And holiday starts right now!

Well, actually it officially starts in an hour and a half when I drop my kids off with a friend!  Hurray!  Today I am heading into Whitehorse and tomorrow picking up my friends for our two week adventure around the Yukon and a bit of Alaska.

Matt starts three weeks of holiday time tomorrow and he is pretty excited about having time off as well.

I am hoping to blog of our adventures through my group blog, Indigo's Ravens, while we are on the road.  So head over there and follow along!

We will all be in Faro for a couple of days too early next week for Hunter's sixth birthday.  And then back on the road for another week. 

A holiday with no kids, no husband, no housework, no worries!  Bliss! 

Have a great week, everyone!

See ya later boys!  I love you!

In One Week

In one week I will be in Whitehorse waiting at the airport!

A fellow Yukoner and I will be waiting on three women.  Women that I have never met in person, but count as some of my closest friends!

Two weeks of traveling around the Yukon making memories!

It cannot come soon enough!

And to any of my friends in Whitehorse- want to meet up with us??  I will be cooking up pancakes in Wolf Creek Campground starting at 8:30am on the morning of the 19th.  Please come on down and say hello!  We love company!

Never a dull moment.

The boys have been pretty entertaining over the last couple of weeks. 

There was the afternoon where I thought they were colouring paper while I was sitting on my back deck reading a good book:

 I give thanks for the smart folks at crayola who make washable markers.

Cavan went without a bath for 5 days after I drew an "I Love Mom" heart tattoo on his arm with a crayola marker.  He would start crying when we mentioned bath because he didn't want his tattoo to wash off.

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There was the lunch hour when my boys serenaded a four year old girl with, "Shake that, shake that, shake that healthy butt!"  She was quite pleased with their duet.

Later that day the same girl could be heard from Cavan's room saying, "Ohh boyyysss- you want a beer?  Come and have a beer!"   And Cavan replied with, "Yeah Taylor!  Let's have a beer in my bed!"   hmmmmm.... 

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Early one evening a neighbour called and compliment the lovely lake in my backyard.  Lake?  What is he talking........ aaahhhhhhhh!

They were banned from using the garden hose for two days.  And I am thankful the town has a set water rate and I don't have to pay by the liter.

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Well there is never a dull moment in this house, that is for certain.

All Of My Flaws

I found a new song tonight that really resonated with me and this journey I have been on.  It has been no secret that I have really been struggling over the last couple of weeks and it has been hard not only on me, but on my husband and close friends.  And to anyone who hasn't noticed, don't worry.  It wasn't you not seeing it; I am just a top-notch faker of happiness.  Top-notch.

Losing all of this weight has been hard, but dealing with the emotional baggage has been so much harder.  I have ignored dealing with most of it, almost feeling like it would just go away along with the fat.  Sadly, totally not how it works.  I feel like I am carrying 125lbs around on my shoulders now.

Apologies have been made to friends.  Self-help books have been dusted off.  Husband deserves a medal for dealing with me.  Life moves on and so do I.  Here's to better days and throwing that emotional baggage out the window one carry on at a time.

Me:

Me.

Still Me:

Still me.

And the winners are...

My mind was blown when I did up the tally as to how much money friends contributed to my surgery.  Just over $2000!  Wow!  That is nearly 10% of the cost of my surgery covered.  I am blessed with amazing friends!

On Friday I did a draw for the winners of my draw and Patricia H. won her self a pair of mukluks and Freya D. won a pair of baby booties!

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed! 

No Longer Cute

It is official.  My oldest kid is no longer cute.

Hunter lost his first tooth on Friday night while we were out camping.  I have not been the sad, mopey mama who sobs over every stage as their child grows up and wanting the child to stay young forever. 

But this.  This makes me a bit sad. 

Mostly because kids look so horrible when their first few adult teeth come in!  The new teeth look way too big for their face.  They completely lose their cute factor.

That is it kid.  Time to return you, ask for a refund, and find a younger, cuter version. 

Wiggly tooth on the bottom left!  Kid is still cute.

Mom gives it a tug!

Tooth!

Dirty, bloody grin.  See.  No longer cute.

The best part of this was watching his friend, Lydia, work incredibly seriously at helping him get that tooth out.  I see a career in dentistry in her future.

The Tooth Fairy was even able to find us camping out near Carmacks at Frenchman Lake and Hunter was rewarded with a whopping $5 for his first tooth!

Whack-A-Vole

This is the first spring (this is our sixth here) that we have not seen a fox in our backyard.  Normally around this time of the year there is a fox that hangs out behind our house.  We are pretty sure that is the reason why our vole population is getting out of control!  Quick!  Bring me a fox!

I have seen them darting around the backyard along with the squirrels and chipmunks.  Yesterday though, we had an odd encounter with a vole.  The boys saw one and went to investigate.  The vole just sat there content to nibble on grass while the boys watched.  I went to get the camera and was surprised when it was still there when I made it back.  The boys were able to pet the vole, heck I even pet the vole!  The boys named him "Hunter-Cavan the Mice-Vole".

Now, it is nice that the boys thought they had a new best friend, but I am not a friend of voles.  Last year the voles did a lot of damage to my garden!  They ate carrots and chewed my pea plants off right at the bottom of the plant.  So I had to sit the boys down and tell them that mommy was determined to kill off all of the voles in our backyard.

Cavan insisted that Hunter-Cavan the Mice-Vole was not to blame.  Instead he said it was rabbits that ate the carrots last year!  Nice theory little buddy, but mommy is still going to kill the voles.  The boys finally agreed to my mass murder plan as long as I don't kill the baby voles.  So I will just leave the baby vole killing until they are asleep.

Matt set up some traps early in the evening and we watched as the voles trotted right past the them.  Apparently voles don't like sweet potato.  Sigh. 

I saw Hunter-Cavan the Mice-Vole come out to his grass spot for a nibble later in the evening and I told Matt to go and kill it!  So Matt played Whack-A-Vole with his trusty shovel.  Done!  Now to get the rest of his little buddies.

Can we keep him, Mom?

Hunter-Cavan the Mice Vole.  Now deceased.