The Scooter King

Kaedo is OBSESSED with scootering (is that a word?). He loves it and spends hours outside doing tricks, coaching our neighbor, hanging out at the skate park and just doing some awesome stuff. There are a lot of names for the tricks and both he and Sterling spend a lot of our supper conversation on the latest tricks that have been perfected and the wipe outs that have occurred. Craig and I don't know what trick they are talking about when they say "toe tap" or "fakey" but we love to hear them talk about it. Enjoy!

Year 2 - Week 1

Week One! We haven't as of yet purchased a new gnome, although we do have our eyes on one. Kaedo decided both our old gnomes should be in the picture. The boys were up for tackling a new year of "oh-my-god-it's-Tuesday-and-you-have-to-go-to-school-in-5-minutes-and-I-don't-have-the-gnome-picture-yet". Good for them - and me. I love doing this. While I do take pictures throughout the week and am planning a big project for next year (thanks, Jessica) these ones are very important. I know a lot of people take first day of school photos to compare from year to year, but our weekly photos show how much they change in just a few short weeks. I have loved looking at them through the year.

This year I will be "labeling" these posts as "Gnome picture - Year 2", so if anytime you want to take a look back you don't have to scroll through the blog. You'll just have to click on the tag and see them all.

Here's to another great year. Glad you're along for the ride!

Got home on Saturday night and read this in a magazine I subscribe to. Tore it out and thought this was a good place to post it. These are definitely thoughts to live by. My new schedule starts today. I'm looking forward to only one night shift a week, although it is a doozy - 4pm-midnight. I'm looking forward to having the evenings to spend with the family and movie night on Friday nights. I'm looking forward to two days off in a row. So looking forward to that.

7 years

7 years ago today the boys and I moved to Ontario. While Craig moved to Ontario on August 24, 2003, we did not move until September 27. I remember clearly flying east and Craig waiting for us at the airport. We were finally together again, starting our new life together. We were nervous, excited, homesick and thrilled to be all together again.

He had rented a van as he knew we would have lots of luggage and car seats to contend with. It was dark when we arrived and the boys were tired and excited. We hadn't eaten in hours but we so desperately wanted to show the boys their new home. We drove from the airport to see our house, although we weren't going to take possession for another 3.5 weeks. We drove past the house a couple of times and talked to the boys about where they would be going to school. We drove past their school and then made our way up to Montana's to have dinner. We hadn't thought about it being 8pm on a Saturday night and we couldn't get into any restaurant without an hour wait.

I remember us almost driving into a ditch that had been cut out on the side of the road. Scared us to death. We were so close to diving in and not being able to get out. When I drive past that corner I think of that often.

We started making our way back to Toronto, where we would live in a condo downtown until we took possession of our house. We saw a Denny's on the way and decided to stop there. The boys had pancakes with whip cream and cherries and Craig and I had BBQ chicken sandwiches, complete with onion strings and fries. So funny what you remember.

Our new life started that day and while it would take some getting used to, we made this new life ours and have never looked back. Here's to another 7 years.

One from the Archives

Craig came across this picture yesterday and I just had to post it. I think it was taken at the Calgary Zoo - I'm not sure why I think that but I do. This is pre-Ontario. They look so adorable. It is hard to remember them at this age when they take off to the skatepark with a brief wave and an even briefer "call you later". Their independence makes life easier but bitter sweet. While I don't want to go back to having children that are 100% dependent on me, changing diapers, not having complete conversations, etc, a little sadness creeps in when I see these pictures.

Were out last night and came across this. While the spelling is 'wrong', Kaedo was thrilled to see something with his name. Cute joke. Going to hold only this for him.

Kids are off today with a PA Day. Have only been in school for three weeks so I don't understand it but whatever. Sterling was gone at 7:45am to the skatepark with his buddies then they were all going to have lunch together and hang out. Kaedo is going to spend some time with one of his friends this afternoon. I am home waiting for Bell to come and fix the problem with my work computer and Craig is downtown working as usual.

Sterling has a party tomorrow that he is looking forward to, I have to work, Craig plays three games of football and we'll see what else the weekend brings.

A very happy belated birthday wish to Stan. Hope you had a great day yesterday!

Ya Me!

Look at me go! I may be able to moonlight as a locksmith. The last thing that needed to be done in the office was install a doorknob with a lock. I was going to leave it to Craig but thought 'why not? I can do it'. And so I did. A small thing but I am happy to have done it myself. Feels good to tackle what I would always have left as a blue job. Don't get any crazy ideas that I will be changing my own tires or performing an oil change, but if you need a new lock, let me know. I'm your man!

WEEK 52!

Can you believe it? We have done this for a whole year! The picture below was taken on Sept 22, 2009. One year minus one day from the date of the week 52 picture. The boys think that Gnomee needs to be retired. They want to get a little lawn chair for him and park him in the back garden so he can enjoy his retirement. We have to get a new gnome if we are going to retire this one. He's done well for us. You'll have to stay tuned for next week to see if a new gnome will be here for the next year.

Looking for your opinions on this one - should we start over and put Year 2 week 1, or should we keep going forward with week 53, etc etc etc?

Let me know what you think and we'll move forward with that next week. Thanks for taking this year long journey with us. The boys have changed a lot over the year and we have really enjoyed doing this. It has been a wonderful time and I love looking back on the old pictures and seeing the difference. Thanks for all the comments and for taking part in getting the pictures while the boys were away. You rock!!

Style Cat

Kaedo is our "metro" guy in the family - he can be a real style cat when he wants to be. He is into Volcom, West 49, Adidas, Lacoste shirts and all those other cool clothes. He's decided that the shirt tucked into the belt of his jeans look and the fauxhawk is a must. He's so handsome. And I'm not the only one to think so. Sterling was recently showing me some pictures on his cell phone and he had snapped some pictures of an anonymous love note left for Kaedo. Hmmm. Kaedo says he doesn't know who wrote it, but he did blush. A big change from getting upset about it a year ago!

Another Day Another Invention

Sterling looks a little gangster but after attempting to get a "normal" picture, this was the best I could do. I've posted a video of his newest invention. It is pretty cool. He built it with a light bulb, some wire, a battery and some scrapbooking supplies. Very cool. I love it when he sits down and builds something. It is awesome. He and Kaedo took apart a GlowDome that Kaedo had received from Christmas and never used and there were a bunch of lights inside it and an idea was born.

Enjoy!

Kaedo, Scrabble and random blathering

Kaedo and I spent some time together last night and I snapped these random pictures of him. The lighting wasn't great, the pictures a little blurry but they are of Kaedo, so they're great. We played Scrabble - our first time playing together and it was fun. He even beat me.

AT HOME UPDATE:

What a weekend so far - on Friday I was at home waiting for Allstream to come to set up my computer for work. Things were looking up when at 8:55am the tech rang the doorbell and I silently cheered that I wouldn't have to wait around all day. At 9:15am he told me that there was a problem with the work Bell had done on Wednesday and I would have to wait for Bell to return. I spent a lot of time on the phone with the dude from Allstream and he advised me that Bell would come either Friday until 9pm or Saturday after 8am. So, I was stuck in the house. Bell did not arrive Friday night and I got up and was ready for them yesterday morning at 8 - and they didn't come - AGAIN! Sometimes it is nice to hang out at home. But let me tell you - when you are a hostage in your own home, it really isn't the same. Needless to say - I stayed home all day yesterday and it wasn't until a trip to Wal-Mart with the fam just for something to do at 8:30pm did I get out of the house.

Now I am back to being a prisoner again on Monday and am hoping for a resolution. Hopefully they will get their shit together and get this figured out. Can you tell I'm frustrated? Deep Breath. OK - not worth worrying about but frustrating none the less.

New Office

Warning - very picture heavy post!
So, yesterday I thought my new life as was about to begin. I went into the office yesterday and was advised that AllStream would be here today to finish up the set up of my home office and that going forward I would be working from home. I said goodbye to many of my co-workers and packed up everything that had accumulated over the last 20 months. It was a great feeling if not a little bittersweet. I have loved my job at the centre but for our family's sake as well as financially it made sense to make the move to working at home. Last night Craig and I set up the computer and got everything ready for the final visit this morning. AllStream was here at 8:55am and within 20 minutes they advised me that Bell screwed up somehow (although Bell told me on Wednesday that there were no problems) and that the final steps could not be completed. I am bummed. They told me they hope to have it fixed today but there is no knowing for sure. So now it is a waiting game. The installer that came today said I should hear something this afternoon. Here's hoping. If we can't get it settled today, I will be back in the centre tomorrow, working there.

Anyway, enough about that. I have had quite a few questions about my new office space so I thought I would post some pictures. The paint color is called "Serene Sky" and Craig did a fantastic job of painting it for me. I absolutely love it. It is a calm and restful color, that is just bright enough to keep my spirits high. I am loving it.

The pictures you see below are some of the things the boys have given me over the years that I love and I have them stuck to my magnet boards over my desk, as well as my collection of Precious Moments and other pictures I have collected and saved. Our home computer is in the armoire and we are just waiting on a new chair. The armoire and my new desk are both made by the same company, so they look pretty cool together.

Craig and the boys built the desk for me about 3 weeks ago and it looked to big! Once my 22" monitor (yipee) was set up, the desk didn't look so big anymore!

Craig has really made this space into a place where I will enjoy spending time and I look forward to all the challenges and accomplishments that will come with this new adventure. Here's hoping everything gets worked out today and I will be on the phones, from home, tomorrow at 4pm!

some more cards

Here are some more cards that I have done recently. I don't know if I have already posted the last one but the first two are birthday cards for one of my teammates (flower) and boss who are celebrating their birthdays today. I am really enjoying making the cards and haven't scrapbooked in months. I think that when you only have 1 day off in a row (does that make sense?) you don't want to spend your time in the basement scrapbooking when you could be with your family or have 30 errands to run. With the new job coming up I will have two days in a row off and am hoping to spend some of that time scrapbooking and making more cards.

and so it begins....

After a two year hiatus, we are returning to indoor soccer. The boys are both looking forward to it. For now they have hung up their bowling shoes and are ready to tie up their cleats. Last night we got them signed up and come mid-October we will be spending our Sundays at the indoor soccer arena, cheering on our budding David Beckhams (ha).

The deal of the year came on Sunday on a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up indoor shoes for the boys. Craig stumbled across this pair of indoor soccer shoes that were on sale for $3. That's right - $3. I think they are a little big for Kaedo but he says they feel good, and hell, for 3 bucks I'll stuff napkins in the toe of them (just joking. Kinda).

Here are some fun pictures from past soccer seasons. Man have they grown!

Sterling - 2008 outdoor

Sterling - 2004

Kaedo 2008/2009 indoor

Kaedo - 2005

week 51

Week 51 - can you believe we have kept it up this long? This is another great picture of the boys. Sterling rode his bike to school this morning and so he was all ready to go when I reminded them I needed a picture. Kaedo of course wanted a ride, so I took him to school about 10 minutes later.

Fall is in the air and while the boys are still wearing shorts, they could wear pants. No bunny hugs today but that is more from my negligence as a mother than their lack of needing them. Hopefully it doesn't get cold today.

Bell is coming tomorrow to run the lines for my new job so I got today off as tomorrow will not be considered my day off with me having to wait all day for Bell. Hopefully everything will run smoothly and I'll be working from home starting the 28th. I am meeting with our HR dept next Tuesday to go through my new contract and I am hoping for an increase in pay. That would be SWEET! We'll see. I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

Pinball - Lego Style

Another amazing creation from Sterling and a video to go along with it. Enjoy.

Monopoly Intergalactic Style

Sunday night and Monday morning the boys and I had a marathon game of Star Wars Monopoly. Sterling was CP30, Kaedo was Chewbacca and I was BobaFett. Craig and I bought this limited edition Star Wars set back in 1996 and it has only been played 3 times in the 14 years. We didn't have anything to do Sunday night as Craig was watching the Riders game, so we thought, why not? One thing I learned about playing this game is that Sterling is the Donald Trump of the Intergalactic world and I "pity the fool" that plays with him. While the game took about 4 hours in all over the two days, Sterling ended up owning all the property and all our money. He was ruthless in his purchasing of colonies and Starships and I was really impressed at how he played. We had a lot of fun. Now we don't have to play it again for another 14 years.

Week 50

This weeks picture. Got it done yesterday so that it was out of the way. The look so cute - except the for the gnome who looks like he has been through a war. Can you believe 50 weeks already? We wanted to post a picture from week one but can't seem to find it. The first week we have is week 3. Don't know what happened with that. I'm going to keep looking. Happy Wednesday.

First Day of School

First day of School and apparently it was great. The boys both LOVE their teachers (keeping in mind it is only the first day - but I'm hopeful) and Sterling GOT A LOCKER!!!! He was so thrilled. He is out right at this moment at Zellers looking for the perfect lock. Craig has looked some up on the Canadian Tire site and Home Depot site and they have some cool ones so we might go out later and find one for him.

Kaedo's teacher is Sterling's teacher from last year and I was always impressed with her. Sterling's teacher is new to us and a couple of years ago Sterling and Craig had a not so pleasant encounter with her. Obviously that is all water under the bridge as she has already been in touch with us about Sterling's added needs and has already set up and appointment with the principal, vice-principal, resource teacher, Sterling's therapist, and us for Sept 22. She did a lot of work on getting it together with everyone even before school started. So - so far we are very impressed.

First day lunches included hot dogs for Sterling, Smiles for Kaedo, clementines, banana, granola bar, crispy minis, soft baked cookies and jello. The kids ate all their lunches so that was good. Another year of making lunches - yuck. To Jessica and Tica/Kelly - I pity you, I really do - this is only the beginning!

Anyway, we are thrilled with the way things went, the kids are happy and that's what matters. Now all we have to do is breakdown and buy the damn indoor shoes.

I also thought I'd show you a picture of the first day of school last year. What a difference a year makes.