Happy Birthday Chelane!

This did happen back on September 30th but with being in Canada, I am just now getting around to writing and sharing pictures about it. (sorry the pictures are pixely or something, they do look better if you click on them and view them full-sized)
Here is the ever-happy birthday girl with her birthday cupcake. I remember Dallas and my little brother's first birthdays both ended in tears and un-touched cake (unless someone making them touch it counts). Chelane was completely different.


As you can see she adored the attention.


And couldn't wait to dig into the cake. (Yeah I started to freak a little too with how close she came to touching fire and hot wax; but, hey, that is the hazard of having a birthday party... we live on the edge).


Big brother Dallas approaching an oblivious Chelane. Yes, he blew out the candle.


After the candle and paper was removed Chelane began to inspect the sprinkle laden cupcake.




Either she really inhaled it that fast or I stopped taking pictures... It reminds me of my first birthday picture (apparently I liked the cake so much I tried to eat the plate). Such a happy girl on her birthday!

Eventful Canada

For anyone that has asked if I have any good Canada stories I usually relate this little gem. I am sure everyone is anxious to see the pictures too...

The only tub in Cam's parents' house is in his parents' bathroom (notice I said tub not shower or bathroom apparently that point had my father confused when I told him this story; and, since I usually credit him to being an intelligent man, I decided it could be a common misconception and I should clarify on that point to avoid confusion). From the room we were living in it is down some stairs, through the kitchen, and down the hall. At bath time we would usually undress the kiddos in the hallway; and when they were squeaky clean we would run them, wrapped in towels, to our room.

During one of Cam's long days I was bathing the kids (it must have been Wednesday; Wednesday has long been "bath day" around here, and by "around here" I mean while being apart of Cam and mine's family, because it isn't like we have stayed in any one place long enough to refer to it as "around here"... anyway I digress). I couldn't very well carry both kids upstairs and I didn't want to leave one in the tub, so I relied on Dallas' listening/obeying skills and asked him to follow me upstairs. He didn't reach the room with me, but I thought "Grandpa is downstairs, how much trouble could he get into?" So I dried and dressed Chelane and came back downstairs for the Dallas.

Well he wasn't in the kitchen, or down the hall, or in the bathroom, or in the living room with Grandpa... And his blue crocs were gone. I asked Grandpa where he went and he pointed to the front door. I looked out the window and there he was, with his blue crocs on (at least he put shoes on to cover his clean feet) and his towel slung over his back leaving him in view of the world, playing in Grandma's garden.

Like a good Mom I ran upstairs to grab the camera before calling him inside to keep him from getting too cold. Future blackmailing pictures > kids well-being.


And so I give to you Dallas climbing back onto the porch, sporting his blue crocs and matching blue towel.

Walks in September

Finally some long-promised Canada pictures!

Something I love to do is walk in nature. I am not too fond of taking walks around a neighborhood; I would rather look at flowers and trees than houses and cars. An advantage to being in Vanderhoof was the abundance of nature. Just looking out the window we would see fields and forests, not to mention horses and the occasional coyote (or coyote pack, no joke we had 4 of them walking along the house fence once).

The kids and I went on a two walks together. The first time was September 14th. Cam had been working a week already of 10+ hour days. I got a little stir crazy once and a while so I decided to go on a walk along the horse/ATV/farm-truck road (or dirt path) that paralleled the highway into town, but first we had to go down the 1/2 mile driveway.


Above is a picture of the driveway that I took while I was bored of waiting for this:


Or this:


There is something very interesting about grass to a toddler... it may be that it was taller than he was.


Chelane and I on this adventure:


She was happy some of the time, see? Well maybe "happy" is too strong a word... she didn't look like she was ready to kill the photographer during the whole walk...


We did eventually leave the driveway, which is more than I can say on any other walk. This is a view of a field by the highway. When we left in late October is was housing cows.


Dallas showcasing his amazing stay-with-mommy skills. He has ran away from me in Target since we have been back, I had to go collect him from Customer Services... (You can see the cars on the highway to the right, don't worry there was a big ditch between us and them).


Funny story behind this next picture. I took it, looked at the screen, and decided to zoom in (so you could actually see Dallas, he is that speck in the wheel path). When I held the camera back up and zoomed in I couldn't see Dallas anywhere, then I heard him crying. He had fallen out of the wheel path and into the bushes and brambles off to the side; he couldn't stand back up. I had to fish him out.

If you would like more Canada posts just say so, or tell me you don't... whatever. It doesn't matter though, you will still get them muh-hahaha.

We're Back

We are back! In the Seattle area, that is. I should have posted this a few days ago. We drove through the night,leaving at about 7:45PM on the 30th to arrive about 6:30AM the 31st. Cam and I had never driven through the night before and while Cam survived gallantly I lost it about 4:30 right after we crossed the border leaving Cam to, so I have heard, brave a torrential downpour with blinding rain. Apparently he was fearing for all our lives.

Cam let me sleep until about 10:30AM after we arrived at my parents' house at which time he slept until about 1PM; then we went for another car ride to see my brother, Jeremy, and his family to go trick or treating. Dallas was Buzz Lightyear, I will have to post some pictures of that soon.

Driving through the night really got Cam and I in the Halloween mood, we were both zombies for the rest of the day! (Bad joke, sorry!)

Shoe Shopping

We went shoe shopping today mainly for me and Chelane, but Dallas got a pair of the next size up too. We needed to find some type of shoe Chelane couldn't just pull off her foot willy-nilly like all the other cute Mary-Jane-type shoes we tried in the past, and we found some really cute, gender-neutral, black, converse-y like high tops.

My eyes were pulled to some girly - but not too girly - brown dress shoes; and I decided black converses wouldn't be so appropriate for church, no matter what Karma may say to the contrary. So I tried them on Chelane's foot. Chelane regarded the beige sandal-like shoes with no apparent interest and immediately pulled some shiny, black, slightly-heeled, strap-around-the-ankle dress shoes (in her size) off the shelf and handed them to me. She watched as I put them on and giggled in delight seeing them on her feet.

I had to go talk to Dallas about his shoes and left Cam to finish with Chelane. Cam and I talked back and forth down the aisle; we agreed we should get the brown shoes: they would stay on better, wouldn't show scuffs as easily, and I thought they would match more. Well they cost the same so Cam and I decided to let Chelane choose. She chose the shiny, patent black shoes... twice.

I took her with me to my area of the shoe store where she started pulling out shiny red shoes. Apparently I had a real girl with a shoe fetish and all.

Competency Test

Apparently as part of "No Child Left Behind" Washington OSPI decided that, along with the content area competency test, prospective teachers need to take a basic skills test in reading, writing, and mathematics to decide if they know enough to be "good teachers." The reading and math portions of the test consists of approximatly 60 multiple choice questions, the writing portion is approximatly 50 multiple choice questions and 2 writing prompts. The test is over a period of about four and one-half hours and the test-taker is allowed to do the test in any order and pace themself.

This is the last step in being certified to teach in Washington. I don't know if I am going to teach here soon but I have come this far and it gives me more options in the future. I have needed to take this test since May and have been putting it off and putting it off for two reasons: first, I haven't been in a school setting for nearly three years and I am not sure about my test-taking skills, knowledge, etc. and secondly, it feels awfly like another blasted hoop to jump through.

I finally stopped dragging my feet and registered for the test last night; I'll be taking it January 9th. My guess is most prospective teachers worry about brushing up on their math skills, I am sure this won't be a problem for me, I am more worried about the writing prompts. Even though I have plenty of time before the test, I decided to check the online study guide (ten questions per sub-section) to see if I needed to worry for the next two months about my ability to pass.

Ironically the only section I got anything wrong on was the math section, and that was because I misread the question. I guess I don't need to worry about being competent enough to be a teacher and I can enjoy my Christmas/Thanksgiving holiday.