Small Town Parade

This past Saturday was the parade. Half of the sky looked like bright sun, the other looked like torrential rains... The weather finally settled on a biting cold wind. This parade is something my kids look forward to as soon as the weather starts getting warm. It usually lands on their cousin Tia's birthday party day so maybe that's why the parade day is always looked forward to with such enthusiasm. The whole day is usually an extravaganza of cousins, raining candy, cake and presents, bagpipes and all the extras. A day that includes bagpipes is always a good day I always say. Something about the bagpipes makes me well up...laugh if you want to, but it's the truth. Sadie did not remember last years' parade so this was a wild and strange experience for her. She had a great time sitting on the curb with the cousins and siblings gathering candy in her little bag.

This "float" was for the local 4H club decorated with...empty water bottles and ripped up newspaper??? Maybe they are big into recycling? Wasn't sure what that was all about.

Ukrainian dancers. I love these outfits. They didn't dance when they passed us though. :(

Big Massey Ferguson

Me in my nursing shawl... The colors are a little *loud* but it worked to put Wessie to sleep.

Not sure why this beautiful old car was "decorated" in white garbage bags...that was the strangest thing. The other strange thing was the small eclectic group of musicians in the brass band playing/singing "We're Not Gonna Take It." ...Didn't the hard rock group "Twisted Sister" sing that in the 80's? It *was* entertaining and that's all i cared!

us....and what looks like the general public walking down the street... ?

Sadie, Ellie and Carrie flanked by their cousins.

The bagpipes warming up outside the 7-11...I'm so glad they weren't playing "We're Not Gonna Take It." It was good old "Scotland the Brave" for them.

Getting our picture taken with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. My niece Brittany took this for me. Thanks miss B!!

nice little wagon

Sadie, Ellie and Carrie

One good shirt!

We went to ball the other week and as i looked over to Darren, i noticed the shirt he decided to wear out in public..........hmmm. With 6 kids, sometimes you get to where you are going and realize that someone is still wearing pyjamas and you are about to walk into church. Or that *someone* ( if you read this blog, you will know who) is wearing a HUGE Indian war bonnet as you enter the public library. Or that your 6 and 8 year olds have done themselves in full make-up, just for the fun of it to go to town...Anyways, Darren was wearing what is described by HIM as "My good shirt." For your interest, it is described by ME as "Trash." First he grew out of it. Still he wore it. Then he permanently stained it. Still he wore it. Finally, exasperated seeing it come downstairs for the gra-jillionth time, i said, "Well, if you're going to wear that still, then we have to cut off the arms so that no one knows you grew out of it. He said, "I don't care." and thought it was hilarious as i snipped off the sleeves. "It's still my favourite shirt and THAT won't stop me." Then i said,"Well, we can't get these stains out so i guess I'll just snip that out too!" I pulled at the stain and snipped it. He thought that was even funnier, but when i threatened to make peep holes for his nipples he wouldn't let me. He wore the shirt all day like that. It has been AT LEAST a month since that exchange and yet... what shirt is he STILL wearing, fresh with a new stain? Which shirt did i mindlessly just throw in the laundry rather than the garbage yesterday? Darren's "good shirt". :P --j

Friday Night With the "Littles"

Many nights we spend as a family at the ball diamonds but tonight we all seemed to split up in different directions. Curt dropped Darren off at the church to serve with some of his friends. A group of boys including Darren, were asked to serve the ladies at a "Princess Tea". We were talking about how it was going to go now that he had severed his thumb tip and he raised his eyebrow, proudly displayed his thumb and announced, "Here's my ticket to sympathy!!" Indeed! He had a grand time ushering mother/daughters to their seats and explaining how he was making weaponry and was wounded in the process. He talked non-stop as i changed his bandage before bed, of the girl who came in all white fluffiness only to topple an entire table onto herself and be covered from head to toe in pop. He liked that story but you could tell he felt sorry for her when he said sheepishly "she cried". He told of having to hold a little 2 year old's hand to escort her to the table and how she giggled the whole way, of how one mom wore a huge hoop skirt and some wore their wedding dresses. Of how a distant relative of ours splattered him with glitter from the craft they were making...on purpose, and how all the guys he was serving with teased each other while trying to pretend they were distinguished waiters. That was Darren's night.


Curt took the three older girls to ball practice and they came home tired and happy...as usual.

As for me, i had what we like to call around here "the littles"--Sadie and Wesley. We went to visit Curt's second cousins and their little two year old and sweet twins newly home from the hospital. The twins were born prematurely but are finally home and doing well. They have been bathed in prayer for months. When we got home, Sadie did some painting on the deck. She painted trees, and when some Canada Geese flew over, she added one to the top of her picture that I thought was pretty cute. :) After that, I thought I'd give Wes some rice cereal. I only got 2 spoonfuls in when the phone rang. In the time it took for my niece on the other end of the line to tell me that she had bought me something today while shopping with her friends. Wes had been "fed". The bowl was empty and Sadie insisted. I didn't do it!... It was Wesley. I tried to feed him but Wesley grabbed it with HIM HANDS...and SMEARED it all over his chair!! Needless to say, bath time followed. Curt is out for his nightly ride, the kids are all in bed, and i have numerous loads of laundry beckoning to me from the couch. I'd better get these contacts out and start working while this window of silence is offered.

Maybe I should have called it Thumbless Thursday instead...

After lunch, we all loaded up in the quad and headed out to the "porcupine" tree. It is a tree we named because the summer we moved out here we were exploring and discovered quills under the tree and millions of tiny branches nibbled clean of bark laying under the tree. We knew a porcupine lived there... Then winter came and all the leaves fell off of this huge willow to reveal what years of porcupine nibbling can do! Where one twig was nibbled off, 10 more grew out in a fireworks pattern making the entire tree start to look, itself, like a porcupine! Anyways, The kids have made twig bows and arrows since they were very little and found that the nibbled twigs off of this tree were perfect. We went out today to make some bows for fun with some baler twine. We took some pictures and suddenly Darren made a grimace and said "I cut my thumb off! Carrie was taking pics and snapped one that Darren is quite proud of. Here it is: Anyways, we hoofed-it home, i got a cloth for Darren and when i put the knife on the counter noticed that his finger-nub was still attached to the knife. I grabbed it and we headed out the door to call the girls to get in the vehicle for a trip to emerg. Just as i yelled their names, God showed up... o.k o.k.... maybe not God... but I knew He had something to do with it. Curt's' cousin Tory and his wife Shawna and kids drove in. When they realized what was going on, they quickly offered to take a load of children home with them while i took Darren, Carrie and Wesley into the Hospital. We drove away and Carrie asked me, "How did they know...? Didn't you JUST call them...?... How did they get here so fast?"

I said "No, i called Dad and he wasn't in."
"Well, HOW did they know to come???!!"

"God did it Carrie.... wasn't that amazing?"

"...Yeah!"

Let it be recorded that Tory and Shawna coming over is not a daily occurrence. I have noticed God showing up more and more lately to remind me to trust Him...to remind me that He sees each tear...to remind me that He holds me dear to His heart. Sometimes...some years even, He's seemed so far away. Lately, i can feel his breath on my neck.

We are almost all home now, Darren-- all bandaged up, Carrie-- proud that she got to carry "the finger" in the little aqua kidney dish at the hospital, Curt-- tired from work, Wesley--fed, slept and happy, me--bloggin'...and soon my sweet little Ellie, Sadie and Robin will be coming home with their cousins and we'll have a dinner with God's latest "servants". I pulled a couple lasagnas out of the freezer and we'll hopefully get a little visiting in too before ball tonight.

"Thilent Thurthday" since i missed "Wordless Wednesday"

Daniel in the Lion's Den--Alternate Ending

I was reading to Sadie tonight and one of the books she chose was a children's Bible stories. I chose "Daniel" He was brave, there were lions, it was a daring, exciting story. She listened intently and cringed when they threw him into the den with the hungry lions. The story emphasized prayer. When the story was over, i turned to this last page with a bible verse and a parting picture. I read the verse. "And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God." Daniel 6:23 I could tell she wasn't listening. She was staring SHOCKED at the last picture and slowly raised her finger, pointed to the bone at the lion's side and said slowly, "Is THAT Daniel???" :) No, thankfully not! :)

Thinkin' Straight

Darren has never seemed to have problems with side effects from his anti-seizure meds before, and usually the weakness after a seizure fades within a day or so but this last one was the worst one I'd ever seen. He's been tired yesterday and today. He's in a great mood... but tired... finding it hard to concentrate. When Curt came home, he laid on the couch and let the little ones smother him with "wrestles" and questions. Darren pulled up a stool by Curt's head and started complaining about his frustrations today. I could see the worry in Curt's eyes but this is what he said to Darren.:

Curt: Well, if you're feeling like that, maybe it's time for a little test to see if you're thinkin' straight....If i have 3 gophers and i shoot 2 of them, how many gophers do i have?

Darren: One!

Curt: Wrong. I have 3 gophers, two are dead and one is alive. You're right! You sure aren't thinkin' straight today boy!!

Darren's face melted into a smile and Carrie giggled and repeated the answer, thrilled with a new joke to catch her Grandpa with. (Carrie and her Grandpa have a "knock knock" joke that has been going on for years. The one where you ask them if they will forget you in 100 years and then you say "knock knock" hoping that the other person will say "who's there" and they will have "forgotten" you already?.... Anyways, No one will say "who's there" It's always "Hi Grandpa!" or "Hi Carrie" in answer to the prompt "knock knock".) Finally a fresh joke to test if Grandpa is thinkin' straight.

Baseball Pranks and Fun

The three girls came home from practices this week with t-shirts from their extraordinary coach. They were thrilled with their presents which read: "YOU WISH you could throw like a girl." I'm wondering what the boys on the team thought about that little bit of unfairness. haa! I was informed by Carrie that the boys did not receive t-shirts. :) Hopefully they got extra large slushies. On a goofier note, the coach, at one of the first practices, mentioned to the team that major league ball players use pee on their hands to give them better grip! *really??!!* My girls were quite taken with that little bit of trivia and, with all the urine sample containers around here these days, Carrie got an idea. She washed one out with a few CUPS of dish soap (it had Vaseline in it) and filled it with yellow Gatorade. She packaged it in a little bag that read "Urine trouble NOW!...(for your hands)" (Curt's horrible suggestion) and gave it to the coach. When he found out that it was Gatorade, he DRANK it!!! And quickly spit it out all over as it tasted like much dish soap! For me, the ball diamond was a beautiful distraction from a day of cleaning/organizing/purging out kitchen cupboards, having cousins over for the day and trying not to wish so hard that i had a maid. Wesley was good this time and didn't scream and sob for his crib the whole time as usual and i actually got to watch the game and visit with some of the other kids there who were playing with mine. Sadie's hormone wears off around 6pm so we did visit the porta-potty 5 times, but that was 1 less than last time. Every day is a little better.

Love Eyes

Sadie's Secret

I was having a bath with Sadie and she told me she had a secret. She said it was a really long, sad secret. It did end up being a very long story, but it was interesting as it had all her guilt and fears intertwined and thinly veiled.:

"There was this boy in Sunday School and he was sick because he was always so thirsty. So he snuck into the bathroom at Sunday school and drank. Then he got more sick and he threw up. He had to go get blood work done on Tuesday. The blood got all over the doctors and still the little boy was thirsty and he had to go for more blood work. One day when he was downstairs watching Dora the Explorer... i mean Doostba... a show i don't like.... He snuck to the fridge down there and snuck drinks because there was pop in there. Then he got more sicker and he started to turn into a baby. He started to pick his nose and eat it. ( *this is I'm sure linked to her fear about her decline into peeing her pants and bed*) And then the Dr's put Vasopressin in his nose and he wasn't thirsty anymore....But actually it was a girl and her name was Sadie... but a different Sadie than me."

When i was putting her down for a nap she told me, "I love you mom because i was sick and you helped me to get better..." *tears*. I'm SO wiped and bleary-eyed from my horrendous day with D. yesterday and then little Sadie's days just keep getting better and better. I asked her about her story and if she snuck water while she was downstairs watching Dora once and she said "You mean Dora Saves the Babies?"...pause... (look of relief washing over her 3 yr old face with her confession being recognized) "Yes i did....but the boy in my story is a different boy than Sadie and that Sadie is a different Sadie than me." She is such a smart little thing. I'm feeling such relief with her response to the hormone. *good day*--j

Today is a day of...

Today is a day of...

Waking up to the sound of a seizure.

Carrying an 11 year old muscle-bound farm boy to the living room couch only to hear him fall off the couch 2 hours later tight in the grips of another seizure that turns him blue.

A 9 year old girl witnessing her hero in confusing pain, wide eyed and not responding.

Curt only needing to hear "I need you." before answering "I'll be right there."

Staying home to make chili, banana bread, coffee and biscuits to stave off the heartache.

A synthetic hormone finding it's home so that a 3 year old girl can have the best day of her life since Feb.

Grampsie visiting by divine providence.

Baseball practices with Gramps and Curt.

Dairy Queen ice cream with Grampsie.

Curt selling horses.

Kids scrubbing out the old swimming pool and filling it with warm water and bubbles.

Sunshine.

Clean floors.

My son waking up...finally.

Staring into the eyes of my Heavenly Father who knew this day was going to come and sent 3 encouraging cards through faithful servants in the mail yesterday for me to read over and over and think about how much He cares too.

Music Lessons

While Grannie and Gramps were up this week i made sure to get Grannie to give a music lesson to someone. Mom was the one who got my sisters and I singing and playing instruments and she always had a way to make it fun. When we first learned harmonies, she used "rounds". Mom drew pictures on little pieces of paper to remind us of our parts. I still remember my piece of paper. It had a picture of "fish and chips and vinegar" on it. Steph's had "bottles of pop" with bubbles coming from them and Paige's had "junk in my backyard" on it. We learned the round "Fish and Chips and Vinegar" in the kitchen while passing the pieces of paper around the circle and switching parts. When i was learning to play the drums and needed to practice a solid "rock" beat, mom came downstairs and got on the piano next to me and hammered out the old hymn "Power in the Blood". Not exactly a "rock" song, but it made the monotonous practicing more fun to have another instrument join in and actually make a song out of the beat that I was perfecting. As mom settled into the couch this week for the impromptu lesson with Carrie and Darren... and her 4 string banjo (!!), I noticed the song she had chosen to type out: "Power in the Blood". :) Ahh! Good times! I'm sure it was just as fun with the banjo as it was with the drums. :) Grannie is gone home now but her memory was alive and well around here the past couple days as we celebrated the new banjo chords with "rousing" renditions of that old hymn.
p.s."Rousing" meaning that I paused at every chord change and waited for Carrie and Darren to find the fingering while holding the note out until said chord was found... one day it will be truly "rousing" I'm sure... and then i think i will set up the drums and call mom up to get on the piano. Something about the banjo makes me giggle. To me, a banjo is way more rebellious than an electric guitar...or any other instrument for that matter. It's an instrument that screams unashamedly "I'm havin' the best time of my life and I don't care who knows it." There are a few instruments like that... the accordion is another one... Just so crazy loud and distinctive. You know there's a party happening when the first note rings. Interestingly enough, my mother plays both of those instruments. I'm pretty sure that she is planning on finding a set of bagpipes to learn on next.

Nursing a 6 month old...a response

He slaps my chest over and over, whining.
His hair quivers like dandelion fluff.
"Are you hungry?"
He pants and cries a frantic response.
I curl his body around me and when he latches, his panic instantly changes into grunting and rooting. With his fingers tucked behind me, he scratches the couch in an un-coordinated repetitive pattern. His other tiny fingers grabbing and slapping at everything they touch. Sometimes they scratch the stitches of his pant leg but most times his fingers find their way into my mouth or nose, his fingernails as sharp as Ginsu knives. His eyes dart back and forth in every direction. Someone walks past and his head jerks up to catch a glimpse of who it is. He forgets that we are not one person and his latch is stretched to it's ultimate limit and snapped loose. Milk slowly drips from both of us. He wiggles wildly back onto his latch but almost in the same second, Ellie comes up. "Wesley!! Are you having a milkshake?" His head jerks up to grin at her, milk spurting everywhere as his milky smile settles on his 6 year old sister. He dives back into his latch, this time slapping and kicking with excitement. It's like a game of peekaboo.
On the latch.
Off the latch. *milky grin at Ellie*
On the latch.
Off the latch. *milky grin at Ellie*
I ask Ellie to please let him be while he nurses.
Ellie disappears around the corner, his eyes following her the whole way, his body stretching to watch her as he holds the latch with his 2 sharp teeth. After she leaves his eyes settle on mine and the rhythmic nursing begins. He stares into my eyes a moment and then his eyes roll back as he fills his warm belly with liquid comfort. His eyes begin to close and he settles his tiny hand into the jungle of my hanging hair. My clothes are wet from his messy job, my chest is scratched from his wild 6 month old flailing, but even in the months of *wild* nursing, there is contentment to be found as I hold and nurse my son, heavy with sleep.

*this post is a response to my sisters post titled "Nursing a 15 month old" You can find it here.*

Peaceful morning gone awry

Sadie called me to the kitchen white board excitedly. "MOM! Come look at the picture I made. It's of me getting the ADH up my nose! :) Today is an "indoor day". A day of SNOW in May, of creamy potato and ham soup, of fresh buns for lunch and hot cinnamon buns in the oven, of getting caught up on laundry. A day of second cups of coffee, of banjo lessons from Grannie for the fun of it. HMMMMMM...and just 2 seconds ago, it has turned into a day of 4 girls screaming and one 11 year old boy laughing...end of blog... beginning of the end of a peaceful morning!! Oh poop!

Nobody "Nose" the Trouble We've Seen

Night #3 of hormone replacement for Sadie and things are markedly improved. Still not perfect, but improved. The desperation has been replaced with "I LOVE YOU!"'s. Poor babe. The hormone wears off too soon so far and I'm pretty sure we will still need to be adjusting the dosage, but for now, we will wait and see if things will continue to improve as we ease into this new routine. She is not loving the method of blowing the hormone up her nose through a tiny tube... and we will have to work on that. In other news, Grannie and Gramps are here for a visit. Grampsie is famous for giving Sadie Tic Tacs when he comes and this time was no different. BUT! ON the way home from church this morning, Sadie slipped one of the tiny white mints up her right nostril to the far reaches of her brain never to be seen again! I sure hope she wasn't thinking about giving Mr. Vasopressin a little treat for working so hard up in the "pit"...then i think it could be firmly blamed on me for my storytelling! We tried tweezers, (she sniffed it up farther). Sucking, soaking, waiting... Not sure, but there was a lot of minty refreshing snot drizzling from her nose and i think it has most likely dissolved by now! (BROTHER!!) There is always something to shake your head at! Anyways, we shot the hormone up the other nostril and hopefully the minty mucosa will accept the hormone just as good as the old fashioned mucosa.

Genius--take 2

I seem to be missing much of the baseball games this year on account of 2 things: Sadie's begging for water and porta-potties and then there is Wessie's "cry-time" which seems to land just as the first inning ends. What i miss, Curt fills me in on afterwards on the drive home. He was telling me today about an incident in last night's game. Only 4 kids showed up on account of a mix-up of the ball diamonds so some of the kids from the opposing team joined our team to make it more even. One little guy got up to pitch and right from the beginning was teary-eyed and stressed. As he "walked" the second player, the tears looked too close to the surface. "Genius" Which is from now on my kids' coach's new name, claps loudly and yells out "TIIIIIME!!!" He then, with fire in his steps, jogs out to the ready to burst boy, kneels down and in a super intense way asks him: "What do you do when your toe falls off??!!" The kid looks at him with a quizzical expression, and then smiles. Chris James..I mean "Genius" then says: "You call a toe truck!" *smiles*...then he turns to everyone else: "PLAY BALL!!" The child, a smile on his face, wondering what kind of pitching advice that was, pitches out the rest of his turn with no tears. Sometimes the best advice is a joke not related to the source of the agony.

"Did Mr. Vasopressin come back?!!"

Before Curt took Sadie in to the Dr's yesterday we talked about how the Dr's had looked wayyyyyy into her blood and they looked at all the little hormone guys in there and everyone was there except for Mr. Vasopressin. He had run away! I told her that they were going to put Mr. Vasopressin back, but that they had to put him up her nose! ( the hormone is given nasally for little ones like Sadie) I told her that the Dr's were going to tell him to "Get back to WORK!!" and when Mr. Vasopressin went back to work she wouldn't be thirsty anymore. She giggled. "I'm not going to be thirsty anymore? *giggling* I love you mom!....*and then seriously* But can i have a drink?*" Her trial dose that day was a day's worth of deliverance from her constant desperation.
She ate
She drank
We were merry
and then it wore off...
We went into the Stollery today to see the endocrinologist and report back. Sadie had more blood work done. They will be re-doing the MRI in 6 months to look for tumors that may be too small to see right now. They are re-checking the level of hormones. We are starting her on the hormone that she is missing and will re-do blood on Tuesday and have a follow-up appt. in a month. Tonight, after we gave Sadie her first dose, I tucked her in and prayed with her. We were talking about "thirst" as usual and I told her that pretty soon she wouldn't be so thirsty. She perked right up. "Did Mr. Vasopressin come back??" :) Yes! and I'm looking forward to him getting to work in the "Pit" (-uitary) STAT!!

How the Day Unfolds

Sometimes the day unfolds and reveals trouble you weren't expecting. Some days, there is release and mercy. Today I found mercy. Instead of 2 days in the hospital non-stop, they broke it up for her. They ran tests today and then she came home. They sent blood work off to the Mayo Clinic in the States and did some of their own blood/urine work. They also gave her the anti-diuretic hormone she is missing and watched her all day to make sure that she wouldn't react to it. She ATE on the way home; four chicken nuggets in a row, without taking a drink!...or even asking for one. *makes me want to cry* For the past 2 1/2 months her eating has been getting worse. Swallowing anything even a little dry has been hard for her. She chooses favourite foods now according to the water content not taste. Desperation is common around here and my shirt is getting long from tugs for drinks. She *looks* different even since coming home. Her eyes have looked sunken to me for months. Her arms, legs, back have been bony. Not so right now. Her body is holding onto water instead of letting it all go. I weighed her and she was at 28 lbs...and happy... waiting and watching.

E-mailing God

As Curt and I were talking about the HUGE budge in the waiting game that came yesterday, i was reminded of an e-mail i sent out to my family the day before. Here's how it went:

"Sadie was super-beggy today. Frustrating as the no eating is as bad as the want to drink. I'm ready to go back to the Dr. but don't know where to go. They all will think we are crack-pots. She prays that she won't be thirsty and that she will eat and tells me over and over that when she sneaks it makes her feel bad. She told me at nap time that she loved going with auntie Stephie. (thanks for taking her for the day by the way!) :) and then brightened up huge and said "She gave me LOOOOOOTS of drinks!! haa haa! She carried on about the marshmallow milkshake and told me that Auntie Stephanie was funny because she wasn't ALLOWED to have ice cream. I'm tired. Wessie needs me too and so do the other kids. And Curt. So much of my day is a lesson in being patient...i wonder if i prayed for God to teach me patience at one point and this is His hilarious answer. if so, and i know You're listening... NOT funny and I promise to be more patient!!! Please release me from my request!"

I wrote it just like that, with the last part in bold, which is maybe what made me remember it the day after when the call came from the hospital that test results had come back suspicious. He sees, He hears... He even reads His e-mail....and He is a God of *mercy*. Sadie goes into the Stollery tomorrow at 7. Thankful that God providentially designed this week for my parents to be making a business trip to our house for the weekend. hmmm. When He answers prayer, He sees to every detail doesn't He?! It's all I can think about. My heart is lighter today despite Sadie's continued thirst and begging and our attempts to constantly distract and satisfy with ice chips and mini mr. freezies. The older kids took her out to watch the horses get shod until lunch. I'm thankful for my other children who are learning patience and mercy and grace and service and gentleness and self control and kindness and goodness in a very intense sort of way along with me. As my grandmother likes to say: "There isn't an ill wind that doesn't blow some good." She's right.

She is not forgotten

My Sadie...I thought we were to go on in this pain forever. I thought they had forgotten you. The Nephrologist we've been dealing with through the Stollery called today with results from testing. They have been talking to specialists all across the country about you... I thought they had moved on, leaving us in this struggle alone. They said your blood shows no ADH hormone... two times they tested. Twice the tests came back with no Anti-Diuretic hormone. It doesn't match up with other tests. MRI showed an ectopic pituitary as well. We will be speaking with endocrinologists as well... finally. They will admit you again, re-do tests. I'm sorry my honey... more pokes. *tears* So thankful that I've been patient with you despite your tantrums for BIG drinks. So thankful that I responded with love and hugs and kisses and a gentle response. So thankful. You are sleeping now, my little Sadie. I love you. So thankful you are remembered. , mama

The GARDEN!!

Sorry, I know this pic has nothing to do with the garden... but it has everything to do with the atmosphere around here... so to make it fit with the theme of this post, I'm going to dub her the "Garden Warrior". Carrie thrives where there is a job to be done. Especially if said job is to be done in a very specific way with specific tools. Unfortunately she didn't need her headdress, sword, shield, nor her coyote skin... but she DID need the rubber boots. She was the perfect side-kick for Curt today putting in the garden. We needed a "warrior" too as Curt didn't just put in a *garden*... he put in a GARDEN!! I'm glad he has vowed to work it with us this year. Men sometimes go a little overboard....

Robin helped with soaking seeds the night before and liked checking out how chubby they had grown overnight. Carrie (of course) needed to try "Indian corn" and Robin thought that was pretty cool.

Noon picnic on the swing; chicken, sausage, celery, oranges and granola.

Robbie helped watch over the little ones with me and pack the lunch. She's so patient and tender.

Carrie insisted that we get a picture of the back of Curt's shirt. She is always so proud of her dad.

My little "Garden Warrior".

Planting the broad beans i accidentally bought.

Me in my fancy gardening pants i fashioned for myself only using a pair of my old "big pants" and a handy pair of kitchen scissors. Planting the peas thick the way my mother-in-law taught me to do.

Curt

I don't blog about him often although his name is sprinkled throughout most of my posts. He's asked me jokingly why I haven't written about him. I've tried...

Overnights with Sadie in the hospital.

Ice fishing at Slave Lake.

Early morning hunting with Darren.

Chickens.

Taking Carrie riding.

Snuggling a camping Robbie.

Sleepy Robin.

Piggie backing across the river to the camp.

River-side snuggle with Ellie.

He takes each of the kids camping when they turn 4. This was Robin's trip.