The hearts of the children will turn to their fathers

This summer we attended the Grant and Ellen Paxman family reunion out at my grand parents farm. Grandpa died in 1996 after a long and painful battle with skin cancer. He was 72yrs old. Too young in my opinion to be taken from us. My children have never know their great grandfather, not in this life at least. I've told them stories before, especially when we visit the farm. But this summer I really wanted them to get to know the man of my childhood. The Grandpa as I remember him. So I searched my mom and dad's photos to find pictures that would help me tell the story, to give them a face to go with my memories. Before heading to the farm, we stopped at the cemetery in Glenwood, Alberta; where grandpa is buried. We pulled out a blanket and sat in the hot sun and told them my stories, hoping that they could learn to know him and love him like I did.

Today, Kathryn came home with this stuck to her shirt. It made me tear up, in fact every time I look at it I begin to cry again. She never met him, never knew him here on the earth, and yet she runs for him. I may have succeeded in my task.

There is life.

I'm sitting here grinning and afraid to move. I've noticed the past couple of days that I can feel the baby moving. Right now, baby is doing a bit of a dance. I've always loved that feeling. What a joy to feel that precious life I carry inside. Now it is starting to feel like this is really happening and making the long hard summer of ickiness and headaches all worth it. I think I'll just sit here and enjoy the feeling of movement until it stops, the wedding dress I'm supposed to be working on will just have to wait.

A perfect day for a party

For her birthday this year, Kathryn requested that we do a family picnic at Writing On Stone. So we invited all the aunts and uncles and cousins to join us for a party in the park on Saturday. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! It was +28C and not a breath of wind! Hello folks, this is southern Alberta we are talking about...not even a breath of wind? Unheard of. And seriously folks, it's the 22 of SEPTEMBER.

The Birthday Girl. What? She's 10?

The Birthday Cake

I had to steal this from my dad's FB because my camera was acting up.

 There wasn't a thing to complain about. It did get a little hot hopping around in the Hoodoos but that didn't stop the kids.

 To combat the heat, we headed down to the river and played at the beach, who needs swimsuits? Not us.

I stole this from my sil's blog, because I was lame and didn't get a pic of the cousins altogether.

 We played and played until the sun started to go down.

 It was indeed the perfect day.

Fits of Fury

So, the boy was super tired at supper time tonight. He hadn't had a nap today because we were all to busy playing in water outside. I figured we better take advantage of this fabulously summery afternoon just in case it is the last. 

The cool new hang out on top of the shed

However with out his nap, he had become a monster and wouldn't eat his supper. So when he and I had finally had enough, I washed him up, all the while he screamed "NOOOOO" at me. Once I had him all washed up, I put him in his pajama's while he continued to scream "NNNNNOOOOOOOO". I put him in his bed and he hit me and told me to "GO AWAY". So I kissed him and told him I loved him, he insisted I "GO AWAY". I asked if we should sing lullabies, He said "NO SUNBEAMS, GO AWAY". So I kissed him once more and told him good night and went to the door. He threw himself down on his bed and cried "Sunbeams please" in a less screaming voice. He hugged his blanket and cried while I sang him "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam". He cried a little bit less. I said "Night Night sleep tight" and through his tears he said "night night, love you too", to which I answered "I love you too" and shut the door. He cried for a little while longer, but has already stopped crying in just the time it has taken me to type this post and I am sure he is already asleep. Even in his fury, he demanded his bed time routine. I love that boy.

rambling thoughts

I had, a moment ago, a bunch of thoughts bumping around it my brain that I was going to attempt to but into a post. But just as I loaded up this page to start typing, my two oldest girls came stomping up the stairs yelling at each other about spilled books. Suddenly all previous thoughts have fled my brain and I am left with nothing to write about...I guess that solves one of my problems. I was trying to think of something fun to do on this fabulously summer day, but something that wouldn't require too much energy on my part, because I am feeling oh so tired today. But if the kids are going to fight, then I'll just put them to work and I'll go back to bed.

Back to School, HOORAY!

 August 29th was a glorious day!

Kathryn is off to grade 5. She'll be the big kid in the school and get to do all that big kid stuff and be a team leader.

Tansley is off to grade 2. She is super excited to be in Mrs Schmit's class and to learn more math.

Kymberly is off to Kindergarten. She is excited to walk to school and home again with her sisters and for show and tell day.

It's hard to cry while jogging.

This morning was race day. The day my girls and I had been training for since April. Three times a week we'd brave the elements and get up at 6am to go for a run. Most mornings the girls were the ones dragging me out of bed.

It was a fairly big group this year with quite a few kids. When the timer said "GO" we were off. You should have seen those kids go. It was good to for my girls to have some other speedy kids to keep pace with instead of their slow mom. I was so thrilled to see Kathryn coming back so far ahead of the pack out on her own. I knew she was taking first place for her age group. I was done in with emotion as I watched Tansley pass me by, knowing that she was running faster than she had the whole time we had been training. I gasped for air as I tried to keep back the tears and keep my pace. They were both so far ahead of me that I couldn't even see them finish. I was so glad that my parents were able to make it out to watch us race so that they'd have someone cheering just for them when they crossed that finish line. I picked up pace for the last three blocks, but I didn't feel like I had much more to give. As I came within a block of  the finish line I could here my Kymberly chanting "You can do it mom! Go Mom!" Once again I was overcome by emotion. Crying is not helpful when one is trying to finish a race strong. But finish I did, slower than last year, but I'm not dead from the effort. That alone is an accomplishment.

Our finishing times

Kathryn 30:30 - First in the girls 10 and under
Tansley 37:10 - Second in the girls 10 and under
Me 41:31 - I got a participation ribbon for the women's 30-37 group.

Last years times can be found here.