Cameron's Pirate-y Adventure!

Since we're going to be starting our roadtrip on Cameron's 9th Birthday, I decided we needed to do something extra-special for his early birthday. This was a surprise, but I told him he could invite 2 buddies to join us on an "adventure". This is what we did....

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Growing pains

I should be doing something else.... cleaning the disaster of a house we live in, finishing the curtains for the motorhome, packing for camping, doing laundry, writing thank you notes for the teachers, making muffins! But I can't concentrate, there's too much going on in my brain to do any of those things. It has been an emotional week, as the school year winds down for the Summer. I'm so done with this school year. But I also don't want it to end.

Simon's leaving elementary school. He's growing up, and going to middle school in the Fall. He enters Deep Cove Elementary's doors for the last time as a student tomorrow. Oh. My. Word. How did that happen so fast?? I'm not ready. And it really, really doesn't help my emotions when Simon does the "countdown to the end of elementary school" thing every day. And when Ruby says "Mom, I'm never, EVER going to be in the same school as Simon EVER again." Enough already, I get it. Wah.


I remember Simon's first day of Kindergarten like it was yesterday. He was so excited to go to school that I could barely take a photo of him... he was dancing around the kitchen and couldn't stand still. I was sad to see my baby leave, but I also had a 3 year old and newborn baby to keep me company, so I was happy for him. He was so ready to go to school.

And I also remember all the strangers I encountered before he went into Kindergarten, who (annoyingly) felt the need to share their feelings on preschool... they were like "if you don't put him in preschool, he'll have such a hard time adjusting to school. He needs to go!" Um, thanks for your opinions??! Simon never did go to preschool and didn't know a soul on the first day of school. But when that door opened and his new teacher appeared, he never looked back. He was the first one in the school and had his backpack hung up before all the others. Hard time adjusting? I think not.

6 years later, he still hasn't looked back. And that's a good thing. A really good thing. It's amazing how confident he is, how eager he is to experience new things and meet new teachers and friends. Among other things, he's developed a passion for dancing over the past few months and it's been so fun to see him try new dance moves, push the envelope on music choices/genres with his parents, and has taken charge at times in choreographing dances with his friends. At the grade 5 talent show, I was a bundle of nerves and emotions, as I prepared to watch Simon do a solo dance performance. And even before it was his turn, I was ready to burst into tears. I was so proud of his friends as they sang, danced, did magic tricks, played the piano, etc. in front of their peers. I had seen those beautiful faces since their first day of Kindergarten too, and remembered how timid and shy some of them were. Man, I was a proud Deep Cove mama! And then it was Simon's turn. Oh Lord, may he do well. He did. He was awesome.

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As he leaves the safety of Elementary School, I pray that he never loses his confidence and big smile. That he retains his good friends and meets new ones who will encourage him, inspire him to be all that he can be, and will be a good influence on him in this crazy world. And I may end up being that wacky mom who takes a little drive by Bayside School at lunchtime to make sure he's not getting beat up on the school grounds by bullies, or alone in a corner crying for his mommy. Yeah right. It's not going to happen. But I'll check anyway, just to be sure.

He's so ready for middle school. Me? Not so much. But it's not about me... it never is. He can't stay young forever.

It's like that, and that's the way it is! (line from a dance club song, that is forever in my head, whether I like it or not.)

I'm so proud of you Simon!

Hawaii Photos... lots of them!

Our Christmas Surprise

It all started over 6 years ago... we were sitting around the table after Thanksgiving at Rodger's parents' house. Rodger's Dad starts to make a family announcement... you know the kind... where you know he's going to say something important so you all stop what you're doing to listen... well anyway, he started to say that he thought it was time that we all took a trip to Hawaii, now that the 6 grandchildren were at a good age. Not too young anymore, as Cameron and Jack were 2 years old. Well, it was then that I had to interrupt the big speech and say "Sounds awesome but I think you'll all have to go without us... we're pregnant." Fast forward to last Christmas... the conversation came up again as we were sitting around the table again, after a big meal. We were all missing Art, Michi, Kai and Hina who had moved to Japan. Let's go to Hawaii!! Yup, we're in this time! :-) We waited and waited to tell our kids. The others have known about this for awhile, but we really didn't want to hear "when are we going? Are we going yet? When are we going??" for a whole year! So we finally told them last night. It was awesome!! Rodger didn't video the first part, where I said "Kids, we have some bad news about Christmas this year. We're not going tubing at Mt. Hemlock with your cousins this year." They all groaned and were very disappointed. "Aw man, why not???" I said, we're going to be too busy this year, but we'll still see your cousins. Actually, we'll be seeing all of your cousins, including Kai and Hina! "Really?? Are you coming here?" Well, not exactly. So anyway, I asked them what they would like to do instead, this year. Some of their ideas were: skating, go-carting, snowmobiling, tabagonning down the hill at Grandma and Grandpa's, etc. So cute. As they were thinking of ideas, I had them close their eyes and I handed each of them a clue of what we were going to do... Cameron had a summer hat, Simon had a bottle of sunscreen, Ruby had a pair of sunglasses and I put on the snorkel mask.... This is what happened.

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I guess you can tell they are really excited!! We are leaving for Oahu on Dec. 28th and staying in a house with the whole Talstra gang, in Kailua. 4 houses from the beach! A gorgeous beach, I might add. Everyone is leaving on different days, but we are out of the house by Jan. 8th, and then our family of five is heading to Waikiki for 2 nights on our own. We booked a hotel room right in the heart of all the action and it's going to be so fun! 5 weeks and counting....

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The Big Reveal

Well, it took over 2 months from start to finish... but I'm done my kitchen!! Yay! (Okay, well, I'm not 100% done but I'm not painting my fridge until the Summer...then I'll be done.)

It's been almost 2 weeks since I started painting my countertops, and approx. 10 days since I finished. Today I'm slowly & carefully starting to move back into the kitchen - I'm anxious for my life to get back to normal. It's been difficult to live without a functioning kitchen for such a long time, but we managed. I set up a folding table in the family room for our toaster/coffee maker/bread box, and it worked pretty well. I also had a little white table in the kitchen for cooking/prepping... using this tiny table has made me appreciate how large my actual kitchen is!

I used Giani Granite paint on my counters and it turned out great! I used the Chocolate Brown kit. I was pretty nervous about messing up my perfectly good (pink and dated) counters, but after reading a ton of reviews on the product, I decided to order it on-line. I couldn't get it locally, so I paid an extra $35 for shipping, but I feel it was worth it anyway.

Here's some "During" photos... first you prime with black primer, then you sponge on the 3 mineral paints and then roll on 2 clear coats which need to harden and cure for 14 days.



After all my hard work, my kitchen went from this:



To this:





I am so HAPPY!! And I'm so proud of myself. Yay me.

Here's a breakdown on the cost of my Kitchen Makeover:

Wall Paint: $0
Cabinet Paint: $100
Counter Paint: $110
Hardware: $75
Backsplash wallpaper: $50
Light Fixtures: $50
Artwork & accessories: $100
Take-out Dinners: $0

Grand Total: $485

Was it worth it? Oh yeah... every penny. Now, if I could just find my sewing machine in all this chaos, I could whip up a quilted table runner tonight to jazz up my table... maybe I can do that while the Canucks are beating L.A. tonight??

Fences coming down

I've been reflecting on our fence for the past few weeks.... let me tell you a little story about it....

We know our immediate neighbours, but not really all that well. In fact, I don't even know their last names. Or maybe it's written down on a post-it note somewhere. Our neighbours keep to themselves, although they're polite and wave... if we engage first. And they all look forward to seeing our kids on Halloween so they can give them a special treat (because they're the only kids who come.)

On the one side is a retired couple who have lived in their house since it was built, in 1979. Glen's a nice guy, a good neighbour. But he likes his personal space so it took years for him to warm up to us... our choatic/noisy/normal kids, our super messy/weedy yard... he said hello if we said it first, but otherwise he kept to himself, puttering in his perfectly manicured oasis on the other side of the fence.

The fence was just the right height for the kids to climb up onto the bench and lean over to chat with Glen. And eventually, he seemed to actually enjoy the relentless chatter. Over time he started to engage in conversation with them, and us, more and more.

But the fence was just enough of a buffer, as if to say "You stay on your side, and I'll stay on mine." Personal space.

So anyway, a few weeks ago we had a really severe wind storm, which brought down massive trees all over our neighbourhood and left us without power or phones for days. It was incredible!

The next morning, we were looking out the window and surveying the damage in our yard. Things were knocked over and blown all over the place, and large branches/twigs littered the yard. It took us a few minutes to figure out what looked different... and then it hit us: our fence had fallen over into the neighbour's yard. "Oh oh!" I thought... "Glen's not going to like that. He's going to want us to fix it right away."

But an amazing thing happened. He agreed that we don't really need to rebuild it, "for now."

That very same day, I noticed another incredible sight... my kids were in his yard, hanging out with the neighbour. Again, I thought "oh, oh! He's not going to like that." But he really didn't seem to mind, which still amazes me.

Today the kids were in his yard, helping him with his fire, chatting and stacking rocks.

It took 9 years to knock that fence down. I hope it stays down for good.