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.

No Turning Back

I really don't know if I'm cut out for business.

Too late!

It's a good thing Jeff was born to do this.

We are taking another leap and hiring another bodyman.

We need to, the work is piling up.

As I've said before, the one thing that stresses Jeff out is a less-than-happy customer.

Well, some of ours are getting a little impatient.

It's the best kind of problem to have in business right?  

Too much business?

We just need to up our manpower so that we can handle it all.

It's a challenge on my end though.  

I'm always working a month behind.

We don't get paid for the jobs in the shop right now for 30 days.  

So, even if our new guy gets more work out the door, I don't see the money for a month.  

Makes it pretty tight on the financial end when we make these changes.

We've been through this before though and it's always paid off.

I know this time is no different.  

It's just scary.

My Other Reason to Hope for a Long Summer

I've registered for a 10K run in September.

When I registered I was still pregnant and September seemed SO far away.

I thought "I'll have no problem running 10 by then".

"I'll be running 5 by May for sure".

Well...

June is half over and I just ran 5K yesterday!

Nothing like a little pressure.  

Really, that's half the reason I signed up for this thing.

I thought I would force myself into working off the baby weight.

Oh yah, did I mention this run is in Banff?

In the treacherous beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Mountain air is much thinner than prairie air, you know.

And those mountains, they have a tendency to have hills, you know.

I think I can, I think I can.

Just wanted to share this pic I took yesterday while running.

It looks like Mill Creek just got a fresh blanket of snow.

Don't fret though {unless you have allergies I suppose} that's just poplar fuzz.

I Didn't See the Sign

We have been operating our autobody shop as Shield for about 2 1/2 years now.

You wouldn't know this if you came to the shop because this is what it looks like.

We were originally only known as Canadian Dent.

We still do our PDR work as Canadian Dent.

But now the collision work {Shield} has really taken off.  

The majority of our customers are looking for Shield.

This means they're either confused as they pull up...

or lost.

Not great for business.

You'll be happy to know though that we have started the process of {finally} getting a new sign!

We have a couple quotes coming in this week.

Anyone know a good sign company in Edmonton?

Some Tough Guys

Have a great Fathers Day everyone!

As I put these pictures up I notice somewhat of a similarity.

Funny how we now use an app to make our pics look like they're from the 80s.

What's that saying?

Everything that's old...is new again?

Cedric is on his way to being just like Daddy.

Jeff's first time holding his baby boy.

A wilderness adventure with my Dad.

Brian and Jeff in the early days.
Who could have predicted what the future held for them?

Something Different

We got to do a little work on this baby this week.

Jeff has always wanted a bike.

Really, he has a indescribable love for anything high-speed with a motor.

Thank goodness his mother has always said that the day he bought a bike would be the last day she spoke to him.

I have a lot to be thankful to my Mother-in-law for.

To say the least Jeff  is  was a handful.

Ok, he still is but in a much more controlled fashion.

Ridin' the Rails

We had a fabulous morning!
Fiona had a really good day yesterday so a special outing was in order for my little trooper.

If anyone in town hasn't checked out the High Level Streetcar, get on it!

We went with Fiona's besties, Charlie and Ben, and all the kids loved it.

The streetcar we rode had been in restoration for the past 17 years!

Definitely worth the wait, it was beautiful.

 The highlight though was the volunteers who keep it running.

The nicest guys with some great stories.

Wow

    No big deal. 

Jeff just did some work on a Lamborghini and a Ferrari yesterday.

{!!!!!!!!!!!!}

Thanks to everyone who expressed concern for Fiona.

Y'all are the best!

It seems like she's doing better already.

Finally a B&A

I was going to sit down and write a bigger post today but a wrench got thrown in my plans.

My two-year-old has a UTI!

My little darling has a urinary tract infection!  

Here I am getting frustrated with her recent increase in accidents.

I feel like the worst mother ever awful but am just happy I finally clued in.

Anyways...

Husband came to my rescue with some before and after shots.

And here they are.

{I didn't feel the need to label them.}

It's a Picture Friday

I have been feeling the need to post about some amazing local photographers lately.

It is because of Just Married Photography that we have these beautiful shots of the most important times in our lives to date.

They must have known something we didn't.  

The wedding pic I chose is taken against the wall of an auto-part store {pre-shop owning}.

The Scenic Route

And I, I took the road less traveled by.  I was using a GPS system.  

~Robert Brault

 Does anyone else have this problem?

I love my iPhone.

I didn't have a smart phone until late 2010.  

I didn't think I needed one.

Now I often wonder how I lived without it.

Remember the days when you had to look up an address before you left the house?

You'd print out the google maps directions or, going way back, you would break out the big map in true tourist fashion.

Well, now I just breeze out the door and depend on my iPhone to guide me in the right direction.

This is usually successful but not always efficient.

The other day I took the kids to this fantastic play area at the John Janzen Nature Centre.

It had been years since I'd been {my last memory is getting pooped on by a just-hatched chick as a pre-teen} so I got out my trusty iPhone and plunked in the address.

I even knew better.

I passed the turn that I knew I should take and exited onto a freeway like maps told me to, seriously?

Good thing we weren't in a rush or in the middle of a potty emergency.

I'd like to say it won't happen again.

Wishful thinking.

You Don't See This Everyday

Jeff just couldn't resist sharing this Hummer with all of you.

He sent me these pics before going out of town.

I have no words.

Back to School

It just hit me today that this is what single moms feel like.

You see, Jeff is off bettering himself this week.

He enrolled in a 4 day course to help him improve our efficiency and productivity at the shop.

We feel like we do great work but there are ways to improve how we do it while maintaining quality.

The kicker is, the course is in Calgary...da.da.daaaaa.

{That's ominous music in case that wasn't clear.  Say it again, makes more sense now, yes?}

When he was first talking about enrolling I didn't feel like it would be a big deal.

What's 4 days?

I can do 4 days alone.

Right?

Well of course I can, I will, I am.  

But man it's hard knowing that there won't be a second set of hands at dinner time and bedtime (not as bad as dinner but still tough).

I really appreciate and applaud the fact that some people do this.

Every.

Day.

Standing O for the single parents.

Squid Kid

For those of you who don't know our daughter, she is a great eater.

I haven't had to trick this girl with "no, that's not grated up vegetables hidden in your food" or pleaded "just one more bite" yet.

How did this come up you ask?

I was looking over our pictures from the weekend and came across these.

We went to Ragazzi on Friday night which is our favourite Italian place in town.  

 We ordered the calamari and Fiona loved it (even the legs that secretly still kinda freak me out).  

When it was all gone she then proceeded to eat the lemon wedge.

What did I tell you?  Good eater!

Cedric a little jealous that he can't partake yet.

Did anyone get a chance to check out any show&shines in town this weekend?

Ours was chock-full of birthday party fun (which I have no pictures of, sigh) so we missed them.