New Videos of the Kids

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Lost

My favorite shows usually consist of sitcoms and things that make me laugh. We love Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother. I don't really watch a lot of dramas or mystery or lawyer type shows. But one hour long show I do love is Lost. A lot of the time when I watch it I feel "lost". But often it makes me think about the "big" ideas in life, like what is the difference between good and evil or what is our purpose in life? One issue they have tackled this year is that people are part of your life no matter what path you chose. Whether your plane crashes on an island with people or you become a school teacher or a doctor, that certain people will be part of your life.

And although this is a theory I can't really test in life. I do wonder if that is really true. For example Darryl and I. There are different times in our lives where we could have met. When we were kids we were going to move to a community close to Darryl, but that didn't happen and still here we are. Or my best friend Tammy, her and I are both from Ontario. I wonder if we would have made different choices if somehow we would have still been part of each other lives.... Has this ever happened to you where you think what a small world, or that could have crossed paths with more then once?

Have you ever thought of this? Do you think it's possible?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Spending Time With Daddy

The boys have been enjoying spending time with there Dad. Even Nathan will accepted Darryl in the night if he wakes up. Two weeks ago Darryl decided to take the training wheels and the pedals off Lucas's bike. It helped Lucas to learn balance and not depending on the training wheels as much. This weekend we got Lucas to try and ride a bike with pedals and in no time he was enjoying riding a two wheel bike.





It's so amazing to see all the things he can learn. He is such a awesome kid.

Jenn

My Life In A Nutshell

Dear Neglecgted blog,

Life has just been to hectic over the last couple of weeks to updated you. I've been picking up lots of extra shifts at the hospital, so much so that I got sick trying to burn the candle at both ends. Darryl job search is going well, but still going. I do like it when there are interviews and calls and movement though. I also had some really fun things planned last weekend that I still attend. The first being Lesley's birthday at Auusie Rules. Aussie rules is a piano bar here in the city and the music is fantastic. They play lots of sing a long songs and have contest and generally a whole lot of fun. Then on Sunday night Tammy and I went to the Rosza theatre to see John Samson who is the lead singer of our favorite band the Weakerthans. We went out to dinner before and had a great girls night out. We laughed hard at ourselves for showing up an hour early even though we had assigned seats (we thought it was general seating). We screamed and cheered when he play our favorites songs and laughed at the craziness of his opening act. Sorry I just can't get on board with a song when the chrours in "The Bristish raped Krakow" mackenzie if you are reading this it remeinded me of the Folk Fest last year and the crazy "snake guy".

But all this business has made me long for some of the things I enjoyed in my part time working life, like spending lots of times with the kids, or cleaning the house or blogging. It was so so hard on Monday morning when I had to drop Lucas off at Lesley and he was crying and upset I was leaving. But hoepfully we are finding a new routine at least for a while and I will cherish all the things I don't have as much of.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Basement

One of our projects (major projects) this summer/winter has been working on the basement. Darryl is masterful and has done the majority of it with help from his assistant Mr. Brown.




Here is the basement with no color or flooring.


And here it is all done.

And fun to run around in. I bow down to you masterful Darryl. What an incredible job you have done. It looks fantastic

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Monthly Newsletter: Month Fifty Four

Dear Lucas,

As I sit here typing this you are trying to fall asleep in your bed. It's funny becuase you won't ask Daddy to sit in your room becuase you know he won't. But I am a sucker for you and your love, so hear I am sitting in your room while you tell me about the book "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus". Luckily your repetorie of books is both chapter books and picture books again. For a while there all you wanted was chapter books. But I can see you really studying the words with picture books and saying words you recognize. It's so cool to watch you learn.



This week you finished your gymnastics course. You love love gymnastics and you are quite good at it. Your teachers also really enjoy teaching you. It is a fun way for you to get some extra exercise in the week. This week Nathan and I got to participate with you and we all had a really good time. At one point you hung from a huge bar about a foam pit. I could see the fear in your face about how high up you were, but you did awesome and dropped and was really excited about it.


Another fun part about you growing up is watching you interact with your friends. Whether it's shoot em up with Elliot or video game with Shaun or Lego with Matt, it's always fun to see you interact with other kids. Although I usually take that time to clean or get other things done, sometimes I eavesdrop on what is going on and usually I am very proud of your behaviour. The other new thing this month is your first good friend who is a girl. You often talk about your friend Brooke from preschool and the teachers commented the other day on how cute you were together.



Another thing I am so proud of with you, is what a great big brother you are. It is so great to watch you help Nathan. It makes my heart fill my chest with love when I see you helping him or you guys playing together. A couple of times this month at the zoo and at Let's Play, you were so great with helping him get through obstacles or shielding him from the big kids. You are such a excellent big brother.



This month has been a challenging one for us. And you have picked up on the stress. I found you have been a bit more emtional then usual. I hope that our money situation doesn't continue for too long and that the stress doesn't affect you too much. But maybe it will be good for you and when you do get a new toy or go to McDonalds for dinner it will be a big deal, like it is suppose to.

I love you Lucas and feel so lucky to be your mommy.

love mommy

The Weight of A Family

I haven't been posted in a couple of days and I usually try to post 4 days a week. We have had some bad news here. Not life threatening news but a big bump in the road. At the end of this week Darryl will be unemployed because his job doesn't have enough work to keep him busy and paid. It is causing a lot of stress for me. It has also caused a lot of stress on the whole family. Last week the kids were very irritable and hard to get along with. Lucas was testing limits and Nathan wanted "Mom, mom, mom". It's interesting how they pick up on the family dynamics so quickly. I made some not so smart decisions with all this stress.

I am picking up a lot of shifts to keep us a float and Darryl will be able to go on employment insurance. But at the same time I'm worried. We have never really had to worry about money, we both have been lucky to be able to work as much as we want. But we need to be more frugal. Here are some of my thoughts...

• Eat less meat, try to have more meatless meals
• Cancel all the extra TV channels
• Get more books from the library, rather then Scholastic
• Eat at Home Challenge is helping, not eating out

So what are your tips for being more frugal?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Lucas and Nathan's new favorite video

I love this song and the kids love this video.



Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Trip to the Zoo

WIth all the beautiful weather we headed to the zoo as we haven't been there in ages. Plus there is a new Dinosaur exhibt there, with robotic dinosaurs. It was great. Lucas was a little afraid at the beginning but got use to it. It was a beautiful day and we had such a great time looking at the animals and playing on the playground.


Lucas with the new baby giraffe in the background. This is the zoo's second one in a couple of years.


Lucas is an AMAZING big brother. He helped Nathan down the big boy slide.


Not something you see everyday. Lions in the snow.


Lucas and Nathan watching on the the big dinosaurs.


My two cute boys with a cute gorilla in the background.

It was an awesome day! I love the zoo.

Check out our dinners from the weekend at the Eat at Home Challenge blog.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Nathan's Monthly Newsletter: Month Twenty Three

Dear Nathan,

In one more month you will turn two and I can't believe it. Time flies when you are having fun. And most of the time it has been a really fun time with you. You make the cutest faces, whether they are intentional like surprise faces or mad faces or unintentional like a coy face when he trying to be cute.



Your dad and I had some intense discussion about you this month. We are both finding you lack of communication to be a little frustrating. You were sick when we got home from Mexico and so we were very lenient with your sleep, which you were taking advantage of. It was hard to communicate with you to go back to the old ways your Dad and I had some disagreement on how to handle it. But we worked it out and we are back to normal when it comes to your sleep.



One thing I have noticed this month is your preferences for things. When we go swimming you want to spend lots of time in the hot tub and let me know. The other day when we were getting dressed you really wanted to wear shorts. Even though I made you put on pants, you wanted the shorts on overtop of it.



One of your favorite activities is washing the dishes with me. You love love love to play in the water. You play with the bubbles and put water in and out of containers. Usually at the end of it you are soaking and there is lots of water on the floor.



Generally you are a happy guy, you love to bop your head to the music or dance to a good beat. You smile and wave at strangers, which makes them happy. You love to play with your brother. It's still mostly copying him, but you love to be with him.


I love you so much Nathan.

mommy

Signs of Spring

It has been so nice here over the last week. We are taking every advantage as I know it will snow again soon. But we are playing outside as much as we can, while we can.



Lucas zipping around on the plasma car.


Beautiful baby boy.


First signs of life in the garden. Yeah. Thanks Auntie Karen for the bulbs.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Modern Family

This is Darryl and mine new favorite show. Most of the time we are laughing out loud. Here is one of the funniest lines.


''I'm the cool dad. That's my thing. I'm hip. I surf the web. I text. LOL: laughing out loud. OMG: Oh my God. WTF: Why the face?'' — Phil (episode 1)

That's all for tonight. I'm too busy watching Modern Family. Wednesday nights.

Jenn

I AM CANADIAN

What a great finish to a great Olympics. That hockey game was so exciting there were many times I had to look away I was so nervous. But I was so happy when they won.

Iggy to Sid, it was perfect. Although I didn't show it as much as our friend Pat. His reaction was jumping up and down with joy (and Darryl) Although I think my favorite moment of the last couple of days was this



I love it when people are so excited and happy. This whole Olympics I have been so proud to be a Canadian. These athletes have done a great job.

We had a great weekend. Lots of food, friends and family. And Nathan in his fashion statement shorts over his pants.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn