Halloween

Costumes 2017

Aaren didn't wear a costume to school.

Devin went to school as a lifeguard. He told me that Halloween kinda snuck up on him even tbough we went costume shopping 3 days before Halloween. So he dressed up in something he already had. It wasn't exactly shorts weather!

Evan went as Charlie Brown. He came up with the idea all on his own. After I told him that he couldn't go as a homeless person. After I told him he also couldn't go as a hitchhiker. 

Maren and her friends had a group costume. One of the mom's helped the girls make their costumes. They went as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

These three dwarfs are all in the same class. They stuck together during the costume parade. 

After school they went to a friends house. This is the group photos.

Eliza Smith, Emily Miller, Emily Shurtz, Bailey Salmon, Tessa Anderson, Kizzia Jensen, Hailey Romeril, Maren Hardy

Emily, Bailey, Tessa, Maren, Emily, Kizzia, Hailey, Eliza


Savanna went as a cowgirl. I made a pink princess sash for her and she took her hobby horse. She took my cowboy hat and we stuck a crown on the hat so she could be a rodeo princess but in the costume parade she had neither the hat, sash or horse. So I guess she was just a cowgirl. 

Cassandra went as Barbie- from Life in the Dreamhouse. She was super pleased with her costume. The hair style was spot on. 

Tysyn was Batman! It's a good thing the school didn't want masks or face coverings, because we couldn't find the face mask anyway. 

Rebekka was a witch. (She did have shoes when we left the house...)

The hat only lasted a few minutes. It was made of plastic and every little breeze blew it off her head. We stopped fighting the hat after the third time and left it at home. 

A better picture of Savanna's costume. 

Maybe one day we will go trick or treating where it is warm and long sleeves and warm clothes aren't needed. 

At 5:30pm, the kids and I attended the community trunk or treat at the Knight Street Church parking lot. I stayed at the van passing out treats and Cassandra helped the kids through the cars. We finished just before 6pm. It started spitting as we packed back into the van. Savanna desperately needed to go to the bathroom so we drove to the field to use the facility and see how long Devin would be. Because we were already over on the east side of town, I took the kids to the street that backs the new soccer fields. They began treating that block with me in the van and Cassandra walking with them. Maren was still with friends. While they were halfway on the block, Devin called for a ride home. Cassandra stayed with the kids and I went back to the field. 

After I picked up Devin from football practice, I told him that on our way home we were going to let the kids go to a few houses first. We would even go to the Aneca's and get a popcorn ball! Devin asked about trick or treating. I told him that if he was dressed up and it looked like he made an effort for a costume that it was totally fine to trick or treat. Besides, if he took Rebekka, it would be even more legit. So as I was driving, he proceeded to change in the van, from his football/ workout clothes to his lifeguard costume. I stopped at Aneca's and he got out with the kids. She gave him treats (Popcorn balls-Yum!!) and then he proceeded to carry Rebekka a lot of the way down the block!

Devin dressed as a lifeguard.

Note. This costume took a lot of sacrifice. It was so cold and even starting to rain. It was only about 4 degrees out. 
Devin carried Rebekka to a lot of the houses as we worked our way home. In shorts. Flip flops. Tank top. Sun visor. Lifeguard costume.... 

The most impressive part of the night was watching Devin serve both his little sister and a senior neighbour in our ward. We just pulled up to a house and Sister Madeline Gervais (widow from our ward) was getting groceries out of the trunk of her car. She obviously wasn't handing out candy. Instead of walking past this sweet lady, Devin stopped, sent Rebekka on ahead to the next house and asked if he could help carry her groceries. Watching from the van, I could sense her relief and that she was very grateful for Devin's offer to take the load from her. He carried the grocery case into her house and then came out. He then chatted briefly. (He was a little chatty for wearing shorts!) so....

I got out to go help Rebekka at the next house while he finished his visit. I motioned for him to drive the van to catch us. I'm sure Devin was grateful to hop in the warm van after his visit. (He was still in his swim suit!)

A few more houses/ blocks later and we pulled up into our driveway. Devin took himself and his stuff inside. I took Rebekka up and down the L of our street. The bigger kids beat us home. 

I cooked hotdogs before we left for the trunk or treat and they were kept warm in the instant pot. Those that were hungry ate supper (me) and those that couldn't stand to wait, started sorting candy (kids).

Evan wanted to go out longer, so he and I went down to the south culedesacs. Evan went out solo. I drove, he walked, in the rainy rain hefting a huge pillowcase of candy.

Seriously.

He would swing it down from his shoulder at each house and then heft it back up as he walked away. I wish I had a video!! He was very wet when we got back.

We finished at 8.

The littles were hurried off to bed.

Devin took the van to go hang out with friends.

It's been a good day. Busy as usual!

School pictures

The school pictures have all been taken. Some are better than others. I wish I could afford to buy pictures year after year. Sigh. 

(I love looking back at my school photos. And my kids won't have any to look at. Sigh again.)

Here are the kids' proofs

The elementary children each got a class picture.

Catch-up.

Each day lately seems to be pretty mundane in my life so I haven't felt like documenting the day to day activities. I've been working on some old blog posts about our summer holidays and trying to make entries about other significant events that have been missed in my journaling. I have a folder of incomplete drafts on my phone. I am trying to get them to the "completed" folder. The phrase "how long is this going to take" from a movie Devin really likes replays over and over for me. 

It seems like everything I do lately takes so much longer than it used to. Like 10 times longer. And that is because it really is 10x more to do. 10 times more dishes, laundry, cleaning someone's messes. When the kids are gone, I'm pretty sure I'll celebrate cleaning only 1 or 2 or 3 times the messes. Until then, I do what I can, when I can.

Brandon went out bird hunting with a friend. He came home with two different birds. They dressed them (or undressed them, hehe) and then we cooked it in the instant pot. When the birds were done, Brandon cut a breast off each bird to share with Nolan and then left the rest to whoever wanted it. It was like savage beasts at feeding time around the plate!

Savanna is getting extra reading help at school again this year. 

I sat beside her as she read out loud.

Also, Savanna has taken to wearing hair elastics as arm bracelets like Maren does. I've even seen Rebekka wear them a time or two.

Pumpkin fun

Rebekka loves play. All kinds. Messy, silly, and quiet.

Today at preschool, they had all things pumpkin for messy play.

Pumpkin playdough was great fun.

She worked diligently at painting a pumpkin.

And scooping and playing with pumpkin guts was squishy and slimy. Fun!!

Rebekka painted the pumpkin just above the table leg. After we left, the staff washed them off to be used again another day. 

Wake up for the family this morning was 8am. It's a busy Saturday for everyone!!

Brandon went to work. He did not want to go but he missed a lot of days (hours) this week because of weather. Mostly the wind. So grumbling much, he headed out the door.

Aaren had plans to help move a tree at Keelers. Cassandra has training. I ended up taking Cassandra in to training so Jeff could be in town. We dropped Aaren off on the way. He told me later that he dug a new hole for the tree to go into. He then dug around the tree so that it could be moved. It wasn't ever moved because he needed the tractor to come lift it out. (The tractor never came.) He is gonna be sore tomorrow!!

Nutratek recently purchased the old medical clinic on Church Ave., Raymond and will be renovating it for its new office building. They are also looking to change the name to Hardy Nutritionals. So this morning Jeff went to the new Hardy Nutritionals building to help with the demolition and take loads to the dump. He left at 9am and was busy all day. At noon he took Evan with him to help. Evan helped tear up flooring using a crow bar. He pried and swept and demolished and cleaned. He was a good worker. 

In the early afternoon, the kids and I delivered large ziploc bags of cherry tomatoes to family. Savanna and a Maren were excited to see Aunt Sheralee and Uncle Jared's new house. After the deliveries, Tysyn and Savanna got to work with Jeff. They loved helping and were so proud of their efforts.

4 Hardy boys below. None of them would stand still long enough so I could get a decent picture. Sheesh. 

Jeff, Lowyn, Dallin, Landon. 

Supper was a "whoever is home, come and eat!" affair. Then leaving Cassandra in charge, Maren, Evan and I went cleaning. Evan was so tired and it was hard for him to be throughly productive. He was explaining to Maren why he had to sit. "My back hurts, my arms hurt, my legs hurt, my hands and feet hurt. Yours would too if you worked for six hours like I did then had to come cleaning too." Evan had a super productive day. He told me he was excited to be working and keeps asking how much money he made today. I told him that I didn't know but that he did great. I smiled to myself when he said that he "did have to play for about an hour, so my back would stop hurting."

I told Evan while we were cleaning that it's a good thing tomorrow was the sabbath; a day of rest. He didn't have to do anything tomorrow and could even have a nap after church. I told him that he would probably be sore tomorrow. And more sore on Monday, the second day. We will see how he does. Evan had a fast shower after we got home and he fell asleep quickly. Definitely faster than usual.

Laundry whites are going in. I really hate it when items that need to be in the load (Sunday shirt) get missed because it only gets as far as the top of the washer, not in. B Boy!

Answered prayer

Last night while I was shopping in Lethbridge with Cassandra, Maren and Evan, Jeff messaged me saving he lost the hitch to the flat deck trailer. He was super annoyed and looked everywhere but couldn't find it. He needs that hitch to be able to pull the tractor and attachments on the trailer!!

Later when I got home, I posted on the Raymond and Area Discussions facebook page, hoping someone would be honest and seek its owner.

Before bed I said a fervent prayer that we might find it or somehow have it returned to us, so Jeff can do the things he needs to, with the trailer and tractor.

This morning I saw a post on the same discussions page saying that a trailer hitch was found. I was tagged in it. Sure enough, it was found just a few doors away from us.

I called the Ackroyd family and then Rebekka and I headed over with the key to claim it. The key for the lock did its job. It was ours. The hitch sleeve did suffer some minor damage as  it fell from the vehicle bumper. It's got some new use/abuse marks. 

I was so, so grateful that it was found.

I am so grateful for honest people who show kindness for others in all that they do.

It was heavy and expensive. It would have been a pain to replace.

As I was walking back, I was mindful of our Heavenly Fathers love and watchful care over us.

He answered mine - and Jeff's- prayers this day.

The afternoon at the Parent Link was busy. It's a little stressful for me to work in the afternoons knowing that everyone is out of school. Maren ended up at a friends house and spent the rest of the day with her and there, Cassandra went babysitting Alden, Aaren and Devin were at Show Choir and Evan stayed with me. That left the 3 littlest ones to be with Jeff.

Jeff was needed at the new Hardy Nutritionals building to do demolition. Heather E ended up with the kids at her house. They loved the play time with cousins. Thank you Heather!!

I picked up the children after I was done. They did not want to leave.

I picked up 3 banana boxes of tomatoes from Crawford's. 1 box was cherry tomatoes we will share with family tomorrow. The other two are regular tomatoes I will bottle.They will be a blessing to us.

RHS Comets played tonight. In the POURING rain. I watched the first half of the game at home on the YouTube channel and then dressed warmly to watch the second half at the field. I wore my winter pants and boots along with a hoodie, my down winter coat and rain jacket. I was pleasantly warm. The game was good. It would have been better to watch Devin play. 

This was the game that Devin was suspended from. He stayed on the sidelines in his raincoat helping teammates and watching the game. It's been a long week to contemplate things...

His coat was soaked on the outside when we got home. The comets won against CCHS.

After the game, Devin had a warm shower then took the van to the school dance.

I am trying to go to bed "early". It isn't working so well but my light is going out before 11:30pm!

Work

I hate the wipers!

The van wipers work great but they don't work.

How does that work???

Well, Jeff talked to our mechanic friend today and found out that the motors are not interchangeable because the switches on the steering column are different. So, the deal with the wipers turning on EVERY TIME the vehicle starts means that we (I) installed it wrong!

I took it all apart and changed motors and added new mechanisms. And when I had it put together, the mechanism arm popped off under the hood. Again!! So today for about the 6th or 100th time, I unhooked the wipers to fix the problem. Jeff was super frustrated with me because by now I couldn't remember which parts came off of where. After looking at the motor and mechanism, Jeff finally realized that the ball coupler wasn't pushed in far enough and that is why it came apart after I turned on the switch!

AND.... that was probably the VERY FIRST original problem with the new van. It just needed to be crimped together harder. Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOW we finally have a van with working windshield wipers.

(And now we are ready for rain and snow.)

Brandon came home at lunchtime today. It's just too, too windy to be working today. After lunch, Jeff and Brandon towed the black truck and grey van here. Brandon took some speakers off the van and wants to hook them up in the new van.

They also worked on getting the car's antifreeze line fixed. It's not going well.

Hopefully they can figure it out.

The wind has been gusting like crazy today. It was crazy to see how much dust was in the air. It reminded of of this summers wildfire skies. The news also has reported several fires today. Scary.

I went to the library this afternoon with Tysyn and Rebekka to return books. Inside the display case was a ukelele. Tysyn wanted to take a picture of it. I love those kids looking in the glass!

Rebekka had to come with me to work this morning because Jeff left early and then forgot he needed to be home to tend Rebekka. She played with the toys until Jeff picked her up. This is the block building she did. She was super excited to take a picture of it.

Wipers and elections. And a whole lot more.

Rebekka and I had a great time this morning at preschool. I love my little morning buddy.

After preschool, we picked up Tysyn and then stopped at the Merc for some lunch groceries. 

Cookies from the bakery is always a hit.

Meal delivery happened.

I love having the school kids home at lunch time. It's a nice reminder that it's time to stop and eat.

After lunch for myself, Jeff and the two youngest, I left to do errands with T and R. I also planned to remove the wiper motor from the other van.

Tysyn played on the old cell phone and Rebekka napped in the van while I worked. I struggled for quite awhile before Jeff arrived with the van key I forgot.

The nut cracker/WD40 took a long time to take affect. It took Jeff and I a lot of grunt work to get off the wiper arms. Denny even came to see if he could get it off. 

I left to go to a chiropractor appointment.

Jeff finally pulled the wiper arms off, then made quick work of getting the motor off the grey van.

My jaw was out and the chiropractic adjustment made it feel better.

Jeff got home before me. I got back as the school kids were getting home from school.

After taking Evan to Cubs (zip line in Stirling, fun), I got the tools out to start switching the wipers on the new van. It didn't take much to get the motor off with Jeff helping.

When Brandon arrived home from work the wiper change was nearly finished. We just had the adjustment of the arms. I stopped so Brandon and I could go vote. Jeff went to get ready to go to Lethbridge.

After casting my ballots and as we were leaving the voting station, Jeff pulled up to vote. He stopped before heading to Lethbridge with Cassandra for training. After I got back from the vote, I finished the wipers.

The van now has working windshield wipers!!! We are ready for rain and snow. 

A happy van. 

I voted!

The municipal election was for

1 mayor

6 town counsellors

2 school board trustees

Jeff and Cassandra left for training this morning. Meanwhile I stayed in bed even though I had great intentions to get up early and do some baking. 

I haven't been sleeping well and needed some extra rest.

Maren went to a birthday party this afternoon. I helped her work on her gift before she left. She made two gifts in a jar. Brownies and chocolate chip cookies. They turned out great. I love how Maren likes to give creative and thoughtful gifts. The party girls are going to the Lethbridge corn maze. Maren is looking forward to it. She stayed at Kizzia's house well into the evening before coming home. 

Devin had an early football game today. It was an exhibition game between Raymond and Okotoks.

The comets team had a really rough game. They did not play well. Devin had a very difficult game and halfway through the middle of the 3rd quarter, he was pulled off by the coach. The next thing we know, he was escorted off the field by the referee. He was sent to the locker room. I guess he was called for unnecessary roughness. (Or something like that...) Anyway, Devin was devastated. He has taken it really hard. He was out of the game and off the field for the rest of the game. The team continued to do poorly. They lost. After the game, I was waiting by the locker room for Devin to finish dressing. A friend said that the whole game, the other players were all over Devin and gave him several punches to the throat. Devin finally got so frustrated with the garbage that was dished to him that he couldn't take it anymore and retaliated. The other player should have been penalized too but Devin was the one that was noticed. Later at home I reminded Devin to go to the coach or the ref and ask them to watch for choppy behaviour if he is getting frustrated. He was disappointed in himself. He will be watching himself better from now on.

Unfortunately, he also won't be playing next week too. He is very bummed about it.

Friday

This afternoon at Afterschool Adventures, the kids went to the elementary school gym for free play. While the kids were playing with parachutes and beach balls, someone got a ball stuck up in the rafter beams. We tried making wind with the parachute to move the ball but that didn't help so we gave everyone permission to throw their shoes at the ball to try and get it down. They just had to watch for flying and falling shoes! I threw my own shoe and after several tosses, it flipped so perfectly that it landed right beside the ball, balancing perfectly across the beam. It was perched there; stuck!! Noooo. The kids kept trying to get the ball and now my shoe down. I went to see if the school janitor had a ladder.

He couldn't help. They don't have ladders that high in the school. They have to rent a machine when the need to get to the ceiling.

 The kids continued to throw shoes and finally after many attempts, I was able to knock my own shoe off the beam. Phew!!! I was glad to come home with both shoes.

I tried a new soup recipe at supper. Tysyn and Rebekka gobbled it up. They finished before anyone else. They loved it. Savanna wouldn'tt even try it. Sheesh. Tooooooo picky.

Zuppa Toscana

1 lb ground sausage 

1 large white onion, diced

4 slices fried, chopped bacon

3 cloves garlic, crushed

8 cups water

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

5 cubes of chicken bouillon (or as much liquid bouillon as you’d need for 9 cups of liquid water)

3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 cups fresh kale, washed well and chopped

To make the soup:

Sauté the sausage in the instant pot until it’s cooked through.  Drain the grease, and remove the sausage. Set aside. 

Leave a little bit of grease in the pot (maybe a tbsp or so).

Now fry the bacon in the pot.  You want to use the pot that you just cooked your sausage in because it has all that flavourful sausage goodness in there.

Sauté the bacon until it’s half-way cooked, and then add onions and garlic, and continue to cook until the bacon is fully cooked and the onions and garlic are soft.

Add a bit of water to deglaze the pot, and then add the rest of the water and the bouillon.

Toss in the cubed potato, and press manual for 15 minutes. Close vent. Quick pressure release after time beeps. 

Add chopped kale into hot soup. Add sausage and cream. Stir and heat through.

Serve with salad and rolls!     

Maren, Evan and I went cleaning tonight. We didn't want to, we were but glad to leave the evening open tomorrow.

I'm trying to teach the kids that even though we may not really like our job, we do it. So we can be paid/earn money. There is not lots of work they can do at their age. I consider them pretty lucky kids. 

Brandon had his second campfire in a row tonight. He is starting to burn the bags of cedar shakes he has brought home since he started roofing. Now that the fire ban is lifted, he is making up for his lack of summer campfires. And starting to burn all the wood that has accumulated on the driveway.

Chopped

So this happened today.

It's been quite some time that I've known I needed my hair cut. The ends have been super terrible. Uneven, split and scraggly. I've been wanting it cut to even out the ends. But I haven't wanted to go to a hairdresser to pay tons for a simple chop chop chop. So today I had Karla do it for me.

I washed it during my morning shower and then after it was dry, we set up for the haircut. First Karla measured and took pictures of my length.

It measures approximately 27".

Then Karla pulled it into a pony tail and put an elastic on just below where she was going to cut. My hair had enough length to be able to donate it.

All ready for the cut. 
The pathetic thing is that my ponytail was a tiny skinny amount. It wouldn't be worth much more than a highlight for a wig. But we made sure it was of length to donate anyway. After Karla had the length ready, we got the cameras rolling and she got the scissors ready for the cut. I wasn't really nervous about the chop. Karla did a good job. We took some more pictures of the new length. I lost about 10" of length. It looks so much better. More full and healthier.

It's now about 17" in length. (It only looks crooked because my arm is raised. Karla did a good cut.)

Losing the length feels a little lighter. I won't be getting it caught in my elbow anymore. The ends feel so much better.

After the cut, we put the hair in a baggie and I'm bringing it home. I going to donate it.

Once the hair stuff was put away, Karla and I got lunch for the kids and family. It was a random, whatever you can find, clean out the fridge, kind of lunch.

After lunch, leaving Jeff and Cyril in charge, Sherilyn, Karla and I went to a produce store in North Calgary. We went to check out the store as I always send family to shop for me but I've never been myself.  I brought some fruits. It was fun to be out with my sisters.

Back at Karla's, Jeff and I loaded the van. Savanna had a hard time wanting to go and Tysyn was made at the vehicle seating arrangements. Finally we pulled away from the Miguel home. I was super sad to leave too.

It was an easy drive home. At one point all 6 kids in the van were asleep. A nice quiet drive for Jeff and I.

We pulled into town at suppertime.

We made short work of unloading. Then supper was started. And before long, we were sitting at the table for supper.

Maren Evan and I left for Keeler's. We worked efficiently and were able to be done quickly. Evan wanted to go to the gas station after to get a treat. We stopped at Fas Gas but he didn't see anything he liked, so we went to Town Pump. We ran into Devin there getting his own treats.

Jeff was lying beside the littles in their bed while we were gone. Rebekka escaped from her room when we got home and laid beside me while I was sitting on the floor in Evan and Aaren's room waiting for Evan to fall asleep on his bed. She fell asleep on the floor.