Long term disability

Well we are officially on long term disability. Which is that not that bad. Matt is still getting 70% of his salary which is enough to just get by on, so I will probably be getting a job, which scares me a little but I am also excited! Who knows what it will be like and the pickings a pretty slim if I don't want to work at a fast food place. I would like a more grown up job but with out much experience working I'm a little sceptical I'll get one.

So it's been an interesting few months dealing with all of this, we've seen the specialist again recently and she is sending him for some imaging ( MRI etc.) and he is going to start seeing a physiotherapist.  He also has to up his dosage of the noratriptyline, and then up it again in a few weeks. So that is making him feel pretty lousy, and hopefully the side effects will not last as he had been on the lower dose for almost six weeks.

So here's to getting better soon and maybe having a slight change in what he does for work.

Happy Thought

We have free health care! The only out of pocket expense is part of the medication costs.

Having an employer with good benefits! I so grateful I do not have to financially support my family.

Summer is gone

Our summer was good, we had some ups and downs and visits with family and trips to the hospital. We volunteered in HighRiver to help the flood victims in early July, I went for one day and Matt went for two. We picked through 'mud' to clear out belongings and funiture, helped the vac truck to suck everything up and the gutted the basement down to the studs. It was smelly, hot, gross but very rewarding work. We had a good group of people to work with and the home owner was so grateful! He was a sweet old man in his eighties, his whole life was in the house and it was all gone! It was so sad to see him watch his life reduced to a pile of muddy garbage. But he could never have gotten his house cleared out unless he had help. 

About a week after Matt got really dizzy, after trips to emerge and the dr and blood tests and heart tests, we don't know why he is dizzy. The specialist said that working in hHighRiver May had triggered it because Matt is not used to so much physical labour. Today we went for more tests, a hearing test and some tests where electrodes are put on Matt's face and neck and then beeps or clicks are played at a specific decibel to stimulate the nerves in the balance centers of Matt's ears, and the electrodes can pick up if they are working properly. That one was pretty easy, but Matt always gets so nervous when he has to go for tests. We didn't know what they would be until we got there, and he hates needles so much( there were none, but he still worries poor guy). The other test was pretty neat. Matt got strapped into a harnes which attached on to a big three sided metal box with a screen to look at and the insides were pained with a bright landscape scene. The floor could tilt and slide and the box would tilt. The harness was to catch him if he lost his balance. The movements were to try and trick his body into losing his balance. He just had to compensate for the movements and the comuter recorded his reactions. 

I doubt we will be able to but I would love to know how he did on that one!

So he has been home all summer and mostly it has been really great having him home all the time, and I am so glad that we had such good benefits and a health care system that we don't have to pay for!

Anita turned six in June, which is crazy! She also started grade ones his fall, and is really enjoying it! Her teacher it fanominal! Julia is in the same class and they have been getting along very well.

My sister and her family moved to our town as well just at the end of August, they weren't too far away before, but I think they are enjoying the small town instead of the city.

At church I am now in the primary presidency and so far it's been great! The ladies I serve with are great fun! And Matt is in young men's which I think he likes.

I have done SO much driving this summer! Matt isn't supposed to drive ( he does once in a while but only on good days when he is not dizzy and never by himself) so I have done all the driving this summer, we've been to Fairmont B.C., Edmonton, Lethbridge, Red Deer, all over the place not to mention all the regular stuff like trips into the city etc.

So it's been good, I've got to brush up on my city driving skills, we've been able to spend almost all day every day together for three months (really this had been mostly great, I've only almost gone crazy a couple of times), I have only one child home half the day, (and it had been so peaceful!) we have traveled and visited.

It has been a good summer!

Happy thought

Matt has great benefits, he is still getting payed even though he hasn't been to work since the middle of july(except a few days in August but they sent him home)

My kids like school and have a teacher who loves them.

Spring

What a busy couple of months we've had, two new nieces and a nephew born, lots of visiting around and some family fun. My brother and his wife had a baby girl in march and a week later Matt's older sister also had a girl bringing our nieces up from one to three in about a week, they are both beautiful! We went up to see my brother for Easter and had a lovely visit and lots of Easter fun. And the girls are warming up to him finally too! Duncan is a pretty funny uncle! There was so much snow still and we had a super fun day playing in it making a big slide and a snowman. 

We had our Kelowna trip after that and then spent the first two weeks in may at Matt's parents for a few days and got to see Gumpo, Matt's Granada who was out from Ontario on his annual visit to see his kids and grand kids etc. then we stopped in Edmonton for a few hours to see Duncan and attend the baby blessing for Sierra. Then we continued our drive up north to spend a week with mom and dad. It was lots of fun and very relaxing. The leaves came out while we were there and we got to watch my very talented sister in her dance recital. We had quad rides and a hot dog roast and lots of yummy food and outside time and Matt got to go with dad to buy a new quad. Dad took Matt and I out to the gun range for an afternoon too. It was a very good time. And on the way home we stopped in to see my grandma and grandpa and one of my aunts.

Three days after getting home we packed up again to head down to Lethbridge to see our new nephew. 

So now we are home and should be staying put for a while. Anita will be starting swimming lessons in a couple weeks and I have to plan Matt's 30th birthday celebration (dun dun DUN!!). And I need to like wash my floor and get rid of some junk.

Matt went go karting with his best friend, it was his birthday the week before.

Robin's make up from one of her dances

Dad reading a book to the girls

Happy thought

We can afford to drive/have a vehicle that can go for ten hours to visit family. 

We have family who we love and loves us and wants us to visit and comes to visit us!

The Rest

The remainder of out little holiday to B.C. was very lovely. We went on a little walk around Knox mountain, took loads of pictures of orchards, drove out to Peachland to go to Parrot Island, which is not an island, did a little shopping and then make the long drive back home with a few fun stops.

Parrot Island is a sanctuary of sorts for unwanted parrots. The gentleman who runs the place takes in birds who are not compatible with the families who owned them etc. Parrots are very possessive and therefore an owner often has to give up the bird because the bird is jealous of other human relationships. We completely forgot to take any pictures, partly because it was deafening in the building due to parrots all clamouring for attention and partly because it was so interesting! Some could talk or wave or dance. Some thought they owned the place and if we weren't giving them attention they would scream till we came back. He had a hyacinth macaw as well as lots of green parrots and scarlet macaws and those light pink cockatoos and lots of others too.

On our way home we stopped at the log barn. It has lots of yummy food and a really cute gift shop. We each picked something! Julia got a long skinny bag of coloured popcorn, Anita picked a pretty mask, Matt got a sword, and I got a really cute ring. I also picked up a really cute little something for my sister in law's nursery. They had SO many pretty things there!
After that we drove back to crazy creek to spend the night there and go in the hot pools. The next day we stopped in Banff for lunch and drove past the Banff Springs Hotel.
We got home that evening and it was a lovely holiday.

Happy Thought
We have the ability to just take a few days off and go somewhere fun
We live in a country with so much beauty and diversity

Surprise!! Day one

It was the end of spring break. We wanted to go to the zoo and Matt had gotten part of the day off, we were all ready to go as soon as the handyman fixed the lock on the door. So off we went to the city with a quick stop at my sisters to borrow her stroller. Matt was going to go in and get it so we could be faster.
As in I talk to much.
We were also planning on going to Lethbridge that evening to spend the weekend with Matt's sister. So Matt had partially packed a few things so that when we got home from the zoo I could finish up and we could leave as soon as he was done work.
I remembered to tell Matt that we had to stop at the pharmacy before we went to Lethbridge to get Julia's cream for her eczema
'What? I thought you got it yesterday!'
'Well they have to order it in so it won't be able to be picked up till today at noon.'
'Well that's a problem, we're not going back'
'Yes we are'
'No we're not'
'What?! But you have to work! Wait, don't you?'
'Nope, we aren't going home.'
'So we are just going straight to Lethbridge?'

By this time I'm kind of freaking out

'Why don't you check the weather' he suggests.
Which is perfectly normal way of distracting me after all we are going to the zoo right, we are going to be outside.
So I open the weather app on his phone and see Kelowna, wait, what? KELOWNA!!??
'We are going to KELOWNA?? But, I don't have anything I'm not packed'!
'I packed everything' he assures me.
I am very sceptical.
But excited, really excited, even if it is supposed to rain the whole time, which it is.
And he did not too bad on the packing, he brought loads of random stuff that he didn't know if I would need so he got everything I do need. And the girls will be dressed in decent clothes too. He only forgot socks.

So here we are in Revelstoke where we spent our first night. The drive was long but pretty. And I am looking forward to the warmer weather. I saw flocks of robins and the grass is green here already.
The only down sides so far is a mild case of food poisoning last night and a massive nose bleed this morning. Apparently we are about 500 m closer to sea level here.

Happy Thought
Matt knows how to surprise me and does it well.
And he loves me.

Moved

We have been living here for four months now, five if you count living in a hotel during the week and at home on the weekends. Matt got a new job with the ATB back in November. And the relocation went pretty good, they sure treat their employees well. We had a moving allowance that was very generous. So we stayed in a hotel for the first month while we looked for a place to live and try to sell our house. We ate out everyday there were no chores other than laundry. It was pretty nice. 

Except our house didn't sell and so we didn't buy a new one.

 

So here we are in a little three bedroom condo renting after almost a year and a half in a much bigger house that we put a lot of work into. There is not a lot of room for all our 'stuff', we have been trying to de-junk. 

But we just sold out house in March. Like less than a week ago. So We are SO glad that is off out plate.

The town is really great it is smallish, with a big city half an hour away. Matt and I each have a sister there so it is nice to see them more often.

The elementary school, which is literally almost out the back door, is beyond my expectations. They have an alternative Montessori program for K-3, A is in the K-1 class and Juju will be in next year! It is SO fabulous! 

So we are moved and making friends and trying to decide what to do with out lives.

Happy Thought, 

Matt had a good job,

and our house is sold!!

Easter weekend

We have two new nieces. My brother and his wife had their first baby two weeks ago.  They live about four hours away so we took the long weekend to go and visit. My mom also came to visit (again. she loves her grand babies) a six hour drive from the opposite direction as us. We had a lovely time dyeing eggs, eating candy and holding the baby, hopefully the new mommy and daddy did too. Having a family with three small kids come to visit two weeks postpartum is a lot to handle.

  

We stayed for two nights (Thursday and Friday) because we needed to be back home for Sunday because my sister in law  had a baby girl a week ago and was blessing her this Sunday  We were planning on getting home Saturday night to have lots of time getting ready Sunday morning but stopped at my in laws  ( half way home) to visit and then stayed over night. Ooops. 

With just enough time to get home and change and then get to church we sped off. 

My poor little Juju has been having a hard time with her eczema lately and developed and huge gross patch of it on her neck which started weeping on Saturday ( we had a bandage on it) then I noticed that she was developing spots on her face and arms. 

Great. 

Thankfully I knew exactly what it was. Impetigo. 

Don't look up pictures of it. trust me. 

Any way Juju's doesn't look the same! 

So on the two hour drive home we decided that I will stay with baby S and Juju while Matt and A go to the baby blessing, they were late, but had a fun after noon with friends and cousins and food and other family. 

The two littler ones and I went to the hospital clinic to get her some meds. So the poor dear is on antibiotics to clear up he nasty little infection, so far she has been a champ at taking them. And after just three doses it is starting to look a lot better. And now we need to get an appointment with a dermatologist so we can get her eczema cleared up so it doesn't get infected... for a third time.

Oh and we had lunch with my good friend who I haven't sen in years! it was a great weekend.

Happy Thought

It really seems like its spring for good.

there is no school this week.

I love my family.