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Sunday, October 28, 2007

Our Neighbours

Our lovely neighbours REALLY like Halloween. Can you tell? They go all-out every year and decorate to the hilt. It's pretty crazy...and quite creepy! We've noticed that Halloween seems to be their "big holiday", when everyone else around our street goes all-out at Christmas. They barely decorate for Christmas...hmmm. This family just had their big party last night with kids scattered all over their yard and parents trying to keep track of their dressed up little monsters. It was quite dark outside from the beginning of their party, so I couldn't imagine trying to keep tabs on all those kids! Good thing they were dressed up, I suppose!

Happy Halloween??












~K~

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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Dinner With Friends

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures during dinner, but we had Katie, Allan and Makenna over on Tuesday night for dinner...just to give them a chance to get out and not have to worry about making dinner and cleaning up afterwards. We made them Duane's Chicken and Pasta Surprise, and it turned out great! Actually, Duane made it...I cut up about half of a red pepper before I had a shower so I'd be ready when they arrived. Oh, and I mixed it at the end :) Yay me. Thanks for making dinner, Duane!!
We sat and chatted after dinner, and Duane had a chance to hold Makenna for the first time :) It was so cute!!
Thanks for coming for the visit, friends! We love you!

Allan documenting their visit

Uncle Duane holding the sleeping angel

Daddy packing up Makenna to go home!!


~K~

Snow...yeah...Snow

Alright...so I've come to understand that weather in Calgary is rather odd. I'm sure I realized this years ago, but I don't think I've ever said it. This has come about because it snowed last night. Yep, October 24th...2 months from Christmas! I suppose that's not quite as odd as snowing at the end of April(which has happened), but still. It came rather unexpectedly only because it was 20 degrees earlier in the day!! It felt like summer! I had come home from work at the end of the day to super windy weather, but it wasn't cold wind; it was still pretty nice out. I had a nap when I got home, and at some point it started raining and eventually turned into snow around 11PM when I actually noticed it. I went outside and took pictures to document...even though it was super dark. I also took some photos on my bus this morning. The roads were safe this morning, no residual snow, but it was still around on the trees and grass!


The car, before it was almost completely covered by this morning!

Our front yard

My flowerpots...thank goodness the flowers were already dead!


The sights on my bus this morning

That's how Calgary's looking right about now!! Surprise!!

~K~

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

They Say Kids Can Sleep Anywhere...

"They" weren't kidding.

This is one of my bus kids a couple days ago on the way home after an apparently long day at school. Oh to be back in half-day kindergarten!
The picture, I realize, is NOT a great photographic piece of work(and I blurred the face for privacy), but I actually took it to show his mother how he often sleeps while on the bus. She thought it was hilarious...I thought it looked horribly uncomfortable! The edge of a hard arm rest against his eye socket! No thank you!


~K~

Saturday, October 20, 2007

My Lonely Day of Silence

Duane left last night with Kevan for another wedding photoshoot in Fernie.
He actually left before I even got home from work, and I didn't know he was going that soon! I thought he was driving out this morning. What do I know? I'm just the wife. Whatever.
So I was rather bored last night with no plans, thinking I was going to be hanging out with Duane at least for a bit while we ate dinner...before he'd take off to do editing or some other photo-related activity. I guess not. I didn't even eat dinner. No appetite. Lately I haven't had much of an appetite at all, except on my morning break from work. Then I don't really care to eat. Weird, eh? I LOVE food! Oh well. I sat down and ended up editing pictures just for the heck of it for a few hours, and watched a bit of a movie. Then in my boredom was checking Facebook(where I had announced that I was alone and bored on a Friday night), and Katie and Evelyn invited me over to watch a lame movie with them. They had turned it off even before I arrived. That was okay...I just needed to do SOMETHING. Even just hanging out and chatting. But we watched Everybody Loves Raymond. I hadn't really watched it before...just not one of the shows I got into, primarily because of the lack of cable on my TV! It was pretty funny stuff! We had a few good laughs, and I had a short snuggle with Makenna, and then I went home. I ran a few errands on my way back, and then stayed up until almost 1 o'clock! Yikes. My eyelids were pretty heavy...and I think stinging from me having to force them open to stare at the computer screen.
It was nice not waking up until noon today! What a grand sleep I had! I felt SO in need of a good sleep, not dreading waking up the next morning to go work with someone I REALLY dislike, like the sleeps I've had in the last two weeks. In case you didn't know...my regular driver at work has been off on holidays for the last two weeks, and I was stuck with a driver who I have strong negative feelings towards...as he had signed up for the shift when it came available. He isn't aware of my feelings. Just ask Duane...I come home an angry woman and ready to chew anyone's head off. It's really rather unfortunate. This guy just rubs me the wrong way and sends me home at the end of the day totally on edge, and I HATE it! Oohhh...just now, even thinking about him is making my heart palpatate...gggrrrr!!Anyway, thank goodness my driver will be back on Monday. Hallelujah! Sorry for the random rant!
Back to the sleeping in. It was simply fabulous! I woke up with the strong urge to clean(that's odd)...so I got the water ready for dishes and then checked Facebook. Shortly after that, my urge to clean severely dwindled! Go figure. A friend had sent me a link to an online site with one of my fav TV shows that I haven't had the chance to watch without cable...so I sat and watched an entire episode before I remembered about my dishes! I went and did a few, made coffee, heated up my bean bag, and sat and watched another episode while sipping my coffee and soothing my sore neck(I fell in the shower the other day...who DOES that??). And for breakfast? I can't remember...I think I ate a banana. Yeah, that whole lack of appetite thing...
Once the second episode was over, I finished dishes and swept a bit. I did a bit of bathroom cleaning, and folded some sheets left over from last weeks laundry. Nope, didn't get this week's laundry done...didn't vacuum, and I didn't take out the recycling! I did, however, throw the bags of leaves into the car and run them down to the park to the leaf drop-off place. Now all I need to do is bag up the rest of the leaves and take them down too. That was a bit too ambitious of a task for my lazy, silent day...so I didn't do it. I've spent a LOT of time on the computer...mostly watching TV show episodes(catching up, you know!), and thinking about eating, then deciding I wasn't hungry.



Here's what I DID end up doing...




I chased the sunset.

Sitting in my living room, I noticed that the light outside was REALLY nice...then I thought to myself, "that's some really nice light..you should go watch the sunset!" So I did. I wasn't sure where to go, 'cause I've gone to Nose Hill Park for a walk alone while Duane's been away before...I've gone to the Bow River Pathway down by Shouldice Park for a walk alone while Duane's been away, and I didn't want to have to drive forever or I'd miss it. So I decided to go to Bearspaw Dam down by the river near the edge of the city. I thought I had lots of time, but it turned out that most of my pictures had to be taken while driving there. It was quite neat, actually. There was definitely some precipitation in the clouds that was never reaching us! But you could see it! It gave the clouds a neat look. It was quite chilly out, so I walked down by the river for a short bit when I got there, took a few pics before the light wasn't so good anymore, and gave up walking all the way to the Dam since the sunset was pretty much over, and not overly spectacular in the end. I like sunsets regardless, but I've seen better, and I was just too cold! And I was alone...not sure how safe that area is, and what kind of characters hang out around there at night. So I left and drove home. I think it's about time to pull myself away from this addictive computer, and head to bed. I'm really quite proud of myself for disciplining myself not to talk all day, and just to have some real quiet time. Some of you probably think it's not possible for me to be quiet for a whole day, but I did it! :)

~K~
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Friday, October 19, 2007

Yesterday and Today(and a story from Tuesday)

I've had the chance to see my kids THREE times this week...so special! Anyway, here's a photo recap of my last couple days with the monsters!
Yesterday I had all three, but Ty was already in bed and Sydney went to bed shortly after Karen left(but not before some extreme mini-trampoline fun!).
Hmmm...there was a Noah-ghost in the house and I thought I should document it! :)Having fun before sleepy time! Check out that action shot!

I was honestly kind of dreading Noah's bedtime, as the last time(Tuesday night)was pretty much the worst bedtime in the history of my babysitting career with them...which, I realize, hasn't been all that long...but still! I was pretty tired from my day at work as it was, and then having to argue, reason, call-it-what-you-want...with a five year old at bedtime, was a bit much. Nothing, absolutely nothing I said or did, made him want to go to bed for me. He wanted mom and that's all there was to it. His plan was to wait until she came home...for what purpose, I'm not sure, but let me tell you...I'm just as stubborn! It was an hour-long battle, and a whole lot of "NO!" was shouted at me. His whole bed was torn apart and the sheets and blankets ended up downstairs, the posters were torn off his wall, and all of his wooden train set had been thrown around the room. It was mayhem. I almost gave up a couple times and just let him stay up, but that's just giving in and showing him that I'm not in control...so I think he pretty much hated me by the end of Tuesday, but boy, was he glad to see me yesterday and today! He even told his mom that I was mad at him! Aww! I love it that kids may say they hate you one day, but love you the next! :) So yeah, yesterday was a total turn around at bedtime, and he went to bed SO well! This is the only sort of decent shot of us. He was actually trying to roll away from the camera at this point, but it looks like we're snuggling! Sydney with her "yuck" just before I put the sleepy girl to bed!

Today I was there during the day for a few hours, and that meant that bedtime wasn't an issue, and we had lots of fun! While Noah was away at his appointment, Sydney and Ty and I went for a nice long walk around Tuscany, during which Ty fell asleep and had a short nap.We walked......and we walked......and we walked some more!

We ended up at a park for a few minutes and had some hair-raising fun! ;)
I couldn't resist this static picture :)Check out the mega-watt smile on this cutie!And check out these baby blues! Stunner, eh?

We got home in time for mom and dad to drop off Noah and some lunch, and pick up Ty and rush off for HIS appointment so they'd be back in time for me to get back to work by 2:45. Lots of running around for these guys today, and I was glad to be able to cover for them so they didn't have to tote all three monsters with them all day. We had fun!

~K~

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

My 3 Little Monsters

I thought I'd introduce you all to my kids, Noah, Sydney, and Ty. Just so that any time I talk about "my kids" you know who I'm talking about :)

I met this awesome family just over a year ago already (wow!), and shortly after we met, Karen requested my assistance in caring for her 2 (at that time) munchkins occasionally. At the time, she was rather pregnant with their 3rd monster, and Mike was just joining the Calgary Police Service. I don't think we ever got around to actually having me over to look after the kids until after the baby came at the end of April. Maybe once or twice.
The Happy Family!



I dove into this challenge head-on and totally unprepared for what I might encounter looking after THREE kids on my own...one of them being just a couple months old(once we finally got me working!), and one needing some "special" attention. Let me explain. Awesome big brother, Noah, has Fragile X Syndrome which is "the most common cause of inherited mental impairment. This impairment can range from learning disabilities to more severe cognitive or intellectual disabilities. (Sometimes referred to as mental retardation.) FXS is the most common known cause of autism or "autistic-like" behaviors. Symptoms also can include characteristic physical and behavioral features and delays in speech and language development." (http://www.fragilex.org/html/what.htm)
"Fragile X is inherited. Carrier men pass the premutation to all their daughters but none of their sons. Each child of a carrier woman has a 50% chance of inheriting the gene defect. The Fragile X premutation can be passed silently down through generations in a family before a child is affected by the syndrome." (http://www.fraxa.org/aboutFX_cause.aspx) <-----This is the case in Karen and Mike's family. Things have been going well, aside from a few glitches with bedtime! That's pretty normal with any child and any babysitter I guess. All in all, these kids are fantastic, fun, and vibrant and I LOVE spending time with them! I couldn't ask for anything more aside from having my very own! It's awesome to walk into their house two nights a week and see how excited they are that I'm there to hang out with them! I love these guys, and their mom and dad are great, GREAT people who are working hard to raise these 3 little monsters...I'm glad I can be there to give them some time off when they need it!



~Photos Courtesy of Duane Clemens Photography AND Kevan Wilkie Photography~
Big Brother Noah


My Little Princess, Sydney



Darling Little Ty

Now you can see for yourselves why I love them so much!


~K~

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

I'm Short-haired!

Hey all! I got my hair cut yesterday! I was grocery shopping for a few things on my morning break, and decided I'd go across the street and visit a new hair salon. I went nice and short for the winter....well, I just wanted to cut off a lot of the left-over perm from the summer. It's really nothing exciting since I don't want too much of any style that I have to maintain. I'm quite lazy when it comes to styling my hair, so I needed something simple.
Sorry for the bad picture, but here it is!


Maybe one day I'll get it styled again...when I'm not having to wake up at 5:45 every morning! But at this point ponytails and bobby pins are so much easier :)

~K~

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Jesse and The Rippers - Forever

For some reason I went on YouTube today and did a search for a song that was on Full House YEARS ago. I must've heard someone bring it up, or read something somewhere that made me think about it, but anyway, I found the music video "Forever" that Jesse and the Rippers did on the show. I've always thought the song was cute, and I feel like posting it for all of you here. Enjoy!


~K~

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Katie & Allan's Precious Makenna



I thought I'd just make a quick post about the newest member of the Eisses family, for those of you who don't have access to Facebook, so won't have seen these pics there.
Makenna Ruth Eisses was born on October 5th, just about a week overdue, at 11:54pm...weighing in at 6lbs 13oz and 19 inches long. She's healthy, alert, and oh so cute! These pictures are from my first visit...and only one so far. They've had SO many visitors, so I'm trying to give them space. But boy, would I like to be there every day...as I'm sure many of their friends would like to! A new baby is always an exciting and fascinating thing to watch :) I'm so excited to be able to watch as Katie and Allan raise this darling little girl, and I KNOW they will be fantastic parents!

That's all for now!

~K~
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