Long overdue 05/04/2012
It's spring now. Time for renewal and restarting. And for this, it means that I'm going to try and keep undated again. So what have we been up to? Darren is still working at Genivar, in the Municipal Infrastructure group. It's a little stressful at times, but it allows him to be flexible with his hours when necessary. I am still teaching at Quest High School. It's challenging a lot of the time, but it offers the benefit of having very little out of school commitment. In 2 week, after spring break, we will be changing locations and joining up with the Outreach School Centre. It's likely to be very tough, for the staff and the students, but it will be great in the end. The space is all new construction, a big change from what we have and in the fall we will begin to teach lessons in our core classes instead of using modules. That will mean a lot more planning, but hopefully less marking. I will be teaching Math 10-3, Photography and Fashions and one other course. I continue to play French horn in a community band and have joined a monthly scrapbooking group. The rest of my free time is spent at Digital Scrapbook Place where I have the honour of working with Designer Erica Belton to help promote her products. Sebastian is 3/4 of the way through his year in pre-kindergarten. We just had his student-led conferences and he did amazingly well. He has grown so much socially and emotionally and is so much more fun to be around. He continues to be a picky eater, but is improving bit by bit on trying new things. Sebastian started taking taekwondo lessons last July and currently has his yellow belt. He 'trains' twice a week and really enjoys it. Jeremiah is a fun, energetic, imaginative two and a half year old. He love going to his day home every day where they play outside, do crafts and have a lot of fun. His dairy allergies have been stable for some time and at his birthday we will give him a big test of real ice cream. The hope is that he won't react at all after having had a full year without any cow dairy. It is difficult being so vigilant, but will hopefully be worth it in the end. We have discovered the varieties of goat milk, cheese and yogurt available in the city and much of our diet has revolved around allowing him to eat the same as us. The last big change in our family has been the addition of Freckles, a chihuahua cross puppy. She is still not fully house-trained and is frustrating us around her training, but she is lovable and quite smart. She has really taken to me as her person and Jeremiah as her kid. Add Comment Ummm... 26/11/2011
So apparently, it's been over a year since the last post. Is anyone still following?? Let me know! Oh My Gosh! 27/10/2010
Where HAS the time gone?? Working full time has kicked me in the butt and I'm finding less and less time to get things done and this blog is one of them! Jeremiah has been an absolute doll to have around, except when he gets into things. He is a great little cuddle bug most of the time. He runs all over the house, eats pretty much anything I give him (including raw onions!) and is super easy when bedtime comes. On the other hand, he does not like to be told no and throws little temper tantrums at times. He has 15 teeth with the 16th on the way. At his last pediatrician appointment, we decided to keep him on formula until his 2nd birthday due to his ongoing dairy allergy. He can have dairy that's cooked into things, but nothing else. Essentially, the type of allergy he has is one that is usually outgrown so long as the body has time to build an immunity to it. Sebastian has made huge progress in social and emotional areas. He no longer has fits about food and will usually eat at least a bite of whatever is offered, so long as the previous meal wasn't too big. At the end of his food calendar, he refused to eat the last meal and ended up not eating for 36 hours because he wouldn't eat what I made. He finally gave in and has been a much better eater ever since. He even ate PIZZA for lunch today!! He is a real smarty pants and loves to read. I was curious how many words he knew and how many were just memorized in his stories so I found a list of pre-reader sight words and he got 48 of them. I know there were even some others that weren't on the list. He has even started to want to do things by himself which thrills me to bits, except at 7:50a.m. when I'm trying to get the kids into the car to go to dayhome and he refuses help. Today it was 8:10 before we left the garage. Darren continues to work long hours, but he's finally managed to get on a different job with a different kind of stress. He's currently working about 14 hour days to meet deadlines. It's working out well enough in that the kids see him in the morning and we have the whole weekends together. He has even been eating better since we started a weight loss plan at the beginning of September. He's lost somewhere in the neighbourhood of 25 pounds since then. Good job Darren!! I have been super busy just trying to be a good mom to my kids and keep the house in working order. I finally decided to hire a maid eery other week and it's fantastic. I come home and the bathrooms have been cleaned, the dusting done and the floors vacuumed and mopped. She will even do extra things like putting away toys and washing dishes. Yesterday, I even had her clean the table and chairs that had a very bad case of toddler syndrome. Other than that kind of thing, I am still scrapbooking and have an album for our trip to Mexico almost ready to send to the printers. I entered a contest in September to be on the creative team for the website I frequent (www.digitalscrapbookplace.com) and made it to the final round. Now I am working with a mentor to improve my skills. And as for my weight loss, I'm now the same weight I was at our wedding and I wore a size 8 skirt today. Only about 15 to go! So there's our update. Hopefully it won't be another 2+ months before the next one. Big news! 06/08/2010
Actually we have two big things to share this time - one for each kid! First of all, not unexpectedly, Jeremiah has started walking. Yesterday he walked the entire length of the landing in the garage to see his Mamma. Good job J!!! Secondly, a little more of a surprise, Sebastian has started eating new foods. Starting Wednesday, he has at least tried EVERYTHING we've given to him and he's even liked some of it!!! Go figure! LOL the first night we had smothered chicken and my former vegetarian said, "I love chicken!" Then he at a whole ham sandwich for lunch and tried ham steak and creamed corn for supper. He didn't really like the ham, but ate a few pieces.  So how did we do it? The Sebastian's Try-New-Food Calendar. The idea is that we keep track of when he at least tries all the foods on his plate. for each time he tries everything, he earns 50cents towards a new Wii game. I'm still not sure the Wii game was the best choice, but I wanted him to buy in without any convincing. It worked. So far, he has earned $2 and it might be $3 before the day is out. He's loving that there's counting involved and he knows that when we get to 0 he gets his game. And in the middle of eating he will ask to see his calendar. Not much else new going on. Darren is working lots and may end up working oodles over the fall too. Could mean lots of OT and a family holiday in our future. I am administering provincial diploma exams for summer school students and it's high on responsibility but low on things to do, so here I am...sitting outside the exam room, waiting for them to finish writing. Next week Darren's grandparents and cousin are coming to visit and we are going camping. Hoping for lots of good photos to share. Summer 17/07/2010
So much has been happening in such a short time here. On July 2, we received Darren's Great-great-grandmother McNeil's piano from his Aunt Sharon. It had a beautiful sound, but was about 3/4 of a tone flat across the board and required some repairs to some of the hammers. Yesterday we had the piano tuner come, but unfortuantely it didn't take long before he broke strings due to their brittleness, despite only trying to change the pitch halfway. He found other damage as well, so we are now awaiting an estimate of the work required to return it to good condition. He did say though that it is solid oak (not veneer) and is from the late 1800s. Too bad it hadn't been tuned regularly.  Summer is passing us by so quickly! A couple of weeks ago, Addie went to Vulcan for a photography class for school, leaving the boys in Darren's hands. They all did great, as expected. Since she was there for photography, it wouldn't do to not share some pictures... so for all the Star Trek fans out there... click here. Darren here: Addie even offered to buy me something from the gift shop, but I decided that could wait till i eventually visit Vulcan for myself. And it will happen someday...maybe I need to set up a road trip with other Star Trek fans. But only if they promise NOT to dress up...that's just scary. Shortly after returning, we packed up to go camping. We went to Ol' MacDonald's Resort for 4 nights, but ended up staying for only 3 as the weather was making a turn for the worse. And a good thing we left early as the wind and rain would not have been fun for us in the little old tent trailer that we use. Having already dealt with one rain day, we packed up and left within an hour of checking the weather forecast. We are now considering an upgrade to a different model of tent trailer for next summer or the one after. Darren here: I had a short conversation with the office people at Ol' MacDonald's when we left. Their forecast had nothing about ad weather in it, but the dark clouds and increasing winds still helped us decide to leave early. The next day, Ol' MacDonald's was on the 6:00 news, due to the major wind & rain storm that hit them. (This would be the same storm system that had us driving 60 down Hwy 11 on our way back to Red Deer.) The storm was bad enough that at least one camper was damaged by a falling tree, and the Ol' MacDonald people moved a bunch of less sheltered people into every available cabin they had. Jeremiah has some big news to share. He's now taking a few steps here and there, mostly from one parent to the other. Won't be long now until he's chasing after Sebastian around the house. I predict Sebastian will love this, as his little brother will finally be a fully playable model!!! Happy Birthdays 29/06/2010
It's birthday time at our house! Jeremiah turned one last week and at the same time started to climb on everything and is now developing a great personality. Sebastian turns three tomorrow and is still learning how to control his leaky tear ducts. That's something that he and I will be working on this summer. We had a joint birthday party for the boys on the weekend and here are some pictures of the festivities. A special thank you goes out to my friend Leslie who made a dairy and egg free dragon cake so Jeremiah could enjoy it. Darren here, for the first time. The combo party was a good time by all. Sebastian really loved his new "playground" aka the bouncer. (Or castle as Owen called it.) Jeremiah did an awesome job with his cake and cie cream...in his mouth, on his face, in his h                                We also had professional pictures of the boys done for their birthdays. Here they are.                                            Where has the time gone?? 07/06/2010
I keep trying to get Darren on here, then you'd all have something new to read, but he hasn't taken the plunge yet. Life has been super hectic here since I've gone back to work. I started back May 3rd at a new school and am already looking forward to summer break so I can spend more time with my kids. The time away makes me appreciate the time I have even more. I think we've gotten Jeremiah's allergies all sorted out. He isn't randomly puking any more and we've even switched him over to a lactose free formula. The next step there will be to try lactose free milk. We are also trying one by one the foods that the naturopath said he was allergic to in the hopes that he won't react. We've already tried eggs, and they didn't react too badly, so we're just going to avoid plain eggs, but if they're in something (like birthday cake) then we aren't going to worry about it. Poor Jeremiah was pretty sick at the beginning of May. He contracted rotovirus and was very sick for a week with that, then got another stomach bug the following week. And then he got all snotty, but that could have been allergies acting up. It's hard to know really. But now he's been healthy for about 3 weeks and it's such a nice treat! Sebastian is doing quite well, but really wants to have more time at home some days. He protests going to his day home in the mornings, but it can't be too bad because he rarely cries about it (and he really knows how to turn on the waterworks). He's starting to try new foods more and more. He even tried a breakfast sausage one day! Darren is really busy at work these days, but is managing by working late some days, going in early others and working some weekends. I am busy as ever, more so because the Red Deer Highland Games are a few weeks away and I'm in charge of putting together the printed program. I expect to be extremely busy with that by mid-week so am taking the opportunity now to catch up on other projects. I've been busy with digital scrapbooking and finally sent my Korea album to the printers. It hass 66 pages of photos and stories from my time living there. It was shipped today so I hope to have it in my hands by week's end. Well, that's about all I can remember right now. Please feel free to nag when you need an update. :-) A Weekend in Calgary 09/05/2010
We went to Calgary this weekend to see the zoo and to spend A Day Out With Thomas. We went with our good friends, Leslie and Greg, and their two kids, Kailyn and Gabriel. Here are some pictures.                                         Allergies 01/05/2010
I took Jeremiah to a naturopath this week for some allergy testing. I'm trying to be an open-minded sceptic about the whole process... I sat on the table and held Jeremiah on my lap. I held one arm out to the side while the naturopath held a vial of allergen to Jeremiah's tummy. The nautropath pushed down on my arm and sensed, somehow, whether or not Jeremiah was allergic to whatever was in the vial. A bit of voodoo witchcraft, maybe?? Anyway, we came out of there just over an hour later with no blood or tears and a long list of allergens.
So...we're going to give it a try for a month or so and if all of his symptoms clear up, then I guess it wasn't so much witchcraft after all. I'm really hoping it works... Walking?? Soon! 26/04/2010
I thought I'd try Jeremiah at the walker today for the first time...not too bad! He's only 10 months so there's a chance he'll walk before his birthday... |  About Us
Addie and Darren met as classmates in university. After being good friends for many years, they got together in 2001 and married in 2003. Their elder son, Sebastian, was born in June 2007 and their younger son, Jeremiah in June 2009. ArchivesApril 2012 CategoriesAll |
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