It can happen to anyone!!!

This is my boss's truck. He ended up in the ICU for a week, then being released. Needless to say, he got off really lucky and was fortunate to be driving an F350 four-door truck, otherwise he probably wouldn't have been around to celebrate his daughter's 7th birthday that was happening 2 days after the accident.

Please heed his warning as posted on our dealership's intranet!

"All in all, I came out of the accident relatively unharmed with only 9 broken ribs, some stitches and bruising. Could have been a lot worse!

Please learn from my stupidity! It can happen so quickly. You would never think that by checking a text message or reading an email you could become so distracted that you loose attention to a grain truck slowing down on the Trans Canada highway. BUT that is exactly what happened. When I looked up the truck was six feet in front of me almost at a dead stop turning onto a gravel road. I don’t think I had time to step on the brake releasing the cruise.

Modern technology is wonderful to keep us all instantly ‘up-to-speed’ but please leave your cell phone in its case until your next stop. Please use wireless devices if you are going to talk while driving. As I’ve learned you can only respond to the message if you are alive!

~Wally"

Please keep your cell phones away from you when you are driving. Please stop to talk if you have to, and that e-mail/text will still be on your phone when you get to your destination. Like he said, you can only respond to the message if you are alive.

Drive safe!

A Sad Day

May Grandpa rest in peace. We will miss you and we love you, but we know you've been reunited with Grandma, whom you've missed for over 2 1/2 years. We'll see you again one day.

Life is Hectic!

Life has been hectic these past few months, with school being done, Terry's grandpa's estate sale, Dad in the hospital, an exam! Here are a few pictures from the past few months.

One of the hats Seth found at Terry's grandpa's house

Me cutting Seth's hair for the first time

Me and Breana on the bus on her last day of school. We went to the Riverbank Discovery Center.

Seth helping Daddy build the new fence

Breana's ball team after the last game in the tournament

Breana and her teacher, Mrs.Kitt on her last day of school

Breana holding hands with Mrs.Kitt and Maya at the Riverbank Discovery Center

Terry taking out our old fence

Seth waving to Grandma as he went past. The little plastic car was being pulled being the quad by Terry.

Breana's turn!

Seth wearing his underwear...on his head!

Seth eating his cupcake I decorated for him on his birthday

Another hat that was found at Gret-Grandpa's - and Seth "driving" the lawnmower.

Another hat! He loved those hats!

Breana running from 3rd to home in her first ball game.

March so far

I know that it has been FOREVER since I blogged. I've been really busy lately. I'll put them in posts according to the month!

At work, the project that I have been working on since my return from maternity leave, was implemented at the end of January. This project was re-doing the entire general ledger for all 13 stores so that they were consistent. A little background, which might be full of accounting jargon! Sorry! Before, as new stores were added, different GL's were created, making changes from the time before. This meant that none of the account numbers were the same, making consolidation very difficult. At the end, it was a matter of inputting numbers into a spreadsheet to get a consolidated financial statement, which was a very tedious, time consuming project every month. Especially for 13 stores! The implementation of the new GL went quite smoothly, surprisingly enough! A few minor things came up, but they only took a few mintues to a couple of hours to fix. Success!

Now that that project is completed, I will be taking on the books of one of the stores. Not sure which one, but that will be decided shortly.

Also, I just wrote my 18th exam for my CGA. It was actually a university course through Laurentian University. I am now starting my Auditing course. Once I'm done that (I'm taking the summer off), I only have 2 more CGA courses and 3 more University courses, AND I'M DONE!!! Hopefully only 2 more years and I'll be done this long, LONG, LLOONNGG journey that I decided to start in 2001!

We've also been really busy with birthday parties since the end of January. We ended up having. We were invited to 9 birthday parties in 8 weeks. 2 of those were Breana's parties, and we didn't make it to another one, but wow! I think all the girls in Breana's class all have their birthdays within 2 months of each other! That gets very tiring!

We signed Breana up to play baseball this spring. She said she would "try" it, but she was adamant that she didn't want to play soccer. I'm not sure what she has against soccer, but oh well! I'm not going to force her!

In the next couple of weeks, we are heading to Winnipeg with my mom for some retail therapy. Breana doesn't have school this Thursday and Friday due to parent/teacher interviews, so we are taking the opportunity to get a away for a couple of days. The only thing that would make it better would be if Terry would have been able to join us. Oh well, the first half of spring break, we are heading down to Minot to visit one of Terry's high school friends. We are going down with Scot, Kim, Declan, Cordelia, Dmitri, and Trevor, Lorry, and Hayden, so it should be a good time with great friends!

Here are some pictures from our hot dog roast at Oak Lake. A good time was had by all!

February 2009

We can't believe it, but Breana turned 6 in February. It seems like yesterday I was on bedrest waiting to have her! Time sure does fly!
Here are some pictures from Breana's family birthday party.




We went tobagganing the day of Breana's family birthday party. Here is Gary getting some air off of the jump at the little hill.


Here is the group of us that went tobagganing. Back row left to right: Uncle Abe, Auntie Kim, Uncle Gary, Preston, Auntie Angie, Daddy (Terry), Mommy (Becky). On the GT: Tyler, Seth. Standing: Mason. Front: Breana, Samantha, Andrea. Picture Taker: Auntie Denise


Here's one of Auntie Denise because she wasn't in the group picture!


Preston and Seth had a blast going down together. They had so much fun that day!


A cute one of Preston and Auntie Angie!


Breana had her school friends birthday party on the 21st. We had 7 screaming 6 year olds! Needless to say, Terry wore earplugs the entire time (3 hours is TOO long for a birthday party - won't do that again!)

Here are some of the girls dressing up using the tissue paper from the gifts.


Breana opening gifts.


Playing games.



Decorating cupcakes. They had a blast.



Here's Daddy!


Seth wearing Daddy's sweater.


Cheese!


Seth got some cute Emu's for Christmas. Here he is modelling them. He really likes them.


Seth was cranky one day and so sat on the couch watching a show with thim. It took him all of 2 minutes to fall asleep like this!

January 2009

Seth had a tantrum and didn't want to eat supper one night so he was put in a time out. When he gets upset, he wants his blankets and puppies...and I mean ALL of them. He wanted to have supper, but didn't want to let his stuff go, so he ate his supper on top of his blankets and puppies!


This is Seth's favorite position while watching TV in our bedroom. He always has to have the pillow to lie on!


We got into Breana's piggy bank one night to roll all the change. She was having a blast learning what all the coins were and how much they were worth.


Seth being cheesy while in the laundry hamper.


This is Seth's first time on the potty! He was so excited that he actually peed! He's gone a bunch more since then, but nothing consistent. Whenever you ask him if he needs to go, he goes and tries. It's so cute to see him try SO hard and only get a few dribbles! But hey, its a start. Maybe this will be one thing that he's early with!


We went tobagganing one Sunday afternoon while at Mom and Dad's. The kids had a blast. We also had a wiener roast. It was a nice afternoon. Here is Breana going down the hill.


Here is Seth and Papa getting ready to go. The calf sled is the best tobaggan of them all!


Seth found Daddy's helmet one day so he had fun trying it on and being silly.


Terry bought these PJ's for Seth for Christmas. They are Yamaha PJ's and they have the cutest butt ever!

December 2008

Seth wearing Terry's boots and gloves


This was the nasty flu that everyone in our household got, and we gave to Auntie Denise and Gramma Ginny! Seth couldn't even keep his head up to puke, so I had to hold it. He was such a sorry little sight!


Breana and Seth helping Daddy put up Christmas lights.


Cheese!


Seth's first attempt at painting!


Our family photo! One of the only decent ones we got. Seth is not a posed picture taker!


Seth and all his grumpy wonder!


Breana at her gymnastics Christmas performance.


Seth wearing Daddy's big snowboots!



Wow, I can't believe it's almost Christmas already! It's only 4 days till Christmas and I'm still not done my Christmas shopping. I'm never this late! I guess there is a first for everything!

The kids are doing well. Seth is just getting over a cold that was accompanied by an ear infection. The only reason we suspected an ear infection is because a bunch of wax came out, just like the first time he had one. This kid doesn't usually complain when he has an ear infection, so it can be difficult to determine if he has one or not. This cold is basically just a chesty cough which only presents a problem when he is trying to sleep.

Breana is doing well in school. She is becoming quite the little reader! She often wants to read the "Little Critter" books for bedtime, and we only have to help with a few words on each page! Although, I think she could probably recite some of the books off by heart, she is getting the hang of it. She has decided she wants to take a break from gymnastics, which kind of surprised me. She said she will get back into them next year. She had a Christmas "concert" for gymnastics which was, surprisingly, the only concert she had this year. Terry, me, Seth, and Grandma Ginny were dazzled by her stunning moves! They all did really well!

I am still very busy at work. The project that I have been in charge of since I returned to work in June will be finished soon....and boy, I can't wait! I'm getting sick of doing the G/L project and can't wait to get back into regular accounting work again! We are aiming for an implementation the second week in January. What this project has entailed is to develop a new general ledger for all 14 stores so that they are all consistent. Right now, all stores have different general ledgers, so we can't create a consolidated financial statement. Right now, I'm mapping the old GL account numbers to the new GL numbers, so that has to be done seperately for all 14 stores.

Terry is still at Brandon Marine & Leisure. It is pretty quiet there right now. We need some more snow, although we did just get some. They have started to feel the effects of the recession, but hopefully they will get through everything ok.

We hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Please be safe and we hope to talk to you or see you soon!

Love,
Terry, Becky, Breana & Seth