My little pink SPARK!!!!

This is my darling Maci at her Sparks enrollment, last week she became an official SPARK. It is the youngest group for Girl Guides. Their motto is"I promise to share and be a friend" which the very adorably hold up their pointer and middle finger together and say it every wednesday eveing at the beginning of their Sparks activity. She loves being in Sparks and I love her being in it. It teaches them important values and lessons about, respect, giving back to your community( went of a field trip to the food bank), independence, self esteem, equality for all etc..... On their cookie boxes that they sell, it says Girl Guides is a team that that everyone can join or something along that line. I love that they are fostering the concept acceptance and frienndship at such and early age. She comes home every Wed evening with a new little badge for me to sew on her hot pink little sash. Here are some Pics Also to all you blogging divas, I need help. I cannot figure out how to make paragraphs in my blog entry. When I am typing my blog, I make them but then when I publish my blog, it all just mushes every thing together again... HELP ME!!!!

Where To Start????????

I am going to attempt to give a recap of the latest happeinings around the Clements household.I have been attempting to blog for quite sometime now but let me tell you about a few things that have gotten in the way( some good and some not so much). So way back to September.... shortly after my last blog entry we had a friend do some family pics of us , which I will post a few in this entry. Vanessa Ross, the photographer, met me and my crew down at Fish Creek Prov Park. She was so patient with the gong show that proceeded to follow the beginning of the photo shoot. I tried to stay as mellow as possible with my kids and although there was some tears and bribary, we ended up with some really cute shots.So shout out to Vanessa for her fabulous work. Then at the end of September, I turned 30!!!!! My mom and Joe flew out for party. In typical Shirley fashion, she threw a huge BBQ bday party with lots of family and friends and even rented a huge bouncy castle for the kids. So fun and almost distracted me enough from dwelling on how old I was feeling. My birthday was definatley bitter sweet as that day I also found out my precious little Cohen has a tumour( thankfully benign)between the end of his tail bone and his rectum. Since that discovery my poor babe has had a bunch of blood work done, a CT scan and MRI to see this thing closer. He is scheduled for surgery this thursday,the 27th of Novemeber. It is a fairly complicated surgery and they will actually have to remove the end of his tailbone to get to the tumour. We will be in the Alberta Children's Hospital for at least a week recovering. I am getting anxious about the whole ordeal we are about to embark upon. Hospitals are a place that Cohen is all to familiar with. My poor little guy sees that stupid cow staute at the entrance to the hopsital here and goes nuts and has a full fledged melt down. Cohen has already had more pokes, scans tests etc... then most people will ever have to have in their entire life and unfortunatley for him, this surgery won't be the end of it. I know that Cohen was sent to me for a reason and is here to teach me something, I am just not sure I have quite figured out what that is. This extended hospital stay will be be a bit trickier due to the fact that I have two other little ones and Seth, my baby is still nursing alot. If only I could clone myself........ Other things that have happened in the past 2 months.... I have just finished the whole process of reinstating myself as a RSW(registered social worker)in Alberta. I am going to begin working for an Adoptions Agency doing contract work. More specifically, I will be doing very thorough family assessments on families that hope to adopt a child through Children's Services, or hope to be Foster parents. It is a great job in that the majority of the work can be done from home. I will have to go out and interview the families in their homes a few times but with my information, I will be able to wirte the very lengthy assessment from home. You do about one per month and is quite decent $ as well. I am excited to get my foot back into that social work door as I have missed using"that" part of my brain this last year and a half. At the end of October, I took Maci and Seth out to Ottawa and Montreal for a week( Cohen stayed with his grandma Clements in Taber). We went out to see my sister, Bronwyn, star as Anne of Green Gables in the fabulous production"Anne and Gilbert". She was perfect and amazing and made us all so proud that I bawled through half the show. Maci and Bronwyn did some serious Anne bonding a few months back( watching the movies together over and over) when Bron was staying with us in Oakville so what a treat for Maci to see her aunt whom she adores playing Anne. Maci sat still and was captivated by the play for 3 hours( you know its good). We have just found out that the writers of the original Anne of GG that runs in PEI every summer were at Bron's show and have just asked that she fly out to Charlottetown this saturday to audition for the part. BREAK A LEG Bronwyn!!!!! What an accomplishment!!!! We love you!!!!!!We were also able to catch up with some wonderful relatives out there and tour around Ottawa,see the Parliment buildings and also tour around some darling quaint little towns in the mountains of Quebec as well and Old Montreal. In November, my grandpa Steinberg passed away as well as my sister, Bronwyn's dog Kudra.Kudra was almost 19 years old and was a worshiped and adored little red daschund. She was in our family since I was 11 or so and she will truly be missed.There as some classic video's on my Facebook of Cohen and Kudra sharing some special moments together. Also two weeks ago, Ryan came off the LRT to discover his car had been stolen from the train station parking lot. The thieves were kind enough to leave all the contents of our trunk on the curb. I thnk they probably needed the trunk space for stolen goods. Now we sit here, the day before my child is to be admitted to Alberta Children's Hospital and I am thinking wow, what an insane month and it is not even over yet. I am trying to see the "good in things' through the bumps and lows but sometimmes it is a little tough.So this next week , we will be consumed with Cohen and surgery, recovery etc.... Here's hoping all goes smoothly and he doesn't remember a thing, and that the surgeon will have steady hands and a clear mind. I am going to include some pics of the last months happenings as well.

Confessions

So I feel the need to get some stuff off my chest.....Before I start I just want you to know that I love my children with all my heart, they are my world and when Maci asks me from time to time, If there was a line up of 1000 kids would I pick her, Cohen and Seth all over again, the answer is a resounding YES!!!! still I feel like there are some parts of my life that aren't so glamorous and sometimes just downright sucks so I feel like I need to get them out there(cyberly). 1. I am ALWAYS tired, doesn't help to have a nursing baby that eats 3 times in the night..... 2. Many times through out the week, if someone took a snap shot of my house for all to see, it would look like a bomb went off in there. 3. This may sound lame but I really appreeciate whoever invented that suction hose thingy of a vaccuum and have created a new permant home for my vaccuum in my kitchen. 4. I often feel this" Me vs. them" feeling and feel like"they" are winning most of the time 5. I sooo look forward to nap and bed times and sometimes am NOT ready for them to end. 6. I have resorted to putting a tv/dvd player in Cohen's room and will put him in his crib(where he can't climb out) and let him watch a movie from time to time( not done daily). Something I would have never done with Maci and would have probably judged some parent for doing that back in the day . 7. The "laugh or cry" idea is often how I feel at the end of the day, sometimes I laugh and sometimes I cry. 8.I sometimes feel envious of Ryan getting to leave the house everyday and go to an office where his desk and work doesn't get messed up the moment it is completed. 9.I use styrofoam plates and utensils for more than just picnics(occasionaly ) 10.My laundy is the enemy in my home and we live out of clean laundry bakets most of the time. Anyways, as a social workerr we are always trying to help our clients to "reframe their reality" so I am going to take this approach for my 10 points I just made. 1. My baby is a well fed, healthy baby and I am lucky I am able to nurse him b/c some women aren't given that opportunity. 2. At least my kids have a place they can feel comforatble enough in the express themselves and learn about their world. 3. A messy kitchen floor shows my kids are well fed and are learning to use their taste touch and smell senses well. 4. A healthy dose of competition never hurt anyone. 5. Waking up just means that I get to spend more time with my little ones, time I will miss one day when they are all grown up 6.I am able to recognize in myself when I need a time out from Cohen, as he is 2 and is by far my most challenging kid right now. Everythiing is usually better after a quick episode of Dora or the Wiggles for both of us. 7. By laughing at myself forces me to not take my life so seriously and sometimes a girl just needs to cry and that is ok 8.I know that me being home with the kids isn't forever and I will get to to social work again one day and this is time I will never get back. 9.At least I am preserving water by not running the dishwasher as much. 10. I can use laundy time as a a time to teach Cohen his colours and Maci the importance of helping out around the house( something we are struggling with a bit right now with her). Anyways, I would love to here some feedback from some of you that may be able relate to some of my points and if you have any other fresh veiwpoints on the domestic life,feel free to offer it as well

The blogging slacker resurfaces

SO here I am again, in front of this cyber stranger, my own blog. Yes I am the first to admit I am one of the most fickle, fair weathered bloggers around. I just can't seem to get my act together when it comes to blogging......sigh..... Anyways, so now we are settled in our new place in Calgary, New Brighton is our community in the far south east. We are quite content here for now. There is a splash park one block from our home and lots of parks around every corner so the kids are entertained with minimal effort by me=). Ryan is busy as usual and we are lucky when he is home for dinner, about once every 2 weeks or so. I was prepeared for this so it comes as no suprize.He is now a real lawyer, no more school. He had his bar call in Ontario on June 19th. YEAH!!! Big pat on the back for both of us, I have no problem taking credit along with him for getting through law school. Most important change in our lives was the birth of my perfect, beautiful, healthy baby boy, Seth Ryan Clements. He was born on April 25th. He was 8pds 10 oz. and 21 inches. He was born in Oakville ON, a month before we moved out here. The birth was a C section(Ontario doesn't like to do a VBAC if it has been under 2 years since your last C section) so alas he was a section. I had a rare side effect to the spinal block, called a high spinal. Which basically froze everything from my toes to my eyelids including the nerves surrounding my lungs. So to make a long story short, I began to asphyxiate, they had to quickly intubate me and knock me out(GA) , so one moment I was sure I was dying and the next I woke up to see the most beautiful sight of all, Ryan holding our healthy little boy. There is a bit more to this story but it is quite personal and I don't feel like putting out there into cyber world. The kids have adjusted well to the move and we have met lots of friends already through church and our community. Maci is starting kindergarden at a french immersion school this fall and will be taking the bus every afternoon. Since Ontario starts kids at 4 for JK , she is technically doing Kindergarten for the 2nd time. We tossed around the idea of bumping her up into 1st grade b/c she is reading up a storm and writing full sentences but she would have been so young so we decided to put her in French. That way she will have a bit of an acedemic challenge and still be with her peers that are the same age as her. Cohen is TWO, need I say more. My days are filled with lots of strong willed little battles with him. Ryan and I call him our precious little Neanderthal as some of his tendencies seem to be almost barbaric at times. Don't get me wrong, he is the source of much entertainment in our home, his talking is getting better everyday. Infact today he learned to say Hannah Montana, which just made Maci's day. He is obsessed with the letters and alphabets and can almost do the whole alphabet in the right order(almost). Seth is perfect in every way, except his sleeping from the hours of 12 am -7 am stinks but oh well, sleep is overated. He came out with this great full head of hair and it just keeps growing. The biggest suprise was the his hair is auburn but getting redder by the day!!!!! He has these peircing blue eyes and is such a content little guy.I am really enjoying him and lots of cuddle time. I am home with kids right now but come fall I will be starting some contract work with an Adoptions Agency. I will be interviewing families who want to adopt kids from Children's Services and then taking the content of my interviews and composing an extremely long assessment which will contain the content of the interviews and my own recommendations if the family should or should not be considered for adoption. I will be able to do all the writing from home and can decide how much work I want to take on. It is important for me to keep up with the social work profession and this is a perfect way for me to be home with the kids while they are so little and still keep my foot in the professional door,so to speak. All in all, life is good. We are happy with our decision to move back to Alberta and are quite content to settle down and call Calgary home. I really will try harder to update this thing but that is all I can commit to for now=) The pics are just a random assortment from the last few months, the one or Ryan is a pic I took off his firms website.

Just a few minor changes to our life=)

SO last you heard on this blog we were settled here in Oakville, ON. Life was busy but stable, well guess what? We have gone and totally shook things up a bit. First off, Ryan and I knew that it was time to do some serious discussing about what we wanted our future to look like for our family. There were long hours of talking, weighing out pros and cons and really trying to look at what is best for all our family members and we came up with the decision that we needed to move home(Alberta). After the decsiosn was made, Ryan decisied to send off 1 resume to his top choice law firm in Calgary and see what happens and low and behold the very next morning, they called him at work and offered him a job on the spot. His firm is a huge international corporate law firm in Calgary, Blakes. They were very generous to us and made it near impossible to refuse. We were shocked how easy it was. I then contacted an old friend who is now a realtor in Calgary, Arlin Silverman( fabulous realtor if you are looking for one in Calgary) who worked super hard with us long distace and then Ryan flew out this past weekend and in one day found us the perfect house for us. It is in a neighbourhood called, New Brighton in the SE of Calgary. We already know lots of people who live there as well so that is a big bonus. Everything has really fallen into place for us rather quickly. We are thrilled to be close to family again, 2 sets of grandparents 2 hours away and all of Ryan's sibling and their kids all either in Edmonton or Taber not to mention loads of great friends in Alberta that we miss like crazy!!! Now the tricky part is that we are moving the end of May and I just need to have a baby in between now and then( C section scheduled for April 25th) pack my house and get out there. Good thing for family cause it will be tough but I have a few peole that I am worshipping at this moment, that will make the whole process accomplishable(not sure if that is a word). My sister, Bronwyn is going to be staying with us for the end of April and whole month of May to help me with everything. SInce I will have a lovely wound in my tummy, I won't be able to do the lifting of 2 babies, One very big baby who is 39 pds and our new little boy, as well as pack boxes etc.... Ryan's mom has offered to come out and fly back with me so I am not flying alone with 3 kids( can you imagine the gong show, YIKES!!!). My mom will coming to help out a few diff times from when babe is here till we move, so as you see I have some wonderful women in my life that will make this whole adventure worth while. Anyways, that is our newest adventure for now. I am going to try to put up some pics of our new house here. I am getting rusty on the bloggin and can't seem to remember how to get paragraphs on my blogs. It all just goes up in one big chunk, any help would be appreciated! I have attached the link to a video our realtor made of our new home on You tube. You will have to copy and paste the link as I can't figure out how to get it to take you directly there

My Blogging Revival

I just needed a gentle push from a friend(thanks Kristy) and here I am again. I have actually been thinking about blogging for a while but just kept putting it off until now. So there is no way to really fill you in on all the happenings since June 07 but I will try to sum up a bit of our first year here in Oakville, Ontario. First off, I must say that we love our little spot here in the GTA( Greater Toronto Area) We are only 35km from downtown TO, although with the crazy traffic around here it usually takes a bit longer to get into the city. We have met great neighbours and friends that have made us feel very welcome. Oakville is right on the shores of lake Ontario and right in between Toronto and Hamilton. It is just under an hour to Niagara Falls and the NY border. Ryan loves his firm. He has had a true taste of"Life on the Street". He routinely gets on the train around 7am and doesn't get home till 7-9pm that night, visits with us, helps gets the kids in bed and then off to do a few more hours of work from home. He often has to work on weekends as well. I had been warned that this year would be like this but it still makes it just a tad bit tiring for me and solo kid duty all the time. He will be done his articles at the beginning of June and then will start as a "real" lawyer in September. Maci is in junior kindergarten and goes 2 full days/week and every other Friday. She likes school and has had no trouble adjusting to school all day. She is quite the social little thing and comes home with amusing stories daily. She takes the bus right around the corner which simplifies things for me. She has really caught on to reading and writing and is able to both amazingly well. Cohen is 20 months and is such a fun kid. His personality is really coming out. His new love of his life is Dora and will sit and answer all her questions. He is learing funny little words all the time and even proudly announced to me the other day , saying" I poo". He said it with such pride( a true male=)He and Maci are really starting to play well together and he will start to scream and laugh as soon as he sees her bus come around the corner. And for me, I am staying home for now with the kids. It has been a bit of an adjustment for me not to be working a bit while doing the mom thing but with ryan's crazy schedule, we just figured that the kids needed to have at least one parent around. I love my 2 little clingons, so much that I am now having our 3rd baby, another boy. I am scheduled for a C section on April 25th. We are excited for this little guy to join us!! I am itching to start my Masters in Social Work and am just trying to figure out when the best time that would be to start. I would have to do it very part time as I will be juggling the mom thing at the same time. Well that is a bit of what is going on here in Oakville. I promise to be a bit more dilligent with my blogging from now on=)

Settling in Oakville

So many of you may think I have given up on my blog altogether, well I haven't I was just a little wrapped up with the move and with Facebook around I am finding I am neglecting my blog a little. So we are all settled into our new place in Oakville, we love our home so big and roomy, cleaning it isn't all that fun though. We have some great neighbours so the kids have been playing lots. WE have seen some old friends from Alberta already and done some exploring as well. Maci is excited to start junior kindergarten in the fall at a school close by. She get to ride the little yellow school bus which I think is adorable. I am having to work a few feelings of anxiousness when I think of her on the bus but a teacher meets them when they get off and her's is the first stop on and off at home so it should be ok. Ryan is just finishing up his " professional Ethics Course" at Ryerson University in Toronto and then will begin his articles in August. We are headed back to Alberta in a few weeks for Mac and Jorie's wedding( ryan's bro) and then we will drive our mini van that we left out there all the way back to Oakville. Should be quite the drive with 2 kids!!!!! Talk to me after and see if I survived!!! Anyways, I have had a few requests to post pics of our place, so will do that soon. Just wanted to check in and let you know we are here safe and sound and love it so far.