Fresh coat of snow

As I let the dogs out this morning I found yet another fresh coat of snow.  We are at that time of year where the snow is melting and it gets dirty and ugly looking so it is so pretty when we get a fresh coat of snow.  For some reason all of the sudden I heard in my head "that is what God does for you".  Hmmmm...as I thought about it, what a great word picture.  Now I have always understood this concept but what a great reminder on a regular basis.  We are born, sinless and white as snow and then that snow melts and we sin and we become dirty and "ugly".  Then we ask God to be our Savior and he makes us white as snow again however we are still human so we continue to sin and that snow melts and we look "dirty" again.  Then we pray and confess and the cycle starts all over.  Again, not a new concept, not a hard concept but a concept we have to be reminded of on a regular basis.

Have a great Sunday and enjoy your personal fresh coat of snow.

Life as we know it

Well, Tiana has switched schools.  I think that it is going well.  A little difficult of course because she doesn't know as many people at St. Johns.  But I think she likes not being in the stressful situation that she was.  She does have a uniform.  For winter it is basically beige or black pants and then a white, green or black shirt.  She looks very cute and smart in the uniform.  She starts school even later now.  Tabitha starts at 8:00 and Tiana starts at 9.  Tabitha gets out at 2:10 and Tiana gets out at 3.  I am praying that Tiana will settle in and find some good friends and activities at this school.

We had a bit of a heatwave yesterday.  It got up to 10C (50) which is very warm for this time of year.  It was amazing to see how fast things melted.  The girls and I drove in the driveway and I look over and exclaimed "ground...look you can see the ground".  We laughed but it was the first time we had seen the ground under the snow in about 2 months.  By last night it was kind of ugly and wet and mushy everywhere.  I saw two motorcycles on the highway so I think everyone has a bit of spring fever.  This morning however there is a fresh coat of snow all over and it is snowing lightly right now.  About half an hour ago we had a blizzard for about 20 minutes.

This weekend is a long weekend...it is a statutory holiday called Family Day.  Neat huh?  The only problem is that it is a provincial holiday and Wil works in Quebec so he doesn't get Ontario holidays.  One of many differences between provinces.  It is something very intriguing to me.  Although there are differences between states they aren't drastic due to the Federal guidelines.  Not so in Canada.  All the provinces are VERY different from taxes to immunizations to holiday.

Whats coming up for us? 

Well we are anxiously waiting Wil's posting notice which should be cut around 1 March.  We are assuming at this point it will have him posted to BC around April 29 which means he will be leaving here to drive to BC around the 23rd of April.   Driving?  Yes, he has decided to drive for several reasons one of which is that it will give him access to his car when he is not out to sea.  In the meantime Wil is trying to tie up loose ends and get as much done as he can before he leaves.

We are excited to know that my mom will be coming to visit the end of May.  It will be her first visit so we are excited to show her Ottawa.  We are making a list of things we think she might want to do just so we can give her some options.  It will be spring in full bloom so it should be very pretty.  I am trying to figure out how to show her downtown Ottawa without driving down there.  A friend told me to look into a bus tour and that sounds like fun. 

We have a family reunion coming the beginning of July.  We just found out that Prince William and Kate will be here for Canada day so I am kind of bummed that we will not be here but I don't think I have the guts of steel that Wil has to drive downtown for Canada Day anyways.  We went last year and it was crazy.  So the reunion is in Ohio so I will have a long drive again this year but I think we are going to stop at Niagara Fall and Cedar Point on the way so that will break it up again.  Then Tiana will fly to Colorado Springs with my mom to spend a month.

I am hoping that I will fly back to the Springs the end of July to bring Tiana back one time so that she will be ready to fly by herself next year.  I won't be home long but it will be a wonderful visit if I can swing it.

I am still in the process of cleaning out cupboards and shelves.  I have made a huge dent but it actually looks like more of a mess now.  I will just keep plugging away.

How am I doing?  Well ok.  I went to the doctor the other day for my annual physical.  She thinks that my lower leg is probably just a typical crush injury.  The weight of the motorcycle probably damaged the leg and therefore when I stress it, the circulatory system doesn't work quite right and it can't push the fluids through like it should.  She is going to do an ultrasound to check to make sure there are no clots and such but it sounds like I will just have to deal with it.  She recommended some runners socks that may help so I will try to get them and see if it helps keep the swelling down which will keep the pain down.  She will also do thorough blood work so it will be interesting how that turns out.  I don't wish for anything to be wrong but I would like to have an explanation for the weight gain and such.  I am afraid that the answer will just be stress.  Hind sight is 20/20 but I think that I was in denial about the amount of stress I was under during the last several years and my body paid for the "strength/weakness" of my mind.  I am working on that. 

I was doing devotions the other day and it was about not worrying about your life.  God tells us not to worry.  I know that but then what the devotions said...if you are worrying you are disobeying God.  WOW, I hadn't thought about it that way.  I am a worrier, I am from a family of worriers but that really puts it in perspective.  So I have gotten really good at those odd prayers of thanksgiving so now I will add to it prayers to help me stop worrying about stuff that I have no control over.  That will be a huge task but I am a work in progress and I am glad that God hasn't given up on me even when I give up on myself.

That is all I can think of right now...more later...I love you all!

A cardinal in our cedars....so pretty....scared off by the blue jays before I could get a close up!



Don't you just hate hind sight?

I am writing this to ask for prayer for Tiana.  By the end of this week...Tiana will be switching schools.  I don't want to go into details (if you want them..email me) but the school that Tiana and Tabitha have been going to is just not working out for Tiana.  So she will be switching to St. Johns Catholic High School.  I am very proud of her because she realizes that this is the best choice for her but it is hard for her to leave her friends in the middle of the school year.  So I will have one Redhawk and one Spartan.  Yes I said Spartan.  If you know me..this is funny.  My dad was a Spartan at MSU and I was a Spartan in High School.  We are a family of Spartans or maybe we should just say we are a family of fighters.  No, Tabitha will not be switching at this time.  She seems to be doing well at the current school and we don't want to disrupt that until if and when it is necessary.  Tiana is a bag of mixed emotions right now.  She is excited to get to the new school and make friends but she is nervous about being the new girl again and sad about leaving some friends.  She does know some kids at the new school but I am praying for her to find a couple more really good friends.  She has one close friend that she is leaving at her current school and I am hoping they will continue to be good friends.  From what I understand this friend will be switching schools in the fall so that will be nice.  Please pray for a good circle of friends and an easy and successful switch.

So, as anyone who has moved knows, you make the best decisions possible for you and your family and then you look back and say...hmmm if I would have know that then I would have done it differently.  Well, that is what we are doing right now.  As all of you parents can relate, it is so hard to make a decision that you really think is best and then have it turn out to be not so good.  Then to watch how it affects your children can be so painful but the hope is that the resulting decision turns out really well. 

We watched the Superbowl on Sunday.  We made a bunch of munchies and one of Tiana's friends over and we sat down to watch the game and the commercials.  About 10 minutes into the 1st quarter, I made the comment to Wil..."where are all the cool new commercials?"  That is when I found out that the Canadian stations don't carry the cool US commercials.  We were watching it on Fox but the commercials were replaced with Canadian commercials.  We saw one new commercial.  So I guess 3 million dollars only gets you 30 seconds of US exposure.  Well, I guess the good thing is that I got the whole kitchen cleaned up on commercials so when the game was over, I went to bed.

That is all for now..there is much more but I am not in the mood to articulate it all.  Talk to you soon.

Our visit to "The Largest Skating Rink in the World"

On our way out!

YAY!  We did it!

Well, we got to do something this week that I thought was very fun.  Ottawa is home to largest skating rink in the world.  Basically there is a canal through the city that the boats use to go from here to there and in the winter for about 2 months, the maintain it as a skating rink.  So we decided to head out and check it out.  So we geared up and headed out.  It was a pretty chilly day...I know when we headed out it was about -19 C and it wasn't getting much warmer.  There was 7.0 km open and we were going to try to go as far as we could.  Now remember...none of us are super skaters but we have had some practice so why not.  So we headed out.  It was a gorgeous day and we really didn't feel the cold much and it was amazing how fast the km passed buy.  We stopped at about 6 km and had some lunch and that was when we got cold...when we stopped.  We only had a bit more to go so we headed out.  Well, Tiana and I made it about 6.5 km and then we were just way to cold so we decided to head back.  Wil and Tabitha went on to the end.  Well the way back was much slower because the wind was coming at us and so it was much colder and may I say that we were a little tired.  But we did it!  We took our skates off and ended with a beavertail and decided we will have to go back again.  We went during the week so it was really quiet and nice, but there is a lot of stuff that happens on weekends so we want to go back during the weekend some time.  If you want more info...check out their website.   It really is fascinating how it came to be and how they maintain it.    http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/bins/ncc_web_content_page.asp?cid=16297-16299-10080&bhcp=1&lang=1

Note the frozen mustache

The girls had finals this week and so they only had to go to school on the days they had tests so they have been out most of the week.  Today was the first day of second semester and then they are out tomorrow.  That is one reason we decided to go now..but I am also trying to cram some things in before Wil leaves.

What else.....I am sorting through all the cabinets and cupboards and shelves and bins and wow...that takes forever.  I thought I would be done by now but just going through my scrapbooking stuff took one whole day.  I feel like I am making a bigger mess though at this point so hopefully soon it will look like I am making progress. 

I am frantically searching my brain now..trying to figure out what I need Wil to do before he leaves.  Things pop up like...oh man..I haven't driven the snow blower yet...shoot...what if our server goes down.  Or thoughts like...I wonder if I can avoid driving in Ottawa for the entire time he is gone...lol.  Oh well, I have done the single parent thing so I will figure it out.  It is just a lot more intimidating without that circle of people that you know you can call if something happens that you can't handle (like a mouse crushed in the garage door) or things you mess up (like electrocuting yourself checking an outlet).  I know it will be fine but I have to run through it in my head...that is who I am.  As soon as we have a departure date, I will let you know and the countdown will begin.

How is Simba...poor thing is just struggling to be a normal cat.  He is still really gimpy and limps alot but seems to be having some days that are better than others.  I thought he was getting better but then yesterday..he had a bad day.  The vet still wants us to be patient which is hard.  He is such a wonderful cat and it is hard to watch him in pain.  He is so loving and loves to be petted but has a hard time getting comfortable so that makes it hard.  We will keep encouraging him and spoiling him.

You can pray for Tiana.  We got news this weekend that her dad was in a skiing accident in Colorado.  He was flown from Salida to Colorado Springs due to his injuries and was in the hospital for a couple days.  He has some fractured ribs and a broken clavicle and is recovering from a punctured lung.  He was going to go to his moms for a while but this will keep him out of work for awhile which is a hardship for anyone.  This is Tiana's first experience with having something happen so far away from her.  I think she is handling it fine but prayers would be appreciated.

We did get hit by the snow yesterday.  We probably got 5 inches or so.  It was very windy and the snow just blowed and blowed all day.  Tiana went out the front door this morning and the snow in the yard is up to her knees.  It is very pretty.  I have to say that what I have found is that the cold here isn't as hard as in Colorado because you get used to it.  I really think that the variety in Colorado is nice but it is harder to adjust to the cold.  Here when it is -19 all the time...when it is 0 you are sweating and taking off your coat.  Just a matter of perspective.

I think that is it for now.  Love you all.  I hope this finds you all safe, sound and warm!