Erik.

Just a wee little post.

Erik, my beloved, handed in the last paper of the first quarter of his Masters on Monday night.

I cannot even begin to tell you how proud I am of him. He has worked so hard every single day since the quarter started in September. Every single day. I am amazed at his determination and perseverance and incredibly proud of the work he has accomplished. He works 30 hours a week as a case worker at a local establishment and he spends even more time studying. He's been known to read textbooks on his breaks at work. Erik gets a much deserved month off before jumping into the next quarter (in which time he is hoping to read ahead).

We went to the Hunger Games on Tuesday night to celebrate (and sat a row apart because the theatre was full).

He knows how proud I am as I tell him every day, but I thought he deserved some bragging so here I am. My husband is the best.

A List.

A list. It is all I can muster at present.

• Pumpkin Pancakes are delicious. I have made them twice in the last week and devoured them much quicker than anticipated (I like to take them to work). I used a different recipe each time and both were great. I am on a quest for the most delicious pumpkin pancake recipe now.
• We have rekindled our obsession with coconutty-chocolately-almondy-joy. We have also made a variation sans almonds and with peanut butter. Yummmmmmmm. I freeze them in ice cube trays, pop them out, and store them in the freezer in a container where we snack on them once a day frequently. 
• Our computer crashed. We brought it in for data recovery. We lost most of the photos we had on the computer… which was a lot of photos. A lot. I'm ok with losing most of them but… we lost the photos from our trip. Yup, I said it. We had backed up our photos online until Scotland, but the internet in SE Asia was terrible so we didn't do it there. Yup, we are silly because I didn't do it the instant we got home but, in my defence, we had them on both the camera card and the iPad until I put them on the computer. Then we had them on the iPad and the computer until we updated our operating system at which point there wasn't enough memory so we had to delete them. At which point I should have backed them up, but I felt a false sense of security in our trusty Macbook. And so my heart dropped through the floor and I almost puked when Erik informed me that our computer crashed. To make a long story short … it is terrible. We are sending the hard drive to the coast and paying a pretty penny in the hope that at least some of the photos from the last four months of our trip can be recovered. And no, I don't need to hear "I told you so".
• To be honest, our computer crashing kind of took the wind out of my sails.
• I started knitting again. Hallelujah. It is therapeutic and lovely. I knit some cowls for a friend's kids. They are pretty adorable. Who would have thought that cowls were a good idea for kids, but aren't they? You don't have to worry about scarves falling off. Think about it. 
• Erik finished the first quarter of his Masters. This deserves a post of its own, but I will toss in a little shout out here. He is something like 1/12th done the program now!! He has been working so hard and I am incredibly proud of him. 
• One of the reasons I haven't blogged (other than my computer crashing) is because Erik has been monopolizing the computer for the past couple months. He seriously works so hard. He comes home from work and does homework until he goes to bed. Or he wakes up and does homework until he goes to work, depending on the shift he has. It's amazing. 
• I am heading to Vancouver this weekend to finally do the Doula Course. As you all know, I love birth and this is really just making things official. I don't really plan on being a doula-for-hire, but hope to continue volunteering my services to dear friends of mine.
• My brother is in town for the night so we are heading to my parent's to visit and eat homemade butter chicken -- yum. 
• Erik just walked in the door and we should head over there now.

Have a wonderful night!

More Family Photos.

Sorry to inundate you with photos, but I love them! I have a pretty wonderful family and I'm excited about the photos we had taken so I want to share them. Here are a few of the individual family photos.

Sharlene's Family. 

Jessica (20), Christopher(10), Brian, Sharlene, Zachary(12), Kaitlyn (18).

Anthony's Family.
Hailey(3), Anthony, Jenn, Jordyn(22 months).

Lindsey's Family.

Avery (15 months), Adrian, Peyton (15 months), Lindsey.

Zachary's Family.
Colton(2 months), Zachary, Heather.

And because they're cute. 

Mom and Dad.

Photo Credit: flyphotographybc.com

my family

We had family photos done this Thanksgiving. We were all supposed to be home, but a sister-in-law and a nephew were unable to join us for the festivities. We went ahead with the photos anyway because who knows when we will all be together again? I can't even remember the last time we were all together.

Here are a few photos.

Everyone who was there.

Without the Grandchildren.

The nuclear family.

The boys.

The girls. Missing a sister-in-law.

And the siblings.
(Zachary, Jonathan, Justin. Lindsey, Anthony, Sharlene, Benjamin, Me, Joel)

Photo Credit: flyphotographybc.com