It's Only Tuesday??

Oh, my goodness!


What a week! And it's only Tuesday.



So, here's the low down:



Today was Matt's first day at kindergarten (will post a picture soon - having some computer issues). We have him registered at a Christian School that is out in the country a little ways from our town (only about 5 or ten minutes, so not really that far).



However, any distance that takes 5 or ten minutes to drive means that it is not within "walk to and from school" distance. Matt will be a "bus kid". Last spring when we were filling out all the forms to register Matt for school, we filled one out to register him for the bus route. The bus would apparently leave at 8:10 and return at 4:00. Perfect. I can put him on the bus in the mornings and still be at work on time. As far as after school - Matthew was going to ride the bus to Olds with a little girl from his class whose mom runs a day home (they go to our church - this is how I know the family and managed to make the connection - day homes are not easy to find around here!). I would pick him up in Olds after work twice a week - a little bit of driving, but not the end of the world.



Guess what??!! The school district will not allow Matt to ride the bus to Olds. The rule is "kids who come from Didsbury go back to Didsbury." Aaaagghh! When I was speaking to the transportation department in the spring I asked if he could ride the bus to a different stop. They told me that "yes" - as long as he's on a scheduled route getting off at a scheduled stop he can ride the school district's bus. I took that at face value. What was I thinking?



So now, here we are, with Matt registered in a school that he has actually gone to once - so he thinks that's his classroom, and he thinks that Mrs. Abel is his teacher, and that Mr. Brown who gave him jelly beans today is the "prince" of the school....and my poor little boy is going to be sent home on a bus with no one at the other end to meet him!!!! This is not okay. This is how kids end up on the milk carton.



Okay, so I calmed down and I phoned the public school down the street. I am miraculously able to speak to the vice principal on week two of classes. They have 3 kindergarten classes - the two day a week classes are full, however, she would be willing to place him in her class that she teaches (five days a week, mornings only). However, I would then need to permanently and without any flexibility or lee-way change my lunch hour to 11:30 -12:30 so that I could pick him up and take him to day care. I'm not entirely sure that would truly be feasible with my job. My employer and co-workers would be super supportive, but let's face it, reality hits - daily, and it's not always possible to leave the office at that specific time each day.



Then, enter the wonderful neighbour lady who works at the public school, and who has a son a year younger than Matt. They play together every evening until we drag them in for baths and bedtime. She has graciously offered to pick Matt up from the bus so that he can still go to the Christian school and he won't end up on the Missing Child poster.

Thank goodness!

On that note, time for me to sign off and simmer down.

Matthew

Hello all,

You probably think I'm dead and gone, it's been so long since I've blogged.

My boy turned 5 a while ago. Wow. He starts kindergarten on Tuesday. How did this happen? When I tickle Matt's tummy and ask if my baby Matthew is still in there he gleefully smiles at me and tells me, "I ate him." At least he's in there somwhere.

It's been a busy summer, full of coming and going, working and playing and seeing family.

I'll update you in greater detail later, but this post is about Matt.

Where to begin. Matthew means gift from God. And he is. I have been pregnant 4 times, and I have one beautiful, wonderful, kind, loving, generous and gentle little boy.

He was so worth it. I won't go into the details, let's just suffice to say that my first one wasn't your "ordinary" miscarriage. There were surgeries involved, diffucult diagnosis, and at one point, the doctor actually told me, "We don't know exactly what's wrong, but you need to wrap your mind around the fact at that the end of this, you won't have a baby." It was weeks after the pregnancy had ended that it actually really hit me and I can remember so clearly the ache that filled my chest and choked my throat for days. I remember the feeling of exhaustion after many, many nights of long cries. I was terrified to try again. Thanks to God, I did.

I think what has hit me the hardest in the past few months as I try to accept the fact that Matt is big enough to do jumps on his bikes (yes, it was a very short while ago that I posted about the training wheels coming off - and now he's going over jumps!), do a front flip on the trampoline (oh my gosh!!) and add in his head at the dinner table, is that he just knows, so deeply that he is able to assume it - that I love him soooo much.

We were on our way to a store in Penticton, and I sat in the back seat next to him. He says to me, "Mommy, why are you in the back?"

"Why do you think?"

"'Cause you love me so so so much."

"Matt, you must stay right beside me while we cross the parking lot. Do you know why?"

"Because you love me so much and the stealers will get me if I don't say close."

(Yes, I have taught my son about the people who steal children).

HOWEVER, the moral of the story is that he knows I love him. AND the happy ending is that I have him to love.

More updates to come, but for now, goodnight.

Loves,

Laura

Twice!!! In One Night

Before

During

After

Sunday School BBQ Face Painting

No Training Wheels!!!

Okay folks, get your minds out of the gutter. It's not like that. On July 12th we put sod down on our yard. It was delivered on the 11th - so it had to make it through the night. Sounds simple enough. Don't be fooled. This turned out to be no ordinary task.

I was just finishing up cleaning the bathrooms at around 11:00, when I heard the strangest noise coming from the back. I looked out the window and found some local punks throwing our sod strips into the street. I'm normally pretty mild mannered, but I was pretty tired, plus we had a bunch of help scheduled to arrive the next day. So, I placed a phone call to the RCMP complaint number. I realize that this wasn't exactly a crime, or an emergency of any kind. I just asked that if they happened to drive by and notice more sod in the street, that they let us know so that we could deal with it. Then, we thought that maybe they might be too busy to be driving by our house looking at the grass, so Barry slept in the living room (which is at the back of the house) to make sure that if it happened again he would hear them.

It got worse. We were sleeping happily at around 3:00am, when our neighbours decided to move their very loud, very boisterous party OUTSIDE. We could scarcely believe our crummy luck as we stared out the window at the crowd milling around in the yard across the street. Again, it got worse. I really could hardly believe my eyes when I saw someone stagger, drink in hand, into the driver's seat of a vehicle and drive away. That was the last straw for me. Normally I would have put in ear plugs and gone back to bed, trying to ignore the party. BUT, having been raised an "RCMP kid" I knew full well that even if they were only driving across town, that's too far. People die when there are drunk drivers behind the wheel. I called the complaint line AGAIN!

AND..., hats off to the Didsbury RCMP. A member called me back within 15 minutes, stated that they had already noticed and dealt with the intoxicated driver, they drove past the party a few times and that was all it took to disperse the crowd. Thankfully, everyone walked on home, and as far as I know there were no casualties that evening.

We spend the next day putting our sod down, although we were indeed very tuckered by the end of our adventure!!

I've put some pics at the top, just to keep you all up to date on what else is happening, when we're not busy fighting crime and/or evil, that is!

Blessings,

Laura

Coffee

So, pretty soon I'm turning 29. For real. This isn't "another 29". It's the first time around for me.

I think I'm finally beginning to have adult taste. I got rid of my "barnyard" dishes, and bought some classic white ones. I have no desire to paint any wall in my house red, and I worry about "the future" a whole lot more than I ever used to.

And not just my future, Steph and Dave's future, my sister's future, Ashely and Jeremy's future, and without a doubt, Matt's future is a daily concern. I'm definitely getting older, or at least, beginning to think older.

There is a bright side, though. Coffee. I've been easing into coffee drinking for a few years now. For the longest time I could take it or leave it. Usually left it. Then I discovered Starbucks. Ahhhh. I LOVE their Lattes. They're mild tasting, hot, comforting, and when the holidays roll around they come in wonderful flavours like pumpkin spice, eggnog, and ginger. What could be better?

Lately, however, I've been drinking coffee at home on weekend mornings. These are precious times at our house. Matt and Barry play, and drive Dixie nuts (what else are dogs for?). We visit, laugh, hang out in our PJ's and frequently eat pancakes. Yup, very precious moments.

This past week, I took the precious coffee moments to work with me. I stopped at the convenience store before work and got a coffee. I didn't even have to pay for it. This is a very busy time at the convenience store, and cashier looked at my one small coffee, and said, "You just take that and have a nice day." Wow. Thanks, cashier lady. Made my day.

Sitting down at my desk every morning to face another day of learning and lending is not always easy. Sitting down in my office with a wonderful coffee sweetened with that yummy french vanilla stuff is pretty darn nice. Pretty darn nice indeed.

So, I guess I'm growing up. I work full time now. At a real job. I drank coffee every day. I liked the coffee, and I looked forward to it every morning.

Coffee is a small thing, but it makes me glad. When I sit down at my desk, I smile at my coffee and remember the "coffee" hour at home, with everyone relaxing and being silly. My co-workers laugh. Maybe they should appreciate their coffee more.

Enjoy those "coffee" moments. Smile at your mug.

Start your day with something that makes you happy. I am.

Lots of warm fuzzies to you all,

Laura

Stop Rockin' the Boat

Hello all,

Well, it's been interesting. We've been putting fence posts in, and watching them fall over in the muck created by the two weeks of solid rain we endured. The yard is just now beginning to dry out!

We had a house guest for a while, and thankfully she didn't go into labour while she was here. Stephanie stopped by for about a week while Dave was trying to secure a residence for the two of them in Sparwood. Dave started a job there on Monday, so they are very thankful for the work, as he was laid off after the Pope & Talbot shutdown hit Mackenzie.

As for me, it's been a whirlwind. I've been to Calgary, Red Deer (twice) and Edmonton on courses. I've been feeling very flu-ish off and on throughout all the travelling (maybe just a bit too busy) and am still training at work. The good news is that the scale we bought a while back is now giving me a much friendlier number!!

Matt is hilarious as ever. He has informed me of several pieces of interesting information over the last few weeks:

"Mommy, did you know that there are workers inside my body?"

"Really, that's interesting."

"Yup, and they put "4" in me. They'll know when I turn 5, and then they'll put "5" in me."

Matt seems to be very much into "age" right now.

"Mom, I have a really good idea. How 'bout, I get a skateboard for Christmas...but not till I'm 27. When I'm 27 then I'll ride a skateboard."

"I will not be the best boy ever until I'm 5. Right now I'm still 4, so I will make you crazy."

He's a genius!! He's got it all figured out already!! It's definitely not safe to ride a skateboard until you're 27, and hopefully by then he'll grow out of the idea.

Anyway, must go balance the cheque book, make popcorn and dust.

Blessings on you,

Laura

Recent Photos

• Just a quick note - the contractor showed up and the yard is properly levelled!! Yay!

Soccer Practice

Such a serious player!!

Two nutcases roasting marshmallows


Don't they look studious? (They're learning at the museum)



Man! Those dinosaurs were big!

That's about all for now, hope you are all loving spring (well, we're pretty much into summer now), and I'll be back soon!

Hugs,

Laura

The Wee One is the Wii Winner

So, we've not been having the nicest spring. Don't get me wrong, we've had nice days. It's just that a nice day here and there doesn't really cut it for me right now, and I'll tell you why: The May long weekend was beautiful for three days straight. We postponed our trip to Drumheller until the weekend after because our contractor assured us that he would take that opportunity to come and level the yard. We REALLY need him to do this, because the yard needs to be leveled BEFORE we can properly position the shed (and then empty out the garage), we need the yard leveled BEFORE we dig holes for the fence posts, and BEFORE we have sod put down. Get my drift?? So, we stayed home. He didn't show. Am I mad? Steaming. We've been through the "I'll be there" and the "he didn't show" scenario THREE times!!! Where does the weather fit in? Every time it rains we have to wait another week for the mud around our house to dry out, and we end up being EVEN FURTHER BEHIND!!! At this rate, Matt won't have a yard to play in until he's 10.... Anyway, the latest is that he'll be here tonight at 6:30. I'll let you know how that pans out.

Matt held a boa at Reptile World in Drumheller. He though it was a pretty good idea until she was actually on him. Then he was ready to give her back to the staff member. Wanna know something neat? When I was in grade 8 my class took a trip to Drumheller, and I held that very same boa (named Brittany). Wow. I was a lot braver back then.



Matt is an absolute Wii Master!! It did crush his little ego a bit when Nicola beat him at boxing last night...until then he was undefeated.

We had such a wonderful day yesterday!! We met some good friends of ours in Calgary, and the husbands and the kids all went to a movie, while myself and one of my dearest friends had some great "girls" time shopping and drinking Starbucks. Sighhhh. I found the most perfect skirt, and it was on sale!!! Could it have been better? Then we came home to a clean house, a dinner that was already prepped, and we were able to just eat and visit while all the kids played happily. Heaven!

This morning (after our friends left, we called the contractor and Matt stopped crying) we took Matt to a track to practice riding his bike without training wheels. He's doing so very well!! He's determined to keep up with Nicola and Chane when we camp with them this summer, and I think he'll definitely be able to!

Blessings to all,

Laura