School is out!

Another hot day, I believe it is about 32 degrees celcius with the humidity right now. We spent the afternoon in the backyard in the pool. It seems as our summer as finally arrived. With the cold spring I thought this kind of weather would never come.

Last week was a week with field trips and parties at school to wrap up the year. Aidan went to the zoo with his class and Cassidy had a picnic with her class which the whole family got to attend.

On the weekend, Steve and I headed up to Falcon Lake with our small group and spent 2 nights at the cabin with NO KIDS! Grandma stayed here with the kids. We had so much fun and spent lots of time on the beach, staying up late and good fellowship with friends. I decided that we need to do that more often!
Monday it was back to regular routine. Cassidy had a small ceremony for her preschool graduation.

Cassidy with one of her best friends.


It is now thursday and the kids officially are done school. Cassidy finished gymnastics last week and Aidan has one more soccer game on monday. Next week we head out to Granny and Grandpa's cabin for some much needed relaxation, although the thought of packing and getting everything ready does not sound relaxing at all. The week after that we are at St.Malo camping.

Can you believe Aidan will be in grade one, and Cassidy in kindergarten?? Time sure has flown by fast.

I did it, again

I am done, I did it and I hurt all over. It was a FREEZING morning when I headed out to the University of Manitoba, where the marathon starts. I refused to bring a sweater, only my running tank and shorts since I knew I would be boiling hot in only minutes of running. I gigantic dark cloud loomed over top of us, but didn't once drop anything, thankgoodness. Once the race started, the sun came out and it got me hot, tired and sore.

I actually had a moment in the last mile where I thought I couldn't go any longer. My knee hurt and the mile seemed to go on FOREVER....but..... I still kept going, and beat my last year time by about 11 minutes. I finished it in about 1 hour and 51 minutes. This could be a little off since our time starts when we cross the start line, and I believe I crossed it about 1-2 minutes in, the clock was about 1hour and 52 1/2 minutes when I crossed the finish line so it should even out to about 1:51ish. I will see my final time when it is posted on the web tomorow. Last year I ran it in about 2:02. I am just so glad I beat my last years time.

When we got home we took daddy out for brunch, it was good, really hard to eat after such a big workout, but the kids all finished there meals.
Liam enjoying his big cookies he got to bring home after his meal


I am hopeing to get some new marathon pictures as well, I was on the look out for the sports photographers during the entire thing and was trying to check out there equipment as I passed by. Hopefully there pictures will be up on there sites shortly as well.

Cassidy thinks my medal is pretty cool and has added it to her jewelery collection, I gave Aidan my medal last year so it was only fair.

And I forgot to mention, Steve and the kids stayed home but they aired the whole marathon finish line on MTS tv all morning so they watched me cross the finish line.

As we are drawing closer and closer to summer holidays, I am getting more and more excited! It seems as though the closer we get to summer, the busier the days get.
Last weekend Aidan had a soccer tournament which ment a few games throughout the entire weekend. This was a nice little bonus for him and he even got a cool trophy after.

They had a carnival there and the kids enjoyed pony rides and some other games. Liam especially like the cotton candy bigger then his head!

This week we are back to soccer games, gymnastics and school. This weekend is the Manitoba Marathon and I am getting ready to run it. My knee has been on the sore side lately so I am hopeing it doesn't slow me down. I would really like to beat my last years time, but it all depends on the weather. Last year the weather was perfect, no rain and heat.

Next week Aidan has his field trip to the zoo as well as Cassidy has her class picnic with the family. We are also heading to Falcon lake with three other couples from our small group for the following weekend. No kids are coming and I am SO excited about that! We are staying at a cabin and I am hopeing for nice hot weather.

Steve has two weeks off of holidays starting in July. We plan on spending the first part at my parents cabin at lake Metigosh and the second part camping at St. Malo. No big far away vacation plans this year but I am sure the kids would have fun just the same. We have no problem filling up our summer and it always seems to fly by way to fast.

As well, I am booking my summer months for photoshoots, so please email me if you are interested. I am going to be taking sessions on weekday evenings as well because alot of weekends we are gone. Feel free to visit my site.

Here are a few more random photos from the week.

Frustrated!!!

Yes that is where we are at right now. Why does money make us so frustrated? As most of you know, our kids go to a private Christian school. I love it and can not imagine them being anywhere else.

When we enrolled Aidan last year we were excited about the discount recived when our other kids started going. Every little bit helps when you are spending a fortune on there education. I also think every penny is worth it or else I would not be doing it.

The kicker is, this year, because of the schools huge debt load, they looked for ways to save money. Instead of increasing each individual tuition, they cut out the family discounts. So NO discount for us this year with Cassidy. None, zero, not even a penny! It is almost $1000 difference then it would have been. That is alot of money for us. I understand prices have to increase, but doesn't that seem like a giant increase? Yes, Steve does have a great paying job, but we also own two houses, and living expenses are not cheap. We don't go on big vacations, or buy extravagent things, we just don't have extra money to do so. Saving money?? what is that?? I call our Brandon house our savings account. With the cost of three kids there is just nothing left to 'save'

So there is temptation of unloading our brandon house. If it was only that easy though, since having a house sit on the market can cost, and getting rid of renters means us forking over the mortgage. But.....the amount of money we could pull out would be wonderful. On the other hand, in 20 years this house could put our children through University. Or at least buy me a great vacation!

anyways, that is just my little vent. It just teaches us to be more involved in our school so they can here our opinions before anything is passed. We didn't attend the board meetings, so we didn't realize this was all going to happen. Steve has already decided next year he will be in attendance. We just think it is sad that they have to pull one thing that really drew us to the school and helped us away.

Again, like I said before, I love the school and the teachers and the envioronment. I just don't know know how families are supposed to afford Christian education.

As for other news, I got some new business cards the other day which I made myself and had a small test amount printed with WHCC Sorry the pictures are crappy, I was too lazy to pull out my speedlight and I am not a great product photographer!

Almost done

Summer is almost here and we have begun the countdown till holidays! Cassidy has 9 more preschool days left and Aidan has 7 more school days left. Both kids are looking forward to field trips and parties. It is hard to believe Cassidy will be in kindergarten and Aidan in grade one in fall.
Cassidy had her kindergarten practise day last week and she loved every minute. Today when I took her for a walk she was planning out all the different things she was going to pack for lunches.

It feels like yesterday I brought Aidan to his first kindergarten day, I was so stressed up packing his lunches and snacks and that he wouldn't eat them in the right order, I was stressed about him getting his shoes on and off himself, as well as meeting me outside to pick him up. It is funny how those worries seem to disapear in time and how he is so independant now. I don't worry about those things with Cassidy. Mainly because she is my independant one.

I am very happy with there school. Yes, often I think it would be nice not to have to 'pay' for there schooling, but knowing they are in a christian envioronment is wonderful. To hear Aidan singing his bible songs, or reciting his verses, or replaying bible stories is just so neat. I believe it is a wonderful gift we can give them. Yes, financially it is scary, especially in fall with two kids. We have no idea how to make it work but I know it is important we do.

We have been keep busy around here as always. Aidan in his soccer, Cassi in her gymnastics. Every night we have something on and it defiantly helps the weeks fly by. Less then two weeks is the marathon which I am so faithfully training for. This year I feel alot less motivated, mainly because my running partners are either pregnant, or have a newborn. So i will be running alone. My running times are way faster this year then last so I hope to shave some time off.

This past weekend we didn't do much. I had a photoshoot and Steve dug out all the weeds in our lawn. Yesterday I started digging and cleaning up some flower beds in the back, places I have been avoiding but desperatly needed help.

We are already booking up our summer. No big plans this year but lots of little stuff. I have several camping trips booked up, as well as some time booked at Granny and Grandpa's cabin. I have swimming lessons booked for the kids to break up the time we are around.

That is about all for today. I really need to blog more often