Does anyone rest on Saturdays?

My Saturday was typical of most Saturdays. I try to take the kids grocery shopping as early as I can, because the stores start getting crazy around ten in the morning. I often take all or most of them on my own, which is probably a crazy thing to do, but hey, I like living on the edge! The funniest thing about being out with all the kids is other people's reactions. Like yesterday... We get into the store and this woman who is about 20-30 years older than me ( I wouldn't just call her "old" because I have hit a stage in life where the term old is relative. I mean, when you tell your teenage students that you are 33, and they call you old, you have lost the right to call anyone else old.), this woman looks at me and the kids and asks if they are all mine. I say yes, then she says something about how well behaved they look. Well, I couldn't help but chuckle, and give the usual "make my kids sound as good as I can without lying" response. I said, "yeah, they are pretty good...for now". It ended up being a bit of a crazy shopping trip, and we saw that same woman about half an hour later. She made no comment about their great behavior that time.
Anyways, just to give an example of how hectic it can be at home, after we were back I made the kids lunch. Well, expect the unexpected when it comes to kids! Just when you least expect it...Bam! Out of the blue one kid spills chocolate milk all over themselves, and I mean ALL over! Floor, stools, hair, clothes, counter, narrowly missing a sister. Off to the bathtub. Meanwhile, during bathing little brother goes downstairs to hide and do his business (yes, still not potty trained). So after bath, take spillee down to get clothes because, fortunately baby sis that she share. Room with is down for a nap (though I don't know if she is actually sleeping yet). We are getting clothes downstairs in the laundry room, and little brother comes to tell me he needs a diaper change. Oh, did I mention that I wash in a rush because the spillee and her bigger sis were going to a friends house after lunch? So I finally get spillee dressed, change little brothers diaper, then blow dry spillee's hair, and send the two sisters out the door, and...breathe. That was an intense 20 minutes. Only 20 minutes. There is still a lot of day to go!
Why don't they have university course on parenting? Now that is something that would have been useful!

Master's Degree? Check!

Well, not that it has hit me yet, but I AM DONE!!! I started my master's degree a few days after Charlie Boy was born back in 2010. In the beginning, I was wondering if I was going to like it...and thinking "Doing school work again stinks!!!!". Ha! And I am always preaching to Emma how awesome it is to learn stuff in school.
Anyway, it has been stressful at times, and I definitely never started a paper more than three days before it was due. There were a lot of fun times though.
But Holy Hannah...it is good to be done!!
Can't wait for graduation.
PS- anyone know how much an X ring costs these days?

Recent Photos of the Kids (Kelly's Hand at Work)

We have pictures of the kids on a certain wall in our home, by our computer. Some of them were getting old, so Kelly decided to take some action and take some new ones. Here is the result. She did an amazing job. 

The Middle of the Night: Ruby Edition

Here is Ruby. Sweet, innocent, and a lot of laughs.

In the middle of the  night last night, Ruby comes into my room, approaches me, and says:

"I am so bored!"

I looked at the clock, and it was around 2am. How can somebody be bored at that time of day? Shouldn't she be sleeping? I was confused, and asked her what she meant. She just keep saying, "I am so bored in bed."

So, naturally, not wanting this to continue, I tell her to go use the washroom and head back to bed.

Next thing, after she grumbles and heads to the washroom, I hear her on the toilet, complaining...

"Ohhh! It's so boring at night!"

Now, I was starting to get a kick out of this, and even chuckled to myself as I fell back asleep. I don't know how much longer she was up, but a few minutes later, she came back in with her water bottle, needing the top unscrewed, so she could fill it up. I dozed back off again, and didn't see her until the morning.

What I don't get is, how in the world is a 3 year old up at that time of night, complaining about how boring it is in the middle of the night? She is a funny girl, for sure, but this really makes me laugh.

If you really know Ruby well, I am sure you can picture this perfectly. We often don't know what is going on inside the head of that little girl. She always makes us laugh though. 

Easter Surprise: Baby Edition

Great New!!!! Baby is here!!!

Just a quick peek-a-boo before I get back to the hospital. Josephine Deborah MacLean was born last night at 10:02PM. She was 7 pounds 15 ounces. She is perfectly amazing. We though we might be getting a boy, but no way, Jose!! Another girl in the Girl Power Army!! She's beautiful. I wish my other pictures were working out, these are among the very few I was able to successfully get onto the computer. The others went berserk. Mom and baby are both well. I am in a rush, so enjoy the pics. More to come.

The Kids Playing in the Back Yard

Yeah, the kids were playing outside. It has been such a dull winter,

and this just goes to show there isn't much winter type fun to be had

here during this mild winter. I mean, check out that patch of ice!

But, they loved it. Now it's gone again. I love the part of the video where Charlie is

struggling to get up. Funny stuff. Ruby's craziness is a bit evident in this video, too.

She's a silly little monster!! hahaha. Love them!

P.S.-Not our dog...belongs to the family accross the street.

Charlie the future Father

A video of Charlie during Nursery at Church


Charlie likes baby dolls. He is pretty good with them, too.
I think he will be a good dad.
This was during Nursery class. It was just me watching him.
That's the reason I took the video.

Charlie gets caught by the cops (and other news)

So a few weeks ago I was at home with the kids. I had been cleaning up and what not. It was a Saturday. Or some day off. Anyway, I forget where Kelly had gone, but I was alone. Charlie was downstairs playing around, and I was doing stuff. I had to go downstairs, and noticed Charlie had the phone, so I took it from him and shut it off.

Well, about 5 minutes later I get a call. "Hello?"..."Hello is Kelly MacLean Veinot there?"..."No, she's out, is there a message?"..."Are you her husband?"..."Yes."..."This is ____ _____ from the RCMP, we received a 911 call from your residence, and are checking to make sure everything is alright." ..."Oh, I think my one year old must have called it. He had the phone, and I took it fom him and hung up."..."Are you the only one home with him?"..."No, my daughters are here, too."..."Well, I am going to have to come out and check on things. It's standard procedure when we get a hang-up on a 911 call."..."Okay."

Wow, that was great news. Anyway, she came out. By this time, Kelly had come home. It was awesome having the officer come to our house. Actually, it was funny. I told the girls the police officer was a female. They were like, "What? A girl?". I had to explain that girls can be police, too. They were skeptical. The visit was fine though. She was nice, and only recorded my name and Charlie's name, and our birth dates. Great.

Anyway, in other news...I turned 32. No big deal. Still seems weird to be in the 30's. Not that I care, it just seems odd to say it.

The biggest news is.............................

Number 5 is on the way.

Kelly is about 3 and a half months along. She is due April 11th. I am going to take the end of the school year off to help her. I can get parental allowance that still gives me most of my pay.

We are excited, and so are the girls. The people I work with think we are nuts. Most of them have just 2 kids though.

Anyway, that's a little update. I have been behind a bit.

That Silly Charlie Boy

So I was on the computer last night, doing my online Masters course, and out comes Charlie from the bathroom, with my toothbrush. He was sucking on it, and putting it in his mouth. I was thinking, gross...but I will just run it under some hot water later.

Well, later came, when I was ready to go to bed, and I realized I don't know where that boy left my toothbrush. It could be anywhere. Maybe he swooshed it around in the toilet. Maybe it is under the couch cuddling with some cute little dust bunnies. Or maybe it got shoved into a daiper filled garbage somewhere.

Nonetheless, I think I will be getting a new toothbrush today. How did he even get into the toothbrush drawer? I put a safety lock on that!

What a student told me today.

Well, I could probably make this an ongoing blog topic, with all the crazy things I hear.

Today I had a student tell me that being a Teacher is "not a real job". Wow...and this was first period in the morning!! hahaha. Yeah, I questioned the student about it. Apparently we Teachers don't do much besides getting headaches. This is a 17 year old I am talking about. I was a little annoyed by the student's comment at first, naturally, but as I discussed it with them, I found it funny. The student said I probably had a headache right then. It was starting. Teachers don't really do any work. That's a concept.

This student goes lobster fishing, by the way. I guess that's real work. For 6 months of the year. Minus stormy days.

...the saga continues

Went out to put the old tire on the van this morning, cause the spare tire I put on is losing air. The valve stem came right out when I tried to take the tire pressure. Top of the Morning to you, too, Mr. Spare Tire.
So as I was cranking up the jack (which has become an extremely difficult task due to some jack-stubbornness) and almost have the tire high enough to change, when BAM! the jack breaks!!!
BAAAAAAAA!!!!!
On a brighter note, we have finally used up all the scratchy no-name toilet paper I bought cause it was on sale. Boy did I get a lot of gruff about that purchase! Sheesh!! At least now we are back on track with some plushy soft TP. I am back out of the doghouse again.

Car Trouble...or Car Fun?

Well, this week we found out our Van needed some realignment of the tire kind. Kelly took it in this morning. I guess, from what I hear, she ran over one of the neighbor's dogs on the way in. Apparently the dog is okay as of right now, but Kelly is suspicious that it may be more hurt than the owners think.
Anyway, and on my way home from school, I stopped to fill up the gas tank in the car, so that Kelly could drive Emma to meet Ryan for the weekend. As I went to leave the gas station, the car wouldn't start. The guy at the station tried to boost me, but it wouldn't, and he thinks it's the starter. So, he got it rolling and popped the clutch, and I drove to the Toyota dealership, where it awaits repair.
Back to the van...I guess we need new tires. One of them is unsafe to drive on, apparently. BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
What a day. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

Sum Sum Summatime

Here are some pictures of our amazing Summer. This is more a photo blog than an "interesting things that Rob writes about" blog. Sorry to disappoint. It is a summary of the fun things we did this Summer. Notice I didn't take all kinds of pictures of my Masters courses, and include them in the "fun things we did this Summer". Although, I am over half finished my degree now. Go ahead, cheer out loud...

Charlie and "Charlie Sloan", a character from Avonlea Village

Ruby and Emma with their prize ribbons

Emma racing in a potato sack at Avonlea Village

Dressed up Olde Style at A.V.

Charlie Boy's first time on the rides at Shining Waters

riding the boats with big sis Morgan

Morgan and Emma on the tiny roller coaster

My well behaved girls in front of the Cottage we rented

Charlie enjoying our new Hammock

Ruby is big enough to hang on the ropes at Upper Clements Park now

Morgan's first time on the roller coaster at UCP. She loved it.

Emma and cousin Ethan enjoying some bumper boats

Morgan and Kelly splashing around

On the Olde Fashion Cars

Some of the Zoo animals at Oaklawn Farm

The wildlife feeding the animals

Charlie loves animals...so it probably killed him to be in the stroller for this

The girls loved the animals. Emma is missing from the picture 'cause she was scared

Junior Bridesmaid at her Father's wedding. Very Pretty, no?

Emma and her father, Ryan, dancing at the reception

Morgan before the wedding

Ruby before the wedding

Charlie awaiting the wedding. He loved it!

My only regret is not getting a picture of Kelly, she looked amazing!

Emma on the first day of Grade 4!

Morgan displaying her "You wanna punch for lunch?" attitude on her first day of Pre-School

This is a quilt that Kelly made for our Niece, Audrey

And that's about all folks. That is a small portion of the pictures we took this summer. Now we are back into school and all the wonderful moments that go along with it. Such as ridiculously busy mornings, homework, making lunches, going insane, picking out things to wear everyday. It really is the most wonderful time of the year!!

Did I Forget To Blog That?

So I started posting some pictures of recent events, and realized I didn't do a blog about Emma's birthday. It was March 27th, so I am a little behind. She is now 9 years old. Yesterday she kept saying she is almost 10. A little bit off. But she is definitely growing up. She is done grade 3 now, and is excited about going into grade 4 this September. Here are a few pictures from her Birthday weekend.






On Father's Day we decided to take Ralph out to the Yarmouth Lighthouse, since he has never been before. I have not been for a while, obviously, because they have done some major changes to the entrance. It is very nice. Anyway, we had a good time taking pictures of the kids, and we even saw a snake! That was my favorite part. That snake made my Father's Day. Here are some pictures from the Lighthouse. PS- Ruby was a little grumpy at the lighthouse...you will see in her picture.









Morgan had her Dance Recital Father's Day weekend. She initially didn't want to be in the recital, but as the day came near, she kept asking how many more days, in great excitement. She is one of the youngest in her class, but she did great considering this and her extreme shyness. It was fun to watch her up there. For me, I would have liked to recital to be shorter. It's a lot of dancing to watch! Here is a picture of the beautiful dancer before we took her to the recital.


Somebody had a third birthday in June. Ruby is growing right up fast. She is a sweet little girl. She seems to always be happy and goofing around. Her and cousin Audrey ("Best Friends"), had a birthday party together again. I don't know if they will ever want to have separate ones. They are both such cute little girls, it is always fun to have the party together. Here are a few from the party.




Somebody turned one in June. The big boy is quite special. He is fun to have around, just like the others...but even better cause he's a boy!! hahahaha. Just kidding. Seriously though, he's a very good little boy. It's hard to believe it's been a year since he was born. It has gone by fast. He is getting to eat all kinds of food now. He loves berries and hamburgers. He's had too many blueberries lately. Too many diaper changes, if you know what I mean! Anyway, here are some pictures of his big day.






Last Saturday night the girls all got their hair curled for Sunday. It was an extreme blast!! We forgot to take pictures of them after the curlers came out. My bad. But here is a cute one of them with the curlers in! Horay!


Ralph sent us some pictures from a few years back. These are from a Youth Temple Trip back in the early 90's. They are awesomely retro! I remember those times like they were yesterday. I especially love the hair. I am going to encourage that hair to come back to life!



Anyway, that's probably enough posting for now. I am back into my Master's courses for the month of July. I can't wait to finish them up and enjoy the summer.