Our unsteady rhythm

You may have guessed it, or seen us, in which case you would know that we are back in Saskatoon now. Confusing eh? (had to throw in the eh!) I think we've actually finished all the legalese for now, which is downright amazing. The kids even seem to be making the Fort Qu'Appelle/Saskatoon transitions better, although every time we get in the car, they ask if it will be a long time!

We are getting into a little routine of sorts. Today we went to village time where we saw auntie Jenn, Imogen and about 30 other kids and their moms trying to escape the rain at the play area of the mall. Jenn and her mom friends meet Tues. mornings at the park or this wintertime escape place. Emora really loved the play structure and kids. Dominique made a friend who gave her a balloon. It was very joyful and loud.

Tomorrow we are going to the downtown library for puppet time. A lady we know did such a wonderful performance that we are willing to suck up the outrageous parking meter fees to go again. We also plan to go to the special summer program this week, which features a children's entertainer. Friday nights, the Wallaces go swimming and we've been glad to join in on that. It is a bit tricky because kid friendly places are number prejudiced here. Yep, you heard it from me and what I mean is the crazy rule that you have to have an adult for each 2 kids under 6. This means that I can't take my trio to a pool or play place by myself. Luckily for me, Jenn and I have gone together and her next child is still safely tucked inside her, so that one doesn't count. Really, I think it's quite unfair. What does a mom do with triplets? I used to take 4 under 4 to the pool. OK, so it did make the lifeguard extremely nervous and he'd set up his chair immediately in front of where we were playing, but we never had an incident. I do look back and think I was probably temporarily crazy at the time, but that was survival mode with 4 under 4. Swim day was a highlight of our week!

Jenn and I are also planning for camp cousins next week. Let the good times roll, or waddle (she is 7 months pregnant and baby is trying to win the biggest baby unofficial contest. We are trying to tell baby that his/her mom did not sign up for that, but apparently baby is not totally English fluent yet).

Picture 1- me, mom and my sister
Pic 2- Dominique and my brother
Pic 3- dad
Pic 4- Emora and I on a train ride
Pic 5- Ivan and Dominique on the merry-go-round. Emora also rode on it for the first time and loved it.

a wondrous summer day

Today was incredible. We are in Fort Qu'Appelle, it was hot and we had to take Arwen to her swim lesson, so we planned to swim the morning away, then go back to the house for lunch and for Brian to take the van in for it's inspection. The water was insanely cold in the lake. It took me an hour to get used to it and the kids never did get used to it. They cried, but liked it enough to splash up to their knees and loved playing in the sand. Once I was used to it, I loved swimming. It was great for "lap swimming" since it is so frigid cold and there were even some waves from boats. When I got out, the sun was so nice to lay in and warm up again. The kids dug a "hot tub" and filled it with lake water. I didn't see any of them sitting in it and it was a bit small for that, but what a great idea! They dug a hole and filled it with water. I'm sure after not too long, the sun would have warmed it and they could have then played in warm water.

My cousins have a huge trampoline set up, so the big kids played on that all afternoon while I lounged outside and Emora slept. It was so lovely. I would have liked to lounge longer at the beach to the sounds of water and laughter, but it wasn't too bad either to get to hear all the birds making their music and my kids fighting over who is jumping in what way on the trampoline.

Brian came back with not only the inspection passed on the van, but he'd also had time to go to SGI and get Saskatchewan plates, plus we had gotten our photo ids in the mail that we had just done days ago! So, everything is finalized now, apart from closing on the house, selling Brian's truck and buying a new one.

I also got a call from my doctor. I will have a sonogram done on my knee in Sept. and he signed me up for physical therapy. Not sure when that is going to start or how often, which could be tricky since I am not always in Fort Qu'Appelle.

at the spray park in Saskatoon

Last week, Jenn and I took the kids to a spray park. It was awesome. There was a big spray/splash area, big grassy areas with trees and shrubs, a playground, activity center and city employees to do activities and games with the kids. They loved it, I loved it, we'll try to go back again this summer.


Right now, we are in Fort Qu'Appelle. Today we picked Saskatoon berries. I would like to pick enough to last us all year, but for now I think we have enough for about 3 months. Brian needs to come back again next week and promises to pick some more. But he won't have all the helpers- like me and the kids! Emora and Dominique spent the entire time just eating off the bushes. Actually I think Emora got full by the end because she actually started putting them in the bag then. I had the craziest time picking since I often had Emora on my hip or on my shoulders leaning off to pick more snacks. We went to the same place we saw them last year, a hill that overlooks the whole valley. It was breathtaking. We also saw pelicans soaring over the lake and a green snake slithered away from us in the tall grasses.

a very fruitful day

We arrived last night in Fort Qu'Appelle so that we could attend to stuff again. It was good to come because we were pretty discouraged last week and asked the Lover for encouragement on our way here. The phone rang soon after- our financing is going to go through and they will only require putting down %5.

This morning, my cousin offered to take at least 2 of our kids, so Brian and I thought we'd get some business done. We made another attempt (about our 5th) to get our Sask IDs made. We had just gotten our Texas driving records in the mail (SGI's newest demand of us, yet another hoop to hurtle). Lo and behold, (after another good hour at their counter, with numerous calls to the central office and cranky, sleepy baby on my hip) we got them, both of us! By this time, we were late to meet the inspector at the house we are buying, but we hussled over to find out that the house is in great condition. We had been concerned about visible water damage, but he reassured us of what all the various sources were and told us easy ways to resolve them.

Seeing the amazing successes we'd had, Brian took the van by for an inspection, they booked him a time for Fri. and assured him that the time limit of 45 days was only for federal inspections, which the van does not need. Brian asked if the crack in the windshield would make the van fail the provincial test and they assured us it would not.

Then to beat all, I thought Dominique and I would see if we could hunt ourselves up a doctor. We found a great one, who talked to us, took us seriously, was kind, fun, capable and seemed genuinely interested in us. This also occurred after only 30 min. of waiting having just walked in off the street. We didn't have to fill out a mountain of paperwork, or waste the day wilting away waiting to be seen. It was phenomenal! Now nearly all our legalese is done. I believe closing is Aug.16th or there abouts and we are more and more excited about it.

the birthday bash

Dominique's 4th birthday...
Ivan jumped on her bed and shook her awake, yelling "Dominique, Dominique, Dominique, What do you want for breakfast?" He had promised to make her her birthday breakfast. His question however was rhetorical because all he can make is cereal, but he poured her cereal and the milk, very proud of himself.

The first thing she told me that morning was "next year, I want a star cake". Nothing like preparing in advance I guess. The kids and I had just made and decorated her butterfly cake the day before. We decorated it with dried fruit and nuts, then sprinkled little candy covered chocolate decorations. It actually tasted great, even though it looked kind of crazy.

Dominique was the first to be face painted. I asked her what colour of butterfly she wanted to be and she said she wanted to pick her own thing, not a butterfly at all. "But you are having a butterfly birthday", I reasoned. Did you know there is not much reasoning to be had with a just turned 4 year old? So she was a tiger, or if we use our imagination, maybe a monarch butterfly? Addyson, Imogen's cousin did not want paint on her face, so she got two butterflies, one on each hand.



We played lots of games, pin the antennas on the butterfly, bean bag toss in the butterfly, dance and freeze, red light green light, the birthday girl says (like simon says) and went on a butterfly hunt. It helped that mom and dad have a big deck and yard. We had pizza and salad, cake and ice cream. She got loads of presents, then Imogen stayed the night for a sleep over!



They watched Cinderella and ate popcorn, then all fell asleep very late on a big pallet in the living room. The adults meanwhile, got to play Settlers of Catan! so fun.


As the last bonus of the day, dad arrived home from his trip to Mexico and the kids were all excited to see grandpa Ian. He kept Jenn and I up past midnight telling tales and showing us some 700+ pictures. Yeah for happy days and another year of wondrous life with such an amazing girl!

Butterfly birthday upcoming

Dominique turns 4 tomorrow! She requested a butterfly birthday, so today we made a butterfly cake. Do you know the difference between kids and adults' cake preferences? Kids go by the theme or color, adults go by the flavor. I'm trying to see what kind of cake she wants and she said butterfly, so then I add what flavor and she has no clue so I give some examples: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry. She said pink and purple. Can you imagine an adult saying "I want a computer shaped cake, grey colored and not mentioning a flavor?

In 4 years we went from forcing Dominique to come out and face the world, to running behind her trying to keep up. She loves to take life by the horns and live it for all it's worth, especially if it involves pink, purple, princesses, music... Happy Birthday sweet girl!


On another note, this is a big week. We are leaving for Fort Qu'Appelle Tues. to meet the inspector Wednesday morning at what will be our new home if all works out. So we are hoping to hear that the house is good without any major problems.



We could also use your help, if you are a praying person. We have run up against a huge brick wall when it comes to getting plates on Brian's truck. He has already invested a lot of time and money into getting the plates changed to Saskatchewan ones, but one of their requirements is airbags which are not only outrageously expensive, but they can't even guarantee that they will pass the inspection once installed and there are many vehicles here that do not even have them. If Brian's truck didn't originally come with them, they wouldn't even require them. Brian is calling a higher up Monday to plead mercy, so pray that a way will be made for us in this. We are so frustrated about it and discouraged. If some leeway is not given us Monday, we may have to pay an export fee on it and lose all the money we've already put into it to get it Canadianized, the gas and heartache to drive it up here and then find a buyer in the States and then he'll still need a truck to work! HELP please Lord, we can not do anymore on this, we turn to you and plead that you will move the hearts of the authorities to make a way for us to keep his truck and make it legal.



On a positive note, I got to lap swim today! It was great. My normal is to go once a week, but I knew I would not get to go as often here, so I consoled myself with the fact that I could do some of my new workout videos even in blizzardy winters. We'll we've been here about 6 weeks and I was just now able to wedge some time in to go. I'm also excited that my dad will be filling up his above ground pool soon. He just got a liner for it and I already told my sister we could do my pregnancy water aerobic exercises in it. I'm so pumped ;)

Another positive note... my sister-in-law, Andrea just got her passport and visa from the Canadian embassy, meaning that she can now come to Canada and join us and most importantly my brother who has been awaiting her arrival for nearly a year! She is finishing up her master's thesis and hopefully will arrive in the next few weeks. So I can't complain too much. We've had to wait some here and gone through bureaucratic mess, but at least I have Brian and the kids with me!!

Frustrating!!!

We still have a couple of things to do here that are exceedingly frustrating with red tape- get our IDs and our licence plates switched over to Canadian ones. There are so many hoops to jump through and ridiculousness to get these accomplished, it is tiring and very, very frustrating, not to mention time consuming and expensive. SIGH.

But we are getting the house cheaper than we thought we'd have to do and the seller put a new energy efficient furnace in. Plus we made some on the exchange of our money to Canadian funds, so we try to look at the good side of things and not get too overwhelmed or bogged down with the difficult parts. Unfortunately, we don't have forever. The plates need to be done in the next week or so and the IDs have a bit more time than that.

On a most hillarious note, while stopped at a light, an elderly woman was staring and staring at our plates and nearly walked out in front of the van to check it out, then she walked up to our window and was giving us the OK sign and waving like we were famous or something. It is so neat to see people's reactions when they hear we are from TEXAS! At the outreach in Fort Qu'Appelle, people were all excited to hear about Texas and even pulled out a book with a map of Texas for us to show them where Abilene was.

The whole day wasn't awful really. We did get to spend lots of it with auntie Jenn and cousin Imogen, Ivan and I went shopping for Dominique's bday gifts while she slept in the van (supervised of course by her daddy) and we got to go to two special summer library programs, borrow a whole canvas bag of English and French books and DVDs and had cake, strawberries and ice cream covered in chocolate sauce for desert. Who can ask for anything more?

Lover of my soul, you've givem us so much, are guiding our steps and we can't ask for more, but still, our IDs and plates would be smashingly wonderful- so we ask for favor and blind/lenient/helpful inspection people to help us get our fully functioning vehicles legal here.

Under contract

After looking at houses, bidding on a house and not agreeing on price with the seller, looking at more houses, then going back to the house we bid on and making a new bid, we are finally under contract to buy a house in Fort Qu'Appelle! 3 weeks ago, the seller would not budge on his price and we had come to the conclusion that we would just have to pay more than we wanted as this was the only house for sale in town that would work for us. I was thinking we needed to just offer close to what the seller was asking thinking he would not budge again, suck it up and pay what he wanted, but Brian wanted to negotiate again and started well below the asking price, but above our last offer. To our surprise we found out that the seller had just put in a new furnace and met us closer to our new asking price. I don't have pictures, but if you are quick, they may still have it online here.

We still need to get it inspected, have our financing go through and close, but it is looking much more likely that we will finally have a place of our own by mid Aug. Unfortunately, we will have some work to do to make us all fit comfortably. The basement needs updating, so we are hoping to put 3 bedrooms and a living area there. So far the upstairs is redone, but needs to be painted since they were smokers- which just means that we get to pick colors we like ;)

We also found out that time is running out for us to get our licence plates switched over, so Brian has been doing lots of leg work finding out where they need to get inspected, and what other hoops we need to jump through for that.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some more pictures from the Woodtick festival and a picture of Ivan in front of the school he will be attending.

Big attraction at the Woodtick festival

The most dramatic part of the Woodtick festival was probably getting sprayed by the firetruck. It was a very hot day, so the spray was quite nice, even for us who walked way far away on the periphery. Others wanted a more thorough soaking and walked right up to it, one of those being my nearly 4 year old Dominique. She's the littlest one in the video and in pink. Ivan eventually went in some, since he couldn't let his little sister outdo him.

I'm still trying to figure out what we'll do for her birthday next week. Something small obviously since we are not close to any little friends here but Imogen. She wants a butterfly cake, so that is figured out and she told her brother she wants him to get her a princess doll! She did have the decency to at least be shy about asking for it. I'm thinking we'll have a cousins sleepover, games and maybe movie night! That should be plenty exciting for a 4 year old right?