Saying good-bye to an old friend

This happened about a month ago now, but here is the post now anyway.

The first car that Spencer and I bought finally gave up the ghost, so to speak, but it left us under bad circumstances. Spencer had a small fender bender one day on his way to work. All the damage was done to our little car. The front grill was bend and one of the front headlights was broken, but the car was still drivable (it didn't look pretty but it worked).

Unfortunatley the cost of the repairs was more then the the insurance company was willing to pay for (since it was such an old car), so they wrote it off and our car got towed away.

Here is a little history on our beloved car:

We bought it in the spring of 2000

It was a (1990) Toyota Corolla that was 10 years old when we bought it

I had a fender bender that was repaired and better than new

We replaced the cam-shaft, and muffler (a few times)

We could fill it up for about $20 when we first bought it, now days it cost us around $40 and up

We were having some problems with the electrical and our tail lights not to mention that our radio didn't work, the drivers seatbelt was cracked, and the inside door handle was broken.
We drove it back and forth to Indiana twice!

In the end it was Spencer's ride. He took it to work and church, He changed the oil....and once a year he washed it and vacuumed it out. She only had about 235,000Km.

We miss not having our second vehicle (which was actually our first). But we are looking on the brightside of things...our insurance premiums have gone down, registration, and no more paying for the high price of gas. So currently we are saving a bit of money. When the time comes to get another car, it will be another Toyota.....something.

Tasty Summer Fun

This is a homemade ice cream sandwich. If you have never tried one, you should try making them sometime. Super easy, if you don't make the cookies from scratch....you just buy soft chewy cookies and add the ice-cream and then roll in the sprinkles. The kids gave them two thumbs up! It was a good FHE treat idea.

I also made slush. It is pretty sweet stuff and the flavors that I picked aren't my kids favorites, but I like it. It is way better than a slurpee, 'cause it has the fizziness of the pop.

It's a Boy!

After 9 long months the newest member of our family has arrived! He came 4 days early....on Tuesday July 28 at 5:35 am. The labour and delivery went good as to be expected. He was the fastest one yet....he joined the world after only 3.5 hours of labour. The doctor said that he came out sunnyside up....(face up)! He weighed 9lbs 5 oz and was 21 1/4 inches long and his name is Aaron Tyler Ord.

I left the hospital that night at around 9pm. Spencer has been a great help and my mom came to lend a hand for a week too. We had some meals dropped off from the sisters in our ward -- that was a huge help too! The adjustment has been going pretty good. Megan is a fanastic helper and is growing into the role of the oldest sibling very well. She knows that the baby is very demanding on mom's time and energy levels and has had a ton of patience with Evan as well. Evan and Megan both love to hold the baby. Evan still thinks the baby is so funny. He has probably had the hardest adjustment...he is a bit louder and missing his mom. I'll often feed the baby downstairs at around 9pm and watch a little TV and Evan pulls out a blanket and plops down on the floor and falls asleep close to me.

I must say that the more kids I have the more relaxed I am and that I am enjoying my buddy a lot. There is something to be said about slowing down and enjoying being a parent. This kid so far (knock on wood)...has been really good. He doesn't fuss much, he is eating like a champ, and sleeping 3-4.5 hours a night.

The next challenge will be in a few more weeks, when school starts up again....and we have to drop Megan off at school fairly early in the morning. Then by middle of September Evan starts Pre-school (he is so excited!)

Oh...What do U do in the Summertime?.....

Cross your fingers that I'm just days away from delivery. The weather has been stifling hot, thanks to Spencer for buying me an A/C for our bedroom, so at least we can sleep at night. Sorry kids...they come frequently to our room to enjoy the cool temperature, but must sleep with their fans on; which they do pretty good at. I've heard many times over that we live in Canada so we don't need A/C in our homes....since it doesn't get that hot....I don't like those people and fully disagree with that statement.

Here are a few highlights that we have done so far this summer. We weren't planning on doing too much, since we are waiting for the arrival of our new family member. We have spent our time so far close to home and having a slower summer. We have enjoyed playing at various parks, the kids favorite has a wading pool and playground, I love to just sit a watch for the most part. We have also joined the Library summer reading program and Megan has already won a prize....a shirt, book and bag. We have also gone to the movies....Evan can't quite sit still for the whole movie, it doesn't matter which one we go to....but he enjoys the popcorn and climbing around....thank goodness for the dollar theatre and children's movies that hardly anyone goes to see anymore....so he can goof off and not bother too many people.

Feeding the geese, seagulls and ducks at Rundle Park.

Attending the street performers festival downtown Edmonton. The kids got their faces painted, Megan with a butterfly(which lasted for 2 days) and of course Evan with Thomas the Tank Engine. They also got balloon animals, Megan a parrot and Evan and monkey in a tree.


We actually saw some street performers too, these guys were called the Chair Men, and they basically stacked all those lovely plastic lawn chairs that everyone has in their backyard. They played musical chairs with some kids from the audience and launched various food objects with a sling shot, and they juggled fire.

Megan went to a week long science camp at the University of Alberta. It was an all girls class called Elle Jr. , they made all sorts of things, the bath bomb was probably her favorite.

We stay cool in the pool....swimming at the ACT pool is a favorite family activity.



Enjoying the comforts of A/C by going bowling. We had the whole place to ourselves!



Having a wiener roast at Rundle Park. Evan this time loved to play with the marshmallow and not so much eating it. This from a boy who can't stand to have his hands dirty when we are sitting at the table at home and eating?!....go figure. I also learned that I'm never quite prepared as I ought to be...I forgot the wet wipes, but we made do with water and a napkin.

Happy Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to Evan who turned 3 and Megan who turned 7! It was a busy week with 2 birthdays....make that 3 with Canada Day thrown in there and enjoying time spent with family.

Evan had a Thomas the Tank Engine themed cake. I found some chip board characters at Michaels and decided to use those to stick in his cake. He helped me make the cake, by holding the blender, cracking the eggs and dumping in the cake mix. His birthday and my parents 44th Wedding Anniversary fall on the same day and my folks were up so we had a big party at my brothers house.....it turned out to be a bit too long of a day for Evan....and he starting loosing it around 8pm....we definately left the party after a fabulous dinner, cake and presents by 10pm. We all slept good that night.

That is Megan with one of her school friends. We took her and 5 friends (the best turn out yet) to Chuck E. Cheese. That was the best party ever.....We bought some food, gave the kids some tokens to play games with, opened presents, ate birthday cookies (Megan didn't want a cake, so we made birthday cookies; sugar cookies with enamel icing and megan decorated them (edible markers)
with pictures of her webkins, some pokemon characters, and I suggested a birthday cake picture. I didn't have to worry about the kids leaving or wandering away, and no mess and little preparation.

Happy Canada Day. We spent the day at Borden Park with 2 of my nephews and Grandma and Grandpa Burt. There was free entertainment, hot dogs, face painting, balloon animals, cotton candy and beautiful weather. Due to all the free items the lines were a bit long....so we atleast got a hot dog, and our faces painted. Due to my condition (my last month of pregnancy), we didn't stay up late an go watch the fireworks at the legislative grounds, that and Canada Day fell right in the middle of the work week, so Spener had to be at work the next day. I let the kids have a couple of sparklers in our backyard at the end of our night.

Surprise!

Well this will be a surprise to everyone, but mostly to me. This is one of my goals this year; to finally get back into the technology era again. I use to have many great skills on the computer, but since being at home and having kids that has gone-the-way of my past hobbies and interests that are put on hold for awhile. Other people with busy lives know what I'm talking about.



My next goal is to actually get a digital camera. I've never had the desire or need for one. Our other camera works just lovely, but the time will come when buying film will be a thing of the past. So having a blog and baby number 3 would constitute a good reason to get a digital camera.