That Darn 'R'!

 

If you know my boy Chad you'll have already heard that he speaks with a speech impediment.  He's had life long issues with his speech all the way from when he was a wee thing.  He had chronic ear infections in his toddler years at a time when proper hearing is vital for picking up proper speech, he was a very late talker and then when he did talk it was a mess.  We had two years of weekly speech therapy sessions, plus attended a speech course through the health unit  After Chad was five he was discharged from the 'free' speech therapy program.  He spoke pretty well by this point but still retained that 'Boston accent' that was kinda cute.  Now that he's in grade 6 it's no longer cute and I fear it won't be long before he starts getting teased.  Kids regularly ask him about his 'accent' and Chad was starting to become rather self-conscious.  Private speech therapy is atrociously expensive and our benefits aren't that great but we decided it was time to get some professional help. 

Today was our first session and we were greatly encouraged!  The speech therapist is a dear, caring lady who Chad felt very comfortable with.  A few observations from our consult today were:

-Chad can indeed make a perfect 'r' sound which is half the battle.  It just becomes an issue when the 'r' is not at the start of the word.  That is the problem that we specifically need to work on.
-Chad is motivated and willing to work hard to get tongue retrained to make the proper sounds
-Chad will only have to see the therapist once a month unless he's not making good progress
-the rest of Chad's speech is very good and he has excellent enunciation which she said was due to Chad's previous speech therapy
-this is a common issue and it can be resolved which is such good news because my child has the gift of gab!!!

...and we are gaining knowledge!

Oh Boy!  Here we go again!

4

Fours years ago our well-planned little life was turn upside down.

God decided to shake things up a bit with a boy named Liam.

We love you Liam and are proud of the BIG boy you are becoming! 

 

 

2008

 

2010

2012

 

 

Innocent Bride No More

 

Well, you can't go back but if you can still put on your wedding dres you're doing alright!  Actually since I was not a frail, skinny bride my dress still fits and is actually too big.  It was fun to put it on last night even though it reeks of mothballs and needs to be ironed desperately.

 

Keith surprised me with a Kobo e-reader for our anniversary.  I'm SO excited.  Now if I could only figure out how to borrow items from the library with it...help!

 

 

My Love

For 18 years this man has been my rock.  I love you more than you'll ever know!

Happy Anniversary, Keith.

Caves and Tunnels

William has been starting to 'cave' as they call it in the international student world.  He's spending FAR too much time in his room and hardly interacting with us at all.  He's extremely friendly and polite when he does emerge from his room but he basically comes down to eat and that's it.  This is not what immersing yourself in Canadian life is all about so we are trying to get him out more.  The other night Keith found out he likes Jackie Chan so they watched a movie together.  William fell asleep!  Today we decided to show him some of our beautiful mountains and head up to Othello tunnels. He slept on the way there and back.  He keeps very late hours we've noticed as well. 

I hope he enjoyed the tunnels...more than church this morning anyhow where he was sort of sleeping during the sermon :)  I did find out from him today that he comes from a completely non-religious background so I can imagine church is extremely overwhelming for him.

Here are some pictures from our afternoon out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 An apple and a beautiful place to sit.  I'm good.

 Building inukshuks.

 

 

Fall Hike

 

Best thing about late summer is being able to enjoy hikes without the heat.  I am so out of shape that I create my own climate zone with my huffing and puffing up the hills!  We enjoyed a great afternoon out at Lindeman Lake last weekend with friends.  If you've never been I recommend it as a great family hike.  Liam was such a trooper but it was maybe a bit much for him.  Especially during naptime. 

When We Began

My talented friend Kimberly makes wonderful signs and I ordered one from her last week.  Isn't it gorgeous?  Check out her site:  http://www.mybrownbagstudio.com/

 

It fits perfectly in our little eating nook and helps me fill up one more bare wall in my naked house!

I Want It Perfect!

 Sigh....epic fail on beautiful apple perishky.  They look nothing like MGCC nor anything like my Oma's perishky either.  You'll have to trust me when I tell you they taste much better than they look!

Chad's Passion

Chad is always coming down after rummaging in his Lego bins to show us his latest creations.  If it's a space ship or robot I'm not super interested but this one really caught my attention.  Snoopy!  Who doesn't love Snoopy?
Chad aspires to be a Lego designer and when I saw he plays with it every day I am not kidding you.  I've never known a lad to be SO into Lego!

Brass Section

This is a photo of my uber keen middle school beginning band student watching a Youtube clip on how to make a proper 'embourchure' for the trombone.  He is very excited to learn an instrument and it's nice that Keith's trombone from his band days is still in good enough shape for Chad to use.  Okay, it just needed one small ($100 eeekkk!) repair but the music shop said it was a high quality trombone so I guess we're keeping it!  In band 6 at MEI middle the kids will learn three instruments and then in grade 7 will chose just one instrument to focus on.  After term one Chad will go on to learn the clarinet and trumpet.  I loved playing in band back in the day and I do hope that Chad will enjoy his experience and excel at which ever instrument he ends up choosing. 

Pee-Pee

Ever had to toilet train a 15 year old?
Yeah, it's about as much fun as you can imagine.

Punked!

 

Let me start off by saying that we are very fond of our neighbors directly to the north of us.  They are the ones that gave us the tip when this home went up for sale.  They are the ones that used to be my Sunday School teachers many moons ago at Highland Comm. Church.   They are the ones that I work with at MEI.  They are caring, friendly and we really couldn't ask for better neighbors.  Now, our neighbor whom I will call 'P' LOVES his grass.  He even re-sodded his entire front lawn this spring by himself.  He mows it faithfully, fertilizes it, trims it, edges it and waters it.  He waters it A LOT.  And even though he only waters it during the prescribed times by the city he doesn't follow his watering days.  Everyone on the street has a brown and crispy lawn but his is lush and green.  A certain someone and I decided it would be very fun to pull a prank on the lawn-lover.   

We wrote up a fake by-law warning ticket and put it on his front step on a Friday night.  Keith and I thought for sure he'd tell us about it because we often chat over the fence but all was silent over the weekend.  Since we were having the block party on Sunday we knew we'd have to 'tell all' before Monday so he wouldn't phone the city or anything like that.  Well to make a long story short, he thought it was an actual ticket and was all set to PAY it!  He even called the city over the weekend and left them a voicemail asking why he was being singled out for a ticket.  When we told him at the block party he simply could not believe we would do such a thing to him and he laughed and laughed!  He was happy to be out of the doghouse with his wife.  The neighbors all had a big laugh as well as 'P' is well known up and down the street for the love of his lawn.  We got him so good and now he warns us to watch our backs!  Bring it on...we dare ya!

 

 

Love Thy Neighborhood!

Boy, oh boy do I love the street we live on.  We experienced our first ever block party yesterday.  There is really no better way to connect with people than over food.  It's one thing to wave at your neighbors in passing but to really chat with them and have a laugh bonds you in a different way.  I know now that I will be more quick to pop across the street for a chat. 

Ever thought of organzing a street BBQ in your neighborhood?  I highly recommend!

And Off He Goes

We made it to preschool!  Ever since we registered back in January we have been pumping Liam up for this big event.  The day finally arrived and we were all super excited!  First day was with a parent and since I was working, Keith got the privilege of going along.  Keith told me afterwards that Liam had the death grip on his finger most of the hour he was there.  It seems he had a fine time and he came to the middle school office to visit me after his session.  Next week he goes solo...what a brave boy!

 

Walking Nowhere

This is my new friend.  We are still getting used to each other.
Keith's mom kindly loaned me her treadmill for a while as I want to see if I am a treadmill kind of girl.  It's nice to have the option of not walking in the rain as fall approaches.
I've been using it for two weeks now and I do like it.  The design could be improved upon with long handles since one trips up on the front of the treadmill with the handles so short. I like to watch TV as I am huffing and puffing but it seems that nothing of interest is ever on while I am working out.  Grrrr!
But I have found my perfect pre-programmed setting and I hope that I see some results!  It's a sweaty, hot work doing the treadmill.  Or perhaps I'm just that badly out of shape?!

2012 Edition: First Day of School

Chad was so anxious/nervous/excited for middle school he was up pretty and was ready to go long before the rest of us!  I'm happy to report that he's super happy with how everything is going so far.  He's got a great teacher and even though his buddies are not in his class (no, I don't 'rig' things even though I work in the office) he's gonna be alright!

 

 Nathan was calm, cool and collected for his first day of high school.  Not much phases this kid!  He's a rock.  After a lengthy interrogation from me I found out that he too, had a great day and is very happy with his new school.

 And even though Liam doesn't begin preschool until this week Friday, he had to have his photo taken as well!  He is really excited for Friday and wants to go 'by myself' even though it's a parent/child time on the first day.

China Meets Canada

It's been a while since I've posted but not for lack of blogging material but simply the time and desire to do it.

Our fourth child William joined us this past weekend from Inner Mongolia, China.

I hate this part of the homestay program.  Getting him settled and comfortable is awkward, challenging and nerve-wracking.  Really not my forte.  Keith is much better at this part and I'm glad he's stepped up to the plate to take over.  Food is definitely going to be the main challenge as his English is fair.  So far we have found out that he never drinks cold beverages or eats cold foods and he doesn't like sweets.  Hmmmm.  I do hope we can find something he can eat for breakfast.

William's parents personally brought him to Canada (apparently a rare thing) and so we've had to meet mom and dad.  We've endured many conversations via a translator which can be lacking.  All I know is that 'dad' keeps insisting that we will come to China next July to visit their  home. He calls Keith his 'older brother' once he found out that Keith is a few months older than him!  Now, they seem to be quite wealthy and boy, were they ever generous in their gifts to us.  Keith and I both got wool items from a famous manufacturer, Liam got a remote control car that he is loving and the older boys each got an Ipod Touch! 

This is going to be quite an adventure and I hope and pray that William can feel comfortable here and enjoy his year in Canada with us.