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.