Intact Husband...Check.

I don't really have enough words for this weekend.

I also don't want to risk "story-telling" my weekend.  I could see myself doing this.

If I had to choose a few I would say chill, delicious and too short.

The rest I will communicate with photos.

{I commissioned some of these since there was a much better photographer than me there.
Thanks Jules.}

 

I Will Come Out of This Weekend With an Intact Husband

Have a great weekend everyone!

Please be thinking of me as I try to convince three grown men that the size of their firework display does not determine how fun the weekend is.

Here are some pics from last years celebration.

Happy Canada Day to my Canadian {and honorary Canadian} friends.

You know who you are.

Today's Outing {Yes, We Only Get One a Day}

Just a quick post today since I need to do some major bookkeeping.

I went by work this morning.

{I have another career besides Mom, blogger, bookkeeper, housekeeper, etc.}

An amazing coworker is moving on to other exciting things.

 There was a potluck in her honour on Friday.

 I missed it due to Mommy brain so still wanted to go say my goodbyes.

I work with some really great people.

I always feel super special when I go to visit {which has not been often enough}.

As evidence of their greatness I thought I would share these photos.

They threw me a {very} surprise baby shower before I left.

Who needs a marquis.

There's nothing like seeing your name on the wall in streamers.

The Demise of Auto-Shield

We found this amazing product.

We have been slowly rolling it out over the last year or so.

It is a great idea, a revolutionary idea.

We called it Auto-Shield.

We had to dump it last week.

Basically, the product is a spray-on 3M film.

It's great for protecting paint from rock chips.  

We sprayed a hood in the shop, banged on it with a hammer and no damage.

We really believed in it.

Well, that all changed when we spent a couple thousand dollars in product and time fixing a vehicle that had been sprayed with this product.

In a world where cars are still sprayed with solvent {not water} based paint, it works.

We use water based paint.

Lesson learned.

Reflecting

We had another very full but fantastic weekend.

As I told you in this post from last week, we have been busy and understaffed lately so Jeff spent Saturday at the shop. 

{That wasn't the fantastic part.  I promise.}

When he finally got out of there we were off to our great friends, the Buehlers', house for a BBQ.

The occasion was their son's 17th birthday.

17!

I babysat this kid when he was a baby!

When he was just older than Cedric!

It was a bit of a wake up call that my son is going to be a teenager some day!

A TEENAGER!

Obviously I knew that this was inevitable.  

But remembering this 17 year old in his cuter {sorry!} days just made it too real.

My reflection on parenting continued on Sunday. 

We celebrated my Mom's 60th.

{Side note.  If you met my mom you wouldn't believe she's 60.}

I saw pictures of my parents as kids.

{When I say "kids", I mean about my age.}

I heard stories from my Dad about their pre-parenting days.

I saw my parents through the eyes of their friends.

It all reminded me of this quote.

Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents' generation try delousing the closet in your bedroom.

-Charles J. Sykes

I'm pretty sure I've already said that I have amazing parents.

I just want to say again that I have amazing parents.

Now, as a mother myself I feel so grateful for my own Mom.

I now see just how much she put up with.

{I know, I ain't seen nothing yet!}

I now see how hard she worked to {as my dear friend Diana says} "make magic" for us kids.

I'll just leave you with this pic of the next generation.  

Lookin' good.

Must Stay Outside

I couldn't even bring myself to go back inside to write a post so this is from my iPhone, sitting on the stoop eating strawberries with my babes.

I say stoop because we don't have a deck, it's literally just a set of stairs but it works for us.

You make do with what you have.

We live right on a major road and I can sit in the backyard and not even hear the cars, planes, helicopters and construction. 

 Instead I see great mature trees all around, the robins nest in our neighbours yard and hear dogs barking from nearby houses.

We have learned to co-exist with the traffic.

We even play "guess the vehicle by ear" at the breakfast table which Fiona kicks butt at.

Sure, we curse the motorcycles when they blast by after 8pm. But it's hard to stay upset when you hear a little "mocycle" from your 2 year old.

I wouldn't change a thing.

Room

I took these pictures this morning and just had to share.

What kind of auto body shop owners would we be if we didn't have a motor themed room for our baby boy, right?

Ok I went a little overboard for a kid who may not even like motors (gasp!) someday.

Fiona, however, loves them (as shown playing with Cedric's trucks).  

So maybe they could trade.