May is Love Month

In May we celebrated our 4^th wedding anniversary. We went to Canmore again this year to celebrate but I forgot to take any pictures! We dropped off our bags at our one-bedroom suite and then headed to The Grizzly Paw for supper and to watch some playoff hockey. The next day the rain held off long enough for us to get coffee at Beamers and then do a little bit of shopping. On our actual anniversary Leif surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. They’re sitting on our new dining room table in this picture! I’m so happy to get rid of the old glass and cast iron table!

We went to a lacrosse playoff game one Saturday afternoon. It was my first time watching lacrosse live and it was really exciting with more than 30 goals scored but very rough!

This cross-check to the back is legal! You can hit someone anywhere below the neck and above the waist as hard as you want.

Goal!!!

For the long weekend we drove out to visit Leif’s parents and the rest of his family met us there. The drive can get a little long and boring so this was Leif going around corners without slowing down. This show included sound effects!

On Sunday night a whole bunch of us got together and went for ice cream and a walk on the wharf. Get ready for picture overload of our uber-cute niece and nephew!

This is the cutest little boy in the world.

He thinks his uncles are the coolest. I think the feeling is mutual.

Little miss giggles rolling down the hill.

Hanging out in Papa's truck.

Monday was a sunny day and the kids had fun blowing bubbles before we left.

“Oh, I falled” as he giggles, thinking he’s so funny.

Cool Cars

The beginning of summer weather always brings out the cool cars. I have no idea what kind of cars these are but Leif said they were nice so I took pictures of them.

We had our own car adventure this spring. We were leaving a mall parking lot and Leif drove right over an old snowplow pile. It just looked like a big pile of gravel left behind after all the snow melted but it was actually a big block of ice! So this is us high-centered on the stupid thing. Good thing Keith was with us to help push!

Another exciting this that’s happened this spring is Leif took a course and bought a motorcycle! It was a weekend course, so on Saturday I went to work which is right across from the lot where the course is. Leif is the one with the black helmet, white jacket, and blue bike.

Here a picture of Leif's bike! It's pretty sleek looking I think. We've sold our civic because Leif has a work van now and once we clean out the garage everything will fit so nicely on our property!

Healthy Food

I've found out that I'm very sensitive to sugar. It makes me really tired and lethargic during the day and then wakes me up multiple times every night.  So I've cut it out.  Well except today I had a London Fog with that delicious liquid vanilla flavored sugar.

My yummy breakfast lately (other than toast with homemade honey sweetened jam that we found at the farmer's market!) has been oatmeal with apple sauce, blueberries, and cinnamon.

My suppers and lunches have looked a bit like this...

The hardest thing has been going without baking and sweets so I've tried quite a few different recipes.

Oatmeal banana blueberry muffins.

Coconut macaroons.

Peanut butter honey cookies.

Maple oatmeal raisin cookies.

End of March

In March and April, both our dads and brothers have their birthdays.  First up was my not-so-little-anymore brother.

We had a rather intense looking game of dutch blitz. Love that game!

Our present to my brother was a couple Hitmen games with us. This was a particularly interesting game with 9 players in the penalty boxes at one time!

Then it was Easter weekend in Salmon Arm. We all went to play squash one evening.

On Saturday, my father-in-law took me flying!

Here are some of the awesome views!

At first glance this looks like a bad picture of a seat belt but if you look out the window you can see that we were upside down!!!

That spot ahead is where we spent hours and hours sitting with a flat tire last trip home. So glad we just went zipping by this time!

Busy March

This month has been very busy for us.  We've been working a lot. Leif's filled his evenings with hockey or big boy toy shopping.  I've been doing bootcamp and figuring out what to cook for this crazy diet I've been on.  I went to see a naturopath and she suggested an allergy/sensitivity test diet to figure out what's causing my disrupted sleep.  For 2 weeks I had to cut out all sugar, dairy, eggs, wheat, corn, tomato, citrus fruit, and food additives.  Then every second day I introduce one thing and see if it wrecks my sleep.  The third thing I reintroduced was sugar and it seems like that's the culprit!! I've gone off sugar again so I can test everything else to make sure I can rule them out.  You would be amazed how many things have hidden sugar in them!

 

No sugar means no chocolate (torture!!) but on the weekend I found a recipe for sugar/dairy/gluten free fudge.  I LOVE it!  Leif HATES it!  Just look at that chocolatey goodness.  How can you say no?

Now that refereeing is over, I've had some time on the weekends to craft.  Here are two completed projects!  A bible bag for a very special young lady...

Lined with a pocket and everything!  Hand sewing is not my favourite activity but it sure makes for a nice finished look.

And my cross-stitch piece is finally done - just have to wait for a sale to get it framed!

Family Day Weekend

We spent the February long weekend in Salmon Arm with some of Leif's family.  I didn't take many pictures, but over all it was very nice and relaxing... until the trip home.

Boys and their trucks.

Cutest kids shoes ever.

Big sis reading little bro a story.  Notice the shoes??

In his Sunday best including a tie!

On the way home we hit a huge pothole and ended up with a flat tire with 3.5 hours left in our journey.  We stopped to change it when Leif realized he didn't have the wheel key we needed to get the tire off!  Luckily we were travelling with Leif's sister and family so they drove over an hour to the right tire store and then over an hour back with a wheel key.  This was our view for hours and hours.

While we were sitting there, it was light out most of the time so I was able to make great progress on my cross-stitching project!

Once they got back, the men put the spare tire on and we started to roll but there was a terrible grinding noise so we had to stop again right away.  We called AMA to get a tow truck but it was going to be extremely expensive.  We called Leif's dad to come with a trailer and while we were waiting Leif had the brilliant idea of switching the spare tire to the back.  Which worked!  We cancelled the "dad to the rescue" mission and finally set off to the same tire store that the wheel key came from.  After a quick stop for food, we headed the rest of the way home.  I think we owe Leif's sister about a month of babysitting for all of their help!

Any Takers?

I've been intending to get an Etsy shop going for about 2 years now and I've concluded that it's never going to happen.  I don't have enough time to keep a stock going and then crocheting/knitting would turn into a chore instead of a hobby.  These completed projects have been sitting in boxes in our closet for a long time and I'm hoping some of our friends and family can make use of them.  Take a look and leave a comment or send us an email if you're interested in anything.  If more than one person wants an item, I'll do a draw.

Blue and White Blanket

Green and Taupe Blanket

Three Flower Hats

Bright Pink Mini-Purse

Granny Square Rivet Purse