Weekend at Mom and Dad's

Rich went off to Mexico on Thursday leaving us to fend for ourselves for a few days. Things got busy very quickly! I had to wake Luke up at 4 a.m. so that I could drive Rich to the airport (someone had to be awake at home to "babysit") and when I got home at 5, neither Luke nor I could sleep! So, I baked buns for lunch and Luke did some reading. By 9, when the others were done breakfast and well into the school day, Luke and I both became exhausted. Luke flaked out on the couch and slept till 11:30 and I did the Mom thing and kept on plugging. 1 o'clock saw us dropping Luke off for early hockey and the rest of us headed into town to do a bit of christmas shopping. We took too long and raced over to free-skating 10 minutes late. But I wasn't too sad about that since I had to spend the whole time holding Corin up which isn't the easiest on the back!!

Friday. Luke and Laura got up early and had their school day started before 7:30 so they could get done before lunch. Why? Because they had an opportunity to work in the afternoon at the V's, making Lego men. And getting paid for it! :) That left Caleb and I with the Friday paper (near Christmas, no less - meaning HUGE inserts....) but we got it done in record time. Yvetta wasn't too pleased with it all, but since we had to do it, she had to "chin up". Corin kept her entertained while I whipped the van around the paper route, leaping out with the paper bag and bounding hedges in order to get the thing done.

Then.......we got to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house! All the racing around and packing and house cleaning was worth it when we got there.

What fun! We did a puzzle, had lots of tea and my mom's famous chocolate chip bars, talked, went to a flea market, took a long ride with Dad :), bought some Christmas presents, and just enjoyed each other's company. I haven't gone home overnight like this in many, many years. Since we live so close to them we don't "need" to sleep over when we visit. I always feel a little jealous of the far-away family when they come and move-in to mom and dad's and get to talk late and have breakfast with them......now we got to :)

Mom and Dad love to talk with the kids, play with them and even just watch them. After Yvetta's bath, she wandered around in a diaper for awhile and then started a little impromtu "dance" in the living room and it was so fun to just see how much mom and dad enjoyed watching their grandaughter.

Grandpa teaching the kids during devotion time around the table. Beautiful to see the older generation passing on their love of God and their wisdom to the next generation.

Just a little picture from bathtime after Saturday's supper. Those curls at the nape of her neck won't last long. All our kids have had them and they never come back after the first haircut :(

Thank-you, Mom and Dad, for a wonderful visit!

Visit to Wilf and Sharon's

I've got piles of pictures of things we've done recently, but I know I won't get around to blogging them all! Time races by (as you can see by our rapidly growing kids in the picture below.......;) and gets filled up more quickly these days than ever before. But God has given us such a good life. And good friends, though we don't see these dear friends very often anymore. God has called us to different places and it's such an encouragement to spend time with them and see how the Lord is using them.

I had a wonderful chat with Sharon while the men were out helping out a man who needed a hand. I love to compare with other women how the Lord is teaching us and giving us grace to meet the situations He puts us in!

The visit was too short, meaning we need to do it again soon :)

Swine Flu

We all know of the more well publicized consequences of contracting the swine flu, but what's being hidden from the general public are some very serious, yet rather uncommon, long-term consequences that very few people will have. I'm afraid Rich is one of those few people.

Poor Rich. He'll never be the same again. But we'll go on loving him.

We all need a laugh

My Family Is Nuts

During this week of sickness we've found many things to be thankful for and even to laugh at. We're thankful for our neighbour, who sneaks over with meals, hardly dares to open our door lest our germs escape and menace the neighbourhood, yet comes out of compassion. I think she thinks we'll starve. We didn't starve before she knew we were sick........we just ate frozen pizza :) Some might call that starving. And then mom brought chili and we felt like we were spooning health straight into our bodies. Okay, maybe that's exaggerating a little, but hey, after frozen pizza......And Sharon's chicken meal - oh, that was good!

One thing that got Laura and I laughing (and, btw, laughing makes you cough harder, which is good for clearing out the lungs.......I'm just saying....) was recalling crazy things about my family. We needed look no farther than this past summer to have us coughing our lungs out. Here are some of the things we recalled:

I was talking to Christy on the beach when we first arrived at Sandbanks. Like most women, we could jump from one topic to the next with ease, our similar trains of thought keeping us in line with each other. I told her that I had unfortunately forgotten my bathing suit but was hoping to find one in town the next day when we went in for groceries. Then I told her about my back troubles and how my lower back always seemed to pull to the left, but that the chiro was helping. Here's what Mark understood from the conversation:

Cher's bathing suit pulls to the left but she's getting it professionally adjusted on a 3x weekly basis. Ya.

Then there's the Eric saga.

It was a gorgeous, sunny afternoon which simply screamed "Cedar Sands Trail" to the S. clan. So, they piled into the various vehicles, loaded down with water bottles, cameras, sunblock and hats. Did I mention water bottles? They arrived at the start of the legendary C.S.T. and started out - grown-ups in the rear, kids running happily ahead. The group stopped at the various points of interest, but soon the "oh, isn't this a neat leaf" crowd lagged behind, while the "this trail seems longer than it used to be" crowd pushed on. The "oh, isn't this leaf neat" crowd stopped to examine a......leaf. But it was too high for the little ones to properly admire. No problem. Uncle Eric is always willing to assist a little one. He put his water bottle between his legs to keep it from falling into the dirt, picked up Sarina, and held her where she could view the leaf. Then he put her down. And as he put her down, to Kara and Mom's great horror, a stream of liquid arched from between his legs and wet the back of Sarina's skirt. Poor Mom and Kara thought something terrible was wrong with Eric - something terrible indeed to make him lose control like that and "P" all over Sarina's skirt!! Of course - all you need to do is think back to the water bottle he'd been holding with his legs - but Kara and Mom never noticed. They were mortified.

That's my family. I could go on to mention things like my mom trying to order from the drive-through at McDonald's by yelling into the newspaper stand that stands beside the menu. Or Kara who announced "I like oatmeal now" in the middle of a conversation, as if it had just come to her out of nowhere.

Never a dull moment. Keeps us coughing hard - keeps the lungs clear. Just like the "deep breathing and coughing" I used to have to coach the respiratory patients through when I was working in the hospital. I should have just brought them my family.