Distance makes the heart grow fonder!

Hubby is completing another level at Red River College for the next 10 weeks and the kids & I see him on weekends. Alot of people would question why a man would leave his family for 5 days at a time...it makes me realize that those people have never had to make such a decision/sacrifice and I hope they never have to. It's a small sacrifice for the big picture, successful completion of his journeyman's papers! Our motto is "Whatever it takes." We hope to combine patience and understanding with good communication and creativity and the 10 weeks will go by quickly!

Distance does make the heart grow fonder though...really. I realized this in two incidences this week alone.

First my sump pump started spewing water up through a pipe on the side of my house...not good. My neighbor kindly gave of his time and knowledge, dug in the mud with me and solved the problem. In solving it, we needed a pipe to reroute the water....I always harassed my pack-rat husband for collecting odd pieces from jobsites and low & behold I go into the garge and find two suitable pipes for our job. I silently missed him at that moment and forgave him for filling our garage with such "junk."

Secondly, I was crushing Ritz crackers for our favourite meal of "Cheater Chicken Parmesean" when I looked down at the mortar & pestal that I was using. I remember the Christmas that hubby gave it to me. I unwrapped it and thought "what do I need this thing for...what was he thinking?!"....when I inquired with him as to the motivation behind his purchase he said "I know you're into growing herbs and wanting to dry them so I thought you'd need this one day."....I immediately thought "but I have never successfully dried them therefore never needed this thing!"...then I thought "awww, he's really paying attention though to my interests." It sat on our window sill for three years...Now, many years later I use it at least twice a month when making our favorite meal and I need to crush the crackers for the coating.

I miss him every moment...but these two stories made for wonderful conversation that we have each night before bed...as we count down until the next Friday to see eachother!

Spring Break

Spring means frequent flooding here in Niverville, just a few miles off the Red River. We decided to get out of town just in time for the big melt - Spring Break! Jon had to work so just the two kids and I took off for the East Coast - PEI baby! Yep, we hopped on two planes to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island to visit Jody, Tara, Aby and Jax, our good friends!

It was the kids' first flights and Stefan thought it was "exciting and new." I arranged for him to meet the pilot, who happened to be one of just a few female pilots Air Canada has!

We survived the red mud of PEI. It doesn't stain like you'd think it would being that bright red! We were in awe of the new color and missed our black/brown mud alot after we had to park a mile away from the house and walk across a field because the road was too muddy and then snow covered to get a vehicle through. Yep, I said snow - 28 cm fell on the little island while we were there. We didn't mind though, meant more time visiting in Tara & Jody's newly built home! It has a gorgeous view of a river with the nicest sunrises I've seen so far.

We loved the visit to the library, Cow's icecream store and Anne of Green Gables Choclate Store. We really liked the visits from Tara's family and the home-cooked meals! Thank you Grammie & Grampie Roche! Zoe had a playmate her age in Olivia and Stefan played so well with all of them, entertaining them and helping them every little bit! Leslie cherished the night of pottery painting and dinner out with Tara!

We flew home with 6 live lobsters for Jon! We lugged them on the planes and on our stopover in Ottawa. We drove straight to Gimli to share them with Grandma & Grandpa and filled our tummies good with our favorite keepsake of our trip to the Island. We sure do miss our good friends and are planning for our next visit July 2010!!!

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March Maladies

Fourteen days into this month and we've had a weekend of the stomach flu (wiped out all four of us at once), Jon's sore back due to the jobsite he's working on at the moment and now poor Zoe's ear infection and pneumonitis. We've spread our sickness onto my sister, brother-in-law and mom - all that garlic and pig fat must really work for Dad cause he's been in the clear somehow. So please excuse my weeks of silence, knowing that it's all we can do to get the kids in bed, relax to a movie/catch up on our day and check FB of course.

The good news is that it's only 14 days until we're flying to PEI to see our great friends out East! The kids and I are soooo excited!!! I've never travelled East, well not past Toronto, and can't wait for our adventure to begin! We need to get Zoe healthy though first so keep her in your prayers. Land of red soil, potatoes and lobster here we come!!!

Been a while...

Ok...I'm not a dedicated blogger. I realize this. Last night I put the little one to bed and then I fell asleep from 8pm to 8am...the past two weeks of waking every night with Zoe at 4 and 5am has caught up to me. I'm happy to report though she has cut her second molar! She never shows discontent but boy did she show appreciation for her gift from Auntie Lindsey, her very own Sophie the Giraffe chew toy! She gnawed on it (and it squeaks each time, thanks) the whole way from Winnipeg to Niverville! Now she's put it in a "safe place" and we're on the hunt for it so she can continue to use it with this new molar!

I also did my first day of subbing in the kindergarten class on Friday....yay, it was fun! I was so glad to get back into the classroom, with 23 kiddos! I'm a little sad that when I sub Zoe has to be in childcare for the full day, but it will only be once a month or so probably, as I'm only available for half-days.

We're looking forward to taking Stefan's friend Mackenzie to Shiverville tonight. It's a fun family night in the snow, put on by a nearby church. I hope the bonfire is huge to warm all our toesies!

Just the way the cookie crumbles!

We're encased with ice - a skating rink for a street and driveway. School has been closed for two days now. It's been so nice to have hubby home too! He's working out of Steinbach right now and the highway had 30 cars in the ditch before 9am so he was told to stay home both days. We had pancakes and bacon the first day and snacked on fresh banana bread. It was so nice to sleep in past 8am both mornings and enjoy fresh oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and lasagna the second night too. But isn't it just the way the cookie crumbles that when something as nice as two days trapped in our home comes upon us, it also finds me snoring like a lumber jack with plugged sinuses and getting no sleep. Then this morning it moves into my chest and somehow I have a pinched nerve in my lower back, pulling down my left leg. Good thing I was blessed with these two days of rest with my family at my side! Yep...rain and just freezing weather has come to Manitoba at the beginning of February! Rare, nice, weird and scary all at the same time!

Walking in Niver Niver Land!

I took the kids for a lovely winter morning walk today! The sun was shining and it was around -6 degrees at 10:30 a.m. I couldn't believe the sunshine and clear skies! There were a million birds chirping in the trees, like it was spring (poor confused birdies). We posed for pictures, walked the sidewalk, climbed mountains of snow and Stefan made a snow angel. It was a very nice walk and it tuckered poor Zoe out, she feel asleep with the sun in her face by the time we got home! What a great way to start the weekend!