What to do....what to do....what would YOU do?

Here is a little video of Chelsea WALKING!! Please excuse Abby whining in the background. It had been a very long day and she was DONE! This was a few days ago and now she can do about 6 steps in a row before she falls over. I have loved the baby stage and get very sad when I wash and prepare the baby things to sell but I am looking forward to having older kids too....I guess. Holidays will be more fun that's for sure, but Chelsea is a little snuggler and I will miss that.

Here's a picture of my chunky muffin.

So Steve told me the other day that his boss bid on a job out in Fort Mac (fort mcmurray). If you look on a map, this is literally the end of the world. The road ends there. You can't go any further North (on that highway anyhow). He is wondering if Steve wants to run the job. That means moving there. Today he tells me they are one step closer to getting the job so we need to seriously consider what we want to do. There are a lot of financial perks, so I either uproot the kids and go with him or stay here and only see Steve weekends and holidays. Here is my little list of pros and cons. Perhaps you could add to it.

PROS:

1. IF I move there with Steve we have no living expenses for a year plus a bonus (this means selling or renting out our house in the interim). This would eradicate our debt and leave a little to splurge on a holiday perhaps.

2. If I stay here there is still a good bonus involved but the kids get to keep their routine.

CONS:

1. If I move there with Steve I am uprooting the kids from their lives and activities. Ex: Abby would miss starting kindergarten with the kids she met in preschool (remember this is important as Abby is very shy) and Kylie would miss out on preschool all together. I would home school Hayley for the year.

2. If I stay here I am basically a single parent for a year (granted any time we are apart from Steve it means school is on and we will keep very busy anyhow) and we still have to pay our mortgage.

Hmmm....so you see the sides are pretty even. I do like the idea of being totally debt free with only our mortgage as debt.....HELP!!!!!!

Well that's really all that's new in our lives right now. Tonight the dirt guy is coming to level the area where we ripped out some tree and we are going to put wood chips down so it should be looking snazzy around the firepit area soon. I will attach some before and after pictures next blogging session.

Wish we could be in Florida with mom and dad and the other Campbells, but alas we are not so I am just soaking up these cool evening and looking forward to fall. We decided to go to Kananaskis after all so that's something else to look forward to.

Love you all!!

Jen and family

HAPPY 29TH BIRTHDAY STEVIE!!!

Yesterday was my hubby's 29th birthday. Last year in his 20s. Poor guy. He's growing old. This year is not off to the best start for him. He bought himself a really nice gift. Cost 129$. He donated 129$ to Police Services in Edmonton. When we were coming home from the Ukrainian Cultural Village on July 24th he was apparently trying to catch up to aunty and uncle. The speeding cameras on Yellowhead were working that day. Oh dear. At least it was him and not me!!! :)

Today is an incredible smoky day!! Apparently the smoke is coming from forest fires in BC. I'd hate to see the air there!!! Visibility on the highways are nil. These pictures don't do it justice. This is the lane in front of our house and the poor sun trying to get through the smoke. I don't know how exactly they measure air quality, but a really bad air day in Edmonton is 1.5 million particles of something-or-other and today it is 90 MILLION!!!! They are warning people to stay inside as our lungs have to work 100 times harder than normal to purify the air we are breathing. I'm sure the ER is SWAMPED with asthmatics today. It's a good test for Chelsea. I don't think she has respiratory problems anymore, she seems to be breathing okay. Wish you could smell it. I actually like the smell but it does give a person a bit of a sore throat.

The sun trying to shine through the smoke

Toward our mailboxes

The other direction

Other than that we have been just plugging away at life. We aren't sure if we are going to get to go to Kananaskis this year and I will literally die inside if we don't. September is a HORRIBLY expensive month now with school expenses, preschool, swimming lessons and piano lessons. That and not knowing if Steve gets a bonus and not wanting to actually spend it before it's in the bank if he does, is creating a stay-at-home year:( Makes me very sad. There is something harsh about being housebound but even worse is a year of being city bound. Oh well.....such is life.

Here are a few pictures of our goings on. Chelsea is trying so hard to be walking but is lacking confidence. She STILL will not let anyone hold her but mom and dad and it is REALLY getting old. Someone told me in the store the other day that their granddaughter went through that until she was 3!!!!! I'm not sure what to do. I can't just hire a babysitter and leave her cuz that costs money, so that option is out. She's so good when we're home but when there are other people around she's a mess. Makes me sad. Wish the last one had been an easy one. Oh well.

Watching her sisters play outside

She can stand up all by herself in the middle of the floor now

Not confident enough to let go even though she knows she can do it.

The 3 stooges.

I see why people think they're twins now!

How many days until school starts??

Hayley has been asking me this every day for a month and now I am starting to ask too!! We went to Costco today in the 28 degree heat with no air conditioning in the van and the kids did so good (with the exception of everyone having to pee 3 seconds after I had started shopping) and then we went to superstore to get what we couldn't get at costco and they were WIRED!!! YIKES!! And of course had to pee 3 seconds after I started shopping. It was a long day for everyone. I think 3 is easy to shop with. 4 is not. So I guess my summer shopping will have to be done in the evening when Steve is home.

Chelsea has developed an ear shattering scream when things don't go her way, and so when Kylie took a bite of her cookie in the grocery store, I thought all the pickles would splatter all over the floor after the glass was done shattering. Time for spankings. She DEFINATELY knows what is acceptable and what is not if she's asserting herself now.

Another brief complaint. I got asked 9 times if all the girls were mine (no I jsut take random people's kids grocery shopping!) and then someone said (or two or 3 people said) "Oh 3 girls and a boy?" and I ever so patiently grit my teeth and say "Nope. 4 girls." Well this one lady says "Even this one?" pointing to KYLIE who was wearing a green, blue, and PINK DRESS!!!! " No you dumb lady. I just dress my boy up like a girl. And don't get me started on the number of people who, once they know I have 4 girls, say "oh you poor lady." WHAT??!?!! Next time I am going to ask what they have for kids and then express my sympathy to THEM and see how they react. One lady said she had 3 girls but then finally got her boy. I should have said "Oh that's too bad. Couldn't keep a good thing going huh?" (Nothing against boys I would be just as frustrated if I had 4 boys and people made dumb comments!)

Okay so there is my rant. I also got thinking in the store that I wished I had perfectly well behaved kids who walked slowly and calmly and always listened but I quickly squashed that thought. I've known some perfect children and they are never happy. It's like they don't even know how to be a child and they're socially completely lost because they've been taught to act like an adult from birth. At least when my kids are giggly and hyper and running around I can rest assured that they are enjoying their childhood. There is a difference between good behavior and perfectly behaved. I ache for the perfectly behaved children of the world and am thankful for (mostly) well behaved.

Time to get supper on. A beautifully seasoned pork loin, corn on the cob and....something else but don't know what. Maybe broccoli. Another very hot day today. Hoping for a cooling thunderstorm tonight.

Love you all who take time to listen to me complain!! :)

The luckiest wife/mom in the world.

Today's lesson....don't run with objects in your mouth

We have very dangerous blinds downstairs. Kylie likes to wrap things around her neck. One time after going out for supper and getting a balloon, we hear a gagging sound on the way home.... Needless to say it's a good thing I have a "mother's purse" as I had to whip out my scissors and Steve had to cut the string off from around Kylie's neck. So you can imagin how it is with all the blinds in our house. We have to tightly wrap the cord up and away because Kylie likes to wrap them around her neck. Never thought I'd have to worry about the 6 year old!! She didn't wrap the cord around her neck, she took the stick off that twists the blinds open and closed and had it in her mouth and tripped....the end result was a round bleeding hole in her soft palate!!! Silly kid. She screamed and I thought she would be on fluids forever but seems to be a little better today. The picture doesn't show just how nasty it was as it had stopped bleeding. Sigh....

We had a good time at the splash park the other day. The water is FREEZING and I don't know how the kids stand it. Abby, the princess of the family, doesn't stand it. She just sun tans.

This is what Chelsea did the whole time.

Kylie has always loved the water
She thought this might be a great place to sit and pee.

Abby doing what she does best:)

Not sure what just happened here.

Having a reverse shower

3 of our 4 muffins.

So the time has come for Steve and I to take a holiday alone. Chelsea is not the world's most content baby. Others have even noticed. She cries ALOT! Someone said to me the other day "I don't know how you do it." and frankly, I never ever understood why anyone would want to take a holiday without their kids. Well...I have reached that point. some times after a rough day I just want to sit down and throw a temper tantrum myself. I think if I could even have a few days alone with Steve that I would come back a much better mother. So mommy and daddy have kindly offered to watch our kids while we do a 30th birthday/10 year anniversary thing next year. The choice now is to find a hotel in Florida or splurge and go to St. Lucia. Hmmmm.....tough decision. Just hope it happens soon before I completely lose my ability to function.

Well here's to a wonderful week. Love you all

The Little Campbell's