UPDATE: Life's a Blizzard around here

Zachary just celebrated his 5th birthday and I snapped this pic of him in daddy's big chair.  It looks like maybe it was taken with a background! He celebrated his birthday weekend in Regina Saskatchewan as his father was preaching there.  It was a very fun time!  Two nights in a hotel, lots of friends and attention lol.  He got a new vest and pants with a tie and a red shirt like his dad's.  He looked soooo awesome but once we got to evening service was tired and too shy to take his jacket off for the entire service lol.  I didn't get any pics of him in it yet.

November 14th was Zach's birthday, and then on the 18th, Derikkah had her own little celebration. She officially turned 6 months old.  She's grown SO fast!  She certainly is a joy to have around and keeps our lives very interesting!  This past week, she's developed a certain long grunt that she uses as her method of communication.  If she's not spitting at you with her mouth sounds, then she is doing this.  If there's something she wants and cannot reach, be it your supper, her supper, a toy or her favorite thing... the computer mouse, she will slam both arms hard down by her sides with fists clenched and go... UUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMM until she gets it.  If it doesn't work once, she continues until you have to give it to her or remove it from her view!  I think this one has a very VERY determined spirit!

This pic is of Derikkah with her juice box.  yes she likes to drink from a juice box.  She is getting quite independent.    More news in our home right now, is that we are driving to New Brunswick on the 14th of December, Derwin, Derikkah and I, to pick Kyla-Dawn up for Christmas and yes we are nuts, but we're taking her back after Christmas again.  Along the way, we will be dropping off and then later picking up again, 4 of her friends.  It's something Derk and I are doing for a bunch of reasons, one of them being we prefer to drive her than have her miss planes or be stranded somewhere if any of the other scenarios we looked into happened.  Another reason is that Derk and I are extremely burned out right now, he's still on parental leave and instead of this being a better time for us, we found more stress than we had previously and it's been a long haul.  So this travelling time is because we've always wanted to travel all the time.  Maybe we were meant to be evangelists but that gypsy spirit is in our blood that is for sure.

It is hard when people think they can stick their noses in your business though and tell you that you are crazy and you shouldn't do such a thing.  It's not any of their business, our daughter isn't their daughter, and we aren't any relation to them so what gives certain people the idea that they have the right to be so interfering and critical to other people?  Jealousy?  I don't know but I do know that there are some people that we've had to eliminate from our family's lives because of this type of attitude and that back then, we were fragile and beaten down but now we are strong and I really don't care what people think of me anymore.  I'm going to do what my husband and I think is best and what we feel is right for our family.  In the end, none of these interfering souls will be there but our family always will if we build a tight knit relationship with our children.  Having both come from dysfunctional families ourselves, we want more for our children.   I think that is the most important part of our lives, our children and our relationships we are building.  Are we perfect?  No way!  But we are trying and in our family we've taught the kids that if you have to give and someone needs then it's your job to give it.  We all pitch in and give financially or of our time if it's needed by another family member and recently my son came to me with amazement that someone he talked to  said they couldn't go to their family for help.

We get criticized for that idea to, but when I get compliments on my children, when I see my daughter doing awesome in her studies at bible college despite those who told her to her face she would not do well, I KNOW I didn't ruin my oldest by homeschooling her start to finish, that she is smart and well adjusted despite what some might think or say and that she is ready to take on life and be a wonderful person in it!

Wow... that kind of turned into a rant, but where can a person vent if not in their own personal blog right?

It's really snowing out there now!  That Colorado Low has arrived I guess and I've heard about anywhere from 5-20 cm of snow can be expected.  the wind's picked up some but mostly it's snow snow and more snow falling now.

School is in session this morning and going fairly well.  Last night Derk put the second coat of mud on the wall in our living room and has a second wall to do the same thing to.  He also has to tape and mud the dining room.  I'm holding out decorating for Christmas until my living room at LEAST and my dining room hopefully as well are painted.  This house is a real pain and we're slowly chipping away at it.  One of these days I'm hoping we'll get it done and sell it as it's getting too small as the kids grow.  There are still 8 at home and with one of them 6'3" and another coming up right behind him, two girls who are getting into "looking good" every day and the twins and Zach who are wild and rambunctious running on my head all the time (there is no carpet in our house, only hardwood) and my lil miss priss starting to creep and crawl and pull herself up on things, it definitely is TOO small!

BTW... for those of you who don't know about my baby girl's birth story, I'll try to go back and fill in some details somewhere along the way.  Life got in the way at first, then I couldn't seem to get into this blog again!  I finally had to delete all my cookies and start over and THEN and ONLY then would it let me back in!

Time to get moving again!