This week has been pretty uneventful, Josie's parents left so it is back to full on chores and duties. When the kids went to bed last night bed the urge for us to both go out was still there. A trip to the zoo, some friends over to the house and a bunch of bike rides were really the most adventurous things that happened. WE just finished pancakes for breakfast, and it was quite peaceful until Will would not stop touching me with sticky hands. I said I would sit beside Madeleine if he did not stop and of course he put them right on my nose. That was the end of peace at breakfast. Wailing and whining ensued and it came close to a cool down in his room, but luckily he got distracted by some sunglasses on the table. Madeleine started baby talking and more madness erupted. Time outs and most other ideas seem to have little affect on this. This may be another battle that must be abandoned and chalked up to normal unstoppable kid behavior. She says "I am just playing with MeeMoo not baby talking". This compounds things as this pet name is the most irritating.
Time to go play I have been up and down from this about seven times already and I think Josie is getting frustrated. She has decided to start to pack some boxes. Where is this, where is that. Will bring that back. Madeleine stop sassing. Cee Cee take that out of your mouth. Now Mad and Will are fighting. Oh what fun.

the cute baby

Here is Cecelia, or is she Cecilia. I can't spell my own kids name half the time. Anyway we love her very much and rarely call her Cecilia. She gets Peachy, Peaches, Peach, CeeCee, CeeBerryBee, and MeeMoo. This last one we give time outs for as both Josie and I find it very irritating. This will probably be her permanent handle as hard as we try to rid the vocabulary of it. She is just so cute and she is also very smart and funny. I hope I don't give her a complex about her name.
jh

Madeleine turns Five

As I seem to say every time, we have been busy. Madeleine turned Five, Mother's Day passed and there was a trip to Stars On Ice. I really did not do much for mother's day as I am a jerk, if you see my mom tell her I phoned. I did get tickets for Josie to take her Mom and for her kids to take her to see figure skating. William rejected the idea at first as he did not want to see figure skating but wanted to watch hockey. These were his words, no gendered influence from anyone about males not liking figure skating. He bought into the idea as going to a show and taking his Mommy out. Relating this to us moving, as I will probably do with most ideas or things discussed, we will miss the Inglewood ice. We are half a block away form three outdoor surfaces and we skated at least 60 times. Will got to be quite proficient and Madeleine was unbelievable and inspired. As far as I know there are no outdoor rinks in Revelstoke, but the Forum is quite a bit easier to access for public skating. Hopefully we don't miss much in skating this winter.
Madeleine turned five Saturday. She wanted to go to the carousel market, which is a local mall that happens to have a carousel. She loves this and always wants to go, but not being mall people she never gets to go. Well we had lunch out at Joey Tomato's and it was a good time for all us. Madeleine is obsessed with being a big girl and this suited her perfectly. Then we ventured into the mall. It was nuts, albeit a Saturday afternoon. The ride was fun then she had an ice cream, and was allowed to pick two books at Chapters. It was full full of people just sitting on the floor reading the books. It looked like a University library at crunch time for papers. I don't get it, there a billion beautiful places to go sit and read near by. Mommy made stir fry and chocolate cake at MB's request. We had some adult company and had fun. I guess we better have a kid party before we go as neither birthday had a wild mass of kids here. I will work on that.
Cecelia has four teeth through now so she is sleeping sounder and cuter than ever.
jh

Just trying to absorb the idea that we will be moving. A very daunting idea. I need to find a body to come help me move stuff as the kids will be of little use. Will can carry a box of cereal, Madeleine a jug of milk and CeeCee may be able to drag an empty bowl. If anyone reads this and wants to volunteer we can discuss airfare and transportation issues. I think we will send Josie and the kids out early pack a truck and drive, it could be fun. I am getting a beer. Tree hop head from Kelowna, good and hoppy I feel fresh and nicely preserved when I have some. Also try Wild Rose's IPA it is intense. Lets rediscover what this style should be, Keith's is fine but should drop the moniker, you need lots of hops to be IPA. I wonder if there are any genuine IPA available, it would probably disgusting and unmarketable. I like this style of beer.
Beer aside, we are going to rent for six months to a year running the trial, as Josie can keep her status with the Calgary board of education for a year. This way if we cannot afford to live in the mountains with three babes we can come back to the big city and pick up where we left off. I feel pretty confident in our plan and feel good about jobs. Today, I looked and saw some of interest, but don't have a resume. I am lazy in this regard but will shake it soon. I intend to be employed before I get there.
Good day here winter is back again, it is just miserable. We did crafts, read books and wrestled. I have become labelled by Josie and the kids as the craft guy. Lisa even got Will a book of cool animal crafts for his birthday. I was instructed later that it was really for me to play with the kids. I like crafts. They are fun, interactive, creative and a time eater. It does sometimes go wrong, where I do all of the work. It is incredibly hard not to get very frustrated at this or when the craft is to complicated for them. Then I get mad, but this only happens, lets say two per cent of the time. I really can't wait for them to get bigger and we can build more elaborate and crazy things, I guess we are training for later. We will see, hopefully in Revelstoke we have lots of time for making things like bike ramps and play structures and dog houses etc..
jh

Sold

I have just returned from work. The message light was blinking on the phone and the message was from Scott and the house is sold. Now the fun begins. I just put out the recycling. Walking through and past all the work done in that yard I saw the reality that we will leave this great place behind. I do feel sentiment for it but I will recreate the good parts, hopefully with the Columbia river as an edge to it and certainly with a veiw of glaciers,trees and mountains. Oddly enough most of the cedar on this Calgary house probably came from that valley so we will keep the connection. Bring on the insanity.
jh

I don't know what I didbut the post did not go up plus no picture was included. Here it is, the trip to the dump/ He is actually playing this daily. Will picks up all the toys nearby, puts them on the couch and pretends to go to the dump. I recall going to the dump near Langton with Bernie, and it was a highlight. I guess kids like the dump

Back to work tonight, we had some fun on nights I was off. We had a small Wii night for the kids an Wednesday, the Ironwood and Thursday and some hockey Friday.
Wednesday we tired out the kids with the new Wii games they got for birthdays and then visited our neighbours. They moved out the next morning so we took some wine and glasses over for a visit. Very interesting chatter about the neighbourhood we are both leaving. We will miss them as their three year old is a great play friend, as are Josie and the Mom. The dads are too busy. Thursday night out at the Ironwood to see Tom Phillips and Matt Masters as the Calgary Cowboys. Lots of fun some great cowboy songs and a great new location for the bar. If anyone ever visits it is a must see. Mike B in particular, you would move to our neighbourhood just for this place and these players. Anyway no real parenting issues this week just boys day Friday me and Will hung around the neighbourhood, had v visit with Spike and lots of play. Friday night I got Josie's dad out of the House for a WHL championship game at the Saddledome. All is well with all the kids, they are just enjoying visiting and playing I have a good break with Josie's folks here.