KINDERGARTEN GRADUATION!

That year went buy so fast, I can't believe she is already done Kindergarten and is moving onto Grade  1. Macie had such an amazing year and did so well learning french. Her Kindergarten teacher Mme Valerie was amazing, definitely a Mom's dream come true. She made lots of friends and mastered her Alphabet, numbers, shapes and made huge improvements with her drawing. Everything she does is in French, she learns no English at school. It was incredible when we went to her Graduation party and they had all the kids singing all these songs, and poems in French. Macie has full conversations in French with her teachers and when we are at a park and someone is there speaking french she will start having conversations with them. It is so impressive and I am so glad we put her in the French Program. She was given the "Stellar Storytellar Award" at her graduation party and the teacher talked about how impressed she was with this little girl and how everyday she comes in telling a story, and near the end of the year she would come in telling her stories in french. Because they don't learn any English at school we take the time at home to teach Macie how to read in English. She has been doing amazing, sometimes she gets a little confused sounding out her vowels cause she is mixing them up with french vowels, but she is doing awesome and giving me such a positive attitude, I am so proud of her. She is definitely gonna miss Mme Valerie, but is getting excited to be in Grade 1.

PRESCHOOL GRADUATION

Wade had such an amazing year at Pre-school. He had such a positive attitude, he was such a leader in his classroom, and he learned so much. We had another amazing year with Ms Patty, and this year the Teachers Ad Ms Brenda just adored Wade. Wade loved both his teachers and had some pretty amazing friends with him. Deklan Hamilton, Malcolm Burgess, Maja Pinch. He made some new friends Mia, Grayson, Osric, and Hannah. Buy the end of the year he knew all his upper case and lower case letters, and is even starting to read from some easy reading books. So excited for him to take the next step in his learning and go into Kindergarten this September.

first day of school

last day of school

Mrs Patty

ANKLE SURGERY!!

Friday July 6th I went into the Cold Lake Hospital to have my crappy ankle hopefully and finally fixed. A little history, In Grade 10 I tore every ligament in my ankle at Volleyball practice, and then again when I was about 22 I jumped off a platform and landed on loose rocks tarrying the ligaments in my ankle again. Then these past 4 years I have been having endless issues with it. If i hit even a little bit of an uneven surface my ankle will Pop out of its socket and then I have to pop it back in myself. Sometimes it hurts for an hour, and sometimes if hurts for a couple of days. I knew I had to go see a Doctor about it but when your a Mom to little kids and a hubby that works away from home all your stuff gets put on the back burner. About 4 months ago though I was holding Kansas while pushing Macie on the swing and when I put my leg back I landed on a bit of uneven snow and it popped out hard. I fell to the ground and dropped Kansas face first into the snow. She was bleeding everywhere and got all these tiny micro cuts on her face. My Ankle was swollen this time and even bruised a little and I couldn't walk hard on it for a week. It was finally time to get this thing looked at. I had an ultrasound done on it and they sent me to an Orthopaedic Surgeon. The Ortho Doctor sent me the for X-Rays to confirm what kind of surgery he wanted to do. He put a rush on the surgery when he saw how bad the Ultrasound looked, I had one ligament that was completely torn and another that was halfway. The booking office called me the next day and they booked the surgery in three weeks (July 6). My work was so good at rearranging my schedule (oh yeah buy the way I am back at work) and my wonderful Mom took some time off of her work and from her life to come up and help me out when Mark is away at work. It's gonna suck being in a cast for 3 weeks and then an Air Cast after that for a month or two, especially over Summer, but if it fixes this ankle of mine it is worth it. 

My last long hard walk the night before my surgery

waiting for the spinal to wear off so I can go home

Come listen to a Prophets Voice

Now more than ever there is a great need for direction, and guidance. There are so many voices crying lo here and lo there. We have the truth, and we will give you what you need. These voices are more than churches that plague mankind, it is the consent news feed that shows up on every device.

A few weeks ago, the prophet came to Edmonton to visit his inlaws, and was filled with love and felt the need to meet with the saints of Alberta. A large broadcast was set up, that allowed many saints from several stakes to watch as the prophet spoke words of counsel to those whose ears that hear and eyes that see.

Elder Ronald A. Rasband, his wife, and President Russell M. Nelson and his wive spoke from the Riverbend Chapel.

The spirit was very strong and as I have been thinking about the words they spoke, I felt the need to write them down somewhere that my posterity could read about. This blog is a good a place as any. I hope that the words will be read as powerful as they were delivered from those who spoke them. However, I acknowledge my weakness in writing and remembering, therefore, this will only contain highlights that have impressed me.

there are 3 words that come to mind for the struggles of today
1) Perilous times
2) Rage
3) Tumult

Persecution will come to followers of Christ, but remember the promises to those who remain faithful.

Review Section 86 of Doctrine and Covenants paying close attention to the last verse, also use your patriarchal blessing and lineage as part of the study.

Sister Nelson talked about the many revelations that her husband has had since his calling. At night she will get the impression that she must leave the room. Obediently she leaves and tiredly works on family history or other projects until President Nelson emerges and says things are happening.

This powerful testimony that Sister Nelson bore of her husband receiving revelation for the church was an incredible feeling, it could not be denied.  At that moment many testimonies were gained of the new living prophet, that he was chosen of God.

President Nelsons comments were around the necessity to teach children about the 12 tribes of Israel, and the covenants made to Abraham, and how important they are, not only to the ancient patriarchs, but to us all who are born in the covenant.
He chose several passages of scripture to relate:
Book of Mormon title page and introduction
1 Nephi 15
Abraham 2
Ether 13
D&C132
D&C 110 where the keys of the final dispensation were given to Joseph Smith
Moses
Elias
Elijah

funny enough the actual day this took place was on the actual Passover Sunday.

3 Nephi20
in ancient Israel all the sons of Jacob had an place of inheritance except for Joseph, why? his land of inheritance was the Americas.
 all the prophets have testified of me
ye are of the house of Israel
the Father sent me to you first because you are the children of the covenant.

Those who are of the house of Israel will hear his Voice and know his call.
Some of his final words were reiterated again from his past communications.
"Stay on the covenant path"
One final note from both Elder Rasband and President Nelson, was that we need to have good pictures in our home.
Pictures of our children when you come in the house.
Pictures of the Temple and Mom and Dad
Pictures of grandpas and grandmas
Picts of the Saviour
We need to make our children feel welcomed and loved and show them what is the most important things to focus on.

There was much more that was spoken, and felt. We are blessed to have the warnings that we have. May we heed them and be wise.

FIRST TOOTH

Two Months ago Macie finally got her first loose tooth. Me being a nieve mom thought it would fall out within a week, little did I know it takes a really long time for those teeth to fall out. Finally though last week it was just dangling there. I saw her adult tooth coming in as well and knew it was time to get that sucker out. I tried pulling it but couldn't get a good grip, so I took a baby wipe and grabbed onto the tooth and pulled it out with ease. Macie didn't even cry and only had a little bit of blood. She was so excited to put her tooth in her tooth fairy pillow that she got from her Aunt Marg. Mark was away at work so it was my soul responsibility to be the tooth fairy that night. I snuck in and put the dollar in the pillow and snuck her tooth out without being heard, phewf. At 2:00 in the morning Macie came running up the stairs to tell me the tooth fairy came and left her a whole dollar. It was so cute to see how excited she was and to see her believe in the magic of the tooth fairy. Can't wait for more of those teeth to fall out and the other kids to go through there first tooth fairy experience. There are pictures but it's not working right now so I will upload them later.

10 MONTHS

What this little sweetheart is 10 months old, that is insane. The time is going buy way too fast with little baby Kansas.

-Kansas is my best eater and pretty much eats anything I give her. She prefers self feeding, or food that is not pureed, but cut up. She has already downed Salmon, any kind of fruit or vegetable, she loves cheese and yogurt, chicken, rice, and like her big sister even eats black olives.

-We have nicknamed her Fidget as she is the busiest of the Three kids. Unless she is sleeping or in her carseat she does not stop moving. She would be walking if she had the strength and coordination. She army crawls all around the house and just recently started crawling on all fours, but if she really wants to go fast she goes back to army crawling.

- She sleeps like a dream and has since she was born. 12 hrs straight pretty much every night and one to two naps a day.

- She loves her blankets and sucking her thumb, and it is beyond adorable when you lie her down in bed. She immediately grabs her blanket and wraps it around her body and arm and pulls her thumb up into her mouth and quietly soothes herself to sleep.

-She's already cut 5 teeth and is on her way to a 6th. She sucks at cutting death and gets so miserable and an endless runny nose.

-When she is not cutting teeth though she is one happy, pleasant, adorable, silly, and smiley little girl.

- She is definitely a momma's girl but also is smitten with her Dad, she doesn't like going to strangers, but just this past month has at least started smiling and recognizes when other people are around.

- We saw the Paediatric Ophthalmologist back in March and gave us hope that Kansas does not have Myasthenia Gravis. He still says it is a possiblity and we are being referred to a Neurologist. He did tell us though that it could just be random ptosis happening in both eyes, although rare it can happen, and it is less rare then her having Myasthenia Gravis.

- She has been such a Joy to have in our home and the kids just love her. Kansas is so found of Wade and lights up whenever she see's him and as she spends more time with Macie she is getting more and more excited when she comes home from school. Next year will be so cute as I can see her running to the door being so excited when Macie is getting home from school or Dad is getting home from work.

We love his little girl so much and beyond happy that Heavenly Father blessed us with such an amazing little sweetheart.

BEING A KID!!!

Since putting our house on the Market and having a teething baby I have not been the funnest Mom lately to Macie and Wade. Today though when driving I saw all the kids outside at recess making snowman and I decided I needed to go home and make a snowman with Wade and just have fun with him. When I got home he was so excited to go outside and play with me. We had so much fun together building forts, making snowman, having a snowball fight, and having Wade bury me in the snow. While we were having a blast and being goofs Wade turned to me and said, Mom I love you so much thanks for playing outside with me. It melted my heart and felt so good to spend some quality time with this amazing kid of mine. He really is so awesome.

Leprechaun Traps

For St. Patrick's Day at school this year Macie had to make a Leprechaun trap at home and then bring it to school. Macie loves her crafting so this was a great project for us to do together. We had a lot of fun and Macie did all the work herself except when I had to jump in and help with a hot glue gun. The class unfortunately didn't catch a leprechaun but they definitely had fun displaying there traps and eating the "Gold".

Mommy/Daugher Date!!!

Saturday March 17th was Mine and Macie's 4th annual Mommy/Daughter road trip. This year we headed to Lloydminster again to go and see The Lion King Jr at the Vic Juba Theatre. We had a great trip down listening to music and singing at the top of our lungs. We started off buy doing a little bit of shopping at some of my favourite stores and found some wicked cute clothes for a good price. Then had some julius shakes and New York fries for lunch, then headed off to Vic Juba for the play. The kids who performed did such a good job and this was definitely there best performance I have ever seen. Macie loved it and was on the edge of her seat the whole time. When we were there we ran into some wonderful friends from our Lloydminster days. The Onofrychuk's, Stephanie Madson, and Melissa Cross. It was so nice seeing old friends, watching a great play and spending some good quality time with my daughter. The way home was quiet and Macie watched The Lion King on DVD while I reflected on the wonderful time spent with a wonderful girl.

10 years with Devon

Logo went from this

To this around 2009

    This past January 2018, I celebrated 10 years of work with Devon. Technically I started in 2006 as a contractor and didn't get hired on till 2008.

Devon Really is an amazing place to work. The people are good, the culture is good, and efforts that are made to keep workers safe, and the environment up kept, is remarkable. Millions and millions of dollars go into those two things.

    There has been a lot of changes since 2008 in the oil patch. So many, its almost unrecognizable.

Lloydminster, was once a great field with over 70 employees now down to 8. Devon had many many fields across Alberta and BC, now only three remain. Lloyd, Bonny, and Jackfish.

Oil peaked at 150/bbl and went as low as 29/bbl. Its been a rollercoaster of ups and downs. Many people have come and gone, which has made some difficult times. 

    I started in Lloydminster as a heavy oil Operator, moved to gas operator and was super blessed to have an opportunity to join the asset integrity team, and increase in education in 2013. I was moved to Bonnyville in September 2015 and less than a year later  June 2016, I was moved up at Jackfish.

   I have been blessed to work under some great leaders and some great colleagues. Through all the challenges, and changes, its been a wonderful 10 years. I hope that I can make 20.