Nathan's Post - Mr. Mom

So on Saturday, Tracey took a flight to Manitoba to stay with her Grandpa for a few days. Back here in Okotoks, one of her uncles just passed away from cancer. Tracey and I were talking on our way to Red Deer on Friday night about the fact that Tracey's Grandma (her aunt's mother) was not going to be able to make it to the funeral as the grandpa has not been in very good health the last few years, and would not be able to make the trip. Grandpa needs 24 hour care, and Grandma provides it. We agreed that the aunt would probably appreciate it more if her mother was there than if Tracey was, so we decided to call up Grandma and have Tracey offer to look after Grandpa for a few days so that Grandma could come to the funeral. So Saturday morning it was all arranged, and Saturday night, on our way back from Red Deer (where we had a short visit with my parents) we dropped Tracey and Katelynn off at the airport. The kids have been great while Tracey has been gone. What has helped out is that Grandma Linda bought them a Wii. In general Tracey (more than I) don't like our kids to have video games, but I think that Linda appreciated what we were doing for her Mom and Dad, and decided to go and get the kids the present. Only bad part was that it only came with one controller. So I got on Kijiji and got a couple of used ones with nunchuks for $50 (new they would have been about $80 each for a controller with a nunchuk). The kids like it a little too much, hopefully the novelty wears off soon. But they are good at doing their chores and other jobs I give them before playing. I hope no injuries happen this time either (last time Emma got nailed in the head and got a cut over the eye by an overaggressive tennis forehand from Laurel). Right now we have one of Tracey's cousins, her husband, and 3 children staying the night. I don't know a lot of Tracey's family that well, but these ones seem good enough.

Summer is here!

The past week has been pretty fun. We had Laurel and Will's last day of school, Laurel received the "you can count on me" award (with a number of other kids in each grade) in her awards ceremony, we were very happy for her. Then on Wednesday was William's seventh birthday! We had a party at the gymnastics center here in town, we all had fun at that one, jumping on the tramps, swinging on the ropes, jumping in the foam pit (or for Nathan...throwing kids in the foam pit) it was great! Then today for Canada day we went to the church celebration in calgary, it was chilly but still a good time. Now we are tired and the house is a mess!

Nathan's Post - Rattlesnake

I took the priest's quorum to Writing on Stone provincial park for a quick camping trip this week. I had never been there, and was surprised at how nice the area is. The young men and I ran around and on the hoodoo formations in the park all evening. I had to stop myself from doing some the climbing and jumping that they were doing, as the last time I did a similar risky activity with the young men I tore my MCL. As we were walking back to our campsite at about 9:30 pm, one of the park workers was on the road and asked us if we wanted to see a rattlesnake. As we approached him, coiled up on the road was what he described as a good size rattler, about 7 years old (it had 8 rattles, but they can shed their skin more than once during a year when they are younger). It was smaller than I expected, but still has about 5 feet long. He used a rake to annoy the rattler into moving. I have to admit when the rattler took a strike position with its rattle going my heart started beating a little faster. Two of the young men took a big step backwards at that point as well. Eventually the rattler slithered off into the grass, shaking its rattle as it went. Two of the young men who are attending priests quorum are moving on this summer as they have graduated. I'll miss having Colton around the quorum. He was a good example to the other young men, and a very steadying influence on them as well. After some late campfire talking we finally got to sleep around 1:30 in the morning, only to be waken up at around 7 a.m. by some strong winds and weather that looked like it might dump a lot of water on us. Myself and a couple of the young men saw the advantages of pulling ourselves out of bed and breaking our respective camps early, as taking down tents and packing up in the rain is not pleasant. All in all a good camp, and we had one of our less active quorum members attend. Hopefully I will see more of him in the coming weeks.

busyness

This week is another busy one as Nathan is away for most of it and the kids are finishing their activities. Will and Emma have been doing swimming lessons and gymnastics, and the three oldest have been doing soccer in high river. All of these end this week! Yeah! I'm watching some other kids on various days, Emma is going to the dentist today and Laurel is starting a paper route today as well. That should be interesting as she has no sense of direction, she cannot orient herself anywhere, even somewhere familiar, so I'm sending my cell phone and the dog with her. Well best get started ...

We finally did it. Bought the biiiigg van! I never thought I cared what I drove, but I loved my suburban and was sad to see it go but the kids and Nathan really like the van, I'm getting used to it. I guess part of the mental block towards the van is that I thought, "man those are not nice or cool lookin vehicles" and I always have referred to them as huterite vans. So I guess it is peotic justice that this van of ours was previously a mennonite school bus! Whatever, we have more elbow room and its really hard to hear the kids when they are all the way in the back....win,win.

Today I decided to pull out the exersaucer for Katelynn, she just turned four months yesterday and is still a happy smiley baby. She seemed a little unsure at first but warmed up to it as soon as the other kids stopped tipping it and spinning her around in it! We love our Katie!

A day in the life...

Right now my twins and katelynn are sleeping! That doesn't usually happen, especially when the other three are at school. So I thought I would write about a day in my life right now, so when I look back in twenty years I can laugh and be grateful for my hopefully less busy life.

Yesterday I woke up at 6:30 to feed Kate. I got her back to sleep and went downstairs to say goodmorning to the rest of the kids who had all mostly just finished breakfast. I then went outside in the backyard to clean up the toys and pull out the hose to fertilize the lawn with liquid fertilizer. After the back and the front were done, Laurel headed off to school (she takes the bus), and I went upstairs and changed into my running gear. I put a movie on downstairs for the kids and I ran 5 miles on the treadmill (took 42 mins), then I had a shower and got ready for the day. After eating a bowl of cereal I fed Kate again (who had just woken up) then went outside with Will, Emma, Michael, Allison, and Kate, to blow bubbles and ride bikes around the close. We came in around 1 for a late lunch of grilled cheese and watermelon. Then the kids played outside in the yard after I put Kate back to bed, and I picked up toys, laundry and movies in the basement, then dusted,vacuumed and cleaned the bathrooms downstairs and on the main floor. Laurel came home as I was finishing (3:45 pm) and I talked with her and helped the kids get a snack. Kate then woke up again and I fed her while reading scriptures and managing the kids who were starting to get into everything. Nathan came home about 5 mintues to five and I took Emma and Will to swimming lessons. Nathan made supper (it was great) and ate with everyone at home. Emma and Will and I ate at 6:30 when we got home. Alli was already sleeping on the couch so she got put in bed for the night, Nathan read scriptures with the kids, and then went to print some pictures for one of the young men in the ward. Finally all the kids were in bed by 8:30 (later than usual) and I went to the store to get some milk...again. Most days bed time for the kids then myself is my favorite part of the day, its like I have reached the finish line for the day.