The road to nowhere

Hey check it out! Another update less then 6 months before the last one! Maybe because I'm taking a scrabble break. Okay so it's only been 15 minutes....but hey! That's pretty good for someone as addicted as me.

So here's whats been going on in our world.

This is the laziest dog in the world! Most of the time. He's either sleeping like this....(not a real flattering pose I know)

Or he's being a big butt and dragging massive limbs out into the middle of the yard. He's a pretty amazing retriever. In my next life I'd like to have a dog like Buckley and work search and rescue. I think he's probably too old to learn now though.

Here's the kids summer job. They sort through an entire winters worth of nasty milk jugs etc...then get to keep the money when they take them in.

Kylie.....what a kid. Decided one day she'd pull out her tooth.

Then decided, the same day, that maybe she should pull out the other one too.

Oh but that wasn't enough. So before bed she pulled out the third one!!! The poor tooth fairy had to leave an IOU!

Kylie's birthday date with her dad: Swimming, supper at McDonalds, the candy store, marble slab icecream and chapters. Lucky girl!

This is an actual house/castle that is for sale near us. It has some romantic story behind it but I don't know all the details. Not sure it'll be real easy to sell.

Yeah.... the running thing....we made 5 km!!!!!!!!! Only once so far. I'm back to dying at the 3K mark but tonight I'm determined to do 4 and we'll get back to 5 pretty soon. Race day is August 24th! Come cheer us on. It'll help me run faster. Poor Steve could run circles around me if he wanted but he's pretty sweet to stick with me. Hayley has also made it to 1km!!

Steve took his girls fishing. Both Hayley and Kylie caught their first fish with Abby pointing out the good spot to catch em. I'm not really sure who was more excited. Pretty sure Steve was. Kylie didn't realize she'd caught one at first but as soon as she did she threw the fishing rod and ran back and forth not quite sure what to do!! So this is as close as she'd get to her fish :)

Steve actually took a week off this summer! Emcee is building a new McDonalds and has a few other big projects coming up so he figured he'd better do it now while he could. We took 2 of those days and went to Calgary to check out Calaway Park. I think I was about 15 last time I was there!! Stayed at a hotel with a great waterpark too so I think we successfully tired everyone out. Hope we can go once more before I head back to work.

Crazy weather this year. Lots of storms. Not overly hot though.

Had a kindergarten grad party in the park in Devon. You'll notice that my child is a GIANT compared to the rest. Wonder where she gets that from! I never realized how tall she is. She's at least a head taller then all the rest.

This was interesting. She takes this gigantic leap......

Slips of the bar....and lands flat on her back. Knocked the breath completely out of her. Kind of scary to see your child not able to breathe!!! Anyhow...after a few seconds she managed to suck in some air.

So exciting to get the pool filled up. It's slightly FREEZING! But the kids will swim in it so that's good. The heater costs as much as the pool did so.....maybe next year.

And that's about it! Kylie got another UTI this month, but first in a long time so hope its not going to be a monthly occurance again. She also got in to see the foot doctor. $575 later........ *choke* Her ankles are falling inward. Hard to describe. Basically she walks on the insides of her feet and she can't walk real far without getting sore or tired. The doctor says her feet should be almost straight by now so because they aren't and she is young he is going to start aggressive treatment (I don't know what that means...) with orthotics and see how that goes. Hoping by 16 years old she is 60-80% straight. Yae. Thankfully we have insurance as its not covered by Alberta Health.

So I think I might have this somewhat in order. We'll see. Right after Canmore, High River, and Calgary got flooded out we got a pretty major thunderstorm too but when it was ending we saw the most beautiful double rainbow I've ever seen. Pictures don't do it justice. So thankful that even today God is still keeping his promises. Very humbling.

On April 26th our little girl turned 7. Still the tiny one. The academic. The quiet one....most of the time :) Here is her date with the grandmas. Of course when she takes them to build-a-bear they go right for the expensive bears!! YIKES!

Made the most amazing tasting lemonade cake. Abby and Hayley shared this birthday cake.

So this depicts an interesting experience. On Wednesday May 15th?? Or somewhere in there, I was called into my managers office. This isn't usually a good sign. And I was right. Alberta Health Services is going through some major changes. I won't bore you with the details but basically all the funding for speech services is coming from a different place. Being that I had a temporary contract, I lost my job. I was quite shocked at my own reaction. I was heartbroken. Here I didn't even want to start working again and now I realized that I loved my job (okay...and the money). A little like lesson I suppose. Seems that when you are in the place you are meant to be you learn to love that place.

That same day I was laid off we had a tornado warning come through and we were locked down in a tiny room. Lots of tears. My supervisors were angry too. Anyhow, I always knew it was a possibility, so the following Tuesday I was finished in schools and took the opportunity to throw lots of stuff out, take all my games and things home. Then I come in on Wednesday and my manager says "So I just came out of this meeting and I just can't believe it!" She looked in complete shock so I'm thinking "uh-oh....others are getting laid off too!"

She told me to get all the speech staff together or on speaker phone...so I do. Then she tells us that tension is high at these meetings where the manager of public health is bargaining for funding with the government etc.. (uh-oh.....) but.....she told her manager how much they needed my position, they took that to the bargaining table, and they got my position back!!!!! So they were all doing the happy dance that they'd won that 1 small thing. Soooo

I still haveto re-apply, re-interview etc....but whatever. I will likely have my job back for at least a year.

Yes I know my desk is messy. I was purging:)

My little artists had their pictures chosen for the parkland county art show.

We FINALLY got Hayley's room put together. Just have to hang curtains and find a reasonably priced armoir. We're looking at about $600.00 to have a dresser/closet combo. EEK!

And of course the soccer season came and went. Gorgeous weather for the most part. Until the year end awards/BBQ. That's typical though.

This is what Chelsea and I do at soccer.

Yeah I think it's been about 7 years since we've had a yard! So with some of our 'second income' we ordered dirt! Daddy and his little helper spread it out and then we seeded it. We had a perfect week or two of rain and it came in soooo nice and lush!! Kids are loving playing in it. Unfortunately we had 1 day of record breaking heat and it burnt the grass. Worse in the back yard, but anyhow....it'll recover. It's still looking awesome.

Our little Kylie turned 6 on June 19th. She's the lovebug of the family. Causes the most trouble but has a heart of Gold. Always wanting to help or do something for someone. Shes the animal lover. The loud one. The typical third born.

A bag full of candy. What better gift for this girl. Then she went to build a bear and shopping and lunch with the grandmas. What spoiled rotten kids.

So school has now come to an end. Hayley will be going to grade 4, Abby to grade 2, and Kylie to grade 1. I can hardly believe that 3 are in school full time!!! Hayley went from getting 20% on her spelling tests in grade 2 to one of the highest marks (according to the teacher I have no results) on her PAT reading and writing (Provincial Achievement Test) in grade 3. So I guess the money was well spent at RockyPoint Academy! Abby is reading at a grade 3/4 level already, and Kylie, she jumped ahead 2 levels in swimming. Hey....we all get to brag about our kids now and then right? Chelsea...well....she takes after Abby. She talks NON-STOP! And I am LOVING only working 1 day a week this summer.

So just as school ended we headed to convention. Sigh..... its always something I look forward to all year but then it comes and goes so fast. One wishes they could live there. But....we heard that God brings his people together because he loves them and sends them into the world because he loves the world. So back to life we go.

There were so many kids to play with. I didn't see any of my kids the whole convention!! Even Chelsea! I felt a little lost. Thank goodness for good friends to chat with between meetings. This year Hayley and one of her closest friends ended up waiting on a table all by themselves. I'm glad I didn't know until late the 2nd day or I would've had a heart attack!! They had to get all the food on the table and pour coffee and tea too! They did an amazing job at the seniors table.

Just cuz....he's so handsome!!

Hahaha. I'm afraid Chelsea hasn't quite learned how to act around these cute little men yet.

I found this so funny. Gage is looking at them like "what on earth are you doing??" Then it was all "Oh. A pedicure? I'll have one too!" Haha. His mom and I were reminiscing about the time about 7 years ago when their oldest boy and Hayley were about 2?? Anyhow they were best buds at convention that year. Now I guess 9/10 year old boys and girls don't sit on the trailer steps and share snacks:) Who knows what the next 7 years will bring.

CIA Steve

Oops. Sorry babe. The sweetheart in the yellow umbrella kinda ruined your tough guy persona.

These Aussie guys are fast and smooth let me tell ya. Steve and I were engaged 4 months after he came to Canada but his uncle was even faster!!! He got here in May and was married in June. Steve and Glen took off to BC for the wedding. Here's the wedding party etc. I found it extremely hillarious that people thought Steve was Glen's dad!!! Or his 60 year old uncle's brother!!! My goodness!! I know he's bald but he doesn't look THAT old.

Here's another wedding Steve and I attended. It was gorgeous. For a lady Steve used to work with. It was a very Italian wedding.

AS I mentioned before we have started running these days. The view is motivating.

First day out and Abby skids out on her bike. She took it like a man though....or...no actually she didn't. She took it like a woman and got up and kept going :)