ah-MAZE-ing

Today we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather. Chris headed to school right after his physio appointment and had done enough school work to come home by 2pm (essentially un-heard of).
I thought it would be fun to take the girls to McNab's Corn Maze in Cedar. They had hay rides, pumpking picking, animals and of course a corn maze.
My favorite parts:
1. The girls in matching jackets
2. Abigail wanting to hold hands as we walked through the maze, and eventually wanting to be carried because she was tired (that NEVER happens)
3. The SUNSHINE and warmth
4. Isabelle running through the maze leading the way, falling a LOT but always happy
5. Seeing the girls looking and touching all the pumpkins they could get to and helping their dad pick the pumpkin
6. Giving the girls a WHOLE apple and seeing the pure delight on their faces
7. Taking pictures

Enjoy!

 

Driving out to McNabs

 

 

Doesn't she look comfortable?

 

 

Looking at Chickens

 

 

Checking out the pigs

 

 

Loving every moment of it!

 

 

Isabelle was talking to the pigs, it was adorable!

 

 

Isn't it lovely?

 

 

Come on Mom!

 

 

Hurry up!!

 

 

Time to stop for a hug!

Oops too vigourous of a hug!

 



 

Time to keep going!

 

Just trying to snap a decent photo...

 

 

Checking out the pumpkins, she loved it!

 

Picking out the pumpkin with Dad! Isabelle was galavanting!

They look so much like each other to me in this photo!

 

YUM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expect More for Less!!

Perhaps our biggest news as a family is that CHRIS GOT A JOB!

As you are aware (probably and hopefully) Chris is in school right now at Vancouver Island University completing his masters degree in Business Administration and International Business. He started last September (19th) and finishes his classes October 12th this coming month. He has gone to school straight and done fantastic.

In August (long story short) he made it to round 3 of interviews for Target Canada. The family all went over to Vancouver and attended the temple and the aquarium and Chris went for his interview on the 10th. (I lost the pictures I am really sad about it)

They paid for our travel and hotel and it was BLISS... for me! Chris was stressed out and the ENTIRE day after the interview (the interview was at 9am) he replayed the interview outloud again and again. I knew he would get it even though some questions were not as strongly answered as others.

At the end of the interview they told him it would take 3-4 weeks to hear back.

On August 12th they called back and told him he had GOT THE JOB as an Executive Team Leader!

We found out we will be staying in Nanaimo with the start date of October 15th. The job will count as Chris's 4 month internship required to finish the degree. Training will be 6 months and the store opens in April 2013. We are very excited and hope that this job will lead to other great opportunities in the future!!

Thanks Target Canada!

I MADE IT!

  (I don't have the patience to look for spelling errors right now, this is raw unedited Laura Gow)

August was a very busy month and full of exciting things, which I will get to blogging soon, but the thing I think that is exciting me the most happened in this last week (back in our little home)...

The girls are understanding and communicating!!! The communicating happened earlier this month, I want some, what is this, what is that, done, Mommy and Daddy have never sounded so good! The communication really helped Abigial as she was having some bad bahavioral problems (tantrums!) and once she started verbally communicating (maybe I was too busy or distracted to notice the communication that she was obviously trying to get to me) the tantrums stopped! 

This week I realized the girls were really starting to understand what I was saying to them. They obviously understood some things before but the comprehension shot WAY up this week!!

I have had chairs on the couches for MONTHS in an effort to SAVE my children from THEMSELVES!! If the chairs were not there they would RUN as fast as they could up to the couch and slam into it and as quickly as they could (before I got to them) and climb up onto the couch. They would also if I let them (or was peeing or something vain like that!) climb onto the hope chest (serving as a "coffee" table between the couches) and destroy everything on there!!

They would also go into the kitchen drawers and pull out all the dish towels and cooking utensils and throw them all over the floor. I realize I could have spent some money and installed catches that wouldn't have allowed them to open the drawers. But we are cheap students who would rather spend their money on other things. (You know somethings you just DO NOT want to spend money on??) I almost fell SEVERAL times from slipping on a towel and stepped on cooking utensils that made me want to cuss (especially when I was trying to stop mischevious behavior or someone purposefully running away from me (diaper changes))!

The girls also LOVE(ed) to throw their food on the floor. You know they see something else that they would rather have, or just decide they don't want what you gave them, OR (my least favorite) just decide IT IS FUN to throw something and laugh!! If I had infinite time and energy maybe this wouldn't bother me? BUT my house is SO small right now that my kitchen IS my living room... my kids EAT IN my living room and if I don't sweep up before AND after they get out of their high chair my entire house will be full of crumbs in a matter of minutes! YUCK!

I hope I have described it in a manner that would make you think, OH MAN that sounds AWFUL! Because let me tell you I hated being at my own house for months!

Well this week everything changed!! My table chairs are now tucked in under the kitchen table! The girls have free reign (even into their bedroom that has been blocked off for months...). They have tried a few times to climb onto the hope chest and WITH OUT FAIL I tell them to stop or they will go to the crib AND THEY STOP! They actually LISTEN!! They start to pull the utensils out of the drawer and I ask them to stop, they will either stop and close the drawer OR continue and I will ask them to put it all away and they walk around finding them all and put them all in and close the drawer and CLAP!

Because of these first two developments I decided that it was time for me to teach the girls not to throw their food. (Now I realize I could have done this a LONG time ago and they would have learned but it wasn't something I was ready to fight with them about). They aren't perfect yet but the progress has been AMAZING! They give me their plates when they are done with it (after the dump the food on the tray) and they hold out their pieces of food and say done (or some variation of it) and I quickly come and take it away (or else they do engage in the throwing that I hate).

Needless to say this week has been an amazing transformation for them and I am LOVING IT! We are learning to put away our toys and put our clothes in the laundry basket as well, so far with great success.

The ONLY reason for this post is to record that I MADE IT... I survived the awful stage in my childrens development of "I can do so much but I have NO sense!"
The girls learning to walk was a HUGE blessing in so many regards but also came with its challenges. Now the challenges are beginning to deminish... and for RIGHT NOW all I can see is the positive!! (please don't bring up the challenges to come I need to soak up the now!!)

Something else amazing that happened this weekend was that the girls sat for a whole 30 minutes to watch television and had a snack! They melted my heart sitting there I just had to snap a bunch of photos!

 

 

Isabelle is pretty happy!

 

Abigail thought it was pretty fun and was looking at Isabelle to see what she thought!

 

She was in Heaven!!

 

Abigail started lying down and so I ran and grabbed a pillow for them each!

My Body is Nobody's Body BUT MINE

My Mom sent me this in a email a while ago... I wanted to post it a while ago... I got busy... Hope it brings a smile to your face and maybe even a happy tear to your eye.

"Perhaps one of the most discouraging struggles women endure is that never-ending battle with our own bodies ........

     A woman's attitude toward her own body is fraught with misconceptions fueled by a world that celebrates an almost prepubescent female body as the ideal norm.  For most of us, time moves on.  We are not seventeen, a number of children have made their way through our birth canals, and gravity is exerting its inexorable pull.  Whenever we  look in the mirror, we are reminded of what we are not.  Satan would have it just that way.....thus we enter into a war with our bodies, hating the very tabernacle our Father has given us.....If Satan can get us to fixate on our bodies, either in vanity or self-loathing, then he has caused us to misunderstand completely the role our bodies play in our salvation.....

     I cannot help but think, as I remember the births of each of my children, that this human body, also can make us most divine--that the peculiar pains of a woman's flesh reach her exquisitely, intimately.  What they teach she cannot know beforehand or even know that she needs to know.  But when the pain subsides or is grown accustomed to, she realizes that some time during the darkest of nights or mundanest of mornings, knowledge has descended like the dews from heaven and enlarged her soul.

   Unfortunately, the experience has also enlarged her hips and thighs.  Stretch marks ornament my breasts and hips like silver ribbons.  My hips are two sizes wider, my feet a size bigger than when I was married--my very bones have expanded in response to my mothering.  Some of the effects are temporary, just for the moments of pregnancy....these pass in their time, but the memory remains.

     In that memory lies the glory of this earthly body: though we may be resurrected in a perfect frame, the lessons taught me by my mother-body will rise with me.  The sacrifice, the pain, the fear and faith of my mothering will sink into my soul and remain with me in the eternities.  My spirit and this woman's body inseparably connected constitute my fullness of joy.  Time writes its messages on all of us.  Our very bodies have become our book of life, "an account of our obedience or disobedience written in our bodies."   To what have we been obedient?  To the purpose for which we were made; to provide a body and a safe haven for the spirits entrusted to our care.  If we mother well, we wear out our lives bringing to pass the lives of others.  Of the physical fruits--our wider hips, our sagging breasts, our flatter feet, and rounder buttocks--we need not be so ashamed."

                   Tessa Meyer Santiago--Womens Conference 1998, Get Thee Behind Me:Thwarting Latter-Day Deceits, pg.208,211,212.

p.s. the title of the post is for you Beth Arbanas

Salt Spring Island

On Sunday August 5th Chris, the girls and I travelled to Victoria to attend Miss Violet June Wight's baby blessing. We had a fantastic day and church followed by lounging in the shade of the Wight's yard while the girls napped after church. Not much after we arrived the topic of GOLFING came up. I witnessed three men quickly making plans to go golfing this week. I piped in, "talk to your wives first in private and then make plans!!"
Chris took the opportunity to talk to me while we were lying under a tree. I agreed that it would be a good thing for him to do. Later that afternoon the topic of golf came up again. Ali was present this time and said they were planning on going to Salt Spring Island on Tuesday... we looked at each other and decided we should all go to Salt Spring and the men could golf while we visted shops, ate lunch and played at a park.
Fast forward to Monday night Chris starts asking me what we need to pack and then starts packing it. At 6:30 this morning I hear him getting up (the alarm isn't set to go off until 7) I instictively ask him what is wrong. He tell me he just can't sleep so he is going to pack up the car etc.
I wake up at 7 and essentially everything is done, including the milk for bottles in the microwave warming up. ALL I had to do this morning was get myself ready!! By the time I was ready the car was packed (included the fridge items that needed to be added to already packed bags), water bottles with ice made, golf clubs and stroller packed, the girls diapers changed, the girls dressed and fed morning bottles.
We closed the door at 7:25 and were on the road to the ferry
This alone made for a fantastic day...

We couldn't decide if it was going to be warm and sunny this morning

When we got to Salt Spring we drove around to get a feel for things. We then dropped off the men to play golf and proceeded to Ganges. We spent the next couple of hours looking in shops and enjoying the warm but not too hot weather. We ate lunch on the pier (Chris and I had fish and chips and it was VERY good). We then had ice cream cones.

While waiting patiently for lunch Abigail had a quick cat nap while Isabelle held her hand!!

Abigail at lunch (how grown up does she look?)

Isabelle at lunch (how grown up does SHE look?)

Coconut Ice Cream cone...

messy but great!! (biggest childsize cone ever...)

Alison and I at the end of the day (don't we look relaxed?!!) I love this photo...

Chris and Dave after lunch and a round of golf

Today I was relaxed ALL DAY and I LOVED IT!!! I didn't even have to get myself to relax once I just was. I was living in the moment!
Today was perfect. People still gawked and made comments that I hate. The girls were amazing... and really 9 out of 10 times they are amazing. Golf took so much less time than expected. Bottom line is this Salt Spring Island is a great place to visit!

Oh and I am celebrating the fact that my hands are less full and I am again carrying my camera with me! Today I took pictures on it for the first time since May. YAY!!!

Ferry Terminal on Salt Spring Island

Two of my favorite things... water and mountains!

How does your garden grow?

I just got back from a walk to a garden shop about 7 minutes away! (Yes I love where we live now...) I got tomatoe plants and seeds! When I was at the store looking at all the tomatoe plants I was trying to find the best looking plants... But I was also looking for a specific kind...something girl...or early something. When I found the one "early girl" I knew it was the one for me because it was my Papa's favorite and the kind he always grew. The girls were born four days after he passed away and my heart and mind have never thought much about losing him. I wasn't ready nor did I have enough time to realize what happened. We never made it to the funeral because of fear of going into labour and traveling (not that it was far). Anyways today I miss him ( the old him before he got old and sick...and grumpy and I became his nurse) and so this year my experimental garden is in memory of him and I hope my garden grows like his did. I hope the tomatoes are wonderful! I took pictures but can't figure out to get them on here... Stinking iPad.

Success

With the move upcoming and it being spring and all I have been seriously cleaning. Not the surface kind of cleaning but the hidden junk that piles up. Although I have swept my floors more times than I care to remember.
THE LIST:

I got rid of a bag of my clothes- a BIG black garbage bag in about 15 minutes. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of my favorite scrubs from work because it made me cry to think about never wearing them again.

I got rid of 2.5 garbage bags of little girl clothes. I gave (am giving) them to a friend.

I got rid of a garbage bag of Chris's clothes and my old shoes (5 pairs)- (not really that full...)

I have also been rid of 4 bins of recycling! Just carried away today by the city. Thank you!

I ALSO took a backseat full of stuff to my Dad's car that was unlocked in the church parking lot!! I think he may have learned his lesson for leaving his car unlocked.

I also took a TON of cardboard boxes to a local card board disposal (Woodgrove Mall)! It was card board that was from the desk, crib and shelving that we bought in SEPTEMBER when we moved in that was rotting on our deck all winter...

Needless to say I feel like a new person and I think our house looks fantastic. A part of the cleaning involved a heavy organization of our pantry... and it looks fantastic. And the cleaning has encouraged me to keep a cleaner house from the day to day grind.

Two stories to go with all this cleaning.
1) I found a cheque for $200 from LAST summer that had been stored away in my filing drawers. BONUS!!

2) Today when I went through Chris's clothes I came upon 2 pairs of pants of his that I LOATHE. I think they look ridiculous on him. I obviously find him attractive and think he looks good all the time... NOT when he wears these pants. They are TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO big and hence are baggy. I have tried on numerous occasions to tell him just how much I dislike them. He told me once that they were dockers and every dad has a pair... I let that one slide for a while because I thought it was cute. He knows how much I dislike them because when the topic was brought up about them a couple of days ago he told me that he couldn't find them and I must have thrown them away (I WISH I HAD).

Today I had had enough and I was going to get my way... so I told him if I couldn't give them away to someone who needed them then I would take the scissors to them!!! He told me that I couldn't do that... I then ran to the kitchen to get the scissors.. just in case I needed them. He told me that he was going to have to go and get some new ones (he just got a pair on Saturday that lead me to feel like I could be rid of these two nasty ones). I told him I didn't care and he could go buy more pants IF I could get rid of these ones... the pants made their way out of our house today AND into the donation bin for the Canadian Diabetes Association.
That is success!