Eleven now...

My eldest child is eleven. I'm not sure when it all happened, but it did. Right under my nose. Olivia's a very quiet, thoughtful and happy girl. She's an amazing writer and has the singing voice of an angel. She loves playing with her younger sister and tolerates her brother.

Instead of a typical birthday party, we decided to treat her to a trip back to her birthplace....Ottawa. She was thrilled and we had a great weekend of catching up with dear friends and discovering the very chilly Nation's capital.

Here are some snaps:

From 2008December

On the plane.

From 2008December

Enjoying a Beavertail and Hot Chocolate.

From 2008December

Viewing the lights in the downtown....beautiful, but freezing!

From 2008December

Parliament all decorated with snowflakes....my finger started to freeze to the camera by this point, so I was having challenges getting a clear shot in the dark, etc.

From 2008December

Hard to see Olivia and Chris by Centennial flame in front of parliament...but I know they're there!

From 2008December

Chris and Olivia bonding in the restaurant...

From 2008December

Shopping with her birthday money in the Rideau Centre. She was thrilled with her new jacket and really didn't take it off!

From 2008December

The travellers in the IMAX theatre waiting for the show.

From 2008December

Olivia in Heiroglyphs.

From 2008December

The camel at the Museum of Civilization.

From 2008December

Putting on a puppet show for me.

From 2008December

Being preened by some close friends of ours.

From 2008December

Our hostess with the mostess and her skinny tree...they're very in, just like skinny jeans.

From 2008December

In the library of Parliament.

From 2008December

The Peace Tower.

What fun we had.

Beautiful girls...

The sisters are growing so quickly. It's hard to fathom those toddler days now. Olivia is nearly 11 and Meredith is 9. Meredith is happily wearing Olivia's Aztec headdress from a recent project. She wore it around the house for three days I think.

Both girls still get along so well and are each other's best friend. May it never change.

Winter has arrived!

Late November has brought the snow of winter and the kids couldn't be happier. They've already had some good sledding time and it isn't even December yet. Sounds like the snow will be short-lived, so we'll see when we get the next dumping...

Findlay as Popcorn

I'm not sure what inspired Findlay to come up with this for his costume, but I was just so glad that he chose something other than a Transformer, which was his original idea. He was so proud to help create the costume and I was pretty pleased with how well it turned out. Definitely a worthwhile costume idea for future. What a cutie he is.

He wondered why we all kept staring at him, and we were just all so pleased with how well it turned out!

From halloween

From halloween

From halloween

Trick or treat....where have all the goblins gone?

We made it through another Halloween, and I was really happy to have the festivities on a Friday. It was so nice to know the kids didn't have to go into school the following day and I think the teachers feel the same!

Our troop was excited to go around with Daddy in his very scary Mummy costume. I stayed at home waiting for the doorbell to ring, but we only had about 12 kids! Where have the goblins gone? While it was nice to read my book relatively uninterrupted, it was also a bit disconcerting.

I guess the times are changing...or the kids are going somewhere else?

From halloween

Rare moments with Stevens cousins...

I've always been so proud to be a Stevens. Many have only known me as a Tulloch, but that was simply a name change. Cosmetic. A shift from one letter of the alphabet to the next.

I was so proud of all of my older siblings. They seemed so funny, smart and together when I was still growing up. In fact, they're still all those things and more. While my pride in my family is strong, busy lives have made it challenging to keep the family connection as strong.

I was thrilled to recently get together some of the Stevens cousins for a sleepover/playdate on an inservice day. The kids had a great time and it was so nice for the cousins to rekindle the connection, because then the Stevens connection is a little stronger for them.

Here's a pic of our very fun day... showing off our crafting adventure.

From stevensgrandgirls

Less time for introspection...

It seems that more than a month has passed since my last post. I think facebook has sucked away some of my blogging time, which is OK in many ways. FB is more interactive for me, whereas the blog is more of a chronicling and I'm not sure how many enjoy it outside of the inner circle.

But my post is more of an acknowledgement of the loss of time. We all know about it. How youth is wasted on the young, etc. With each year, those revelations strike me more and more. Even at 38 I think I do a good job of time-wasting. It never seems that I'm doing what I feel I SHOULD be doing. How does that happen?

When I'm working, I often miss out on something that I should be helping my kids with at school. When I'm helping my kids or volunteering at the school, I feel I'm neglecting my work, and when I'm stealing away for a moment to have my own time...well that just feels wrong, but I convince myself that I'm supposed to do it!

When I go anywhere with all three kids, people often observe how busy I must be. I always tell them that I was much busier when the two girls were very young. That was craziness of a different kind. One thing I'm noticing though, about that period in my life, is that I had time. A lot of it. While nursing someone, you could think out and plan your day or week or vacation in the summer.....whatever struck you, because you had time. While the kids were content playing on their own...I always stole away and managed to accomplish a lot more than I seem to now.

So where has all that time gone?

I'm not really sure, but I think I gave much of it away without realizing what I was doing. So while I am busy, it's a level of busy that I'm OK with for now...but I'd just like more time back to finish the other stuff that the busy seems to consume!

Has any of this made sense? Perhaps not, but I'm glad I took the time to lament the time. BTW...don't forget to change the time on the weekend!

My youngest...

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

It's been a couple of weeks now that Findlay's been in school and while he's not thrilled with the daily grind that is "big school", he goes without too much fuss. I think part of his resistance to going, is that he knows that some of the freedom that he had before is gone.

Something that has helped to get him out the door in the mornings for the last two days has been riding his bike to school. When I saw him ride ahead of me on the way to school, I flashed back to the days when I would walk the girls to the same school with Findlay in the backpack on my back! While I don't miss those days, I marvelled that we're already onto the days I had thought would never come.

Time will tell if he becomes the story teller and book worm that Olivia is, or the hard worker and math whiz that Meredith is, or if school just isn't going to be his thing. What has struck me about his first weeks of school, is how much he enjoys music. Both of his parents are musical, so it's not a surprise that he would be interested, but so often we overlook that interest for him.

I just look forward to helping him nurture his passions, whatever they may become.

I love my clothes line....

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

I remember in my youth when my mother was on a mission to get clothes onto the clothes line. Of course in my domestic ignorance, I didn't get it. Even once I started doing my own laundry, I didn't get it. But then, children came along and while with one child I did a little more laundry, the clothes line didn't have the magic that it does for me now.

With two very young children living in an apartment and doing endless loads of laundry using a coin-operated washer and dryer, I finally got it. Of course at that time, I didn't have it (a line, that is).

When we moved into our house there was already a clothes line. This excited me.

When life gets busy, we often no longer take the time to consider the weather and whether it's a good "line day". In my mother's generation, your day was determined by the weather. If it was a good "line day", you found something that needed laundering and did it. You bleached diapers using the sunlight.

Based on what we're doing to our planet, we should start considering the weather and whether it's a good "line day". I'm trying to, and I feel such a sense of pride and accomplishment after putting the puzzle of laundry out on my line (because of the rocks, it's important to hang things in a certain order to avoid dragging). I don't get that same feeling when I throw things in the tumble-squeaker (our dryer now has an annoying squeak that is likely the sign of it's coming demise).

The one thing that my clothesline can't do very well is remove the cat hair from our bed covers....but we're the ones who chose to live with cat hair in the first place.

Maybe after reading this, you'll feel inspired to hang your clothes outside for that fresh-air smell. A well-hung clothes line really is a work of art.

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

Always underfoot...or arm...or on-lap

Our senior cat Mouse, likes us. He likes us so much, that at any opportunity for a lap...he's there. Here he's enjoying some quality warmth time with Andrew at the computer. It's the next best thing to the lap for him. Kind of the same idea as when they lie down on the paper. Cats are great....except for the other one we have. He's just crazy.

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

First day of school!!!

What an exciting day. Everyone was thrilled to be going to school...but Meredith and Findlay had too many butterflies in their stomachs to eat much of anything. Hopefully they've recovered and are eating a big lunch now as I post this!

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

Findlay on his first day of school....

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

More happy campers....

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

Happy to be back in Canada!!!!

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

Story Land

The kids enjoyed a venture to Story Land while the Moms shopped. A much better way to keep everyone amused!

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

The non-shoppers of North Conway...

I think Andrew's eyes started to water the moment we entered TJ Maxx. He's just not a shopper.

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

Neither is Findlay....

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

The campers of Conway Lake

We enjoyed camping at Conway Lake. We referred to it as "Cul de Sac camping" as we were all around a big circle and quite close together, but it was a reasonable price and there wasn't much available for the long weekend when we were booking. It worked well from a traffic perspective as we never had to go far to get to the shops!

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

Leaving from Fredericton

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

Departing early from Fredericton to get to the US!

Final Summer Road Trip!

We headed to North Conway with the Falcon Run Tullochs for some back to school shopping and a camping trip all in one. It turned out to be fabulous weather (compared to home) and some good deals were found on the shopping front. The drive was long for all of us, so we're really looking forward to the day when teletransport is an option!

Here are some shots of the weary travellers....

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

Keigan squinting his eyes from the sun...

From 2008lateAugustearlySeptember

A whirlwind summer...

It's been a summer that has zoomed by. The kids have been busy with a number of activities and our schedule was a little too...well, scheduled! I've fallen off of my resolve to take lots of summertime pictures and am annoyed that I missed much of August with the camera.

All of us are looking forward to school...although I'm pretty sure Findlay hasn't a clue what awaits him. I haven't been able to get anything of substance done around the house or for work over the entire summer...so I'm hoping productivity will be what defines the month of September. I can always hope.

A late summer cold seems to have hit our household, so while I'm not knocked out by any stretch...I feel well-below par.

In spite of my complaints and laments...I'm so lucky to be doing what I am. My kids are healthy and happy and they still like me most of the time! That's got to count for a lot. Why is it when we're counting our blessings that we're also waiting for the bottom to fall out at the same time? Is it human nature, or just the Canadian way? So many research studies that I have topics for....but of course no interest in actually conducting them...that's for other people!

Meredith and Ginger

Meredith enjoyed a little cuddle time with the Temples new guinea pigs. She wasn't so sure about them after Ginger bit her finger though.

Olivia's new glasses

Olivia recently got new glasses and she is so thrilled to be able to see. We're not sure how long life had been fuzzy for her, but the day she got the glasses it was as though her head was on a swivel....so we're so happy she can see again!

The Porsche is back...

After waiting a month from the purchase date, Andrew was finally able to drive the Porsche home to enjoy his new toy.

Yoga for Cats...

My sister-in-law Shelly gave me a book a while back called Yoga for Cats, and I had to chuckle when I saw Axel cozy up on my Yoga mat. I have enjoyed learning a little bit of Yoga recently and I look forward to going to classes regularly....someday.