SPRING CLEANING

We finally began our outdoor spring cleaning today. There is still a lot of brush and garbage around the place from the previous owner. So, we just started at one corner - loading the truck with all the debris. We also wanted the kids to get working on building the fire pit and benches to go around it. First of all we had to rake the area and pick everything up. Then Me, Josh and his friend started to dig the hole for the tire rim to fit into. It was hard digging because there is so much clay, but we got it done.

Hannah and Jedine picked up the shovel long enough to get their picture taken before they disappeared. As you can see by Hannah's footwear she is more concerned about fashion than practicality.

Just look at poor Naomi - she is working so hard. Slave-like really!

Meanwhile, Josh assumes the position of foreman.

Later on we decided to start working on making the benches. Hannah and Jedine built one and Josh and his friends built another one. It was getting very cold and windy so we stopped work then. But the wind calmed down enough that they were able to enjoy a fire over which they cooked hotdogs and marshmallows.
Just a taste of the work to come. Oh, Brian did help a lot, even though there are no pictures to prove it. However, he did desert us to attend a first aid course he was taking this weekend. He more than made up for it though by taking the last load of garbage to the dump all by himself while I sat here and wrote this.

I'M BACK!

The trip to Whitehorse went well. Too much time spent sitting in boring meetings, but other than that it was great. Naomi drove most of the way there and back and she drove around Whitehorse. At first she was really nervous driving around town. She has done it before but just needs more practice. After a while she got more confident and she was fine. Hannah is excited because it looks like she will get her braces removed at the end of the summer. We didn't really do anything exciting while we were there. I ordered materials to make our deck so we definitely have a lot of work to do. That's about all for now. Hope you all had a great weekend.

QUICK UPDATE

Just thought I would pass on a quick update before I head out to Whitehorse tomorrow. 30 pounds lost total! Woohoo! Feels great to be getting there at last. Haven't measured lately so will post lost inches another time.

Anyways, I will be leaving for Whitehorse with the girls Thursday after lunch. I am the union rep for our school and have to go to the AGM. It ended up coinciding with Hannah's trip to the orthodontist and Naomi's trip to the chiropractor. While there I will be ordering materials to build our deck. Lots more work ahead of us this spring!

So, have a great week and weekend everyone.

LIFE IS ONE BIG ADVENTURE

Just yesterday I was sitting on the couch thinking about my blog and I realized that I just didn't have anything interesting happening in my life. Or, I should say, nothing new that is interesting and worth blogging about. Then Hannah came along. I was innocently sitting at the kitchen table trying to wrap my head around this math stuff when Josh came bursting into the kitchen telling me that Hannah has a boyfriend. Tyrone was there with Josh so I asked him if it was true. He blushed and said "yeah." Of course, being the great Mom that I am, I had to go straight to Hannah. I just said "I hear my little girl is growing up." She just about died of embarrasment. She fell onto her bed laughing and Jedine and Naomi just laughed at her. Then they all went out to hang out at the swings. Of course they had to put up with merciless teasing from their friends. Josh thinks it's great - every little brother's dream - another reason to tease a sister. I also found out something else I had suspected for a while - one of Josh's other friends was going to ask her out, but I think he was just too shy. I asked Hannah if Luke was jealous. She said "I don't think he knows yet, but he probably will be." Nothing like having boys falling all over you. Anyways, Tyrone is a really nice kid. He is one of Josh's best friends and hangs out here quite a lot. All this time I just thought he liked hanging out here, now I know better. I thought I had more pictures of him, but I could only find this one. I will make an effort to get a better one.

Note: The funniest thing is that I've never seen them keep so much distance between each other. It is actually quite comical.

JOSH

A couple months ago Josh had strep throat, so I took him to the health centre to get some antibiotics. While we were there the nurse was asking about his penicillin allergy. So, I explained that when he was 2 weeks old I was on penicillin while I was nursing him. We both got a rash from it. She suggested that we do a tolerance test with him to see if he was really allergic to it. This is because the antibiotic that he has been taking is quite hard on the body, she wanted something that would be better. So, we met with the doctor and he okayed the test and told them how to do it. We needed to do it on a week when we could go to the health centre everyday Monday to Friday. This was the week. So, Monday morning before school we headed over to the health centre. The nurse gave him 1 tsp of penicillin and then we had to wait for about half an hour. She kept checking on him and about 20 minutes in he started getting a tingling in his throat, so she gave him some benadryl. We ended up staying almost an hour, then we left for school. The poor guy was totally wiped out after that. It took him the whole day to recover from it. So, too late to make a long story short, but penicillin in definitely out. Anyways, he is doing fine now. He has started coming to the gym with me lately. It is such a great time together. He wants to make sure that he is good and strong for the Bowron Lakes trip next year. No worries there, he is going to be big like his Grandad.