Wednesday, May 28, 2008

and off we go...

as I write this I'm sitting on the floor of my basement with the keypad on my lap. Not the most comfortable way to go. And so it begins. Tomorrow the packers come so this will be it for awhile. If I can I'll try to drop a line from somewhere mid-week. If not I'll be writing from our new home sweet home in Wetaskiwin - City in Motion!!

See ya!

Wordless Wednesday




Thanks for the memories!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

feels like Christmas

This day is taking forever to end.

Less than 24 hours and my husband will be home.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Quotable Monday

I've been scraping little shavings off my ration of light
And I've formed it into a ball, and each time I pack a bit more onto it
I make a bowl of my hands and I scoop it from its secret cache
Under a loose board in the floor
And I blow across it and I send it to you
Against those moments when
The darkness blows under your door. -Bruce Cockburn

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Last Sunday

It's 1:32 pm. I'm drinking a rum and coke and I'm crying all over my egg and cheese sandwich. I'm not having a good day. I couldn't sleep last night (hence the useless post about our honeymoon journal) and since waking up this morning I've felt queesy and slightly nauseous. This morning was my last Gateway church service. Over the past 5 years or so it's become home. I've made some good friends that I hope to continue friendship with, had deep conversations and enjoyed lots of hearty hugs. Nothing was said this morning about my departure, which is fine, I tend to lean on the quiet side anyway, but incase anyone wonders...I WILL miss you guys. You'll be a very hard church to "get over". Thank you for the tears and the laughter. The joy of watching your children grow into strong and beautiful men and women. I will continue to pray for them as I will you.

If anyone is ever in the Edmonton area, PLEASE look us up, we'd love to catch up and see what changes are a happenin'!

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, and God bless.

midnight storytelling

My "dying wish" for last Thursday's small group was a music "special" if you will. We were each supposed to pick a song we liked at the moment, play it and explain why. There was a little bit of everything there from Leonard Cohen to Jane Sibery, Bruce Cockburn to Salvador, India Arie to Emmy Rossum. All cool songs and all meaningful in their own ways. I really enjoyed it. Now I can leave happy (at least where that is concerned).

I was really bored tonite. So I was looking up some old pictures of when Steve and I first got married. Times like these I wish I had a scanner, so you could see just how much hair he actually had! And I came across our honeymoon journal. Of course I'm not going to share alot from it, but re-reading it brought quite a few smiles to my face. Perhaps that's why I'm awake still now at 12:47... I'm just missing him. Or perhaps it's from that nap I had this afternoon. I said it once, I'll say it again, naps are evil.

So here's a little (or not so little) excerpt. To set the scene we went to a 4 wheel drive park in Kananaskiis for a week long honeymoon. We found our "camp spot" when the Landy got stuck in some mud by a little stream. On this particular day we decided to climb a "small hill".

MO 07 09 01 "...and a hiking we went. It started strong for both of us (on the road) then we reached the bottom of the hill and started to walk/climb. It was steeper than we thought, but we went on or I went on...somebody had to stop every ten steps or so, not mentioning any names so I'll just spell it L..I..S..A...Yeah, I just about went down to carry her. So on and on and on we went. My blisters were hurting from my new shoes and b'cos he's such a wuss he whined and complained the whole way up! About 1/2 way he stopped and dropped the pack to get some water. So I decided to take some nature shots of these beautiful prairie lilies. After a short break we continued up this time on a winding, uphill climb thru trees. At this point I felt like I was going to throw up, but I kept on going. When we finally did reach the top, Steve was sweating REALLY heavy. On and on we went til I heard her say "Are we going up more!?!" I said, "Honey we are so close, were not going to walk all this way not to go all the way, come on, you can do it, I know you can!!" You would think with that encouragement one would start running up the rest of the way, but no, not today. Dragging every step like she was wearing cement shoes, lucky it was only 10 steps more so she could rest again. While she was laying on the ground, reaching for air with her hand and throwing it towards her mouth, I decide to take some "nature shots'. Luckily I brought all the film cause I don't think she will be even rolling over soon....Steve is such a jerk! silly pictures more like it...oh! a leaf (snap picture)...a bird in a tree (snap)...clouds! (snap) now that was a real find...you don't see clouds like that everyday! while nature boy was taking pictures I was getting restless and wanted to keep moving so finally he put away his camera and his "prize" shots and we were able to move again."

Hopefully you figured out that we kept switching perspectives as we were writing! We eventually made it down the hill and as we were driving back to our "campsite" we somehow missed spotting this huge 3 ft high rock on the "road" and drove over it. Doing so, Landy reared, the steering wheel spun out slamming Steve's fingers in the process and alot of blood and screaming followed.

All in all it was a great trip!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

and they're off

Sadly no Canadian content this time around, but there's enough energy and emotion in the building to bring tears to my eyes. Or maybe I'm just in an overly emotional state anyway.

Go Pittsburgh!!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

p.s.

my latest favourite movie of all time is P.S. I Love You. One of the songs in the film is, well actually there are a few, by The Pogues. When I was young I went thru this heavy celtic phase and remember listening to lots of their music, but I don't remember this song. Or maybe it's b'cos I wasn't married and in love then. But whatever. Here are the lyrics to one of my new favourite songs.

I love you till the end - The Pogues
I just want to see you
When youre all alone
I just want to catch you if I can
I just want to be there
When the morning light explodes
On your face it radiates
I cant escape
I love you till the end

I just want to tell you nothing
You dont want to hear
All I want is for you to say
Why dont you just take me
Where Ive never been before
I know you want to hear me
Catch my breath
I love you till the end

I just want to be there
When were caught in the rain
I just want to see you laugh not cry
I just want to feel you
When the night puts on its cloak
Im lost for words dont tell me
All I can say
I love you till the end

to have or not to have....4?

I've been thinking lately about having a 4th child. The timing is right, age wise, but not so good life wise. Steve and I have always said that we'd like 4 children and having the 3 now, it does feel like we're not quite complete. Having said that tho', I am questioning it a little. A few days ago someone told me that I shouldn't even consider having a 4th child until I can control the 3 I've got. My mouth kinda dropped open. "Are you serious?" was all I could muster up to say. I couldn't believe it. Who would say that to another person? I mean sure, I'm sure at times we've all thought that about other people, but to actually say it? You'd have to be stupid or crazy or both. So with that in the back of mind, I've been wondering if we should have a 4th, or just stick with the 3 we got?

Talking to a friend this morning, who has 4, she said young kids are bad to start with. But when they get older, it makes it all worthwhile. Of course her kids are young, so maybe she's just wishful thinking. I know some of you readers out there have 4 older kids. Does it get better? Is 4 really the magic number?

I have no idea. And honestly it should be the last thing on my mind these days. Like I don't have enough to think about already. But I am. There was a slim, like 3% chance that I thought I was, and I'm not, and there was a bit of disappointment in there that still lingers. So maybe that just means that I am ready and unconsciously I already know the answer to this question of whether or not we should have 4.

oh well. Lunch calls and I have to go tell 2 of my 3 uncontrolled kids to stop screaming in the back yard before someone calls 911.

man...

I wish I could sleep right now!

Stupid nap!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

wordless wednesday

no, this isn't Keziah, or any of my kids, but it could very well be. Just this past weekend Keziah was eating dog food out of their dish.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

i love it...

when my husband phones me at 6:43 am to tell me he had an uneventful night.

Really. That's a good thing.

I've also come to the realization that I love food. All food. Good food, bad food. Just food in general. The month of May has been hazardous to my waistline, to put it mildly. And true, I can't use the excuse that we've hardly been home, 'cos there are nutritious choices out there to eat from. You don't always have to have that double cheeseburger with the cinna-melt for lunch followed by the DQ chicken strip basket for supper. If Jared can do SUBWAY 7 days a week, so can you! But I will try to get away with that excuse and I will add onto it with the lack-of-workout reasoning...why start? And really why? Why start a program for a week when I'll be moving in 10 days to a temporary location, and then moving again 7 days after than to another temp location and moving again in another 8 days to our final destination. So really, when I'm the sole caregiver of 3 young kids and I'll be moving to 4 different locations in the next 3 weeks, I think the "why start?" excuse is a pretty good one.

And you know what really sucks? Is that I'm PMS-ing. So not only am I an emotional basket-case to my 3 young children, but I'm also freaking out about my husband not being home, I'm tearing my kitchen apart looking for the smallest scrap of chocolate ANYTHING to devour, and I feel bloated and completely HUGE. Not a good combo. Plus I'm making lists of lists of things to do before we leave like phoning to cancel this and cancel that and leaving forwarding address' to a place that we don't have possession of yet and going thru crap loads of stuff that we don't need to take with us and eating as much food as possible so we don't waste anything.

Can you imagine what I'd be like if I actually had to pack our stuff up myself?

HA!

sigh...alright, I really should go phone and cancel something else. It's been good talking to you.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

something rank and pretty crocus'

Last night the Mom's Committee went to Amy's for supper. I've only ever been once before, over 6 years ago and was majorly disappointed, so never went back. However last night was very good. The triple chocolate and vanilla cheesecake was too die for. I nearly swallowed mine whole before I discovered that everyone else was savouring theirs. Foolish me. Just goes to show you can take the girl out of the country, but can't take the country out of the girl. I won't even tell you how I ate my steak.

Now I don't know whether it was the cheesecake, the steak or the asparagus (I'll blame the asparagus...if all else fails, blame the asparagus) but when I got home something wickedly rank from my bottom was coming. I hated to sleep with myself. It was gross.

Moving on...

A few people have told me about movers and what all they do and don't take. Apparently they will take everything (even your garbage..unless you tell them not too) but chemicals, including cleaning supplies and paint. I'm not really sure how we wound up with 7 half empty cans of mosquito spray, but this morning when we went for a walk out at the Lil Red, I gladly finished off one of those cans. Not that we really needed it, it was beautiful out there, but it has to be used up. And I guess I'll need the cleaning supplies to clean the house once everything is gone. You do that right? I have no idea. Speaking of which does anyone want to watch my kids Friday May 30 for a couple of hours? Or help clean?

So yeah, anyway, the walk this morning. It was beautiful. I'm really going to miss it out there. Wetaskiwin has this By the Lake Park. Looks like a man made lake with a dirt path around it. It's where all the locals go to "get away". It's nice and all, but compared to Lil' Red, it looks like a rabbit trail through some brush. Of course the mountains are only a few hours away, so I really shouldn't complain. But still.
So we went on this walk and Matthias is wearing his army cargo pants, plain shirt and old baseball cap. I'm wearing some quick dry pants and an old t-shirt. Keziah has some nicely stained play clothes on and then there's Callah. She's got a hot pink dress on, covered with a white princess sweater and a good pair of jeans on underneath. She's wearing her sunflower sunglasses and is carrying, in her hand, her little backpack purse filled with books, a comb and a magic wand. How she slipped past me into the van I have no idea. Where she came from, or how she got to be so girly...again I have no idea.

Oh well, there's always hope for the big bellied Keziah who loved the walk this morning. I kept her in the stroller until we had the van insight and then I let her out. She turned her face into the breeze, little tufts of hair blowing in the wind, and smiled. Then she pointed and grunted at the bird in the sky. Walked over to the right and pointed at the grass. Walked over to the left and pointed at the tree. Walked over again to the right and pointed at the crocus (which are in full bloom and just gorgeous!), then to the left, and again the right, and so on and so on. Until she picked up something white (which naively I thought was a rock, only to find out it was actually some really old poop) and tried to eat it. Back into the stroller she went.

We finished off the morning with slurpees, cinnamon buns and cheese. Really, what could be better?

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Don't Song

if you haven't already heard this, you gotta check it out. Especially all the men out there...

http://www.ignitermedia.com/products/iv/singles/886/The-Dont-Song

SOLD!!

...to the highest bidder! ha ha...

Yes our house is officially sold! I'm super excited, was a little worried there for a bit. It's amazing how God worked and we're so thankful!

The moving company phoned this morning, they're coming next week to "check out" our stuff (sounds a little fishy!).

Now we just have to tie off the loose ends in Wetaskiwin and we have ourselves a house!!

Things are finally moving. On the one hand I'm glad and excited and on the other sad. Still haven't really thought about leaving. As the days wind down tho' I'm sure the tears will come.

But for now, the sun is shining and the park is calling! Yay!!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Wordless ....


Callah dressed up as a penguin at the West Ed Mall. Isn't she cute?

quick things from the road

...Bawlf, Alberta. Is it just me or does that name just make you wanna laugh?

...FYI - there's a sale on wild boar meat near Wilkie, Sk.

...A&W in Unity does not qualify in the "fast food" department.

...Ever wonder what waiting 30 minutes in a McDonalds feels like? Don't! It's terrible!

And really that's all I got for spur of the moment. I knew I should've been taking notes, but alas, I didn't. Now I'm hungry, so I'm going to go eat whatever isn't moldy in my fridge. Yum!