Goodie Boxes 2012

Every December I am convinced we are nuts.  Yet, every December Linda and I do a blitz of baking and candy-making for gift boxes we give out to friends and family.

The 2012 Christmas Goodie Boxes ....



Preparing the candies for packaging

 

Pistachio Fudge and Grand Marnier Truffles
 



Peanut Butter Balls and Pomegranate Candy Sticks





Molded Mints and Mulling Spices
 

One of our "helpers"





20 boxes packed and ready for delivery
 

I did ...

What did you do last weekend?

While the weather did this ...   

... I did a bit of this ... 

... and some of this ...

.... but not this ... 

  ... or this ... 

... and a whole lot of this (1) ...  

 

... while watching this. 

It was a good weekend. 

__________________________________________________________

(1)  Recommended:

"The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" by Rachel Joyce

Midsummer escape

What fun!  A quick trip to the Roskamp Farm for their Hog roast was just what the doctor ordered.  He even ordered some somewhat temperate weather ... though I could have done without the humidity.  I'm just saying ...  :-)  I got to see the WHOLE Roskamp clan which is always fun.  I even got to meet two great women who married into the Roskamp Clan (via the Verbrugees):  Andrea and Susan.  These two gals are firecrackers and lots of fun to hang with!  Hope to see them again sometime.

Here's just a few of the pictures I took over the weekend.

Anyone hungry?

Yeah.  That's a whole lot of hog ...

... and a whole lot of cupcakes ...

... for a whole lot of people!!!

Proof that I really was there!

And what's a trip to the mid-west without an evening stroll through a corn field!!!

It's gettin' better

Just 5 days out of hospital little R is doing well.  Weight is almost all back, eating is back to normal and she's active and happy.

The whole gang was here today.  Our first full day of summer included ...

sandbox fun ...

Rinsing off the sand by running through the sprinkler ...

hanging out watching the boys ...

and making sure Mom knows they love her!

All my life's a circle

Here we go 'round the mulberry bush .... I am once again staying in Langdon taking care of three active little boys and sleeping on a couch. The boys all had a stomach bug last week and, naturally, Rebecca got it, too. But Rebecca hasn't been able to shake it. A visit to emerg on Tuesday confirmed she was struggling, but the doc sent them home and told them to 'stay the course.' Yesterday Linda was faced with a listless baby, yellow-grey in colour, sunken fontenelle, and sunken dark eyes. Anything that went in the top came out the bottom in a matter of minutes. Back to hospital and after one look at her, out came the IV needles, monitors, blood work ... The whole nine yards. Diagnosis: severe dehydration. (duh ... Lin knew that the day before!) It took four tries to find a vein that wasn't flat for the IV! So, not surprisingly, Rebecca is having another extended stay in hospital for the 3rd time in her short 5 months here. In fact she just turned 5 months yesterday. As of this morning her colour was coming back to normal and she was at least interacting with Lin again. But(there's always a but) her potassium, electrolytes and bicarbonate levels are still too low. She has had 9 needle pokes in the last 12 hours and currently has three IV fluids being pumped in. Poor, sweet little girl. Please keep her and the rest of the family in your prayers. Oh ... And pray for energy for me! These are active, noisy little boys!!!

Spring Vacation

We are nearing the end of a 3-week spring holiday.  I spent the first week in Sioux Falls celebrating Mom's 80th birthday.  It was a fun, relaxing time and I got to see all of my siblings!  Nice!  While I was in SF, Harry was in Montreal at a Judge's thing for a week, then in Toronto to present at a symposium at the Institute of Christian Studies  (a Christian graduate school).  He stayed 2 extra days to hang out with Dayna and Rob.

We let everyone think we were out of town for the next 2 weeks while we were in fact having a "working stay-cation".  What have we done in the last 2 weeks?

1. Cleaned out the basement storage area and did some bi-annual purging.
2. Cleaned out the garage and did some major bi-annual purging.
3. Did a complete clean-up of the yard and garden beds: Took down some rickety old dividers.  Put up a new bird house (thanks for the birthday gift, Linda!).  "Vacuumed" the backyard turf.  Cut the front yard grass.  Sifted out the sandbox.
4.  Planted the vegetable garden boxes.
5. Created a "Man-cave" in the garage for Harry.
6. Shopped for the Man-Cave.
7. Shopped for some new patio loungers.
8. Gutted the dining room.  Painted the dining room

Tomorrow we will begin to reassemble the dining room and decorate it.  And then we are done.

We have sore muscles and aching backs and cuts and bruises.  :-)  But, the spring cleaning (except for the kitchen, which I will attack sometime in the next 2 weeks) and bi-annual purge is done.  And ... Harry has free weekends to golf for the whole summer!

The Man-Cave

Harry schooled the boys in what you do in the Man-Cave:

Watch sports

Drink beer

Fart and burp

Take naps

Jacob made sure Linda and I knew that we are girls so we can't go in the Man-Cave!  Ha ha ha!!

Remember the days ...

... when you got a new dress for Easter?

The tradition lives on!

Happy Easter!

Good Friday

Last Sunday, we had the privilege of witnessing Rebecca's baptism.  Always such a blessed timed.  Rebecca wore the dress that Harry's aunt brought from Holland for Harry's baptism.  Fifty-five years old and it still looks beautiful.  (Oops!!  Just revealed Harry's age!!)

You try to get 3 boisterous boys, a baby and 2 parents to sit still and smile for 3 seconds!

What you can't see in this picture is Anthony singing very quietly to Rebecca.  Awwww!

Back to "normal"?

I think this week will find me back to my normal activities.  And I should have a chance to catch up on some things ... laundry ... cleaning ... writing ... bookwork ...

Rebecca got a clean bill of health from the doctor last Thursday.  She's still coughing a little bit, but she has gained back 12 of the 16 ounces she lost.  Hurray!!  We are happy to be visiting with her at home instead of the hospital.  Right now, Opa has the magic touch with her!

In other news, Anthony turned 5 on Thursday.  We had a small celebration at home.  His first birthday party with just kids is this coming Saturday.  He's really excited.

Harry survived a public speaking engagement he had last week.  He was asked to present and "roast" the lawyers who received their QC (Queen's Counsel) designation this year.  He had 49 recipients to present in a humorous, entertaining way.  He worked on this for almost 2 months -- gathering information, getting photos, writing and re-writing, stressing out and wondering what he had gotten himself into.  But the evening came ... black-tie (think White House Correspondents Dinner format) and a packed house (700+) ... and from what I hear from friends, he did a great job.  He was pretty nervous.  He has spoken before large groups many times, but always on matters of the law in a lecture or paper-presentation format.  Comedy was a very new thing for him.  He said once he got the first few laughs he relaxed and had a good time!  He also said "Never again!"

Now, I'm off to be normal ....

It's been busy

This week turned out to be completely different than I planned.  Little Rebecca came down with a respiratory virus on the weekend.  Monday Linda brought her in to be checked by the doctor.  Doctor sent Linda and Rebecca to the Children's Hospital emergency for a chest X-ray.

Within minutes of her arriving at the emerg, 4 doctors were working on Rebecca and Linda was mildly freaked out!  Rebecca was struggling to breathe and that's not good in a 6-week old baby.  She was admitted and put in isolation because she has RSV (Respiratory something-something Virus).  She had heart monitors, fluids by IV, oxygen tubes and nebulizers every 2 hours.  One unhappy little girl!!

She stabilized by yesterday and was transferred to a different hospital's acute pediatric care unit.  That mean an ambulance ride!  Today she is only on oxygen.  A sign of improvement.  However, her breathing is still laboured, her cough is still "murky" and her oxygen levels are low when they take her off the oxygen.  She is improving all the time, but cannot go home until her oxygen levels remain good for 6-12 hours on her own.

Linda, obviously, has moved into the hospital with Rebecca.  So Harry and I and Pat and Brian have been helping John out with the other 3 kids.   John has been taking mornings off to be with the boys, then bringing them here for the afternoon and supper.  After work, John goes to the hospital to have dinner with Linda and spend some time with Rebecca.  Then he comes here and gets the boys to go home for the night.  Tomorrow Pat doesn't have any classes to teach so she's going to go out to Langdon so the boys can be at home for the whole day.

The doctors and nurses are all surprised that Rebecca is the fourth child, but this is the first hospital experience for John and Linda!  Hopefully the last for a very long while!

EMT's getting Rebecca ready for transfer

Big stretcher, little girl

Opa's turn to relieve Mom so she can go for some lunch.

Perspective

The last few weeks have been dotted with reminders that pretty much everything that happens to you and around you is good or bad depending on your perspective.

I went into hospital last week for cardiac ablation.  Admittedly, I was a bit consumed with anxiousness about the procedure and what they would find.  PTL!  While my cardiac surgeon was not able to ablate anything, she had a good long look at my heart and how it is functioning.  She told us that my heart is strong, functions well, no indication of blockages and is merely plagued by arrhythmia ... and the 2 kinds of arrhythmia I experience are not life-threatening, only life annoying.  My "condition" seems to be in a dormant state right now so I was prescribed NO MORE MEDICATION (serious dance of joy here!) and we'll follow up in another 3 and 6 months to see how I'm doing.

Two days later we got the news that a good friend was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy this week.   And another friend who was diagnosed with liver, colon and uterine cancer 3 days before Christmas began aggressive chemo this week.  And a third friend's husband had a massive heart attack the same day I had my ablation resulting in damage not only to his heart, but also to his kidneys.

My little procedure really was that ... little.    Perspective.

I have a "happy" heart in more ways than one!

For all of you asking to see some pictures of Rebecca ...

The boys are fascinated with her!

If you're an "Imanse" you attend a Flames hockey game sometime in the first month of your life!!

  

Auntie Dayna and Rob came to visit.

Dayna and Jacob make faces at each other ... a lot!!

Dayna & Rob

So ... Rebecca is 2 weeks old.  Linda is settling into life with 4 kids.  And that pretty much has occupied us, too, for the last two weeks.  Time to get back to normal routines and get some work done.  :-)

What did you do this weekend?

We met our new grand-daughter!!

Rebecca Jane Imanse

January 13, 2012

7 lbs. 6 oz.

10 fingers and 10 toes

Time to go to the hospital  :-)

The boys check out their new sister!
Anthony:  I'll take care of her.
Jacob:  I love her soooo much, Mom!
Benjamin:  Hey!  I'M the cute one!!

Precious bundle

Jacob shows us how the doctor checks Rebecca