The Best Company Possible

After six full days of company, I am sitting down, rubbing my eyes drinking the biggest coffee ever.
It was the best kind of company possible.
The kind that the words and actions flow freely, the kind that brush my kids teeth after changing the others diaper. The kind that get up with and feed Jace breakfast giving me an extra full hour in bed. The kind that drink coffee and eat good food and happily sit at my kitchen table all day. The kind that have known me for the better part of my life and despite the fact that they wave to me from Aritizia while I'm kicking it at Old Navy, can still be some of my best friends ever. Also, the kind that is my mom and well, she is just the best kind.



First it was Tyler and Jen and when it comes to my brothers and the few and far between visits, I will take what I can get. It was a pass through visit that my kids and I are grateful for.

Then it was Hummel and Cartwright. I couldn't even guess when the last time we spent three whole days alone together.... before my wedding possibly? A long time... For three whole days they loved on my kids, watched me in my element and made the nicest comments like You make having two kids look easy... ummm they didn't see the post-visit meltdowns.



These girls knew me in our learning to drive standard days, my wearing-a-sweatshirt-from-MarksWorkWearhouse was going out clothes days (photographic evidence not required, it was that bad), my partying prime days, my early marital-bliss (hahaha) days and now in my motherhood days.



I have said it before and I will say it again... I love nothing more than having my people from home, in my home. It's like my worlds colliding and there is something so comfortable and comforting and heartwarming about it.



We laughed ohmygod SO much, stayed up late(r than my normal bed time! haha) and I wanted them to stay forever. We have been through many many years, through breakups, laughs, fights, backpacking trips, bachelorette parties, hours long phone calls, deaths and weddings.



We have come out on top. Our lives have sometimes strayed from each others, but we all know. We know.



I love those girls like sisters and they know there will always be a single bed or couch free for them if they need it.



It comes with a naked two year old (omg almost three year old) but they are obvs cool with it.
Thanks Cartwright and Hummel for making the trip out. We love love loved having you and wish you could come back next week.

Last was my Mom. Too short of a visit. Period. (but truth be told, no matter how long the visit, its ALWAYS too short. Heh)



We miss you already Nannie.

I'm tired. But feeling grateful like you would not believe.

I'm Going To Miss This

Every morning she sits at the coffee table on the little blue chair from my Grannies house, no p.j's on, eating a peanut butter sandwich and drinking milk while she watches tv.
We sing songs like Wild One and Firework and Take A Back Road and Need You Now, all day. And we dance.
She can't go near a pool without stripping down and getting in.
I used to be able to talk like her... you know, mimic the way she said things - like taint you (thank you) and peanit buttit fandich (peanut butter sandwich) . But she hardly ever messes words up anymore. Now she just says things properly.
She breaks off pieces of her toast and hands them to him.
He points for the things he wants and we can tell by the size of his smile when he really wants something.
She mindlessly brushes her hair out of her eyes.
I wake up to the two of them laughing hysterically in their room. It is truly the most magical sound to hear first thing in the morning and I wonder to myself how long they have been awake and playing together.
He tries to take her sandwiches from her in the morning and she just patiently holds them over her head without taking her eyes off the tv, until he leaves her alone. Sometimes she calls for help.
She defends her space when she doesn't want people in it. She defends his even more fiercely, like his protector. I hope this never ends.
She teaches him things, like how to say her name (he doesn't do it yet) and how to play peek-a-boo. He watches her with amazement.
She takes what he has. We make her "trade" rather than "take". He doesn't seem to care.
She rolls on him and pins him down to tickle him. The guttural noise he makes - it's hard to tell if he's gasping for breath or laughing. It's almost always laughing.
We look at eachother and say things like 'how did we get so lucky?' and 'they actually do love eachother'  and 'she is the best big sister' and 'our kids are so smart' and we wonder if every parent thinks those things about their kids. Of course they do.
He crawls faster when he knows we are coming and he's going somewhere he shouldn't. Like the bathroom.
He stands on his tippy toes to reach the mouse on the computer desk and the dvd player. He totally ignores us when we tell him to stop. Selective deafness, he has it.
She asks close to a million questions, all the freaking time, about every freaking thing. 



She is almost always naked.
He is almost always smiling.

These things are going to end one day.....

....I'm going to miss them. 

Summer

We are in a really great place right now.
We have a good system going. We seem to be balancing getting shit done with afternoons at the park and fishing and bbq's. We are staying caught up with everyday things and getting non-everyday things done as well.





The kids are happy. I am rested. Brian is good. We are doing a little less going out and a little more staying home.


Totally epic bubbles. Thanks Trudy!
 


Our garden is growing effortlessly. There are weeds mixed in with delicious beet greens and lettuce heads that are ready to eat. The peas are thisclose to being ready and we are all impatiently waiting for that. Maizey and I quietly work side by side in the garden, me in my place, her in hers. She quietly digs while I quietly tend, only stopping to answer whether she can pull or not. She is getting it and it makes my gardening heart swell. She can play in her 'garden' (the bed that will eventually be home to a beautiful perennial garden but currently sits empty) for, literally, hours.





Brian is working tirelessly on our home. We are both ready to put this project to bed. Soon, we keep saying. Soon it will be done, knowing full well that a home is never really done. I guess soon it won't be all we think about, would be more accurate.





We welcomed the hot sun with open arms. We were ready to say goodbye to the rain and the dismal moods it brought with it. The air conditioner we bought at the end of last summer has proven to be the single most amazing purchase we have ever made.



We play outside all day and come inside to a cool house at the end. Heaven.
Our nap time and meal time fights seem to be persistent and I feel as though they may never end.
Her hilarious antics seem to make us forget the moments that are less than perfect (much much much less than perfect).







We seem to be swimming with this current with ease. Summer time and the livin's easy.

Why I Suck At Being A Hipster

Ever since the movie Wedding Crashers came out I have desperately wanted a vintage bike, because seriously, how cute was it when Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson were riding along side by side, her in a classic skirt, him in khakis and old man sweater.
 I maybe wanted that to be Brian and Me.
Just a little.
I always said I would look at garage sales for one and I talked about it every year when bike season came along and I still didn't have one. Little did I know that a few years later, vintage bikes would be all the rage and I would be left in the dust.
It is so the hipster thing to do, ride a vintage bike.
Saying you wanted to do it before it became popular is also a hipster thing to do. 
And wearing fake, thick rimmed glasses.
Which I have ALWAYS wanted to do.
I did get my vintage bike this year. My Ang happened to have one in the shed at her cabin. It used to belong to her mom when she was a kid and hadn't been ridden in, I don't know, like, 30 years or something. I paid a guy $100 to make it work again and he did, mostly.


 
The problem is, it needs  a whole new rear hub and due to it's age and obscurity, one has not been found (did you like that, hipsters?). I've ridden it a few times, against the bike shop guys advice and almost died the last time.
That is so NOT a hipster thing to do.
Actually the irony of it just might make it hipster after all.
Last week, we got new phones. Normally I am against all purchases of anything technology related because the advances in technology are so fast that no matter what there is always something better-faster-bigger-smarter so I think we just shouldn't try. Brian doesn't agree, and after a lot of convincing I finally gave in when Instagram came out for Androids.
Screw you Apple.
See? Not hipster enough.
But then I went and tried to be all hipster with my fancy Instagram app on my fancy "smart phone".
I sat down with my almond milk-half caff- double steamed- half sweet- triple shot -dirty chai , tapped gently on the fancy little camera icon and eloquently held my brand spanking new phone over top of my mug. I strained my neck up to get a better look at the screen, because these coffee shots, the placement of the cup in the photo is nothing if not theeee most important part. I adjusted accordingly and being careful not to hit the stupidly placed and incredibly sensitive back button, I inexpertly tried to slide my finger across the screen to hit the capture button, as my much-too-fat-for-a-touch-screen fingers moved, my fragile and thin phone in my unsteady, not used to this piece of technology hands slipped and as if in slow motion, totally fell right into my coffee.
I grabbed it quickly and wiping freshly frothed foam on my pants I jumped, laughing, to quickly grab napkins and start wiping. I cleaned it off and blew some foam out of a hole that I don't even know what it does.
And then I called Brian and told him this is why I can't have nice things.
Also, it was totally a regular latte. I am so not hipster enough to drink that shit.
But for the record, I have pictures of my feet circa 2003. So that means I totally did that before it was popular. 

Canada Day 2012

Much like Canada Day last year, well past 10pm I put my ketchup covered, dirty footed, grass stained, middle of an epic meltdown, exhausted little girl to bed and went to bed loving my family, friends and life.









We celebrated Canada Day with our friends, at the parade, in the park with the rest of the town and in our backyard over beer, burgers and sparklers.



And cupcakes.



And with Chelseas super awesome water slide.





This has become the new normal. We laughed about possibly sneaking into the beer gardens for one quick one, but the need to keep all eyes on kids that blended in with the other million kids in red t-shirts trumped.







We huddled under giant trees to stay dry but stuck it out until the rain stopped and shortly after that Mother Nature got her act together and sent that little lady, the Sun, out to shine down on us for the rest of the day.









The water was still cold and the sun not that warm, but the kids didn't seem to mind, so blue lips and all, they slid and slid and splashed and slid for hours.







While the rest of us ate and drank and made jokes at every song that came on the radio's expense. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun we are. Ha.











And when a night ends with sparklers, you know it's been a good one.



Thanks Friends for celebrating with us, and to our Friends that couldn't - we missed you all!