There are a few of reasons I like to blog and really only two reasons I don't.  I want to blog because I like to write, I like to keep a personal record and it pushes me to take pictures.  I don't actually blog much anymore because I'm lazy.  Oddly, the fact that I live a pretty generic life that nobody else cares to read about isn't a reason I don't blog.  Here is a 45 second summary (in no particular order) of the events of the past four months.

ason and Porter had a blast at Christmas.  They got some fun toys but Mason was more excited about an old clock that I gave him around New Years day.  I had won it at a family auction for a buck or two.  It's nothing fancy, but he loved it.  You just never know what kids are going to like.  This spring we took the training wheels of his bike.  He picked it up very quickly and now likes to cruise the block and make tight corners on the driveway.  He has been going to pre-school twice a week.  He really likes his teacher Mrs. Harms and his attention span has improved since... (click here to read the rest)

I know a lot of people have thought this for a long time now, but I've officially crossed into the "lame" category.  Or rather, I have accepted the fact finally. 

Something strange is going on with me.  Our car was experiencing troubles so we ended up buying a minivan.  The strange part of the story is that I'm in love with it.  I find myself thinking about it and wanting to go for a drive.  I could have my signals crossed though.  It could just be that I'm excited to have a car that works.  Who knows.  In any case, I'm now a minivan driver and I'm not ashamed to say it.  The kids both really like it too.  Mason and Porter can now actually see out of the vehicle as we drive.

The second part of this story will equally make me look like a girl, but, I'm pretty stoked to have the new van because we're driving down to Vegas in November to watch Celine Dion... and I'm looking forward to that as well. 

I'm still jogging regularly.  Sort of.  I get killer shin splints when I run to the point where I can barely walk.  I think they are worse... (click here to read the rest)

Well - Kevin has been slacking on the posts as of late, so I guess I'll just pick up where he left off.

We've had an eventful July already.  I've taken the boys on a few adventures, to the zoo, Calaway, Riley Park, etc.  All trying to keep cool in this awesome heat!

This past weekend was a huge deal for me and my family.  Mainly a big deal for me because I was in charge of the entire weekend.  Organizing activities, meals(groceries), arrangments, etc.  I had a blast doing all of this, but it was definately a full weekend and I am glad to say that it is over and that it was a huge succsess.  I couldn't have done it without the help of the Calgary people and even help from the relatives from Vegas. 

Our activities included:  Swimming, Family Dinner #1, BBQ Breakfast, Scavenger Hunt, Chinese Food dinner, Family Dance, Golfing, Cooking "Class", Weiner Roast, Family Dinner #2, Program and Auction, Church, and Family Dinner #3.

We all had such a fun time, and it was so fun to be together as a family.  All of the activities turned out really well.  The food for the weekend also turned out really... (click here to read the rest)

In my last entry I said that I hadn't written much because I don't have a camera and therefore entries would be pictureless and boring.  I was wrong.  I bought a new camera about 3 weeks ago but still, no writing.  Turns out, I'm just lazy. It's not like nothings been going on.  I just went through a faze where I was motivationaly challenged. 

There is no way I'll be able to recap the last couple of months, so I'll just randomly shoot out things as they come to mind.

The new camera is pretty spiffy.  It takes great pictures and great video.  We almost never break out our video camera because it's annoying to lug around and the batteries are never charged.  Now that we have this mini camera I've been shooting all kinds of video so expect to see some live action.

There was no summer solstice party this year.  I ended up going to Baltimore that week for work.  It was good trip.  I once again have a new boss.  The company I've been working for for the past 4.5 years has been growing like a weed and organizational structure keeps changing.  I've moved from the programmer team to the user interface... (click here to read the rest)

I think the reason I haven't written in a long time is because we lost the charger for our camera and therefore don't have any new pics to post.  It's not like we've lived a boring life lately.  It's not like we've lived an incredibly exciting one either.

This week Elise had a follow up surgery on her ear.  When she was a teenager she had surgery and this week they removed a plastic mesh thingy that they left in to hold everything together.  The doctor thought it was a good idea to remove it, so that's what Elise and I were up to this week.  It went smoothly. Recovery time was very short and other than a little sensitivity, everything is pretty much back to normal.  One interesting thing did happen that day.  While Elise was being admitted, the entire admitting system across Canada went down and Elise ended up getting "surgeried" without being officially admitted.  None of the nurses knew how to manually write out admitting forms.  It was chaotic that day.  Elise was up getting prepped for surgery and I waited down in admitting in case the computers came back up and I could finish off the "questionaire".  The nurse... (click here to read the rest)

Wow - it has been entirely too long since we've posted anything.  A lot of big events have happened in the last month.  Our 6th Anniversary.  Crazy!  I wanted to take pictures, but then forgot our camera.  Typical, seeing as we've lost the battery charger, the camera seems to take a seat at the back of the shelf.  We enjoyed a yummy dinner at Smugglers and nite out to the movies.  Music and Lyrics.  It was really fun and Kevin even enjoyed the movie.  We also took a weekend off to Fairmont.  Again - no camera.  It was just a fun, relaxing and swimming time.  We swam every day, sometimes twice.  I always love our trips to the mountains.  Other events include Adelle(17), Jocelyn(14) and Mason's(4) birthdays.  At the moment I can't remember any of the other big events...sad. 

This post is about my dance class that I have been taking since the end of January.  I love it.  It's a nite out on my own.  I feel young and independant.  I decided that I just need to do something active for myself.  I am totally out of shape.  After 2 kids, surgeries that seem endless (I have another scheduled in May) and... (click here to read the rest)

Derek asked me in a comment a while back "Hey, when do we get our Happy New Year? What gives?"

I thought I would address this now since I've procrastinated way too long.  I was actually waiting to grab some pictures of Christmas from various digital cameras so that this entry would have some sweet pics to go along with it.  I know it's a little behind but here it goes.

Christmas was fun this year.  We slept over at the Leavitt's again.  They got their basement finished in their new house so it was pretty sweet.  It's really nice down there.  I'll snag a couple pics of it some time.  They put in a nice big LCD TV, pool table and ping pong table.  It's a total party place now.

Mason is at the age now where he gets really excited about Santa Clause and presents.  He wasn't disappointed on Christmas morning.  Porter had a fun time too.  Mason got a new train and Porter got a plane that he can sit on and drive around.  He loves it.

We ate our traditional Hutterite sausage brunch at my parents house.  It was so incredibly tasty.  Looking... (click here to read the rest)

Yesterday at lunch we took Mason and Porter to see Santa.  When I told Mason that I had heard that Santa was in town and was at the mall, his eyes lit up and he could barely believe it.  We got the the mall just before lunch to try to beat the rush, but Santa wasn't there until 2pm.  We ate lunch and killed some time and finally Santa arrived.

I think this was Porter's first meeting Santa.  He really had no idea what the big deal was.  I also think it was the first time Mason's actually sat on Santa's lap.  He's been terrified of Santa up until this year.  He made sure to tell Santa that he wanted a "pieces train"... you know a train with a bunch of different pieces.  The way he says it though it sounds like he's saying a "pizza train" which confuses everyone he tells.  I have a hunch that Santa may actually grant Mason's Christmas wish.

So... it was a good day.  Christmas is almost here.  I'm hoping this Christmas will be as layed back as last year, but somehow I doubt it.  Wish us luck!

P.S. And by the way... Merry Christmas to everyone. 

P.P.S You'll... (click here to read the rest)

I think I may have fixed a glitch with the photo upload mechanism.  The real test will be to try uploading a zip file (my app automatically unzips the file once it gets to the server and creates a photo collection out of the pictures).  If this works, I'll go to bed.  I'd really like it to work because I haven't been to bed before 3:30am in a couple of weeks.

I went through my digital photos and I realize I haven't taken any pictures since the beginning of the month.  That's pretty pathetic.  In order to test this feature, I had to rip off some pictures from my dad's site (www.robbandmarge.com). 

I'm not much of a gamer, but lately I've had a craving from some old school Nintendo games.  They're much more fun to play in 20 minute sittings than the modern games.  All the new games that are coming out lately are so technical that it takes too long (for me at least) to get good enough at playing that I will start to enjoy them.  Anyway... I busted out Kid Icarus - one of my all time favorites - last night and gave it a whirl.  I'm terrible at video games but I got really into it.  I stayed up way too late.  In any case, it was very fun and I've decided that over the course of the next ?year? that I'm going to beat several of the games I used to play growing up (Super Mario Brothers, Zelda and Mike Tyson's Punch Out are a on the list).  I guess I'm just going through a nostalgic phase right now.