My Aunt Margaret volunteered to drive 2 1/2 hours up to Courtney to pick me up at the ferry terminal. The meant she left home around 6:30am to pick me up from the first ferry. She then drove me down to Victoria (3 hours), waited with me at the passport office, treated me to lunch, drove back to Courtney (3 hours) and then stayed and treated me to dinner to pass the time till the 7 pm ferry. She dropped me off at 6:30pm. When we arrived in Victoria she informed me that Stephen (my brother) wanted to pay for my passport. I looked at her funny and she explained. She gets paid by the government/Stephen for looking after him while my parents are away. She took some of that money to pay for the passport. I almost cried because I didn't actually know how I was going to pay for it. To get an expediated passport is just over a hundred dollars. She was so sweet about it. I am really lucky to have her. And then she told me that she would pick up my passport Tuesday morning and drive it up to Courtney so I could take the ferry over and get the passport the same day instead of putting it in the mail. She has always been a wonderful support but she has surpassed anything with these deeds of service. I am so lucky to have the family that I do.
Today I received a package in the mail from my grandmother. I had known it was coming because she had called the day before to tell my mother. She was sending it so that it would have to be signed for and she wanted to warn me because she didn't want me to get my hopes up that it was my immigration visa. She is a sweetheart. I opened it up and found a Readers Digest Magazine. I was a little surprised until I opened it and found a Thank you card with some Canadian and US money. I called to thank her and she told me that she remembers all the times she had to move when she was a military wife and how stressful it was. She wanted to relieve a little of my stress. My grandma doesn't have a lot of money so it was very unexpected and very thoughtful. She told me that magazine was because she trusts the postal system as much as I trust governments regarding immigration. :)
I love my family!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Doctors Visit
Collin and Emily had to go back in to the doctors to have their lungs checked to make sure the tightness had left after the cough. Both got a thumbs up from Dr. May. He did warn me though that he though Collin would be susceptible to a bad cough followed by congestion in the chest any time there was a change in season. We are to use the puffer any time this happens to help minimize damage which could lead to asthma. Oh the fun... Good news was that he wanted to have Collin weighed. He weighs 21 lbs! He is back in the 5th percentile for weight. YIPPEE!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Last Week
I don't want to forget all the fun we had last week trying to forget about Landon being gone so I am going to record it. Please bear with me....
Monday: Landon left first thing in the morning. Lots of tears. We headed out to Inland Lake at 1pm to meet up with the Walker family. (Roberta, Robb, Conner, and Hailey) Kids fell asleep in the car so I waited in the parking lot till they woke up about 2 o'clock. Thought the hike to the island was 20 minutes.... just under an hour later we arrived. My feet had gotten a little sweaty from the heat and so I had 3 blisters by the time we got there. Not fun. The kids had fun playing in the water with everyone even though I forgot their swimsuits. Ooops. We left at 4 o'clock, I tried to walk bare foot on the way back. Through a forest. Not smart. Shoes were only a little less painful. After 20 minutes the hair went up on my neck and I realized that we were in the middle of the forest, no one around, and bear/cougar sightings. The forest looks right out of a Twilight movie for those who haven't been here. I got spooked and started to run with the stroller. My feet definitely hurt by the time I got back to the car. My aunt made a beautiful dinner for the everyone. (missionaries, Matt's family, us) Crazy and loud. But fun. Definitely happy to go to bed that night.
Tuesday: Feet still hurt so I filled the kiddie pool and put the sprinkler under the trampoline. The kids ran around naked for most of the day. Collin's sunscreen wore off near the end so he was a little red but not too bad. My kids have no tan lines. This would be because Landon wasn't here to tell me they had to wear clothes. Oops. Very laid back day. Loved it!
Wednesday: Another day in the backyard. It was lovely. I did an photography project for the kids new toy room.
Thursday: Another day in the backyard. Lazy and lovely. Met up with Ashley and Kristina at Ashley's house for a girls night. Emily and Ethan stayed up watching a movie on the laptop on Ashley's bed. Collin stayed home with grandma Knoll and slept. We watched 10 Things I hate about you. Good laughs had by all.
Friday: Kristina and I took the kids on a hour hike at Inland Lake. We hiked for half an hour, ate lunch and let the kids play a little in the water before heading back. I wore the proper foot wear. :) Very relaxing and it was SO nice to have adult conversation. Took the kids home for naps. Kristina came over later that night and we watched The Matchmaker. More good laughs.
Saturday: We were going to head down to the Townsite 100 year celebration but Matt's family plus the missionaries showed up to do service for parents as a surprise so we stayed home. I made up sandwiches for adults, and Kraft dinner for kids. Ashley and I walked up to the corner store with the kids and they each picked out a bag of chips for lunch. I didn't like either of their picks so we purchased a third bag. Good thing we did because all were devoured. :)
Sunday: Church. Kids were really good at church which was a little surprised. My sunday school lesson went well. Nursery was nice to let Collin attend 4 weeks early so I could teach. So nice! Lazy afternoon and then we went to Matt and Ashley's after dinner to hang out for an hour or so.
A pretty fantastic week for being a single parent. Doesn't mean that I don't wish Landon was here. :)
Monday: Landon left first thing in the morning. Lots of tears. We headed out to Inland Lake at 1pm to meet up with the Walker family. (Roberta, Robb, Conner, and Hailey) Kids fell asleep in the car so I waited in the parking lot till they woke up about 2 o'clock. Thought the hike to the island was 20 minutes.... just under an hour later we arrived. My feet had gotten a little sweaty from the heat and so I had 3 blisters by the time we got there. Not fun. The kids had fun playing in the water with everyone even though I forgot their swimsuits. Ooops. We left at 4 o'clock, I tried to walk bare foot on the way back. Through a forest. Not smart. Shoes were only a little less painful. After 20 minutes the hair went up on my neck and I realized that we were in the middle of the forest, no one around, and bear/cougar sightings. The forest looks right out of a Twilight movie for those who haven't been here. I got spooked and started to run with the stroller. My feet definitely hurt by the time I got back to the car. My aunt made a beautiful dinner for the everyone. (missionaries, Matt's family, us) Crazy and loud. But fun. Definitely happy to go to bed that night.
Tuesday: Feet still hurt so I filled the kiddie pool and put the sprinkler under the trampoline. The kids ran around naked for most of the day. Collin's sunscreen wore off near the end so he was a little red but not too bad. My kids have no tan lines. This would be because Landon wasn't here to tell me they had to wear clothes. Oops. Very laid back day. Loved it!
Wednesday: Another day in the backyard. It was lovely. I did an photography project for the kids new toy room.
Thursday: Another day in the backyard. Lazy and lovely. Met up with Ashley and Kristina at Ashley's house for a girls night. Emily and Ethan stayed up watching a movie on the laptop on Ashley's bed. Collin stayed home with grandma Knoll and slept. We watched 10 Things I hate about you. Good laughs had by all.
Friday: Kristina and I took the kids on a hour hike at Inland Lake. We hiked for half an hour, ate lunch and let the kids play a little in the water before heading back. I wore the proper foot wear. :) Very relaxing and it was SO nice to have adult conversation. Took the kids home for naps. Kristina came over later that night and we watched The Matchmaker. More good laughs.
Saturday: We were going to head down to the Townsite 100 year celebration but Matt's family plus the missionaries showed up to do service for parents as a surprise so we stayed home. I made up sandwiches for adults, and Kraft dinner for kids. Ashley and I walked up to the corner store with the kids and they each picked out a bag of chips for lunch. I didn't like either of their picks so we purchased a third bag. Good thing we did because all were devoured. :)
Sunday: Church. Kids were really good at church which was a little surprised. My sunday school lesson went well. Nursery was nice to let Collin attend 4 weeks early so I could teach. So nice! Lazy afternoon and then we went to Matt and Ashley's after dinner to hang out for an hour or so.
A pretty fantastic week for being a single parent. Doesn't mean that I don't wish Landon was here. :)
Visa Update
Yesterday I received a note saying I had a letter at the corner store that I would need to sign to receive. It was a letter from the US Consulate. Ends up that my passport expires in November. It needs to be valid for the 6 months after my visa is issued. So I am off to town to find out if I will have to make an emergency trip to Victoria to get my passport renewed. It can be faster if you appear in person. Otherwise it will take up to 4 weeks. Yep. Please keep us in your prayers. Landon is going to start looking for a job since our finanaces are getting really low having us live in two different places. We won't be seeing him until we move. I'm still hoping that will be in two weeks. Call me an optimist.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Knight and Day
Last night Kristina and I took the kids for a walk along the Willingdon Beach Trail and up to Putters Mini Golf for an ice cream. As were leaving we saw that the theatre was doing a double feature for $4.50. We saw that the first movie started at 7pm, Grownups, and that at 9pm they were showing Knight and Day. I have really wanted to see Knight and Day so I got all excited. Since it was 7:30pm we knew we would miss the first movie but that was okay. We rushed back up to my parents, got the kids ready and into bed. I asked my grandma to keep an eye on them and off we went back to the theatre. I can honestly say I have never laughed that hard in an action flick. I LOVED it! The chemistry was great and besides one swear word the movie was clean. No gory stuff either. My type of movie. It has now been slated as the movie I will watch any time I am feeling a little down. :) I recommend it!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Picnik.com
I am absolutely in love with the website picnik.com. I have been using their free subscription for a few months now but have recently upgraded to their premium. It is SOOO much fun. Here are a few pictures I have done today. Most of them will be for the kids toy room when we move.
Service and Love pt 2
As I was typing the last post, my brother walked in and let me know he was going to be out cutting my parents lawn. When I went out to check I found Matt mowing the lawn, Ashley picking blueberries and the missionaries raking out the sawdust in the backyard. My parents would love to have a level backyard so my dad has had a local sawmill drop off his sawdust to use as fill. He even bought a load of dirt but my dad seldom gets time to work in his yard. He is always out helping others. It will be a nice surprise for him to come home and see what has been done. I quickly put together a lunch for everyone and took some pictures. I am grateful for the examples of service that I see from my family members and others.
Service and Love
My sister Rita embodies both of these traits. She is almost 8 months pregnant. Yet the other night she headed over to my new house and unpacked my kitchen. Today she is hoping to go back and get the kids beds set up. Move the toys down to the toy room. She says its because she needs something to do. But she knows that it will mean the world to me to move and not have to worry about it. Thanks Rita!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Collage
I am so excited for the home we are buying. I have been thinking about how I want to decorate. Since we are on a tight budget I have been searching the web for creative cheap ideas. I decided that I really wanted to have a wall that celebrated families. I ordered a really neat "Family Tree" that I will personalize when I get down to Idaho. I want to surround it with family pictures. And I saw two cute signs at a hallmark store that gave the definition for parent and child. I am not artistic enough to paint so I used picnik.com to create these two pictures:
I wanted to have some reminders of Canada after I leave so I chose to use a picture of a maple leaf and a dogwood branch. I mounted the pictures on foam board. The total cost of the project is $4 a picture. I'm excited to finally get to Idaho and settle into my house!
Cure for a bad day
Yesterday was a pretty downer day until I found the perfect cure:
1. Sit and talk with your grandmother.
Landon and I sat and talked with my grandmother for about 45minutes. We talked about my grandfather and great grand fathers (both her dad and father in law) experiences during the first and second World Wars. Put my problems in perspective and gave me a greater appreciation for my patriotic and wonderful grandfathers. My great grandpa Knoll (Homer) lived in the United States, came to Canada married his wife Muriel and decided that he wanted to join the war effort. Since the US had not joined the war yet he signed up with the Canadian forces. He endured so much! When he got home he found he had lost his US citizenship because he had fought with the Canadians so he settled down with his wife in Canada. She told of how the scars of war affected him her whole life and how as she got older she was better able to understand why he was the way he was. The only time she ever heard him talk about his experiences was when she brought my grandfather home to meet her parents before they were married. She evesdropped as these two men spoke of there experiences. They stayed up all night. She said it was the only time she heard my grandfather speak candidly. And then she spoke of my grandfather's experiences of being a dental assistant in England, deciding he needed to contribute more and so he joined an infaltry group, and when they needed stretcher bearers he was pulled over because he has "hospital experience" (as a dental assistant!) How he would work bringing in his friends as they were injured and then he would sleep sitting up so that when he heard a call he would rush out to bring someone else in. And that they started tying him down while he slept so that he would get rest because he felt such a powerful responsibility to help out his brothers in arms that he would forfeit his own rest. At the guilt he felt at not being there to identify his best friend's body and so it was reported to the parents he was MIA and not KIA and that the friend's parents kept holding out hope though he knew his friend was gone. And then the treatment of veterns after each war. How sad! I am so grateful for the courageous men who came before me. What a legacy! And what a pattern to follow when life gets a little uncomfortable. At the end of the conversation I thanked her for sharing the stories and taking me out of my pity party. (She never once asked about my day.) She gave me a hug and said that my Auntie Margie had told her the news and figured I wouldn't want to talk about it. I LOVE my grandma. She is such a special person in my life.
2. Dinner and Visit with Wonderful Family
My sister in law heard the news from my brother. She called to tell me she loved me and that she wished she could help me but knew there was nothing she could do. So she invited us over for dinner and to go for a walk after the branch council meeting that she, Landon, and Matt had to attend. We had a beautiful dinner and I had a fabulous time watching the kids outside the church. I love watching the games that kids come up with to play. Ashley and I walked the kids down to SeaFair while the boys finished up with a branch presidency meeting. We had a great time walking around looking at the rides and food. Emily started to get cold so I bought her a sweater from our friend Rosie Fleury. She was selling them at the night market. It is really cute! When the boys showed up Emily and Collin went on the helicopter ride. SO CUTE! The guy operating the ride told Emily to push the red button in her cockpit so the ride would start. He pushed his button when she pushed hers. She was so proud of herself. I wish I had had my camera with me. Matt snapped a couple of pictures on his cell phone. Then we got some popcorn and headed up to Putters for an ice cream. We decided to go and get some Timbits so we walked back to our cars. We were parked in front of the Willingdon Campsite. I noticed a big black animal in one of the campsites across from us. It was a bear. I pointed it out to everyone. Ashley quickly put her kids in the van while mine sat in the stoller as Landon, Matt and I took a closer look. Yep she is the better mom. Emily even joined us in looking at the bear. A man came out of his motor home and asked why we were calling out. Matt told him he had a bear in his campsite. He didn't believe us and started looking around. Luckily the bear had moved two campsites down by then. He was not happy with us because he couldn't see the bear. And then we heard a loud pop and the caretaker yelling at the bear. The bear took off running right across the road. Three cars down from us. A car of teenagers that was driving by had to slam on their brakes not to hit it. The bear disappeared down the trail opposite of us. It was AWESOME! Afterwards we got our Timbits and rented the move The Informant. We went back to Matt and Ashley's house, visited with Elder Wolfgramm and the new Elder (Elder Hall) and then watched the movie. Stupid movie but great company.
By the end of the night I was tired but extremely happy and feeling positive for the future. I am so blessed!
1. Sit and talk with your grandmother.
Landon and I sat and talked with my grandmother for about 45minutes. We talked about my grandfather and great grand fathers (both her dad and father in law) experiences during the first and second World Wars. Put my problems in perspective and gave me a greater appreciation for my patriotic and wonderful grandfathers. My great grandpa Knoll (Homer) lived in the United States, came to Canada married his wife Muriel and decided that he wanted to join the war effort. Since the US had not joined the war yet he signed up with the Canadian forces. He endured so much! When he got home he found he had lost his US citizenship because he had fought with the Canadians so he settled down with his wife in Canada. She told of how the scars of war affected him her whole life and how as she got older she was better able to understand why he was the way he was. The only time she ever heard him talk about his experiences was when she brought my grandfather home to meet her parents before they were married. She evesdropped as these two men spoke of there experiences. They stayed up all night. She said it was the only time she heard my grandfather speak candidly. And then she spoke of my grandfather's experiences of being a dental assistant in England, deciding he needed to contribute more and so he joined an infaltry group, and when they needed stretcher bearers he was pulled over because he has "hospital experience" (as a dental assistant!) How he would work bringing in his friends as they were injured and then he would sleep sitting up so that when he heard a call he would rush out to bring someone else in. And that they started tying him down while he slept so that he would get rest because he felt such a powerful responsibility to help out his brothers in arms that he would forfeit his own rest. At the guilt he felt at not being there to identify his best friend's body and so it was reported to the parents he was MIA and not KIA and that the friend's parents kept holding out hope though he knew his friend was gone. And then the treatment of veterns after each war. How sad! I am so grateful for the courageous men who came before me. What a legacy! And what a pattern to follow when life gets a little uncomfortable. At the end of the conversation I thanked her for sharing the stories and taking me out of my pity party. (She never once asked about my day.) She gave me a hug and said that my Auntie Margie had told her the news and figured I wouldn't want to talk about it. I LOVE my grandma. She is such a special person in my life.
2. Dinner and Visit with Wonderful Family
My sister in law heard the news from my brother. She called to tell me she loved me and that she wished she could help me but knew there was nothing she could do. So she invited us over for dinner and to go for a walk after the branch council meeting that she, Landon, and Matt had to attend. We had a beautiful dinner and I had a fabulous time watching the kids outside the church. I love watching the games that kids come up with to play. Ashley and I walked the kids down to SeaFair while the boys finished up with a branch presidency meeting. We had a great time walking around looking at the rides and food. Emily started to get cold so I bought her a sweater from our friend Rosie Fleury. She was selling them at the night market. It is really cute! When the boys showed up Emily and Collin went on the helicopter ride. SO CUTE! The guy operating the ride told Emily to push the red button in her cockpit so the ride would start. He pushed his button when she pushed hers. She was so proud of herself. I wish I had had my camera with me. Matt snapped a couple of pictures on his cell phone. Then we got some popcorn and headed up to Putters for an ice cream. We decided to go and get some Timbits so we walked back to our cars. We were parked in front of the Willingdon Campsite. I noticed a big black animal in one of the campsites across from us. It was a bear. I pointed it out to everyone. Ashley quickly put her kids in the van while mine sat in the stoller as Landon, Matt and I took a closer look. Yep she is the better mom. Emily even joined us in looking at the bear. A man came out of his motor home and asked why we were calling out. Matt told him he had a bear in his campsite. He didn't believe us and started looking around. Luckily the bear had moved two campsites down by then. He was not happy with us because he couldn't see the bear. And then we heard a loud pop and the caretaker yelling at the bear. The bear took off running right across the road. Three cars down from us. A car of teenagers that was driving by had to slam on their brakes not to hit it. The bear disappeared down the trail opposite of us. It was AWESOME! Afterwards we got our Timbits and rented the move The Informant. We went back to Matt and Ashley's house, visited with Elder Wolfgramm and the new Elder (Elder Hall) and then watched the movie. Stupid movie but great company.
By the end of the night I was tired but extremely happy and feeling positive for the future. I am so blessed!
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