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!