Race Day

Yesterday, Hubby ran in the Navy 10k run.  It was his first race here in Halifax, and out of the 400 or so runners, he placed 89th!  Way to go Daddy!

Getting ready for the race!

The sun was shining wonderfully warm, there were snacks and juice for everyone.  And not just the timbits and cookies either.  There was yogurt, grapes, bananas, apples, oranges, granola bars, chocolate milk, apple and orange juice boxes, coffee and tea.  There was a kids race that was already finished by the time we got there.  It was lots of fun!

Lining up and getting ready!

Just before we told them not to climb

Two feet on the ground was the rule

The Boy was upset that we wouldn't let him climb the monuments

It was an experience, although not an altogether new one, that we found ourselves having different rules than the parents around us.  There were kids climbing all over the cannons and anchor that are on display.

But it was still fun.  There was a husband and wife who ran the 5k and they finished still holding hands. There was a mom, dad, and a double stroller that did the 10k.  It was a big family affair and I am looking forward to next year's.  Maybe I'll do the 5k!  In the last six months or so I've taken up running.  Not that far, only 3 days a week, but it's something to keep me a bit more active aside from chasing kids.  And I feel better for doing it.  When I went out on my birthday more than 2 months ago, I decided that I would like to do a race with Hubby next year.  I think this might be the one we'll do.  He'll do the 10 again, since 5k is a nice warm up for him, and I'll stick with the shorter distance.

Chickadee in our birdfeeder

Woodpecker in one of the trees

Pictures from last weekend

Getting ready to go on the Harbour Hopper

Waiting at the ferry terminal

The Harbour Hopper going back on land

HMCS Sackville

Basking in the sunshine

HMCS Shawinigan

Harbour Hopper.  "Ribbit, ribbit"

Watching Theodore Too

Watching the water on the ferry

Walking towards the ferry terminal

Sunny day

She has a carrot!

the first week

Well, the move is complete.  Our little/big family is now settled into a beautiful home in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.  Where a foghorn can be heard and Seahawk helicopters fly overhead occasionally.  We have a much bigger space than the one we left in Spruce Grove, AB.  There are four bedrooms, hard floors, 2 3/4 bathrooms.  And an absolutely massive back yard!  We've been keeping the windows open alot and I just LOVE hearing the birds singing.  They go at it all the time.  Yesterday I sat on the deck in the sun, coffee cup in hand, the boys and the Girl playing catch on the grass, Girl2 being busy at my feet, and just sat and listened.  Soaked in some sunshine.

There is so much natural light, lots of windows.  It's a pretty quiet street too, as far as traffic goes.  There are a bunch of kids, though, both across the street and up a bit.  And pretty close in age with ours, so that is very nice.  It helps that these children get along with almost anyone!

We have had a couple of road bumps in the transition so far.  Everyone has shorter tempers, whining and poor diet from when we lived in a hotel for the week before our furniture arrived.  But the flight was uneventful, all on time and no incidents from the kids.

It's very neat seeing the fog coming off of the harbour.  We can't see it from the house, but driving up to and across the bridges, seeing white and then the tops of the bridge, the water disappeared until you get closer.  The shear size of the ships!  The kids and I drove to the Shearwater MFRC (Military Family Resource Centre) and saw an empty container ship making it's way into the harbour.  Very awesome!

The time difference has been a bit of an adjustment.  We are getting used to new sleeping patterns in our bigger space.  Today is the first day that Girl2 hasn't cried whenever I put her down!  I think the crying was because she isn't used to the bigger floor space.

It doesn't get as cold at night, so it doesn't take long to warm up during the day.  Last night as I was tidying up after the kids were down for the night, I noticed that it was getting darker earlier.  A lower latitude will do that.

But the kids are missing their friends already too.  They have written some letters that I have to send off.  And we will likely write more.  Trying to figure out Skype scheduling too, so we can chat with relatives and friends.  All in all, it's been a great first week.  I'm pretty excited to get to know some of these people through the MFRC and colleagues of Hubby's.  There are a bunch of resources in place for support for me while Hubby is away in St Jean for BMOQ (Basic Military Officer Qualifications) and then in Borden for the Chaplain training school.  He is enjoying his first few days, learning the lingo, getting kitted out, planning a baptism already.  As always, jumping in with both feet :)

Big News

There will be pictures in a couple of days.  Right now, I have some big family news to share.  Hubby has been recruited into the Canadian Forces as a chaplain.  He has accepted a commission into the Navy, reporting to Halifax for the beginning of August.  This means that, yes we will be leaving our home here in Spruce Grove and moving 2/3 across the country to the Atlantic coast.

It won't likely be an easy time.  Our prayers go to the people of St Matthew's as they seek new leadership.  There are some good friends we will be leaving, people like family.  We will be leaving actual family as well, moving somewhere neither of us has been before.  Seeing a part of the country we've always wanted to go to but figured it would be eventually.

The kids are pretty excited.  They get to ride an airplane, meet new people, see the ocean.  They now have told us that they want a chance to live all over Canada.  This is good, since Hubby and I have always talked about exposing the kids to as much of the country as possible.  It is more important to us that we give them a broad experience of life.  I can't imagine having our children grow up with only one area to gauge the world.

Things can't really move forward, though, until some things fall into place.  The National Church Council has to formally endorse Hubby for Special Ministry, he needs to be sworn in, then we can settle things like moving details, where we'll be living.  As it stands, our last Sunday here will be July 21st.  Hubby's first day on Base will be August 5th.  We will celebrate the Boy's birthday before we leave since it isn't until the end of August and he would like to have his school friends from here come.

Busy, busy times.

Brief updates

It really has been much too long since I've updated this blog, and it's only been a month.  There are other ones that I look at that are much, much older but they don't seem to feel the need to update regularly....

Oh, well.  It has been a very busy month.  I know I promised pictures of our Star Wars museum trip and I will get around to it.  Just like there are a bunch of photos on my new phone that I want to put up here as well, but that will wait until I figure out how to do that.  Swimming lessons are done and just about to start up again.  They technically started this week but we were on a brief holiday to see some relatives that we didn't get to that one.  Easter has come and gone.  The kids got spoiled. 

Girl2 is crawling around, babbling, cooing, and trying to stand up.  She's wanting to move around the furniture but can't quite get the coordination down yet.  I had to move my two plants up and out of reach tonight so she couldn't get a handful of dirt for her mouth.  I can't forget to put up the baby gates when I put her down on the floor, since she's figured out how to go up a step or two.  But then she stops and turns around and falls to the ground.  It doesn't help when there are brothers further up the stairs, calling her and telling her that she can do it.  I'm all for siblings encouraging each other, but there may be a need for a limit to that at this point.

The Girl is toilet trained and loving it.  She'll let me brush her hair and put "pretties" in it more than before.  If I remind her that it is to keep food out of her hair it seems to make it more bearable.  She was telling me this morning that when she gets bigger she'll go to school and learn lots of things.  Like how to be Spiderman.  Really?  My daughter thinks the school will teach her how to walk on the ceiling?

Boy2 has turned 5 and lost his brave.  The nightmares have returned and so have temper tantrums.  He's quicker to show anger, but still quick with the hugs and kisses.  It likely doesn't help that he isn't sleeping as much.  Whether that is because of the time change where the sun is still up at bedtime, I don't know.  But he is also very affectionate.  With work, I think we can work it out.

The Boy is on to reading chapter books, and that is super exciting for me to see.  He will tell me about what he's reading too!  And he's told me that he would like to be an author and illustrator when he grows up.  I can remember wanting to do the same thing, so it makes me smile.  I am very glad he has a love of the written word! 

More news to follow, I'm going to bed soon. 

loaves and pie

Once again,we've been up again down again.  Between the flu coming through the house and colds, over-tiredness, and just regular life...  Well, looking at how long it's been since I last posted, it's enough to say that life flies by.

This week has been pretty fun though.  Pretty regular, but with a couple of twists.  There was no school on Friday (yesterday) so we took the kids to see the Star Wars Identities exhibit at the Telus Science Centre.  I will post some pictures later. 

This afternoon we went swimming at the Tri-Leisure here in town and stayed for nearly an hour and a half!  Girl2 had so much fun splashing and kicking, and the boys are both such strong swimmers now, we have to worry less and less about them.  The Boy is tall enough too, that he can go anywhere in that one pool. 

On the way to the Tri, this song came on the radio and the kids were all singing along with it.  I had a very proud mommy moment :)  I love it when the kids surprise me like that! 

Coming up to Boy2's birthday is getting exciting.  Planning activities, food, guests...  at first he wanted to invite all of his preschool friends as well as the kids he plays with when we go pick the Boy up from school.  Nope.  Too many kids.  So he decided to just have the kids from the playground.  Which works out nicely, since they all have siblings around the same age of at least one of our other kids.  The birthday itself is on a Tuesday, so we're going to have the party the following Saturday.  And he wants Angry Birds....  We'll see what we can come up with.

I think we have the choir at the church up and running for a little bit.  We're a little slow on getting started (mostly because the kids were sick and I couldn't make it), but we're trying to pull some pretty simple, but pretty pieces together for Easter.  Hard to believe that it is only two weeks till Palm Sunday and three until Easter Sunday.  Lent is just flying!

Yesterday I came across a neat recipe for Orange Chocolate Chip Zucchini bread.  Had to try it, and it's nearly gone already!  The kids just LOVE it!  I made it up at supper time yesterday, they had it with breakfast, some for snack this morning, snack tonight, two loaves, just about gone.  I also made Flapper pie today.  A woman from Golden Spike who attends our weekly Bible study gave me her recipe.  I'd never done a flapper pie, but it was pretty easy, the Boy helped, and we'll be tasting it tomorrow.  Looks amazing, though.

Girl2 is fully crawling, has two teeth, and throws a fit if she's not eating what everyone else is eating.  She definitely has sass and personality to spare.  Like her big sister.  Big sister got a light sabre from the exhibit yesterday and she wields that thing like nothing on earth.

There is an episode of The Clone Wars where Anakin and Asokha rescue Jabba the Hutt's son, Rotta.  The Girl has been carrying a stuffed dog around in a back pack all yesterday afternoon and today, saying she was Asokha, the dog was Rotta, and Anakin (Boy2) had to come with her to return it to his Dad.  So CUTE!

crafts

And..... it turned out we all had strep throat!  The Girl started her antibiotics before we got the results back, since the Dr was pretty confident that she needed them.  So when I got the phone call back a couple of days later, I decided that we all should get tested just in case.  Good thing I did!  Girl2's ear looked pink, so they prescribed amoxicillin for her, then we hear back a few days later saying that the boys and I had a prescription to be filled as well!  Happily tomorrow is the day the boys and I finish our medicine and we can get back to normal.

But it's been fun.  I don't know what has caused it, but these kids have developed some serious cuteness and attitude!  I think it's because everyone is feeling better.  The Girl was "helping" me go through the baby's clothes, packing away the stuff that is too small and getting out the next size.  She had to try on EVERYTHING!  Bear in mind, these are things she wore as a baby and are now too small for her sister.  "But Momma, I like stripes!"  Oh, she is such a girlie!  But she is more or less toilet trained (very different than my experience with the boys!) and she is absolutely adorable!

When the Boy was home from school for teachers' convention, we did an awesome craft.  We made flowers out of egg cartons.  I cut out a flat and divided them between the three "biggers" as Hubby calls them, and let them go to town.

Even the baby wanted to get in on the action, but had to settle for sitting at eye height to watch.  She is such a smiley child!

But everyone had fun!  It is amazing to me how wonderful my children are.  I know I'm biased, but still.  The Boy is reading like crazy and doing wonderfully in school, Boy2 is learning to recognize letters and practicing forming them.  They both are doing well with swimming lessons, and the Girl really wants a turn at doing them too.  Girl2 rolls around on the floor and has started crawling a very little bit.  She goes a few inches, a foot if we're lucky, then she gets back on her belly and just rolls to where she wants to be.  And she finally has teeth!  There are two that were cut in the last week, both on the bottom in the middle, so I hope the others aren't far behind. She had a rough time cutting those ones!

We are into the season of Lent, so last week was Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.  We brought home so much extra bacon last Tuesday night I think I'll be off bacon for a while (blasphemy, I know!).  Not even sure if I want to make perogs at Easter.  But, unfortunately, the Lenten mid-week services are at 7:30 this year so we won't be attending many of them.  Just that much more past bedtime.