Interesting goings ons - and random pics

Things are getting interesting around here!

I am much much more mobile this week - so awesome to be off crutches.

Rob and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary last week - we had a really nice party at our house with many friends and family members here to help us celebrate.  I am pretty sure I took zero photos of the party - but it was very special.  And 3 cheers for ordering food from Save On Foods!

On Saturday Loic turned 6.  SIX!  I have no words except how did this happen??  Such a nice boy we have.

I am back at work early; I accepted a 6 week training opportunity at work in another department.  While the learning curve is steep, and I am at that awkward stage of feeling like I am not helpful/I am a hinderance to my co-workers, I know this won't last.

I start work early and leave before my family is awake - I am not sure how I feel about this.  On one hand, I like how peaceful it is and on the other hand, I miss the morning chaos slightly :)

My parents have been watching the kids for us a lot this week because Maelle's daycare is closed for a break and we didn't have a camp for Loic.  They have been spending mornings with Yma and afternoons with my folks - tomorrow is an all day affair with the grandparents.  I have a very subtle sense of peace being at work when my kids are with my parents or Rob compared to when they are at daycare or school.  It isn't a bad feeling when they are at those other places, it is more of a more peaceful feeling when they are with family.  This is something I observed myself thinking this past year.  It is more a passing thought I get during the day when I think about the kids - I am not worried about them at other places though - they do quite well at school and daycare.  Especially little miss slightly bossy :) she rules the roost at daycare that one!

Here are some garden pictures I took this week!  We are now eating a lot out of the garden and I love it.

The amazing garlic harvest!
And No - it isn't elephant garlic!!

We went to Beta 5 on the night before his birthday for ice cream sandwiches - he loved his!

Ham :)

Erin and I - 10 years ago last week!
We looked so young......
:)

My favourite tomato - Rambling Red Stripe
This plant makes so many lovely tomatoes!

A black tomato - last week people stopped to look at the garden because of this plant!

We are off on a 5 day holiday on Friday - so so SO excited!  Off to the beach :)

Oh and I have to present and hand in my thesis soon..........you know, that whole Masters Degree thing I have been doing for close to a year :)

As I said - it is interesting around our place!

-E

No more crutches (and other updates)

I got the OK last Friday to stop using my crutches!  Friday also coincided with Rob and my 10 year wedding anniversary party - I didn't take a single photo, but I think everyone had fun!  We bought a lot of food and others brought food so I didn't need to cook (something to keep in mind for all future parties!!)

I am still very slow and need to take it easy; bending down is a no no right now but at least I can make dinner freely with the use of two hands!  I got off very lucky with this injury.

This Saturday coming up Loic turns 6.  I can't quite believe I will have a 6 year old??  We are having a small party for him next Saturday - he has requested a nature/lego party.  I am going to get the kids some nets and we are going to go to the local creek to look for insects and fish.  Then, lego at our house followed by a cake.....he has requested a chocolate cake that "has dines in it and on it and when you dig in it you find dino bones" we shall see about that!!

He was at camp up Mount Seymour last week and had such a great time - I am pretty sure they hiked the kids for hours a day - he came home on the Wednesday and just crashed.  He went with his friend Ezra and they had such a nice week.  It was a good camp, full of all things nature so Loic was obviously thrilled :)

This week he is at a shorter camp closer to home with his good buddy Holden - this is the craft heavy camp so I am off the hook for crafting for a bit longer :)

Quick garden update:

- Raspberries: have been attacked by an invasive fruit fly.  I did get about half the crop but then had to cut back all of the berries and canes left :(

-Garlic: harvested and looking amazing!  Giant heads this year - super nice

-Kale: tasty, as long as I am super careful to clean off the caterpillars and aphids.....

-Green beans: will now be eating every meal at our house for a while now :)  I have 4 colours this year!

- Blueberries: as nice as last year, I even had enough to freeze some for smoothies

- tomatoes: all colours!  Starting to ripen now.  I grew a black type that is very firm and not ripe yet, interested to see how they taste

- cucumbers: just starting to ripen now!  I planted better varieties than last year

- Cantaloup:  I have two plants in that mom started, one baby cantaloup is growing and there are a lot of flowers.

-Trombonchini squash: looking good, in the back garden.  We shall see how they taste soon!

This is my last week 'off' work to finish my thesis.  I cannot believe it has been about 11 months since I have worked full time.  School was amazing and I think it will take quite some time to fully process these past 11 months.

Off to work on my project!  It has been interesting for sure - my contractor survey has so far been eye opening.

-E

General updates

My knee is feeling good, I am still not walking on it though and am using crutches to get around.  I am also not driving (the downfall of having a standard!).

I am also feeling lucky - I went to physio and the physiotherapist told me how lucky I am to have not broken other important structures in my knee.  I have a follow up Dr.'s appointment on the 17th and hope to be able to stop using my crutches then.  That would be amazing - Rob and I are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary on the 17th with a big party at our house.  I am looking forward to getting together with friends and family - and potentially not being on crutches!

Chihuahuas pre-injury, waiting to go for a walk.  I love their ears!

The kids are doing well.

Loic is at a camp this week at the Rec Centre - they are doing a lot of art projects, which is amazing, because I am not very good at crafting and Loic has very.....specific ideas about crafting.  The combination is not pretty :)  We do a lot of cool things in our family: we have lots of neat pets, we hike, we look for bugs, we have a lovely garden, we spend time with grandparents and friends, we do fun outings - but crafting is not on our list.  We can't be good at everything!!

Maelle is doing well too - she is at daycare as per the normal schedule.  She is, however, scared of crane flies which is actually entertaining - we have a few in the house most mornings.  Poor kid!  Loic has swim lessons on Thursday nights - he isn't a giant fan but are making him learn to swim for safety.  Maelle swims with Rob while Loic has his lesson, she loves the water and it is great that Rob takes her weekly.  

Ok, back to work on my thesis - needs to be done by the end of July/beginning of August!

-E

That time I broke by knee

Oh, yeah, that was 5 days ago.

A friend and I had a get in shape/try new things plan.  First soccer game: broken knee.

The actual diagnosis:
Lateral non displaced tibular plateau fracture.  Aka: messed up broken bone in a bad spot in my knee.

Which is not awesome.  Through a convoluted story, it took until day 4 for this diagnosis.  I am day 2 on crutches (not fun) and hope to be off them in 4 weeks.  Oh, and my house has a lot of stairs.  And my 3 year old is taking advantage of her non-mobile mother :)

I am lucky it wasn't a worse break.  I am lucky I could afford to pay for the MRI that diagnosed this (thanks again to Barb for paying for 1/3 of it for us!).  I am lucky to have Rob.  I am lucky Loic is such a sweet, helpful, lovely boy.  I am lucky Maelle can provide humour to this situation :)  I am lucky my folks are nearby to help.

I start a new job opportunity in a month - dear readers (all 5 of you?) please send healing thoughts to my left knee.  And maybe a small thought to make dear M slightly better behaved??  Never mind, just send good knee healing thoughts :)

Thank you.

- E