You just never know...

Life is truly good at keeping us on our toes!
This week we got to experience that again, as we are being thrown for a loop.
Tuesday evening Hubby went to play volleyball and when he jumped to spike a ball, he heard a loud pop, followed by him collapsing on the floor.
He called and asked me to pick him up, feeling that he should go see a Dr, since his knee cap was 2 inches above its original location.
I went to pick him up and found him sitting in a wheel chair.
After several hours at ER (I went home to take care of our baby who was running a high fever), I picked him up at 3 in the morning.
He had a brace around his knee and crutches to help him move forward.  It was a fairly big project to get him in to the car!!
His leg has to be kept straight and he has some long legs!!  We did eventually figure out a way to get him in and went home to catch some rest.

Wednesday I got the kids on the bus and asked our oldest daughter to please stay home for the day to help care for baby, since I had to be able to bring Hubby to the hospital to see an orthopedic surgeon.  Baby was still running a high fever (she has roseola), so I really didn't feel like bringing her along.
We saw the surgeon and got confirmed what we had feared, my hubby had broken his knee tendon.

Yesterday (Thursday) he had surgery to have his tendon repaired.
He was able to come home only a few hours later.
Now he has a long recovery ahead of him.  At this point it's easier to say what he CAN do than what he can't.  He's stuck on the couch and fortunately he can work from there!!
The hardest part for him to accept is that he won't be able to work on our house.  The surgeon said the recovery usually takes 6-12 months, so our life will be adjusted in many ways and some of our plans we had, will most likely change.

For now we are thankful that the surgery went well, that he has work he can do while being bedridden, and that he's healthy otherwise.
We need to focus on taking one day at the time and find comfort in knowing that things happen for a reason.

We sure need prayers for strength and patience during this time.

Under Construction...

A  note from my oldest daughter:

I asked my oldest daughter to redesign my blog- update it a little bit. So, in short, this place is going to look a little crazy until she gets things tidied up and looking cute. Stay tuned!

Enya (Oldest Daughter)

Things are moving along...

Here life has been going on in a less than slow manner.
We've been busy with fun stuff though, so no complaints coming from this corner!
The weather has been amazing too, so life has been great!
I have truly enjoyed this summer, and one of the huge perks about this summer is that we didn't MOVE!!
We did start building a house though, but I feel rather chill about it.
It will go the way it goes, at the pace it takes.
Life's too busy for me to get too worked up about it.
I bet having built a few times, under a lot more stressful circumstances, helps too.
I have learned to keep things in perspective.

I told my hubby this morning how excited I am to see what this next year brings.
We know that we are building a house, and I am having lots of fun planning the kitchen, coordinating colours and floors and choosing styles and designs of anything from door handles to roof shingles!
And trying to not get too carried away, but keeping things within a realistic budget.
The footings are done and this week the basement walls will be assembled (we are building the basement out of ICF blocks, in other words, styrofoam blocks with concrete poured inside them. This will provide us with a climate stable and waterproof basement.  The basement will only be about 4 feet below ground level, so we'll fit full size windows in the rooms.

What else??  I travelled down to Windsor/Detroit with 4 of the kids a few weeks ago.  We went for a weekend and visited my sister-in-law who was home alone with their 4 youngest (Hubby's brother's family) and also attended Confirmation at church and visited other friends.  Such a fun trip!!

We have also had my husband's sister with family here for a visit, so we finally got to see their adorable, identical twin girls.
There's nothing like cousins hanging out together, they all had so much fun!
Between our family, her family and hubby's brother's kids, there were 24 kids between ages 11 months (the twins) to 18 (oldest grandkid to my in-laws just turned 18 last week)!!
It's a half time job keeping up with who's where and with who and what they are doing!
So much fun and lots of memories made.

The kids are counting the days till school starts, 22 more days to go!
I am glad they are excited to go back.
Our 3rd daughter will be starting high school, and she's ready to take this next step towards growing up.

I will try to keep up with this blog and share updates regarding our house, it sure will be fun to see our next home take shape! :)

Update...

Hello there!!

So, it's suddenly July and the last month was a blur of activity.
We have done our fair share of house prep and planning, our 3rd daughter graduated with much pomp and circumstance from elementary school, there was a work trip for my hubby that I went along for (just one night), we've had visitors and over night company, and guess what?
Summer.
Glorious summer.
It arrived!!
I think I'm going to subscribe to this beautiful weather for a long time, it feels SO good!!  Visiting the gorgeous beaches, playing in the park, swimming in our pool, eating ice-cream, tanning on the deck...we've done it all.

Today is a big day!
Last night the digger arrived and today they are excavating our lot and house building is starting within a short amount of time!  Still seems a bit weird that we are actually building again, but also really exciting.

I just wanted to leave a brief update to let you all know what's going on at the moment, and I'll try to keep updating as the house project advances.

Never a dull moment...

Our life is usually pretty busy.
The last few years have been especially so.
As many of you know, we've moved overseas twice and moved twice in addition to that, since summer 2010.
We built a house in Finland, and before that we had a house that was built for us, but that we finished the basement, deck, fence, driveway and yard on. Our first home was a tiny shoe box that we lived in for 3 years that we did some major renovations on, while living in it.
Anyway, with life being so full of constant change, you get a bit addicted to things happening on a regular basis.

This last year included a new baby, a move, hubby starting his own business and lots of snow.
Not sure what the snow had to do with this, but it was worth adding.
I have maintained that "We are not making ANY big decisions or changes for at least another year!".
But between breaths we have of course talked about all sorts of big plans, mostly regarding our next house. We have realized that buying an older house is not worth it where we live now, so we pretty much "have" to build again....
So, since we are fairly crazy and often forget what we just "decided" only a few days ago, we bought a lot!

Oops....

So yeah, we are building a house!  Chop, chop, here we go again!!  Wish us luck!
I am actually very excited, this will give me something to do, and to blog about ;)


On a side note I'd like to add that our friends that had the apartment fire are doing really well.  The husband has made some remarkable steps forward in the last 24 hours, and we have much reason to Thank God for this.  Please keep them in your prayers.

Luxury problems.

We went on a trip this past weekend.  On Saturday we attended a wedding (it was beautiful!) and I realized that our 7 year old daughter only brought her high top sneakers along for the trip, so no dressy shoes to wear for church.

A luxury problem.

We enjoyed some really warm days during our time away, however, with 10 people in our Suburban, and no AC, we did't enjoy driving a whole lot.

A luxury problem.

I got frustrated upon returning home, to literally freezing temperatures (think, snow in the air).

A luxury problem.

I could go on and on, but you probably get the picture.

Our days are filled with these luxuries.  

"This coffee isn't that great!"

"How did you manage to wreck ANOTHER pair of pants?"

These are things that are a real annoyance at the moment, and I think we wouldn't be human if we never complained or vented for vain reasons.

But what if one morning your whole life was turned upside down between going to bed and sunrise? 

What if a fire caused this change?

What if you lost almost everything you had to this fire?

What if your spouse was in critical condition from hot, toxic smoke inhalation?

I'm not saying we should walk around in fear all day, waiting for something terrible or sad or scary to happen.  That's not a way to live life.  God wants us to be happy and enjoy the life he blessed us with.  But isn't it easy to get caught up in all the little silly things?

Isn't it easy to compare oneself to others in many ways.  They have more of this, they have a nice car, how could they afford that house?  How are they raising their kids?  Why this and why that?

Well, so far I haven't received any medals for doing so great.

I have however been blessed with a lot.  In every aspect of the word.

That's why this terrible fire that changed our dear friends lives in just a few minutes, have been such an important reminder for me.

It is hard to write about this accident, and I sure hope that this dear lady who lost so much will be OK with me writing this.  I know she'll read this at some point and she'll shake her head and think I'm silly for writing this, but I will write it anyway.

This lady IS one of the sweetest, most thoughtful and gentle persons I have ever met.

She is quick to smile, laughs easily, has a fun sense of humor and is liked by everyone that knows her.  I have never heard a bad word spoken about her.  

When I moved to Canada she was one of the people who really helped me feel welcome, always making a point to talk to me.

Now, seeing her in this sad and heavy trial, she is inspiring me again.

I saw her this weekend and she still had her amazing spirit intact.

She happily went through all the bags with donated clothing, amazed by the generosity of her friends.  She felt like it was Christmas!

She told some funny stories and we had some good laughs.  

Her heart is heavy though.  Her traveling companion is in the hospital.  In lots of pain.  My husband and I went there and it hurt to see him in pain, heavily sedated.

It must be so, so hard for her to see him like that.  

Times like these help keep things in perspective.  You realize what matters.  I have had a few trials that affected me like that during my marriage.  When our 3rd daughter was diagnosed with diabetes at age 2, and she barely made it. When I suffered my miscarriage at 20 weeks.

I look back at those times and realize that the pain is still there.  Those days and weeks were hard.  But despite sometimes wishing things would have turned out different, there's a part of me that's so thankful for those trials. Without them I would have never experienced the amazing outpour of love and care.  So many prayers, thoughtful cards, text messages, phone calls, gifts etc, somehow I wouldn't want to have NOT had those trials, since I learned so much from them and in the end they strengthened my faith.

I hope, wish and pray our dear friends, who are now going through such a hard time, one day can look back and say "Despite it all, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way!"

So, today I will try to remind myself to appreciate my health, the sunshine, my lukewarm coffee, sticky floors and loud kids.

Things could truly be harder.  Much, much harder.

 

Spring is my thing!

Hello!

I hope I have enough time to compose a little something.
I realized exactly a whole month went by since my last entry, and although nothing too earth shaking has taken place since then, I figured I'd at least say a polite "Hello!".

Guess what?  The snow is gone.  Yup.  True story.  It sure didn't look like it had plans of leaving, at all, ever. But it did!!  (Let's all give the snow a round of applause for realizing that it was time to bid farewell, for this time).
I have spotted spring flowers.  Yup.  Just like that.  They hardly gave the snow enough time to depart, before they decided to greet us with their lovely selves.  Thank you, spring flowers, for arriving, you made me very happy.

We are still enjoying temperatures around freezing, but we have also had a few "heat waves" when the kids enjoyed wearing just short sleeved shirts outside!!
They have had time to ride their bikes, play soccer and football and other sports.
I have had time to enjoy driving on bare roads and taking walks, feeling pavement under my feet!

So, I guess we can safely say that the arrival of spring has been the most important happening in the last month!  I appreciate all seasons, really I do, but between you and me, I think winter overstayed its welcome this year.  It can be a bit rude like that.

What else?  Our adorable baby is walking, started a few weeks ago, and it's SOOO cute!!  She'll be ONE on May 3rd.  And no, I have no clue where that time went.  I do know that we have enjoyed her so very much though.  So much so that my old self is almost catching a case of the baby fever.  Almost.

Hubby has been blessed with more work than he has time for.  When you are running your own business, the most assuring feeling is knowing you have enough work ahead of you, so we are feeling very blessed.  And the fact that he works from home sure is an extra bonus.  We have traveled some lately, and he just brings the laptop along and works while I drive!  Pretty neat!

Oldest daughter is doing well, between 11th grade, work and boyfriend.  She dreams of moving out soon, and I am getting ready for her departure!  Nothing is happening yet, but maybe this summer!  I used to wonder how you as a parent get ready/prepare for your children moving out/growing up.  Well, now I know. Them becoming teenagers, never being home in the first place, and acting like a 3rd adult in the house (but not paying any bills), help.
I love her so much and we have such nice visits, but at some point, your little princess becomes BIG!  And this new, bigger child, needs to try her own wings, and I want her to do that.  Not so I can say "See!, it's not that easy!" (well, maybe a little bit because of that too...), but because LIFE!!  You need to learn to stand on your own two legs, and I feel that she's very ready to do so, making her own mistakes, forming her own habits.  So whenever it happens, I'm ready to send her on her merry way!

Daughter number 2 is doing so, so well, but we have our ups and downs.  I just found out some things she'd done when she wasn't feeling so well. (last fall)  Things that made me sad, upset and surprised to hear about. It's one of the worst feelings as a parent to find out stuff that your child has done, and you feel like everyone else knew, but you.  I don't want to seem like the kind of parent who thinks that MY kid could never do wrong.  I know they can.  I know I did.  But it's still hard when you realize that bad things happen.
Fortunately all is taken care of and she corrected what she did wrong, what more can I ask?
In school she's gone from failing 2 classes (pre adhd medication), to being in the top of her class!! (post medication).  Quite amazing!, and I'm so happy for her.
She literally LOVES going to school.
So, over all, she's doing amazing.  Her mood is great, almost all the time, she's way less anxious, and she just seems HAPPY!!

The rest of the gang is chugging along.  2 more months of school, and we hope to enjoy a LONG, nice and waaarm summer.  I'm eyeing the pool, waiting for the last layer of ice to melt away.  We have lots of stuff going on in the next few months, our 3rd daughter will be graduating from elementary school, and in the fall we'll have 3 kids in high school!  Weird how fast they grow up.
Good thing we have our little girl as a reminder of the baby years, otherwise I might have already forgotten about the night feedings, dirty diapers, teething etc.  But just like the seasons change, so does our life, and I'm doing my best at enjoying these years, since I'm starting to realize just how fast they go by!

Happy spring wherever you are!