300th Post!

Who knew I could write so much about my boring little life?


Tonight our church says good-bye to an amazing Pastor. It's going to be a sad day for me. I'm really happy for them, that they get to move down South and be with their kids, but a part of me is still selfish and wishes they could stay. I hugged him last night and cried like a baby. *sigh*

I'm also a little over-tired as my little one is cutting two bottom teeth at once. He hasn't been himself for the past 4 days. Poor little guy!

Vacation or Plot to lose the women for a week?

So a few months ago my Dad called me and asked me to arrange a vacation for my sisters, Mom, and all four babies. He recommended finding a rustic cabin in the Gulf Islands. Sounds fun! Well, we had a few logistic nightmares. We tried to arrange it around everyone's schedule... Nina works at White Spot, and my Mom works for her stamping friend. Megan and I were fairly wide open, and we tried to include sister-in-law Christa, but that woman is really busy getting ready for her little one and is booked! We had arranged to go Sept. 4-11 and just needed to find a place.. we had a facebook thread about 5 pages long talking in a circle about what kind of house we wanted to rent. Then my baby sister had a vacation plan fall apart that she had previously arranged. Plans were altered to make sure she could be included since she had already booked the time off. Megan found a really great looking place in Sooke. Three bedrooms, three bathrooms, ocean side, hot tub, beautiful fenced gardens, etc. We booked it and counted down the days.

Going on a vacation with 4 adults (one of whom couldn't stay the whole time and had to leave with Dad after 3 days - MOM!) and 4 babies isn't all relaxing and can be quite difficult at times. The boys were all VERY good and we had more laughter than tears, but there were some hard experiences. One involved a bad decision in letting the two older boys play in the cooled-down hot tub with life jackets with us. For some reason, we didn't take his diaper off and it fell apart. I know, it was silly... but you always lose brain cells on vacay right?

Turns out it was a big deal, next time we went to go in it was not appealing. We called the owner right away and she recommended we call the hot tub repair man. He was there within 3 hours. He never came to the door, but promptly went to work. He emptied the tub, cleaned the filter, and filled it back up. After about an hour and a half he came to the door with the news that the one bad decision we made would cost us about $200.

This is a sampling of how the conversation went from there:

Pool man: So I talked to the owner and she said I could go about getting payment one of two ways. Either you guys pay me cash now and we can settle it out or...

Me: What's option #2?

Pool man: Well...

Megan: I don't have cash. How about we just go through the owner and she can take it off our damage deposit?

Pool man: She told me I could ask you for the cash.

Me: Well, I have cash, but that's all the cash I have.. if I pay you now I won't have money left.

Pool man: Well, I have a family I need to take care of too.. I have to go buy the filter with money out of my own pocket.

(At this point I had conceded.. I hate conflict and this dude was getting on my nerves. I went downstairs to get money while my wise younger sister described to the Pool Man the proper way to run a business... etc.. give a quote, invoice.. She told him she was a plumber and many trades need to pay for supplies before doing the work. I was unaware of this conversation)

Me: Okay, well here's $200 (I'm in tears at this point)

Megan: Are you going to give us an invoice? We don't know you, we need proof that we actually paid you!!

Pool Man: Well, I don't have any paper.

Anyways, it was a mess and I screwed up by paying him. We called the owner and explained we felt mistreated and that he had used his MALE-ness to force us to pay. The next day the basement was flooded because he did something wrong when filling up the tub. The owner also made him come back and give back the cash and told him to apologize for how he treated us. He brought back my cash, but not once did the word "Sorry" come out of his mouth. Needless to say, the owner insists she will no longer be requiring his services.

That was the bad part.. the good parts were: rolling down the hill in the garden with the babies, video-taping Megan and Nina jumping into the ocean, going to the beach, having a crazy Nate and crazy Joe visit us, Visiting Beacon Hill Park and having the boys go nuts in the petting zoo, watching Jericho and Riley play, taking gorgeous pictures of the nature and the babies, having all in all a great time with my family.

I came home really tired, even though my babies were really good... I missed having Nate's help. Nina and Megan were great, but Megan has her own kids and Nina had a hard time getting used to being around babies all the time - even though she did a great job helping... and stayed up super late one night to cut up potatoes for hash browns, make a fruit salad, and put together stuff for an amazing omelette.

The pictures blew my mind, Jericho and Kai have never looked so cute! Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

How did I get so lucky?

I get to hug and kiss these sweet boys anytime I want.

*sigh*

This isn't even all of them...

Malachi, Kai, Ty-Ty, His Royal Kai-ness...

This post is long overdue. It's one dedicated entirely to my baby, my Malachi. When we found out we were pregnant for the second time when Jericho was barely 6 months, it was a bit of a shock. It wasn't fun being pregnant (understatement of the century), but this little ball of happy energy has been a very welcome addition to our home and our family! I have never met a happier baby. He smiles and giggles all day, and eats up attention as if it was a lifeline.

This past Saturday night, we dedicated ourselves as parents to raise Malachi and to teach him about Jesus. We had Pastor Derrick pray for him and us as part of the church service and as I looked at him during that little 'ceremony' my most sincere hope was that he grows up to be a great man of God, and that he would have tremendous character and intergrity. That he would be well-respected, but also that he would show respect to everyone he meets.

Looking at him just brings me such joy... He's a very, very special little man and I'm glad God decided to surprise us with an awesome gift!

Just to let you all know what little things he does now - He loves his exersaucer, is still getting used to his Jolly Jumper, and this week he sat up!! Only for a few seconds, mind you... but he did it!

Here are some pics from the dedication - we did it the same time as Joe and Megan dedicated Deacon...