Pics as requested..

I don't have one of blacky..

we are a crazy animal farm..

We now have ...
a hamster named "Chuckles Hamsy James Hague"
a mini satin rabbit named "Jesabell Anne"
a mini/Rex cross rabbit named "Blacky"
a stray DEAF kitten named "Scooter"

.. how did this happen you say??? ....
Aparently... WE ARE officially ~~~~ SUCKERS..

Oma & Opa

My grandparents (on my dad's side) are up for a visit. They moved to Abbotsford quite a while ago and since then - my girls have been so sad without them here to visit on a moment's notice. So we asked them to come stay with us. This is them yesterday heading out on a walk with Oma & Opa. They had a blast. They are loving having them here.

We also went out to a friends farm yesterday to look at all their animals - the girls thought it was really cool. A shout out to Keena, Steve, Evan & Dylan - you guys are fantastic, I love your place -- it feels so homey and comfortable.

They have chickens, lambs, llamas, rabbits, a hamster, cats and dogs. Here are a couple pics..

Well we did some more reno's on the house.. new paint in the kitchen/dining room and new laminate flooring... It was hard work painting with the vaulted ceilings and 2 long days flooring with just me and Collin but SO worth it~! The house looks much improved and finally brought it out of the 1970's! The pictures don't do things justice but here they are just the same!

This was the laminate that we bought at the flooring auction!



Here's the new paint color "Khaki Sun", oh and the new dining table & china cabinet!


And the new windows that Collin installed - this made such a huge difference in the lighting of the whole space!

¡Bienvenidos a la familia!

My cousin James got married. He met a woman from Nicaragua a few years back when he was travelling there - they have kept in touch over the internet and just this year decided to get engaged and get married! His new wife Madeling & her son Samuel came to Canada earlier in June and they were married in Quesnel.

The three of them visited us Tuesday, and it was so nice to meet them. Clearly I have to brush up on my spanish so that I can talk to her until her English gets a bit better. Anyway - very cool to see James as a husband, and also very awesome to have Madeling join the family - she is a sweet person, you can tell. :) :)

*blah*..

Well this spring has turned out to be rather *blah* as noted above. Only a few sunny days peeking in between a tonne of rain and flooding. As I am sure it's the same for some of you out there! We are still waiting for Spring/Summer to arrive and shine down on us.
This picture was taken at the kids' sports day at their school. They are on the same "HOUSE TEAM" and so on group days like assembly's, sports days etc. they are always together. I love this photo, it's so cute to see them interact together and work with one another as sisters & friends without anyone around.

Weight Loss.. cont..

Well as of yesterday, I have lost 25lbs since last summer! Which is fantastic... though I honestly think it must be coming off my organs not by tush but - whatever, guess that's good for my organs too!

I remember a while back there was a number of you who said you'd like to get a small group of us together to support one another, etc. So if you guys still want to - let's do it. I organize a "BIGGEST LOSER" group at my office and it's nice to have some others to motivate or be motivated by.. so let me know... and update me on how the rest of you are doing on your journeys!

Little CAMP on the Prairie

The Brownies / Sparks had a camp out week end on June 2. So Millie was there for a day trip and Oaksie got to stay the night in a bunkhouse cabin. They had a great time, had to dress up "pioneer style" like Little House on the Prarie. They looked so cute. Oaksana is wearing a dress of Tracy's (my sis) that we wore as flower girls to my uncles wedding when we were about 9/10 years old, and Millie work the Christening gown that Collin's grama (Perron) knit for Oaksie as a baby. Thought I'd update with these 2 pictures..

.............

Collin is in his 2nd week at his new job and loving it - so refreshing to see such a positive difference in Collin's outlook on life. The smallest change brings the biggest result. We are enjoying a lot more sun and nice weather and that always helps.


Collin spent the entire day on Saturday reno-ing my/our greenhouse. We put glass windows in all around and it looks so good - and get's hell burning hot in there now - it's great. Yesterday it was up to 38 degrees at lunch. Should grow some great stuff! And it looks so cool - being able to be in there and working and still be able to see - it's so nice! Definately banked up quite a few brownie points~ :)


We've sold the boat, the truck, and someone is looking at the holiday trailer tonight. BIG CHANGES and it's a bit sad to see all this stuff go, but (can you bleleive this?) in the words of Collin - "It will feel so good to lighted our debt load and just be a bit simpler for a while!" WOW, he's so smart.

This is a FANTASTIC photo of the girls from Sunday evening - they ran around for quite a few hours having so much fun screaming and freezing in the cold water of the sprinkler - makes me feel like summer is really here!

Update time..

Let's see - Collin is starting a 4 year apprenticeship on Monday. He will be working at All West Glass, working towards his "Glazier" Journeyman-ship. We are so excited for him, and of course proud of him too - to make such a leap of faith. It will be so great to have him working in town, shorter days and a much nicer work environment. So after 8 years, he is saying so long to mill work! Yippeeeee...

Let's see - my work is busy as usual, just how it is when you are the bottleneck for when permits get done so loggers can log! I woke up this A.M. to the sun shining through some brand new poplar leaves - it really was fantastic.. I love spring! I have also lost a total of 22 pounds since last summer - so I am freaking pumped about that!

Millie is slowly making a turn for the better and we have managed to have a handful of events where mommy has to be gone and she hasn't lost her mind with anxiety attacks and panic. It really has been a great releif cause it's been a long road. She sees a counsellor at her school and he is great - we haven't had any major epifanies as to what is or was causing her great mix up.

And finally Oaksana - she is really growing up so fast.. sometimes she says stuff and I just look at her and think OMG in 5 minutes she going to be 12 and then what??? LOL. She is going to have 2 day surgeries to have some very suspicious moles removed. One from her back and the other from in her hair behind her ear. She is very nervous - as I would be too -- her first one is on Monday the 14th and the other on the 29th. The doc said she will send them away and let us know if anything is not good with them after that.

So all in all - we are pretty even keel'd. Miss you all - come visit us!!! We'd love to have you..

And again..2 days later..

Local Celeb again..

Life & etc.

Life always catches me by surprise - so busy, so great. I am still full underway preping and collecting for a Pub Steak Night / Silent Auction Fundraiser this Saturday. Should be a great time - I have 72 tickets sold and $3000.00 worth of stuff donated to be autctioned off. I really hope that all goes off without a hitch and that we can manage to raise lots of money for the kids.

Two weeks after that - I got a grass seeding contract with CANFOR which will earn us $2800.00 - whoo hoo, so we are turning it into a campout with the full day of grass seeding the day after - I am looking forward to that as well.

Collin is recovering nicely from his run in with the forklift and the pothole (long story, ending in 2 weeks of light duty & 7 stitches to the forehead, sore shoulders, and a wake up call). Collin has really not enjoyed working at P & T for the last few years, alot of mindless cynicism, negativity and of course - the 45 minute drive each way, each day. So he is eagerly looking for work here in Vanderhoof and trying to make a change. I applaud him, I want him closer to us and it would be great for him to find a little more enjoyment out of a job. So we wait with baited breath to hear from the 3 places he's applied so far and hope for the best.

Oaksie is just perking up from a cold, Millie's got it now, and they both had sore tummies this morning - let's hope they make it through the school day!

Last night I went to a .... ooh ... even typing it isn't easy.... well... a.... uh... OMG a Scrapbook class! There I said it - it's out there in the universe. My sister is well on her way to leading a cult of scrappers and has been trying to recruit me for years. I gave in as it was a Paper bag album class - which (albeit it's still scrapbooking) I love these little albums. Dawn Carpenter has a little scrapbook Cottage and holds classes all the time. So I have to say that I did enjoy myself and will maybe / possibly scrapbook again - I will not be taken easily, I will not go gently into that dark light.. .. :)

So all in all - we are well, reno's underway on the house, anticipating summer, loving life. Miss you all out there, xoxoxoxo!!

My baby is 8 today

Well - Oaksana is 8 years old today. WOW - how fast the time goes. She is such a wonderful girl, so caring, such a good sister and daughter.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!

Real Moms

Read Vicki's and thought I could come up with a few...

Real mom's let their kids play in the "MUD" - cause they are having the time of their lives, then break it to them gently later what the words horse corall mean...

Real mom's spray paint their kids hair orange & pink (even if it stays in for weeks) to have the "Best Sleepover party" ever~

I built a website for the school!

I think that I posted about this a long time ago, it's actually been built for over a year. It took some time to get the principal to talk to the right people at the school board, etc. but as of today my (well the school's) website is LIVE!! - Check it out! http://www.sd91.bc.ca/ed/ I had so much fun learning how to build it!

sushine, snow, quadrides, trampolines...... & the tooth fairy

It was a busy weekend around our house, I had Friday off, which was completely topped off with the fact that Millie had a Kindergarten day tooo - so it was all to myself~ ahhh, it was so nice. One would think that I would curl up with a book and drink tea all day but.. no - I tackled the "closet project" did 5 loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, the house, etc. I met a friend for coffee, paid for some new playground equipment for the school. Oaksie went to a figure skating winter carnival & then a sleepover. Saturday I had a massage client but in the morning Collin painted in the kitchen again, then we just went to my sisters for a movie and some popcorn. Oaksie also pulled another tooth. Sunday we hung outside, played in the yard, got out the trampoline, had a hotdog roast and burned some downed trees. Had some friends over for supper - it was great! It was a nice relaxing weekend!

Weight Loss

Just another update - down ten from the start of this eating thing and down 16.5 from last summer! YIPEE - I am so excited.
I still have a lot of hard work until I can have my hysterectomy but - I'm getting there!

OK so further to the last post..

..I called around to a few places myself to see if I could talk with a counsellor. I wanted to make sure that I was dealing with Millie properly and that I wasn't setting her back at all. I found out that we have an "ART Therapist" for children in town and I spoke with her on the phone. She seems fabulous and thinks that we/she can help Millie figure out a "plan" of what she can do when she is feeling anxious or paniced. Without seeing her, the Therapist can't tell if it's general anxiety or seperation anxiety - either way, she figures with some work we can get her back on track. Each day we try to keep things predictable, calm, and happy so that she feels secure, etc. We are on a wait list for this therapist so I am hoping that we can get in to see her sooner than later.. until then - we will continue with this.

Also, this pic was from the weekend, Oaksie was at a sleepover and Millie wanted to play a game so.. I set up this wash line and Millie played "laundry day" for about 2 hours with me. She would wash the clothes in her washer machine (she just got new batteries again so it's like a new toy!), then hang them to dry in the sushine, and spray them with "fresh linen" scented bathroom spray. Ahh what a great day... it really was so cute.. as you can see.. the sun was very bright out by the wash line.. hence the sunglasses!

I seem to have misplaced my parenting handbook ~

For the last 8-10 days Millie has really been going through and extremely rough patch. She has every single classic sign of GENERALIZED ANXIETY. She has been suffering from excessive and uncontrollable worry. She seems to worry about things like the future (where we are going to be), being on time for appointments, health, school performance, crime, change in routines, and family matters. She seems to worry when there is really no problem or any realistic circumstance to cause the worry. Mostly she's good when she's distracted but as soon as her mind relaxes - it's back to the same panic mode. It has been really hard on all of us - especially her but for us, it's horrible just having to worry about her feeling so helpless, you know? She doesn't want to be at school or daycare, or with Collin, she worries about what's happening in 20 minutes, 3 hours, tomorrow, constantly - her muscles are so tight and she is so tired. Poor thing. Usually with general anxiety, it could be any event from the last 6 months that has triggered this, not just something from last week.
I am going to see the family doc tomorrow - hoping that he can set us on the right track or confirm that we are doing the right things with her. So as I said before, where the hell is the chapter on kids and stress? *sigh*