Bowen Island - 2010

This is the road to the suite that we rented. It was a ten minute walk from the road.

We were unable to drive down because we do not have a four by four - that is how steep and crazy the road is. We timed it so that I only had to make the trek up twice. Phew!!
This is the only picture I have of inside unfortunately (actually, that's not entirely true, pics of me in my PJs don't count). Is was quite cozy. We had our own kitchen so we cooked all our own meals and quite enjoyed watching the boats pass on by.
We decided to drink our raspberry juice in wine glasses to be more festive.

Will, standing in the would be parking stalls if we had had four wheel drive.
We packed all our food in our Wike trailer and rolled it down the hill.
It felt like we were hiking in the back country!

Side view of our cottage. We stayed in the Lazy Bowen Petite Suite - the bottom of the house but with awesome views!!!

A cave we found really close to our suite.

As you may be able to see - our house was on a cliff.

This is looking up from a ledge lower down.

Will is on the ledge here - looking down at the shore.

"Will, look at that boat over there!"

It was nice to reconnect.

We found a swing!!

One of us tried it out. Brave guy!

This was on shore looking towards our suite -you can see it on the far left.
The shoreline was U- shaped.

BC Ferry coasting by - view from the deck.

This was our deck - too bad it was too chilly to use for meals.

Quick! Get the camara the sun is shining!

A Canadian Navy boat that scooted past.

Closer...

This is in town - our second day - this is a cute back alley we found (really not hard to find anything here, it's a pretty small place).

I am 21.75 weeks pregnant with Junior in this picture.

For prosterity's sake, I needed to record that.

A beautiful board walk in town.

The town library - beware! everything in town (okay not quite everything) is opened from Thurs-Sun. Not happy about that when you need a bathroom.

The marina in town.

Same marina.

These were funky bamboo shoots in the same back alley we found. It almost felt like Hawaii.

It was 3:00 and I had to feed the baby.

What else when you can't have wheat? Yummy!!!

This is a bay on the other side of the island. It was cloudy but quite pleasant outside. We sat on a log and chatted for awhile. Just plain nice.

This picture makes it look really dark but I don't remember it that way. There are kids on the dock in the middle, laughing and playing. It was our nicest day.

Same beach.

Our journeys took us to this bike park which I had to get a picture of because I knew that our boys would be so intrigued.

A lake near by that we walked around.

Same lake - I need to remember it's name.

Beautiful shot of the lily pads on the lake.

Another winner. To Will's credit.

I like this one too.

This is a fish ladder on Bridal Veil Falls on Bowen Island.

No fish yet!!

Looking downstream to the ocean.

This is a cruise ship driving by - sigh!!!

Closer look - have a good time everyone!

The same cave as before with the tide in.

Around the bay where we stayed.

Down by the bay....where the watermelons grow...back to my home...

I dare not go...
for if I do, my mother will say...

Did you ever see a boy who looked so full of joy?
Down by the Bay!!

PS: Peter got into Aleana's ink pad the other night. When I went to check on him at 11 - this is what I found. He was not happy about being woken up to be cleaned at such an hour!!
What a mean mother!! (and father helped too :)).

PSS: Thanks to everyone who took care of our monkeys while we were away - we really appreciated the time to ourselves and the peace and quiet. You all are great!!!

Finished Rainbow Quilt Top

I am so far behind in my pictures. I finished this a month ago - in general I am happy with the configuration, however there is one square that was an inch too big that accidently went in.

Can you find it? If not - I'm leaving it, if you can - I'll fix it.
I took these pics at night so the light is not the best - however I thought about doing it so I figured I had better do it or it will never get done :). Hopefully next week it will be alittle cooler and I can get further with this. I have the sewing bug!!

Can't wait to post about the other projects I've been working on.

Everything Wrong Day

Today was an "Everything Wrong Day". Wierd considering it was the last day of school for the boys so I should be happy. I guess being over tired has alot to do with it. And...not exercising all week. Two very bad combinations. At this point in my blog I am wondering whether I should go on with my rant. Blech...

Maybe I'll just go watch a show and fold some laundry instead of rambling. Will and the older kids are helping Grandma move so I actually have time and space to myself - so quiet around here right now. No worries...like Scarlett O'Hara said "Tomorrow Will be a Better Day!!"

You know I'm really looped when I'm quoting "Gone with the Wind". I read a book about how the movie was made and in the end they were on such a tight schedule that the doctor on the set was injecting everyone with drugs to keep them awake and then more drugs later to allow them to sleep alittle. Crazy!!! Needless to say, I tossed the book in the recycling when I finished reading it.

It made me sad that Holly wood can make everything look so picture perfect but to do that they have to fool people with lies, and many tricks. That being said, I do enjoy a good movie once and a while and one I can heartily recommend is the new "Robin Hood" - it has violence in it because of the war scenes but otherwise there is no indecency or swearing (that I noticed). Can you believe it?

The story was great, and very understandable if you don't know the history of King Henry V, his wife Eleanor and their children Richard, Geoffery (not in the film), and John. It is understandable because of the subtitles that explain the background information - good idea!!
I read a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine a few years ago and I also highly recommend reading about that period in history (1150-1250). The Second Crusade is covered in this time period of history and insight into the motivations behind it are very telling. When I was a child I figured that the Christian Crusades were good because they had the title "Christian" - I never learned about the time in history so I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about it as an adult.

So I ended up rambling anyway but at least I got off the topic of being so miserable.
How else to end? "Work at it with all of your heart, as working for the LORD and not for men"
Colossian 3:15 - Theme verse for school last year.
Tomorrow Will be a Better Day!!!
Hugs, Gloria

Just Life

Aleana playing a song for the people at Manoah Manor. A few of the piano teachers organized this concert for the residents. It was very nice, all the kids deal really well and I hope they do it again next year!!

Aleana was nervous but she persevered through it and the fact that she even did it was impressive to me.

Here is Ethan playing as well. He wanted to get all dressed up, tie and all.

Ethan never get's nervous about these sorts of things and he only practices half the time Aleana does and does just as well. It drives her nuts!!

All in all, I am so glad we have music in the house and I hope they keep at it!

This is the rainbow quilt I am making for the baby. I have since this picture sewn the blocks together and it looks abit different as well. I'll update this soon :).

Now I know that Rose wanted an ultrasound picture/story but I'm alittle shy to put the picture out there because it's really bad. It took me two weeks until suddenly I looked at in a new way and realized where the head was!! It's a lovely spine and we are thankful that the baby is doing very well. The technician could not get a good picture of the baby's head so he kept digging in my groin until I became nauseous. Then...when I got home I had such bad gas that I was sweating from the pain and I could not move at all. My belly button region was sore for days!!!
I have a friend that went through nearly the same thing (except hers sounded worse) and it turned out she had a umblical hernia. Could I have had the same problem I wondered? So I saw the doctor this week and she said that the same thing could have happened and I for sure have a weakness there because of my previous gall bladder surgery through my belly button (I'm shy to even write that word :)) Yup, it's really not pretty.

Well, now at least I know what all the pain is about and if I stay away from wheat then the gas stays away and then I feel fine. So thankful!!!

The doctor still wanted me to have another ultrasound and I refused on the grounds that 1) I don't want any more attacks and 2) everything else is fine with the baby and if there is a brain defect - I would rather not know until birth anyway. I'll probably go for a late ultrasound because our babies usually turn late, anyway.

So that's the ultrasound story - Rose, maybe you'll get a picture later on!!
I, for one, continue to be amazed that I am pregnant and that this baby has stayed with us this long - Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!

Sports Day!!

Ethan is waiting his turn to kick.

Ethan kicking. This event was soccer kicking but also catching.

Matthew waiting in line for the hockey relay and cheering on his team.

He just told me as we were looking at the pictures. "See how we are cheering? We are suppose to not just cheer for our team but for all the teams" -as he flips his hand forward in explanation.

May not seem like he is always listening to the teacher but things actually do sink in!!

Matthew looks so tall to me here. He has grown a couple of inches in the past season.
He asked me today "Mom, how come I'm so skinny?".
I told me that that was how God made him.


Matthew had lots of fun on sports day and he was so happy that all his ribbons were different colors :).

Flirting with the girls.

Long jump was fun to watch - some children have such long legs.

High jump was also a treat to watch. We watched the girls first and I was especially impressed at how they cheered each other on. I didn't get the chance to watch the boys as much - too bad. We had an ultrasound to go to.

That's another story for another day.

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

Slugs and snails...
and more snails...

Free food.
Escargot anyone?

"I think we have a hundred now Mom!"

Strawberry Fest!!!

Yesterday morning, Will and I had a slight mis-understanding - about strawberries.

I asked him to pick up 2 flats but I actually meant 1/2 flats.

After 16 years together, why can he still not read my mind?

Needless to say I had double what I expected and we had lots of work to do!!

I did not complain, I just laughed and we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.

Aren't they gorgeous?

Aleana was very ingenious at getting the boys to help. Everytime you pop off a green top the strawberry farts!!! Who can get their strawberries to make the most farts I wonder?

The worked at this "chore" for over an hour!!

Thanks Aleana!!

Unconventional but when you have boys that's life!!

We made three batches of freezer jam, and put three freezer bags in the freezer.

Now, I can't wait for tayberries, raspberries and blueberries.



What would I have done without my helpers?
They enjoyed their wages - for every green basket full of tops, they were allowed to eat one strawberry. Good to have some control.

Aleana enjoyed taking some pictures later on - can you see the rain drops on the jar?

A rainy day is great to do stuff like this - cheers you up!!!

"The LORD is good" - He made such a deep red when he made strawberries.

Onward with Thanksgiving

I just realized the other day that I have not kept up with counting my 1000 gifts.

Last time I checked I was on 343 so here today you will find number 344.

344) On Sunday morning we were woken up by Matthew who had kindly set the breakfast table with all sorts of yummy food. The one item that directly caught our attention was the almost empty bottle of wine. For breakfast? On Sunday? Why not? Matthew figures that it made the table more fancy.

345) Hilarious questions before church starts - Matthew asks "Dad, how long did it take you to grow all your chest hair?" "I think I have one!!!".

346) My new(er) alarm clock. I bought this last year some time after sleeping in really badly one morning. My old alarm clock was from when I was 8 (when I started delivering papers at 6 in the morning) and the volume was no longer working. I hate red numbers - from an insomniac they can look very menacing. Hahaha it's 2am and you are still not sleeping!!!
This one shines blue at night and it has two alarm settings - afternoon and evening - very sweet for us nappers.

347) This is a very sweet card that Aleana gave me on May 27th (the anniversary of Mom's promotion into heaven) - it says inside: "Don't be sad Mom...We all love you." Signed Aleana, Ethan, Matthew, Peter, and Junior. Sniff, sniff. The batteries are dying on my camara so the flash didn't work too well.

348) Doing without and making it work. This is my microwave shelf. Our microwave broke the same day as our hot water tank. Guess which I chose to fix? We turfed the microwave and I decluttered the counter of all the fruit bowls and voila - it looks alot nicer than the ugly microwave. That was 6 months ago and we haven't bothered to replace it. We may soon, because I do appreciate it for wheatie bags on sore backs etc.. but as for everything else, I have seriously not missed it.

Like I mentionned earlier - batteries are dead on the camara so the next few will have to be pictureless.

349) I am thankful that I can feel the baby kicking now. After four months of wondering where this pregnancy would lead - keeping or letting go - it's a blessing to be in the more secure second trimester. Thank you LORD.

350) All the children are excited about the baby!! What a gift!!!

351) I started quilting again - I will show pictures soon!

352) Not having nausea 24/7 is a huge gift

353) Everyone is almost done school!!

354) It is a gift when one's energy levels wane and others in the family pitch in to make up for it.

355) It is a gift to keep it simple sweetheart!! KISS principle. It's a good one.

Do You See What I See?

Aleana took this picture of a dragon fly in the corn flowers.

Today marks the day - only three more weeks of school!!

For Will.

This year we really motored and he did two night courses a week.

I am so excited that the year is almost over!!!

Over the summer he needs to do one distance course and then in the fall he will be working on a 10 credit project from HOME (Yah!) that will finish off his degree.

He has been working on this since Matthew was born and some years

were really slow because he was on misson board and in the deaconry.

He also had to put his dreams on hold when both his parents had cancer (one after the other), I was sick with gall bladder disease, and when Peter was born.

It's been a long six years but the end is near and I couldn't be happier-

for no more dinners without Daddy,

and for Will that his goal will finally be reached.

He has worked hard, done well and the LORD has blessed him through all of it.

Still six months to go but I know that Will can do it and I am excited

to see where this all leads us, what God's Will will be.

Onto more dreams and new paths - together in God's hands.

Stay tuned...