Thank you for Thanksgiving

Today is about being Thankful. I am Thankful.
I am Thankful for life.
I am Thankful for Chris.
I am Thankful for my kids.
I am Thankful for patience.
I am Thankful for mornings full of kisses.
I am Thankful for being a mom.
I am Thankful for having my mom.
I am Thankful for family and friends.
I am Thankful for happiness.
I am Thankful for sunny days.
I am Thankful for rainbows.
I am Thankful for all the stars we get to see.
I am Thankful for opportunities.
I am Thankful for freedom.
I am Thankful for abundance.
I am Thankful for dreams.
I am Thankful for reality.
I am Thankful for coffee and beer and chocolate.
I am Thankful for brave adventures.
I am Thankful for supportive and loving family.
I am Thankful for warm fall days.
I am Thankful for suprises.
I am Thankful for health.
I am Thankful for giggling kids.
I am Thankful, Thank you.

Last Saturday Night in Canada.... What do you do??

So today was our last Saturday here in Canada for a while. How long? as we've mentioned, we're not sure, but it will probubly be at least a year, or two or ten. This is a big thing, and we wanted to make sure that we did everything that we want to do here before we go. We have talked about going to a few of our favourite restaurants, seeing some good friends, maybe bowling.... and more. So, what do you do on a Saturday night with 2 kids?????

First off let me inform you that we all have started practicing a very old tradition from Latin America. Siestas! Yes Siestas, otherwise known as NAPS! It's great, half the time it's only the boys, but the other half of the time Chris and I join them. I love it. It's refreshing, and really makes staying up late easier. What does this have to do with tonight? It's part of my story.

After a beautiful day watching the Eskimos on TV, the boys went for there siesta. They woke around 5:15pm, and Chris and I hadn't thought of a thing for dinner. I was hoping to go to a restaurant that Chris and I went to last night (great butter chicken and amazing mushroom soup - a fav of Callym's!) But Chris didn't want that - honestly it's not that cheap, and plus, we have been going out for dinners at least 5 times a week!
SPOILT!
Chris was trying to convince the boys to have KFC. I don't mind having that before we go, but not the night before Thanksgiving dinner. Yum, Thanksgiving dinner! OK, so what.... We thought about a movie, pizza, actually buying groceries at safeway (what the heck?), and more. Then at 5:45 we decided! I yelled out to everyone,

PUT ON YOUR OILER JERSEY'S WE'RE GOING TO THE GAME!

yahoo, we threw on our jersey's and jumped in the car. Chris grabbed some cash, and I ran out to see what the price of scalper tickets were going for. (Chris actually checked online, and the game was sold out so this was our only option) One guy was going to give me a 'great deal' for 2 seats 225$ each! AHH, this was going to be a little more expensive then the restaurant. After running around looking, I bought some cheap seats. We parked the car and ran to the arena. We made it within the first 5 minutes of play, and it was a great game. Besides beating the flyers 5 to 3, our kids were great! (the guy behind us mentioned this, he said we should write a book on how to raise kids this well, he said that he wouldn't dare bring his 20month old to a game because he doesn't have the patience, and his boy wasn't as well behaved as ours! Very nice compliment). We had hotdogs, pop, ice-cream and yelled our minds out! Fun Fun Fun. This was by far the best way I could ever think of to spend our Last Saturday in Canada.

You can do whatever you put your mind to!

That is something that I tell the boys all the time. One day Callym said he wanted to be an astronaut. I told him, if he wanted to, then he could do anything he wanted to. When Oscar was having a hard time learning how to use his bike, I told him to keep trying, he could do anything he wanted to. It's a very good message to tell your children, actually, to tell anyone. It's powerful, it lets you and other's know that nothing is imposible, and that dream can be achieved.

So what do you expect when you deny your 2 year old chocolate for breakfast? He stacks the chairs, climbs onto the counter, into the cupboard and finds them! Then at the time you should be getting cross with them they say ' BUT MOM, YOU SAID I COULD DO ANYTHING I WANTED TO!'

I Quit

I know that it was a couple days ago, but I Quit! On Friday the 28th of September. Holy smokes! What does the future hold for me? Oh, that's it. Another cup of coffee, thank you. To you guys. Life.

Long overdue post

Well it has been a very productive week. Our 2 weekends of moving sales were successful. The moving sales were very strange though. Some people would walk in and ask if we were moving????? Huh, I wonder what tipped them off, the moving sale sign, or the SOLD sign on the front yard? They would ask us where we were moving, and when we told them... we recieved one of two regular responses. #1, oh, do you have work there? why would you go there? when are you moving back?
OR #2. That's fantastic, I've always wanted to do that, you are very brave and lucky.
We've also had a few 'un-expected' visitors drop by. It was very nice. People we haven't seen for a long time. I mean a long long time. These are people who live here, but with such busy lives, we just don't get a chance to hook up. Visits from friends are always a pleasure. As with the moving sale, we also had the same 2 response's..... Please see #1 and #2 above.

As I mentioned, Chris had his last day of work on Friday. ( YIPPEEEE) He came home early, and you could tell that he was relieved for this day to come. He loved his job, but as with any job where you come in day after day, and do the same thing, with the same people, it get's a little tiresome. Chris is a very creative person, and it's been a long time since he could let that part of him out to play. It hasn't even been a week for Chris, but already I see him having some trouble with being at home like this. It's not his fault, I've had practice for the last 4+ years. It will take him some time to learn how to chill and relax, to learn how we do things. We will need to find a balance between the way he does things, and the way we do things. Although we are the same in many many ways, we do have differences. For example. When Chris walks through a room and see's something out of place, he will just put it away and move on, well, maybe he'll look for more.... just to get it all done. Me on the other hand, I will stack things in a pile and wait until it's large enough to warant a 'clean up'. Chris will wake up and do the dishes, sometimes starting even before his coffee! This is not the way I work. I will wait until I really need to get them done (or at least once my first two cups of coffee are done). When Chris is doing something, he likes to start and finish, I have learned that with kids around, sometimes you need to stop, and finish at a later time. Neither one of us is wrong, but we need to learn how to live with eachother doing things this way. Chris is use to having a limited time with us, and an even more limited time to get 'things' done. Now that we have all day to hang out and do things... well, like I said, it will take time for us to all get use to eachother.

Well, this week is dedicated to packing up EVERYTHING in the house. It sounds daunting, but it's reallly not. We have sold so many things (especially the large items) that it just means packing things to get sent out together, and packing the rest in bigger boxes that won't be sent out. We have a good dozen boxes done, and at least two rooms are completly empty. We also have most of the boys clothes in a suitcase. I know it's early for this, but it helps with having so much laundry, and keeps the mess to a minimum. At any rate, they really don't need shorts right now, the weather is getting a little nasty. No snow yet, but sometimes you can feel it in the air.

One last note here, We have found a home for Twinkle Twinkle, and we have sold our Jeep. These were the last two LARGE items of concern for us. Twinkle Twinkle was in need of a temporary home. We have every intention of having her shipped out to us once we find a real home for ourselves. The boys love her dearly, and she is a real part of our family. We thought about not having her with us, and we have decided that it wasn't an option. Thanks Chocha, it really means a lot to us.


For now, all our love, The Lukies

An early lesson in Patience

Tonight was an early lesson in Patience. My sister came over today, and we decided to go for a drive to West Edmonton Mall (I needed to do a quick exchange on some pants). Well, the whole family ended up tagging along and we decided to go out for dinner afterwards. Christina suggested the Olive Garden - they are having their 'never ending pasta bowls' right now. So, I thought it would be really nice to invite my other sister Lesia and of course my mama! My mom and sister don't eat as early as we do, (we eat around 5pm, they eat closer to 6 or 7pm), so we thought a 6pm meet up would be fine. We finished at West Ed a little eary and headed off to the Olive Garden to reserve a spot. They don't take reservations and some times the wait is very long at dinner time. Once we arrive the wait was 30 to 40 minutes. That was ok. I called Lesia, and she told us they would be a little late too. No problem. So by 630 we finally had our table. We placed our orders, had our drinks and waited. The bread sticks, salad and Callym's food came. Oscar only wanted bread sticks! Then we waited. We had more salad and B sticks. Then they brought us more. And we waited. It was now a waiting game. My mom and I ended up taking the boys outside for a few minutes (a good time to have a smoke and let them run off some steam). We came back in and we waited. It was 730. An hour since we ordered, and an hour and 45 minutes since we arrived at the restaurant. After another 20 minutes, the manager came by and said that there was a slight mix-up and the food should be along shortly, He had changed our bill to only show the drinks and Callym's food. He also mentioned that any and all desserts would be on the house. Nice. But.... We still waited. (At this point I would like to mention that this is a LONG time for children to be well-behaved at a restaurant. My kids, did quite well!) By around 815, our food came. It was good, and hot. I wasn't hungry anymore, I had had 4 bowls of Salad and 3 bread sticks. (Also 2 bloody ceasers). Anyways, to no-ones surprise, Chris finished all of his dinner, well we all took our's home for tomorrow's lunch. (BTW Chris also got a dessert to go - Very smart man my Hubby). So, the lesson here? Patience, Patience, Patience. In Latin America we will be lucky to even find a restaurant that will serve us dinner before 6pm. Tapa's the local snack, which is served almost everywhere, will have to tie us over from our siesta's to dinner. An adjustment I think will go over fine. The other lesson, Maybe don't go to The Olive Garden at dinner time, and in a city that is in desperate need of staff that actually give a damn about their jobs! LOL

What's new..

Well, the moving sale has been a success, but we still have more 'stuff'. I think we'll do it again next weekend, and that's it, whatever is left will be donated, packed up or given away (look out family, we're coming by with stuff!) After the first day we went out and treated ourselves with some new clothes. In Central America, people pride themselves on how they look. They aren't vane, but proud. It's not like here in North America where we think it's fine to go grocery shopping in our sweats. They think it's important to look nice, and if we want to fit in, if we want to be accepted, we are going to have to live without our ratty riped up jeans, and stained t-shirts. Chris, my dear sweet husband, who's wife loves him so much, does not have many 'good' clothes. He now has 2 fabulous pairs of pants that I can't wait to see him wear. The boys also got a few things (don't they always?)
Anyways, what's new? Well, as I mentioned, the sale went well, we are now without the following....
Microwave (no more popcorn)
Oscar's bed (he's been sleeping with us lately anyways)
Both of the boys Dressers (it's kind of fun living out of a suitcase)
Kitchen chairs (we'll be having picinic's in the living room for a few weeks!)
Radio (music only on the computer now)
Swing set, Slide and Teeter-Todder
Fire pit ( too cold now anyways)
A few book-shelves and many other little items.
So far so good..... now please, come and buy our stuff!!!!!!

Also, a quick note, Callym seems to be doing great with his new glasses. This makes me happy and sad. I knew with Chris' and my genes he would probubly need them some day, but he is only 4! I wish he was older when he needed them..... But we have noticed that he isn't tripping as much, nor is he running into his brother (we thought he did that on purpose - opps) He is also much better at kicking balls and catching balls. Hmmmmm, I think that's a good thing. Still makes me a little sad tho. Well, if you want to see a picture of him with them on, please check out the post from September 19th.
Also, another quick note, remember that you can subscribe to this blog. It will come straight to your inbox, and you won't need to check in every other day for news!


All our Love,
The Lukies

It's late, I'm not tired, and I'm thinking........

Well, it's only 11:40, not late, but I'm not tired. I'm in bed thinking..... thinking about a lot of things. Thinking about what we're about to do. Thinking about where we're about to go. Thinking what is about to happen. Thinking about what could happen. Thinking..... Is this crazy? Are we as insane as some people are saying? Or am I just thinking this way because I have most of the big important things out of the way and now have 'time' to sit and think 'these' thoughts. I'm not sure. I wish I knew. What are we doing..... I mean, I know what we're doing, but Gosh, Wow. What if we don't find a home? What if the boys don't like it? What if we get sick? I know the answers to these questions, I've told you all already.... Now it seems I have to remind myself. Is this a natural part of any adventure? I mean, this is a HUGE LIFE CHANGING move we're about to make. I not sure that what I am having is doubts, but I am in a way rethinking. Not rethinking the trip (no no no), but rethinking what could happen. What we would, could, should do if a certain cirumstance arise's.... These are a lot of thoughts and 'what if' questions. Maybe I'm just trying to be prepared. I am prepared, I feel prepared, but maybe not enough? Is this a girl thing, a mother thing? to question and what if so much? Ah, I just don't know. I hate having to think this and come up with 'what if' answers. ('what if' answers are the worst mind-confusing-waste-of-precious-time blunders next to lover's misunderstandings). 'What if we don't find a home' (I ask myself) 'Well', (I tell myself), 'it depends on where we are, and how long we have been travelling' 'yes, but what if' (I ask again) 'well, we re-evaluate where we are and what we want'. A good answer, I've been through this before with myself you see, (I knew what I was going to say before I wrote it!)

At any rate, I honestly, deep down think that no matter where you are in your life, and where you are in your dream, re-evaluating your situation is a vital part of living and dreaming. It is so true. We could find the perfect home in a not perfect place, we could find our perfect place and not a home. We could get sick, we could find a great way of life. We could meet wonderful people and make great friends. We could not. We could a lot of things. And maybe we could not... But in the end, I know we will.

I need something to fill my time. To fill my mind. These thoughts are starting to drive me crazy. Maybe I should pack more boxes....