Celebrating Meagan

Jeremiah 29:11 I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

I got a call from Meg earlier this evening; she's a 2nd year University student majoring in economics and had went through an application process to do her 3rd year in Europe....today she found out she was accepted and will be heading to the Czech Republic in August! She's been talking about this since before she went to University.

She is SO excited, and we are for her. She'll be home tomorrow afternoon for Ben's birthday celebration.....now we can make it a double header!

Woo hoo!

1. Meg's discharge picture (dob Apr 9, 1987)

2. Meg's highschool grad picture

3. Meg was involved in Cadets for 5 years and spent 7 weeks in the Summer of 2005 in Gatineau, Quebec at Power Camp and obtained her private pilot's license. She has always wanted to fly and has her sights set on owning her own plane.

4. Meg and a very pregnant me. We had taken the labour day weekend before she started University and got away together; it was great.

Addictions

So was anybody else slightly addicted to this when they first started, or is it just me??

Boys to Men

No, not the singing group; our Ben is 18 today.

I can't remember not wanting a Ben. Any of the Ben's I knew growing up were great guys and there seemed to be something special about a man named Ben...."Gentle Bens". My pregnancy with Ben was great, as was the delivery. I remember sitting up in bed in the recovery area, making phone calls to let everybody know that we'd had a boy. He was beautiful, and as he grew he became more so to me. He had curly blonde hair, dark brown eyes and a smile that would light up a room. I remember my dad telling me before Ben's 2nd birthday that I needed to have his picture taken so I could capture his smile. "He's a charmer", dad would say.

And he was. Benjamin was, and is, a sensitive soul. It didn't always work for him, though. As a little boy he could come across overly-so; he was so particular about everything from his looks to his school work to his room. You could always tell what side of the room was Ben's. The kids love to hear stories about themselves, and we love to tell them....Brad shares the story of the time when he heard Ben long before he saw him coming with his arm help up at an awkward angle, finger pointing towards his wrist. Brad thought he must have fallen and sprained it or something (it would certainly explain the animal-like howl that he was hearing) but soon saw that Ben was pointing at a string hanging from the cuff of his immaculately buttoned (up-to-the-neck) shirt.

Ben still likes to look good; his academics achievements are many and his room......is probably the cleanest of anybody's around here. Ben has had some struggles and will have some more, but his sensitive side works better for him now and will continue to as he matures and will serve him well as he pursues his dreams. I didn't want today to pass without acknowleding his birthday.

Benjamin, I love you and am proud of you; Happy Birthday, my son.

Get-away

Yesterday my husband blessed me by telling me it was my turn to get away.

Woot! Woot!

I don't get away on my own (sans Brad or any number of children) often .....in fact the only time I can think of being away on my own in recent years was a couple weeks ago when I had to return to St. Joe Island for a family funeral.....not exactly the sort of get away one looks forward to. When you work for yourself, there are no paid vacations. You pay for the vacation before you go and then you pay for it again when you return in time.

Big family + self-employment = fewer vacations. I'm not complaining, it's the choice we've made.

But I'm excited....I've invited a friend along and we don't know where we're going yet but the anticipation and planning is half the fun.

When Brad worked for the Federal Justice Department and we lived in Yellowknife we had 3 great family vacations well, I missed the 1st one 'cause I started working for the Mounties and whey wouldn't give me the time. Brad drove back to Ontario with 5 kids.....that's a great story, but I digress. We took the entire month of January (Yellowknife = very cold + very dark) and hit the road.....it was awesome (and I don't use that word often). There wasn't "a" destination, but several: the one I most enjoyed was a circuitous route that included stops in Calgary, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Disney Land....well, you get the idea. We had no end of trouble on that particular trip with the vehicle we drove. It was a big white suburban with polar bear license plates.....we looked like a moving snow bank. The rear heater stopped working as we were driving out of the territories (in - 30 degree weather); the radiator went when we were driving through the desert; a belt broke in one of the front tires as we were driving through the red woods of BC and we lost power driving through the rockies. Add to that a problem that no garage seemed able to fix (even a chev specialist in Vegas); the burb would keep going slower and slower until Brad would just pull over, shut off the vehicle and wait......10 minutes, 20 minutes......whatever; eventually it would start fine and off we'd go again. But ya' know, it didn't ruin the journey but added to the flavour of what was already a great journey and provided us with some great memories and stories to tell!

A good trip reminds me our spiritual journey....it isn't just about the destination (though it's gonna be fabulous) but about enjoying the ride, "the journey" and even those hard things add to the flavour of our lives and leave us better off than we were.

So cool......

Where to go, where to go... Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Boston (love Boston), New York City.....I've always wanted to go to New York City but Brad has no desire to go there......I don't know but I don't care. It's gonna be fun 'cause I'm bringing a friend along for the ride.

Oh yeah.....the big old white suburban ran like a top for the final 2 hours of our month long trek. In fact, Brad's ankle got sore from holding his foot off the gas!

Go figure.

I'm stealing an idea I got from Tracy's blog (thanks Trace).....what great get-aways have you enjoyed? Did you encounter any problems along the way and, if so, did the problems add to your enjoyment or take away from it?

Anybody got an idea as to where we should go??

Babies, hormones and discovering God in their midst

Rhys Daniel, (beautiful, isn't he?) born on October 17, 2005 when I was 40 years old. He arrived 17 months after his much anticipated big brother, Declan Hewitt. Having babies at 39 and 41 has sure been a whole lot different than having 'em in my 20's.....

About 3 months after Rhys' birth, I found myself struggling and wasn't sure what was happening. For a time I thought perhaps I was losing my mind and the battle some days was overwhelming.....I cried buckets. I didn't want to acknowledge the thought that I was depressed and I didn't know enough about post partum to realize that it was largely hormonal. I believed that as a Christian it wasn't right for me to feel this way so I continued on my own to try to push those thoughts out of my mind. I did that for a while until I was so down, so desperate that I found myself searching the internet for information realting to post partum depression and finally acknowledged what my body was screaming at me. It was a step, a beginning. I did share my struggle with Brad who was supportive and a willing listener (like he had a choice! ) It was during that very difficult time that I was surprised by the birth of a new friendship.

A lady I had known for a few years offered to bring dinner out once a week (in lieu of yet another teeny-weeny outfit). Give me a night when I know dinner is covered and the world looks a whole lot brighter. I looked forward to those days the meal was great 'cause it filled a need in my house but the female companionship filled a need in me. It was during one of those visits I opened my mouth and blurted out "I think I need to see my doctor" and proceeded to haltingly explain how and what I was feeling. All of my fears were laid to rest when my graceless announcement was met with understanding and support. It was good. The amazing part was that exchange that takes place when you step outside your comfort zone; I was greatly encouraged and so was she.....and out of the muck and mire of life a new friendship was born. I can recall the excitement I felt as I ran downstairs to tell Brad through my tears of all that had happened and how much God cared. He'd shown up in the midst of my mess, on a dark day .....and he brought a friend.