Happy Birthday Paula! We love you!
Unfortunately Kris is away at camp today and I know that Paula is just counting the days until he is back…
Aug 01
Well, Kris headed off with several other cadets from his Army Cadet Corps for for 3 weeks at Army Cadet Camp in Vernon today. He is taking a bus to Penhold, then they load them all into a plane up to Cold Lake, drop the Air Cadets off there and fly to Vernon. It should be quite the day for him. Well, at least he has several other cadets that he knows with him… We wish him good luck and hope that he has fun and learns a lot! It should certainly be a growing experience (for Kris and us).
Emma of course started crying as soon as he got on the bus. We will all really miss him and are going to be counting the days until he gets back.
Jul 19
Wow! Kris is 16 already. How did that happen? Well, happy birthday Kris!
Jun 07
So, we got a call from Kris’ teacher on Sunday night… (If you ever want to freak parents out, call them on Sunday night saying that you are their kid’s teacher.)
Kris will have one or two pieces of art in his high school’s art showing this thursday! Paula and I can not wait to see them! If anyone is interested, there is an open viewing on Thursday night at his school. Contact Mark for more details.
Kris had been taking art this semester as an option and has done really well. Both art teachers (and his parents) have been quite impressed by his art.
May 13
Kris is loving being in the Airdrie Army Cadets. I must admit that Paula and I are conflicted…
Yesterday the Captain did promotions and I know that Kris was hoping to get promoted. First she handed out new star levels (badges for your level of knowledge in various subjects) and Kris got upped to Red star, which I was hoping that he would be able to do by the end of the year. Then she announced the promotions from Cadet (what Kris was) to Lance Corporal (what Kris was hoping for), but didn’t call Kris… I was a little baffled, but since he has only been there a short time, I figured “oh well, maybe next time.” I know Kris had been hoping, so he was a little let down.
I was pretty baffled since Captain Mark had been telling parents if their kids were getting promoted and had told me that Kris would be on that list. As I said, I figured “oh well, at least he got red star.”
Then, when she called up the cadets for promotion to the rank of Corporal, Kris was called up! To my knowledge, they rarely if ever skip ranks, so we were surprised. Kris had a huge perma-grin that is likely still there. On the way home he was saying “I am a corporal, I can’t believe I am a corporal.”
One of the things with Army Cadets is that they take kids 12-18, but since Kris started at almost 15, he was put into the bottom level with mostly younger kids. Now that he is a red star and a corporal, he will be hanging out with kids more his own age.
Of course, thetwo main reasons that he has managed to get to red star corporal so fast is that:
he has a great Captain who realizes that kids will fit in better with kids their own age and has been willing to promote him a little faster.
Kris worked his butt off to catch up and prove that he deserved the promotions. Captain Mark was quite impressed when Kris was the only one to score 100% on his Green star test and he has consistantly volunteered when needed and really put his heart into it.
So, congrats Kris. We are all happy that you have found something that you enjoy and impressed with how hard you are working at it!
May 07
Last night we were sitting around the dinner table and for some reason I was trying to explain what a brain is.
Dad: “Your brain is inside your head.”
Mom: “Your skull is like a helmet for your brain.”
Emma just looks suspicious…
Dad: “Your brain is what tells you what to do.”
Emma: ” No it isn’t. You and Mommy tell me what to do.”
How can you argue with that??
May 05
Emma scored her first goal on Monday’s game!! It was on our team but it still counts, right? lol Right after she scored on her own team, she scored on the other team. She was beyond super stoked!! She definitely is loving soccer. Hopefully the weather improves so that they’ll be able to play games again soon. Tonight’s game is definitely going to be snowed out. Oh well, two more games next week! At least her gymnastics and ballet are indoor activities that aren’t effected by the weather.
Kris has cadets tonight with the monthly parents meeting. The cadets are having an exam tonight on the hunter ed course they’ve taken. It shouldn’t really be a big deal because it’s open book. Plus, with cadets Kris doesn’t really get homework. That’s where his problem really lies. He doesn’t do any assignments but gets ridiculously high test marks at school. Too bad the exams don’t count for most of the class:( I’m sure he’ll pull it together just before the end of the year so that he manages to get into the correct classes next year. He’s just got to make us sweat it out a big in the meantime. Nothing like stress, right? Oh, kids.
May 03
So Emma’s birthday has come and gone. Hopefully the drama will settle for a bit too. Some family manged to make it for her at least and others even managed to call on her birthday. She’s started soccer twice a week now so that’s definitely keeping us all busy. She was very anxious on her first day and scared because she said she didn’t know how to play soccer. Of course when she got there, she decided that she loved it! She only had one game last week because of the usual spring snow storm. I’m afraid that the same is going to happen this week!! Hopefully tonight’s game is still on at least.
She managed to get to the ball lots of times and even made a few shots on goal — even the right one! We just might have a little soccer star on our hands yet! Not that she noticed the ball all of the time…Soccer for kids this age is so fun to watch. It’s like a comedy really and a great stress relief. I wish they played every single day!
Kris has decided to take a break from fencing for the rest of this year’s season. His finger is still healing from his last major injury — the fingernail is about halfway grown back now. I hope he goes back in September. He’s been taking fencing for 8 years and it would be such a shame to see him give it up. He is absolutely loving and excelling at cadets. He’s heavily involved in all of their activities which is great to see. He seems to have gotten over some of his shyness around people and to be more concerned about his appearance — at least when in uniform!
It’ll be interesting to see if he is deployed this summer. We won’t find out until just before he’s set to go. Hopefully he’ll be around for his 16th birthday. Otherwise we’ll just have to celebrate when he returns home. I can’t believe he’s 16 already! We drove by the hospital he was born at this morning and it feels like he took his first breath just a few months ago. He is definitely working on becoming a man — growing taller (and hairier!) every single day. *sigh*
Work has been going well for both Mark and I. He’s working on redoing my Auntie’s Devon Registry website again, keeping the cadet website and facebook account up to date and finishing off the last touches to the deck and patio beneath it. I’ve been hired on as a monthly contributor to Hippie Magazine which is kinda cool. I think I’ll be doing thematic posts every month based on the seasons and holidays. My latest one was published this morning and was about Mother’s Day. Both of my other websites are still up and going. Keeping up with them is quite another thing though as I’m getting more and more tired each day. Hopefully the next few weeks will afford me some more energy. Mark’s definitely been picking up the slack around the house.
May also means Mother’s Day, my Dad’s birthday, Uncle Joe’s birthday, Mark and I’s 5th anniversary as well as a ton of doctor’s appointments for me. It’ll be interesting trying to keep everything straight! Em’s ballet recital practice is really coming together for next month’s big performance. She even has her ballet pictures this month. I imagine that they’ll be absolutely adorable! Will definitely try to post the pics of both her and my next ultrasound provided everything goes smoothly. I have no clue who reads this but in case you didn’t already know…Mark and I are expecting…again!! Please keep your fingers crossed for us and pray if that’s your thing. It’s definitely not ours but every little bit can’t hurt, right?
Apr 21
Believe it or not, Emma is now 4 years old! I know that Paula and I are still getting used to the idea…
For her birthday, she spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa swimming, bird watching etc. It sounds like she had a great day. Because of Kris’ Army Cadets, etc we just couldn’t really fit a proper family get together in tonight, so we will be having a family BBQ on Saturday night.
Emma is really growing up and it is always interesting to see how her very strong personality is developing. The most interesting is when she suddenly starts doing something and you have no idea where she picked it up from. Like the other day when she started doing a famous dance from Pulp Fiction! She is super smart and often makes us laugh! While we are still dreading those teenage years, we love her and can’t wait to see what she does next.
Apr 16
I just noticed that Mark has been posting here and I absolutely have not at all lately. I thought I’d give a little “spring” update!
Easter was good this year. The weather managed to stay clear so that you didn’t have to dig through the snow to find the Easter eggs. Definitely a far cry from the year we spent Easter in Malibu with Bibi though!! We had a few community functions — one at a community center even had baby bunnies that Emma loved to snuggle. Our street does a big hunt with all the kids too. The guys all meet with coffee and Bailey’s at a hill nearby and hide a dozen eggs per kid filled with all kinds of goodies. And then everyone meets at 9, about 50 kids stand in a big line and absolutely run down the hill looking for eggs. Emma had a good strategy this year — she ran to the end of the hill past all kinds of obvious eggs and got ahead of the pack. She grabbed her 12 with no competition and headed back up the hill with her loot. She was the first one!! Then we had another egg hunt at the Bentleys — even the boys (Chris and Joe) get in on the hunt. It often turns into semi-wrestling with Kristopher and everyone rehides candy for Emma. Hysterical!! Had an Easter brunch with them as well that was lovely. For Easter dinner, Mark and I took the kids to Swiss Chalet as my family isn’t really doing get togethers anymore. It was nice though. One of the waiters was dressed like a giant bunny. For some reason, that bunny rubbed me the wrong way. He was super duper freaky!!! I’m still having flashbacks…
The kids have been busy. Kris is in the army cadets, fencing, volunteering at the food bank and working on his teenage attitude. He’s getting pretty good at it!! All in all he’s been a pretty good teenager so far but maybe I should zip my lip because report cards come out in a week. He’s at a field training exercise (aka camping) with the cadets this weekend, has a cadet meeting on Wednesday and a big march around downtown next Saturday.
Emmy is managing to stay busy as well with gymnastics, ballet, preschool and also working on her teenage attitude. I think she’s better at it than Kris at this point, unfortunately. The kids have been down with a cold on and off this week so she’s had me pretty much wrapped around her little finger for the last few days. She even kicked Mark out of bed for a night or two!! I went to work today mainly as a sanity check and ended up with a nasty virus on my computer that made it nearly impossible for me to get anything done. Oh, plus the darn kids gave me their cold!!! lol
Emma is having her friends birthday party this weekend at her gymnastics studio. It should be a lot of fun — 15 kids and lots of parents are coming for cake, running around and maybe even a little gymnastics! I figure it’s always a good bet to have the kids get together somewhere that is NOT at our house!! I’m sure it will be a blast and that she’ll love it. I can’t believe she’s turning 4 already — she’s getting to be such a big girl. She’s super tall, smart, bright and has bucketloads of personality!! Unbelievable that these huge independent creatures once lived inside of me!
We’re having a family party the following weekend although I’m not 100% sure who all will be coming — between weird work shifts, teaching yoga classes, trips to Fernie and some family “issues” on my side it’ll be great to be able to see anyone at all really!! I’m sure Gramma and Grampa will be there at least and maybe even Kristopher can stop by this get together for a while between cadet activities!! I absolutely love family but it sure seems tough to get it all together sometimes. Everyone’s on a different schedule and especially lately, everyone’s got a different agenda. The important thing is that our kids are happy, healthy and well loved though. They are spoiled to pieces by Mark and I and loved to the moon and back by us. That’s what gets us through each day!!
Mark is super busy — working, volunteering at the foodbank, he’s taken over the cadets website and is constantly updating it, driving the kids around like crazy from one thing to another. He’s still working on the finishing touches of our deck, spent a few days building a dog house for Bonsai with Emma and does most of the cooking now!! I’ve cut back on work some and have been enjoying spending a bit more time with the kids. I’m keeping 2 websites going with lots to do and write about. I’ve even been getting lots of products for reviews and giveaways on both sites! I’ve taken a leave of absence at the foodbank for the next year or so depending on how the next few months pan out. Things have definitely been interesting and busy, busy, busy around here!
