Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Sunny long weekends are the BEST, and we've enjoyed this one very much. We had a great dinner at our place last night with Steve's parents and Liz, and then a beautiful walk out in Exeter at the Morrison Dam Conservation area, a walk we will definitely do again; the fall colours were beautiful! Everyone was more than happy to have an extra day off school (me especially), and it was nice to have a break from all the to and fro of sports and activities. Hendrik (grade 10) is playing club and school volleyball right now, so has a pretty full schedule. Alana has some school sports just getting going (basketball) and I coach her club team - that keeps us both busy with 2-3 practices/sessions a week plus tournaments. Jordan is playing house league hockey for a new (to him) team, and is loving it so far. That's just getting going too, but with his baseball tryouts just wrapping up he'll only have that one thing going on for the fall at least. After five years of playing rep baseball for the Talons, Hendrik is hanging up his cleats. He'll still play school ball and umpire, so he's not totally out of the game, but he wants to focus on volleyball and is ready to move on from the team. We support it fully, but I'll miss watching him play for sure! 

School has been so far so good too. It's hard to believe that Alana will be joining Hendrik at high school next year - it's her last year at St George's! Then it will just be Jordan. He's in grade 4, Alana grade 8 and Hendrik grade 10. I'm at the same school doing the same job, and it works for me for now; eventually it might be nice to switch to a school with a gentler clientele, but for now it's the devil I know so I'll take it. 

I realize I missed the end of the summer, Alana's birthday and probably a bunch of other stuff. So, random updates - Alana got a pet for her birthday (it was the only thing she wanted), so we now have a gerbil in the house... eek! She named her Misty, and she's grown on all of us (a little), but we are still aware that there is a rodent-pet and it has taken a bit of getting used to. We had a GREAT visit this summer with cousins from Calgary, and the kids spent almost two straight weeks visiting in London, Bowmanville and at the cottage. Alana and her beach volleyball partner Maddie finished their season strong by winning a bronze medal at provincials in Toronto on one of the hottest weekends of the summer. They did so well! I had a few fun nights out with friends this fall (yay) and am still playing basketball and women's league volleyball, and am loving them both! I'm very thankful I can still run and move and that I find/make the time and energy to do so. Anyways, it's beautiful outside so I'm going to get some photos up and get out there!

June and July

Finally, an update! I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. Safe to say it's been a busy few months, especially those last weeks of school in June. The kids were all happy to wrap up the school year and start summer holidays, especially with a trip out to BC to see my parents and the beautiful coast. We left almost as soon as we could, and enjoyed five days on the island split between Comox and Thetis, getting our fill of ocean and nature without the crowds. It was great to spend time with my mom and dad, and the weather was incredible! Highlights were a waterfall walk and (chilly) swim, ocean swims and nature walks on Thetis, and great meals together with family. We took the float plane over to Vancouver (thanks to a mishap with cars - this included an early morning run in PJs and Hendrik's Crocs for me), and Hendrik literally got a front row seat! Lucky. Views over the Island are just spectacular. We bunked up with Rod and Colleen and family in the city, but the bad news about the Vancouver leg of the trip was me getting very, very sick. We arrived Thursday evening and had a great meal chez the Tukkers, but I woke up feeling a bit off on Friday. We met my youngest sister Claire and her family in Deep Cove for a hike (still felt so-so) and lunch and donuts in the village after (the fare at Honey Donuts was delish), and enjoyed some afternoon down time at the house before heading down to Spanish Banks for a cousin reunion in the early evening. It was great to see cousins from my mom's side that I never see! Claire and I got to spend more time together (along with the kids - it was the first time they'd met each other), but I was still not feeling great. That night I had all of the bad feelings - fever, chills, body aches, wonky heart rate, no sleeping, etc. so I went to the hospital early Saturday morning and was diagnosed with pneumonia! Ugh. Longer story short, I had to go back to the hospital and was lucky to be able to fly home a few days later. I don't think I've ever felt so sick! I had a little cry while at VGH, and the nurse thought it was because I wasn't feeling good, but the real reason was that I wouldn't be able to see my best friend from high school Lindsey (in town from Perth)! Ugh, so sad! No one else got sick, and it took me three weeks to feel fully recovered. It was horrible! Anyways, the first five days were great, so let's just focus on that (photos below). 

The rest of July had been busy, but great. Hendrik has had a lot of baseball, done three camps (sailing camp at Fanshawe, a volleyball camp, and Bronze Cross this week), and is staying busy with a few nights of umping and a night of beach volleyball every week. Alana is busy with camps too; she's doing her second volleyball camp this week and has a horseback riding camp next week, and evening activities of soccer and beach volleyball keep us on our toes with logistical challenges (two parents, three kids' schedules). She has beach provincials in Toronto this weekend, and her and her partner Maddie are coming off of a big silver medal at a 14U tournament! As 13U players who struggled to win a set earlier in the summer, this is a big deal! They've improved so much. Jordan did one week of camp at Spencer Lodge (a YMCA outdoor camp), and five days was enough for him. This week he's been tiring Steve out with activities and jobs galore while I'm coaching a volleyball camp. With full days and evening activities, this week has been a reminder to really enjoy the rest of the summer holidays - schedules will be busy when September rolls around.

Steve has been putting time in upstairs in the attic, and will hopefully get to put the pedal to the metal in September when he has more time to dedicate to finishing the bathroom and closet. A move-in date isn't in the near future yet for us, but he's working on it! Here are some photos - this has to be short and sweet, that's all there is time for!

Finally, an update! April & May

Can you believe that we're closing in on the end of the school year already? I can't! Since my last post we've finished up with our winter sports (volleyball for the older two and hockey for Jordan) and are just getting started with the summer line-up (beach volleyball and soccer for Alana, beach volleyball and baseball for Hendrik, and baseball for Jordan). The volleyball seasons finished on a high for both Hendrik and Alana, with Hendrik's team winning a silver in Division 1 Tier 2 to finish 10th in the province and Alana's team winning bronze in Division 1 Tier 2 to finish 11th in the province. Both teams exceeded expectations in terms of their results - we ended by beating a team we'd lost to a few times during the season (Guelph Jr Gryphons) and finished higher than our #20 ranking coming into the tournament, so we were all very happy with the results! The Ottawa road trip with just three of us (me, Steve and Alana) was also a treat; Alana had a great time with her teammates on and off the court (making clips and crafts, swimming, socializing) and Steve and I enjoyed a break from the usual routine of work, meals and evening run-arounds. It was almost like a little vacation! Jordan's hockey finished on a high note too - he won the most dedicated Green Dawg, one of only three awards given out to each of the four Ice Dawgs squads. We're thinking that he'll try house league hockey with another club in the fall, so hopefully we can manage the mid-week practice times. My women's league volleyball wrapped up a few weeks ago as well, but basketball is still going strong; it might be my favourite hour of the week! Long may it last!

So the winter activities are finished and the summer ones are almost in full swing. Beach volleyball starts this week and the boys have their first baseball tournaments next weekend... it's going to get busy! Thank goodness for this long weekend and a slower day today (Monday). It was Jordan's birthday over the weekend and we celebrated with a Blue Jays game - it was a blast! A Barbie blast. It just worked out that the best day to go was Barbie game day, so now we all have matching pink Barbie Blue Jays shirts which we wore to welcome Grandma and Gramps the day after Jordan's birthday. It's a lot of pink! There was so much going on at the stadium, so we walked around, camped out to try to catch a home run, walked around some more, climbed up to our seats way up at the top of the 500-level and enjoyed all the snacks and candy I carted in there. Jordan got a ball (from someone in the bullpen) and three of us got our first-game certificates (plus a happy birthday for J). Fun!

Other birthday highlights were waffles (always a highlight) and the many gifts: a fish (to be purchased - he has the tank now though), a new hoodie, a drone, a remote control car that climbs walls (so fun), stickers, a new t-shirt, and a gift card to PetSmart. And personalized art from Alana! I need to take a pic and get that posted (will edit to add later). He had a busy week with some of his own baseball games and an outing to watch the London Knights win their league (where he made it onto the "Dad cam" with Steve - hilarious!)

I know there's lots more to write about (like work: I'm doing the same job next year - core French to mostly grade 7s and 8s; I sometimes wonder why I choose this), summer plans, house updates (the attic is moving along, we got new windows upstairs that are a million times better than the old ones), Hendrik's school baseball, and more, but I'm running out of time here! I'll leave you with a few photos and captions. :) 

Jordan on third base, wanting to get home!

some Mother's Day art from Alana - love it!

bed of nails face at The Museum in Waterloo

bed of nails face

Happy Easter! Hendrik's provincials were this weekend in Waterloo, so he missed the hunt!

Talons boys

I love March break!

Well, this year's March break wasn't quite as tropical or sun-baked as last year's trip to the Cayman Islands, but it was just what we needed - a slower, more relaxing week free from work and the usual after-school, pre-activity time crunch. And there was no hockey! Jordan's ice time is at 7:00 on Saturdays and 7 or 8 on Sundays, so it was incredible to actually sleep in a little bit and enjoy the weekend. He only has a few weeks of hockey left, and while he's had a good experience, it may be the end of the Ice Dawgs for us. We'll see! We are back to the usual today (Sunday), with volleyball practice for both big kids - and back to reality tomorrow. We tried to do something organized every day, and made it skating, to the sugar shack (we went to Fort Rose in Coldstream) where we enjoyed a delicious all-you-can-eat pancaked breakfast smorgasbord, did some beach volleyball, Alana did a clinic at Western, and all the kids had sleepovers. I went out for dinner with friends, Alana and I went to Crock-a-doodle (so fun), there was friend time for the kids, and Steve and I carried 70 sheets of drywall up to the attic; that was the victory of the week! We took two days to do it and did two at a time... I was (and still am) proud of us. We are inching towards attic completion, though need to make decisions about flooring, bathroom finishes, lighting and more. Decision-fatigue is real! It would be nice to have someone just do it for us... ha! That's what people pay for I guess.

Since my last post we've had lots of snow, and then the big melt! It definitely feels like spring is here, but I know that the warmer weather can take its time to be here for good, and there's almost ALWAYS another cold spell. So I'm resisting the temptation to pack up all of the winter stuff. Plus, I have enough on the to-do list anyways! Alana and I also had a volleyball tournament recently (we got bronze, and had a few special fans!), and a few coming up next weekend. The end is sort of in sight: Hendrik and Steve have provincials in Waterloo on Easter weekend, and Alana and I have provincials the following weekend in Ottawa. And then it will be full speed into summer sports! The boys are doing baseball, and Alana is doing soccer and beach volleyball. We have plans to go out to BC where we'll visit my parents on the island and then spend a few days in Vancouver to see my sister, my best friend from Australia and a few other friends (hopefully) - we don't get out there enough! I wish we had time to do the full tour - everyone would love to go back to Fernie, and Alana won't stop talking about going to Calgary. If only we could do it all! Alright, here are some photos and then I'm going to try to get out for a run before the day gets away from me.