Procrastinator? Who, me?

Well, my announcement that I was back was clearly premature. But as always, when I have a million other things to do, I come back to blogging. This week coming up is so busy so of course I'm taking ten minutes to update my sorely neglected blog.

We are all happy to see the holiday season approaching...not just because we love Christmas but because it means 2015 is finally going away. It's been a roller coaster of a year and we are hoping that 2016 might mean some stability. We're heading into the end of two years of upheaval and while Alex and I will appreciate a more settled life, Miss J needs it in the worst possible way! Little C is quite content with her situation but she doesn't remember anything except our current life.

We've been on a crazy ride of gentle climbs with great views of the future that all of a sudden fall into steep drops that leave your stomach hanging somewhere at the top. But as Alex said to me the other day, good things are coming. And he was right. Less than 24 hours later we got some great news and it just kept coming.

This week I have two term papers and two finals and then I'm starting the Christmas baking and decorating and celebrating with my kids. And maybe I'll start blogging again (although I may have lost my readers!)...we are just starting year two of a huge life change and it is pretty amazing, even with all the ups and downs!

Back to the books!

New Beginnings

Once upon a time, there was a blog here and it was about more than just postcards.

But then life happened and blogging became something that stayed at the bottom of the to do list.

In August, Alex and I did something we'd been talking about for years. We packed up our stuff and sent it away to storage. We loaded our kids and a few things into a UHaul, the back of our car and my mom and dad's station wagon and we moved to Kelowna. With no jobs, no daycare and a place in French Immersion for Miss J.

It was a bit scary and a lot exciting and somewhat nerve wracking but we did it.

And now, almost six months later, we're feeling quite settled and there might just be time for some blogging as we create new memories in a new city. I'm making no promises but I think I'm back!

Backyard Scavenger Hunt

82. Choose a month from the 26 things photography scavenger hunt archive and do the scavenger hunt

When we were in Kelowna at Thanksgiving, J and I decided to do another photo scavenger hunt. The first one we did was just the alphabet, but this time we chose the one from September 2004.

frame

glass

arrow

numbers

small

open

fruit

wheel

plastic

cover

natural

Saturday

multi-coloured

home

shadow

sticky

clean

foot

sport (she’s demonstrating how to dribble and block at the same time…)

round

group

man made

half

path

full

the end

Birthday Cake with Lemon Curd

37.2 Try 34 new recipes

While we were in Kelowna at Spring Break it was my mom’s birthday and J really wanted to make her a cake. So she did. Sort of…she decorated it with sprinkles, but it worked out perfectly. J wanted to make a lemon cake, so we went all out and made lemon cake with lemon icing and lemon curd.

The curd was amazing…you can see it seeping out here and unfortunately that’s the only picture I got of it, but it was soooooooooo good. I used Ina Garten’s recipe and I will be using it again…

We were a bit pressed for time…if I were to do this again, I’d spoon the curd on just before serving, so it could run down the sides. I would just ice the top layer of the cake (maybe the sides of the top layer, I haven’t decied)…although…it was even more delicious the second day when some of the curd had soaked into the cake.

My mom’s second birthday cake was a success!! Yum!

Five whole years?!

Today this little lady turned 5.

She has grown from a teeny, tiny, cuddly baby into a long-limbed, always-moving, fiercely independent ball of energy with a "special" camera smile.

She loves reading, art, cars (especially Mercedes and anything with both a roof rack and a rear windshield wiper), Cars, [literally] smothering her sister with love, dresses, and dirt. It's hard to believe it has been five years since our lives changed forever and it's hard to remember what life was like before her! Happy Birthday Miss J!

Her daycare does a special birthday walk around the “sun” for the kids. They hold a little globe and walk around a candle once for each year of their life. They bring in a picture for each age to show the other children. Except for the very first picture, these are the pictures J picked this year. J chose her going home from the hospital picture as her “zero” picture.

When she turned 1, she received a ball and it was one of the first gifts she opened. This is J, wondering where the ball went when it was briefly hidden in hope that she would open some of her other gifts.

By the time she was 2, J had perfected her camera smile.

When she was three, she had a birthday in Kelowna (see that camera smile?!?!).

When she was four, she spent a few weeks with my mom and dad and helped them harvest their apricots.

And just last week, J demonstrated that she doesn’t have her mom’s fear of heights as she climbed to the top of the spider web in Mission Creek Park in Kelowna (hmmm…we seem to spend a lot of time in Kelowna!)

Happy Birthday to my little lady!

Blissful summer fun

Last night was watering night at my parents’ house…J was bored after dinner and the next thing we knew, she was in the sprinkler.

It wouldn’t be a sprinkler party if you didn’t soak your head (and of course your clothes!)

Tonight J was prepared. She went and put her bathing suit on after dinner and had a blast.

I love this one and couldn’t decide if I liked it better that the previous one or not, so there are two…

While it was warm today – the low 20s probably – it was really windy and the wind was cold, but judging by the look on her face, it didn’t faze J!

And now we’ve made the leap into summer!

Bonus? She was asleep within minutes of being tucked in tonight.

Why we need a yard

I could come up with a million reason why I want a yard and so could J – somewhere to play outside without having to get all sorted out and walk four or five blocks, a place to make mud, a place to plant fruit and veggies and flowers, a green space right outside our door to enjoy coffee in the spring and summer mornings…I could go on and on. (Can you guess which things J wants to do??)

At the end of our little trip to Victoria, J and I caught a plane from Victoria to Kelowna for a family thing and Alex, who had to work, drove home to Vancouver. J and I stayed for a few days and she was a big helper for my mom and dad.



She discovered my mom had two rakes, so that she could have one (HA!) and she spent the entire afternoon outside with my mom raking the yard.



She wasn’t too impressed on our last morning there though. It had been windy the night before and all her hard work raking was gone – the trees had dropped even more leaves!
And now, she has one more reason why we need a yard – she needs to rake!

Touring the family nursery

J and I have been in Kelowna for almost a week - we came up specifically for a family reunion. Our family business is 100 this year and we had a party to celebrate. My great-grandfather started the business and our family has grown from him and his brother to a five-generation super-family! My great-grandparents are the first generation. They had four kids. Their four kids gave them 20 grandchildren. Those 20 grandchildren produced 44 great-grandchildren (that's my generation) and my generation is just getting started, but there are 13 great-great-grandchildren.

So our little celebration was kind of not so little. There are lots of pictures in this post and I've broken it into two parts...

We started our day of celebration with a tour of the nursery part of the family business. It's the original part and the reason we're celebrating...

Apparently we all passed the first test - we didn't pose any biological threat to the trees so they let us in to play for a few hours.

We started our tour by this truck, loaded and ready to go. It had something like 94 trees that weighed 750lbs each.

The whole gang, ready to go...

We got to go on a little hayride around the property. This particular trailer is for the over 50 and under 5 crowd (because it has a canopy) but parents and helpers of the under five crowd were invited too. I was happy. It was hot.

Less than 15 minutes after we arrived my kid was already covered in muck. It was super dusty and I'm sure it was sticking to the sun screen. And she's almost three.

J was thrilled to have a chance to "drive" the tractor. We all know how much she loves machines!

J and P found a peach tree so my Auntie Jenny helped them pick peaches.

Very happy with the fruits of their labour...ugh...I should steer clear of puns. The peaches were so good though. We all had an impromptu snack in the middle of the tour.

This tree, creatively named the big tree, is important to the family.

It's where my great-grandfather (founder of the nursery) and my great-grandmother's ashes are scattered.

After walking through the life of a tree from seed to plug to big tree (I think this one is six years old) we got to see the tree spade at work.

There is a spectacular view from the nursery, although I miss the old bridge...

My dad, my mom, Kelsey, me (no Rebecca...boo. Alex and J were off somewhere doing something...eating peaches maybe?)

J loved this truck and wanted to be with the trees lots. Behind her you can see the super powerful sprinkler. It pumps water at some huge per second rate...not a sprinkler you'd probably want to play in!

The next generation - my mom and her four sister who are the current owner/operators of the business.

After the tour, everyone went home to wash the dust off before a super fun evening. But that's for another post!