Big Sisters

Matt would appreciate this entry.

I have maybe seen an example of how he remembers his childhood...

Emily and Collin were racing a couple of days ago. Collin started to pull ahead so Emily lightly hip checked him. Unfortuneately not too unsual since Emily has decided she must win at everything. (Don't know where that is coming from... Really!) Usual Collin will stumble and get back up. This time he fell hard, and started to scream. I came running into my parents tv room to find Collin laying on his back, blood on his forehead and a goose egg rapidly growing. From the straight line of broken skin my guesses are that he fell into the edge of the door, edge of the wall, or the one piece of unfinished moulding on the floor. My mom grabbed Collin and some ice and immediately started putting in on his head with a wet cloth over the freezie. I ran to get some tylenol for the headache I knew would be on its way. The blood stopped quickly but the goose egg kept growing until it was over an inch. I felt sick to my tummy. Collin kept screaming because he did not want the ice on his head or the tylenol. Emily was quite sad and I brought her in once Collin stopped screaming. She kept saying she was sorry. By the next morning and even today he has a scab and a little bruise. (Side note: We didn't end up going to the hospital due to the three visits I had taken to the emergency with Emily over goose eggs. I always ended up being sent home before seeing a doctor and told to watch for signs of a concussion. So we watched for the signs and saved ourselves a two hour wait in the emergency room.) My dad and Matt gave Collin a blessing as well.

If I had been hoping that this was just a random act than my hopes were blown the next day BEFORE LUNCH. I walk in to see both of my kids looking behind the couch for all the toys that Stephen has put back there. They are both leaning too far for my liking. As I start to tell them to sit back down I watch as Emily looks over at Collin and lifts his foot an inch higher with her foot. And over he went. Luckily lots of the toys were stuffed animals and no more damage was done to the still existing head wound! Yeah she didn't even ask to come out of time out after that. She sat quietly in her chair and waited for me.

As I have talked with a few other people there seems to be a pattern I am finding. All of the people have one or more older siblings (boy and girl). They all have memories of the older siblings doing something to them. I am hoping it is a stage. The part I don't get is that none of the acts have been done maliciously. She thinks she is being in funny and is sad when Collin starts to cry.

(And don't get me started about the trampoline. Needless to say they do not jump on it together anymore.)

I hope I survive my children's childhood. Matt - I am truly sorry for my behaviour growing up. I believe you now.

A mouse in the fridge?

Yesterday Collin comes walking into the tv room grinning from ear to ear. In his hands is the block of cheese from the fridge. With bite marks in it. It seems a very large mouse was hungry and ate the cheese in my mom's fridge. It had rather large teeth.... :)

Forgiveness

This little video has touched me so deeply. I now need to relook at a few of my actions and put them more in line with what the Saviour would like me to do.
Please click here to see an inspiring story of forgiveness.

Fantastic Aunt and Grandmother

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!

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!

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. :)

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.

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!

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.