blogging touble

I have just spent the last half hour+ getting a post ready and I can not 'post' it. yeesh.

The quick summary is we had a fun time with nana visiting over J's birthday week this past week.

Went driving on the beach and found moonshells (pic insert here), made ice cream cake (pic insert here), played in the snow (pic insert here), hiked up Tow Hill today (pic insert here).

Counting the weeks till we come visit family and friends: 6 week countdown starting now!

Are you guys out of the fog yet?? We had a bit of snow the other day followed by clear sunny skies today (pic insert here). A perfect snowboarding day if I had my board to walk up and ride down Telegraph Hill. But I did see cars parked at the surf spot today on the drive back from Tow Hill :)

FRIDAY has a new meaning for me

I just finished my first full week of work and I am exhausted! whew. Just hanging out tonight watching the documentary "The Long Way Down" (thanks Mike!)... maybe it will get us thinking about exploring Africa next :)

We went out to see the surfers last weekend; the waves were pretty good. The volleyball gang I play with on Monday nights are all getting their surf gear and I think I will have to join the fun pretty soon.

So I had trouble loading the video and just got back to it today... JANUARY 21, a big B-day around here for the firstborn son. We have been in party mode all week with nana here to celebrate. We had a pre-birthday dinner yesterday with steak and mash potatoes and tonight was home-made ceaser salad, brocolli soup and deer crock-pot and rice. All J's favorites in a 3 course meal. Now we (I better pay attention) are watching a movie called 'Express' and then we will have ice cream cake (I made it!) for dessert after. later,n

out of house reply message

It was my first day of work today... all went well! I left the house this morning just before 8am with the boys breakfast and lunches made, J had instructions for dinner (he made his famous spaghetti) and I came home at 4:30 to a happy house and a great smelling dinner on the stove!

I think I need an 'out of the house' autoreply message on my gmail account.... I wasn't going to turn the computer on this evening, but here I did; now it is late and I am wiped. Welcome to the working world Nicole!

back to school/work

Holidays can't last forever... we had a great 2 weeks of relaxing, visiting in Rupert, playing Guitar Hero (we are finally trying HARD level), reading (D discovered truck magazines, J has almost finished Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, B got a bunch of books for Christmas), playing in the snow, and eating! With all these boys around I was cooking 3 meals a day, yeesh.

Yesterday I got a good start on D's new button blanket; I need to make both boys new regalia before Spring. Note to Mom, I need more material/buttons please...

When we were off island we did the usual huge shop and got lots of produce/dairy/meat... but with NO FERRY all of January, I already notice unusually bare shelves at the grocery store. In a few weeks, the question at the store will NOT be 'What should I get for dinner?' but 'What is there to get for dinner?' Note to Nana J, when you come up for a visit if you would like to eat something other than meat/potatoes/rice, please bring some fruit/veggis...

In the next few weeks there is lots going on.

• B is working out the details to start up an afterschool martial arts program
• J will start school bball
• There is a Steve Nash youth bball league in the planning stages. The boys and I will get involved in that
• I am ready to start work and make some $$$ to get my eyes zapped in March. YEAH!
• Nana J comes to visit and bake chocolate chip cookies with D!

I am baking buns today and the boys will come home for lunch. I plan to get to the gym in the afternoon, see how it goes.

Almost all of the snow melted with the rain over the weekend but this am it was snowing again, it's cold out there :) have a good day!

Happy New Year 2009

So now it is 2009 eh? how time flies... We went to the neighbours house last night and we all made it till midnight. J and D had fun hanging with the kids there. This morning we woke up to MORE snow. When we saw the neighbour had his quad out giving sled rides we had to get ours going too! The boys and B spent all morning a the school field playing around. We probably have close to a foot of snow now. Nobody here has snow gear, snow shovels, sleds, ice melt..... and nobody cares, it is great! Our street has yet to be plowed today, I bet the city crew is off for the day :)

Here are the dogs at the field:

Trying out the skim board behind the quad:

Quads and sleds on the field:

A walk to the land bridge this afternoon:


I will get a few Christmas photos up soon. D wants to vs. me at Guitar Hero. Rock on!