He says he's never actually seen me sucking it but he also doesn't stare at me all night waiting for me to do it so who knows; maybe at 28 years old I still do suck my thumb.

We gave Greta the soother her first day of life because I didn't want her to be a thumb sucker, at least with the soother I could take it away, or at least that's what I thought. She is two and a half years old and still has it for naps and bedtime. I've limited it alot but I haven't actually taken it away yet. With Carmen, I was breastfeeding (and still am) and didn't want her to get nipple confusion by giving her a soo, so I didn't. I waited until she was about 7 weeks old to really try it out with her and she wanted nothing to do with it. So I guess she's a thumb sucker, like me.

Easter Weekend

2007-04-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty good Easter weekend. Jeff is on his days off so we had the whole weekend together. Alot of times with his shift work he has to work Easter, Thanksgiving or even Christmas, so it was nice to know he didn't have to work at all. We decorated eggs on the Friday and I was suprised how involved Greta was. She really enjoyed it, more than I thought she would. Usually Jeff and I end up doing the crafts while she plays but not this time. She wanted to see the eggs change color and waited patiently while they dried so she could put stickers on them. I was impressed how well they turned out.

Also on Friday, Greta had a little incident with an open door. She was running and tripped and fell into a door that was open. She got the narrow part right in the middle of her face. She had a HUGE bump on her forhead, a bleeding nose and a fat/split lip all at once. It was horrible. But she is such a trooper, a couple hours later she was playing dressup princess like nothing had happened. She still looks pretty banged up though.

Sunday morning the Easter Bunny left a trail of chocolate eggs from the bedroom doors to the kitchen table with a few suprises on it. Greta was so excited, it was so fun to see. I'm really going to enjoy when both Greta and Carmen are at the age to be excited over this kind of stuff. It will be fun for Greta to have some company in her excitment.

Our Easter ended this morning with an Easter Egg Hunt at a friends house. It was the first time Greta had done anything like this so she was a little uncertain about it at the beginning but once she got going she loved it!

In the middle of all our Easter activities Jeff managed to paint the playroom! He is at Rona now looking into the ceiling tiles and is hoping to get a start on it before he has to go back to work on Wednesday. Then we just have flooring, lighting, closet doors, mouldings and a number of other little nit picky things to deal with. I'll be happy if it's done by the end of the summer LOL.

My mom says I don't put nearly as many pictures of Carmen up as I do of Greta. I don't know, maybe it's because Greta's so much more interesting these days. She does stuff and says stuff that just blows my mind sometimes. Carmen is cute and cuddly and I love her to bits. I guess I don't post as many pictures of her because up until recently she hasn't done much except eat and sleep LOL. Carmen is starting to get a personality of her own though, she definitely knows who her mom is and when her mom isn't holding her LOL. she has this little giggle/squeal that just tickles my heart when I hear it. It's awesome! I could go on forever about both my kids and sometimes I think I do LOL. Anyway, here are a few pictures of Carmen (just for you Mom!).

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Pffft...

2007-04-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

OK, I know we live in the "Northern" part of Alberta but this is getting ridiculous...

April 3rd and it's SNOWING AGAIN! Grrr. I so want winter to be over. I'm done with it.

On a happier note...

Greta has learned to play "I Spy". She says "I spy ittle eye sominnnn.....my bankie!" So unbelievably cute. I just love her to bits sometimes.

hmmm...

2007-03-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

Nothing to exciting happening around here these days. I picked out a paint color for the playroom, it's called "Lemon Daze". In case you couldn't figure it out...it's yellow! We went to Rona today to pick up the primer and the paint. Brent is just finishing up with the mudding and sanding so hopefully tomorrow Jeff can prime it. He has to go back to work on Friday and Brent leaves to go home to Saskatchewan on Saturday (or Sunday) so we'll probably have to wait until Jeff's next days off to paint. But that's ok. We still have to put in flooring and ceiling tiles before we can actually use the room. We looked at laminate flooring while we were at Rona and I think that is the way we decided to go for the playroom. We just have to agree on a color and type of laminate. Of course everything we liked was expensive :( Jeff is thinking about installing it himself...not sure how I feel about that. He can do it and will make it look nice, but I just know (like with every other project he's done) that it will not go as smooth in reality as it goes in his head. Something will not go exactly as he imagined it and he will get REALLY annoyed and thats when he breaks something and has to start all over again. He is learning to be so handy though.

Thought I'd post a few pictures just to show you how much freakin snow is surrounding our house (I took these pictures about a week ago)...

The view out my livingroom window

There is a flower bed under that giant mountain of snow, honest.

We have a really big driveway, can fit at least 6 or 7 vehicles on it. We started to get a little lazy half way through winter and stopped shoveling the part we don't actually park on. Jeff just kept shoveling a walking path from the house to the garage and left the rest. That fence is at least 7 feet high so this gives you an idea of how much snow we got this year. I was worried all that snow was going to melt and run against the house and we were going to get a leak in the basement. But so far it is just melting and we have no water at all against the house :)

Actually it is starting to feel alot like spring around here. The giant mountains of snow are starting to melt and I can smell all the frozen dog poo thawing. I've already pick up a safeway bag full, mmm spring!

Miracle Blanket

2007-03-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

Both my kids always loved being swaddled as new borns. Actually, I swaddled Greta until she was just over 5 months old. A friend of mine had lent me these giant receiving blankets that she had made to swaddle her son because the regular receiving blankets just weren't big enough. They were an awesome idea (Thank's Melissa E.). Before Carmen was born another friend had told me about the Miracle Blanket. She raved how well it had worked with her daughter and told me that when she was done with it I could have it (Thanks Sarah P.). Well, this really was a miracle blanket. The first time I used it Carmen was about a week old and she slept six hours straight. I actually had to wake her up to feed her as I was about ready to explode. Ever since then I have used the Miracle Blanket every night and for just about every nap.

However, I think Carmen is almost too big and strong for the Miracle Blanket. Two nights ago I put her to bed at 8:30 p.m. thinking I wouldn't hear from her again until about 4 or 5 in the morning. NOPE, she woke up at 10:30 p.m. just a mere two hours after I put her down. Oh no, I thought. I go in and check on her and she had unswaddled herself and was flailing her arms all around hitting herself in the head. We're in for a long night, or so I thought. I swaddled her back up and nursed her (because I've gotten into the nasty but glorifying habbit of nursing her to sleep) and put her to bed again. I never did hear from her again. I woke up at 8 a.m. to Greta politely knocking on her bedroom door to say she up and wanted out of her room. I realised that Carmen hadn't woken up for her usual early morning feed so I went to check on her and this is what I found...

I guess she doesn't need the Miracle Blanket any more. My baby is growing up :(

2007-03-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

Grrr, I think Blogger deleted one of my posts. I can't find it, it has disappeared. Double grrr.

Anyway here are a few pictures of our trip to Edmonton. Enjoy...

Greta in the car stroller thing we rented from West Edmonton Mall

Jeff and the girls in West Edmonton Mall

Carmen sleeping in the Baby Bjorn. We had to put a receiving blanket around it to protect it from Carmen's puke. She pukes WAY too much LOL. It was also the first time we had her facing out and we didn't really know where her arms should go, that's why she looks kind of funny. Now we know. Jeff was so not impressed, he was carrying her and she fell asleep but he really wanted to go for a cigarette. You know that saying "never wake a sleeping baby" especially for a smoke break LOL.

Greta at the Muttart Conservatory (notice the pigtails?!?)

Till next time!

Reporting from Edmonton...

2007-03-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to Edmonton on Monday. Their was a huge snow storm and it took us two hours to get to Marianna Lakes (if I'm driving it takes us an hour, if Jeff's driving we usually make it there in about 45 minutes LOL). It was crazy, we should have probably turned around and gone home at the turn off to Gregoire Lake, but we didn't. We kept thinking "it'll get better". And it did, after it got alot worse. Once we reached Marianna Lakes though it was fine. We stopped for a bathroom break and I fed Carmen. After a couple screaming fits from the kids and a couple more stops we finally made it to Edmonton at around 4:30 p.m. (we left the driveway in McMurray at 9:37 a.m.). It was a LOOOOONG day.

Tuesday we picked up our rental mini van and dropped our vehicle off at Mitsubishi to get some work done (I used AirMiles so it only cost us $10.80 for the rental). Then we hit Ikea. Greta was so well behaved and Carmen just slept in the Baby Bjorn for most of the trip. It was actually a nice pleasureable outing. We got some ideas for the bathroom renovation (when we get to it) and picked up a few odds and ends that we wanted for the house. After Ikea we drove around while the kids napped in the car and looked at new condominiums being built. We were hoping to see signs advertising what the starting prices are but we didn't see any. I guess they don't do that anymore because the cost of housing is rising so incredibly fast here that the prices are always changing. We didn't want to actually talk to anyone to find out prices so we just kept driving. After our drive/nap I dropped Jeff off at Mitsubishi to pick up the truck and then he took it to Speedy Auto Glass to get some rock chips (from the drive down) filled. I took the girls to Tim Hortons in the same parking lot as the glass place and Jeff met us there a short while later. I had a bagle and a coffee, Greta had a milk and cookie and Jeff had an extra large double double. After coffee time we went to Chapters and looked at books. We found ALOT of books for the girls. It was hard to choose but I narrowed it down to about 12 or so lOL. By this time the Mitsubishi was ready so I dropped Jeff off to pick it up and met him at Nicole's (my sister). We left Greta with her and Jeff, Carmen and I headed back over to South Edmonton Common to go to the Children's Place and Old Navy. I must say I was a little disapointed with those stores. We didn't find much. A few shirts for Greta and Carmen but not much for pants or outfits. I'm guessing it's because we're between seasons.

This morning Jeff dropped the Mitsubishi off at the Autospa in West Edmonton Mall. It needed a good cleaning so we booked an appointment there while we still had the rental van. I met him there with the girls a little later, and we spent the rest of the morning shopping. Jeff found a few shirts on sale at Tommy Hilfiger and we found a couple more shirts on sale for the kids at the Gap. Again, no pants. I didn't see ANYTHING worth trying on. I must be old or something because I don't like the styles these days. I also want to lose a bit more weight and fit into the clothes I bought just before I got pregnant with Carmen. (Still not there yet) We didn't bring the stroller with us this trip so for $5 we rented one from the mall. It was a "car stroller" and Greta was so pleased with it! It had a steering wheel for her to "drive" with. She was so willing to sit nicely and drive the stroller. She barely wanted to get out of it to eat lunch LOL. (I have some pictures but I forgot the wire thing for the camera so I have no way of getting them on the computer here). The kids napped in the car again after the mall so I drove around with them while Jeff picked up our car. Then we all came back to my parents condo so we could have a rest. Greta and Carmen have been doing really well but they can only handle so much go, go, go. The rental doesn't have to be back until Thursday morning but I dropped it off this evening so we don't have to worry about it in the morning. I walked back from the car rental place by myself and it was so nice to get some fresh air and a little exercise.

Tomorrow our plan is to go to the Muttart Conservatory to see what that's all about. I've never been but have always wanted to go. I think Greta will love the flowers. It is something fairly inexpensive ($26 for a family admission) and something that I'm hoping everyone will enjoy.

We haven't had much time for visiting our Edmonton friends yet, sorry Edmonton friends. We haven't even had a chance to call any of them up yet. We are here until Saturday morning so we'll see if our schedules match up,with some of you but don't wait around for us. We still have a bunch more bathroom shopping to do so I'm not sure we'll have time to visit this trip. I hope we will but I never know how the kids will behave and how much stuff we'll actually get done.

Hope all is well with our Fort McMurray friends...

Bonding With The Father-In-Law...

2007-03-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

Brent has been here for two weeks now and I must say, having him around isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

The first week was an adjustment for all of us. We had to get used to someone extra being in the house and he had to learn to be quiet when Greta is sleeping LOL (ugh, she is such a light sleeper). I was kind of worried about how to entertain him when Jeff is on nighshift but it turns out he watches all the same T.V. shows I watch so no problem their! It is kind of fun to have someone to talk to in the evenings. During the commercials of Prison Break we have big discussions about what we think is going to happen next. It's awesome!

I like the fact that I know if I cook something someone will actually eat it. I'm not a terribly bad cook but Jeff has horrible eating habbits and he doesn't eat a whole lot when he's home. (He doesn't eat meals, he just snacks ALL THE TIME) So yeah, I'm excited to try new recipies and actually have someone appreciate it!

Jeff is so unbelievably happy to have his dad here. He is proud of how far he has come in life and wants to share it with his dad. And rightly so, Jeff should be proud of himself. He also loves that Greta and Carmen will get to know their other "Gamma" (as Greta says it). The girls are slowly bonding with Brent the longer he is here. Carmen is getting used to his scratchy beard and last night Greta wanted to "put shoes on and help Gamma Bent" work on the playroom. You could tell Brent was so excited about that.

So yeah, it is nice to have Brent here...so far. Ask me how I feel in another two weeks when he's still here LOL.

Clips of the destruction...

2007-03-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

Jeff is just all too proud of the destruction he caused so I thought I'd share a few videos of the chaos/maddness that happened here the other day. They are pretty funny. I love Greta's excitment!

And Down Came the Playroom

2007-03-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

I woke up from my nap this afternoon to Jeff saying "if you're going to help Daddy you need shoes" I was lying there thinking "what?" Then the banging started. I raced down the stairs to see Greta with her little plastic hammar "helping" Jeff.

Jeff decided since his dad the drywaller was here for a bit that he could fix the walls in the playroom for us. They were awful! So uneven, and lots of gaps where the wall met the ceiling. I loved the murel that was painted there, but the walls themselves were unacceptable.

At first it was just Jeff and Greta hammaring away. It was so cute, father and daughter working together. Then...Brent came home from work and within about 20 minutes the whole room was a big cloud of dust. You could totally see the Hall look of accomplishment on their faces as the three of them destroyed the playroom.

Once the drywall was down you could see what a crummy job they did putting that room together. The vapour barrier looks more like Saran Wrap and it is patchworked together. Just chunks of it held together with masking tape and duct tape. It is HORRIBLE, no wonder it is so cold down there. The walls were framed pretty crummy too, so uneven and they used the worst possible 2x4's imaginable. I'm pretty sure Jeff is thinking he wants to tear down every wall in the basement to make sure it is done properly...I really hope he gets that idea out of his head real soon!

I shed a small tear as I saw what used to be the playroom murel in a pile on the floor. I guess now I have to think about paint colors for when it's done. Any ideas?

Sick...again

2007-02-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

Well, we are all sick...again. Except Jeff, he's not sick yet, but I'm sure he will be soon. We even managed to get Brent sick. I think Greta has the worst of it though. Since Saturday she's thrown up three times, had two bleeding noses, a fever, three diarhea diapers (which have resulted in a rash) and an extreemy runny nose. The rest of us just seem to have regular cold/flu symptoms.

It seems like all winter so far someone in our house has been sick. I can't remember all of us feeling good and being healthy for more that a few days at a time. If I start buying Organic food will we all stay healthy? hmmm, maybe I should try it! Wait, maybe not. That stuff's expensive and I'm kind of cheap. Ok actually I'm really cheap.

I have another theory...I think we all just need to start getting outside for fresh air. We are NEVER sick in the summer because we are ALWAYS outside, we are ALWAYS sick in the winter because we are NEVER outside. So starting tomorrow we are going to spend at least 30 minutes outside everyday. No matter how much work it is to get two kids into snowsuits, hats, mitts and boots; we are going to play outside.

Family

2007-02-21T21:08:00.000-08:00

We've had a busy last few days. Jeff worked three extra nightshifts (so we'd have extra money for when we go to Edmonton next month, yippeeee! Edmonton!) and that took alot out of both of us. I'm not used to that many days with only kids and no husband and Jeff isn't used to that many nightshifts. He goes back to his regular day shift tomorrow so we really only got two days together as a family.

Since Jeff ended up working on Family Day I made our own family day yesterday. I decided we'd all go to the library for the Tiny Tikes program. Before we even made it out the door Carmen had a huge diaper explosion and had poop all the way up to her ears (I kid you not). So I had to give her a bath, baby wipes were just not going to cover this one! We get her all cleaned up and get Greta into her coat and boots, Carmen into her carseat and we are out the door. Jeff decides we still have time to pick up coffee so off to the Tim Horton's drive thru we go. Where we wait and wait and wait and listen to Carmen scream and scream and scream. She REALLY hates her carseat. Finally get through the drive thru and off to the Library we go. And, we actually made it on time...we were even a little early! Greta had a great time and even met up with one of the kids we see regularly at the playgroups we go to. It was a nice morning. We got home and had lunch. Then I took Carmen and we went to visit Anne for a bit. She just got back from a fabulous tropical vacation and she hadn't met Carmen yet and I hadn't seen their new house yet...so I invited myself over LOL. On our way home I stopped and bought myself a new pair of pants because nothing I own fits and I'm sick of it. Greta and Jeff both napped while we were gone and were refreshed and in good moods for a nice family supper. All in all it was a wonderful day.

This morning I took Greta grocery shopping with me, just the two of us. She was a little unsure as to why we weren't bringing Carmen with us but once she got over the confusion she was just happy to pick stuff off the shelves and put them in the cart for me. What a good little helper she is.

Jeff's dad (Brent) arrived from Saskatchewan this afternoon. He's a drywaller and is here working on the Sport and Wellness Centre at Keyano College. He is also going to help us out with a little bit of our basement renovation while he is here. Greta was a little unsure about Brent when he first walked in the door (she's only met him once before and she was only about 10 months old at the time). But by her bedtime they were getting to be good friends, although she wouldn't give him a kiss good night! Maybe tomorrow night LOL.

Test Answers...

2007-02-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

Ok, my teacher friends out there might not appreciate this as much as most of you will but I thought they were pretty funny. My friend emailed this to me and I can't not share it with you. You should be able to click on the image and it will open up larger for you (I think, I dunno, I'm new at this).

Thanks Sarah, sometimes you send the best emails!

Greta and Friends...

2007-02-11T14:33:00.000-08:00

Greta has gotten really attached to her friends lately. It is kind of cool because I can motivate her to do stuff. "Lets go change your bum and get dressed quickly because we are going to go see your friends today" "Ok mommy, I see my friends!" Sometimes I have to threaten "You have to be nice to your friends and share toys or they won't want to be friends with you" She gets pretty upset about that one, she loves her friends.

Anyway here are a few pictures of Greta and her friends (P.S. I got all the parents permission to post pictures of their kids)

Bradley is ten days younger than Greta. The two of them get along great! He lives in Edmonton so we don't see him too often but his mom Sarah and I went to highschool together and since our kids are really close in age we try to keep in good contact with each other.

Meghan is almost 8. (She is actually my boss's daughter). Meghan comes over every once in awhile to visit and teachs Greta all sorts of new things that I would have never thought to introduce her to (like sliding into the pool LOL). I hope we have more playdates with Meghan as they get older.

Tyler is actually Jeff's cousin but he is only a year younger than Greta. The few times we've gotten together they have played really well together. They both LOVE wagon rides.

Baby Claire; what can you say about baby claire. She is adorable! Greta LOVES baby Claire, she really cusioned the adjustment for Carmen arriving. Her mom Nancy and I are really good friends, so good that we became next door neighbours LOL!

Clea is almost two months older than Greta. We met her at the park one day. We were having a picnic that involved cake and Clea wanted some LOL. Since then the girls are becoming great friends. Clea has a new little sister that is about 6 weeks younger than Carmen! Hopefully they will become good friends too.

Sierra is about 8 months older than Greta and probably Greta's very first friend! I know Sierra's mom Haley from working at the College. I think our very first playdate was when Greta was 6 weeks old!

Nate, Greta's first kiss! He is such a good friend. His mom Judith and I started up the babysitting co-op so Greta got to see lots of Nate over the last year. We still try to get together often even though I'm not working at the moment. These two certainly have their moments but for the most part they are the best of friends.

We try to get together for playdates on a regular occasion. I find the more Greta interacts with other kids the better our days go. Especially when Jeff is working, those 12 hour days are long for all of us and I find getting out of the house, or having people come over breaks up our day a little.

So much for my goal...

2007-02-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

of blogging twice a week. This past week has been a little busy. Jeff has been on days off since Sunday morning and his days off seem to just fly by.

Last Saturday I took Greta and Carmen to the Library for Rise and Shine Story Time. They sing songs, read stories and do a craft...and it only costs a $1. She always has so much fun she never wants to leave. We had a bit of an issue getting her coat and boots on when it was time to go. But never the less, I'll bring her again because she is so cute trying to sing along with the other kids even though she doesn't know the words yet :)

Greta and I made a "Greta's Potty Chart" and put it on the fridge. I explained to her that every time she goes pee or poop on the potty she will get a sticker to put on the potty chart, when she gets three stickers in a day she will get a treat. So about 10 minutes after we made the potty chart she poops in her diaper and yells "I'm pooping" as she's doing it. This potty training thing is going to be hard work.

We had a family outing to Rona the other day. Jeff showed me all the things he's picked out for our basement bathroom renovation. I agreed with the shower and that was about it LOL. He had picked out a very nice pedistal sink, which I actually liked but it wouldn't be practical. Greta and Carmen are eventually going to have their bedrooms down their and will be using that bathroom a lot. Girls have lots of stuff and especially with two of them, they are going to need a place to store their stuff. So I picked out a sink with a vanity. It costs a little more and will take up a bit more space but it is still smaller than the one that is in there now. It will be worth it to be able to store tampons in the vanity and not have them sitting on top of the back of the toilet for all their guy friends to see :) But I didn't really see a toilet I liked. I dunno, toilets are so not attractive at all. They all look so ugly to me. And I kind of want to be that person who sits on the toilets in the store to see how they feel before I buy one. Hard to do when they are 4 feet up in the air on a shelf.

Today is my mom's birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! She is actually in Toronto right now visiting her mom. She hasn't spent a birthday with her mom in probably 25 years so I hope she's enjoying it.

Jeff goes back to work tomorrow and I'll be left alone with the two kids, ugh. I think I'll take them to the Library again tomorrow. I try to get out of the house or have a playdate here every other day when Jeff is working. Those 12 hour shifts are long for all of us and I find having things planned gives us something to look forward to. Plus, Greta gets a little wild when she's been isolated for too long.

Anyway, I'll try not to leave it so long until the next time I blog again.

Rock'n Greta

2007-02-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

We were at my mom and dad's a few nights ago and Jeff took this video of Greta. It is way to cute not to share. My mom got this stuffed moose (at least I think it's a moose, correct me if I'm wrong mom) that sings and dances when you push his hand. Greta LOVES it and dances along with it ALL THE TIME.

Not much else is new. We had inside day yesterday, caught up on some cleaning and laundry. And some well deserved internet time :) I tried to make a nice dinner but Carmen kept interrupting by wanting to be fed. Jeff was working dayshift and wasn't home yet to distract her or help with cooking so I was on my own. In the end dinner didn't turn out too bad, it was late but not bad. Way too much garlic though and ended up making Carmen REALLY fussy until late in the evening, but it was so good. After Greta went to bed last night Jeff went and played poker with some work buddies, he lost and didn't come home with any extra money to go towards our bathroom renovation. Oh well, maybe next time!

This morning we went to my friend Judith's house, her son Nate and Greta are the best of friends. We always have fun when we get together and it was REALLY nice to get out of the house after spending all day inside yesterday.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the little video and that I'm not boring you to death with the little day to day dwellings of our lives.

Sleep, Playgroup and Bathrooms

2007-01-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

We've gotten in the habit of lying down with Greta until she falls asleep and then sneaking out. That was working great when she was falling asleep in the first ten minutes, but now she is taking upwards of 2 hours to fall asleep. Jeff and I spend our entire evenings putting this child to bed. For the past two weeks or so she has been FINALLY falling asleep at around 10:30 p.m. At nap time she can totally fall asleep on her own, we just put her in her bed, leave and close the door behind us and she falls asleep no problem (usually). So, tonight I tried something new because I'm sick of spending hours and hours in bedtime battles. She had her T.V. time as usually but then instead of lying in her bed to read her books we read them on the couch in the living room. She sat very nicely on my lap and cuddled into me like she used to to when I used to give her her bedtime bottle when she was little. We read our three books as usual and then I carried her to bed, tucked her in, kissed her good night, turned off the light and left and closed the door behind me. Haven't heard a peep from her for at least a half hour. I think it may have worked! I'm not getting too excited just yet, these things have a tendancy to back fire on me. But we will see.

We went to a playgroup this morning. It is a group of SAHM's in town that take turns hosting playgroups at our houses. Their were 6 moms and about 12 kids aged 5 weeks to 3.5 years old. It always takes Greta awhile to warm up at these things. We were their for 2 hours and she spent the first hour and a half on my lap. Luckily Carmen slept in her carseat the whole time so I was able to keep Greta happy on my lap. It worked out and I think she had fun because by the end of it she didn't want to leave. I always look forward to getting out of the house and chatting with other parents.

We've decided to use our savings plan money on a new bathroom in the basement this year instead of buying a tent trailer. I was really hoping for a tent trailer but the practical side of me agrees with Jeff that a shower downstairs will be so handy(we have a shower down there now but, it leaks and haven't been able to use it since about 3 months after we moved in here; insert miffed face here). We've been pricing out bathroom stuff the last week or so and have come to the conclusion that this isn't going to be cheap. It isn't so much the bathroom stuff that's expensive, it's the infloor heating system we want that's pricey. Some of them are pretty fancy, you can get programable ones. Kind of like those programable thermostats for your house, you can get them for the infloor heating. It's cool the stuff you can do with it. Anyway, when I get a chance I'll take pictures of the old bathroom and post them here for you to see.

Too sick to post so you get pictures instead

2007-01-27T11:22:00.000-08:00

Ugh, I'm sick...I have a massive head cold. I'm all stuffed up and can't breath. I think I caught it from Greta who caught it from Jeff. I'm too brain dead to think of something to write so I'll just post some pictures.

P.S If someone can tell me how to get rid of red eye I'd greatly appreciate it : )

Carmen sleeping on the kitchen table (I know, what a wierdo)

Carmen in the tub

Greta playing dress up princess at Gramma and Grandpa's

drumming, drumming, drumming, thank you...

2007-01-24T15:07:00.000-08:00

I'm a little technically challenged so I really hope this works.

It was water day the next day so we usually put the bottles out the night before so we for sure don't miss the delivery. Sometimes they come super early and other times they come really late. We can't seem to figure it out so we just put them out the night before. Anyway, just before Jeff put the empty bottles out before bedtime Greta decided to use them as her very own drum set. The image quality isn't the greatest but you get the idea.

The Infamous First Ponytail

2007-01-22T22:13:00.000-08:00

Well it only took her almost two and a half years but Greta finally grew some hair. (this is my stab at trying to post pictures on this thing, hope it works).

2007-01-21T21:10:00.000-08:00

Greta didn't sleep through the night last night despite me drugging her with Children's Advil. In fact we had the worst night we've had in a really long time. Of course, she always seems to do this when Jeff is on night shift. Greta woke up at 10:30pm, then again at 12:30am then again at 2am and finally at 3am I brought her in bed with me where she tossed and turned and kicked and punched me until I had to get up to feed Carmen at 6:30am. Ugh, I'm tired. We all had a nap this afternoon though so that worked out well. Greta is still fighting a bit of a fever, it seems to have subsided alot but she is still warm off and on. Her throat is really sore, she couldn't talk for most of the day because it was so sore. The poor thing, she would just whisper. It was actually a nice change from the screaming that usually goes on around here.

One of my boss's from work (I have many bosses at work) dropped by this morning for a visit. She hadn't seen Carmen yet and wanted to see Greta. It was really nice, she brought three of her four kids with her and they were so well behaved. They were so good with both Greta and Carmen. Greta really enjoyed having someone to watch Treehouse with her. And they brought us Banana Chocolate Chip muffins!

Well, I'm off to bed now...gotta try and get a bit of sleep before someone wakes me up. One of these days I'll have to figure out how to post pictures on this silly thing.

First Entry

2007-01-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

So I figured I'd start one of these blog things. They seem pretty neat. Plus it is a good way for people to know what the heck is going on in our lives since we don't seem to be very good at phoning people. I'm horrible at returning calls and Jeff is even worse.

Greta seems to have a bit of a fever, it started yesterday and was still hanging around today too. She didn't sleep that well last night and didn't seem to have much of a nap this afternoon either. I drugged her up with some children's Advil before she went to bed so hopefully she will sleep through the night and feel better tomorrow. It bothers me when she is sick, she always looks so sad and uncomfortable.

Carmen is six weeks old now and still a fairly good baby. She sleeps pretty good throughout the night, wakes up once for a quick feed then back to sleep. I just hope it lasts and she stays a good sleeper. I'm surprised at how well the breastfeeding is going (Greta was bottle fed). I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. My body tells me when I need to feed her even before she tells me she is hungry. It is just so amazing to me. I'm not sure how long we will continue to breastfeed, I figure we will just play it by ear and see how we both feel in a few months from now. Plus it isn't so bad for losing that baby weight : ) I'm already into the clothes I bought when Greta was 4 months old because my regular pre-pregnancy clothes still didn't fit and I was really sick of wearing maternity pants.

Well I guess this is pretty much it for a first entry, I will try to update regularly. My goal is twice a week; we'll see if I can do it. Hopefully I won't bore you to death with my ramblings.