An item crossed off my list

Masters Degree - check!!

I will have to write more about it, I am still processing the last year (in a good way!)

Best Friends:

We spent last night at a lovely beach house in Point Roberts with my profs and fellow students.  My kids had a blast.

-E

Loic is braver than I am (and a funny dog photo, and the garden)

Proof:

He had to have a tooth pulled yesterday.  His baby tooth wasn't coming out and his GIANT adult tooth is coming in behind the baby tooth and needs SPACE.  Off to the dentist we went, where he had it frozen (with a needle!) and pulled and didn't bat an eye??  I either cry at the dentist or hold back tears.  Or pretend I am not crying when I am but I do a poor job of it.  Go Loic go!  Like my fear of flying, I am hoping not to pass on my dread of the dentist to my kids.  So far so good - Maelle LOVES turbulence (clearly not my influence) and Loic was happy as a clam at the dentist.  

I have, however passed on many passions of mine to my kids and I have kids who happily pick up all sorts of critters and think chihuahuas are amazing :)  They also care about the feelings of others (M may be a work in progress here).  And one of my kids (go loic go!) thinks that being a scientist is amazing.  The other kid has decided that she will be a mommy or a Princess when she grows up.  Or both.  I have my work cut out for me there!!

A funny face but a happy kid!!

Today Loic and I went riding.  He sure loves Jeff all of a sudden - he spent quite a lot of time petting him while I cleaned the stall and then rode.  That horse is sure nice - he lets the kids pet him all over and is so quite when they ride him.  Loic and I dropped off the 3 dogs and Maelle with my folks while we were at the barn.  I am fairly sure she chatted my Dad's ear off all morning.

A nice horse and a nice kid!
A nice pair :)

And to end this post - my project is almost done, my info graphic is done and tomorrow night I shall proof read both.  Here is a photo of the dogs this morning, because it is funny:

THIS is how they prefer to travel in the car :)
The trunk was full so there were allowed for a short ride today

And some produce!!  I always love the garden in August, my favourites are all in season now and the stress of everything being eaten/dying that happens in the spring has passed.  Now is the time where I worry about eating it all :)

Tomatoes!  And cucumbers!!

If you know me in real life, ask me for tomatoes in the next few weeks :)  I have already frozen bags of small yellow ones and my favourite rambling red stripe tomatoes - nothing better than tossing them into sauces and lasagnas in the winter!!!  I am also almost sick of the beans but still have bags of them in the fridge and many, many more in the garden.  Feast of famine it is out there and August is a time of plenty.

- E

Beach love

We spent 5 lovely days at my Aunt's beach house - we sure love that place.
The beach was amazing as always and it was sunny right up until we had to go home - excellent time for rain!  It made the drive home better knowing it was rainy on the beach.

The kids had a blast.  They LOVE the beach, especially Loic.  That kid loves everything on the beach - he probably picked up 100 shore crabs and told us (every crab) if it was a boy or a girl - the son of a biologist :)  One afternoon while the tide was low we wadded out until I was about waist deep and we saw many, many large crabs - they were dungeness and red rock crabs.  And they were huge!  I taught our friend how to pick them up without getting hurt by the claws; Loic was THRILLED with this - he pet the ones I could grab.  He was yelling in delight at every crab sighting too!  Funny kid.  He also picked up kelp, poked at dead jellyfish and basically had a blast.

Maelle loved the beach as well although I am pretty sure her favourite activity was eating snacks on a beach chair :)  They were honestly very well behaved, played well together and were generally a joy to be with.  They also slept well after the hours a day spent playing on the beach!!  Can't beat that.

My to do list:

- hand in thesis project components on Tuesday, August 11th.  Gulp
- revise said documents and prepare a PP presentation to present on Tuesday, August 18th
- after the documents have been handed in and the presentation has been given: Masters Degree completed.  Whoa, I almost can't believe it!!
- After degree granted and UBC provides me with proof, I will then send in my papers and all associated information to hopefully get my RPBio status (Registered Professional Biologist).  This has been a 6 year road and I am super ready to get this completed.
- Finish my remaining 8 CEUs to maintain my Certified Arborist status for the next 3 years.  This is easy to do, but I am trying to find free CEUs and that is tricky.  Oh well, I have 22 done - 8 will be quick to do.

Easy peasy - right??

:) The end of my Masters degree is in sight - I learned so much in the past year, but that will be another post.

Some beach pictures to end things off!!

Beach snacker!  

So so cute!  And so happy

He also picked up many dead crabs......

Those are my two in the distance - they were really allowed to be free range kids this trip, which was so great

Friends

Boat discussion :)

-E

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