Home of the Brit

New Year.....New Hopes

2012-01-12T22:37:00.000-08:00

Well here we are ....... 2012 ....... who'd have thunk it! I hope you all had blessed Christmas' spent with family and loved ones. I hope you had small moments of wonderful luxury, and moments of unending thankfulness.

We had a great Christmas and surprised my sister's family on Boxing Day by catching the 7am ferry and driving straight to Kelowna to hang out with the fam. Good times!

Then New Year's we spent at our friend's "wigs and stache's" party. I had a hot fuschia wig, Darrell wore a paper moustache. Yep, this is how we roll.

No New Year's resolutions at my end, but my eating habits have changed dramatically for another reason I'll go into on another post. So I anticipate getting healthier via food changes and if there's weight loss involved as a by-product then I can handle it ;)

Concert!

2011-12-21T22:27:00.000-08:00

Saturday night, Dec. 17th.
Prince concert.
2 1/2 hours solid stellar funk awesomeness.
Nuff said!

Cake Pops!

2011-12-14T22:44:00.000-08:00

The kids and I had a great fun baking party last night together. Both of them had Classroom Christmas parties today and needed to take something in to share. Zachary decided he wanted to make a chocolate cake - completely from scratch he made the cake, made the icing and decorated the whole thing. Then Brooklyn and I were wanting for a while to try some Cake Pops from the Bakerella Cake Pops book. They were Santa hats and although not as smooth and perfect as the originals, we thought they turned out pretty good!

Hospitals - Done!

2011-11-28T06:54:00.000-08:00

I am done with hospitals. For the year. Seriously.

In fact, I don't think I have ever before been so looking forward to a New Year's Eve, simply because it will signal the start of a new year in which I hope to never see the inside of a hospital. In May I was back and forth to the hospital in Saanichton to visit my sick Grandad who passed away that month. At the beginning of the Fall I was in and out visiting my Grandma with her broken hip. We have now charted 4 ER visits with Zachary still without complete diagnosis. They think arthritis but we're praying against that. And then at 1:15pm this morning the ambulance arrived to take my husband to the hospital for back pain so intense he could not get up off of the floor.

So, I think I've filled my quota. Really. And if anyone argues with me about this I think I will refer you to the ER admission clerk or the lady at Tim Horton's who just yell out "Hi Rachel!" now when I walk through the front door.

Still, there is always a positive side to my life and in mine it's the fact that the Christmas season is here! For all who know me they know that I l-o-o-o-o-v-e Christmas! All of our decorations are up minus the tree because we always get a real one. I've got a cookie exchange next Monday and the school Christmas concert later that week. AND for the first time in ages I am well on my way through the Christmas shopping! 9 presents done as well as some stocking stuffers. aaaaghhhhh..... big sigh of relief........

AND TO BOOT - I got the best smoking deal of the Black Friday weekend; a Cake Cricut machine on sale from $450 for FIFTY BUCKS !!!!!!! That's right you heard me ..... $50 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prepare for some sweet cake experimentation to come........

http://www.cricut.com/cake/Home.aspx

Life thus far.......

2011-11-21T22:45:00.000-08:00

So it seems that blog posts have been few and far between lately. That's for a couple of reasons really. Time has not been my friend the last few months..... My Grandma broke her left hip and as I'm the only family member on the island there have been lots of days spent in the hospital or driving Grandma from here to there, talking with her nurses etc. Coupled with this, Zachary has had a few stints in the ER with weird inflammation. The bottom line right now is we have an appointment with the Rheumatoid Specialist to see if he has arthritis. Hard to believe about a 12 year old, but we'll see how it goes. Prayers are valued and not refused!

Other than that I've spent a bit of time ramping up the cake business. I decided it was time to invest a bit more time into it; not the kind of time that involves opening a bakery but definitely being more proactive with advertising, marketing etc. I've done a couple of trade shows and bridal fairs and the feedback has been great! (Click "Like" on the Rachel~Cakes facebook page and be entered to win a dozen cupcakes!)

And as for Christmas prep, the decorations are already a-plenty. I've been decorating a bit here and there for the last week and a half, and it should all be wrapped up by next week. Doing it all at once is just too exhausting!

My 4 Year Old Nephew has rhythm!

2011-10-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

Check out my nephew Jack!

This guy has serious rhythm !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2-GJ5Xrbx4&feature=email

Gene Simmons - a lesson in history

2011-10-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

I never would have thought that an episode of Gene Simmons - Family Jewels would have brought me to tears. But I have to say, if you have never seen the episode where he and Shannon Tweed visit Amsterdam, I would highly recommend that you watch it.

In it you learn that Gene was born in Israel, to Jewish parents. I don't want to spoil it if you get the chance to see this episode, but I WILL tell you that his visit to the Anne Frank house was so emotional that it made me cry.

It's true. Some of our parents and grandparents represent history that should not be forgotten. Watch it if you can.

Hungry.

2011-10-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting around to watching Julie and Julia (Meryl Streep as Julia Childs - amazing!), and all I can say is, I'm suddenly hungry and I MISS French cooking. And I don't mean French Fries, or the odd French item you may have had in a restaurant. I mean the down-to-earth, eating at a French person's kitchen French cooking. I miss the meals that took 3 hours to eat, with their courses separated by fresh sorbets and complimented by fine wines. And as I can't afford to fly back there anytime soon, perhaps I'll just have to settle for cooking up a Beef Bourginoine and cracking open a nice Merlot..........

Rachel is back on Facebook! well.... kinda.....

2011-09-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

I should say, Rachel~Cakes is on facebook! I am still not planning on re-entering the world of 'friends' and 'messages' BUT my business is ! So feel free to 'like' my page! You know.... if you actually like my page .... It seems I had to create a profile (which I was trying to avoid) in order to create a page. But I plan to really only work off of the page and keep it strictly business.

In other news - Brooklyn tried a chocolate brownie recipe we have never tried before and I'm not lying when I say this. BEST BROWNIE TO COME OUT OF MY KITCHEN. EVERRRRR !!! It densified (is that a word?) once it cooled and was like a bite of fudge-ie heaven. Delish.

Other than that the only news here is the horribly windy, rainy day we see before us here in Victoria. Summer was definitely not long enough. Oh well. Alive, happy and healthy so really have nothing to complain about. Happy Fall Y'all :)

Two Little Girls, some avocado and some polish!

2011-08-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

Richmond Day Spa

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Full Circle

2011-07-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

In addition to marking the last day of this year's Nanoose Bay Teen Camp, Saturday July 23rd marked an even more momentous day here in Victoria. It was the day my flower girl, Rebecca Woods, got married! And I had the privilege of making her wedding cake (see cakes blog to the right...)

What a full-circle moment this was. Very beautiful the wedding was held at Hatley Castle and the reception at the Naval Base Wardroom. Delicious food, beautiful surroundings and beautiful bride. Congratulations Rebecca & John!!!

September 18th, 1993 and July 23rd, 2011

New Music!

2011-06-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

Adele's Album - 21

I can't get enough of this album. No SERIOUSLY can't get enough. It's on my computer at work, in my car, on my stereo at home, on our Mac at home, and now on my daughter's ITouch. I'm surprised that in the short month I've had it that I haven't killed the original CD. If someone ever told me I could sing that well I would consider my life completed.

check it out if you haven't already

Their Royal Highnesses!

2011-05-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

Yes - I do love the Royal Family.
No - not everyone from England agrees with me.
Yes - I do realize that their meaning in modern-day culture has greatly dwindled.
But No - I don't think that means we should get rid of them.!

Here is the thing - whether you are a monarchist or not, if you are English the Royal Family has been part of your life and lives of your ancestors for as long as you have been alive. This means that they have been mentioned in media, sited at the Village Green and discussed at the Local Pub since you were born and long before.

So for me, if there is a Royal Wedding to watch, I shall be watching.
Which brings me to the most FABULOUS breakfast I attended this past Friday morning with my sweet friend Jill. She could be considered more of a Royalist than myself as she has actually met Prince Charles and Camilla in person. And in fact it was she that told me of this glorious event which we decided we just must attend.

The Empress Hotel was hosting a Rise 'n Shine British Breakfast Buffet with the Royals and we were not going to be left out on the streets hungry! This is why we joined 400 other crazy people to be at the Empress Hotel in the tearoom and enjoy a buffet breakfast while watching the wedding unfold on various big screen TV's.

The breakfast included every british fave menu item - baked beans, mushrooms, eggs made to order, bangers and bacon and .... a fave of mine.... kippers! It was amazing and of course the teapot just kept-a-flowing. Add to that the excitement of being interviewed by Global TV and you have a morning to remember. We ate from 2:30am until 5:30am (as one does....) and I even made it home in time to take the kids to school. It was a sweet wedding, watched with a sweet friend, and a delicious breakfast.

So I say raise your glass to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Princess Catherine. In this day and age when gloomy news abounds, it is nice to have something positive to look upon. Even if it is across the ocean. Long Live the Queen !!

Recognize anyone in the video below?http://www.globaltvbc.com/video/index.html

The REAL reason the Canucks had to beat the Blackhawks!

2011-04-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

Back when it was a no-brainer that the Canucks would make it through the first round (!!!) Zachary had a birthday. April 14th. And because it was a WHEN kind of question, and not an IF question, his birthday card contained this special 'ticket':

Well, after they lost 3 straight games to Chicago, Zachary's face fell and he suddenly looked at me in a panic as he said "What were you going to give me if they DON'T make it through?" HAHA!
Poor guy - we had NO BACKUP PLAN! Because we didn't think we'd need it.... fortunately thanks to Mr. Burrows I believe we are back on track.

Happy Birthday Son !

2011-04-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

Today is my baby boy's 12th Birthday ! Happy Birthday Zachary !

Twelve years has flown by in the space of a nano-second. I know that every parent says that and I know that it drives every non-parent crazy. But it seriously is the truth. They grow up and you just can't believe where the time has gone (like the fact that as I'm writing this particular paragraph it is now 4 days AFTER his birthday a
nd I still haven't finished this post!)

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So I wanted to just have a little display of pictures dedicated to the boy with the sweetest disposition I know. Yes he can play cops and robbers with the best of them, but on a day-to-day basis I am simply left marveling at his precious little personality. How his dimple can make me smile and wish he was a baby all over again so I could hold him so close that he could never let go. How he makes everyone in our family laugh their heads off at his funny anecdotes quick wit. And how whenever he sees the frustration on my face as a result of something he has done, he instantly hangs his head and says "I'm sorry Mummy" in a way that just melts my heart.

I love you little man.
Happy Birthday!

Spring Break...... neglectful parenting ?

2011-04-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

So our kids always get 2 weeks Spring Break and frankly, it's a bit of a nuisance. While other parents (from what they've told us) have taken their kids to Hawaii, Mexico and down-south, we took our kids to Thrifty's for groceries, and the bank to withdraw their allowance. And that was AFTER we were done working. So yes, there were a couple of days they were left to their own devices to keep themselves busy for the day.

Both Darrell & I had to work the entire first week and a half as it is the busiest season in both jobs in March so holiday was out. But after the guilt had set in as we let other families take our kids to the movies, swimming and over for playdates, we did manage to take 2 days off this week and get them to Vancouver for a night. We stayed at the River Rock Casino and Resort which is a beautiful hotel with a great swimming pool and waterslide. I hit up Forever 21 yesterday with Brooklyn then we all hit up IKEA for a quick 45 minute visit. Thank you oh Sweden for free kids meals during Spring Break week !!

Some may say 24 hours is not enough to treat your kids to a getaway but as we laughed while watching Zachary canonball into the pool, and Brooklyn wondering what BEST SALAD tasted like at the Dinner Buffet (it was BEET!) I would beg to differ.

Family Moments. Sometimes they are long, sometimes they are short. But they're always worth catching whenever possible.

Hair

2011-03-01T12:04:00.001-08:00

Ever noticed how sometimes you have the best hair days 2 days before you're scheduled to get a haircut ??? huh.....

Great Deal!

2011-02-28T07:29:00.000-08:00

You want to know what really makes me smile?

Seeing boots in the Boxing week for $60 and thinking that was too much.
Finding out this week they were on sale for $50.
Then going to the store and seeing a pricetag of $45.
THEN seeing the big yellow sticker saying final 50% of lowest price.

Yes. Easily pleased.

Valentine's Weekend and someone's birthday.....

2011-02-20T14:15:00.000-08:00

I'm combining a few things together in one post because I don't want to assume for even a moment that you hang on everything we do over here in Richmond-land. So this will save the pain and condense it for you ;)

First of all - last weekend - LOTS OF FREE FUN! And I mean free. Darrell's work had a conference he had to attend for one of his suppliers. It was a big all-expense paid for shindig so I decided to tag along and benefit from a free hotel in Vancouver. The kids went to the in-laws and we hit the ferry. Ferry and breakfast - paid for by the company. Upon arrival Darrell went straight to the convention at the River Rock Casino Resort (beautiful room; a suite) and I met up with a friend and caught the Skytrain to downtown. Rewind to last year's Olympics; us being skytrain rookies bought our first ever tickets from the guy on the ferry for BC transit for a day. We did not realize, however, that you have to validate your tickets and instead rode the skytrain all day long for free. Upon realizing we were illegal riders, I decided to keep those tickets for a rainy day so last week had a free skytrain ticket!

Fastforward to the Pacific Centre - somehow in 3 hours I saw nothing I wanted to buy so instead decided to treat my friend to Starbucks and call it day. This was paid for by a gift card leftover from Christmas. When I got back to the hotel the cocktail hour started, followed by a gourmet 3 course gala dinner. By the time we went to bed that night we had spent a whole day in Vancouver with shopping and beautiful food and not spent a penny! (We did, however, make up for it at the Vancouver boat show and IKEA the following day....)

Then Monday night - ELTON JOHN! Darrell and I had dinner with our friend Jeni at a Japanese restaurant before meeting Jeni's husband Aaron at the concert. AWESOME! He played for 3 hours solid, never left the stage and sung and played wicked piano for the entire time. Incredible. If you ever get a chance to see him I would highly recommend it.

Lastly, Zachary's teacher had a birthday the previous Friday so he volunteered me to make the birthday cake (surprise....). ALL he could tell me about his teacher was that he was in charge of tech at the school, he once played basketball and he owned a dog. Ok. It's not much to go on and I don't have much time to bang this out but here ya go Zachary.....

A Cake for Every Occasion

2011-02-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

Most of my cake updates are blogged on my Cake website, but this one deserved some special attention so I'm also writing about it here. Not special because the cake was of Duff or Buddy-calibre particularly, but because of the history behind the person the cake was for.

This client ordered a wedding cake from me a couple of years ago for a wedding at the Fireside Grill. The bride on that day, due to the busyness that is common at a wedding, didn't actually get a taste of her own wedding cake.

As a result her husband gave the most romantic gesture when a year later he commissioned me to recreate the top layer of his wife's wedding cake to present her as a surprise on their first wedding anniversary weekend away.

Well this week the bride's Mum ordered a baby shower cake as the happy couple are expecting a little bundle in the very near future. The inspiration for the cake was a Sims-like owl, and the browns, greens and blues you see on the owl are a reflection of the baby's nursery colours and the quilt the Mum made for her grandchild.

The owl itself was made out of chocolate.

Congrats you guys on the nearly-here new arrival. It's been a privilege to have been a part of so many milestone moments in your lives together.

Snowy Fun at Midnight!

2011-01-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

Ok. Don't judge me.
I know my children are only 9 and 11 years old but the choice we made last night resulted in family memories we'll have forever.

We had quite a heavy snowfall last night. It was a Tuesday which is when our Bible study meets at our house so around 9:30pm or so once everyone had gone, the kids got in their PJ's and into their beds, and I did a bit of kitchen cleanup before heading downstairs to jump on the treadmill. By this time it was quite thick outside and someone had rung the house to say Haliburton was closed by the police because someone slipped into the highway etc.

Fastforward to 10:40pm. Darrell is playing hockey and due home within 20 minutes and I’m 5 minutes away from the end of my run so running quite hard. We get a power outage....while I’m running on the treadmill! Imagine that !! It actually could have been a little dangerous because my machine came to quite a quick stop but not quickly enough to jar me or cause any injury so for that built-in-slow-down mechanism, I'm grateful.

The kids, however, weren’t totally asleep (excitement about the possibility of finally using their new sleds the following day) and suddenly Brooklyn got a bit scared so I made my way upstairs and lit candles everywhere and told them they could come out of bed and watch the snow through the windows by candlelight with me (aahhh).

Well 20 mins. later Darrell gets home from hockey and says he’s a bit hungry. And I was feeling a bit disappointed that I couldn’t have any tea after my shower (which, incidentally, was in the dark but lit by Brooklyn holding a flashlight shining at an angle at the bathroom mirror which completely lit up the shower stall - genius!)

SOOOO – we all got into his truck and we drove to Tim Horton’s in our jammies !!!! The kids thought it was awesome; we are sitting at Timmy’s at midnight in our pj’s (except Darrell who explained that as he was paying, he was not held to the same jammies-requirement), eating donuts, drinking tea and are the only other people in there except the workers from BC Hydro!!!! Haha

Shockingly though, in town today the snow is all gone as it didn’t freeze and then started to rain in the middle of the night. So my children, who I’m sure thought there’d be no school today, will be more than zonked by the day's end.

I am just hoping that the giggles that ensued as we looked at each other in our flannels and housecoats, will far surpass one day's exhaustion :)

Crazy 40th Birthday !

2010-12-30T00:10:00.000-08:00

Well Merry Christmas blog readers! I hope you had a wonderful time shared with friends and/or family. December is always a crazy time around the Richmond/Turner household. Largely because there are also 6 family birthdays in the same month! SO I generally just hand everyone my chequebook from December's paycheques and have at 'er !!

But this year was a little unusual as it was .... my ...... 40th BIRTHDAY !!!! YAHOOOOOOO !!!!

Now I realize that 'yahoo' might not be the most normal reaction to someone's 40th birthday but I was PUMPED to turn 40. Crazy I know. Especially as I was bummed out to turn 30. But there are a few differences. At 30 I was pregnant with my second baby and had only just started a regular exercising routine 2 years before when my son was born. I wasn't as fit as I am now at 40. I was healthy, but not as fit. And I feel like I became myself in my 30's so now at 40 I am who I was meant to be. As I started my 30's there was still that sense of "but who will I become?.....will I be successful? will I be anything other than what I am right now?"

But now at 40 I feel like I am my whole-self. I love my life and am completely happy and at peace about who I am and what I do. I feel like I've found a good balance between family, work and social life. And the ironic thing is ..... I still have the exact same job I did when I turned 30 !!! Or at least the same type of job with the same employer (UVIC). But I am a woman who is thrilled to be the mother of the most wonderful 2 children in the world, married to the most wonderful man in the world, and who has the most wonderful friends in the world. Who could want more than that?

Ok. Well perhaps to be picked up from shopping at the mall on my birthday by a limousine to bring me home? Yep. Darrell planned that one. 40 years old and I just had my first limo ride ! It was great fun. And a beautiful dinner to follow. I think from now on, whenever I go shopping in the Boxing week sales, I want to be picked up in a limousine........

I hope and pray that 2011 brings you health, happiness and an understanding of how much God loves you.

Happy New Year to you all !!

This free digital collage personalized with Smilebox

British Invasion Sweets & Goods - on Facebook!

2010-12-22T17:18:00.000-08:00

My sister's store - unlike me! - is on Facebook! So sign up to become a Fan of British Invasion Sweets and Goods. And if you're anywhere near Peachland on Christmas Eve, pop in for some mulled wine from 10am until 2pm!

Christmas Moments....

2010-12-10T20:25:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love Christmas. I love the carols on the radio, the Christmas cookie exchanges, the delightful English goodies I only afford myself at this time of year and every musical and dramatic performance my children perform in.

The 'Happy Couple' - hahaha!!

The 'Other Happy Couple' !!

The boys hanging the outside lights

Last night we had the kids school Christmas concert and this morning went to Brooklyn's participation in her Class's presentation at the Friday morning chapel. We picked up my Mum Wednesday night at the airport so i am feeling completely comforted and Christmasy.

The Christmas Season is Upon Us!

2010-11-22T21:27:00.000-08:00

A snowfall that sent us home from work/school half a day early, 4 1/2 dozen mincemeat tarts in the oven, and my Christmas village and Nativity Set all up on display.

YEP! It's officially the Christmas season at our house!

Nanoose Bay Fundraiser

2010-11-05T09:05:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a great evening at the Fireside Grill where Darrell and other Sports Staff members organized a Fundraiser Dinner for Nanoose Bay Camp where we volunteer every summer. The restaurant was full - 112 people! - and we had a great band, wonderful food and a presentation about the camp's future and immediate needs. So I made a cake that was a replica of the chapel. Anyone recognize it?

A Halloween Masterpiece

2010-11-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

Ok. I have to admit it. I think this could be my favourite Halloween costume ever. Zachary and Brooklyn will argue about whose idea it was originally, but no-one can dispute the fact that Zachary made it. He drew it, then painted it and then Darrell put together some baseboard for the frame.

Tee hee ! Good painting Zachary !!!!

Brooklyn went as Lola, Hannah Montana's friend.

The master painter hard at work on his creation:

Our fellow trick-or-treaters - Caveman Brendan, Cindy-Lou Chloe and Mr. T. Andrew

UVIC'S lipdub!

2010-10-26T10:15:00.001-07:00

If you're familiar with this YouTube phenomenon, here is UVIC's (Victoria's) latest one!

"Air-Guitar" and a precious Good-Bye

2010-10-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

So my new airbrush might be my new favourite thing ever.

I did a cake order this weekend for a little boy's birthday and it was an electric guitar (which fit very well as the boy's Dad is a bit of a rockstar!)

The airbrush was so fun to use on this project. You can see more pictures on the cake website to the right but here is a taster:

The weird dichotomy of the weekend was that on the same day the cake was due, we had Omie's burial and memorial service. Omie is Darrell's Grandma on his Mum's side and she was a gem of a woman. She left a legacy of 5 children, 11 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren!!! Standing at graveside was quite a sight to see all of these people who were really only here because Omie was. And Omie loved the Lord. Her catchphrase was "God loves you and so do I!"

I was asked to sing at the memorial and I deliberately sang while looking at the ceiling and once even out the window to the street! I knew that if I looked at anyone and saw them crying that I wouldn't be able to get through it. Darrell's cousin Brian gave a wonderful eulogy and then we all went into the gym for the reception tea.

She will be missed but she's now dancing in heaven with everyone here on earth, richer for knowing her.

New Purchase for Cake Business !!!

2010-10-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

V-E-R-Y excited about a purchase I just made last week.

AN AIRBRUSH !!! YAYYYY..... It's a PAASCHE airbrush (same one used by Duff on Ace of Cakes) and I can't wait to try it out on my next project. Which, incidentally, is an electric guitar cake. Keep posted on my cakes website for an update with a photograph.

This opens up a whole new realm of what I'm about to do with cake decorating. Very cool early Christmas present.

You Go Girl!

2010-10-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

Last night we had the privilege of watching Brooklyn play in her first ever basketball game! She joined the night league through school with her friend so they play for the PCS Pacers Grade 4/5 team. Except she and her friend are the only grade 4's on there and neither one has ever played before !

We were so proud - and surprised - Brooklyn is TOUGH! She kept looking left to right to make sure she was on her check, she ran down the court dribbling while holding out her arm to guard off her opponent, and whenever another girl tried to grab the ball from her you should have seen her grit her teeth! She almost looked mad she was so intense! It was hilarious to watch and good to see her getting a more cardiovascular workout than the dance classes can provide. At this point the tall girls are the only ones who stand a chance at shooting at the net but it was fun to see them give their best out there.

And Zachary's football team is in full swing. They are so fun to watch because the skill level at this age is really quite good. We were very proud of him; after about 4 tryouts he made the Gold team for his age category. So a higher calibre but still no travelling further than Metchosin so suits us just fine. It's just so neat to see them make plays that are thought out. And this is where Zachary is quite good; he has a head for the game and where ball placement should take place to produce the most scoring opportunities. Little athletes........ahhhh........

Tea Anyone?

2010-10-02T00:10:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday of this week my Grandma turned 90. NINETY ! Amazing. She and my Grandad (93) still live on their own in a Sidney apartment and go downstairs to the communal dining room for lunch and dinner.

For her birthday my aunt flew in from Alberta and was joined by myself and Brooklyn and 2 of my Grandma's friends as we took the birthday girl to the Empress hotel for Afternoon Tea. Shockingly, despite being English (which almost makes this tradition seem like a birthright....) I had never been to the Empress for tea. But at $55 a person, I'm sure you can understand why.

It was absolutely delightful. The food was delicious, the tea hot and steeped just like it should be and the table settings were impeccable. And Brooklyn had the 'Princess Tea' on her own 2 tiered china platter!! It was sooooo cute and she was so excited to go. (Half-way through our time she whispered to me "I thought old people would be really boring but their stories are quite hilarious aren't they Mum?"..... haha)

Have you ever had tea 'adorned' with Pringles ??

Brooklyn and my Auntie Celia

This was Brooklyn's plate but we all received an individual jam jar.

Everything on Brooklyn's plate was mini; mini scones, mini sandwiches etc. It was absolutely adorable. And everyone was given a box of Empress Tea to take home with us at the end of the 90 minutes we spent there. Not to mention the lovely tones coming from the pianist in the lobby.

Flowers from my sister

The birthday girl

Last Boating Days....

2010-09-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

Our boat has now been pulled out of the water, and Darrell is busy polishing it and winterizing it before we pull it out again next April or May. So here is out last set of photos from a day trip with our friend Kristy, to our weekend at Deer Harbour, U.S.A. with our kids and then Poet's Cove last weekend with the kids and their friends Liam and Trinity.

Deer, Harbour, U.S.A. I just had to take a picture of this vignette, so Americana and a nod to a time when life was simpler.

So here is out last set of photos from a day trip with our friend Kristy, to our weekend at Deer Harbour, U.S.A. last weekend with our kids and their friends Liam and Trinity.

Kelowna and the English Sweeties !

2010-09-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

We finally got a chance to visit my sister and brother-in-law's BRITISH INVASION SWEETS & GOODS store in Peachland. If you go there you have to visit! It's the cutest store with a bureau full of teapots. I even bought a great big picture for the wall in my rec. room. And we filled UP on English sweets, some of which I haven't seen in literally years.

And of course I got to visit with my gorgeous little nephews. Love those guys!

Forget it. I have to post them separately.

2010-09-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Nope. I couldn't put them ALL together. Just too much info for one post....

SO - the 'MOTHER PART 2' took place on August 28th. As some of you may remember from last year, the Mother was a dream (literally!) of Darrell's last year involving a big BBQ, tents and a live band. Well this year we had part 2. Different band, same tents and 86 people later the sun shone us as we dined on yummy food and listened to some great tunes. Thank you to Benson Hicks and James Liira for providing some FABULOUS tune-age !

Catchup from the summer

2010-09-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

I feel like I am going to do some of this summer's events an injustice, but I'm going to lump a whole bunch of fun things together in this one post as I didn't post about them individually. Just TOO much fun for one summer!

Proud Mama and Little Brother

First of all - our dear Emily and Lane's wedding !!! How exciting this was. Emily is like my younger sister, or niece, or older sister of Brooklyn's..... she and Curtis and my children have grown up together even though they are almost 15 years apart. So we were so glad to be a part of her wedding, and I also did the wedding cake (with cupcakes).

As you can tell from the bridal party behind him, he ALMOST could have been a groomsman!

Blurry, But VERY happy !!

Deer Harbour, U.S.A., last weekend...

2010-09-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

Second Lunch Treat....

2010-09-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

.... and day two.... same lunch bag.... but this time with a special note inside :)

First Day of School - treat for Mummy!

2010-09-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

Well the first day of Grade 4 and Grade 6 (eek!) went off without a hitch. But NOT without a treat for me! As it was the start of school I decided to make the kids lunch (they ususally have to make their own). But unbeknownst to me, Brooklyn decided to make ME lunch too !

So there on the counter, as we are walking out the door to head off for school..... I see this:

Two Words: PRE....CIOUS !!!!!

SOMETHING NEW!

2010-08-30T10:37:00.000-07:00

So my 'something new' was Cupcake Wrappers !!! I'm really excited about this... our friend Emily, whose wedding was a couple of weeks ago, was having trouble finding cupcake wrappers in black that didn't cost an arm and a leg. So, after working with some different templates I finally found one I liked that matched her vintage theme and made them for her. And the great thing is, I can make these in any colour to match the wedding theme, as well as patterned cardstock. Here is a picture of them with her cupcakes. More details on the cake website (right hand side).

Something fun coming.....

2010-08-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

So I have branched out, of sorts, with regard to wedding cakes.... only in a little way but I'm quite excited about it. There is a bride who is getting married this weekend, who couldn't find an item that she wanted at an acceptable price. So, after experimenting a bit I am now making (well, in this case have made) the item she is looking for..... and I think I will have it available for future brides who wish to order it from me in the future.

But you will have to wait until after the wedding day before I post any pictures. Wouldn't want to spoil it before the wedding day :)

And in other cake news, after not being pleased with the Shaw web page I had for my cakes I now have a new cake website. It's only one page as it's using Blogger which has some formatting restrictions. But it does have a gallery and directs everyone to my email address for inquiries, pricing etc. Check it out on the right hand side if you haven't seen it before. It's basic but hey.... it's also free ......

OUCH! Band-Aid off.....

2010-08-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

Well I finally did it. I've been threatening to for well over a year but I finally bit the bullet and took care of business.

I just closed my Facebook account.

I LOVED facebook (as those of you who were my friends can attest to....) for many reasons; quick way to get hold of people, GREAT way to share photos - especially with friends and family out of town and great way to 'escape' from work for a moment or two.

The problem was multi-fold - there are 'friends' who aren't really friends, if you know what I mean, and things were getting a bit weird with a few of them. Not creepy-weird just, 'you shouldn't normally know that about me' weird.

So, as I realized that too much information gets shared on facebook, and it is too easy to waste precious time that could be had with my family instead, I've opted out. The thing I think I will miss the most is the free advertising for my cakes business. So, if you have any friends getting married, please feel free to pass on my info to them! I may add a facebook business page down the line but for now we will just stick with the old blog.

And so as not to leave my family photo-less in the process, here are some photos from teen camp in July. Super-smooth camp this year and, as usual, SOOO much fun. Cheers.

Banquet on the last night - 80's theme!

Beautiful baptisms, Jonathan our babysitter and then the kids 2nd cousin Ethan Richmond

Our great group of counsellors (shame about the shade....)

Waiting for their turn on the inflatables.

The 'other baby'

2010-06-14T01:08:00.000-07:00

By now many of you will have heard that we finally purchased an item that Darrell has been dreaming of ever since I've known him. We are now the proud owners of a boat.

When his family was younger they owned a boat along with 2 other families and enjoyed many good times together cruising around and exploring new worlds. I have to admit, I had to be coaxed into this. Never having been a boater (except for cruise ships!! haha) I wasn't exactly 'onboard'. Pardon the pun. But now that it made its way up to Victoria from Bellingham, and had its inaugural launch, and subsequent first sailing, I have to admit it's pretty fun. And I am relishing the thought of my children spending more time with nature than they currently do in front of screens.

We took 4 boys out to celebrate Zachary's 11th birthday and that really has been the only trip thus far due to our crummy weather in May. June is looking up! A quick jaunt over to Sidney Spit for the day and immediately everyone seemed more relaxed as they ran around the sand looking for eagles and snakes. It is really beautiful there and I can't believe that with having lived in Victoria for two separate stints of time, I had never made it over there before.

Now we can plot trips to Friday Harbour and various Gulf islands we have yet to visit. Fun.

The Vegas Rundown

2010-04-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

Ok Lou - here's the lowdown on the hoe-down.....

Vegas was a hoot. We left on Thursday afternoon; got there just before supper and immediately hit up the MGM buffet where I thoroughly enjoyed seafood (my first mistake...) and tried a new fish, swahi (2nd mistake....).

Then my sister arrived around 9pm so I met her in the MGM lobby, took her to our room to unpack etc. and we joined Sherry and her friend for some fun at Studio 54. It was fun to go dancing; I only ever do that in Victoria if it's a wedding reception or my own living room. But Anna and I both love to dance and....good cardio workout!

Friday we basically walked the strip, visited M & M world, the Coke shop (so cute, everything Coke) and had a delicious lunch at the Paris hotel. It was inside but Paris is designed to make you think you're outside. Delicious salad. Late that afternoon I wasn't feeling super-fantastic but put it down to a late night and all of the excitement. Anna and I then split off from the girls and went to do some of our own shopping - there are amazing shops in Vegas and I bought a really cool top from the BEBE store. We went back to the hotel to shower and change and the others were still busy so we decided to do our own dinner. I was dying to try the Wolfgang Puck restaurant in our hotel so Anna and I got dressed up and hit Wolf's for some yummy eats. We had a hoot; we always laugh our heads off when we're together and since she was sans children it was a relaxing time for both of us. I had a delicious clam linguine (3rd mistake....) and she had this incredible steak skewer thing. After that we hit the piano place at New York New York and bumped into some Victorians (didn't know them but they recognized us form the plane) which was hilarious because the pianos were having a Canada vs. US music dual. One would play our anthem, then the other guys tip jar would be topped up and he would overtake with the US anthem. Then they played America the Beautiful vs the Good Ole Hockey Game! Very funny.

Saturday morning - I woke up feeling ROTTEN ! Darrell said I should not have chosen seafood when out of town.... he might be right. Anyhoo - Anna was an EXCELLENT nursemaid and got me water, told me when and when not to eat and took me outside to sit by the pool and get real air. The MGM is really smoky because the ceilings are shorter than other hotels and we forgot they can smoke there. Anyway, this was to be the big shopping day but I felt so rotten that we let the other 2 go on ahead and we caught a cab down there when I felt a slight improvement. Darrell would be glad that we got there 3 hours than originally planned as I only spent $127 !! But, did get some cute little bargains.

Well when we got back to the hotel I felt brutal and this was the night of the concert. I actually cried for a bit in my hotel room because the concert was the sole reason I booked this trip to begin with. Sherry's friend suggested some Pepto Bismal which I hadn't tried yet and Sherry said they could text us after the opening act which at this point now I didn't care if I missed one bit. Well PRAISE THE LORD for Pepto Bismal because within 20 minutes I felt SO MUCH BETTER! Down Anna and I headed to the arena (fortunately it was in our hotel.... which we couldn't believe because it was huge!) and BON JOVI DID NOT DISAPPOINT! They played straight for 2 1/2 hours and I was so impressed with the musicianship and the show itself. An uneventful flight home the next morning (although I was nervous about my stomach) ended a super fun trip.

And an unexpected bonus, as I didn't eat from Friday night to Tuesday morning, I also lost 4 pounds !!!! (don't get too excited....they're all back now ;)

Las Vegas....

2010-03-16T00:29:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas was a blast. Bon Jovi was incredible. Girls weekend away was refreshing.

Oh - and don't eat seafood while out of town. Wolfgang Puck will be getting my bill.......

Blessings and Thankfulness.....

2010-02-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

It’s been a busy couple of weeks around these them parts…….

But I wanted to post about a moment that happened a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t becoming my favourite weekend – first of all I got an ENORMOUS steam burn on my right arm as the lid slipped off of the pot of pasta I was draining over the sink. I was leading worship that night at a prayer meeting and had to drive to the church with a bag of ice shoved into my sweater sleeve. Not so practical……

Then on Saturday morning I smashed yet another bowl in the kitchen (love tile, but not its consequences….). We seem to have lost a few dishes of late.

But the clincher was Saturday late afternoon. A few friends were over to watch the hockey game and as I played with Benjamin in the spare bedroom I caught my ring on the duvet and noticed my diamond was missing !!!! (insert heart-dropping-into-stomach here…..) So the hunt began. Me and and my sweet friend Jeni on all fours on the ground, hands scraping the carpet in the hopes of seeing something small and glittery jump in the air and catch our eye. The boys kept watching hockey which honestly made sense. Nothing was going to be found before the end of the period so they might as well enjoy it before I physically force Darrell to join the hunt post-game! Well the game ended and Darrell decided to tear apart the vacuum bag and go through every little speck of dirt there, as I had thoroughly vacuumed the house pre-game. And precious friend Helena, took to crawling around on my tile floor looking for a shine that didn’t come from my daughter’s beads scattered around our kitchen!

While they were doing that I took a flashlight and decided to check the driveway as I had run out earlier to get us all pizza for supper. And then the moment of immense thankfulness. And no, not because I found the diamond. As I was outside, frantically searching for my diamond in the concrete grooves of my driveway, it hit me. And I started to cry, a little uncontrollably. I realized that while I was using a flashlight to search for a sparkly gem in the night, people in Haiti were using their flashlights to look for ……. People……. I was overcome with gratefulness and thankfulness and a sense of perspective.

So I went back into the house and decided to have a cup of tea. Yes, it may seem like a weird transition but at this point I realized if I found the diamond, great. And if not, I had not one reason to complain or feel sorry for myself. So it was tea-time.

After our friends left, Darrell was still searching through the vacuum dirt (& coughing as now it was affecting his asthma….. love him!) when he suggested I vacuum the house again. (Insert tired, exhausted sigh on my part). This was the LAST thing I wanted to do. The house was clean and I was tired. But, I have to admit it made sense. Well wouldn’t you know, after I re-vacuumed the downstairs, then hit my bedroom, I vacuumed my closet floor and heard a little ‘clinkle’. Don’t ask me what a clinkle is, but that’s the sound it made! I went to the kitchen to persuade D to stop working on his bag and instead open mine. And there, in the middle of a small pile of dust, was my diamond!!!!!! That man is so smart sometimes…….

So we gathered the kids and all prayed and thanked God that He cares about the little things that matter to us. And we all said how blessed we are to be healthy, and alive. (insert Mummy reminding the kids that only ONE leper came back to thank God for healing…. Tee hee)

And PRAISE THE LORD – I just learned yesterday that our little Haitiian sponsor girl, Sannodra, was unaffected by the earthquake – YAY!! Life is Hard. But God is Good. All the time.

That's My Girl!

2010-01-20T21:37:00.001-08:00

Wow ! SHE CAME FOURTH !!!!!! - in the whole of the elementary school ! She even spelled the word psychoanalysis !!!!
What a trouper.... everyone was cheering for her, the little grade 3 student who isn't even 'allowed' to compete for another year :)

Well done Brooklyn - Mummy and Daddy are VERY proud of you !!!!
(& yes, we hid behind the wall for the entire thing.....)

ALL-SCHOOL SPELLING BEE !!!!

2010-01-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK......

The all-school spelling bee is today! I am seriously nervous. Not for Brooklyn because she's taken the pressure off herself by saying it doesn't matter so much. But I'm just nervous to be there. WHICH she doesn't know I will be, and Darrell is coming too. But we are hiding behind the wall so she doesn't know we're there. She specifically asked us not to come as that would make her nervous she said. I think she just wants to make it past the first round. Here's hoping! She DOES know how to spell aggrandizement.......... so there's hope ......... ;)

And How do you Spell That Word?

2010-01-17T22:48:00.000-08:00

Last year Zachary won the Spelling Bee for his whole grade (after being top 3 for his class) and then went on to the all-school spelling bee. This year, Brooklyn - who is in grade 3 - asked her teacher if there were any way she could be included in the Grade 4 spelling bee (They don't start it until grade 4) to which her teacher replied that she thought it would be a good challenge for her. If the Grade 4 teachers agreed to it, Mrs. Harvie was going to allow Brooklyn to compete alongside the Grade 4's. Well, the Grade 4 teachers said she would have to get 50 out of 50 words correct because the top students in their classes each got 50 correct.

So one day in November, Zachary and I sat in the hallway while Mrs. Harvie gave Brooklyn a test of 50 words. Needless to say, Brooklyn got all 50 words correct which meant she would continue to compete against the top Grade 4 students from each class (3 from each class I believe). Zachary asked permission from his teacher to go watch and Mrs. Harvie brought the whole Grade 3 class to watch their classmate compete at a grade above herself.

Well wouldn't you know it? She tied for 1st place !!!! She said it was so funny, boys were bear-hugging each other every time she got a word right and she couldn't quite understand why. I just told her people like to cheer for the underdog! She was SOOOO excited. Last Year, Zachary won the same Grade 4 contest and made sure I was able to come and watch. This year, however, Brooklyn said she didn't want me to come watch as she thought she would be too nervous. And sure enough, she apparently cried at the beginning of the Bee as she was nervous about the words. But once it started she just took a breath after each word and thought very carefully before giving her answer.

So this Wednesday, a grade 3 student will compete in the All-School Spelling Bee. And the best thing is, she said she's not nervous or bothered about what happens in this one. Which is great because as I told her (Respectfully, of course), NO-ONE is expecting her to do very well so the pressure is off !!! (I may go and hide behind a wall so I can hear what's going on..... I know she'd want me there if she knew she would do well, but not if things go the other way!)

The best thing about this though, is that I'm extremely glad that my child has chosen to put herself in an uncomfortable situation, and is willing to challenge herself above what is normally expected of her, even if it makes her nervous or fearful. The best way to feel more and more comfortable in those kind of situations is to continue putting yourself out there!

A Beautiful Reason to be Blogging

2010-01-04T16:53:00.000-08:00

We all had a wonderful Christmas here at Chez-Richmond but I shall leave the December blogging for another post.

This post is all about the wonderful occurrence that happened last night at church. Brooklyn was baptized at Adore along with 11 other people and it was one of the most exciting evenings of my life!

It started about a year ago when Brooklyn asked if she could get baptized. I wasn't sure she was ready for it so to be honest with you so I kind of 'postponed' the thought for her. Then she later mentioned that her friend Hannah wanted to get baptized too. I wondered if this was a peer pressure or she-is-so-I-want-to-too kind of thing but after talking to Hannah's Dad we both realized that both girls were wanting to be baptized of their own choice. They also completely understood what it meant and were doing it for the right reasons. Doing it together, however, would help reduce some of the nervousness so it was planned that they would be baptized along with the others in last night's service at Adore.

It was amazing. Brooklyn was SO excited the whole day - "Only 7 more hours until I get baptized" she said around lunchtime. Soooooo precious !

When Andy (she wanted him to baptize her....ahhhh) brought her into the baptismal tank she was the first of only two children getting baptized and we could barely see her head ! She kept bobbing up and down, I think so that people could see her !!! Fortunately it was all filmed so we will be able to get the DVD and we watched it up on the screens. Unfortunately, however, it meant I took my photos of the screens and it turned out kind of fuzzy. I honestly could cry about that except for the fact that I know the DVD is on its way.

When asked why she wanted to be baptized Brooklyn read from a piece of paper she had prepared "Because I want to live for Jesus and want to tell others about Him"... AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!! It was so beautiful - as soon as she came back out of the water we all clapped and cheered and hooted and hollered. Then Andy said "I think Mummy is excited!" so I stood up and waved at Brooklyn so that she could see us. Because truly, her head was barely visible above the tank !!! haha
I had stashed a whole bunch of Kleenex in my purse and I was sure I would need every single one of them. I cry at absolutely EVERYONE's baptism. I can't help it. It's so moving to see someone take a stand for Jesus in a public forum like that. But this time, I was so unbelievably excited all I could do was cheer and clap with the hugest grin on my face :)
It took me by surprise that I didn't need any tissues. But, when the baptisms were all over and worship continued again, our friend Kendal started singing "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, you are worthy, of all praise. Be high and lifted up, be high and lifted up, be high and lifted up.... Jesus" HALLELUJAH I absolutely lost it and cried throughout the whole song.

Jesus Be Glorified.
Amen.

Children's insights and funny visuals.....

2009-12-23T10:19:00.001-08:00

This morning on my way in to work there were two rather interesting occurrences; one, a conversation with my daughter and two, something I saw on West Saanich Road (VERY busy street near the prison!!)

First of all - the street visual. I had dropped the kids off at their Grandma's house while I headed in for a rather short work day (thank you Anne!) when my head did a double take. On the side of the road, an extremely busy bustling street, was a house that cornered a cul-de-sac. It had no fence either on the side or front of the property. And on it, wandering around to their hearts content, were three live turkeys !!!! I'm not sure if they escaped from the farms across the road or if the owner of the home was giving them one last free walk before Christmas dinner!!!! It was quite a sight and I couldn't stop laughing. I really did feel like they may be escaping some farmer's cleaver, intent on selling them to the highest bidder!

Secondly, my talk with Brooklyn: there have been outside-movie viewings these past few weeks at the Ocean Point Hotel. Our tenant, Sherisse, said she went to one of them and it was really fun so I thought maybe we could try and catch one as a family. You know, our own little special Christmas moment. I explained this to the kids and they asked what movies were being shown on what days etc. Well we missed ELF, and a few others, and in fact tonight's is the last showing. I was told it was "It's A Wonderful Life". Let's be honest, whether or not you love the movie it is a Christmas Classic. And I have always believed that my children should be exposed to the Classics as much as possible during their short childhood.

Well the first thing that pops out of my daughter's mouth is "Is it a black and white movie?" Upon answering her affirmatively there was a sigh from both children in the back seat. "No thanks, I don't like black and white movies; they just don't make enough sense". After explaining that since the movie is still IN ENGLISH (!!!), the script would make PERFECT sense to her, Zachary chips in "Although I do agree with you Mum that it would still make sense, I do think Brooklyn is right about this one", (SHOCKER - that rarely happens.....), "black and white movies just aren't as good."

So you can imagine my slight disappointment of seeing my family moment crushed into a pile of dust, but here is where it got interesting:

Me: "Brooklyn, why do you think b & w movies aren't as good?"

B: "Because colour talks."

???? - I wasn't about to assume anything here so I probed a bit further....

Me: "Colour talks?"

B: "yeah, colour is more alive and awake and tells a story.... for example, if there are two sisters on the screen, and they are twins, you may not know it with a black and white movie. But if it is in colour then you can see that in fact they are twins as their clothes were exactly the same."

Hmmmm........

Colour does talk doesn't it?

The evergreens tell us there is still life through Winter.
The bright wrapping papers cry out to be torn open to reveal precious surprises.
The golden turkey shouts out 'Dinner time!'
The red raw skin on your husband's hands tells you he finished building that Christmas present (thanks hon!).

And the fresh pink skin of a tiny baby in a manger told us the Light of the World had come. His red blood was shed at Calvary and his white garments showed the way to Salvation.

May you experience Jesus throughout this season, and 2010.

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!

The Things We Do For Our Kids

2009-12-17T09:12:00.000-08:00

So I had a wedding cake to do for Katie Peterson from our church and her wedding was last Saturday. As I was prepping for it a few days earlier my son says to me "Oh Mum, by the way, I told my teachers that you would make a cake for our class Christmas Party!" As sighs went off quietly in my head I calmly said to him "Ok, and what day is that for Zachary?" "Next Wednesday" he says.

So really, no big deal. I'll whip up a rectangular cake, toss some icing on it and call 'er done.

No chance.

This is how the conversation went two days later, while I am in the middle of completing a 3-tiered wedding cake for 160 people:

Z: "Mum, what have you got planned for my class cake?"
Me: "Ummm..... planned?"
Z: "Yeah, is it going to be a 2 tiered or 3 tiered fondant cake ?"

WHOA! Back up the grocery truck! We are talking about a class of grade 5 students and two teachers here, who are probably so run off of their feet they would eat ANYthing as long as they didn't have to prepare it themselves !!!!

Me: "Ummm.... well Zachary, it's going to be a ONE-TIERED cake with no fondant in sight. Plus, children don't like fondant."
Z:"Seriously???? Coz I don't want it to be a lame cake."

Insert thought - so apparently, every other cake I have ever made if not for a wedding, baby shower, engagement party etc., has fallen under the 'lame' category. To my son, who has probably seen more cherry blossoms than any 10 year old boy would wish to see, it appears that any 'normal' cake (you know, the ones we ALL make.....) is 'lame'.

Me: "Oh really? And what exactly were you expecting on this NON-LAME cake of yours?"
Z: "Well not too much, just Santa in the sleigh being pulled by his reindeer."

Right. Not happening!

Me: "I'll give you a snowman and 3 trees and that's it."
Zachary: "Alright then."

Then after the fact I remembered something.... when I was young my parents were always having people over for dinner. It involved us three children having an earlier supper, and my Mum working away in the kitchen to prepare their friends a meal at which time us 3 kids would disappear to play in our rooms together and stay out of the way. Then one week my parents told us they were having friends over again (which had been happening a lot at this time) and explained that the same routine would ensue. Well, as a treat they had actually prepared the meal for US! The fondue set which was usually only brought out for the special guests, was intended for us kids - WE were the special guests! And then I thought that this cake was kind of like that; Zachary watches me do all of these special cakes for other people and I thought, you know what? He is as special as any one of them.... (More so - he's mine !) So the snowman and trees were not 'iced on' but were made with the 3-D dimensions and love that only a mother can give. And a little extra effort was taken to make sure that the snow looked just right and that the holly he requested made it into all 3 corners.

I hope I take more time in the future not to be so busy for people around me, that I don't notice the little things that make my children's eyes light up.

Footnote: the fondant trees and snowman? Apparently eaten by the entire class in little chunks.
And finally yesterday when unpacking his backpack....

"Zachary - why didn't you eat any of your lunch?" "I was too busy serving people cake....."

:)

Baby shower

2009-11-28T20:52:00.000-08:00

Today there was a baby shower for sweet Helena and her new son Charles. I saw a shower cake once with a nursery scene and thought it would be neat to do a replica of little Charles' nursery for the shower cake. I was pretty pleased with the results and Darrell even helped finish off some of the woodgrain for the hardwood floor.

Then we went straight to the Saanich Municipal Hall where Brooklyn's little Grade 3 class had a recorder recital. Afterwards there were different stations around the hall where the kids could answer an energy quiz and win a pair of gloves, ride a horse drawn carriage around the property, go 'fishing' for toys and buy hot dogs. The kids kept disappearing from our site but we figured since the police station is right there and there were police-people all over the place, they were probably fine!
A fun Saturday.

Kids Say the Funniest Things.....

2009-11-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

I've always loved children's quotes... how they see the world.... how they see other people.... how they see God.....
Darrell sent me this one from his work and although I often get emails like this that I've read before, this was the first time I had seen this bunch. Precious, precious, precious..... (& Johnny is very astute!)
LOT'S WIFE
The Sunday School teacher was describing how Lot 's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt, when little Jason interrupted, 'My mommy looked back once while she was driving,' he announced triumphantly, 'and she turned into a telephone pole!'

GOOD SAMARITAN
A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan. She asked the class, 'If you saw a person lying on the roadside, all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?'

A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence, 'I think I'd throw up.'

DID NOAH FISH?
A Sunday school teacher asked, 'Johnny, do you think Noah did a lot of fishing when he was on the Ark ?'

'No,' replied Johnny. 'How could he, with just two worms?'

HIGHER POWER
A Sunday school teacher said to her children, 'We have been learning how powerful kings and queens were in Bible times. But, there is a Higher Power. Can anybody tell me what it is?'

One child blurted out, 'Aces!'

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD
A Sunday School teacher decided to have her young class memorize one of the most quoted passages in the Bible - Psalm 23. She gave the Youngsters a month to learn the chapter. Little Rick was excited about the task, but he just couldn't remember the Psalm. After much practice, he could barely get past the first line. On the day that the kids were scheduled to recite Psalm 23 in front of the congregation, Ricky was so nervous. When it was his turn, he stepped up to the microphone and said proudly, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, and that's all I need to know."

BEING THANKFUL
Rabbi said to a precocious six-year-old boy, 'So your mother says your prayers for you each night? That's very commendable. What does she say?'

The little boy replied, 'Thank God he's in bed!'

TIME TO PRAY
A pastor asked a little boy if he said his prayers every night.

'Yes, sir,' the boy replied.

'And, do you always say them in the morning, too?' the pastor asked.

'No sir,' the boy replied. 'I ain't scared in the daytime.'

SAY A PRAYER
Little Johnny and his family were having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother's house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When Little Johnny received his plate, he started eating right away.

'Johnny! Please wait until we say our prayer.' said his mother.

'I don't need to,' the boy replied.

'Of course, you do,' his mother insisted. 'We always say a prayer before eating at our house.'

'That's at our house,' Johnny explained. 'But this is Grandma's house and she knows how to cook!'

HAPPY NOVEMBER!

2009-11-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

Well it's November and you know what that means in the Richmond home - I can start decorating! Yep, as of November 1st each year I slowly start the Christmas decorating process. Usually just one or two things per week but I have so many fun Christmas stuff that to do it all in one or two days would just be exhausting. And besides, I like to enjoy it for the ENTIRE December month so this way it's less work and more enjoyment.

Big news at our house would be - Darrell & I went and saw U2 last week in Vancouver - AWESOMMMMMMME
Now to be truthful, the sound at BC Place is not the best and when the Black Eyed Peas opened up, if they played a song we didn't know we had no clue what the lyrics were. But, the sound was better for U2 and Bono's voice does not disappoint live one bit. They were incredible and it felt like a 'once-in-a-lifetime' kind of moment if you know what I mean. I almost cried when they played WITH OR WITHOUT YOU because my mind flooded back to an end-of-semester party with friends in England in the 80's, right before we all moved away to separate 6th-form colleges. Memories flooded back. Fantastic.

In other news, our friends Luke & Helena had a baby boy, Charlie (love the name!), which meant I led worship for a few Sundays while the new parents enjoy their new bundle. And I'm also going to be hosting an Adore Women Tea Party at our house in a couple of weeks. I just have to provide the house as the Adore Women committee are organizing food etc. But there will be a couple of English items I will be contributing - Devonshire Cream being one of them. YUMMY! I've also had a couple of wedding cakes, the last one being our friends Katie & Darron who had a beautiful wedding downtown. The next one is December 12th for Katie & Scott. And our good friend Kelly, is now engaged to Chris and will be going to South Africa to get married and live for a year - it's a great adventure for a girl we love to pieces and couldn't be happier for.

The kids had a fun Halloween which I will post pics of soon but I forgot to take my camera so will have to wait for the shared ones to appear. That's about it really. We've been very blessed with mild weather for being early November, Darrell & I even did yard work Sunday in the sunshine.

Hope all you friends are enjoying the Fall season wherever you are.

A few more pics from the 'Mother', plus one of my Mum, sister and sister-in-law at the sibs reunion in Kelowna, August long.

I've Returned

2009-09-22T19:35:00.001-07:00

Well it seems I've been very absent from the blogging world but I'm back. I guess the allure of facebook with all of its speed pulled me away for a week months. Or rather, seasons. But the need to journal always come back eventually and here we are. I won't even bother to document everything that has happened since the last entry but will instead highlight a few great events.

There were weddings, babies, camps and parties!

The lovely Elise Michalski got married to Fred in the Spring in a lovely service at Glad Tidings followed by a reception at the Faculty Club at UVIC. I was fortunate to be asked to make their wedding cake; a Red Velvet Cake as it was the same cake Elise and her Dad would get every year on their shared birthdays.

Then in August Chelsea McQuade, a friend of several years thanks to teen camp - and a fantastic young, vibrant woman of God, married her prince, Johnny Sugrue. The wedding was beautiful at a quaint church in Brentwood Bay, followed by a vintage-themed reception at the Fireside Grill. I don't think I have ever had a friend who thought and planned any more for her wedding than this girl. She was organized! Every detail was taken care of including the vintage themed table at the reception with the vintage scrapbook she created for her guest book, and the gorgeous small wooden chest used to hold all of those precious money envelopes! The name place-cards were even little birds nests! I made this wedding cake too - a four-tiered ivory chocolate raspberry cake with Callebaut Chocolate Ganache and matching cupcakes that were presented in these gorgeous cupcake liners she bought online.

July each year brings camp and this year we had one at kids camp and one at pre-teen. PRE-TEEN???? SERIOUSLY??? But yes, at Nanoose Bay Camp if you're ten you go to pre-teen. Fortunately Zachary loved it and Brooklyn equally had a blast at kids camp where the speaker was none other than our last kids pastor, Caroline Bergeron. Teen Camp this year was a huge success, very few issues and overall extremely smooth. If you haven't yet seen our Katy Perry Hot 'n Cold video go to youtube.com and type in Nanoose Bay Camp hot n cold. I don't think you will be disappointed ;)
Then August brought possibly the funniest reason for a party we have ever had. One morning Darrell woke up to tell me about the dream he had. He dreamt we had a massive BBQ in our backyard, that he rented tents and tables and a huge industrial grill from his work and with a live band playing on our sundeck. So guess what? That's exactly what we did ! The band consisted of 3 of my friends who used to play in the old blues band I was in, Soul Commotion, along with my friends Luke & Park who I play with at church.
It was AWESOME~ they did two sets of about a half an hour each, maybe even 40 minute and everyone loved it! Brooklyn and I counted - we had exactly EIGHTY PEOPLE ! Which included 20 children who I have to say were behaved amazingly well. They all just looked after each other and the whole thing went like a dream. Darrell made homemade hamburgers and then everyone just brought something to share. So we had lots of food - and we even invited the neighbours - partly as a gesture of friendly neighbourness, and partly to prevent any noise complaints. We had six neighbours come and they had a great time! I was really happy about that because I remember as a kid our neighbourhood being much more of a community than I have experienced in Canada and I feel like sometimes people miss that sense of local community when they don't know the people who live on their own street. So yes, big success.
Well that will mostly catch you up. Throw in a couple of long weekends in Kelowna at Anna's house - one for baseball and one for a family sibling reunion along with my Mum - and that is pretty much our summer in a nutshell. And we're still enjoying summer as the weather has been gorgeous. Fall has started off well :)

April Update

2009-04-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

As prompted by my sister-in-law, I am updating my blog.......

And, since my last post we had a little girl turn 8 (WOW!) and a son about to turn 10(MORE WOW!!) this coming Tuesday.

There is something eerie about having your first child turn double-digits. It's weird. It sounds old. And you can't believe you have now been a Mother for a whole decade! It is by far the biggest blessing (well two blessings actually...) in my life and I just treasure them both so much.

So for Brooklyn's birthday she decided she wanted a party at home (cheaper but far messier!) and would like to make AND ice her own birthday cake!! Girl after my own heart..... so we had a horse-themed party and she made a horse's head cake. Not bad hey?

Then today I finished my first of 3 wedding cakes; one every Saturday until April 25th. The colour scheme was gold and teal and this was by design of my meeting with the bride and groom.

Not much else to report but I guess there will be after Zachary turns 10 !!!

Showers, Babies and Birthdays

2009-02-26T16:26:00.000-08:00

Well, since the Narnia party Aaron & Jeni (a.k.a. Turkish Delight!) welcomed little Benjamin Findley Norris into their lovely family. At 8lb. 2oz (i think re the ounces....) and born at 2:11am on February 3rd. What a little cutie-pie he is! So Sherisse (Aaron's sister) & I hosted a baby shower at the church and over 30 lovely ladies came out to welcome the little one.

So I haaaad to make a cake....! The plan was for it to be in the shape of a baby crib and in the colours of little Benjamin's nursery. And of course in honor of Jeni's awesome rock 'n roll vibe there were a few personal touches on the walls of the crib!
Then the Norris' along with Luke (whose lovely wife was up island) came over for supper and Brooklyn got to hold the little munchkin. So cute.

Then last night was my mother-in-law's birthday so I made a chocolate-raspberry cake covered in some of her favourite things - diamond rings, purses and shoes!!! Dinner was the Paesano meal at Macaroni Grill. Most delicious.

Pictures as Promised!

2009-01-31T00:08:00.001-08:00

The Long Awaited Narnia Party

2009-01-26T21:36:00.000-08:00

Ok. So it wasn't long-awaited for the guests as they knew nothing about it until this month. But it was long-awaited for me. Be warned, this will be a long post!

Rewind to November 2007. My Mum & I were sitting on my living room couch enjoying a nice hot cup of tea (as we often do!). I believe I had just had a Christmas party at my house (or was just about to, can't quite recall) and we started discuss the fun concept of theme parties. As The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was such a hit we came up with the idea of a NARNIA party. Well as many of you know, tea gets the creative juices flowing and before long we had a string-load of ideas as to how we could make this work. The plan was to throw it in January of 2008 (so as not to interfere with Christmas too much) but the month got away from me before you knew it and February seemed too occupied with Valentine's Day etc., and not so wintery.

Now fast forward to November 2008. Again, not wanting it close to Christmas but January 09 looked good. So, this past Saturday 44 people (12 of whom were children) entered the wardrobe into the wonderful winter-wonderland of Narnia.

Costumes were optional but as I hope you will soon find out, in abundance! I turned my outside house lights off and instead had a lit lamppost that I had borrowed, outside of my front door. I had also covered the base of it with some 'snow'. Upon entering the front door (where the interior entrance lights were off) guests could hear the soundtrack to the movie which I downloaded and had playing in the entrance. Immediately in front of them were the 'fur coats' that they had to separate and walk through in order to get into Narnia. In reality I had hung a shower curtain rod in my ceiling skylight and hung two fur-blankets down from it. It was fantastic! I was thrilled with how it turned out.

Once in Narnia everything was white with winter! I covered all of my coloured living room couches with white sheets (thank you Kelly & Sherisse!) and all of my tables with white tablecloths. I also strung snowflakes in a line across the middle of the living room (above our heads) and there were sparkly white beads hanging everywhere on lamps, pictures and chandeliers. In the kitchen, again on a white tablecloth was a table full of.....white food! If you've never before seen a full table of only white food, it is honestly not that appetizing-looking. I think God invented colour so we would eat better. However, it was yummy! As Yvonne pointed out - surprisingly yummy! And you do have to rack your brains to come up with enough white food items to keep everyone full.

There was white cheese & cracker plates, white cheeseballs, white chips, pita bread with tzaziki, white triangle sandwiches with cucumber and cream cheese, devilled eggs, a veggie plate of only cauliflower and mushrooms with ranch dip, white pastries with various fillings, and a clear punch to drink.

In the dining room was the dessert table - a white chocolate fountain (yum!) with apple slices, bananas, cream puffs, shortbread, honeydew melon and powdered doughnuts. All very wintery and icy looking.

And the costumes were fantastic! I went as the Snow Queen - or White Witch. Darrell was the professor, Brooklyn was Lucy and Zachary was a centaur. I am rather proud of his costume as I made the entire thing from things found in the house! We even had a costume vote - you could vote once for the best child costume and once for the best adult costume. Luke won the adult prize for his brilliant Mr. Tumnus and Zachary won for the centaur. To be fair though (in case anyone's calling foul play....) you were not allowed to vote for your spouse or children. Following that we had a very quick 'fashion show' of the top 10 voted costumes. Each had to walk the 'stage' to a Hannah Montana song. (I know, nothing to do with Narnia but the easiest dance number I could find......)

So many people were creative - I believe we had 5 Lucy's, 3 Susan's, 2 professors, 2 Mrs. Mcready's, 3 Aslan's, 2 Peter's, 1 Edmund, 1 Lamppost (BRILLIANT!), 1 Dwarf Guard, 1 Mr. Tumnus, 2 Mermaids, 3 White Witches, and one Piece of Turkish Delight played by my dear friend Jeni whose baby is about to pop out any minute!!! I know I'm missing some but you get the general idea.

And to add the icing to the cake, my sister, brother-in-law and 2 nephews were able to be there from Kelowna! They came to Vic. for only 36 hours but made the most of the whirlwind visit to Narnia.

So - to all my friends who arrived with glorious outfits and festive faces - thanks for the memories. Here are the photos I have so far - hopefully the others who took a gazillion will send me some soon that I can add to the pile.Attaching the icicle eyelashes! And yes, that's my wedding dress.Next year's Family Christmas Card...haha
Mrs. McCready with her centaur nephew.
Some Lucy's, an Aslan, a centaur and little Jack with his back to the camera.

Christmas 2008 !

2008-12-26T13:56:00.000-08:00

I know. I'm way overdue in blogging. But one thing lead to another and one function became another and there you go. Our Christmas season was varied and busy as usual. The kids had their musical production at GT and both of them did us proud with large speaking roles (Zachary making a VERY convincing cowboy with his Texas drawl). The school also had its concert. I never like it quite as much but mostly because its individual pieces and I love the theatrics of a full musical. Nevertheless, all the kids did a great job.
The rest of December has been very full. We had a gala dinner at the church that Rayael somehow persuaded me to play the part of Joey Fatone in an N'Sync lipsync that we did. Apparently my 'costume' was so man-like my husband ended up quite disturbed after it was finished!!
Then there was a shower at the church for Kendal Jones whose wedding to Evan Alnutt we attended just last week. As it chucked down snow I might add. It added to the magic of the day.
The next day (last Sunday) was our choir's concert with Leon.
We had Leon, Alison & Aria over with some of our friends on the Friday but also ended up having them stay the night with us Sunday night to save the trek to Sidney after the concert. They arrived Sunday afternoon to put precious Aria down for a nap and while Alison got her all tucked in, Leon and Darrell had to get Leon's rental car into our driveway. No easy feat as you will see from the photo.
The snow didn't stop falling! To save any further snowploughing by other vehicles Darrell then drove Leon and I in to the church and returned home to pick up Alison, Aria, our two kids and Sherisse who also couldn't get her car out for the concert. After the concert (which was FANTASTIC!) Darrell then did the shifts in reverse! Because the snow continued to fall this entire time I actually stopped at the shops on the way home and bought a turkey. Just in case we all ended up snowed in at the Richmonds for Christmas! Not what was planned, but still would have been a fun Christmas had it come to that.

After we were all back from the concert, Darrell, Leon & I had to shovel the road out to Haliburton to make sure Leon could return his rental car out at the airport. It was decided it would be best to return it that night and have Darrell drive them to the airport in the morning as the rental car could get buried in our road otherwise. Needless to say, the 3 of us were out there on a brilliantly white snowy night with an eerie but beautiful silence. In a strange way I kind of enjoyed it. We all cracked jokes to keep the time from lagging (burnt toast anyone?) and there was something a bit therapeutic about being out at midnight, shovelling in silence. My muscles did not agree however, but exercise was had nonetheless. And for us, the change in sleeping location meant that we all got a lovely extended visit on Sunday that was not originally on the books. The kids loved playing with Aria (her cute little voice is a bit hard NOT to get attached to) and we got some hang-out, tea-time with Leon & Alison catching up.

Despite being told the next morning that all the flights were cancelled, the Leontaridis' did finally manage to get home that night via a nightmarish combination of ferries, taxis and airplane rides.

Then on the 23rd we had a party to go to but at the end of it I felt a bit under the weather. That night it hit me. COLD ! I've been pretty much sick ever since and am even now writing this in my housecoat. But I do have to count my blessings and be glad it's just a cold and not the stomach flu. That I could NOT handle getting at Christmas. We had a mellow day here at the house (I slept for a few hours in the middle) and then headed over to Darrell's sister at 4pm for a lovely turkey dinner. At least I think it was lovely. I couldn't taste it as well as normal but what I did taste seemed delicious.

So now it's Boxing Day and Darrell has just taken our kids to the Boxing Day Skate. It's something we go to every year and I look forward to it as much as anyone but I just couldn't do it today. Too run down and congested. So, hopefully they will all have a good time and I can catch some zzzz's while they're gone.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Mission-Mindedness

2008-10-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been very concerned and preoccupied with trying to cultivate mission-mindedness with my two children. I really felt after I returned from Mexico that every Christian should try and do at least one mission trip in their lifetime. After seeing the people, especially children, living in that level of poverty I was crushed in the realization of what we have here.

Because, as North Americans, we really don't get it. We really don't truly understand the suffering that is going on elsewhere in the world, and I suppose we really can't until we've seen it with our own eyes. Sure, television and visiting missionaries with their slideshows give us a small indication of what it is like in troubled areas, but until you have seen it for yourself it isn't enough to really settle into your psyche.

Couple this with the fact that my two children, as I'm sure many other parents are feeling these days, are spoiled. Not in a 'we will give you anything because we're loaded (! haha)' kind of way, but in the way that they've never had to sacrifice anything or go without life's necessities. And they've had plenty of extras on top of the necessities.

So, when I heard that the Life: Just Add Water tour was coming to Victoria I had a talk with Zachary & Brooklyn. I told them what it was all about, that they were raising money to build water wells in places where children are without water and that anyone who paid for a concert ticket (Vicky Beeching and Bluetree) would be helping fund that cause. I emailed their teachers and told them my thoughts, and that if the kids wanted to go, could they please be allowed to come in a little late on Friday morning. Both teachers were fully behind the idea but the crux of it was, if Zachary & Brooklyn wanted to come, they needed to pay for it with their own money. The tickets were $10. Well, I was very pleased that they were both interested and wanted to pay for their own ticket (even Brooklyn, who really doesn't have much to start with). So we went to the bank, withdrew the cash, and then I drove them down to the church where they both handed Becky their $10 bill.

The concert was great, although poor Vicky Beeching lost power 3 times in her set. And yet, her response to it and her testament that Satan would not stop us worshipping no matter what, was very inspiring and led to some sweet worship time. Bluetree were electric! They had a great rock sound with some added computer sounds too. And the funniest part, being that they were the loudest band, was that Zachary fell asleep half way through their set!! I guess that proves what level I play my music here at home, it's rock and loud and it makes him the most comfortable. http://www.lifecampaign.org/flash/

This of course was only a small part towards trying to keep their eyes open to the plight of others and how God has called us to feed the hungry, clothe the poor and stand up for those without a voice. I pray that he will work in their hearts to really feel a burden for those less fortunate than ourselves.

Fall so far....

2008-10-12T13:43:00.001-07:00

Well, things are well underway with school, jazz, musical theatre, football and church activities. We are finding the fall 'groove' so to speak. So far so good.

We may have to move Zachary's football to another district though. Unfortunately this year things are completely chaotic and two weeks of only finding out Friday night the schedule for Saturday, have left us feeling pretty frustrated. We will see how this pans out but he may be wearing a new jersey sooner than you think.

Both kids love their teachers although Brooklyn's is pregnant and she will get her replacement in January. But Zachary is especially thrilled as he has his first male teacher, and it's the same guy who taught him Art last year and who with he struck up a special 'artistic bond'. So that's a blessing.

I finished another wedding cake - for Derek & Crystal Fonk. It turned out well I think; exactly the same as the picture she gave me, but with flowers in colours that matched her wedding. The decor at the reception was beautiful, all in deep reds and at Olympic View facing the golf course. Beautiful Location.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all, enjoy your long weekends before we all head back to the grind on Tuesday!

The finished forest/mushroom wedding cake

2008-09-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

Here is what the end result looked like:

Summer So far.........

2008-08-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well today the sun is out but we're in between rain showers according to the forecast.

Summer so far has been great! We've had 3 weekend trips to Kelowna to visit with the sibs & kids and our usual week at teen camp in Nanoose Bay. The kids have been great but I have noticed them getting a little bit bored the last week or two. Obviously time to go back to school is upon us!

I've made another couple of cakes since the last post - one for Sherisse's Mum's vacation bible school - a Mexican fiesta party - and one for my boss' daughter's wedding. That cake just got picked up this morning. They will be adding figurines of a bride fishing her husband out of the pond I put on the wedding cake! Very whimsical, the wedding is on Salspring Island and they wanted a forest floor, a tree stump, a pond and meringue mushrooms. My boss told me I'm promised a copy of the professional photographer's cake picture once the final assembly is complete.

So now I'm just relaxing with a cup of tea and contemplating what's ahead. School supplies are already purchased - early this year to avoid the rush - HOORAY!, and church programs and sports etc. will soon be underway. As my friend Vicki, a lover of Fall will tell you, I'm not too good at accepting summer might be drawing to a close. Which is why I won't mention it and instead will tell you I'm still planning several rip-roaring barbeques. After next week's forecast rain of course ;)

So I'll leave you with a few photos of our last few weeks - one of my favourite pictures, a photo of all of the cousins on my side, together on my sister's couch in Kelowna.

July Update......

2008-07-14T07:23:00.001-07:00

So the sun has finally shown up in Victoria and we've managed to cram lots in since it's first arrival. Darrell had a baseball tournament scheduled one weekend so I took the kids to Kelowna so I could be at Anna's baby shower for little Caleb. It was so great to meet the little guy. At just a month old he pretty much slept the entire time we were there. He looks like Jack's baby picture quite a bit. And Jack - what a little charmer! He has cute little dimples and smiles and hugs bundles (Auntie Rachel like!)

Then this weekend was a whirlwind of activity - the kids were at kids camp for the first time (& loved it!) so that gave me some free time to bake. I made 30 cupcakes for a surprise ENGAGEMENT PARTY! for Oliver (complete with chocolate O's and H's (fiancee's name is Hannah, a sweet girl from Wales). He took Hannah out on a jetski up at his parents cabin on the lake and when they returned they had got engaged, and returned to see 25 of us sitting on the dock. They didn't know we would be there and all of us (except me I think....) didn't know we were coming up for an engagement party! That Florenda, she's so sneaky........

Last but not least, I had to make a wedding cake for Megan & Rommy's wedding up at Bear Mountain. Which, by the way, I had never been to before. BEAUTIFUL! If you're not yet married, you may want to scope it out for a location. Seriously gorgeous. Anyway, the wedding was amazing and the cake, well....let's just say the intense heat of my house after I returned from the cabin was so bad that everything took a little longer than it should have. But Vicki was a lovely cake assistant (!) and helped me drive it up there as I sat on the back floor of my van with the cake box between my legs so it wouldn't slide!

And now I'm tired......but happy.....

Colds Suck

2008-06-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

I'm not a good sick person. Don't get me wrong, I'm nothing like my husband, my Dad or my brother. (How could any girl be?) But I am such an A-type personality that colds shut me right down and leave me completely frustrated. So, here I am at 12:28pm, having moved from my bed to the couch yet again in an attempt not to disrupt anyone else's sleep (read: Darrell) upon realizing I can't stop coughing.

I've always been such a fan of Ny-Quil because my theory is that colds don't get better because we can't sleep when we have them. If we could just 'sleep it off' they wouldn't last half as long. This is where the Ny-Quil comes in. It knocks you out so you are at least catching zzzz's through the night, thus leaving you feeling more 'healed' by morning. Now, granted, it does also leave you with that 'hungover' feeling. Which is why, at the time of this writing and upon realizing I was out of Ny-Quil, I am now updating my blog sipping on a hot brandy.

Heck, if the meds won't do it surely the alcohol will.

Nighty nite.

It's Another Boy!

2008-06-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce that my sister and husband, Anna & Mike have welcomed a precious baby brother for Jack into their family. Caleb Joel Mason was born at 7lb., 6oz. and apparently had the longest umbilical chord the doctor had ever seen! And in the style of myself and my siblings, the middle name is yet again named after a family member - my brother Joel. Joel's son Roman is only a few months younger than Caleb so I'm sure the cousins will become great friends.

Well done Mason Family! Can't wait to meet him.

Wedding Weekend

2008-05-04T22:16:00.000-07:00

Last week was very busy but ended with the lovely wedding of Jacquelyn and Craig, friends from Calgary who chose to get married in Victoria. Unfortunately the sun did not make much of an appearance but the drizzle did not take away from the beauty of the day. The ceremony was outside under a tent at the Ocean Pointe Hotel and overlooked the water. Little Aria made a perfect little flower girl and Alison once again went above and beyond by doing all of the flowers for the weeding and much more planning to boot. Leon of course sang at the ceremony and the reception as well as serenaded Jacquelyn along with Joey of Destino.
I was very pleased with the final result of the wedding cake although there were the usual baking for a deadline stresses along the way. But two days of baking, icing and decorating paid off and the bride seemed very pleased. Dinner was delicious and 68 of us dined as we overlooked the water and the evening lights of the city.

And without a DOUBT the Green table was the most enjoyable! All of the tables were colour coded by placecards, centrepieces (done by Alison) and accents. The whole theme of the wedding was monochromatic black and white with the flowers providing the colour.

Calgary Weekend

2008-04-01T16:46:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was most enjoyable for me. A couple of months ago my friend Alison invited me to her sister's bridal shower in Calgary. How could I NOT want to be at sweet Jacquelyn's shower? The timing was actually perfect. I had planned to visit Calgary after the birth of my new nephew anyway, and although I probably would have waited a couple of months so he was a little bit bigger (and awake!), it meant I could do both in the same weekend.ROMAN
It also meant I could see my brother & sister-in-law's new house as well as be in town for my niece - Tatum's - birthday party. WOW! What a great way to cram so many things in to a weekend.
I arrived in Calgary on Friday afternoon and Joel & Tania treated me to a lovely Greek meal at Van Gogh (thanks bro!). Let me first say that my nieces are a complete crack-up! Chloe is convinced her prayer life raises dogs from the dead. You will have to ask me for further details, the story is a riot and let me say - that kid has faith that can move mountains. This became a running joke.....driving on that highway will kill ya but at least Chloe's close by....... If you ask I'll give you the full story. Her language is very advanced and she was such a source of enjoyment, pretending she is Moses and chasing Tatum around the house "I love you Sapporah, I love you".

Saturday morning was Tatum's 2nd birthday party with a Veggietales theme. What a little doll she is. Tania had baked a yummy cake and we got to decorate Bob, Larry & Jr. Asparagus. I would say it was a success!
Then at lunchtime Joel kindly drove me to the South West where Jacquelyn's shower was being held. Ever since the invite, it was kept a secret by Alison (and everyone else involved I guess) that I was coming. When I walked in she looked at me a bit confusedly and then her eyes grew as she realized it was really me. It was a lot of fun - I love surprises.Alison had done her usual fantastic job of taking care of the food and the decor and I got to meet Alison and Jacquelyn's lovely friends who until this time I'd only heard about through blogger and facebook! Look forward to seeing some of you again at the wedding! Jac's Mum was very sweet and gave me a gift for making the trip out. Then after the shower I got a visit with Craig who popped in to pick up all the loot and a lovely visit with Alison and Aria as Alison kindly drove me back 'up north'. It was so great to see you two again! I can't wait to hang out again in a few weeks.Three cute friends!
Aria - still a little doll!
Sunday had me at Joel's church for a wonderful morning service, lunch home with the fam. and a delayed but uneventful flight home in the evening. A wonderful time spent with wonderful people who I love very much.

The Teddy Bear Picnic!

2008-03-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

(Blogger is being stupid and won't let me load all of the photos - stay tuned for more in the next day or so!)
Well, Brooklyn is now 7. The sad part for me is that she is no longer a little girl, but 'a girl'. I always thought that up to 5 or 6 years old girls were 'little girls' and from 7 onwards they were 'girls'. Which means, that my baby is growing up. I will adjust, but it's a strange concept.

So, with the ENORMOUS popularity of Build-A-Bear we had a Teddy Bear's Picnic at our house. All the girls had to bring a bear with them (although we also had 3 rabbits, a cat and a cheetah!) and Brooklyn specifically asked that they be clothed and not arrive naked. Quite funny I thought. So I of course had to make a bear cake - now you need to understand that I am NO artist, and have no concept of proportions. But, I did manage to copy the swing jacket that Brooklyn's bear has and put it onto the cake. After the party games the girls all ate food on our teddy bear blankets and received Teddy Bear gifts as their goodie bags. What pleased me the most, however, was that Brooklyn decided instead of presents she would like to ask everyone to bring $5, and she would keep half of it for her present, and give the other half away to charity. I was a very pleased mother - I want to foster those sentiments in my children as much as possible and for her to decided she wanted to do that was very special to me.

Enjoy the pictures - this exhausted mama has to go to bed - on top of the party my sister, brother-in-law and nephew also surprised us at our front door for the weekend - they live in Kelowna! So as you can imagine we are laughing and crying (with laughter!) til the wee hours of the morning.

G'nite all.

Another late night

2008-02-29T23:36:00.000-08:00

I think I am a secret bat. Not the scary, dark part (Although the hair colour does work for that) but the nocturnal part. For years friends have told me I was nuts, staying up all hours but in fact, I think my body doesn't know any other way to live. I tried lying down for a 'nap' at 8pm tonight, just for a half hour because I felt kind of knackered (Mentally knackered actually, not so much sleepy) and I just couldn't sleep. It was far too early.

This is rather a strange pattern I've noticed as of late. I can nap when I lay down on the couch for a short while, but as soon as I go to bed for a nap the brain yet again goes into overdrive and I start thinking about a million different things I've got on the go. Of course this is a problem because I work at 8:45am and I'm not a morning person. I really would be better suited in France or perhaps Spain where I could have a short 3pm siesta, then be good to go until 1am. And I have always said I do my best work at night (no comments please). I will start baking at 10pm, start laundry at 11pm and scrapbook until past midnight. All very productive things really. Add to the list last Thursday hey Kelly? Bathtime phone calls at 1:30am!!! Nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it.

Anyways, not really sure what this post is about. Just rambling thoughts of sleep - or the lack of it - and putting it on the web. Doesn't everyone do that?

As a sidebar - an unrelated one - Larry Norman also passed away this past week. Most of any Christian rock you may have enjoyed, is probably because of Larry Norman.

Sad to say Goodbye....

2008-02-27T21:40:00.001-08:00

We just got news this evening that Darrell's Uncle Glen passed away a couple of hours ago. He was a great man of God who had a huge passion for young people and seeing youth come to know Christ. Please pray for the Richmond family if you think of it.

IT'S A BOY!

2008-02-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

I am very excited to announce that my brother and sister-in-law, Joel and Tania, welcomed little Roman Michael Joel Turner into their family yesterday. He was 7 lbs 2 oz, MUCH tinier than either of my two babies and Mum and son are both doing well. Good thing too since they move house NEXT WEEK! Accckkkk.......

And to make the day even cuter - he was born on his Grandma Jean's birthday! Can't wait to meet him.

Correction.....

2008-02-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

As Jeni pointed out, the note was actually left at the Indiana Jones ride and yes, that was where I was looking. NOT the Pirates of the Caribbean. My mistake (in typing, not in looking at the wrong ride).

I just felt that needed to be cleared up. :)

Mexican Riviera Cruise

2008-02-11T16:47:00.001-08:00

Hello! We're back! The Richmonds just got back from a wonderful sunny holiday spent on the Mexican Riviera. We cruised on the Vision of the Seas for a week after a day spent in Disneyland. The Disneyland day was overcast but thankfully dry. Unfortunately however, I never found the note that my gorgeous friend Jeni left me at the entrance to the Pirates of the Caribbean! Although I started to giggle as I lifted crates and barrels to look for it while onlookers gazed at me with a look that said "that girl should be committed!".

Last Sunday we boarded the ship on a windy L.A. day which did require us all buying wristbands (just to be safe, waves against the ship were 8-12 feet high!)and the pampering began!To summarize, the food was fantastic, the cabin was the roomiest one we've ever had (kids had bunks above our bed and we had our own couch), and the entertainment left my stomach hurting from laughter. I made a pact with the kids that they had to order at least one new food every day. Ok, they didn't quite keep completely to the pact, but they did both try chilled Strawberry soup and Zachary had a Chicken Marsala which he quite enjoyed. Brooklyn tried several new things.

The kids program was awesome, the kids thoroughly enjoyed it and Brooklyn even ended up singing and dancing to a song from the musical "Wicked" in front of 500 people in the Masquerade Theater. And we all tried the rock climbing wall, with Zachary and Darrell regularly ringing the bell at the top!Our first port day was Cabo San Lucas where Zachary got to hold an iguana (in a sombrero) and two guitar players serenaded us at lunch. The second port was Mazatlan and we chose to take a shore excursion to Stone Island where we did a 4 mile kayak trip around goat island followed by tropical fruit and drinks served under the palapa on the beach. This might have been my favourite day - we had a boys vs. girl sandcastle contest (just Darrell & Zachary against Brooklyn & I!) and enjoyed dancing in the waves. Puerto Vallarta was beautiful and after walking through the downtown area and taking photos of the beautiful buildings, we went to a private hotel and got a deal on a cabana on the beach. Such service and beautiful surroundings are hard to beat. There we got to use the 3 pools at the hotel and relax in the sun while watching parasailers float by us. And Darrell even got a free massage on the beach!A couple of other perks of the ship - the kids preferred the kids program to the shows so Darrell and I had date night in the Theater each evening before picking them up again at 10pm. For my birthday Darrell bought me a spa session and so after our kayak trip, I got to receive a back massage, facial, foot/ankle massage and deep scalp treatment. Divine! On the second day on the ship there were flowers delivered to my cabin by my wonderful husband. Could it get any better? Oh - I almost forgot - it COULD get better - we saw 4 pods of dolphins off the back of the ship, jumping for 10 minutes right in front of us!So, although we are glad to be back in our beds and drinking GOOD tea, I have to say that coming back to the rain is a bit of a 'downer'. But that is why we have digital cameras, to live off of the memories. ADIOS AMIGOS!

The Month of December

2008-01-14T19:13:00.000-08:00

ok – so I know it’s backwards, but now I’m going to give the Richmond Christmas update. I know, I know, it’s after the New Year’s Polar Bear swim but there you go.

Christmas 2007 was a great one. It was crazily busy which people who know me well, know that I love. First was the kids Christmas Production on December 9th. I directed the choir for it – about 30 kids or so. Brooklyn & Zachary had major roles – Brooklyn was the ‘rockstar’ hanging in the heavens with the star of Bethlehem and Zachary was one of the 3 Kings. He was the “King of Soul” – Jamesariah. Think James Brown but with frankincense! They both did a great job, and Zachary I have to say surprised us the most. Brooklyn is a natural performer but Zachary has to try a little harder to sing, project etc. Well, when he sang “I Feel Good” and gave us a signature James Brown spin, I was a very proud mother :)

Then Monday the 10th I was at a cookie exchange at Sherisse’s house. YUMMY stuff! You should have been there. But you weren’t……. too bad….. it was all delicious.

Saturday December 15th saw the choir singing at GT for the Tom Jackson benefit concert. We sang at it last year also and although the quality of music was very good, the format and even song list/order was exactly the same as 2006. I was hoping for something new but oh well. The VIP reception afterwards however was amazing. Our table with Sharon & Richard and Helena and Luke just had the food coming and coming. It got embarrassing after a while when we saw how many containers were on our table. December 17th was the PCS Christmas Concert. I won’t go into details as to why it was not at UVIC this year. But I’m crying ‘foul’ on political correctness. Enough said.

We had a Christmas Party at our new house on the 21st and I was surprised to see almost all guests were gone by 11pm! Twas the season. Party burnout they call it! The next night the choir sang at the Naden base. We THOUGHT we were singing by the lighted ships. Nope. Singing in the parking lot facing the porta-potties!! Quite funny actually. Freezing cold but we sang with smiles and afterwards whooped it up and Sharon & Rich’s place. Darrell & I didn’t leave til 1:30am! Thanks Andersons!

Late December we made plans that Anna & Mike would try to drive out from Westbank with baby Jack for Christmas. Well, as Christmas approached the weather got worse and worse and on Christmas Eve morning (around 10am) Anna phoned to say she was too nervous to drive it, the top of the Coquihalla looked awful. Needless to say we were saddened. I was so looking forward to one-year old Jack opening stockings Christmas morning. Well a few hours later after Mum & I kind of moped around the house we got a call from Anna. The thought of spending the next 3 days with just the 3 of them in the house staring at each other was too much so they decided to brave it! And it turned out to be a great ride for them. They got to our house at 7pm so we ended up not going to the Christmas Eve service (a favourite of mine) and instead had the blessing of family. After the service, Steve, Vicki, Emily, Curtis & Lane came by for our traditional Christmas Eve hangout time with munchies and presents for the kids.
Christmas Day itself was wonderful, went to Clint & Joanne’s for presents late morning, came home to munchies. My Dad popped in for tea in the early afternoon and then Kelly & her friend Bethany were with us for dinner. What a great time – I love Christmas dinner. After dinner we made Kelly & Bethany sit through A Christmas Carol which is a Turner tradition. They were surprised to discover, however, that it is the MUPPETS version! If you haven’t seen it, you must.

Then to top off the season we were at Brittany & Aaron Hawkes’ wedding on December 29th and had a great time with Steve, Vicki, Todd, Rayael, Kurt, Rhonda, Luke, Helena and Helena’s cousins at the Four Mile for New Year’s Eve.
Whew – just typing all that made me exhausted!
HAPPY 2008 EVERYONE!

A New Year!

2008-01-02T10:44:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone!

Has anyone else noticed that most of your friends blogs seem to be 'stuck' in November 2007? Everyone that is, except for Alison. Well done oh blogging queen!

But I have to confess I was one of those bloggers. Still, it's a new year and here I am. Back again on the blogging train. I am not even going to attempt to sum up Christmas quite yet. Or tell of our fun at New Year's...... Lots of pictures to sort out and file so I will get to that in the near future. But for today, I am just going to tell you how proud I am of Zachary. And how amazed I am that he kept an idea so fixed in his head (for over a year).

Last year Zachary told us he wanted to participate in the Polar Bear Swim at Elk Lake on New Year's Day. We told him no, and probably made up some story about him being too young! Let's be honest, we just wanted to spend the day in our pyjamas. All was forgotten about this until about 2 weeks ago on the way home in the van. I told the kids they both needed to have a bath that night and Zachary said "I would like cold water in mine please. I need to practise." "Practise for what?" I asked quizzically. "For the Polar Bear Swim" he said, almost confused that I would have forgotten his dream.

Well, on January 1st at Elk Lake at 2pm, there we all were. Kelly, Steve & Vicki came out to watch as Zachary and Darrell headed into - and quickly OUT OF! - the water. I am very proud of my son. Not that this is a huge achievement of course, but mostly that he was so excited about doing something so ridiculously crazy and adventurous. Kelly has it on video so I will try to post that once she's passed it on to me.

Here are some pics from before and after. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Getting prepared for the 'big' race!

The cold walk back, and Kelly right there with a blanket:

Yay! Done!

Almost a month ago?

2007-11-12T20:44:00.000-08:00

Well this is quite pathetic. My last blog was almost a month ago and in it I start telling you how I was sick. Well.... not much has changed. I'm now on day 7 of this month's bug. It started as a flu, then a cold and now I've got a cough that kept me up the entire night yesterday. Oh well.... life goes on.

Lots has happened!

Firstly we had a cheerleader and a pirate for Halloween. We once again went trick or treating with Todd & Rayael's kids along with Justine and Tricia with Hunter, Rob & Sherry with Kyle & Mariah and Brian and Beth with cutie Sienna.

I had a lovely visit from Craig and Jacquelyn a few days later and we ate cake with tea. And we laughed, we cried.....it was a beautiful thing.

Then I started my second cake decorating course - fondant and gum paste. And this time, I get to do it with Tricia - YAY! Way more fun with a friend. The bonus is there are only 3 of us in the class so lots of room on the decorating table. Looking forward to see what we learn this time.

Last but not least, last week we had a surprise visit - Kelly rang me asking if I wanted to run. I said I couldn't (heading to the cake course) so we hung up. A minute later her phone rang me again only for me to hear my sister's voice at the other end! She and Mike and Jack had gone to Seattle for a few days and decided to come up to visit for some extra time. They stayed from Tuesday night until Sunday morning. So much fun, seriously the most beautiful baby boy around.

(Sorry I gave you my cold Anna and Jack!)

Then Friday we had the pleasure of having Miles & Louise and 2 of their kids with Ken & Debbie (and Erica) come over for a pizza supper. It was fun to all be together in the same city!

And yes, although some of my friends think I'm nuts....I've already done my Christmas decorating! Yippee.....almost December.

Next week my Mum arrives after her missionary work in Honduras!

The Weekend....

2007-10-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

Nothing new to report here. I've been sick since about Thursday and it appears I may have given it to Darrell. Not too great since he works another 10 hour shift tomorrow, but like he said - it's not like working at Sears when you had to be 'up' all the time. Might not be so bad. Actually, I'm up blogging because 'going to bed early' wasn't working for me. Having no use of either nostrils makes sleeping a real nuisance. Who knew noses were so important?

We (as a result) laid very low this weekend. All except for taking Zachary to his football games and Brooklyn to dance class. Zachary was with a team for 2 weeks and was then asked if he'd consider moving to a different one which was lacking players. We (myself and Z) pleasantly said 'Sure' in an effort to help out wherever possible (Z at this point was not bothered about it). Big mistake. The new coach is....how should I say?.....very uptight and takes things far too seriously for a bunch of 8 year olds. First practise there was a new boy - never played before in his life. He was crying by the time the game ended. And he chided the ref yesterday for not making good calls in our game. A FOURTEEN year old ref who just wanted to go home after a day's work but couldn't because our coach was in his face. It was embarassing actually. And don't get me wrong, I don't want to be that parent that kicks up a huge fuss - there will always be people in authority in your life who are not your favourite, or with whom you disagree. You have to learn to live with that. But come on, they're 8 years old.

And then there's Brookyn's musical theatre class. Different story - great teacher and B is in her ELEMENT! She sings and moves with such sass and attitude you would think she was born in the theatre. She must get that from Darrell! Yep, can't wait for that recital.

Well, I'm going to try hitting the hay again and see what happens. Ciao.

Life Change

2007-10-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

Well the Richmonds have experienced a big change as of late. It started a month ago with a letter that began as follows:

"After having worked for your company for the past 22 (!!!!) years, please accept my letter of resignation."

YEP - Darrell has left Sears. He is now the general manager at Richlock Rentals (owned by his cousin) and although he works long days (7am to 5pm to start) he has EVERY weekend off. He has worked weekends ever since we met (17 years ago), and this past weekend he enjoyed 3 days with his family. NOT WORKING!

It is a miracle.

Flowers? For Me?

2007-09-28T12:41:00.001-07:00

Well I was going to post a pic of my anniversary flowers but it didn't quite work out on the day of my anniversary so here they are now. They were beautiful. Our anniversary dinner, on the other hand, not so much. We went to Spinnakers (never been before but people have recommended it). I ordered the pork tenderloin. After cutting into the first piece Darrell & I were both alarmed to see that it was flaming red. This is PORK people! From a PIG! What are you trying to do here? KILL ME ?????? So needless to say we sent it back only to cut into the 2nd plate of it and discover the same thing! The waitress was very apologetic so I wasn't upset but by the time my meal came (NO, did not order pork again), Darrell was completely finished. They brought me bison ribs the 3rd time around. I have to say, we will probably never go back but if YOU do - get the Bison ribs. Very delicious. Their effort at apologizing was a 20% discount. That was $9. You know what? My dinner should have been for free. I worked in the restaurant business and that is just what you do. So yes, overall not too impressed. However, dinner at GLO on Monday night more than made up for it!

This Tuesday was the last day of my cake decorating course. I wanted to take the 2nd course in the series but they're running it on Wednesday nights when I have choir so that's out. But, the kind instructor said she will run the Fondant and Gum Paste course on Tuesday nights in November to make sure I can go so I've signed up for that one. I've worked with fondant before (see a few posts down for pic.....) but never Gum Paste. I'm actuallyr really looking forward to it - there is this amazing carnation we will be making - looks really lifelike. This past Tuesday we learned roses which was not rocket science, but I doubt I would have figured it out if I had not been able to see someone do it right in front of me.

Fall....Cakes....Marriage....Children

2007-09-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

My days are flying by. In an effort to minimize daycare for my in-laws (well, Joanne namely), I am now working Monday to Friday. Brooklyn is in school full-time (grade 1) and my boss is so flexible that we've changed my schedule to accommodate that. So, I now finish work at 2:21 (I know....long story....) each day. The days wing by me and in fact I didn't even mind working my first Friday as it came so fast.

And we still have cakes coming out of our ears for this Cake Decorating Course. There will be even more as I've decided to sign up for the second one. Although Darrell thinks I might be the teacher's pet or perhaps driving the other people nuts because I'm always finished early and end up leaving 30 minutes before anyone else!

Yesterday was our Wedding Anniversary. 14 years!!! I know, crazy how time flies isn't it? Darrell bought me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, really beautiful. I'll try to post a pic at the end of this post. For our anniversary dinner we had Cheeseburgers, french fries and caesar salad. Nice - don't you think? We're actually going out later this week to celebrate it (see cake course above) as I was out last night due to the busyness of our Fall.

I must confess, Fall is not my favourite time of year. I love summer. And yes, I know I've already complained about making school lunches but it's just one of the reasons why my summers are so much easier. No taxi services are required to soccer, dance, cross-country meets etc. Having said all of that, I had the joy of watching Zachary in his first cross-country race on Saturday and I have to say, highly enjoyable. He did not disgrace himself in the least but he was a little ticked he wasn't in the top-20 as only those boys got a ribbon! It was a race between all of the private schools, and the funny part was that when he crossed the finish line, he didn't look all that tuckered out. We asked if he tried his best and his response was 'yeah, kind of'.

Actually, there is my segway into this week's funniest Zachary moment. Conversation in the minivan on the way to school:

Me: Brooklyn, did you meet any new people at dance yesterday? Or introduce yourself to anyone new?
Brooklyn: No, I don't like doing that.
Me: Why not?
Brooklyn: I just don't like it (nervous perhaps??)
Zachary: You should just do what I do when I see someone new.
Me: What's that Zachary?
Zachary: I trip them.
Me: What!? Why?
Zachary: Because then you have to go over to apologize to them, and you can say hello at the same time. Works every time!
Me (in fits of hysterics!): But what if they fell down and hurt themself?
Zachary: Well at least you'd know you got their attention!

My son - the master of Social Interaction :)

Weekend Update

2007-09-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

We had a blast of a weekend. We picked up Kelly from work, caught the 5pm ferry, then drove to Kelowna to suprise my sister in her new house for her birthday weekend. The kids knocked on the door at 11pm - Anna answered with mouth wide open and ecstatic with the surprise. Then we all walked in the door - all except Kelly - and carried on laughing and crying in disbelief. As we were getting louder baby Jack awoke - at which point (and this was the best part) Kelly walks into the house and completely nonchalantly says "don't worry - I'll get him" and proceeds to go to the nursery. Anna just about lost it. It was great. Mike had arranged the whole thing as well as a birthday party at their friends place.

We had great weather - spent some time walking in Peachland, took the kids to the beach and Anna, Kelly & I visited Mission Hill & Quail's Gate wineries. Good times.

Also went a bit hog wild with chocolate cake................

AND - Darrell bought a Wii while we were in Kelowna. Never before had he seen one, played one or researched one. He'd only heard from Aaron how much fun theirs was, and from Brooklyn & I how much fun we had playing it at Jeni's. Let me tell you - if you try the boxing - prepare for soreness! Great workout.

Back to School and Class....for almost all of us....

2007-09-06T00:50:00.000-07:00

I hate packing school lunches. My parents always taught me never to use the word hate. We always said "Really don't like" so as not to invoke the intense emotions brought on by the word Hate. But I don't care. I HATE PACKING SCHOOL LUNCHES. It's not that it takes very long to do. But it is one of those things that you put off because you don't enjoy, and at the back of your mind all evening you're telling yourself you need to get it done. Before you actually make school lunches, it is like you have a nag on your shoulder constantly reminding you you haven't done them yet. This is why I love pizza day at our school. Don't get me wrong - I would not willingly choose to give pizza to my children on a daily basis. However, our school offers alternating pizza and hot dog days on Thursdays for a nominal fee so Yes, I participate. It removes that nagging voice from the back of your mind, the one that prevents you from thoroughly enjoying that episode of ER or takes the pleasure out of an evening down at the mall.

Well, it's Wednesday night and we have made it through the first two days of school. Brooklyn is now in full-time and at the new PCS campus (old Montessori school). The new campus is very cute but I can't help feeling a little disappointed that it will now be 2 years before Zachary and Brooklyn are back at the same campus again. I always wanted an older brother growing up - I thought it would be cool on the school playground to be able to find him if ever I were in trouble or getting bullied. Brooklyn will, I guess, have to settle for taking care of her own business. Oh who are we kidding? Like that will be a problem......!

And I have taken to starting the Wilton Cake Decorating Course. I've wanted to do it for ages, actually signed up a year and a half ago but had to cancel out. So in light of the upcoming wedding cake, it seemed like a smart thing to do. It doesn't actually look like this course will be of any benefit bearing in mind the cake the bride wants for May, but it will at least give me the experience in certain decorating techniques that I always wanted to learn correctly. (And the bride is as of yet un-named in this blog, only because I wasn't sure how much is public knowledge....but if you read my comments I'm sure you can figure it out!)

Well my friends, 1am now and I really nee to head to bed. At least I can now that the ham and cheese sandwiches are all sealed and refrigerated.

Life thus far......

2007-09-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

See? I told you I would be more consistent in blogging.

However, not much been going on here since the lake. Ahhh....the lake.....

We do have family in town from Kelowna however, Darrell's cousin and boys and aunt & uncle. So the five kids have been back and forth between our house and Clint and Joanne's house playing 24/7. So convenient this housing situation.

And Auntie Sherry's having everyone over for dinner tonight so I made a fruit flan. And shortbread......and cinnamon buns for the kids hike with Grandpa today.....yes, the baking is a bit of an obsession....

That's about it. Going up to Stenberg's cabin this Monday but this time unfortunately without Darrell as he can't get off work. Looks like it's going to rain so we'll take a movie. Still, it will be fun to just nestle in with friends before the onslaught of school starts. Ah yes, my Fall schedule. Looks like we have soccer Monday, Dance Tuesday, Choir Wednesday, Soccer Thursday, Soccer noon on Saturday and Dance 2pm on Saturday. Yep. Nuts.

Oh and last thing - picture of the trial cake as well as cupcakes Brooklyn & I made last week.

Ciao All.

Long time no blog........

2007-08-27T01:20:00.000-07:00

Well, at the request of a friend I have taken the time to update the blog. It's true....I'm not sure anyone reads this anymore after the invasion of facebook. So, if I'm wrong, feel free to drop me a line and I'll make sure I'm more consistent in the world of blogdom.

I guess it's been a month since the last entry. Luke & Helena's wedding to be exact. Not had great weather since then here in Victoria I'm sad to say. Making a lot of people wish they had booked some time outside of Vic for the month of August. Trust me, we are some of those people!

But we have managed to fit in some friend-time sandwiched between more work on the fence at the front yard and ripping out bushes in the back yard. And a friend of mine has asked me to make her wedding cake so after a very rough 'trial cake' using a new recipe for rolled fondant, I decided to say Yes. I'm very excited about it actually, I love cake-making and have wishes to learn more about decorating than I already know so here is my chance. I'll keep you posted on how the prep goes.

Oh, and a big WELL DONE to Jacquelyn for running the IRONMAN today in Penticton! YES, I SAID IRONMAN! Can't wait to hear all about it Jac.

Last week was a really relaxing, albeit short, break for us. I took 2 days off work and the four of us went up to Horne Lake for two days with Jeni & Aaron at her parents cabin. It was awesome! Just what we all needed. Zachary was in his water-baby heaven and Brooklyn had a hoot with us all in the 3-person tube. We also had an interesting time trying to persuade B. that it was okay to pee in the lake since we had stopped the boat in the middle of it for a swim and no-one was in a hurry to go back. We had our initiation with ConeZone and also got to see the Horne Lake caves. Very interesting. But most of all it was just fun to hang out with friends and relax. As Jeni put it, operating with 'no schedule' is very therapeutic. Enjoy the pics. And Jeni - enjoy the music! (Remind you of a little dance-party perhaps???)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Luke & Helena's Wedding - July 21/07

2007-07-23T00:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a beautiful wedding. The bride looked stunning and classic in a dress that few could pull off as well as Helena did. Luke looked delighted beyond belief, and the gorgeous little children provided extra entertainment. Above all else it was a very God-honouring ceremony. Following was a reception at the Empress Hotel and dancing for all. A very enjoyable evening spent with two people who are head over heels in love with each other.

Enjoy the video - it's much clearer on my computer than when it uploads unfortunately, but you get the idea.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

New Babys, Spa Day and Flowers

2007-06-16T14:06:00.001-07:00

Well it's been a fun couple of days so far. I got to visit my friend Elizabeth and her new gorgeous baby Maya. Then yesterday Tracey had her baby ! Way to go Tracey! Can't wait to meet little Joshua.

Then yesterday I had a great girly evening with crazy Kelly. First we went to the Ocean Pointe Spa for a gorgeous scrub (if decided between the scrub and massage, choose the scrub - you'll still get the massage for the same price!) If you haven't been, it's glorious. Low beautiful music, candles and wonderful towels everywhere. Then we walked through some shops for a little girlie shopping, followed by dinner at a restaurant I'd never been to before - the Mint. Awesome! Last of all we got locked out of my house for a short while - babysitter fell asleep and couldn't hear us knocking or the telephone! (still love you Jonathan :)

Our house right now is a flower-lovers paradise. Whoever planted it was very smart; as one set of flowers dies, a brand new set of a different variety seems to flower. It's like a symphony; every new plant plays it's part and overlaps the last one. Best of all is this: I absolutely LOVE rose bushes and told Darrell while dating that when we owned our own house I wanted them in my garden - and now I have 17!

So, I'm going to try and post a slideshow of them - they are so gorgeous, I just took a few photos of them this week right after they were rained on. There is also a couple of pics of my baskets.

Great News!

2007-06-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

Well, we've finally heard the report. Paris made it through her first night in jail.

I know.

I was relieved too.

New Adventures!

2007-05-15T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well, there's been a lot going on around here.

First of all Zachary, Darrell and Aaron along with Jeni's brother, went to one of the Canucks playoff games. Obviously it didn't work out so well for the Canucks but the boys had fun.

Last Saturday we had a garage sale to get rid of the stuff we had leftover from the move. The kids each made $20 so they were thrilled.

Then just yesterday Brooklyn said she wanted her training wheels off so she could try riding without them. Darrell literally pulled off the wheels and she rode away. This was a bit shocking to us because with Zachary this was a week long process with many falls and tears. Quite funny!

I'll see if I can get the videos working:

Frustrated....then Sore....then not so Frustrated

2007-05-01T23:37:00.000-07:00

So the Times Colonist 10km race went off without a hitch. However, it was a frustrating one for me. As a run it was not good - I started having pain in my right thigh, aggravated by jumping onto a curb to overtake a slow lady. So, at about 7.5 km, and after having run with Steve Yeats that whole way, I had to start walking. I'd walk for 30 seconds then run for 2 minutes. Walk for another 30 seconds, walk for 4 minutes. Frustrating as I usually run straight for the hour.

Needless to say, I crossed the finish line feeling a tad dejected. Race was still fun, but didn't feel victorious if you know what I mean. Imagine my surprise to find out I had somehow knocked off 2 1/2 minutes from my time last year! Doesn't make any sense, except that maybe I started out too fast. Truth is, I don't have the mental game to be highly competitive. I just don't operate that way. Some people would be extremely focused and push through the pain. I prefer to live the next day.

So, I took it a bit slower but still had a p.b. Once the pain in my leg leaves my body I'll give it another go. Maybe at the one in July, we'll see.

Anyhoo - not much else going on around here. Literally relaxing on the couch a bit. Singing at PAOC district conference tomorrow night and Brooklyn's dance recital on Saturday. Should be fun.

Fast update

2007-04-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

Ok - this will be quick because...... well I shouldn't be here right now.

Easter was fun - beautiful church services, kids looked for eggs, adults stuffed ourselves silly. Visit from Louise & Myles from Saskatoon. Good time had by all.

Recent baby shower for a friend, good girl chatter.

Had a great BBQ with a few friends on Monday night and watched the Nucks win - on our new big screen TV - wine flowed, ribs were broiled and there was enough apple pie to feed a Catholic family.

I haven't been here so much because ....well, I am facebook-addicted. It's easier than email people! No really, if you haven't tried it yet, you should.

So - prepping for the 10km race on Sunday. This will be my 2nd and thanks to the renos I skipped about 3 months of training. So, my only hope is to beat last year's time for myself. Which, with the lack of consistency might be a bit difficult. Falling short of that, it's not to be injured. Too many friends have had disappointing body failures this past week or so. It's horrible to train so hard for something only to have your body give out. Anyways, the race is lots of fun with bands playing along the way and people cheering. Our church has entered a team of 61 people! And we're getting lunch at GT after the morning service (after first having to go on stage wearing our running bibs). So I will peace out from here and catch y'all soon.

A Mother's Musings........Happy Easter

2007-03-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

Our Only Begotten Son

I know it’s a bit early for Mother’s Day and parental musings but this blog is spurred on by two recent thought-moments. One of them echo-ing our upcoming Easter season. One was a blog I recently read and the other was upon realizing it is only 2 weeks until my son’s 8th birthday. The two thoughts, it seems, are linked with small similarities.

I was touched recently by reading a blog linked to my sister-in-law’s. From what I can tell it is by a woman who recently lost her son and this blog is partly in memorial to him. She writes beautifully and touchingly.

I can not fathom the grief that must come upon losing a child. Whenever my mind starts to wander to thinking what that must be like, I have to sharply pull it out of those thoughts as I am immediately brought to tears. This blog shows the pain and yet amazing strength and courage shown by a woman who has gone through the worst type of loss. I was brought to tears upon reading it. Whenever I hear of someone who has gone through this I feel the most painful twinge in the pit of my stomach. No, actually in the pit of my heart. The death of a child in human terms seems to be the worst tragedy that one could have to endure.

I lost a child through miscarriage a few years ago. It is not the same thing; that child was not born, although it was loved. I spent months agonizing over what would have been had the child been born, and felt that its conception was a miracle of God which made its loss so much more painful and harder to comprehend. But I did not get to see him/her crawl, walk, run, laugh, cry, hug. This woman’s writings show me what I have always believed. That is must be nearly impossible to go through that kind of experience without Jesus at your side. Jehovah Rophe, our healer, is the ultimate source of comfort in times like this. What a friend to be able to turn to, cry upon, and wail our most despairing thoughts to. God, the Father, knew the ultimate pain that comes from the loss of a child.

This brings me to my last and final thought. As I pondered Zachary’s upcoming birthday I was thinking about the day he was born. It was the best day of my life (I’m tear-ing up now just writing about it….). He was the best present I had ever received and opened up a whole gap in my heart I never knew existed. I said something to my Mum and Darrell that day to explain how I felt. I felt like I finally understood the crucifixion. Don’t misunderstand, I never claimed to understand God, but the crucifixion suddenly made so much more sense to me. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”. HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. In a million years I could never give up my only begotten son. Even after he had only been born 5 minutes. The love for him was that instant. God gave up His ONLY SON. For you. And for me. And for my children. How can you reject such a gift as that?

Is it finished yet??

2007-03-24T00:29:00.000-07:00

Ok.I am seriously OVER the rain now. We in Victoria have been dealing with incessant rainstorms, windstorms, bizarre snowstorms and more rain. It has been such a wet winter that now the weatherman/girl grins with glee when they can see "And today, we only have light winds and an overcast grey, dreary sky". Yes, very exciting forecast isn't it? And don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people prone to SADS or anything like that. My joy in life comes from a much deeper place and is not affected by the weather. But, I must admit that even I for a brief moment have dreamt of moving to Greece and can honestly see how sunlight-deficient humans could become prone to SADS.

So, as you can see this is simply a rant about the rain. And to cheer myself up I'm going to post a couple photos from our Awesome European vacation 3 years ago. The first one is Steve, Darrell & myself at the top of the Spanish Steps (right before I fell down them!) and the last one is Darrell & I outside of the Coliseum (which we're facing in the picture). You may have to click on them as I'm too tired to crop them for you. Ahhh.... memories of beautiful architecture and beautiful sunshine......

Signing off.

Yes - a new post (even though it looks like the video doesn't work, click on it, it does)

2007-03-21T00:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, Ok, Ok.... I know, I've been lame in the blogging department. Since people are probably bored of me saying I'm busy let's just say....I've been tied up.

Brooklyn turned 6 ! How did that happen? We took a few little girls bowling, it's weird when your children reach an age where their friends are now people you don't know. Should this be allowed? Inviting people I really know nothing about to my daughter's birthday? When you feel like your babies are growing up, it's a really strange sensation.

Anyway, they had a good time so I'm going to try to post a video and a pic of the cake. Again, birthdayexpress.com was a great place to get the party favours.

Family Reunion!

2007-02-27T23:21:00.000-08:00

So we recently had a family event in Sidney - my Grandad's 90th birthday. What is more shocking than him turning 90 is the fact that he is completely with all his faculties. (Well, perhaps with less memory but still functioning nonetheless). It is amazing when you think of what someone's life has seen in the way of changes in society over a period of 90 years. Happy Birthday Mush!

Although it was much too short of a visit I got to see my aunt and uncle from Three Hills and my youngest cousin Brian (missed you Dennis!). And to toot my cousin's horn for him, at the end of the meal he stepped up to the grand piano and played some awesome post-dinner music. Beautiful stuff.

Here's what his composition and keyboard playing sound like on "Water". Enjoy.

http://profile.myspace.com/soulartransmissions

New Post.... a short one

2007-02-25T00:17:00.000-08:00

Well, the move went well.... we've still got some things to put away, hang, fix etc. but the basics are done. But no, I'm not posting any after pics yet - until I feel it's really done I'll just be frustrated by posting it 'almost finished'.

Very tiring renovating. And I'm usually a 100% go go go person but I'm feeling a tad flat. My kids are also out of sorts, absolutely knackered and tired of being dragged from Rona to Home Depot etc.

Still, this too shall pass, every day is feeling a little more normal and I'm really excited to be in my beautiful new home. Can't wait for you all to see it.

SOLD !

2007-02-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

Well, well well....

What an exciting day it's been - thanks to the prayers of many we sold our house today. First offer given, and accepted. THANK YOU JESUS!

And on Saturday we booked a moving truck for this Wednesday (before having sold) so after this week is over I will finally be planted in my new house with almost all of the renovations completed. Only minor things left to be done now. I will send photos once it's all set up but I'm pretty knackered and I still have to do some packing tonight.

BUT - the big blessing is, new people don't take this place until mid-March so we have plenty of time to clean it up, get everything out etc.

Peace, love and joy out and up,
Me.

PS - Rayael sent me a link to these guys and a song they did - which was freaking hilarious - but then I clicked on one of their other performances and let's just say that .... well, the last minute's concept is a tad off but seriously I am CRYING MY EYES OUT WATCHING IT. FUNNIEST THING EVER. You must see and give me your opinion. Is it just that my brain and stress levels make this 'seem' funny or are you too busting a gut??? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eum-W589NIs&mode=related&search==

Run-in at Canadian Tire

2007-02-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a coffee break here at the office to update my blog and recap what happened to me last night.

I was at Canadian Tire (on one of many trips for the new house supplies) last night with Brooklyn as Darrell desperately needed a part for our new stove.

We were in rather a long line up and were waiting for the next till over to open. It was at the point where I was the next person in line at the till we were lining up for, with a woman (in her 30's or 40's, too young to be grumpy) lining up behind me.

The girl at the till that was not yet opened said to my oblivion "I can help whoever is next in line" at which the woman behind me moved over to pay for her items. I turned and noticed this, started to move my buggy over and then thought to let it go. At which point, the kind Canadian Tire employee said to this woman, "I think that girl over there was ahead of you"

Ok - so here is the kicker. Yes, I was in a hurry. Yes, I started to make my way over to take my rightful place in line but ended up foregoing my turn as the quick woman had jumped ahead of me. The woman who had jumped ahead of me, obviously in a bad mood and feeling ticked that she was being 'reprimanded' by the C.T. girl, said OUT LOUD "Well she should have been listening".

Foul. Foul Mood. I was feeling defiant and said 'Well sorr-rr-y" as I passed her to take my rightful place in line. Now you have to understand, this is a bit out of character for me. I may be thinking those sarcastic words but I don't usually come right out and verbalize them. So back in the van I explained what had happened to Brooklyn and we discussed how important it is to not be rude to people, even if you are being treated unfairly etc. And Mummy had to apologize for the words she retaliated with.

But it got me to thinking.......so often we feel treated unfairly, unjustly, as if we deserve better. And we may in anger, defiance or sheer frustration say things we don't mean or push to get what is 'rightfully ours'.

Jesus didn't do any of those things. He was treated as the lowest of the low, he was spit upon, he was beaten, he was ignored. He, the one without sin or blame, was despised more than any other. And yet, after experiencing all of those things still chose to give the most sacrificial gift ever known to man. His Life. For us. The unworthy, the ungodly, the selfish. We don't deserve half of what we have here in the modern world. Nothing will teach you that more than a missions trip which I highly encourage. Staring into the faces of those beautiful, hungry and dirty Mexican children was enough to bring me to tears and feel so thankful and grateful for what we have.

But more than that - we are all equal in God's eyes. All unworthy ....and yet..... all loved to the point of human sacrifice. So, the next time someone cuts you off on the highway, or in the aisle of Canadian Tire, remember that God loves you to the point of death and that your reaction might be watched by a little child who needs you to teach her that your blessings in life are so great that we should never feel like we deserved 'more' or 'better'. And if you find yourself in a place where 'more' or 'better' does come your way, then you know who to thank.