Birthdays...

Well our crazy birthday "season" is over. It's not just a month it's the months of March and then including my birthday April 1st.

This year my birthday wasn't celebrated with cake and candles, but a nice quiet dinner with Darryl in Grande Prairie, and then to the airport to pick up my Mom! We left the kids at home with Jason Winters. Mom's flight didn't come in until 10:30 pm. We left home at 6:40, got to Home Depot at 8:45 had a look at showers for our basement. At around 9:00 we got to Mr. Mike's for supper. It was a late meal, but it was uninterrupted time just with Darryl. I didn't have to cut anyone's meat, ask them to sit down, or take them to the bathroom for the third time. Darryl's time the best gift I could have received. Thank you Darryl.

Picking my mom up at the airport on my birthday was an extra special treat! She hasn't been here since October. It's so nice to have her company, the kids like having Grandma around; she also just made yummy muffins.

Speaking of Mom, I'm here at my desk with my back to her, I am going to enjoy each moment with her.

My Hunny...

This is my husband, my lover, my best friend. Today he turns 34. He is amazing. Not only does he have a GREAT body, beautiful blue eyes, and a fantastic smile. He is loving, gentle, caring, funny, hard working, smart, and a great dad. Everyone who meets Darryl likes him right away. He has a way about him that makes people comfortable, he'll either tell you a funny joke he's heard or tease you like you've known each other for years.

When Darryl and I met, I thought he would make a great friend. The day we met we were playing beach volleyball giving each other a hard time. At the end of the day my summary was "a great guy like my friend Dave Dube". Well 10 days later we were dating. Then about 5 days after that he started talking about marriage. YIKES!

When the time came for Darryl to meet my family I knew he was the right one. He fit into my family better than I did! He was able to tease my sister and passed the test with my "brother with the guns". My Grandma Burdick said that sitting across from Darryl reminded her of sitting across from Lynn, my Grandfather that I never met. After we were married one of my dad's old friends even said that Darryl reminded him of my dad at 20.

We have been married now for almost 12 years. I still fall for that impish smile and twinkle in his eye when he's done something and waiting for a reaction. I love watching him with our children, giving them all hugs when he gets home or leaves for work.

Darryl has impressed me many times in our years of marriage. The way that he can play volleyball, his pride being ACAC champions 2 years at RDC. When we met he didn't know anything about mechanics or building or fixing things, now he can fix just about anything. He's proved to be very handy, and able to learn anything. He's gone to college twice receiving honours or close to honours each time. He is a very hard worker, I never have to wake him for work. That also makes him a good provider, it wouldn't matter what job it was he would do it if that's what it took to provide for his family. Just recently he made a change from welding to QC, the learning curve was STEEP. He has proved himself more than capable, it's great to hear from his superiors that he is doing an excellent job.

I never really had a list of traits that I was looking for in a husband. I knew that I wanted someone like my dad. I pray that Emily is watching her own dad and seeing what a great man he is and will look for someone like him; and that my boys will grow up to be like him.

Darryl, I don't know if you'll take the time to read this or not, but I love you so much. You were a really nice guy when we met, but grew into an amazing man. Happy Birthday!

Miss Emily

I am sitting here at my desk listening to the imaginations of two 5 year old girls, Cadence and Emily. It's so funny how they play, each telling the other what to do or say. Right now they are playing ponies. The other day they turned a Hungry Hungry Hipos game into Hipos that had to protect their eggs. They played there for about an hour, putting the "eggs" out and then capturing them all again....oh the ponies just kissed....LOL

I wonder how Emily will change once she starts Kindergarten in the fall? She is so sweet and gentle. She has a desire to be liked by others, and to have the same things as her friends. I told her the other day it doesn't matter what others think but so long as she is happy with herself. That could be a hard lesson to learn. This conversation started because David didn't like that she had stuffed a neck warmer down the back of her bathing suit to look like a bunny tail. It looked very cute, and was a pretty smart idea.

What I also find interesting about Emily is that she loves to craft but lacks the attention to do an "organized" craft for very long. If left on her own she will create her own designs or whatever for hours. But when we do organized crafting she doesn't take the time to color it carefully or completely, and after 2 minutes forgets to cut along the lines. I am hoping that Kindergarten will help her learn to do her best work.

The fall will be interesting with just Oakley here at home, I will miss the chatter of Emily. On the other hand I can't wait to see all that Oakley will teach me about himself.

Computers!

Here I was planning on blogging regularly, and then my computer went on the fritz! Grr!
Oh well, I'm up and running today.

I have just started meeting with Mary Beth, a friend of mine that is also a personal trainer. I need someone to be accountable to. She has set me up with a weight training program and a diet to follow. I'm really excited! I've been running regularly and still not losing any weight. I will be meeting with Mary Beth once a week, until I feel like I've got this under control. Then we will meet less often until I reach my goal. I will keep you posted on my progress.

So, I've made this choice to get into shape in the month of March. So what? you say. Well March seems to be "birthday month". We have Darryl and Emily's birthdays and then about 5 other friends and family's birthdays. How do you go to a birthday party and not eat cake? Well I will be challenging that tonight as my kids are invited to another party.

This past weekend was pretty busy. We went up to Manning on Friday night to watch Sarah's skating carnival. For a kid that used to trip on a line on the floor, she is doing very well! Emily now wants to do skating, she said to me "They're dancing." I don't think she had ever seen figure skating before. I would like to get her into something to help her build some muscle and hopefully help her balance.

After the skating David stayed for a sleepover with Seldon. It's neat how well they get along for being 3 years apart. The weekend before Tim and Shelle had been down but the boys didn't get to see each other, both were complaining. I hope that relationship stays the same as they get older. They primarily play x box together, but they seem to really enjoy each others company.

Tim and Shelle brought David back the next day so we had Wes and Serena and kids over too. We pot lucked the supper, we had a TON of food! Pizza rolls, chicken fingers, chicken wings, french fries, veggies and dip, shrimp rings, fruit and dip, cake and pie...I'm sure I've missed something! We were all WELL fed! We then played Killer Bunnies, and then a late night of Rockband. That was only Saturday.

On Sunday we went to Church, I taught Sunday School, and then straight off to the pool for Cadence's Birthday. More cake and swimming left us all pretty wiped out. The boys fell asleep in the van, "the boys" includes Darryl. Emily and I went inside and watched some T.V. about two hours later I finally went out to the van and woke them up.

Today is Monday, and it's a P.D. day, David, Emily, Cadence, and Thomas are playing Hungry Hippos. I'm sure the day will be full and fun, then tonight....more cake!

Chocolate Whipped Cream Fight!

Today I was going to post pictures of Emily's party, but instead I decided to post the pictures of the food fight that went on between Kelly and Rebecca. Just in case you missed the story here's the summary from my "Party Day" post:

"Also this evening we went to a 40th birthday for Kelly Berreth. We wrote on the card, "Sorry to hear about the passing of your youth, but you're not dead yet. Here's to another year, hope you make it all the way through. P.S. You keep up pretty good for an old guy." It was a fun night, mostly visiting, and eating. Miranda made black forest cake from scratch, yummy! The night included a chocolate whipped cream fight between Kelly and Rebecca Joe, and then a snow fight inside and out. I thought that Darryl and Kelly were going to throw her in a snowbank. She did however end up outside with only one shoe on."

When I got to the camera Rebecca already looked like this.


Rebecca hadn't won yet, and she wasn't about to give up. The fight continued...



What is Kelly running from? Who's around that corner?



The battle rages...

I think they called a truce (at least with the chocolate whipped cream).



After this there was a bit of a snow ball fight, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that. It was a bit one sided. Rebecca was about to leave and started to put on her shoe, and found with her bare foot that it was FULL of snow! She then took that snow and threw it at Kelly inside the house. In that time her shoes ended up outside, Darryl might have done that, I don't know. Rebecca then went out to retrieve her shoes. She then found herself with one shoe on and Kelly coming after her. Thankfully he didn't throw her in the nearby snowbank, but she was covered in snow non the less!! Kelly might have won this battle, but I know somehow, somewhere, when he least expects it Rebecca will be waiting.

Emily is 5!!

Well, we had Emily's party on the weekend, but she seems to think she needs another. I've told her 3 times that we are not having a party today; it's only 9am. Could be a long day! Most of the time Emily is pretty easy, although she has her moments when she gets something in her head that it takes telling her a few times before it sinks in that it's not the way she was thinking.



My little princess, the girl between the boys, my sweet Emily, Miss E, Chicken, Chicken Rat....Just a few things I think of when I think of Emily. (When I think of Emily it makes my heart warm inside.)
1. She has such a sweet spirit, most of the time she does what is asked, or even before she's asked.
2. She loves to craft, always drawing, painting, or just cutting up paper to make her "creations".
3. She has been stuck on Jabin for a while now, in case you don't know he is her future husband. She already knows how many children they have agreed to have, I don't know if Jabin really knows this at all.
4. She can go into her room and play for hours, she has a great imagination. Although sometimes that imagination gets her into trouble, she will make up fake injuries when I'm consoling one of her brothers who has really been hurt.
5. I do worry that she gets missed between the boys. David the typical first born demands my attention, and Oakley being little still needs my help. I try to do my best to make special "girl time".
6. She has asked to go on timeout, weird I think, but she knows when she needs sometime alone. She comes back out all ready to go again.
7. She has a pretty good sense of humour started, can't wait to see that develop.
8. She is really good to play with just about anyone, younger or older.
9. This last year has been a killer for Emily, from September until December she asked me about 3 times a week when she gets to start school. She still asks me pretty regularly if David is at school that day. She misses him when he's gone. (I'm not sure how I feel about sending her off to Kindergarten in the fall.)
10. When she smiles really big or is laughing she has a cute little dimple on her chin.



I pray that Emily will continue to have a gentle spirit as gets older, and that she will learn to love the Lord and see how much he really loves her too.

Have a Happy Birthday, Emily!

Party day...

What a fun day! We had 10 girls (Cadence, Brinay, Sarah, Dale, Chloe, Sarah G., Shanae, Shealynn, Victoria, and Emily) ages 4-8 here for 2 hours, the time just flew! Before I knew it it was 3:30 (only 1/2 hour remaining and we hadn't had cake yet!). When they each came in I put some makeup on them so they were ready to enter the castle. Then the girls made necklaces, and tiaras, they played stick the horn on the unicorn, the messy stepsisters (2 teams, each team had to be the first to pick up their messes), and princess favorite things (the classic cookie sheet of items - princess items in this case- and one item is removed and one person has to guess or remember what is missing. We had about 8 games we could have played, but I didn't realize how quickly the time would pass. I thought we might even have a ball, each fairy tale has a dance. Emily was so happy to have a party.

Even David got into it! He helped me by taking the girls coats at the door, and then was the royal photographer and took some really great photos of the party. At one point the some of the girls were waiting for the next craft to start and he started a fun little game with them. He was a great help.

Darryl was the games man, which he always does a great job with, I wonder how things would be different had he decided to become a school teacher. I'm sorry we ran out of time for the games, next time we will have to have a longer party.

Oakley was right in with the games, not understanding the rules but willing to play too. He even played put the horn on the unicorn and didn't complain about wearing the mask to cover his eyes.

I will have to post pictures on another day and talk more about the party, and about my sweet Emily who is days away from 5.

Also this evening we went to a 40th birthday for Kelly Berreth. We wrote on the card, "Sorry to hear about the passing of your youth, but you're not dead yet. Here's to another year, hope you make it all the way through. P.S. You keep up pretty good for an old guy." It was a fun night, mostly visiting, and eating. Miranda made black forest cake from scratch, yummy! The night included a chocolate whipped cream fight between Kelly and Rebbecca Joe, and then a snow fight inside and out. I thought that Darryl and Kelly were going to throw her in a snowbank. She did however end up outside with only one shoe on.

What a fun day. I'm glad to have this blog set up to help me remember these fun times. But it's off to bed now, time change is going to mess things up for getting David out the door in the morning.

Getting this figured out...

I used to have a blog, before they changed to needing a Google account. It took a while but I managed to link my old account to the new one. PHEW!

I know I haven't blogged for a LONGGGGGG time, but I figured it might be good. I don't keep a journal, and really need to keep up with what happens with my kids everyday. They are so much fun. (Speaking of, Emily and her friend Cadence just walked through the room saying they were looking for husbands!) I really need to remember these days, before I know it they will be teenagers.

So, I know I've said this before, but I'm going to try and blog.....

Sneaky! Sneaky!

I thought I was being so sneaky changing my profile to a mother of 2 1/2, after all who looks at your profile?? I got a phone call the next day!

So, here I am to announce it to the few people that read my blog. We are expecting baby #3, or 3&4 if you ask David. He has prayed for a baby brother and a baby sister. If you mention the baby he will say "babies". Really, I might be crazy but I said to God if I can handle it that would be alright with me. It will save the further debate about 3 vs 4. And really wouldn't that be a cool thing to tell a child, "God answered your prayer"? The baby is due right around the beginning of January (I'm hoping for a new years baby). I haven't been to the Dr yet, all he's going to say is "yup, your pregnant, come back at 12 weeks". So, I am going to wait, I am currently 8 weeks. I am feeling more effects of pregnancy this time, waves of nausea and smells really bother me. Yesterday Darryl came home from work and to me he smelled like phemeldyhide...how do you spell that anyway?....even cooking dinner some nights smells bad (really I am an okay cook, it should smell good).

We are so far only telling close friends and family so no blabbing!! :)

The Simple Life

I am so glad that my life is so....boring....it's not really boring but it's easy. I have a husband who loves me that I know I can trust 100%, we don't have any addictions or illigitimate children....isn't that boring? LOL No way this is how would like my life to stay forever! I know my children will cause me some gray hair, but for now they are pretty sweet and inocent.

It just seems the last little while we have been dealing with people with some serious issues! We try to help but we are not the "all wise and powerful Wizard of Oz" that can make their problems right. All I can to is pray to God for them, which said like that sounds so pitiful, but it is really the most powerfull thing that I can do for them.

I will not go into details of each situation on a public site, but if you feel led to pray for them, I will give you their names. 1) Twyla and family 2) Mike (Darryl's helper) 3) Karla and boys Please pray that God will be glorified in each situation, and the rest is up to him.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Dial up frustrations!!

I have been on line for....3 hours....not because I have been searching the internet for an interesting supper idea, or searching ebay for that hard to find item or researching a profound idea....NO...I have been online all afternoon because I am downloading an upgrade for Simply Accounting!!!!!

I made an appointment with the "Simply Solution Provider" (why don't they just call her the Simply Guru") so that I could finally get my Simply Accounting all set up, etc. Well, that should be simple enough right?? I have Simply 2006, but apparently it is not up to date and needs this very time exhausting upgrade so that I can open the file that she emailed to me this morning. That was at 10 it is now 5:00. I fear that by the time my phone line is freed up the Guru will have gone home for the day! And I will be stuck making an appointment for another day.

It is now at 95%....oh, the excitement builds.....only 10 more minutes!!!

So, I guess blogger is lucky today, I had a TON of time and he and I chatted today. I love you blogger!! :) HaHa

98%....99%.....1 min 55 seconds!

Blogger since 2004??

Ha Ha!! I laugh because blogger recognizes me as a user since October 2004. Obviously it's not paying attention!! I don't think that blogging once a year qualifies. Atleast it hasn't booted me out, or started to cry because of lack of attention. I guess that makes blogger a man?? A woman would be upset "You don't love me any more"....hate to break it to you blogger but I never loved you. :) I will try to do better, I think I might need to vent a little as my life is on a definite up hill swing to CRAZY.
I do really enjoy reading other blogs and I feel inspired for a day or two and then the passion passes.
So, will this be yet another blog to span another year? The mystery continues.

Oh man It's been a while....

So, my hopes of doing this on a regular basis have definitely NOT happened!! I have really gotten into a good routine, but blogging doesn't seem to be on that list.

I have been impressed I have managed to get up with David everyday for quite some time now.....okay that might not sound like a feat to some of you but you have to understand something, my son is usually up before 6:30. I get up and do my Bible reading, while the house is relatively quiet. I have been reading through the Bible, I am learning so much from this reading and the ladies Bible study I go to.

I have also been working out regularly, 5 times a week (during kids nap time) for 2 months now. I have only lost 4 pounds but I am sure I have lost inches, I can wear pants that I couldn't fit into a few weeks ago. The best thing is that Darryl notices the difference.

Emily had her first birthday on the 10th, where did that time go??? She can say Mama, Dada, and Hi. She is also pulling herself up on furniture or just up on her hands and feet on the floor. She and David are quite a pair, they are starting to really play together.

David turned 3 on the 9th of January. I turned into a bit of Martha Stewart that day, I made a tractor cake!! It was a huge success, he loved it!!

Well, David seems to be having a bit of a meltdown, because he can't climb up on his "mountain" aka vertical mattress. Oh, apparently it is now a slide. What an imagination.

Car Salesmen!!

This past Saturday was just insane!! We went to Grande Prairie because we had some errands to do. One such errand took us to a car dealership (not to buy a car, but to have car seat anchors installed). So here we are at the dealership with an hour to waste. What do we do walk around...Big mistake!! We ended up going over to the used car lot so Darryl could drool over Hummers, inside there was a 2005 Corvette and a Hummer, so of course we go in. Mistake #2. The dealer was just coming out as we were about to go through the door. It so happends he was our neighbor 5 years ago. We mention to him that we will need something more economic when Darryl has his ticket. Mistake #3. We ended up looking at a car, really nice, excellent deal, bad time for us. Once they get you into their office you are in big trouble!! So, 4 hours later, with 2 tired and grouchy kids we finally left the dealership!!! Darryl was so tempted, as I said it was an excellent deal, but for us the timing was ALL wrong! We then just went home, didn't get groceries, or a Christmas tree, I was just exhausted. It was horrible.

Happy Halloween!

We went out lastnight to a "Fall Fun Fest" at the church, it was a really fun time. I think the funniest thing was the adults. The kids were wired and the adults were exhausted!
I dressed my 2 little squirts up as Blue and Magenta. David had a great time and was so excited to get to wear his costume to town!

I am trying a new diet. I lost 5 pounds in the last week. It is really restrictive, which SUCKS, but Darryl figures if it helps me reach my goal why not stick it out because it is WAY easier to maintain than to lose. So, I guess I will stick it out, because I really want to get back to my prepregnancy weight. Who knew my weight would ever be such a struggle.

Well, David needs to finish his breakfast. I will try get on here more I promise, it really is a lot of fun.
Amanda

A Mom's life....

I would say I have had a rather different week this week....

We got snow, it's seems we went from beautiful fall to WINTER over night. I don't know why I always complain about winter, I live in Canada, it is inevitable winter will come!! Actually, I complain about summer too, too hot. Fall is so beautiful but short. I guess I'm just never satisfied!! LOL God sure must have a hard time with us humans, if we could just make up our minds!! LOL

So anyway, due to the snow and icy roads I missed my ladies Bible study. Emily also had a cold so that gave me a little extra excuse. I then spent my morning reformatting my computer and downloading a new virus scanner and all the other upgrades that were necessary. FUN.... Tuesday afternoon had another new event - I taught my first voice lesson!! I'm not sure how this is going to work, as I have never taken voice myself. But I am up for the challenge. Phew, Tuesday was a busy day!

Yesterday was play group, always a good time.

So that brings us to today. Today I got a new alternator put in my truck....I'm sure I should be able to sell that truck for a fortune for all the new parts I have put in it!! Really though we have put a lot of kms on it and we are thankful for it. It would be a long walk to town!! 44 kms.

Darryl starts his second term at welding school on Monday. I am going to be here with the kids alone for 8 weeks!! That sounds worse than it really is, he will be home on weekends. I am planning on using that time to get in shape, get my house organized, and scrapbook. I think that, with 2 kids should keep me busy enough.

Well I guess that's all for today. I hope you guys are enjoying my chattering. It's nice to know we are keeping in touch even if it's not the traditional way.

Whoo hoo!! #2

Well...Let's see the first one seemed to go alright let's try again.
I got to go to playgroup this morning with the kids.....is it really for the kids? How come my son who is a really sweet little boy becomes this hitting monster when around kids his own age. There is a little girl who is his same age, they have a love hate relationship, unfortunately they will probably date and their relationship will still be the same at 16 as it was at 2 1/2. They were just sitting and arguing back and forth, "Yes! No! Yes! No!...." at first it was arguing it then turned into a game.
I am really excited, I've made a new friend. The friends I have I have had for a long time, and I don't often make a connection with people I have just met. Our boys play really well together, and we are both new to an area where it seems everyone knows everyone. I sure hope it becomes a close friendship.

First Try...

Well, here goes....my cousin has a blog site and I find her posts to be so enjoyable, that I thought it would be fun to try. I am sure I won't be as witty as she is, but it will give me an opportunity to be a little creative and maybe feel like I am talking to a grown up during the day, even if it is just talking to myself. Does that mean I am going crazy?
Alright, let's see if I am actually doing this right...