Geocaching

Last night was an absolutely beautiful fall evening, so we went on a nuture hike with the kids to find some geocaches.  For those of you who don't know.  Geocaches or treasures are hidden all over the place by different people.  You use a GPS or an App on your cell phone to find the co-ordinates and then you can find these special treasures that are hidden in the woods. 

The kids love geocaching. 

Alyssa finding a treasure....

 

Sibling love....

 

 

Daddy and the kids hunting for a treasure....

 





And finally.....my three favorite people in the whole entire world.....

 

We had so much fun and if this nice weather keeps up, I'm sure that we will be doing some more geocaching this fall.  It is a fun family activity that is realitively free (you have to leave something in the geocache when you take something out.  So we go to the dollar store and pick up small items to leave.)

The Changes In Cell Phones

I got a new cell phone yesterday and I was amazed at how much different this one is compared to my old one. Two years makes a huge difference in the life of a cell phone.

I got my first cell phone when I was about 16 or 17. It was my dad's old phone and it was huge. It was basically, maybe even bigger than a house phone. I was given it strictly for emergancies and so my parents could contact me whenever they wanted. I remember quite clearly how short the battery life span was. Sometimes it didn't
even make it through the evening.

I don't remember having a cell phone when I was in college.

When we moved to Edmonton I got a cell phone for emergancies again and this one I used prepaid minutes. I remember calling Matt alot on that phone, usually to tell him I was lost in this big city of Edmonton and that I needed help finding my way home.

After a few years, we finally both signed a contract and got 'real' cell phones. I still remember quite clearly how excited both of us where to get these new cell phones. We were on a plan that allowed us to call each other free and we took advantage of that. These phones were tiny, flip phones.

Three years later, our contract was up and I got to upgrade to a pretty, small purple phone.

A few years later, texting was starting so I got a phone where you could pull out the bottom so you could text easier. That phone was black and was a little bigger.

Then, the touch screens and I Phones came out. I stayed with my trusty Samsung that I had had so much luck with. And I officially became an android user even though I had no idea what that meant.

Fast forward to today....I have a brand new Samsung Galaxy SIII 32GB and I love it, as I have loved all my new cell phones. It is bigger than my last tough screen but so much faster and has so much more memory.

Sixteen years ago, I would have never thought that I would be using words like 'syncing' or 'data plans' or 'texting'. But, here I am just trying to keep up with all the new technology that changes by the minute.

It makes me wonder where we will be in another sixteen years.

Nothing Like A Kitchen Dance Party

I hope my kids always remember our kitchen dance parties. Whenever the day seems to be stressful, I crave a kitchen dance party with my two littles. We turn up the kids worship music and dance until we can dance no more. And after our little party I find that the house feels that much more peaceful and joyful which is what we all crave.

We needed that stress relief something furious today.

I mentioned earlier this week that Alyssa had a bad fall, hitting her head hard on the monkeybars. Well out of nowhere she got two really bad bleeding noses. The second one lasted 45 minutes. She has never even had a little bleeding nose before. I was worried so I called the pediatrian who advised us to go right to the ER to make sure she didn't have a skull fracture. Yeah...I was pretty panicked at that point.

Our morning turned very hectic in like two minutes. Lucas is running around, pulling everything out of the bag I was trying to pack. Alyssa is crying and spitting out the blood she is swallowing and she is begging me to pray with her. Which I did a number of times. Anyway we got out of the door with Alyssa still bleeding quite badly. We dropped Lucas off at my good friend Jamie's and we were off to the hospital.

Thankfully at the hospital we were seen pretty quickly. The doctor did a good exam of Alyssa's skull, ears and nose. He didn't think that the fall and the bleeding nose was related. He would expect to see CSF fluid in her ears and nose if it was in fact a skull fracture; along with bruising around the eyes.

This mama was relieved.

So we picked up Lucas and had a dance party in our kitchen to rid ourselves of the stress. It did everyone really good and our day instantly went from bad to good.

And then our day went from good to excellent when we were invited over to our neighbors and good friends house for dinner. Laura made delicious pizza, the kids played nicely together and I got some adult conversation in. It was just what we needed.

And.......Matt comes home tonight which means my world is about to be righted (is that a word?) again.

Happy Weekend Everyone.

Travelling for Work Sucks!!!

Matt has been travelling a crazy amount for work lately (actually for about 10 months).  He is gone at least 50% of his time and we all hate it. 

We all long to move so that we can have him home everynight.  Hopefully in the future it will happen.  But, for right now we are left trying to make the best of this situation

I will never get used to the day Matt leaves.  It just plain sucks.....we all kind of feel just plain depressed as the weeks ahead with him gone, look unbearable. 

But, somehow I pick myself up....dust myself off and we make the best of the situation. 

We go one with our life.  Talking to Matt as much as we can.  Skyping with Matt as much as we can.  Alyssa really needs time with Matt so she will often take the phone or the computer up into her room at night so she can just talk to Daddy alone.  They can be on the phone or Skype for a long time.  I asked Matt once what they talk about and he says he just tells her stories; either pretend stories or stories from when he was a little boy. 

I find the hardest time of the day to be suppertime.  That is when Matt should be getting home and the mood in our house always changes.  From tired, worn out mom to Yeah...Daddy is home.  I find that I often try to get us out of the house at that time of day.  Whether it is to the park for a picnic supper, or to Kidz Quarterz to let the kids run wild.  We seem to eat out more when Matt is gone because I just plain don't want to be home at that time of day. 

So we somehow make it through the week and then the weekend comes.  I hate Friday nights when Matt is gone because the weekend just looms before us.  Everyone seems to be so excited that the weekend is here but to me it just feels so empty.  We get through it though. 

Then the countdown starts for when Daddy will be home and the mood starts to shift to Pure Excitement.  Days are counted down.  Clothes are picked out by Alyssa for what she wants to wear when Daddy is home.  Pictures are drawn and colored for Daddy. 

Then Daddy comes home......and all is right in our little world again.  He completes our family and having him home just feels so right. 

As much as I complain about how hard it is to have your husband away, I know that Matt is suffering just the safe; if not more.  He too is worn down from all this travel.  He just longs to be home with us in the evenings and weekends. 

I know that this travel season is just that; a....season.  We will get through it.  We know that this is NOT how we want to raise our kids.  We NEED to be together.  So until this short season is over we will work on thriving as a family instead of just surviving.  And we are doing it....we are really doing are best to make the best out of this situation. 

New Routines

The last week or so has just been getting us used to the new routines that fall and kindergarten bring.

Alyssa has done really well in adjusting to kindergarten. She seems to be really enjoying her ckass and new friends and taking the bus is a big bonus for her. She was excited though, when the weekend came and she could "sleep in" which really means just being lazy in the morning rather than getting up and ready pretty quickly.

I moved bedtime to an hour earlier and it seems to be going really well. I really do like my evenings back as 8:30pm just felt too late. It worked for us in the summer but, 7:30 is much better. Lucas seems to be taking a little shorter nap in the afternoon but, then has more nighttime sleep. It is all working out for now and hopefully doesn't change now that I've written it down.

Matt is in Fort Worth right now and like always we can't wait until he is home again. All of this travel is getting absolutely crazy and all of us can't wait until it ends. That being said though, our family is really happy to know that so far for the month of October there is no travel planned. Yeah........I think this is the first time in ten months that Matt will be home for the whole month. Yeah.....We are going to enjoy every moment with Daddy this fall.

Lucas had a speech assessment done today and he does have a moderate speech delay, probably from all his ear infections in the past. We will be taking him to a speech therapy playgroup once every three or four weeks until he us caught up. We are also still waiting to get his hearing tested to make sure permanent hearing loss hasn't occured. I don't really think this is the case but, it is best to get it checked out.

This afternoon was an absolutely beautiful day so we called up some friends for a nature walk in the river valley. The kids had lots of fun exploring through the trees and looking for some geocaches. We ended the evening with a picnic in the park. It was a really nice time, until just before we were to leave. Alyssa fell off the top of the monkeybars and hit the back of her head hard on the bar and then did a flip mid air and landed on her tummy. Needless to say, she was hysterical and has been in alot if pain since. She is sleeping in our bed right now and I will continue to wake her up every few hours tonight just to make sure she is okay.

Anyway I am off to bed to snuggle my little miss Alyssa.  She doesn't get to sleep in our bed very often but I am going to enjoy it while I can. 

Edited: Note Alyssa woke up this morning just fine.  Her neck still seems quite sore and is a little stiff but she feels fine.  Around 5am when I woke her for the third time, she rolled over and said, "Don't wake me up anymore, please.  I am absolutely fine."  LOL.

Women In Touch

Women of all ages; with all different backgrounds meet together to encourage one another.

Beautiful decorations create a peaceful space in the fireside room at our church.

Coffee with flavored cream are staples on a Wednesday morning.

A spread of delicious food is layed out at the back table; so thoughtfully prepared for this meeting.

Women being transparent and honest with one another.

Women lifting each other up as we walk through the trials of life.

Tears and hugs being shared when life gets tough. Laughter and smiles a few minutes later fill the room.

The Holy Spirit is present.

The children are being lovingly cared for by "the grandmas" so the moms can have a break.

Women are growing and moving closer to God.

Books are studied and used as a tool to help in our journey.

Prayer is essential and the Holy Spirit is so kind to always meet us where we need. 

Women leave more peaceful, more rested, and ready to take on the week. 


To me, Women in Touch has been such a blessing in my life.  The fellowship that happens on a Wednesday morning is what I crave.  The support that these women offer has been what lifts me up during difficult times.  I can't give it all the praise that this program deserves.  It is what I look forward to each week and I can't imagine my life without it. 

I took a step of faith this year and I am now on the executive team as well as I am leading a book study.  I need to give back all that has been offered to me.  I pray that God uses me to encourage other women, to lift them up when they are down, to help them grow on their spiritual journey. 

I am so thankful for all WIT has done and will continue to do. 

  

First Bus Ride

Although I had a hard time letting Alyssa go to Kindergarten, I was really struggling with her taking the bus.  I just couldn't imagine letting my five year old on the bus all by herself.  But, I knew that it was something I needed to do and she needed it to. 

Alyssa was beside herself excited about taking the bus for the first time to school today.  Again, she was up before me, dressed, and eating breakfast when I came downstairs in the morning. 

She kept reminding me of the time all morning so that she wouldn't be late and miss her bus.

Here she is waiting like such a big girl for her bus to come.

Alyssa getting on bus route 232 at 8:35am in the morning.

As the bus left with my baby girl on it, Lucas was left crying as he wanted to go with his sister on the yellow bus and I was left with tears blurring my eyes as once again Alyssa grew up right in front of my eyes. 

So what does any crazy mother do.....she follows the bus.

I just had to make sure that she wasn't left not knowing what to do once she got off the bus.  But, my fears were rest assured when I saw the assistant teacher waiting for the kindergarten kids to get off the bus. 

The assistant teacher took them to their doors where they waited for the bell to ring.  Once I knew she was safely inside, I finally felt okay to leave her. 

She got off the bus at 12:18pm and the smile couldn't have been bigger on her face.  She was so proud and she looked so old. I knew that we had made the right choice in letting her take the bus.