you've waited long enough!

Dear friends,
I'm so sorry for my lack of posting. Really, I am! It's been a busy few months. Remember how I went back to work at House of James? Well, that's done now. Sad, but true. Short, but sweet. The arrangement was that I would work through the busy months leading up to Christmas, but nothing guaranteed after that. When the time came to evaluate, it was decided that the hours I was working needed to go to the full time staff. (Not really the exact words that that's what it boils down to.) It was SUCH A BLESSING to be part of the staff there once again. I really enjoyed my time there. The "old" staff welcomed me back warmly and the newbies were gracious and patient in showing me the ropes once again. It was a little weird being trained by 17 year olds, but I got over it. I loved that on pretty much every shift I saw someone that I knew shopping or browsing in the store. Good times were had, and I'm still a loyal customer. :)

No pictures with this post as the computer is busy backing up pretty much our whole hard drive. Don't want to interrupt that. We've considered selling this laptop (PowerBook G4) and getting a different fine piece of macintosh machinery, but it looks like we're sticking with this one for a while longer. Today Paul got a bunch of extra goodies to expand the memory on this one and also got an external hard drive to create a safe and happy home for our our pictures, videos and itunes.

For some reason I'm having great difficulty posting videos on here. Not too sure why. I really liked using dropbox but I've reached my quota and I really don't want to pay $5 a month to use it. I may just take the old videos off to make room for new ones. Wouldn't that be fun for all of you? New videos of my crazy kids?

Paul is still really enjoying his return to work as an electrician. No immediate plans in place for heading back to school quite yet, but we're constantly talking through our goals and dreams for how, where, and when we'll settle our little family.

Ah, the family. Yesterday I looked at some videos from not even a year ago, and I can't believe how Max's speaking has grown over the year. At the rate he goes now, it seems he's been speaking since day one. Obviously not, but he just keeps coming up with new things. While he was playing yesterday, he said quietly "I may or may not be {building a house ...} ". I chuckled at what he said and they he asked "Why does Daddy always say that?". Well, Daddy, and now Max have carried that little saying from the crazies we left behind in Prince Rupert. Love it.

And I love them! And I'm going to see them! Mmmmhmmmm, on a tip from Dear Miss Brenda, I got in on a seat sale with Air Canada. When we left there last summer, I set a goal for myself to go visit within the year. A few reasons made this a good time to go.
1. Until he is 2, Marty flies for free.
2. Brenda & Reid finally have a house we can stay in!
3. Must go meet Deb's new baby girl.
4. Missing many dear friends.
5. I don't want Max to forget the place and the people too soon.
6. HALF PRICE SEATS ON AIR CANADA!

We'll be there for SIX nights, January 19-25. Yeeeeeee! I'm so looking forward to many happy reunions.

Aren, wanna babysit? :)

Today was Max's first day back at preschool. When he jumped out of the van he said "I can't wait to go to preschool!". He had no trouble getting back into the routine. There are 5 or 6 new students in his class. I wonder how that will affect the dynamic of his experience.

It's nice to be back into a routine. So very nice. Although, I must admit I've had some long, lazy sleep-ins over the last few weeks. After Christmas & New Years, the boys had lots of sleep to catch up on. Max's record sleep-in was 8:30 and Marty's was just past 9:00. When I remarked the time that day to Max, he said "But ... we wake up at 7:00?!" He added his crazy new twisty facial expression that he's come up with when he asks questions. I wish I could get a picture of it. Anyway, many mornings when they did wake up, I plopped them on the couch with bananas and milk, turned on one of their new videos and went back to bed. I doubt I ever really fully slept, but I dozed and dozed and dozed. Loved it. Dare I tell you what time I actually got out of bed? It may, or may not, have been 10:00.

But it's back to business now! Today was back to school, and I took Marty for his 18-month immunizations. Poor little goomba, he was so happy all morning. As soon as the nurse closed the door he knew something was terribly wrong. He perked up right away as soon as I let him out of the room and held out pretty good the rest of the day. He rested in his favourite resting spot (that would be the high chair) while I made supper. He woke up to eat a little bit of supper and then rested again on his other favourite resting spot (that would be on me) until I transferred him into his bed.

My, this has been a lot of words. Thanks for sharing your time with me. Yes, more about our Christmas is coming soon.

I shall be back, and I never forget that you come so faithfully for news and pictures. Thanks for that.