Part 2

On Saturday we pretty much just visited with Grandma. We convinced after about 40 min to get in her wheelchair and we would take her for a cruise around Michelson. We sat outside for a few minutes and watched Benjamin run around. We had a pizza delivered for dinner and I don't know if I remember Grandma eating so much. She must have enjoyed the change.
Sunday we were able to get her to church with plenty of time to spare. I went super early and she was ready but then she ended up not being quite ready. But we still had plenty of time. She is like royalty at church. Lots of people came by to say hi and good to see you. She really enjoyed all of the attention she got. So we went back to Michelson and visited some more with Grandma. We were able to convince her to go outside and sit in the courtyard while Benjamin kicked a ball he found around. She just loved watching Ben run and laugh. I tried to take pictures of her with the kids but by the time I got Ben to sit still and then got Grandma to look at me Benjamin was off running. Oh well, I did get some good shots of them. I really enjoyed being able to visit with Grandma. I hadn't seen her in about 2 years but when I was there she was having a few good days and seemed to remember a lot. She doesn't always remember that she is in a wheelchair. Because when we get up to go she almost tries to get up and then says something like "Oh yeah I am in a wheelchair, I don't have to get up".
Mom had warned me that Grandma had been mean to Laura the last time they were up but I think it was more because she was being moved to somewhere she didn't and still doesn't thinks she needs to be because she didn't say anything mean to us.
Where Grandma lives is really nice. There is carpeting on the floors and it doesn't smell like a nursing home. There are pretty pictures on the walls and the nurses seem to be very nice and helpful. Grandma did say to me that she thought was living in a prison and I said laughing that this is a very nice prison then. She laughed with me at that too.
Our adventures in downtown Chicago to come........

To Chicago we go! Part one

We left on Friday the 6th to go and visit Grandma Jeanne in Batavia (near Chicago for those who don't know). We almost were not able to go because Benjamin, Kaleb, and I were all sick pretty much up until we were supposed to leave. We also noticed some car issues Wednesday night and took it into be checked out Thursday. Turned out we needed 3 new motor supports (apparently if the supports were to fail we would have dropped the motor and done some serious damage to probably everything) and a water pump. But it couldn't be fixed in time for us to drive to Calgary. Mom to the rescue. She drove from Drumheller Thursday night and took us to the airport Friday morning and then drove home to Drumheller after that. Thanks Mom for taking us.


Getting through the airport wasn't to bad security was packed and customs was super easy to get through. We arrived at the terminal and Joe goes off to find us food to eat for lunch. Pretty much as soon as Joe got back it was time to board. Now imagine 1 stroller, 1 carseat, 1 baby to hold once we get on the plane, 1 Benjamin running around like a maniac, 3 backpacks, 1 tray of 3 pops, and 1 bag of food to carry onto the plane. Hmmmm we don't have quite enough hands. Especially since Kaleb needed to be taken out of the stroller right before we board the plane and the stroller needed to be collasped as well. That was fun figuring all of that out. We got through it though and LEARNED our lesson: If you need to eat at the airport either give yourself lots of extra time or buy stuff that can be easily thrown into a backpack. Life lessons are great aren't they.


Plane time. Benjamin was pretty good on the plane. Kaleb wasn't. He cried and cried and then puked all over me, his shirt, his blanket yuck. After that though he was better. Were finally landed and Benjamin looked out the window and saw another plane and said to me that he wanted to ride that plane too. Kids are silly.



After some scary driving in Chicago in the dark and not knowing if we were going in the right direction we arrived at our first destination: Sonic. Mmmmmm Cherry Limeades I sure did miss them. Finally we arrived at the hotel and we all eventually fell asleep.



The next morning we got up and surprised Grandma. We walked into her room and she was napping in her chair but when I turned back she was awake and had the most shocked smiling face ever. It felt really good to be able to go and visit. She was so happy to have us there.



More to come......

The Flu

The flu has hit our house. First Kaleb and now Benjamin is sick. Kaleb seems to be doing a lot better but he has viral ulcers that have become infected so he is on antibiotics. Benjamin just started throwing up this morning after having a few bites of toast. He also has a fever and a cough.
Joe and Ben did get their flu shots yesterday after waiting in line for 5 1/2 hours most of the time they were supposed to be outside but the nice lady behind them held their place in line so they could go inside. We were all supposed to be there but because Kaleb had the flu we couldn't take him.
Our ward seems to be hit hard by the flu. I have called many families to cancel mom and tots playgroup and I think most of them had sick kids. I feel bad that Benjamin is sick for his first Halloween that he actually understands what is going on. Maybe we will dress him up and have him trick or treat the different rooms in the house.
Joe heard a statistic saying that 25% of the Alberta population will have become sick with the flu this fall. Well we have surpassed that statistic in our house so some strangers of Alberta family better be grateflu we have taken on this illness for them. lol.
I hope the rest of you are fairing better than us. Good luck fighting off the dreaded flu.
Much love, Kara

Kaleb Almost a work of Art

When we were driving downtown Red Deer Joe noticed a huge mural on the side of a building that looked like Kaleb. The baby even had a red jacket on almost like Kaleb has. We decided that we had to take a picture to show everyone our famous baby. On closer examination of the mural we discovered this baby was probably a girl and it had hair. Kaleb doesn't really have hair except for the mohawk tuft he is growing. He has a mohawk because he has two swirls/cowlicks or whatever they are called on the back of his head. Most people on have one.

Plotting Birds

We park our car underneath a tree and we have always had bird poop on our car since moving here. One time (literally we have cleaned our car out once since moving here) we were cleaning out our car and a bird pooped on Joe. I had warned them that the birds were up there just waiting to poop on one of us since it had tried to get me when I had started to clean the car.

Today as I went out to the car I heard the birds chirping away and one threw a long stick down onto the ground it was at lest 2 feet long. I knew that they were up to something but still had to get everything into the car so we could go to mom and tots. Well before I knew it one of the birds flew above me and pooped....... Any guesses to where the poop landed?........ No guesses well it landed on my head. I am pretty sure the bird did it on purpose. Those magpies and pretty smart you know. Actually I have heard they are one of the smartest birds so I wouldn't put it past them to plot a head bird pooping plan.

I keep hearing about how school is starting and I keep thinking okay Joe goes back to school in Sep...... wait he is done (he does plan to get a CPA of CGA in a few years) we can do stuff during the school year and not worry about missed classes, papers, exams, and studying. I realize this will only last until Benjamin is in school but the freedom at least in thought (not money) is awesome.
This summer I have been trying to get the most out of it by being a tourist here. We have gone to the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, to a Lilly festival, to the beach, a church pancake breakfast, other church activites, to a few of the MANY parks here in Red Deer, and the list goes on. Mom calls just to see what I did on the weekend. Red Deer has a lot of parks. I will say that the weather here this summer is WEIRD!!!!!!!! We have had hail just about every week this summer if not more than once a week. Somedays it is so cold I have to warm up the house by baking and other days so warm that the house doesn't cool down. We have had some humid days to ughh humidity.

Has anyone seen Handy Manny? If not it is about a man who is Spanish and is able to fix anything. He also has talking tools. Now his hammers name is pat and when he gets confused he says "I'm a hammer". Today I said to Benjamin are you a hammer and he said "No! I Benjamin" Finally he knows his name. I swear if anyone asked what his name was he would just look at that person as if they were an alien.

Kaleb started crawling last week and loves cords and the door. I swear if I don't know where he is gone is by the sliding glass door. I think he is trying to escape and I really don't blame him. Since becoming mobile(ish) Benjamin thinks he can sit, stand, jump over him and so on. Realy I think he is trying to get away from Ben.

Sleep talking

The last week or so Joe has said a few hilarious things in his sleep. The first one was "I have bats in my ears. Get them out." All the while he was thrashing about. When asked what is wrong he just repeated the above and finally calmed down. The second one "Get the bees out of here. There are bees in the room get them out." He was much more calmer with this one.

Now the funny thing is last night while getting Kaleb up Benjamin who I think was asleep asked me if I have a hat on my head. I told him no but he didn't respond back which makes me think he was asleep. I also caught him in sleeping funny before I went to bed last night. Benjamin was laying on his stomach width wise on the bed with his head slightly covered by his pillow and stuffed animal and his legs hanging off the bed. Silly boy.

Edmonton!!!!

Some of Joe's family came up for a little visit this weekend. His Mom, Meg and Ryan, and William to be exact. Ryan really wanted to go to Edmonton and see the Gretzky statue at Rexall Place (an arena for all you non hockey people) which is just one of the many stops we made. Meg and Ryan needed to go and get a picture of one of Ryan's ancestors we took Joe's mom and William to see the Edmonton temple and continued on to West Edmonton Mall. If any of you were wondering we still only have our olds cutlas and we fit two carseats and 4 adults into it. Not comfortably but we made it to our destinations. At the Mall Ben, Kaleb and I watched the sea lion show while William and Joe did some shopping. Meg and Ryan, and William all went swimming at West Ed while Susie, Joe and I and the boys all went to the Telus World of Science. We enjoyed ourselves their and Ben sat on a tongue (plastic).

After all of that you would think we drove home right???? Wrong!!!! We continued on to find the Legislature building in downtown Edmonton and played in the many wading pools out in front. We also met up with one of Joe's cousins and his kids at the pools and had dinner with them.

We had a very enjoyable day!!!
Kara

Just Updates

So last weekend we went and visited Meg and Ryan in Raymond. It was nice to see them and Benjamin fell in love with Ryan. Everyday since we left all Ben can talk about is "see Ryan, play basketball, watch baseball, see Ryan, long car ride, Ryan". As you can see he really misses Ryan.

Kaleb is determined to sleep as little as he can during the day. He sleeps fairly well at night but I like him sleeping during the day as well.

Benjamin, Kaleb and I all came down with the stomach flu the last two weeks. I was first and then we had a few days where no one was sick and then Benjamin started puking and then Kaleb started puking (it was hard to tell if he was sick or just spitting up). Finally they both got over it and I am able to leave the house without fear of the boys vomiting or the other.

The weather here has been fairly nice which is good cause our house heats up really easily.

I did turn a quarter of a century old on Sunday. Mom and Dad came to visit and brought a delicious turtle cake (recipe thanks to Laura) and we were supposed to have some of their garden lettuce but decided to pass when we found the caterpillar that was making his cocoon in the lettuce. I am sure it would have been good.

Well that's about it. Kara

Ali - What??? Alimentum

So we went to the pediatrician yesterday to hopefully find out why Kaleb vomits so much. Well the Dr sad it probably is a combination of acid reflux and a protein intolerance so he has him taking Losec which is for the acid reflux and Alimentum formula which is hypoallergenic for the intolerance. So far he has spit up / vomited way less and he has only had like 4 feeding. I feel kinda like I might be starving him because he isn't eating all the time like he was before. He also is not vomiting like he was before either so the more that stays in the less we have to feed. Yeah!!!!!
The Dr also wanted to rule out some sort of bladder/kidney infections that can also cause vomiting and so we had to collect Kalebs pee for that. Now how the heck do you collect a baby's pee you ask. I little bag that is specially made to fit over his "little bits" as the lab tech described to Joe, of course. From where we put into a collection bottle ourselves and also on some sort of dip stick thing with a little plastic syringe thing. That is my medical explanation and hopefully he peed enough because for once he didn't pee very much at one time. I really don't care to do it again.
Anyways thought I would let you all know that so far Kaleb is doing better and let's keep it that way.
Kara

Spruce Meadows!!!

Yesterday was so much fun. I have always loved horses and would find myself mesmerized by show jumping on TV whenever I came across it. We got some free tickets to Spruce Meadows and decided to go. It was really fun and cool and I want to go again and again. Okay you get the point. Spruce Meadows is not just all show jumping they have a dog trick area and pony rides and wagon rides (all free with admission). They also have more than one riding arena and a marketplace to walk around and a museum with different exhibits. Needless to say I would and plan to go back again. By the way rush tickets which were still really great seats were only $5 an adult or $10 for a car I think is what the sign said (parking included in the price).

We were there to see the CN National show and it was great. Ian Miller won in remarkable style. Few rider/horse teams went clear both rounds and I think his jump off time was like 40 seconds which is amazing. Ben and Joe had fun too. Kaleb was just there to look cute. One of the times when Ben saw a horse jump he said "AMAZING" all long and drawn out. Ben said the horses were knocking down their toys and making a mess when they knocked down rails.

Oh yeah and Ian Miller said "Hey" to Joe as they passed in the washroom. Totally jealous.

Back down to southern Alberta!

The last few days have seemed like a whirlwind of driving. Joe's brother Jon went through the temple for the first time on Friday and we went down for that. Since we were already driving through Calgary we went to the Zoo and Benjamin had lots of fun. He really liked the "Tiggers". We called them tigers but most of the time Ben called them Tiggers which was really funny to hear. I enjoyed seeing the Sting Rays the most just because I don't remember seeing them before.

Benjamin fell out of the bed on Thursday night onto Joe (we were on an air mattress) at 2:30 am and didn't go back to sleep until he fell asleep giving Leslie a hug while watching a movie sometime Friday afternoon. That's right AFTERNOON!!!!!! He slept better Friday night but we put him down asleep in the play pen and Kaleb slept on blankets on the floor.

The temple was nice not just for being there for Jon but we also were able to seal Susie's dad to his parents, Susie's parents to each other, and Susie to her parents. Which was really special to be there for.

Kara

Red Deer

We have moved to Red Deer and are liking it. Our place is alright it has some things wrong with it but I think we are really going to like it here. Today a contrator came over to look at some of the issues with the place and one of them is that our old cupboards seem to be sinking in the middle. When I told the landlord about them I thought they might just try and resupport them somehow (seriously I do not renovate nor think I can ever properly renovate anything). When he was over here today the onsite manager asked him to price out new cupboards for here and when I was outside I heard her talk to him about pricing out new windows for here as well. Who knows if it is for all 3 three complexes that she is in charge of or just a few but I hope we get new windows.

Before we moved here Diana was telling me about this place called the Collicut centre and how cool and cheap it is. Well she was right. This place has a wave pool, workout rooms, workout classes, climbing walls, gyms, and an ice rink all in the same building. A person can go and pay one flat fee and do anything they want in this place for a day. And monthly passes are really cheap to like $37 an adult and that actually will get you into a number of rec facilities in Red Deer. I am really impressed.

Joe starts work on June 1st and I know he is excited to do that. He will work 8:30 - 4:30 for the first few training months. Once those are done and he is paired up with a senior employee he may be able to do flex hours. Which means he can work an extra hour a day and get 2days off a month. He would have to use those hours up within a 12 week cycle that way people are not banking their hours and taking a month or more off at a time. So he could take the 2 days off every month of he could take a week off every 3 months.

Oh and I missed it and Joe missed it but we Kaleb rolled over today. Joe put him down on the floor to go and make him a bottle and came back to see him on his stomach. Hooray for Kaleb!!

Found a place!

Well last Saturday we went to Red Deer and looked for a place to live. We found a place after seeing 4 sketchy places and are so relieved we don't have to go this weekend. The place is a 2 bedroom + den 4-plex. There is a deck so we are excited to get a bbq and there is a green space across the road and a park like 1 block away. Joe can easily catch a bus to work and not have to pay for downtown parking. I hope we like it. Happy Easter everyone. Kara

House Hunting in Red Deer

The search is on and has been on for awhile. The next few weeks though it is REALLY ON!! I really don't like searching for a place to live because I know everything I say and do is being judged on whether we will be good tenants. Which of course we are. Packing is such a pain especially with a baby that would rather be held then put down and Benjamin who undues everything that we pack. Oh well I really am grateful for Joe to have a good job to go to before school is done. That is such a relief.

Just for Diana's benefit I made sure not to start my blog off with so..... because apparently that is how all of my blog's start. Thanks for the tip Diana.

For all of those non Atwood's who read this Joe's family is so blessed to have 2 and soon to be 3 missionaries in the field. Ron who is in Peru seems to be baptising a bunch of people every week, Mandy who is in Arizona hates the heat has had a run in with a tarantula and is converting people galore, and Jon who will be leaving for Houston in July. It is wonderful to get weekly letters updating us from the field.

Our little family is so blessed as well. I love Canada and all the support they give out to families who need it. Mat leave is wonderful and so is getting more money than originally expected. I couldn't imagine only getting 3 months and having to go back to work in such a short period of time.

William don't be mad if you read this but you need some prayers this week even if everything turns out fine. William, Joe's youngest brother, is going in for a Cat Scan Thursday. He had lost his glasses and needed a new pair so he went in to get one and the optometrist noticed some sort of abnormality. Well what he saw makes him believe that fluid is not draining properly from his brain and he needs to get a Cat Scan to see what is happening. Hopefully everything is fine.

The Atwood's

Warning: Kinda Gross Poo Story

So I was making lunch and thought I smelled that Benjamin had pooed I checked and sure enough he had. Well I started to go to change him and noticed a brown thing on the floor and looked closer and realized it was a piece of poo. Then I noticed brown streaks on my kitchen floor. I then realized that a piece of poo and escaped from Benjamin's diaper and he had stepped on it and spread it around. I quickly changed and cleaned off the poo from Ben's diaper as well as washed the kitchen floor (don't worry). The joys of diaperhood. I did do something similar to Mom on Mother's day but that was partly Chris's fault. So I guess I sorta deserved it. Hope this made you smile. Kara

Lots of Stuff

So I almost forgot my password for this blog that is how long it has been since I have last signed in. Anyways loads have happened since I last posted.
Kaleb Arthur Atwood was born Jan 11 at 5:05 p.m.. He weighed 8lbs 10 oz was 21 inches long and was also 2 weeks early. My water broke 10:30 p.m. the night before and I spent the night at the hospital wishing the baby to come faster. I had to go on the nasty drip and even then Kaleb took another 6 hours to come out and 3.5 hrs of that I was begging for an epidural. I finally did get one and what a relief it was. Kaleb is a pretty good baby. He really likes being held which makes getting things done really hard. Benjamin likes him sometimes and likes hitting him whenever he can get away with it.

So about a week ago we went down to the Cutbank MT to pick up a stroller. Of course our car got searched nothing was found of course but they even brought the smelling dog in. Once we got there we had some time to kill before we could pick up the stroller so we went to JCPenny's and got some deals of a lifetime. We bought $800 worth of clothes for $179. We found kids coats that are normally $50 for $6 and shirts and pants for Joe for like $10. He is now set for his new job.

Joe got a job with Revenue Canada in Red Deer. The job starts June 1st so we will be moving the end of April. His job is doing business tax audits. We are both excited for him to have a job before he is done his schooling. I will be sad to leave Lethbridge though. I just realized yesterday that I have lived in Lethbridge almost as long as I lived in Drumheller.

Well I hope that brings us up to snuff. Kara, Joe, Benjamin, and Kaleb