Just Jordan

I have my Kinesiology degree and in order for me to receive this degree I had to do a certain number of credits in activity classes. I took wrestling, softball, and badminton to name a few. Any of the classes that were 2 credits (some were just 1 credit) gave you a level 1 coach's certification in that sport. Through this I got my level 1 in basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, and track and field. I also took 2 credit hockey, but didn't end up with my certification. This spring with some help from Hugh, I was able to get the certification from the university and SHA. To my surprise I was given a Coach 2. Coach 2 qualifies me to head coach a Pee Wee AA team. I was immediately excited thinking I wouldn't have to do any other certification to coach Boone's Initiation team. Dead. Wrong. I was awarded Coach 2, but not Coach 1. I need Coach 1 to coach Initiation. Sigh. I can coach Pee Wee AA, but not 1st year players. Hilarious, really.  Today, I started the online portion...

We always have a busy start to our summer vacation, but it involves most of our very favorite people, so we definitely don't complain. My sister, brother and their families come to the lake along with Hugh's brother's family. It is so awesome for Hugh and I how this comes together! I know pictures make posts better, but I am at the lake and it takes some serious effort to get them downloaded, so you will just have to use your imagination! Some highlights: Pizza, deep-fried fish and McDonald's fries, Jes's homemade burgers Lawson, Cruz and Nash fishing in front of Mom and Dad's cabin Cuddles with our newest member, Sloan Leeta washing everyone's shoes on the deck. . . .Including Boone's runners Calder and Pace taking off with the Dusts for almost the entire day and then out fishing Hugh and Grandpa in the evening (in Hugh and Dad's defense, they were pretty busy with 3 boys in the boat!) Harper, Boone, and Brynn tubing followed by Brynn an...

What was I thinking?  I brought Calder and Boone to work today so we could make a fast exit to the lake after school. It is a pretty low key day at school, but they still managed to act like morons during the few moments I needed them to act semi-normal. And Boone broke my wax warmer while he was cleaning my desk. I so wanted to lose it, but he was trying to be helpful and it was an accident. I may have cried a couple of silent tears. 2 more hours. I've got this. . . And if not, my mom and dad's fridge at the lake is stocked to the rim. Unpacking may be put on hold until the morning!

We started off April at a Family Dance at Hugh's school. It was amazing. The kids had a great time dancing. And by kids I mean Boone and Lawson. Calder was introduced more officially to the art of bottle flipping and spend a good portion of the evening flipping a water bottle with another boy his age. This was an amazing event and really cool to see so many people from the school community out. At one point they had a jigging contest. The adults went first and there was one man in particular who was AMAZING. When the kids' contest started, Boone meticulously imitated the jigger's moves. I wish I had a video. Boone didn't win the contest, but quite frankly, it was impressive. This is Boone's attempt at smiling. Typically this is the face I get from him when I pull my phone out. Although Calder may have needed a bit of coaxing to play with the boy his age, Boone needed none at all to engage with the kids at the dance. I won't surprised if Boone is one day...

We didn't get to a great start to our birthday party season this year. At the end of February we had to cancel Lawson's because she was puking the day before the scheduled event. Lucky we put the call out early, because at almost the exact time her party was scheduled to start the next day, Boone started puking. When we had to cancel Lawson's party, we asked Boone if he would mind sharing his and our sweet boy immediately chirped up "Sure!" Two Saturdays later it was Calder's party. Unfortunately, he woke up and puked. Although Hugh and I weren't optimistic about how he was feeling, Calder did eat breakfast. We told Calder about the possibility of having a to cancel his party, just to plant the seed. Calder responded,  "I just won't eat any cupcakes at mine and then I won't puke."  He promptly puke again. Party off. We told Calder he could share with Boone and Lawson the next weekend, but Calder wasn't too keen on that. When we to...

Boone and Calder are such opposites. Boone has an imaginary friend. Calder has no imagination. I suggested to Lawson on Tuesday that Calder would sit at the table with her and tell her a story and start it "Once upon a time. .. " and Calder immediately quipped, "I will NOT be doing that."  I could tell you of countless other times that Calder refused to make believe. . . . . . . .Well, okay. That might be a slight exaggeration about Calder having no imagination, but imaginary play certainly isn't Calder's go to. He did recently write a silly story, though. We found out from Madam that the grade 3s are writing silly stories. Calder, catching the tail end of a lesson, grabbed scrap paper and started writing. He continued writing the story on the bus on the way home from school and immediately shared it with us when he hopped off. Calder was so proud of it. The grade 3s are currently learning about rough drafts, so Calder has started his good copy of the story...

Calder had a tournament in Regina the weekend of Lawson and Hugh's birthdays. We had a terrific weekend in Regina. Highlight for all the kids was enjoying the company of the team. There are so many great families and kids associated with Calder's team. We truly are blessed. Lawson was the life of the party at the pool. There was constantly a herd of boys helping her on the waterslides, catching her in the pool or escorting her to the hot tub. There was so much kindness Hugh and I wouldn't even have had to get into the pool with her.  It was also hilarious how the boys were doting on her! As always, Boone was independent. Once we hit the pool we didn't see him until it was time to leave. too many kids to play with. Too much water to splash in. In fact, he was mad at me in this photo because he didn't want to take time away from his swimming to stop and smile for the camera. The kids and I went for a special birthday smoothie. It was really relaxing to...

January absolutely flew by. I think for me part of it was that I don't work the first few days of the month and the other part is that it is end of semester. This change in my day-to-day work routine made the month absolutely fly by! At the start of the month, I did a bit of cleaning in our pantry. We have a banker's box half full of Halloween candy sitting at the bottom. Yes. You read that right. I am really bad at throwing stuff out - particularly if it is something I might need or buy in the future. Treats come in hand on occasion, so I struggle to throw this crap out. And it is crap. Needless to say in my cleaning frenzy I realized that I needed to purge some of it. Subsequently, we had taco in a bag for supper. It was divine. Hugh and I just ate taco salad, but there were three little Halloween bags for the kidlets. Unfortunately, those were the only 3 items I got rid of in the Halloween box. I am a work in progress. Boone is so outgoing. Hugh and I often wondered ...

I absolutely love December. I love all the Christmas decorations, candles, and lights. I love the excitement the kids have. I love the baking and meal planning. I love the food. Hugh loves December too, but mostly for the eggnog.  This year he went through 2 double batches before Christmas. This may not seem excessive until I tell that you each double batch is 4 L and that Hugh drank around 3/4s of each of these. Oh, and did I mention each 4 L jug contains 24 eggs. OMG. Calder had a home hockey game around the middle of the month. The little ones and I trailed in right for the drop of the puck. Boone immediately saw some kids playing in the lobby. He didn't know any of them, but it didn't matter. He wanted to stay and play with them. Not wanting to miss a second of the game, I left him in the dust and took Lawson to sit with the other parents. About 10 minutes later, Boone finds us and is carrying an unopened Power-aid. I asked him where he got it and he responded, ...

We had some extremely warm days to start the month. The week before Remembrance day highs of 16 - 18. This was great for being outside, but not so great for our rink. November 17 Hugh decided enough was enough and he got the rink going. Here it is November 20th: Unfortunately, two days later the weather got warm again and it even rained. What work Hugh was able to do was melted away. You an see Hugh working on the lights here. The electrician came this week and got them hooked up to the breaker box. Hugh is more than a little excited. There is a website called hockeyshare.com and Calder's hockey team set up an account to keep track of the player's shots. The first day Calder went out and shot we logged on and added his 200 shots. We also looked at the rest of his teams shots there were a couple of kids with over 1000 shots already. Calder immediately put his gloves back on and went back out to shoot. Can you say competitive?  Since then Calder has literally shot until he g...