Shelby

Well being in Cardston has definitely been a development. Since we have moved here, so much has happened to us. Lots of good, some bad, but hey what do you expect right.
Right now I think that Shelby has benefited the most. From some more recent events, her future has now changed dramatically. She will see things in a whole new light. And I mean that literally.
Shelby has been diagnosed with Irlen's Syndrome. This is a perception, not visual disfuntion in the auditory sensory system of the brain. Shelby's eyes and brain do not see through all the colors in the light spectrum. She can not filter them, so it effects so much of her lifestyle.
Since her test, it has given myself and Shelby so much hope. She will be able to funtion and read as an average child.
We had no Idea that this was something that was effecting her everyday lifestyle. Yes I knew that Shelby has dislexia or Visual Perception, but now she has this too. Shelby teasted very high for Irlen's. She scored 16/17 in all areas of Irlen's. Her screener said she hasn't tested anyone as high as her before. This blew me away. I had no idea how bad she was.
Because of not being able to see through the light spectrum, it distorts things for her. Reading is the most obvious struggle. Because Shelby is a high cadidate, it effects her co-ordination and depth perception. Thus why she has always been clumsy and accidental.
Now we can more forward. She will get her special
galsses and she has her overlay. Life will be better for her and she won't feel so different from everyone else. Her self-esteem will be intackt.
If anyone is interested in learning more go to:http://www.readingandwriting.ab.ca/

Crazy Crazy Crazy

It has been anything but boring lately. I have been running around with my head chopped off. So a blog is usually the last thing I think of.
The most important thing is that I have been called into the primary as a secretary...... What were they thinking!!!!!!!. This has kept me quite busy since we have had presidency meetings, leadership, primary presentations, quarterly activities ect....And I have only been doing it for two weeks.
Second of all, I have been walking with a couple of friends. We do a 8-9 klm walk as often as possible. Sometimes up to 5 times a week. So that has been busting my butt,,,,,which is a good thing, but I am getting tired.
I have been to parent teacher interviews, which have taken up a couple nights and days scheduling with teachers. The kids are doing okay. Some need to get there assignments done and would get better grades if they did.
Next was that I had my birthday on the sixth. Scott wasn't home that day but I went to a Bunko ladies night. That was really fun. It is a game of rolling dice, trying to get a certain order at the same time. Don't worry,,,I'm not gambling. Just a fun ladies night out.
Scott and I had our anniversary. The BIG 14th. It was again a lonley night. Scott was working but I got to hang out with my mother-in-law in Lethbridge, shopping and waiting for a new windshield to be installed in the H3. So really it was a fun day. I didn't get home until the later evening and still had tons to do all night that I didn't even get to talk to Scott that day. Oh well, it has been 14 years of long conversations of I love You's.
Scott did buy me a really nice gift for my birthday and anniversary. He bought me a Bosch Mixer. Cool huh! Now I fit in with all the mormon moms. Guess I have lots of bread to make.
Trisin's Volleyball season ended witha bang. There team came in 2nd. My old town team, Raymond, beat them by 3 pionts. It was a great game. Lots of excitement. Lots of cheering.
Tristin tried out for basketball but didn't make the team. I know he was dissapointed, but what do you do when all the kids down here have been learning basketball since they were 3. Stiff competition. He will try for something else next time. Says he wants to get into gymnastics. Who would of thought.
I still don't have any renos done on the bathrooms in this house. I am patiently waiting to have a shower. I have to say I am so sick of having a bath in a 3x4 tub. You can hardly get you hair wet. I think I will convince Scott to get help to start on his next set of days off. We are on a bit of a dead-line since we may have all the family here for christmas. Got to get things looking nice right!
I still don't have all the kids School pictures. I've gotten Tristin's but not Shelby or Kaydens. So when I have them I will post them.
We have our church carnival tonight that should be alot of fun. I remember in Raymond as a kid going to them and having a blast.
I had better go. I have to meet Shelby and Kayden at the book fair at School. More to do.

Renting

Renting is a scarry business. All the bad tenents that give the good tenents a bad name.
Scott and I have the opportunity to rent our house out in WCT. This is really scarry for us. Walking on new grounds.
I have spent the last 3 days trying to get together Lease Agreements and making up an Inspection Checklist. This is all so new. I have to make sure I get everything on there so that nothing is left out, this way cover my butt. All too often tenents end up wrecking your homes because they do not care because it isn't thiers. So I worry about my house being distroyed and being stuck with an expensive reno job. So that is why it is so important to get it all in writing.
Well if I look at the bright side, we have our house rented out. Now we will have a little more money so we can get back on track a little sooner than never. Ultimatly we have to sell the house eventually, but in the meantime, until the real estate picks up, the house will not be empty with us making payments on it.
Wish me luck!

Getting Settled

Cardston has been wonderful so far for us as a family. I think we will be staying in this town.
The kids have some great friends and Scott and I are starting to find our nitch.
We have been doing so much for the last month or so that now I feel like life is starting to settle down. Not that there is lots to do already, but I can at least put stuff off now, or wait until I have the money to do it.
The house in Whitecourt has still not sold. We almost had a renter, but it fell throught. This really dissapointed us. We thought that we were seeng the light at the end of the tunnel. But alas it is still a long road ahead.
The windy season is starting to come, so you all know what that is like in Southern alberta. We will all be walking at an angle. And not to far away the snow will start to fall.
I have finally got all the leaves cleaned up in the yard. I have at least six mature trees in the front and side yard and 3 choke cherry trees out back. LOTS of leaves all falling at different times. AHHHH!
Scott and I have decided to make it a priority to get sealed in the temple. After all it has been long enough and there are not anymore excuses.
Every morning at scripture study, we all get to look out the window from our livivng room and see the lights of the temple. Inspiring.
Things are running smoothly, with a few bumps in the road.

Divine Intervention

As you will all know,,,I will be moving very shortly. In fact,,by August 21, I should be moving into our new temporary home which is in Cardston. Yes! Cardston. Not at all what you all expected. It is a long but uplifting experience.
Three and a half years ago,,a very close grandmother of mine, who lived in Cardston passed away. It was hard on the family but we knew it would happen one day. She lived to the age of 90 almost 91. She had a very good life. Full of adventure and tragedy. But I am trailing off.
After she died, we read her will. We knew what was coming. She had saddled us with her old house. We were all frustrated at the time to know that it came to pass. She made it so, that the house could NEVER be sold. And if we were to tear it down, a new structure that was to be built, HAD to be paid for. No dept attached to the property. She wanted the house to be a house of refuge for anyone in the family. Much to our dismay,,,we were left to manage the house and to rent it out for eternity. My mom being 8 hours away and my aunt at least 18 hours away, this was a hard thing to take on. But It was grandma's wish. No one ever thought it would benefit us.
This past August long-weekend things changed.
I went to Carston to Jason and Jacki's house to visit with the kids. We ended up helping in the yard tearing trees down and pruning them to make the yard look better. Jason ans I took a little break and went to grandma's house to show it to someone who was looking to rent. This was the first time I had been in grandmas house since the funeral. So I wanted to see all that had been done to the house. Jason talked of a lady who wanted to rent it. A single woman getting a divorce that had a new baby. He said he knew grandma would approve of there decision to rent to her. She didn't show. But we waited. Another couple ended up coming instead. So Jason showed them around. When we just locking the door,, a thought hammered into my mind. "I should live here".
But I dismissed the thought because we still could not afford the house payment and the rent payment for grandmas house. But I couldn't leave it alone. I was nagging at me.
I ended up going back to the house to look at something with my new sister-in-law. As we walked around the house her and I, the conversation directed to me living in the house. I explained why I thought it would not work. She remind me that I was a definite reason why my grandmother wrote her will as she did. It was to be a house of refuge for all in the family that was in need. I definitely was in need. Waiting for a house to sell for over 9 1/2 months is a time for need. Again she reminded me that I shouldn't have to pay rent in the house. My grandmother would not have it. She would want to help me in all that she could.
When this was said to me, a consuming feeling took over me and made me know that this was what I was supposed to do. The spirit whispered to me " your grandmother loves you and she wants you here, she wants to help you" It was all I could do to not bust into tears. I knew what I had to do. Move into her house until we could sell our house and recuperate our losses. What a blessing that she has given me. A once in a life-time opportunity.
So I telephoned my mom and asked her if this would be poosible. She heartily agreed to the idea. In fact she had thought of it a few weeks before, but thought that I wouldn't like the idea. So she dissmissed the thought.
So approvalls were made. It is a go!
So now I am moving to Cardston. For at least a year,,,,maybe more. Who knows,,maybe I will like it there and set up shop.
Maybe this is grandmas way of getting Scott and I to the temple. If we can't get there,,,she will bring it to us. I love her!

Computer Toubles

So for almost more than a month now I have had a virus in my computer. I must say that it is a first for me. But now I have officially been initiated into the world of technology $75.00 later.
I got a pop-up that resembled a spyware that was offered throught microsoft. It askes you if you want to download this program. Looking like microsoft I went for it. Well it started to download, and that was it. A virus had planted itself in my computer.
Turns out that someone started this just to get your money. It all begins with a download then it gets into your system and it constantly askes you to register this program and then sends you to a webpage to buy thier anti-virus system to fight against viruses that they planted.
But that is not all. When you try to uninstall the program it finds somewhere else to spread to. Each time you do this it spreads more and more.
So anyone who reads this, DO NOT DOWNLOAD a program that looks like mirosoft Shield of red, blue, green and yellow. It's a VIRUS!

We almost did It!

So for a third time, we had another offer on the house. It was an okay offer, nothing to write home to mom about. Had to leave all appliances behind, including the freezer just to be able to sell. With eight other trailers for sale we didn't want to loose out on this sale so we went with it. We also had to be out by May 30th, and had to wait until the 12th to have all conditions removed. So really it was only two weeks notice.
So time was the essence. I had to find a house, and fast. So I zipped down to lethbridge to go Power House Shopping. I looked at at least 20 homes. My agent weeded out all the yucky homes and yucky locations for me and only showed my to the nicer ones. Lets just say there were only 5 NICE ones to really take notice of that would work for us, and two were in the real running.
We decided to buy a house in Coaldale. It was 25 years old,,but in really good shape. It was fully developed and it even had a office that I was able to do nails in. It was all going to work out. The best thing is that they were willing to be out by the end of the month so that we could move in. It would have all woked out great.
When I got home I had a message from my agent on the phone. I called her back, but I had a bad feeling something was wrong. Turns out that the byuer of my house wasn't able to get he financing to purchase our place.
Again! Another purchase offer down the drain. I am sick of this. You would think that third time was a charm. Nope,,,,not for me.

Nothing is Happening

We had an open house on saturday. So I started to clean like a mad woman on friday. I shampood the carpets. Had to fix the cushions on the couch, laundry and of course cleaning all deep areas that only seem to get clean when you are haveing a house viewing. I was pumped. I was excited. I thought it was ging to be a sucess. But alas,,,,nothing happend. Not even one person came. What a bummer.
Well at least it was a nice day and my agent had a nice time sitting on my deck soaking up the sun.
I'm going to the City tomorow to get my sunroof fixed on the Hummer. I hope it does not rain. Not fun to get wet in your vehicle. I hope that I don't spend too much money. I have to go to LCN and possibly to Costco. Bad choices, but necssesay.
Hey maybe I will find myself a nice pair of pants for my big cabbose. I think that would be a miracle. To actually find a part of pants to fit me in my waist and thighs. Yeah right! wish me luck!

Being Sick

So I must of had the touch of the flu the past two days. It started the day that Scott had to leave and carried on until yesterday night. Yesterday I did nothing. Just layed in bed all day. I was even sick of watching TV. Thank goodness I stated taking Cold Assist on monday or I may of had it longer. I thought I was just geting a cold from Scott, but I guess not.
This morning Tristin is home from School because he is achy and feeling gross. Of course now I have to deal with him and Kayden today. Fun Fun.

Yesterday was a busy day. I ran around all morning with Scott. Going to Canadain Tire and Walmart finding baby shower gifts and gifts for Kayden. We, as in Scott and I, decided to celibrate Kayden's Birthday early just so Scott could be here to be a part of it.
After lunch, I had to go to Shelby's Shool and give a little presentation about Green Hills Mine. The Students are learning about rocks and the difference of each kind. So I had set it up with the teacher that I would come in and tell all the kids about coal and how they are trying to claim it from the mountains for the coal mines. It went over pretty good. The kids loved seeing the big trucks and the mountains. It was like Mega Monster Truck episode on TV but from a personal point of view.
I was going to have Scott come in and give his insite on things, but he decided to make a flash trip to Edmonton to get a special new bike for Kayden. When we went downtown earlier we were trying to find a bike for a pesent, but all stock was out. So we had no luck finding anything that would fit a 6 year old. So we came home and looked on the internet and found a really cool bike from Toys R' Us. It was a Red Hummer Bike. Tooo Cool. They call it a "Hummer 18", for the size of the tires. I thought it was comical.
Back to my time line. At the end of my two presentations at the School, I went to Kayden's Kindergarten class and did and simplier version to 5-6 year olds. Again they loved it. After this, it was the end of the school day, and time to go home. Kayden went to a friends house and Shelby and I went to the grocery store to pick a birhday cake. We wipped back home and wrapped gifts before kayden came hom from his friends house.
Not long later Scott came home from the city and the kids and I headed up to Boston Pizza for Birthday suppper. Scott stayed back for a bit to set up the bike for the big surprise. Then he joined us 20 minutes later. We had a good time. Supper was good and Kayden was happy to be getting a bithday finally. (He had been waiting for at least 4 months).
After supper we went home and surprised kayden with his new bike and helmet and a few other gifts.
I had to zip to the baby shower and take the gifts that I had purchased ealier in the day. I stayed for a half hour then went home to have Birthday Cake for Kayden.
When we fnished the cake is was time for the kids to go to bed, but I got a phone call. Some couple wanted to see our house, This was hooked up through a friend. So they came over and quickly saw the house and left. By this time it was 9:00 and Shelby and Kayden HAD to go to bed. Tristin had to work on his Science project. I helped him for a few minutes then decided it was a good day to soak in the Hot tub. This was a good idea. Relax in a tub after such a busy but good day. AAAHHHH!
Like all other days, as my husband would say, "Just another day at the Mine".

Hot tub Experience

Last week I had the most hilarious experience cleaning the hot tub. On tuesday night, I was talking to Scott on the phone. He had told me that he was going to come home on his days off and he had asked me if I would be willing to clean out the hot tub before he got home so that he may enjoy it when he got here. RELUCTANTLY, and I mean RELUCTANTLY I agreed to do it.
The next day I had a client in the morning and then I went for lunch with Bobbi. I got back at 1:00ish because I had another client coming at 1:30. So I thought that I could at least get it started before she came and it would drain while I was busy working. It will all work out to plan right? NOOOTTTT!!!!
So I got both my hoses attatched so that it would go out to the road. With them together I was going to attatch it to the hot tub. But I decided to open up the door first and check inside as to where I had to open up the drain. So I got the electric drill and unscrewed the screws, and went to pull the door off.
Now if you have never looking underneath a hot tub,,it is full of spray-in insulation all around the tub and the pumping system. Ours is about 3-4 inches thick. This was the start of my dilemma. We have a landing just in front of the hot tub that is butted up to the tub. Maybe 2-3 inches front being against the wood on the outside. So when I went to pull the door away, I could only move it about 3inches. Not enough to actually remove the door. I can't move the landing because it's frozen to the ground. Uh Ohh!
I tried every angle, but could not remove the stupid door. I even crawled under this landing to see if I could angle my arm to reach the stupid handle to open the valve. Nope! Now I was stuck in a pickle. Scott really wanted me to deal with this hot tub. I didn't. But my love for my husband was greater. (Better remember this dear.) So now I had to problem solve. What could I do????? ......I had an idea! But will it work? I could syphon the water out? That would probably work.
So I stuck the house in the water. Made sure I had enough so that it wouldn't come out. went to the end of the hose. Looked to see if anyone was watching. Nope! So I started to suck on the end of the hose. Yuck!!!!! It was full of old water that has been in the hose all winter. More Yuck! The hose is full of ice from the frozen water. Spit and suck. Spit and suck. This is disgusting. Scott better love me alot. Again look to see if anyone was watching. Nobody. Set the hose down and watch the water stream out. IT'S Working. The water was running out as well as a lot more ice too. Glad that all didn't go in my mouth.
By this time my client was late and looked like a no show. So I waked away from the hose to let gravity do it's thing. So I went inside and read my book. 4 hours later the hot tub was finally drained. With some bucket dumping on my part. Washed it all down and put all the hosing back and closed up the door to the tub. I had to fill it back up. So in goes the hose again.
You know after waiting all afternoon to empty the tub,,,it only took and hour to fill it up. Argh! But it was done. Checked all the chemicals. Scott should be happy. At least he better be. I'm not doing that again. It will always be Scotts job for as long as we have the tub. Life is full of dity jobs.

Easter is Over

Easter is Over Now that Easter is over I can hopefully get my life in order. Focus in getting bills caught up and the yard cleaned. The kids are at their grandparents house so they are out of the way for a bit and I can acutally get the house to stay clean and do all those chores that the kids get me distracted from. I am just getting over a cold. Still a little stuffy but I don't feel like crap anymore. I hate Spring colds. They always seem to be the worst. You want to get out and enjoy the weather but being under the weather prevent you from this. The snow is almost all gone. Hurray! I can see lots of grass that needs to be cleand up, but it is still too sloppy for that. I am looking forward to the weather getting even hotter so all the snow will melt and the yard will be completely clean. This way the house will sell faster with a nice yard instead of nice snow. Speaking of the house, Nothing is happening yet. The real estate market is getting flooded with homes. But no one is buying right now. Ususally spring time gets people buyin',,but this time it has gotten people sellin'. It has to change soon, things can't stay this way for much longer.Our house that we bid on in Elkford fell through. Someone came along and bid on it as well. Either they had no conditions of they bid more. As of today we would of had to remove our conditions, but we let it go as soon as w had heard that some one else was bidding. There isn't anyway that we could buy the house without selling ours. So another house down the drain.Guess it wasn't meant to be.I got to visit with a missionary freind yesterday. He used to be serving in Whitecourt almost a year ago. We became really good freinds. It was really nice to see him and visit with him and tell him all that has happened this past year. So of course it was a long conversation,,but a good one. He is coming to Whitecourt on the weekend for splits and he said he would come and visit us again. Scott will be home so he can visit too. Catch up on more news. Good Times!

House Update

So our open house was a bust. No one came. How dissapointing. All the work in cleaning and nothing to show for it. Well at least my house stayed clean for a few hours.
So I got some bad news today. My real estate agent from Sparwood informed me that the house that we bid on may possibly have another offer out on it by someone else. So I'm expecting to get a 72 hour clause any day or hour. What a bummer. Another house that we will loose out on. This one was supposed to be as nice as the last one, so Scott says.
It has been hard to attatch myself to a house that I haven't even seen. I'm dissapointed about it all, but I'm not looseing sleep over the circumstances. A little discouraged at the situation that we are put in. That being that we can't sell our house.
So on a more possitive note,,I'm going to Edmonton tommorow to have some warranty work done on the Hummer. The sunroof needs to be fixed. The cool thing is that I get to go to my nail shops and spend money. Not that I like to spend it, but at least I will be topped off for my clients.
I also get to go too Lululemon and return or exchange some stuff that Scott got me. Now that is an expensive store. Luv it,,but hate the prices of the clothing. I guess I am too consevative in my spending compared to my taste. Paris Hilton taste with a Clampid budget. Who knew?
Maybe I'll buy myself something, like a new shirt and jeans. I hope I don't spend my whole budget. If I stay away from Costco, I can do it. Wish me luck.

Nothings Happening!!

Well we still haven't sold the house. I'm hating the wait. We had a viewing today. So maybe something will happen for us. There are at least 4 other 20' wides for sale along my strip so I have some competition. None of them will be as nice as ours because ours is a modular. But t will take that one special person or couple to buy the place.
Scott is coming home tommorow. This makes me happy. He will be home,,even if it is only for a couple of days. Maybe we can fit in some good family time together.
The snow is melting and soon it will be all gone. With easter around the corner it will be nice to celebrate outside.
I'm hoping to go to lethbridge for Easter this year. It will be nice to be away for a little bit. The kids wil like it too. This will all depend on money and if Gwynne ad Gord want us that long.
We shall see.

Some new developements has started. Scott saw a house in Elkford that he liked. So we bid on it. I haven't even seen it. Which really drives me crazy. Being an organized person. Things are not going as planned,,,,but like everything in my life this is normal.

We had a couple who was interested in our house. They started bidding on the house but didn't like that we were not budging wth our price. So they backed off. This is so frustrating. Now that we have bid on the house in Ekford we want this place to sell even more.
So we went back to the poeple with our lowest offer, we will see what will happen.

I guess it is leaving it up to fait. Whatever will happen will happen. We just have to be patient a little longer.

Sparwood Adventure

So I went down south to view a house. It ended up being a dive. What a waste of time. But I looked at other houses while I was there.So we are trying to decide if we should look more seriously at Elkford. Real estate is less and we would be closer t Scott's work. But on the down side,,,we would have to travel in for church and activities.I guess life will take us in the right direction.