a fun day

Dad and some grands- before he took off for Jamaica. I stole this pic from him too.

Immy now and then.


Meet my cousin Lin that I grew up with and had countless sleepovers with. Here she is with her oldest and youngest.






Some you may not know as well: Jac is Lin's second daughter, they visited us in the fall and Ivan and Dominique were so excited to have time with her again. Also, my in laws- sister Andrea and brother- John.












Immy, my niece with the gorgeous curls.




My nephew Isaac is only 8 months, but trying to take off already.


























I told Harley I wasn't going to take her pic, just the baby. Sorry, I lied, the picture was just too gorgeous. I remember carrying my brother in a sling. I was a bit young for the job and remember having to lean backwards so that his weight wouldn't make me fall forward on him. Siblings are pretty precious.


And now, today, we had a pretty fun day. We went to Story and Rhyme Time at the library and Ivan was so excited he actually got to go! I facilitate it, so I've told him I could do it at home for him, but it's not the same he says. So he was glad to be able to participate in it this time. I'm really liking not having to do the school schedule which makes me excited for summer to come! We stopped by to see our friends at the Outreach a bit, then came home where the kids wanted to ride bikes. It was so nice out they convinced me to have a picnic in our front yard again. That's 2 times this week. It was actually a weird day, threatening rain, except while we ate, when it was bright sunshine and so nice! Tonight a crazy wind came through and cooled things down.

I'm also very happy to have surmounted a hurtle facing me for some time: organizing our art cupboard. I know, so boring, but it was horrible and I knew I needed to tackle it to have some peace and sanity and to be able to find materials again.

Tonight is one of my 2 nights off from cleaning the bank and Brian and I just watched a funny show online (eek, yes, we are hooked on the Big Bang Theory- thanks to my cousins).

Posting some pics from Easter. It already seems like so long ago and it went so fast. Hope your Easter was filled with joy too.

we're back!

Easter was fun. The kids table included my trio, my niece Imogen and Jac- my cousin Lin's daughter. The baby boys sat with the adults.


Auntie Andrea loves celebrating the holidays and organized the egg decorating.


Snack time in a blow up play structure- they thought that one up.


Grandpa enjoyed his snuggle time with Emora and showed her a thing or two on his computer by the looks of it. Can you tell her to stop shutting off our answering machine too? Sorry if we missed your calls- while we were away!





We're home again and back into the swing of things with work. I'm so thankful that we still have a few days before we have to get back into school mode. Today was wonderfully warm out, so I took the kids out to try to get Ivan learning to ride without training wheels. We've been working on this for not quite a year. We had to take a long break for winter, but would you believe that he finally got the hang of it!

Fiorella, our friend from across the street begged me to let her try, and she learned too! Then of course, Dominique, the don't leave me behind daring one worked and worked at it until she was riding too!

Ivan went from "I hate bike riding" to begging me to leave him at home tomorrow while I go to Regina so that he can ride all day and night on the street. Yeah, that is not happening, but I'm glad he's excited about it.

We had a picnic again today. It was so gorgeous out. The creek is overflowing it's banks into a few yards of people who are right along it- about 1.5 blocks from us, but they are saying this should be the worst of it, so I'm quite positive we won't have any water issues. Our street has turned into grand central station though, just as the kids learn to ride their bikes- as the entire town has been going to check out the water levels. It was very eerie to go by the bridge and see water filled up where their was a valley and now lapping up on the bridge. There is also some heavy equipment stationed where the city has been building up dirt walls and sandbagging, also, I hear to break up ice as it goes toward the bridges.

Tomorrow will be fun. We are doing a grocery run, but also found out that my friend's in town from up North. We were both thinking of taking the kids to the science museum, so now we get to go together!

I'm exhausted, gotta go crash- until next time!

location, location, location

Here are some pics before all this area filled with water (over a 2 day period). We drove over today and the entrance is blocked off, the entire area inundated with water. The city added sandbags to the place where the creek could hop over to our street. We are still planning on going to Saskatoon, so we are trusting that our place will be OK. We are not right on the lake or creek, so it would still have a lot to fill and we haven't heard that our town is in danger, although the community 10 min. of us has declared a state of emergency.

Better go pack and get ready... May you have a great Easter. I may not post until we are back, but in the meantime, may there be resurrection in your heart, new life in world and hope on your horizon. And may our home, NEW BASEMENT and property stay high and dry while we are away!!

flood waters

I've been out to the in town lake the last 3 days in a row. The water went from flooding all the beach, up to the base of a retaining wall my first day out. The next day it had risen over a foot up the wall and today it was cresting the wall. The girls and I had the picnic out there yesterday and Ivan was quite upset that he had missed out, so I promised to take him after school. My cousin's son was with us too.





Yesterday there was no wind and the reflection of the hills in the water was mesmerizingly beautiful.


















The city posted this beside the dam, some told me to break up ice, others said to dig out a passage for the water. Don't know the real reason, except the girls enjoyed seeing how big it is up close!


It looks like they put some dirt along the creek where it could easily pool over into the street that leads to our house.


Some of the big concerns at this point is damage by the ice on the water. The water can come in and make a huge mess, but the ice can then float in and tear everything up!

I haven't heard much in town, so I'm mostly finding out from the internet that communities minutes from us, literally on the lakes are suffering some damage already.

flooding...

Dad asked if there was no danger of flooding in town and the answer is that there is definitely danger of flooding, the question is how much. My neighbor tells me there is some flooding downtown every spring.

Today the girls and I went out to the in town lake and it rose over a foot since yesterday. It has about another foot to crest the wall separating the beach from the picnic area (we had a picnic there today and played out at the park while we could), but they are saying the lake is rising a foot a day and they are predicting 2 meters (according to my neighbor). The city put a teepee looking rod thing with sandbags on all the drains on the street perpendicular to ours. I was noticing today how that street is where the river, which is now about full, flowing from the dam, makes a slight turn, but where if it went straight, would crest over the road we are near and make it's own path. Again, my neighbor is thinking that the lakefront properties will definitely have issues, but it's still up in the air about in town houses. We are on a lower end of town and 2 blocks from a creek, so we will see! There were lots of people out looking at how high the lake was today though.

Our sump pump has come on quite a few times now, but our yard doesn't have any snow anymore and has been slowly drying out some. I'm not sure if getting sandbags would be overkill or not, for right now it's a bit of a guessing game.

ready, set, action

I am about to start the last curtain!! ;)

Ivan is having a blast doing his reading road for school. I loved the way his shadow played on the wall.













The girls love playing in their new rooms and even going for walks to get Ivan from school, only Emora always wants it on her terms. This day she wanted to bring her doll, so I told her she was going to carry it too. On the way back, she decided she could put baby in the bag, but on the way there she held it the whole way.

I went by the lake today and the water has risen to cover the entire beach area. It is up to the 2 foot cement wall seperating it from the grassy play area. The seagulls were making the funniest noises and the geese were majestic. I scared up a flock of them and the cawed and cawed, then took off to land back on the lake. They were so fun to watch and it's so peaceful out there even with the creek rising.

Back to the tour

Here is our new living area downstairs. We are really enjoying the peace of our upstairs while kids play here and als onot having the computer distraction upstairs anymore.






Ivan likes his new room even if it's not the light green he wanted.






He also said that "pink day" was great, although he took off the pink hooded jacket the minute I picked him up at school and walked home with bare arms, a pink t-shirt and vest covering that, even though it was cold out. Yep, it's cold again. We woke up to snow. And there has been some flooding here with more expected, so we are very much hoping that our lovely new basement will not have a bath. So glad for the sump pump. We've heard the city will give us sand bags if we want (fill them ourselves), so we'll see if we need to get some... Hopefully nothing will come of all the flooding here in town.

Ivan was interviewed for a documentary about the fountain of peace- a project going across Canada, maybe the world? Not sure, I'm getting my info from a 6 year old.

I only have 2 more curtains to make!! Yipee. I'm so tired of sewing. I'll post pics when they are all done. I love Dominique's the best so far. I had some leftover material from the living room curtains today, so I made a couple of matching cushions.

So glad it's the weekend!! Nothing planned, but sleeping in, actually seeing my husband during the day again, not waking kids to run up to school and making some waffles- maybe making some more curtains?

Hot News in Fort Qu'Appelle

We interrupt our regular programming (the Baggett house tour), to give you this important news flash. There is flooding in Fort Qu'Appelle! Before everyone gets alarmed, our street is totally dry right now and will most likely remain so. There are other towns where there are evacuations, and they have evacuated some people from the hospital here, but that is in a very low place next to a washed out bridge from the same river seen here, washing this bridge out. This was next to the grocery store where I went today to take advantage of some sales. The hill in the back is where we went sledding in the winter and the space between the trees is a bridge, unusable right now obviously!

We live next to another river, but it's controlled by a damn, and our house is not too low to the ground. Of course we are thankful to have the sump pump in and will watch things if it gets worse.



In other news- it's pink day at Ivan's school. It's an anti bullying day of programming. Now sending my boy to school in his sister's pink clothes to combat bullying, seems a bit to me like sticking a 12 pack in front of an alcoholic, but he says everyone else is going to wear pink too, even his male principal! The teens told me that the high school participates too and has special activities for it also. I'm looking forward to seeing how his day went. Maybe he will learn to stop bullying his sisters??? I can dream anyways. Lucky for us, Ivan and Dominique are pretty close in size, so we had a ton of clothes for him to choose from. She probably has a week or more worth of pink shirts. She has some pink pants too, but none big enough for him. He was pretty disappointed by that, but I assured him he looked pink Enough, as we laughed at (I mean WITH) him and took pictures.









Tonight, Dominique has a special performance for an after school GLOW program she's been going to at the Lutheran church, so she is very pumped about that. I think I'll have Ivan change before we go!!

So lots of excitement today! And not to be outdone, I'm nearly done Dominique's curtains. Hey, it's exciting to me!