A Card For Me?

What Mom doesn't love getting home-made cards from their kids? Lately, I find Jackson at the table saying, "Mom, don't look! It's a surprise!" So I peek, pretending not to look like a good Mom, and after a good twenty minutes of him sounding out words by himself, drawing pictures to perfection and taping everything together with great precision, I get handed these lovely jewels.

(If you look closely he has drawn a white cloud with rain drops coming out of them. And yes, that's an umbrella. Cute. I don't know what it means, but, cute).

This was a card for both Joe and I. And as soon as I opened it up, Jax said non-chalantly, "Oh, you and Dad can read that all day if you want." I wish I knew what it said. He has the gift of tongues.

He makes me a few almost every day. Lots of reading!

Vintage Shirt-Dress

After viewing a slew of several different creative blogs, I decided I was going to go ahead and be creative myself by making Ellie a cute little vintage-inspired dress. I bought this red shirt at Value Village because I originally was going to make a skirt out of it pour moi, but then I decided this dress in my mind was going to look much cuter on Ellie. I even started taking pictures of the process, but in all honesty, I had no idea how it was going to turn out! And I made enough mistakes that I just stopped. So, ...sorry. No tutorial here. One day when I can sew like my Mom.... Speaking of which, the shirt below is a really cute one that my Mom gave to me, but it just doesn't fit me right, so instead of giving it away I thought I would put it to some use. My plan was to make another dress for Ellie out of it (and I still plan to), but I kind of liked the two shirts together. So.....

Voila! This is what came out of all of the mistakes and trying different things. I tried it on Ellie this morning and it was WAY too small, so I had to take out the seams on the sides and widen them a bit. But, you live and learn, right? (I personally like the red stitching on the pink shirt. So Retro! Tee hee!).

Ellie likes it too! (Or likely, she was just happy to be outside).



Here's a view of the back/side.

Don't mind the bloomers! Tee hee!

I love when fun projects come together! Yeay for a free night to myself! The pink shirt project is next!

Hard Stuff

Every one has it. There's no escaping it; The hard stuff life throws at you. I hate going through hard stuff. And what's worse is watching someone else go through hard stuff. A man in my ward passed away a few days ago. He was 60 which is young in my books and it was very unexpected. He fell off a ladder and hit his head. And now he's gone. What a reminder of how fragile life is. During this time I have reflected a lot on life and death and how it is all a progression. When I die, I will be moving on to the next stage of life. We all will one day. That part is not scary to me. What is scary to me is being alone or mourning the loss of a loved one when they pass and me being left behind for however many years. That sort of change is not fun to me. I don't like missing people I love. I can barely stand it when friends and family move away. I have been thinking about how when I die, I will no longer feel sorrow or pain. But won't I be watching my loved ones whom I have left behind mourn my loss? Won't that hurt? Won't it be hard to know they are missing me and I am missing them? Won't I want to reach out and hug them and make all the hurt go away? Or will I just have a greater perspective after this life? I don't have enough experiences with death of loved ones to know the peace or closeness that might be felt by their Spirits, but I would hope that if Joe died before me (which he will because I am supposed to live with my two crazy sisters in spinsterhood together while we play cards, act like teenagers, cackle, and say sassy things to young boys in their 20's), that his Spirit would be near me enough to be comforted and feel peace. I know that if I died before Joe, my Spirit would stick around. But mostly to haunt him out of ever re-marrying. Don't even think about it Joe. ;)

I personally do not know how people can go on not having the knowledge of the gospel in their lives; Never knowing the Plan of Happiness. (www.lds.org) I know that I am a child of God, that I lived with Him in the pre-earth life and that I came to earth to get a body and experience life, be tested and return to live with Him, and because I know these things and have this perspective, death makes much more sense. However, all that being said, I don't think it is an easy thing to be the one left behind mourning the loss and missing them. If I cannot have my dream fulfilled with my spinster sisters, then may I be blessed to be twinkled in my sleep holding hands with Joe as old, old people. Maybe he could even kiss my forehead with his wrinkly lips one last time before we go so I won't have to deal with the hard stuff.

* * * *

So all of this reflection brought me to my piano and I wrote a song called "Sight of Angels." Its perspective is taken through the eyes of the person who has died and is watching their loved one mourn for them. In this case I have died and I am talking about my husband (I played it for him and he said, "Wait, I thought I was supposed to die first so you could hang out with your sisters." See, he's in on the plan!)

SIGHT OF ANGELS

By Maren Ord

When can I see him? I ask through hazy shadows

When can I feel his touch again?

When can I hold him and make his anger go away?

Why can't he see me? I'm right in front of him

And why can't I kiss his tears away?

This fight, this battle, it hurts to watch him break this way

The sight is gone

He only sees me in sleep

So sleep, my Angel, and dream of me

Sometimes I think he can feel me in this room

Sometimes I reach to touch his face

And I see a glimmer race through the ocean of his eyes

But his sight is gone

He only sees me in sleep

So sleep, my Angel, and dream of me

So sleep to dream of me

Lions and Tiger Ice Cream...

I've always been a chocolate kind o' gal. But as a child, my fav ice cream was Tiger ice cream. It's seems like it's so hard to find these days (or maybe I haven't really been "looking"), so when I found it at the grocery store the other day, I had to introduce my kids to this marvelous childhood joy!



Ellie was in Ice Cream Heaven. If there's such a place. And if there IS, please can I go there when I die? Or I'll take Chocolate Wonderland.

Oh dear.

BATH TIME!

THE FRINGE

Tradition in my mind calls for yearly Fringe attendance! Joe doesn't love these sorts of things as much as I do, so I kind of have to keep on top of things if I want to go. It's already mid-week and the Fringe is over this weekend, so I had to jump on the good weather and just do it. As scary as it is taking four kids to Whyte Ave by myself I took a big breath in and out and just did it (Joe couldn't go during the day). I can't over think these things or I'd stay at home every single day. The questions I know you are dying to ask are: Did I lose any kids? Did I run into a half-naked person dressed in gold? Did Ellie poop her diaper as soon as we arrived? Was it as chaotic as a Costco run? Did it rain? Did the kids get bored after five minutes? Did I run out of snacks? Did I throw away two good loonies on a dancing woman with a guitar case?

I will have you know that this trip was one of my most successful of the Summer season! The only questions I can say yes to is the last one, and the half-naked gold-clad person.


(Forgive the pictures.... I am still perfecting my manual settings. Auto is so much easier when the light changes every two seconds!). The act we got to see was an acrobatic show. Perfect for the kids! They were amazed and glued to the stage the entire time. Here they are warming up their bodies along with the performers. Jax especially got into it.


Ellie was a good sport and stayed in her stroller the whole show. I was a bit shocked, I'm not gonna lie. I just kept pumping her full of snacks. It worked.


Jackson loved this guy. He said his favourite part was when the lady stood on his shoulders and he juggled knives. Now I get to go home and remind my children that they are NOT allowed to try these things at home. I have a feeling our house will either set fire or someone (Noah *cough*) will lose a limb!


Easy.


So glad it was a successful trip. I think I was watching the kids during most of the performance, partly because I was a touch worried that if I turned my head too long one of them would disappear somehow. But the other part of me (the non-paraniod Mom part of me) loved watching them enjoy the show. They were entranced and laughing the whole time. And I love being the one to introduce something so neat and different and fun. Cool-Mom points please?

Canola Fields

I'm sadly realizing how quickly our Summer is coming to an end. AND I'm even more sadly realizing how little I've taken out my camera to capture some shots in our beautiful country (as opposed to the shots I will be taking inside for the next 8 months with a hard flash during our long winter! Boo). So this morning I drove out with the kids to a canola field minutes away from my house. I love it here. So beautiful!

Yes. I only got one of Noah. He's at that age where he's not really interested in standing around too long to get "captured" so to speak. And this was Ellie 90% of the time so really our shoot lasted about ten minutes.





I've been babysitting Madison Scott for the Summer and she is a dream. She loves the kids. She watches out for Ellie all the time and she and Jackson are the best of buds (well, at least in his mind they are). They play all day, and Jackson cries each time she has to go home. True love? Perhaps in a few years....





I tried this cool braid thing in her hair that someone I know Pinterested, and I thought it looked so pretty. Can't wait till I can do fun stuff like that in Ellie's hair. Anywho, it was a fun way to spend the morning (well, ten minutes of it); In the beautiful fields of Alberta!

Jackson is the sweetest boy. He is constantly picking me flowers, or drawing pictures for me or making cards that say "I luv u." This boy melts my heart!

What girl wouldn't love this boy?

The Soccer Everyone Loves to Watch! Womens!

Yesterday was my final game for "Stone Cold Strikers" so my hubby and kids decided to come watch ...mostly because I begged Joe to come to at least ONE game. So he chose to come to THIS one. Our last one. And worst one. Was I nervous because we were playing against a really good team and we are one of the worst in Div 3? Or was it because it was 29 degrees outside and I kept getting dizzy from the heat? Or because I was drinking so much water ahead of time that I thought I might pee my pants on the field? Or because two coats of mosquito spray was obviously not enough? Or perhaps it was because I wanted to impress my husband with my mad skillz? I will tell you. It was all of the above.

Last year, our team was first place in our division, so we moved up a div and became the worst team this year (allowing us to move back DOWN for next year and maybe win some games again. I forget what that feels like). We also lost our all-star goalie (Christy Harker), leaving a few of us to trade off and fill in for half games. I got suckered into volunteering (most unfortunate for my team), but I actually kind of liked it for a few reasons:

a) Because the intensity of playing in this league against amazing teams was hard work AND still gave me a work out.

b) I touched the ball more as a goalie.

c) It is a glorious feeling to make amazing saves and your team loves you for it.

d) My body is getting old, so playing mid for 45 minutes straight is enough of a work out for me (as opposed to an hour and a half)!

Now for the reasons why I hate it:

a) Way too stressful. I've never been coached as to how to play the position, so I just take tips as they come. If I step out of my box I feel like I might have a heart attack.

b) It is the worst feeling watching a ball fly past you into the net that you could not possibly save in time. I know some goals are just not my fault, but it still sucks.

c) It is even MORE of an awful feeling watching a ball fly past you into the the net that you SHOULD have been able to save but somehow managed to let the ball slip out of your hands.

d) When the score is 10-0. Not a fun feeling.

Here are some pics Joe managed to snap in the second half of me between watching kids.

Great feeling!

Awful feeling.

I promise our team does have 24 players on it. Just no one shows up and we end up never having subs (which is why all of our faces are beat red). These are the consistent players. Thanks ladies for such a fun year! Looking forward to winning some games in the future!

Top L-R: Sarah, Barb Butler, Amy Appleton, Sarah, Shelly Pratt, Jenny Payne

Bottom L-R: Me, Erin Dudley, Lauren Bennet, Bree Bennet, Allison Bailer.

Revamp Time!

I decided to take an old hand-me-down I inherited from Sarah and revamp it into a chic jean dress (as opposed to the old-fashioned FOUR year old dress that used to be Hannah's! Haha!). Fine, it's not that old, but I wanted a project. Nay, needed one! Joe's been out of town all week. Sarah's got a sick child. The other friends I DO have, have a life. Hence, a few lonely days. And the verdict?

A cute little "hip" patch-dress.

Unfortunately it's a little on the short side. Woops. Good thing leggings are in style!

Chick Flicks

I really shouldn't watch them. All they do is remind me of how unromantic my life is. Diapers. Chaotic park outings. Cleaning toilets. Vacuuming. Hearing my children tell me they don't want to eat the dinner I made. Blah. Blah. Blah. I guess parts of my life are filled with romance, if romance is described as your husband doing the dishes. WITHOUT being asked. I am being realistic here when I say that that is true love in my books. Service is major points. But I guess if my life were a movie, I don't think it would sell. Like, at all. I just finished watching a movie filled with passion and beautiful people and happy endings and England. I am a ridiculous romantic-nut in the most unrealistic way. I love excitement and adventure. Probably why this movie sells. But I hate the pit in my stomach afterwards telling me that my life will never be that. Am I happy to be married to Joe and have a family? Yes. That is called joy. But "joy" and "romance" are different.

Wish they could co-mingle sometimes. Everyday. In *England.

*Or I would take some Fairyland where laundry doesn't exist.

I Know

Jackson's response to everything these days is, "I know."

Jax: Mom, what's for dinner?

Me: Chicken and rice.

Jax: I know

(Did you really know Jax? You just barely asked me? I guess he knows NOW....)

Anywho, lately Jackson has been fighting learning. Good thing we're not starting school for another year so we've got some time to work on that. He still draws and loves to create, but anything that takes effort these days is out of the question for him. He used to love to read and spell out words for me, or work in his pre-school work books. He loves "KNOWING" things. But lately? Not so much! Do you know what I think is to blame? It gives us light, happiness, warmth, laughter, long days filled with outdoor fun. That's right folks.

Summer.

Do I blame the boy? The funny thing is last week I made him sit down to a work book while kids were napping and he forgot how much he loved it. Do you see that grin on his face? We even played "School" and I brought out our white board and we did Math and Art classes. It was cute. I think something I need to remember, though, through all this is that he's still a kid and kids need to play and be kids while they are still, well, KIDS!

P.S. On a very random side note, I had a dream last night that I was a Kindergarten teacher. It was so stressful and frustrating! I had no curriculum or ideas, and almost all of the kids in my class ran away from me. Some teacher I was. I think I'll stick to things I know.

Like teaching MY kids.

They don't run away from me.

Most of the time.

Joe's Birthday Week

Yesterday was officially Joe's 31st birthday. But who actually celebrates birthdays in one day any more? I believe in the birthday-week, and this year we made it happen. We spent the weekend in Lacombe with Celeste, Matt, Tarilyn, Charlie and his parents doing one thing after the next! Let's start with the actual birthday celebration....

I love Jackson's zoned-face above. That quickly changed once this crazy firework-candle thing got lit up.

Joe had plenty of help opening gifts. This year we gave him a "love letter" box full of notes from family and friends telling him how great we all think he is. He's pretty neat.

But well before the cake and presents, we kicked off Joe's birthday week going to the musical Wicked.

This is how excited he was about the date. (In actuality, he really enjoyed it. But probably not as much as me!!).

After our date on Thursday, we went to Lacombe on Friday and hit up Gull Lake on Saturday. It was a blast! We full on skipped naps and just hung out the entire afternoon. That is what I call a perfect Saturday spent (minus the break-downs right around dinner time).

I promise Ellie did love swimming. Most of the time. Haha!

There was a park right by the water where we parked all of our stuff and it was.... a teensy bit stressful. But so fun for the kids. Last time I took Noah to a beach he almost drowned, so I was a little on edge until I could see that the boys were confident in the shallow water without me having to be right there. Plus it was just so busy I didn't want to lose them (which I did. But only once. Not bad, right?). At any rate, Noah did not want to leave the park for anything. Not for lunch. Not to go play deeper in the water with us. He had a blast!

Although it was a beautiful day, it was by no means Florida. The wind was strong and the water was cooooooooold! I'm actually a touch shocked that my kids played in that freezing lake as unfazed as they did! But as soon as they came out of the water, they were more than ready to be bundled up! It was so cute. They saw the towels and immediately laid down to get warm and cozy.

Charlie didn't need a towel to get warm and dry though.

These two even got along. I'm glad they are finally playing well together. Well mostly.

They shared snacks.

They shared water-toys.

But when it came to this ball...

Not so much!

But with having two older brothers, Ellie has learned how to be aggressive. Tee hee!

After Gull Lake, we roasted hot dogs, put the kids down and went golfing. Today, Joe is tubing with Matt and some buddies at the Brierlies, ...and will hopefully return in one piece. If that isn't a full week of partying, I don't know what is! Happy Birthday Joe! I'm just in love with you!

...particularly with the beauty you exude in this picture.