Humming along

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

BFFs, originally uploaded by island artist.

Incase some of you are wondering how things are going around here- they are coming along. I’ve been packing different areas every day (as well as cleaning them!) and now we are getting to the point where the kids are opening my boxes to get their ’stuff’ out. That wasn’t a happy discovery on my part. Today, I plan on going out a purchasing a few larger sized boxes to fit some of the photo frames I have.
Does anybody know if i need to empty the kids dressers or just tape the drawers shut?? I guess I should make a phone call to the moving company.
Ken flies in on Friday (16th) and the movers come to pick up our stuff on Tuesday (the 20th) so we could possibly be in the new place by next friday (the 23rd) but I’ll find out what day the movers will arrive at the new place when they come to pick up our stuff.
One of the kindergarten Moms had a farewell party for Paige and all of her school friends were there. Paige and I both thought it was pretty special. Nolan thinks all of his friends are coming with us- but he’s only 3 so he’ll bloom where he’s planted without a problem. Actually Paige is also very good at that even though I’m sure there will be many tears at first. That girl absolutely loves her friends.
Speaking of Friends, mine are sure making leaving hard. So far, several have volunteered to clean my place after we are gone which is soooo over and above the call of duty- i can’t even put it into words. I’m hoping to have most of the place cleaned (hide my shame) but I’m sure there will be paint touch ups or something that will require attention. Would leaving my oven for them be considered rude?? Kidding!!
I should get a move on, the day is going to get away from me- today we I slept in and was nearly late getting the kids off to school- first time for everything!!

Later gaters,
~jen

Things heard on mothers day…

Me: “Nolan, do you have to go pee? Go pee.”
Nolan: as he does the peepee dance, “No, I don’t. I’m not whining about it.”

yahoo.

Get the word out, please help.

As you may have read in some of my previous posts we are currently going through a leaky condo crisis.  This is an epidemic where I live in Coastal British Columbia.  So far the assistance has been weak and fraught with threat of legal action at every turn.  As far as I see it, we are being treated like criminals when our only fault is having purchased (unknowingly!!) a leaky condo.

We are currently on the hook for nearly 150,000$ in repairs and some of that is being asked of us in CASH by July first or else the Contractors and engineers have said they will walk off the job (that is only 20% completed).  Home owner Protection office (providing us with the interest free loan) has put us in this jam by refusing to pay for part of the costs.  When this all started HPO promised that no one would lose their homes over this fiasco- but it looks like people may have no choice, over less than 10,000$.  Please help me find the fairness in that- or better yet- Send this letter!  It’s in word format PDF format so you will need Adobe acrobat reader (free download if you don’t already have it) so please print it off in triplicate, add your signature, and address the bottom of the letters and send it off (these letters only count if your address is on it!).

Download form_letter.pdf

If you are a Canadian citizen and you care to help, please send the letters to the Prime Minister and the other addresses listed in the letter.  No postage is neccessary if mailed within Canada.  Letters make much more of an impact than emails so every one sent means so much to us!

Let me thank everyone in advance

Jennifer & Ken McEachern

Nothing a coffee can’t cure.

So I’ve been neglegent in my blogging.  What’s new…

For those of you still reading, I thank you!!  My blog is what RSS readers were meant for, very useful tool especially if you are an avid blog reader like myself.  Here’s a good one. 

Things around here have been busy, so far I haven’t forgot to take out the garbage which is good.  I’ve started mopping my floors on a daily basis, don’t ask me why that has started but I’m going with it.  My daytimer has never been so full of scribbling, but without my hubby here to incessantly remind me of things I need to write it all down.   It’s crazy, I feel so accomplished in just these 4 weeks, doing this all on my own.  I used to like to delegate a lot of the administrative house work to Ken but with him gone I have to do it and getting it done feels good.  I’ve had to restructure my priority list for the time being and this blog has gotten a little farther down the list than I had planned.  I still communicate regularly with everyone via my flickr stream… taking photos daily is a type of journalling of it’s own. No worries, the blog isn’t going anywhere, once we finally move to Alberta I can see this blog being a form of lonliness therapy for me.  I guess what I’m saying is that I’m a little vacant here right now but I’m not completely gone!!   

The saying ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder." really is true.  I sure do miss my husband a lot.  Not for the stuff he did around the house (which was always lovely and appreciated) but for his cuddles and spur of the moment hugs and kisses.  Those are the things I really miss.  He’s coming home on the 6th for a week, we are too excited for words.  I’ve already got an afternoon at a spa arranged for both of us and we are going to see Ron James for the second time.  It’s going to be a busy week but I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.

Nolan got his birthday present from his daddy in the mail yesterday, a new Calgary flames hockey jersey.  That kids is mad about sport jerseys- if he has the choice between a t shirt and a soccer jersey, the jersey wins every time.  He walked into preschool this morning, his chest stuck out with pride exclaiming that his daddy sent him a new jersey, my heart melted.

Well, I should run and get ready to pick up the rug rats from school…

Take care all,

~jen

life without the Mr.

It’s been a couple weeks since Ken went to Calgary to start working at his new job.  Everyone keeps asking me how I’m doing without him and I have to say that it’s been pretty good!  There are a few moments where I could use a helping hand dealing with a bit of the five year old attitude (and sometimes the 2 year old attitude!!) but I’ve had a lot of incentives for good behavior.  Mostly play dates.  We’ve been arranging a couple playdates a week with friends which gives Paige something to look forward to and a reason for me to keep the house clean.  Last weekend we had Paige’s longest and bestest friend Elizabeth over for a play date and boy did they have fun!  I was very proud of both of them, only one minor tiff that was sorted out right away and they continued on playing.  It was so nice to see.  Looking forward to the next play date.

I’ve been really enjoying getting back into taking photos again too.  The kids have been such good models.  The only thing I need now, is for the weather to SNAP out of this cold spell and onto some sunny nice days.  Then I will be in photo heaven.  Check out my flickr goodness for all the latest additions to my stream.

Paige is going to be heading out to Washington to spend the weekend with her cousins.  I don’t have to tell you how excited she is about that, we’ve been counting down the days (several times a day) since day 13.  That kid is just like her father that way. 
I was surprised last night that she decided to finally take out the beads in her hair that she had put in at Beaners!  I was sure those would be in for at least another week.  However, she did make me promise that I would put them back in tomorrow night before she goes to see the cousins.

Nolan is potty trained for the most part.  He does have the odd ‘P’ accident due to the fact that he gets busy playing and really doesn’t want to be bothered with the potty procedure (at least this is my theory).  He even has a sense of humour and waddled up to me and told me he had an ‘ask-i-dent’.  When he got my usual dissapointed reaction he jumped up and said "I’m only joking on you!  It was pretend, I didn’t pee!".  What a stinker that kid is. Of course, once he saw my reaction to his joke he did it over and over and each time I thought that he had actually peed.  Either he’s a good actor or I’m just a sucker.

Well I should go, I want to design the kids valentines by myself this year… so I better get to it!

Chat with ya’ll later,

~jen

Sliding into home

It’s been nearly a week since Ken left for Calgary.  The simple fact that he’s not going to be back for several weeks has me a little depressed, I must admit.  The kids have been great, we’ve been having a lot of special time together in the evenings to distract them from the fact that Daddy’s not here.  Or maybe to distract me…

Poor Ken started his first day of work to a freak blizzard in Calgary, it was -49 Degrees with windchill!!  That is insanity even for seasoned Albertans!! Of course his truck didn’t start and Collin (Jessica’s Boyfriend) was nice enough to drive Ken the HOUR long trip to the plant.  What a champ he is!!  Hopefully he’s got a block heater installed now and a chinook will be over the horizon. 

We’ve had a little dump of snow here too, it started melting yesterday afternoon, just enough to create a nice sheet of ice on everything.  Of course as I stepped out of my truck at the school this morning I fell flat on my back.  It happened so fast I didn’t even have time to try and save myself!  It probably looked a lot worse (and hilarious) than it really was… I slid into the landing, very gentle, and graceful… you know, like a whale.

After I dropped the kids off at their respective schools I headed over to the DMV so I could renew my Drivers license which expired in December 2006!!  How did that one slip by me I’ll never know.  Of course I was completely paranoid that I would get pulled over or have some kind of accident this morning on my way to the DMV.  But I’m a good driver so it’s all good.  75$ later and I’m LEGAL now.

Nolan has rounded third plate and now he’s sliding into home, I’m referring to the potty training.  absolutely no accidents for 3 days and counting!!  He’s been great with letting whomever know that he has to go!  He spent the afternoon with Grandpa yesterday and had a lot of fun and even alerted grandpa when he had to go… PERFECT!  I’m sooooo glad to be done with diapers.  We are still in pull- ups at night but that is completely okay by me.  What a blessing!

Yesterday Paige went to a local salon for Children called Beaners.  She was beside herself with excitement over this- my child has a one track mind and will not rest until she gets what she wants.  Just like her Daddy.  We originally were invited to go with girls from the ‘hood’ but when the date got pushed back a couple weeks Paige freaked!  She nearly hyperventilated when she tried to do the math on the amount of ’sleeps’ she would need to do until that date arrived.  It was getting rediculous so I just took her myself yesterday afternoon.  She was need of a trim anyway.  She got her hair washed and blown out, curls put in, braids with beads and sparkles!  I took many photos which I am currently trying to upload to flickr… but you can see her all ‘beanered’ up in the photo above.  After the hair cut we stopped at ‘Urban Barn’ so I could look around and I had her pose on some of the lovely furniture in there… wow, great setting for photography!!

Anyway, I’m going to try and upload more photos before I have to go pick up the children at school!

Take it easy peeps,

~jen

One sock, two sock & Pee for prizes

This weekend Ken and I took the kids out to fill deficiencies in their wardrobes. Mainly pants that come down to Nolan’s ankles and socks that suit Paige’s wild fashion sense. Value Village was our first stop. I love getting Pants for Nolan there- you can find brand new barely worn (sometimes with tags still on it!) clothing- perfect for Nolan to crawl around in and destroy. When Paige was younger her two older cousins provided more than her share of hand-me-downs. Nolan has no such luck- we don’t even know any other boys his age, well, at least not close enough for any hand-me-downs. So VV is great. Have I mentioned how cool it is to get an arm load worth of clothes for 12 dollars??? Plus it’s recycling and it feels good. Don’t get me wrong, I still like to buy the odd new thing for Nolan but he is so tough on his clothes that i reserve the new stuff for special occasions- like perhaps his birthday (that is coming up soon- mental note).
As for Miss Paige, she’s always had an aversion to socks. We compromised, at some point in her childhood, on ankle socks. She would wear them when she had to (Jumpin’ jimminies, McDonalds Playplace, etc.) but most of the time she goes sockless. That is, until our trip to Wal-mart to buy socks. She spied herself a package of ‘High School Musical’ themed socks and was immediately smitten. They were a little more expensive than the other socks (big shocker) but I figured- the chance of her wearing them would be worth it. Well, if she could wear all 6 pairs at the same time, I’m sure she would. She’s loving them a lot. While we were at wallymart Paige was surprised to see a HSM backpack (overly excited actually) and she told me she had her eye out for a HSM shirt like the ones her cousins got for Christmas… believe it or not there were none to be found. We (mostly me) are keeping our eyes out for one- perhaps to surprise her on her birthday (or easter).

Over the weekend we did some hard core potty training because we (and by ‘we’ I mean ME) are OH SO ready. I want to have Nolan out of diapers by his third birthday so i figured I needed to get cracking on it. We may still be doing pull ups at night but I can totally deal with that. Yesterday we had one accident. Afterward I decided to leave him in the buff. This was very successful and he even went to the bathroom completely on his own! Afterward he came up to tell me, I congratulated him with hugs, high fives and kisses. Then he tells me, “I want Prizes.”, uuuumm okay. This had been discussed prior and he knows he needs to keep his pants dry all day and poo on the potty as well… so it was a nice try but no cigar. He didn’t do a number 2 all day yesterday so I hope he isn’t holding it because he’s afraid of the pot. That kid is pretty darn regular… maybe he’ll make up for lost time today, which I don’t mind as long as it’s not in his pants. I’m sure you’ll be hearing about this work in progress as the the week goes on.

Well it’s time to go pick up the elder child from Kindergarten,
Will catch up again soon,
~jen

putting my heart into it

Okay, it’s been awhile but I’ve decided it’s worth my extra time to actually get back to making home cooked meals instead of opening a can a zoodles for the kids and making myself a can of soup.
some reason I get bored of cooking and just stop doing it. I guess I still make food but it’s just not good. At Christmas time I tried really hard to make tasty things for my guests to eat, we had roast, with veggies, mashed potatos and gravy. Another night we had stuffed turkey breasts with the trimmings- it was all yummy! Since then I’ve been putting a little more thought into dinner times (we still do zoodles for lunch). I’ve made a really good Shepherds’ pie, lazy man cabbage rolls, and tonight I made a slow cooker stew that turned into an oven stew before dinner time. The inspiration behind a couple of those dishes were these sauce packages. What a difference they make in the taste of my cooking! Now, I’m not saying that my cooking is usually bland and tasteless because it’s not but my cooking always tastes the same- these sauce mixes help my food taste new and exciting again! I think I’m impressing myself the most, but that’s okay too. Paige ate three servings of the shepherds pie, and that is unheard of!
So, on my next shopping trip I plan to raid the ‘Club House’ sauces and seasonings sections and I’ll keep you all updated on my creations. It’s been awhile since I did a picture by picture recipe walk through… I plan to do one soon. I’m just hoping my ass doesn’t respond in a bad way to all my great tasting cooking… don’t answer that!!

On a non food related note- I want to give a shout out to Suz (the neighbor we all know and love) for writing such a touching blog post about our friendship. Rest assured hers is coming… just not for a little while.

I should be off, I need to get some kids to bed and finish up a grocery list for tomorrow…
Hugs to all,
~jen

Once a monthly

I just realized I haven’t sat down and done one of my bi-monthly updates since christmas time! The holidays brought so many new additions to our family that I should share them all along with tidbits about the kids (what would one of my blogs be without kid-tid-bits???)
was wonderful, the kids were visited by the one and only SANTA! Paige was absolutely high with excitement and Nolan was nothing but a vibration when he saw Santa come in the door. It was fabulous. Unfortunately, it got Paige so wired up that she was up until three in the morning complaining about being sick to her stomach and unable to sleep… next year I’m going to provide a dose of benadryl to aid in the sleeping.
You can check out a few of the gifts that were given in photos here
I have quite a few more but they were from a different camera that I haven’t had a chance to sort through yet… soon they’ll be added. The main gifts were a new, real, electric guitar for Paige, and Nolan got a pedal go cart from his grandparents!! My sister and her boyfriend Collin were also out for the holiday and it was really nice and comfy with them here. We ate some good dinners and a lot of snacks and watched movies and generally just hung out. Just what I needed.
Ken got a new guitar from me (that he picked out) it’s an Epiphone Les Paul Special- don’t ask me if I even have that all correct but I’ll be posting new photos of that in flickr shortly. I got a few big dollars towards my new camera lens, and if anyone wants to contribute please feel free (tee hee) and I did a family photo shoot for my neighbor/friend Tracy one boxing day, the proceeds of which will also go toward the new lens… just a little more to go and it’s mine.
For New years eve the hubby and I sat by the TV watching movies with a few wobbly pops which was nice. For New Years day we decided to head out to Mt. Washington to go tubing with the rest of the in laws and cousins who were out visiting. Even though I didn’t feel like hurling myself down the hill, I did bring my camera and took photos which was more my cup of tea and the time (5.5 hours!) flew by for me. A blizzard came in and we just made it to the truck before I collapsed in a heap in the very large parking lot. But it was a memorable day and I enjoyed it a lot. Check out the photos through the link above.

We decided a few weeks ago that Ken would need a new vehicle to take to alberta with him because we didn’t want to risk something happening to the van and leaving him stranded somewhere far from home or help. We purchased another Santa Fe for him (in a fashionable shade of teal) and I think we got a pretty good deal on it because it was so close to christmas. Then we sold the toyota van and with the proceeds, Ken was supposed to purchase himself a laptop to do his school work on while away at work. Instead, He came home with an iMac. At first I was in shock but after sitting down and getting acquainted with it, I don’t think I’ll ever buy another PC again. This machine is amazing. Really. I don’t want to get too attached because Ken will be taking it with him in a couple weeks and I’m going to go into withdrawals.

I have started to adjust to the idea of moving. It doesn’t make me sad all the time now, only when i tell someone about it and they react very surprised and sad- then I get sad. and cry. I’m excited to get out there and see my new town and find a new home- my friends will all be a phone call away and I’m sure this blog will be up in full force again, like it was in the old days. Well enough of that talk…

The kids have been doing great, Paige has moved on from ‘Hairspray’ to ‘High School Musical’s 1 and 2! Aunty Jessie got her the first one for christmas and she’s fully addicted to it and proclaimed that it was her new favorite movie. I downloaded a bunch of the soundtracks on my computer and I’ve been going to sleep with the songs in my head and waking up with them still playing. Lord, help me.

Nolan is sort of potty training now when he feels like it. He always tells me he’ll poo on the potty tomorrow. He tells me this always, after he has filled his drawers. Nice. Oh well it’s a work in progress… still. He has been really enjoying his three mornings a week in preschool. His vocabulary has come leaps and bounds and everything for a while there was ‘Humungous’ and he’s really taken to singing and dancing to music (much like his sister so they get along good). After school I will ask him who he played with and he’ll say “I danced instead.”
So darn cute.

Well it’s late and I must go- blog at ya later gater!
~jen

Merry Christmas to all!

Holy smokes, I can’t believe i haven’t blogged since my birthday… where has the time flown?
My sister is out to visit for Christmas and while catching up with her, I’ve realized all the things I haven’t had time to blog about.  I’m hoping to get that caught up with soon. 
As for right now, all the presents have been wrapped, the tree has been trimmed, Santa has been called for (literally, we ‘rented’ Santa for Christmas eve!!) and now all there is to do is make some delicious food and enjoy the company.
Paige and Nolan both took part in their respective school christmas concerts… I have photos and video clips of both which I am downloading as we speak… I’ll update with links shortly (here is a link to Nolan’s concert clip). Can you find Paige in the photo to the left?  Click on it to enlarge.
(more behind the cut…)