We Survived Moving Week... Ok, Almost

Judging by the last post I have a lot of information to catch people up on! Things seem to happen fast around here.

Well, we have moved to Wetaskiwin. God provided a nice little 3-bedroom duplex that is a step up from our last place. We have a little more space and are enjoying the feeling of being in a proper house rather than a glorified camper! We are on a nice, quiet street with a small park across the road, we even have sidewalks!

As many of you know, Robert's company paid for us to move, so we were able to enjoy the "luxury" of getting people to pack and move us. This was really a lifesaver for me stress wise as I was babysitting until the Friday before we moved. There were things we needed to get done before hand, but they were minor, like putting stuff away and taking all the stuff off the walls.

The Sunday before we moved I drove the kids to my moms place in Lloydminster, then drove back on Monday morning. Monday I was definitely in freak out mode due to the fact that we were moving in two days and nothing was packed at all... I have moved a lot in my life and not packing my stuff just didn't feel natural.

Tuesday the packing crew showed up at 10:30 in the morning (I had been ready to go since 7!) and I had the uncomfortable job of standing around and being in the way. I found stuff to do around town for a couple of hours,and the packers were done by 3:30! It was crazy that a job that would have taken me two weeks took four people a handful of hours. they packed everything, too. They would have packed my purse if i hadn't stopped them. I told them not to pack one of the phones, but everything got packed. I had a sweater that I put down for a minute and when I came back...it was packed. I had a bag packed for the night, fortunately, and I had put it in the van that morning so it was safe.

ATB had agreed to put us up in a hotel for the night in between our stuff being packed and our stuff being moved, and they also paid for our supper, so rob had booked a jacuzzi room at the local hotel and then took me to the Keg for supper. It was definitely the twilight zone of moving experiences, but I wasn't complaining. We were well fed and relaxed, and it was sooo nice.

Wednesday was moving day, and Rob was at the house waiting for the moving crew before 8. We were ready to go, but they just didn't show! Finally at 10:30 or so I called the moving company to find out the deal, and they informed me that the crew was on it's way, but that they were only picking up our stuff today, we were going to have to wait overnight to get our things delivered. This was the first time we had heard of such plans, and it was definitely annoying. Robert only had a few days off and this set us back a full day, not to mention that we had only packed one change of clothes. We tried to make the best of it and got some cleaning done at the Rimbey place after they cleared out all our stuff, but we hadn't asked for two days in a hotel, so we stayed at the Hutchy hotel that night.

Thursday Rob wasn't in as much of a hurry to get to the house but he still waited at least an hour for the truck to arrive. I spent the day in Rimbey cleaning and packing up the things that were left there, and Rob did an amazing job of setting up the kids room and the play room.

Friday we both went back to Rimbey in the morning to finish everything up, and then rushed back to Wetaskiwin to meet the kids when my parents dropped them off. The kids were definitely happy to see their stuff had all made it, even though the rest of the house was absolutely all boxes. Emma was feeling a little sick and you could tell, she was quite subdued, but she had some antibiotics that she was on so I was hoping she would feel better soon.

Saturday morning we were working hard at unpacking and making sense of the walls of boxes everywhere- starting to see the drawbacks of having someone pack for us. We couldn't find anything and we had to unpack everything to find anything. There were kitchen boxes in the basement, boxes marked one thing but containing something else, and everything inside the boxes was wrapped liberally in paper so you can't tell what's there until it's unwrapped. Needless to say we fed the kids leftover pizza for breakfast...and lunch, and we slowly but surely tried to make sense of the contents of the boxes.

Saturday afternoon was Victoria's birthday party and a welcome break from work and it was awesome to enjoy the sun and fresh air! We had a great time, except when Lizzie got a pretty bad wasp bite. She got over it, though.

Sunday we mostly spent all day unpacking, but ran out of the leftover pizza so we had to go out for lunch. We asked the girls what they wanted at the restaurant and they all said "Pizza!" but we wouldn't let them, crazy kids! By evening I had the kitchen mostly set up so I went and got groceries and made supper, much better! We get so sick of eating out when we move.

This morning I had planned on working more on the house but when we got up I had two problems. Emma was still feeling sick and now had a bad toothache and a big swollen cheek! She had actually been complaining of a toothache for a few days, but it was the weekend and Advil seemed to handle it fine. The other problem was Lizzie's wasp bite, which had naturally been swollen afterwards, was now swollen to the point of looking like a bad sprain (the bite is on her ankle) there was bruising starting from being so incredibly swollen, and red marks spreading up her leg. So I spent the morning calling the dentist, taking Lizzie to the doctor, and filling prescriptions for lots of antibiotics. Emma has an infection in a tooth she had filled earlier this year, and the doctor said Lizzie's bite had somehow turned septic (I didn't mention to him the mud we slathered on it, or the lake water we washed the mud off with, or the sand that got all over it after that... oops!) Nothing a little antibiotics wont fix!

So we survived our move, almost, we are now mostly settled, at least the important stuff has been located. We are only missing our phone chords, so we are still using cell phones for the time being. We love our new place and we are enjoying being in a city again.

What I Do Know

Well, we are moving. I do know that for sure.

Robert has been transferred to Leduc, where he will begin on-the-job training for the position of Account Manager. His first day at his new job is July 16, so we are going to be moving, most likely this summer! We are not sure when we will be moving yet, as we do not have a house to move into yet, and we havn't quite decided which city it is that we will actually be living in,Wetaskiwin or Leduc,...

I am very excited about this move, as it is about 1 1/2 years overdue. When we moved into this old stinky trailer almost 2 years ago it was "just until we can move somewhere better". We epected that would take a few months, not 24. We have been living here in our crowded space as the place literally fell apart around us, praying that it wouldn't actually fall down as we could not afford to move anywhere else. We have been through unexplained power surges that made the lights flicker and fried our computer, infestations of mice, ants, and beetles, leaks due to rain or snow melting that are too many to count, some leaks coming through light fixtures and electrical things that seemed pretty dangerous. We survived. The end is in sight, Praise God!

God really has been faithful to us, too. When Rob got posted at this job in Rimbey, we were living in Wetaskiwin and going to church in Leduc. We were both sad to leave our church as we really liked it and felt at home there, but we were definitely willing to go wherever God would send us. We thought "if God wants us at this church, mabye when Rob is done his tenure he'll get a job in Leduc-that would be perfect!" in fact, we prayed for this, at the same time knowing the chances of a job opening up in that branch at the right time were very slim.

So slim, in fact, that we pretty much forgot the idea once we got here. Especially after Robert learned that jumping from a CSM in a branch the size of Rimbey to a CSM in a branch the size of Leduc was nearly impossible. When Robert's tenure was up, as many of you know, he applied everywhere. Any job that he was qualified for within the range of cenrtal Alberta and Edmonton area he applied for. And one after another, they turned him down. He was actually getting pretty desperate when Leduc posted the CSM job. Probably why he applied, since he knew he was'nt really qualified for it. God knew he was supposed to be in Leduc,though, so the Manager at Leduc offered him another job- one that wasn't even open yet- that Robert hadn't applied for. We remembered what we had thought when we moved here, and we remembered that God still has his hand on our lives, He still has a plan.

So praise God! We are moving! No, we don't have a place to live yet, but we do know that God probably has that figured out, since he arranged the job thing so well! We would still appreciate your prayers, though, as transitions are always stressful. Moving is a lot of work, and I am hoping to get my dayhome running as soon as possible after the move.

So that's all I know...we will try to post again as soon as we have any new info!

Enjoy It

I received some disturbing news this morning. Our homeschool facilitator died of a massive heartattack yesterday morning.

He wasn't much older then Mom or Dad. He and his wife lived around the corner from us and we would always see them taking walks every night including the -30 nights. His wife was Emma's teacher in kindergarten. Cam was the first person that has died in Rimbey (and trust me, they drop like flies out here) that we actually knew, and it's been a little hard to grasp. He wasn't old, he was in good shape...I just saw him on Friday as I was taking Liz to school.

What does this mean to us? Life can end in an instant, nobody knows when it will all end. Enjoy life while you can, don't worry about all the stupid details, they don't matter. What does matter? The basics, our heavenly father, family.....spend time with them and you won't regret anything.



God Bless you on your way home Cam.

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. - Aristotle

Waiting is hard. I'm part of the instant gratification generation. Waiting on confirmation on a new position is excruciating. We've been waiting for what seems months, even though it's only been about 3 weeks. The reason its taking so long is an entire mixed up saga. I was offered the an Account Manager A (AM-A) position in Leduc, only problem was there was already an AM-A in Leduc. But he was going to be moving onto the Account Manager B (AM-B) also in Leduc. Only problem there was already an AM-B in Leduc. (You confused yet?) ANYWAY, the AM-B has now moved onto a different position and the AM-A has moved to the Am-B position. Leaving me for the AM-A position. The position is now posted as all positions must be. The posting will come down on Friday or Monday when the negotiations with my manager and the my new manager will begin. When can I go to Leduc? Marg (my manager here) will want to keep me as long as she can until she can get a replacement, I'm sure my new manager (Troy) will be anxious to get me started, I would anticipate a move to the new branch in July. Meaning we'll be moving to Weaskiwin/Leduc in August probably.

On top of all this we have had to keep this a secret from Lana's parents that she babysits for and her boss on the slight chance that this doesn't happen. She will also have to set up shop as soon as she can when we move as we need her income on top of mine.

Anyway, I know I rambled alot there, but that's what's going on with the job. I'll let you all know when I know more for sure. =)

Sophia's Song

Sophia is usually singing as she wanders around the house, as she plays, as she reads, even sitting on the potty! Lately she has been singing a song we hadn't heard before,repeating it over and over;

"I believe in God, I believe in God, I believe inGod, and the Truth!"

"Did you hear my song, mommy?" she asked me, "Jesus gave it to me."

I agreed with her, Jesus probably did give it to her, but how great is it that little girls take time to listen to Jesus!?!

Elizabeth is Popular

Today I was driving Elizabeth to school. I walked past the van and she asked where I was going. I said that we were taking the car. She was so excited and said, "I'm going to be popular today. I have my hair pretty, lipstick on and I'm driving in a red car".

Where does she come up with these?

A Raise for Me

I got a raise....yah!

Every beginning of the year, which in ATB is April 1 reviews are done and recommendations for raises are made. Last year I recieved a modest cost of living increase mostly because I was still training on the job. This year my manager recommended me for a larger increase. And I got word yesterday that I got a 10% raise in pay. To clarify with some of you, that will be on top of what I will recieve when I go to Leduc.

To celebrate we all went out to Tony Roma's for supper and had a great time.

Don't Forget Blogger

I know that we're as bad as the rest of you, but we shouldn't neglect Blogger as a result of Facebook. Blogging differs from facebook and is better at relaying what has been on our minds as of late. So get on here and write something profound.

Like has anyone tried out "igoogle" as their homepage? I just started using it earlier this week. It's great. You can customize it with 'gadgets' to have what you want on it. Lana and I have our calendar, quotes, comics, weather, news and a bunch of other things. Check it out. http://www.google.com/ig

Emma's Haircut

Well, I finally have a computer. Last week we went out to Best Buy and picked up a great computer with a new falt screen. I never realized how bad the last screen we had was until we got this one. WOW! What a difference, I think that it has better resolution then our TV does. I'm getting my hard drive from my last computer installed in the new one so that I'll still have everything.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. Emma got her hair cut a couple weeks ago. She said that she was tried of having longer hair, and when Soph got her hair cut she was convinced that she wanted her hair cute too. Actually this is just an excuse to put this new cute picture of Emma up.

Computer Gone

This is just a quick note, while I'm at work. We don't have computer access for the next few days as our comptuer has finally completly quit. We won't be able to post anything anywhere until we get a new computer. Hopefully this weekend, but we'll see.

Rob's New Car

Well, after some refinancing of loans that we had we were able to get enough money to buy a 'new' car. With my new financing in hand I was able to start looking for a used car. In true nerd Rob fashion I developed a database to help with the decision making giving every aspect of the car a different point value.

I found a bunch of cars that were in my price range and were appealing to Lana and me. So we went up to Edmonton to check the best one out, a 93 Jetta with 110,000km. We saw it and took it for a drive and realized it was horrible. Really not taken care of at all.

So we kept looking. We had left the girls at Mom and Dad's while we were looking for a car. When we went on the Saturday to pick them up Mom told us that her cousin, Beth was selling their Jetta, so she called them up and got the particulars, 105,000KM a '99 and it was in our price range. Only problem was that it was a stick shift and as you all know I had never really driven one before. At any rate Lana and I went out to look at it. We were very impressed with it. Well maintained, very tight when we rode in it, and it was owned by someone we quazi knew. So we decided on that one and bought it.

And yes I had to learn to drive it. So when I went to pick it up I got Aunty Mel to meet me and give me a quick lesson. I had some problem to begin with but I've been doing a good job since. I'm still not totally comfortable but it's getting better all the time. I drove Emma in it and she said it was a cool car, but that it started slow.....I still haven't mastered taking off fast. Anyway hopefully this will cut down on the K's we were putting on the van because it's a lease we do have a cap on that. Ever since the Cavalier went down we've been putting too many K's on the van. Plus I figure the car is twice as good on gas as the van, so that's another plus. I'm really happy with it!

A Lack of Emma on this Page

There was a serious lack of Emma pictures on here lately so here are a few.....

I Just Had to Show Off.....

I just had to show off. This is a drawing that Elizabeth did this afternoon. She copied the eagle from a book, NOT traced just looked at it and drew it. The eagle is taking a mouse from the girl. The mouse was the girls pet. The other animals in the picture are the girls other pets.

She just keeps getting better at her drawing.

Spiderman

We were watching TV and an ad for Spiderman 3 came on. Emma was talking about how cool it was and Elizabeth said, "Ya know, Spiderman is just a man in a silly costume."

Lana and I couldn't stop laughing.

I Know Why We Are Having This Bad Weather......

I was talking with a friend of mine and he told me why we are having this bad weather. It's all because of a certain former Vice-President, Al Gore. He is speaking in Calgary this weekend. Apparently wherever he shows up to speak has unseasonly cold weather. Coincidence? Or act of God?

A Hockey Joke

By Elizabeth

What does Messier look like?
An "A" with scribbles on it!

Sophia's Birthday

Sophia is turning 4 on Easter Sunday!
We are having a party for her on Saturday, April 7th, at our house. Anyone who would like to come, or is able to come, may arrive at 3:00pm and stay for cake and pizza. I have been inviting people, but if I have forgotten you or you have forgotten the particulars, this is your reminder!

Lana's Update

I have been sick for so long. I'm really getting sick of it.
Two weeks ago my jaw started to hurt, so I went out and bought a mouth guard to wear at night; I have a history of clenching my teeth wile I sleep. Unfortunately, the pain kept getting worse- I struggled through work the next day, with the help of my friend, Tylenol. Friday, I woke up barely able to swallow, and after work I went in to the hospital, I couldn't eat at all. The pain was astounding.
The hospital in Rimbey is not very good, so I had to persuade and convince the doctor there to give me some antibiotics-I knew that I had and infection in one of my wisdom teeth and the dentist cannot do anything until the infection is cleared up. At this point Tylenol 3 was not even touching the pain, so I felt I had the right to be a little pushy...
The penicillin she gave me did not work. Not even a little, but doubling up Tylenol 3 and Advil did let me get some sleep. The pain was incapacitating, so I was pretty out of it all of that weekend. I did not eat at all and slept, waking up every four hours when my pain killers wore off and taking some more. Sunday afternoon Rob woke me up and forced me to phone dentists, because work was starting again the next day and I wouldn't be able to cope. No dentists could fit me in, not even the 7-day-a-week walk-in place in Edmonton. So I called all my clients and told them not to bring their kids on Monday.
Monday morning I wrangled my way into a dentist appointment though clenched teeth- I literally could not move my jaw at all. I did not know if the dentist would even be able to help, but we packed up the kids and drove in to Red Deer. The dentist was quite concerned for me, he prescribed a very strong antibiotic and antibiotic mouthwash, and told me to drink lots of meal-replacement shakes. Evidently, not eating had made it worse because my body did not have the energy to fight. I felt dumb- I really should have thought of meal-replacements because I used them for extra calories all the time when I was pregnant. Oh, well, I think its a fact of life that when you go to the dentist you must feel guilty or ashamed of something when you leave.
Everything the dentist gave me worked, and I booked surgery to have my wisdom teeth removed in may during my time off. I am very excited about this, I have needed this surgery for at least 7 years and never felt I could do it. It is costing us $500 with insurance, it would be close to $1800 without insurance so we are very glad for that. It is very hard for me to justify spending money like that on myself, but I think I finally see how ridiculous it is that I put it off so long.
So anyway, last week I was working and recovering at the same time, and Robert was doing a lot more cooking and housework than usual. He really is a wonderful man, I was reminded of haw much he loves me and really cares about my feelings. He really tried to make me happy everyday, and make me feel that it was okay to rest because he had things under control. The kids were very worried about me, they don't like it when I am sick at all, so we have been finding them sleeping in our room in the mornings.
Working wile recovering (it took 4 days for the pain to subside) wore me out, and unfortunately one of the girls came on Tuesday with a cold, so I got it , and I really needed the weekend to rest. Murphy's law ruled, however, I had a childcare-worker conference in Red Deer this past weekend that I was required to be at. I was hoping that , even though I felt miserable, I would be able to gain some valuable information.
Alas, Saturday afternoon found me shaking with chills though a two-and-a-half-hour class on "focus"- which turned out to be a lady preaching the feel-good doctrine of Oprah. Unimpressed, I took Oprah's advice and stayed home the next day to have "me time".
This week has been rough as well, I am still fighting that cold. It is spring break this week , though, which gives me a bit of a lighter load. I am trying my best to help my immune system fight back and get better, even as I fantasize about taking a day off*.
Tonight Emma is having an exciting night, her karate class is having a mini tournament and Emma will get to perform her Kata (imaginary battle) in front of judges. She is very excited and nervous about this.
Robert had an exciting day yesterday when he was able to spend the day job-shadowing the project manager for central region. The project manager is a job that Robert aspires to, and he found the day both exciting and daunting. It is good, because it gives him a direction to aim for a few years down the road, as well as giving him a chance to meet people on the upper levels and get his face out there.
I especially liked the part where he dressed up in a suit and tie and looked sexy!
These are the events of our lives for the last few weeks, I am sure Robert will have more things to add as he saw things from a different (and drug-free) perspective.

*As any mother knows, a true day-off is only attainable when you can drive far away and check yourself into a hotel where your kids can't find you and do not know your phone number.

God Needed a Rest?

Every once and awhile I think of weird things. Not Mike Warnke "What happens if you nail jello to a wall" weird, but weird non the less.

I was thinking about the days of the week, and we were talking with the girls about why Sunday was called Sunday. Lana said it was because God created the Sun on Sunday, the first day of the week, and then he created the moon and the stars on Tuesday.

I was thinking, how incredibly detailed is our universe that it took God 6 FULL days to create the world, then he needed a break. He's GOD! He can do anything instantly. But he could only do one set of creations at a time. Was there a reason for that? Or was it just really hard and he actaully needed the rest? And if it was that hard for GOD to create then how much of creation have we not discovered or just can not understand?

Just something that I think about.

The Nose Bues

I experienced a motherhood first today, and it's a funny one so I'm gonna tell everyone about it! Sophie would be so mad if she knew I was telling, but lucky for me she can't read.
The kids were all at the kitchen table having craft time, coloring and glueing bits of paper on bigger bits of paper. During this time, Sophia wanders from the table with a distressed look on her face and her finger up her nose. She is acting very strangely about her nose, so I ask her if she is ok or if she has a nose bleed or something. No! she says and urgently pionts up her nose. I still am not getting it, and Sophie is forced to admit, "my crayon is up there!". The crayon must be lodged pretty far up there, because i could not see anything,and I should have been worried ar even mildy concerned, but I was just so completely hilarious. All I could do was laugh and think of Homer Simpson, wich made Sophia really mad and she started yelling at me that it wasn't funny and I shouldn't laugh. I tried to control my laughter as well as I could(which wasn't very well), and was able to convince Sophia to blow it out as I held her other nostril closed(she didn't wnt to because she was mad at me) and soon a little blue crayon flew out, and her nose started bleeding. All was better, except that the kids had all gathered and since I had been laughing so much, they thought it would be fun to stick crayons up their noses, too. I guess I deserved that!