Quick Trip

We had really hoped to be able to fly down to our mission reunion in Bountiful, but the night before we were to leave, Lennard got a little nervous about what the weather was going to be on our way home.  We could get down to Bountiful without any issue... but getting home looked like it might be an issue.  About 10:00pm Wednesday night, we made the decision to drive instead of fly.  My parents came in from the airport and stayed at our house so that we could leave bright and early in the morning.  

We were on our way by about 6:45ish.  Emma had a hard time saying goodbye to us and it took a few more hugs and kisses to reassure her that we'd be back soon.  We had a good drive down for the most part.

We did manage to end up behind a building being moved and were glad to finally get around it after a half hour of creeping along!

 We got to our hotel by about 6:00 and met up with Shannon's sister-in-law's sister, Sara, to drop off some baby clothes we'd brought down.  We went out to Chuck-a-Rama for dinner and ate well. 

The next day was an open day for us.  It was SO nice to not have a schedule and just spend time together.  We shopped way too much and spent way more than we'd planned (as usual)... but we did get a lot of food storage for great prices and everything that we were out of too.  We got Emma's baptism dress (sshhh! don't tell her yet!) and a few gifts for her special day in December.  We even got some Christmas shopping done!

We went out to Panda Express for lunch and I got the best 'fortune' ever!  Here's hoping it means another trip in the near future!

Our mission reunion was held at our mission president's home in Bountiful.  We were the first to arrive, so we had plenty of time to visit with President and Sister Lund.  President Lund has definitely aged and didn't remember us initially.  Sister Lund hasn't changed a bit.  We got to look through mission scrapbooks and remember all the fun and crazy things we did in the mission field.

President Lund, Soeur Murray, Soeur Marley and Soeur Lund - the day I entered the mission field (1996)

The day Lennard entered the mission field.

I was excited to see one of my mission companions there.  Soeur Low (AKA: Desiree Harris) was my companion for 4 months in Geneva.  I haven't seen her since her wedding reception in Lethbridge.  She was also my only Canadian companion.  She lives in California now with her husband and four kids.

 I didn't know most of the missionaries there, but all of us had fun telling stories and swapping information about members and other missionaries.  It was a great night and so wonderful to see President and Sister Lund again.  They played such a role in my mission and I love them for it.

 After leaving the Lund's home, we made a quick trip up to see the Bountiful Temple.  It has a bunch of scaffolding around the top, but we were both amazed to see how big it is.  Even at 10:00 at night there were people coming out of the temple.  It also has a fantastic view of the valley!

We were on the road bright and early again to head home on Saturday morning (30th).  After making the decision to drive, we spent a fair amount of time wondering if we'd made the right decision.  Well, as we made the drive home, we definitely found out that we chose right!  There's no way we would have made it home.  There was lots of rain, wind and even a bit of snow.

 We were sure glad to make it home.  The colors around Babb were so pretty.  The photo doesn't do it justice.

 We are so grateful that my parents were able to watch Emma and Ben for us.  Emma was very glad to have us home, but she did fine the whole time we were gone.  (Maybe there's hope for another date night in the future!)

What Have We Been Up To?

Since the craziness of the wild fires, life has settled into... life... It seems like we're always busy doing something.  Ironically, the day after the evacuations took place in Mountain View (12th), we had a Relief Society activity on food storage and being prepared!  I had to go up a bit early to help set up, but thankfully another sister from Glenwood (?) did the entire evening.  We got a full meal of all different things made from food storage items (aka... lots of bean dishes).  I liked most of them.  It was just nice to be able to sit and visit and have a night out!  I had to help with the clean up a bit and it was my month to take the tablecloths home to wash. 

The kids started piano lessons again with Kaci on the 14th.  As I sat through the lesson, I could feel myself getting sick... and for the next few days I was in bed dealing with freezing/sweating/aching and feeling like death warmed over.  It was horrible!  Ben started Champs (basketball) on the 16th - thankfully Lennard took him!

Lennard has been busy doing physio three times a week in Lethbridge.  I think next week will be his last as they are saying they won't get more movement than what he has now.  Yesterday was a full year from when he fell.  It's been a rough road to recovery, but I'm so thankful that it wasn't worse than it was.

Lennard had to go do a safety audit in Bow Island for three days last week.  It was hard having him gone.  Especially dealing with Emma's anxiety at bedtime.  We had a really rough night last week that ended with me sobbing and calling in reinforcements.  Thankfully, my parents happened to call before heading home from the hangar, so they stopped in and helped diffuse the situation.  It just hurts my heart to not be able to have Emma feel safe and secure in her own room.  It's frustrating that she can go to school, church, activities, etc, but not go to bed or have a babysitter.  We even mention about wanting to go out and it ends up being a full blown freak out session with her.  It's getting old...

I was able to attend the Canada 150 celebration that the Elementary school put on on Thursday last week.  They had a bunch of First Nations students dance and they fed everyone lunch of Indian Tacos, Saskatoon soup and herbal mint tea.  I ate half my lunch with Ben in his classroom and then ate the rest of it in Emma's classroom with her!  Ben really wanted me to stay with him the rest of the day (he was so overtired from Emma's meltdown the night before), but I finally got him calmed down enough to let me go home.

I had book club that night at Shirlee's place.  We had a good discussion about the book "The Sea Captain's Wife".  We've been meeting together for about 8-9 years now.  I sure love the friends I've made and look forward to meeting each month.

On Friday (22nd), Lennard found out that Toone's were going to be laying sod at their place... and trying to do it by themselves... so he took the day off work and went to help!  I headed over about an hour after he did and we managed to get both sides of the house done just before 1:00.  A bunch more people showed up then, so that helped and we were able to get the rest of the 12,600 sq ft of sod layed down by about 3:30.  We've been really stiff and sore since then, but it looks so nice!  We're happy that they were finally able to get their yard done.

Lennard went to the temple with the bishopric bright and early Saturday morning.  The kids and I had a lazy morning, until Emma asked when Ben was going to Champs... thankfully I had 7 minutes before it started and we managed to get him there on time!  ha! ha!  Poor boy had a granola bar for breakfast.  I did make waffles for him when he got home though.  Good thing Emma remembers these things!

Yesterday, I had visiting teaching while the kids were in school.  Lennard had physio in Lethbridge, so as soon as the kids got home, we loaded up and headed in.  Emma was able to get her reading done for school while we were waiting for him.  We stopped at the food court and grabbed some dinner and then went over to Melissa's so she could take some family pictures for us.  We took them at Popson Park on the West side.  She took a bunch for us and then I took a bunch of their family.  It was a little tricky getting kids to do family pictures when all they wanted to do was throw rocks into the river and play with their cousins!  We got them done though!  I'm excited to see them when Melissa sends them to me.  It was a late night getting home and Emma had choir at 7:30 this morning.  I have to go out to Mountain View to get her registered for dance sometime today and Ben has martial arts tonight.  Lennard has to go to physio again. Busy, busy!

We are trying to get everything organized and packed for our mission reunion in Bountiful, UT this weekend.  We really hope the weather will hold as we hope to fly down.  It will save so much time and I'm looking forward to seeing our mission president again.  Lennard and I met up at President and Sister Lund's house 19 years ago at a reunion, so it's pretty neat to be able to go back and see them.

Wild Fires

There have been so many wildfires in BC and Montana that the smoke in the air has been horrible for weeks and weeks.  Things got a 'little' more complicated than just smoke, when the BC fire crossed the border in to Alberta and Waterton suddenly became at high risk.  They put in a lot of preventative measures to prepare for the worst.  Then, they had a voluntary evacuation put in place and before long it was a mandatory evacuation.  We have all held our breath and prayed that something would happen to save our Park.  When I woke up this morning, I was saddened to see pictures of Bears Hump in flames.

Even worse than that, was when I read my parents Facebook status saying that the mandatory evacuation zone had been enlarged last night to everyone past the Hillspring turnoff.  That means my Uncle Barry's farm and so many of our friends were told they had to leave their homes.  My parents were up helping Sister Neville get out and said that it's something they never want to experience again.  Mom and Dad gathered up their 'important' things from the sea can up on the farm and then got things from their house and went to the hangar for the night.  They don't have any power at home and they are only 2 km's from the mandatory evacuation zone.

All morning I wondered if I needed to be gathering things up.  Lennard kept calling and giving me updates and before lunch they were able to see that the winds had changed direction.  For now, we are safe... but there are so many others that aren't.  Garner's have lost their house and everything in it. Many others are being evacuated as I write this.  It has been a time of discovering what our priorities are and what is truly important.  I've looked around our house and realized how much 'stuff' we have and that as long as the four of us are safe that is what really matters.  We need moisture so badly.  We have a regional fast happening this Sunday for rain.  I've spent way too much time on Facebook and news sites looking for updates to the situation today.  It's been difficult seeing Emma and Ben cry and worry about the fires.  It's been a long day.

Ash on our sidewalk

The ash on our driveway.  No wonder it's so hard to breathe.

This was what the skies looked like this morning.

Bathroom Renos

Our main bathroom has needed updating for a long time, but we've put it off and worked on other, more pressing, things around the house.  Finally, about 3-4 months ago, the taps quit turning off completely.  We've had a constant drip... so we haven't used the tub.  We've bathed the kids downstairs and tried to ignore the issue.  It was just getting worse though, so we finally bit the bullet and just decided to rip it out and then we could work on fixing it as the budget will allow.  

I found a brand new tub on the Buy and Sell page for a really good deal, so that's sitting in the hangar waiting to be installed.  We bought a new vanity and faucet at IKEA when we were in Calgary last month.  Now we'll need to find a tub surround for a good deal and we'll be on our way.  We'll still have to figure out flooring, lighting, a mirror, a toilet, etc... and drywall and painting... gag... the list goes on and on.  We hope we can have it all put back together by Christmas, but we'll have to see what kind of deals we can find!

This is what it looked like (usually minus the tools that Lennard had already brought in)

 We were very happy to see that there wasn't any mold at all behind the leaky faucet.

 After a lot of work, we got the tub and surround ripped out.

 Emma had fun helping!  Ben was off at a play date, so he missed out (lol).  I can't wait to get rid of the three globes we had for lighting!

Happy Birthday, Ben!

With it being the first day of school, Ben's birthday, martial arts starting and our ward temple night all happening today, we decided to have an early birthday dinner with Grandma & Grandpa yesterday evening.  Ben picked meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner.  He was more concerned about getting to open presents though!  He got a cute little stuffed puppy dog, a fun slingshot airplane, some bouncy balls and a whole bag of "cheezy dibbles" to himself!

 Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

 Ben had a great first day of school and got a chocolate bar from the office and a book and card from Miss Sykes.  We had lasagna for dinner outside on the deck.  Grandpa Nichols called just before dinner and Ben was able to talk with him for a few minutes.  Thanks for calling, Grandpa!

 It was all we could do to get him to eat.  He was so excited to open his presents!

 It was a perfect night to be outside!  We are enjoying our 'new-to-us' patio set.  It works so great for our family.

 Ben requested a vanilla cake with a Bat-man symbol on it... so I tried!  He loved it, so that's all that matters.

We sang happy birthday, he got to blow out the candles... and then he didn't want any cake.  He only wanted to open gifts. ha! ha!

 Emma gave him a Spiderman figurine and some Kinder surprises.

 He was VERY excited to open Grandpa Nichols gift and discover a Star Wars Lego set!  He wanted to build it immediately!

 He wasn't sure what could possibly be in such a long box, but he was pretty happy to find his own gun!

 He can hardly wait to go shoot targets with his dad!

We had to hurry and get everything cleaned up so that we could get him to his martial arts class on time.  Lennard got ready and went to the temple while I took the kids to the lesson.  We are definitely getting back in to schedules and routines!

First Day of School

To say that the kids were excited for this day to come would be an understatement!  They were dressed and ready to go before 7:00am!  Since it is also Benny's birthday today, we had a big waffle breakfast with whipped cream and berries!  Yum!  Lennard took a couple hours off this morning from work so that he could be with us.  Before we walked the kids to school, we took the usual pictures.  

 It's hard to believe they are both in full-time school now!  Grade 1 and Grade 2.

 They both wanted to hold hands while they walked to school, but the sidewalk is only so wide!  Lennard and I held hands and we made them walk ahead!  ha! ha!

 Ben is in Miss Sykes class in Grade 1.  He found his hook for his backpack and then found his desk.  He was happy and had no problems with us leaving!

 Emma is with a brand new teacher, Mrs. Vornbrock for Grade 2.  She was a little nervous about us leaving, but as soon as she was told she got to decorate her name card, she was good to go.

I really hope that they both have wonderful experiences again this year.  It was very strange leaving the school with Lennard and walking home to an empty house knowing that they both wouldn't be back until 3:00!

Lennard headed off to work and I took the chance to go to the temple with my parents.  It was the perfect way to spend the morning.