Work and children really cut down on my “me” time.

But I sifted through them quickly to find my favorite of the weekend.

(Why the heck does it always look like I’m looking down in photos? Gah.)

On top of Cypress … something. Overlooking Vancouver.

This girl is an AMAZING hostess.

The best.

And I love her to bits.

Thanks lady!

xoxoxo

A few years ago, Megan and I started following each others’ blogs. I can’t remember how we found each other, but I’ve enjoyed getting to know her again IMMENSELY. We share some of the same struggles, and sometimes it’s just nice to have someone who gets it.

We met in high school, I briefly dated a friend of her older brother, and we were often at the same punk shows. The last time I saw her was at our friends’ wedding. July 14, 2001. That’s NINE YEARS (less two days) ago.

Meg, BLP, Me, JG

I’d graduated high school (along with the other two girls on the right) 14 days earlier and Meg had just completed 11th grade. I was five days away from being due with Kaylie, but 12 days away from delivering her.

So, bring us to today. Or, last week, I guess, because that’s when Angella tweeted something about a pre-BlogHer meet-up that she is hosting in Vancouver. I’ve been bummed about the fact that I had to sell my ticket and cancel my hotel reservation in New York because I really REALLY wanted to (finally) go to BlogHer. But, things happen in life and things need to be sacrificed.

This Vancouver thing, though, well, I have a travel credit that will more than cover my flight and I have a couch to sleep on. A free trip? HOW COULD I SAY NO? And also, I get to see Angella again. (I had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time last summer.) It can’t be anything less than awesome this time too.

I fly out Friday evening and I get back late Sunday night.

I’m looking forward to it just a little bit.

**If you are in the Vancouver area and are interested in attending the pre-BlogHer thinger, check out the info over here.**

Liliana’s daycare provider had a wedding to prepare for today and I couldn’t find anyone to watch her, so Lili and I got to spend the day together. I love days where I get to spend one-on-one time with one of my girls. It doesn’t happen often, especially now that it’s just the three of us for the next couple weeks.

We brought Kaylie to school and spent the next couple hours shopping for Kaylie’s birthday party tomorrow. After dropping our purchases at home, we (finally) went to visit Laurie and her newborn baby girls. I haven’t seen her in way too long – I don’t even think I saw her her whole pregnancy! I’m such a good friend. I explained to Liliana where we were going and she was quite excited to see “Angry and Organ”.

Upon meeting Avery and Morgan, Laurie said that I had to do the hold-both-babies-at-the-same-time thing. She didn’t have to tell me twice. I’ve never held newborn twins before and I can honestly say that I could do it ALL DAY EVERY DAY. They’re still so tiny that my arms didn’t get that achy there’s-no-blood-left feeling.

I forgot my camera, but I did have my phone with me.

Liliana and the girls’ big brother Reid went to play downstairs and gave Laurie and me a chance to catch up.

When she came back upstairs, I asked Liliana if she’d like to hold a baby.

She said yes. I wasn’t sure how she’d handle it, but she did really well. And then told me that she was “all done”.

After lunch we (picked up my camera and) headed to Anna’s place to hang out and give Ethan his replacement rocket ship. He lent Liliana his rocket ship many months ago and Liliana has literally played with it every day since. It’s been in bed, at daycare, in the bath tub, EVERYWHERE. It’s got paint wearing off and some pieces missing. So, I found an identical brand new one online and Liliana got to give it to him today.

I love visiting with Anna. I feel like she’s one of those people who just “gets” me. Except when she said that she thought my kid was bipolar because she goes from laughing to crying to laughing to crying all within three minutes. Then I pointed out that her kid had his foot on the restaurant table. (Did I mention we took four kids four and under out for dinner? We’re good like that.)

Liliana and I had an awesome day, I’m so glad that I got to have it off. I miss play dates and I miss hanging out with my friends and our kids. It seems that week days are the only good time to do things like that, as evenings are filled with soccer and dinner and baths and bedtime and weekends are usually a bit crazy. As much as I really enjoy working, I really enjoy NOT working even more.

When Liliana and I got home, the door buzzer went. It was my book being delivered. I Will Carry You by Angie Smith. I am SO looking forward to curling up with it.

On our way to pick Kaylie up from her friend’s birthday party, Liliana asked if we were going to the babies’ house. When I told her, no, we’re going to get Kaylie, she said in true Liliana fashion, BUT I WANT TO GO TO THE BABIES’ HOUSE! Apparently little “Angry and Organ” made an impression on her.

I didn’t recognize Kaylie when she came to the door of her friend’s house. Her hair is usually up in a ponytail with a head band.

The birthday party she was at included a trip to the hair salon. The face paint was from the Play Day (end-of-the-year sports day) that she had at school today.

As much as these two goobers have kept my head spinning these last couple weeks, they also make me smile, shake my head, and laugh more than any other human beings on earth.

Especially when one wears an orange (her favorite color) shirt that says “My momma says I’m special” and one insists on wearing her sunglasses upside down.

I first discovered schumtzie.com this past summer when I was staying with my blog-turned-real-life friend Jen and we were talking about local bloggers. She told me to check out Schmutzie, since she lives in Regina as well. I haven’t looked back since. Through her blog I also discovered her husband’s (the Palinode) blog. Both are very much worth the visit.

Schmutzie has a way of putting thoughts and feelings into words like I’ve never seen (read) before. So much of what I read when she talks about depression/anxiety, I say to myself, I feel that! I can’t believe she just put that into WORDS! It’s talent, my friends. An amazing gift that she possesses.

She is the creator of the social network that makes me tell you five positive things about my day; waging the battle against embitterment. Grace in Small Things. I’ve really enjoyed looking for those five things every day. My depression can really kick the joy right out of me, so finding the grace in small things every day has been and continues to be a blessing.

Since my family had our vehicle up in Saskatoon last weekend, I had to take a cab to meet up with Schmutzie and Palinode. I was dropped off about five minutes early, paid my cab, watched him drive away while I went to open the door to the place we were meeting, and noticed something. The door didn’t open. Also, there were no lights on. Uh, uh oh. I hadn’t gotten Schmutzie’s cell number (smart one I am), so I couldn’t text her and say HEY COME SAVE ME I’M ON DEWDNEY AVENUE ALL BY MYSELF IN THE DARK! So, I opened my email on my phone and sent her my digits hoping that she would get it on her iPhone.

She and Palinode pulled up in a cab about three minutes later. I walked toward their cab, as (she told me later) Schmutzie thought, How does she know it’s us?! I informed them of the closure of the establishment at which we were going to consume copious amounts of carbohydrates as we watched their cab drive away. Whoops. We walked to a couple more places on the same street AND THEY WERE ALL CLOSED.

So, we called another cab. Thank goodness for the wonder that is cell phones.

And then we found a place that was actually open and did in fact serve copious amounts of carbohydrates.

I liked the two of them instantly as we giggled our way down Dewdney wondering which of the three of us was going to get mugged or murdered first. As it turned out, we made it safely to our final destination.

There’s one thing that I noticed about Schmutzie and the Palinode right away. They are great story tellers. They can seemlessly tell a story with one of them telling most of it and the other adding those little details that the one has either forgotten or missed. I loved listening to them talk. And I look forward to the next time.

Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera with me. (Seriously!) (I’m angry at myself too.) I tried to snap a couple photos with my phone, but trying to shoot in low light with only two megapixels doesn’t exactly produce great results. If you want a couple more shots of the evening, you can check out Schmutzie’s Flickr stream. I love her photographic eye.

Eventually we realized that we’d been sitting there for a good four or five hours (did you know that sweet potato fries, although DELICIOUS, only taste good for the first two or three hours?) and a couple of us had to work in the morning, so we bid adieu and parted ways. It’s amazing how fast time can go when you’re enjoying yourself.

One of the main things I love about meeting the people that live in my computer is that they are so diverse. I don’t know that I would have met those two without the blogosphere. (Although we did find a real-life, non-internet-related connection.) I’m definitely thankful for this space I have on the internet and the opportunities it has given me to meet the people that I’ve met and make the friends that I have made. It gives me a thrill to move someone from the “people I pretend to know” list to the “real-life friends” list on my blogroll.

Who’s next?

We had thought about my joining them yesterday, but logistically, it didn’t make much sense. Plus, I needed some time at home. Today is my first day off after working 19 days straight, and if I’d gone to join my family (being a one vehicle family, I’d have had to take the bus), I wouldn’t have had time at home to prepare for the week (laundry! groceries! cleaning the bathroom! doing all the other bazillion things I haven’t had time to do while working 40+ hours a week!) I’ve talked to Noah quite a few times over the weekend, and he and the girls are having a great time in Manitoba with his parents and grandma. They’re being very well taken care of. (Like I knew they would be.) The thing I was most concerned about was Noah driving by himself with the girls. When we go away, I’m always the long-distance driver and he’s the city driver. He hates long-distance driving (and I like it), and he’s the better city driver (I’m getting better). I was also concerned about the roads, as it is WINTER here right now. I prayed through their entire journey. Noah did just fine on the way there, and I’m sure that, God willing, he’ll do just fine on the way home again.

So what am I thankful for? First off, I’m thankful for you guys. My readers. My friend/family. My encouragers. Thank you for the kind words that you’ve used to comment on my often recently heavy posts. I really appreciate you guys, and you sure know how to make a girl’s day bright.

This weekend, I’m thankful for alone time. By the time my family comes home, I’ll have had just over 48 hours of alone time. It is the longest I’ve been home alone in the last 8.5 years. Actually, I think it’s the longest I’ve been home alone ever. It’s weird. I went to bed on Saturday night just before midnight, but was not able to fall asleep until 3am. The dark and me? We don’t get along so well. It’s been weird to come home after work and not have anyone yell, “MAMEE’S HOME!” I kind of miss that. I haven’t gotten anyone to check on before I go to bed. I haven’t gone into the girl’s room at all.

But, being home alone has it’s benefits – like when I leave something somewhere, it stays there until I move it. I can leave something on the table in the living room and not have to worry about little hands touching it in the morning. I can nap! I had a 4.5 hour nap on Sunday after work. It was wonderful. I took an extra shift at work on Saturday, because what else was I going to do?! (My boss said that she liked my family-less availability.)

I’m thankful for many other things like my (extended) family, my friends, and especially my God – and the many gifts that He has given me. The gift(s) I’m most thankful for?

This guy.

This girl.

And this girl.

These last couple days of bachelorhood have been pretty great, and much needed, but my life with my family is so much more rich and fun and LOUD. I miss those three and look forward to having them home later today.

I hope you all had (or are having) a great weekend. HAPPY (CANADIAN) THANKSGIVING!!

Besides not blogging myself, I haven’t been reading any blogs. I just haven’t had the time! But I miss it! I missed big events. Elizabeth had her baby!! There are probably more things that I’ve missed, but there are still 209 posts in my reader, so obviously I’m not caught up yet.

It’s been kind of nice living in “real life” though. Anna didn’t make it to the Bible study we both attend on Thursday mornings, so we got together Friday morning. And afternoon. Our three little blond kids got along better than I expected. (Liliana doesn’t usually like other human beings.)

Time just kind of flew and before we knew it, it was almost 1:00pm, and I was supposed to pick up my race package with Kami for the CIBC Run for the Cure on Sunday.

Since Anna and Kami hadn’t seen each other for a few months, Anna suggested that I leave Liliana with her, get my race package, and then meet back at her place with Kami so we could all have coffee together. It was an awesome idea. I really enjoy those two ladies.

Photo by Kamden

(Yes, ladies, I’m emailing you the photos right away. Feel free to steal this one if you want, because I take forever to do things. I give the two of you permission.)

***
Saturday was a rough day for me. It was one of those days. I struggled to smile through work, but when I got home, I completely crashed. Thankfully, I’ve got a very forgiving, laid-back, hard-working husband who did dinner with the kids so that I could have some down time after work. He even did the bedtime routine with them and put them to bed.

Saturday night we were going to catch up on some DVR’d shows from the week when Noah noticed that we had water coming through our ceiling in the kitchen. Awesome.

We’ve been told before that we pay more for rent than we should for a two-bedroom apartment, but consider this. In the first place we lived after we were married, our rent, including utilities, was almost $200 less than we’re paying now. It had one more bedroom, more square feet, a HUGE back yard, it was the top half of a house, and we had (shared) laundry in the basement. BUT, it took a year and a day for our landlord to come and fix anything, unless it was on fire. Literally. (It only happened once, and it was the oven – wiring, not my fault.) There were things that the landlord PROMISED would be done before we moved in, and they were still not done when we moved out almost three years later.

Our apartment, while small, has nothing wrong with it. Our suite, and the building itself, is very well maintained, as is the surrounding area – including a huge field and an outdoor swimming pool. And when something goes wrong, they deal with it right away.

When we noticed the water leaking, Noah started cleaning it up while I got ahold of the after-hours service for the company that owns our building. We had someone at our house within half an hour. It was 10:30pm. THAT, my friends, is good service.

It turned out that the people in the unit above us had left their dishwasher on and it was one of those ones that plugged into the sink. The problem was, that they left the plug in the sink. Again, awesome.

***
Sunday morning I discovered that my new cell phone’s alarm clock tool was a little more complicated than I thought, because I set it for 7:00am, but did not wake up until 8:13am when my bladder was threatening to implode. I had to be at a staff meeting at 8:30am, Kami was picking me up from there to go to the Run for the Cure, and then she was dropping me back off for my 11:30am shift. Awesome.

I grabbed everything for my run and for work, and headed for my breakfast staff meeting. Thankfully, I didn’t forget anything. But, as I sat down for the meeting, I realized that I’d put my watch on upside down. Mornings are not my thing.

Kami and I got to the race starting line a little early and danced around to the beat of the drum (literally) to keep warm until the race started. We (Kami) decided that we should run the entire thing without stopping. She is my coach, supporter, encourager, and challenger. We did it. I tried not to let the fact that a lot of people were passing us at the beginning get to me. I forgot all about it when we crossed the finish line of our 5k run with a time of 32:22 – my personal 5k record.

When I got off work that night, I could hardly move. My legs had reached their limit and Noah spent the rest of the evening referring to me as an old lady because of how I was walking.

***
Noah and the girls are heading to Manitoba this weekend to join his parents at his grandma’s house for Thanksgiving. Since I work all weekend, I was going to stay home alone. By the time Monday hits, I will have worked nineteen (19!) days straight. I was looking forward to a day off (finally!) and getting the house back together.

The thing is, my husband kind of likes me and apparently wants me to join him and the girls for Thanksgiving. I can see his point. So, my plan for the next couple days consists of getting all the laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away (to me, those are four SEPARATE chores), replacing the sandals basket with the hats and mitts basket in the front closet, getting our winter gear out of storage, cleaning all the summer and too small clothes out of the girls’ closets, and finishing the editing for the photo shoots I’ve done recently. I’m thinking it’s going to take a lot of time, and therefore I may be absent on this blog AGAIN this week. Please forgive me if I’m absent in your comments as well.

It’s not you, it’s me.

And I really mean that!

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According to Google Maps, the trip was 4797 km.

I had written notes in my cell of things that I didn’t want to forget. I had to delete all my text messages a couple times, since my memory card thinger is so small. I always made sure not to delete my drafts though, since that’s where my notes were. When I got home, my card was full again. Apparently the two hours of sleep I’d gotten the night before fried my brain because I deleted the drafts with my inbox and outbox. DANG! I may or may not have been a little angry when I realized what I’d done.

Oh well. Here goes.

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Saturday, May 30th
Regina to Calgary: 755 km
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After the debacle with the battery, we finally took off at about 8:45 am. I wrote a bit about our first day already, but now here’s the photos!

We met up with Colin & Ashley (Kaylie’s biological dad and his girlfriend) and had dinner and then watched the kids in the pool. I’d called them earlier to let them know to bring suits if they wanted to go in, but I forgot one little detail.

Colin had broken his ankle in two places playing baseball a couple days earlier. I knew about it, but had forgotten. Whoops! So just the kids went in until just after Colin and Ashley left when Liliana did her first poop-in-the-pool stunt of the trip. Since there was nobody else there, I put on my suit and joined the girls after depoopifying Liliana.

It was my first full day without a computer, so when I talked to Noah later that night I got him to read me my blog comments and Facebook messages. I’m nerdy like that. Or I’m an addict or something. Who knows. After I got off the phone with him, I headed downstairs to see if they had one of those business centre things where I could use a computer. They did! I had exactly 15 minutes and pounded out this post in 13.5 minutes. That night was the best sleep I had the entire trip, as it was the only night that I didn’t sleep with Little Miss Kicky McKickerson.

Two of the chairs in our room pushed together made the perfect bed for her. (Oh wait! I lied! I got to sleep in a bed by myself at Amanda’s too. Ah, bliss.)

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Sunday, May 31st
Calgary to Summerland: 653 km
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I had everyone bathed and everything packed up the night before so that we could get going bright and early. We were on the road by 8:00 am (Alberta time) exactly. I like an early start. I had packed a bunch of fruit and baking in the cooler, so we didn’t have to stop anywhere for breakfast. I’m a very efficient traveler, and the only time we got out of the van was when we got gas. The kids were really well behaved though. Snacks, a DVD player and a bazillion movies will do that.

We got to Amanda’s at about 3 pm (BC time) and hung out for a couple hours before heading to the beach for a barbeque. I totally love her. She was a great hostess, and our kids totally got along. And by “our kids”, I mean Avelyn and Kaylie. Avelyn totally loved having a big kid around, and Kaylie gets along quite well with kids younger than her. Liliana and Avelyn were another story. They are SO alike, that they kind of clashed. I had a hard time stopping myself from laughing at how similar they are.

Liliana was stoked to be around all the “rrrrrrocks” and the “waller”. She spent most of her time in the lake collecting rocks. The kid was diiiiiiiirty when we finally got back to Amanda’s place.

I got to meet Angella for the first time. I loved it. (And apparently she liked me too.) Apparently we both thrive on words of affirmation, so reading a post ALL ABOUT ME was pretty awesome. Wouldn’t you love reading a post all about how someone thinks you’re awesome? Yea, me too.

Meeting her kids was great and weird, because it’s like, Hey! I’ve seen photos of you since you were just wee! I think they were a little surprised that some strange lady knew their names. Ah, the life of lucky little blogger children.

Kaylie and Graham hit it off, and so did Liliana and Emily (see photos here). Kaylie was pretty much in Kaylie-heaven, because she had so many kids to play with. She is a hardcore socializer, and the two days of traveling were hard on her.

She also got to see her cousins, Eva and Kaitlyn.

Isn’t she a gem? It was so weird to see her walking. She’s the youngest cousin, and it’s strange that she’s not a little baby anymore.

I absolutely love seeing Nick & Teresa.

They are definitely two of my favorite people, which is a huge change from how Nick and I grew up, because we were pretty volatile. Now though? He’s pretty stellar. As is his wife. I really wish that we lived closer to them so that we could spend more time with them. Hey Noah, wanna move to Vancouver? No? I tried!

It was a blast to see all the kids interact with each other. There was so much to do at the beach, that I don’t think there were too many issues between them, which was pretty awesome.

Nick & Teresa’s friends Brandon & Jennifer met up with us there as well. (Brandon is also Angella’s husband’s brother.) (It’s a small world.) It was cool to see them again, and see their little boys. Daniel and Liliana hit it off as they collected rocks in the lake.

Before we all went our separate ways, we got a sweet group photo.

Me, Angella, Jennifer, Amanda, Carolyn (I think!) (A friend of Angella’s and Teresa’s.) (Right?!), and Teresa.

This photo is why I love Amanda so much. But, just to be a good friend, here’s a “normal” photo. Also because it has a classic Angella kissy-face.

That night (and the next), after the dirty little kids were bathed and in bed, Amanda and I crashed on her couch, ate freezies, and, among other things, talked about the crazy that is having four little girls under one roof. Yikes.

I wanted to finish the whole trip in one post, but I’m about to pass out and am actually shaking from exhaustion and I still have to put all the crap from the van away, so I’m going to cop out and end here, to finish tomorrow. I probably missed a whole bunch, just in this post, but oh well. Maybe one day I’ll learn to be a little more careful what I delete.

Kaylie and Eva

Kaylie and Randee

Randee, Kaylie, Kaylie’s new best friend Eric

Kaylie the drummer

I’ll race you!

Emma, Kaylie, Aedin

We ran into friends from Terrace!

Mmm