Happy Anniversary! Happy Anniversary!

13 years of marriage. WOW! We've sure come a long way in our life together. In those 13 years we've had 4 beautiful children, lost a babe, moved 8 times, changed jobs, quit working, achieved dreams, revised the plan a zillion times, cried, fought, laughed, prayed, loved, had moments of despair, mediocrity, uncertainty and pure joy. I'm so very thankful for every moment of it for it has made us the strong couple we are today. We are in an amazing place in our marriage and I am thankful every moment for my wonderful husband. I Love You so much! Happy Anniversary to my Hero.

True love does not come by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.~ Jason Jordan

You've Got Mail

I just finished watching this movie on TV. It is one of my favorites. Our first date movie was Sleepless in Seattle so I've always been a sucker for Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. We were in a Mom and Pop bookstore on our vacation. Our kids thought it was very cool. It dawned on me that they had only been to the big box Chapters for books before. Little book stores are rarely found in the towns we have lived in and we've not made the effort to find them in our neighboring cities. It really is too bad that those Shop Around the Corner type places are becoming fewer. We used to shop in those eclectic areas of our city before kids. They aren't so stroller friendly or spacious for our huge tribe so it is a rare event when we get to those areas to shop. I think this weekend while we are sans crew we need to head down to one of my old haunts in our neighboring city and check out some non-chain shopping.

If anyone cared

I'm a bit of an idiot when it comes to blogging so I don't know if I can add a video here or not so instead I will offer up a link: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v369810QkmXjc5t

I've always enjoyed Nickelback's music. I think it is a flashback to those rocker days as a young adult. This song has really struck me and I recently watched the video and it hit home why I love it so much.

Last week a woman was brutally assaulted and murdered on a city street, 3 people have been found to have heard her cries but did nothing. How many others heard those cries and also did nothing? Does anyone care?

My DH is a volunteer Firefighter and is constantly faced with ignorant people who are too busy on their cell phone or too wrapped up in their own hurry to be somewhere to get out of the way of a gigantic fire truck with lights and sirens blazing. One day it could be your Mom or spouse or Gramma or child that they are racing to help. Move out of the way, show some respect!! There is an old lady in town whose hedge is very close to the fire hydrant that is down the street from the hall. They use this hydrant to refill their trucks and every single time she calls to complain that they knocked leaves off of her hedge. In any other place her hedge would just be cut down because it is too close to the hydrant. They are volunteers for crying out loud. Does anyone care?

The economy is booming but homelessness is growing, the food bank shelves are empty, children are going hungry. Does anyone care?

Darfur, Sudan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iraq, China....... Does anyone care?

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
We'd see the day when nobody died

Bend it Like Kodiak

This spring/summer we have been all about soccer. All 4 of the kids played but this was truly Kodiak's year to shine. He had an amazing year and learned so many skills. He has always enjoyed playing soccer but this was the year it became a passion. He has bought books on drills and skills, he practices for endless hours with his little brothers, his buddy across the street, his sister or on his own. He has a soccer ball on a sort of bungee teather to help him with his footwork. He pours over his World Cup program (thanks to Auntie Mel), studies his books, watches the stats and takes in as many games as he can.

We had a free subscription to soccer TV on the satellite and when that ran out he offered up his bottle return money if we would add it to the subscription again. LOL - those were slurpees being offered up for the love of the game. We said if he loved it that much he could keep his bottle money as long as he kept up with his chores.

We were really fortunate to have the FIFA U20 games in Canada this year and we travelled into our neighboring city to take almost all of them in. One day Cody, a friend and his sister sat in garbage bags during an unexpected downpour while Dad shivered in the cold alongside them. He said nothing short of lightening was making those kids leave that game.

I imagine that there will be indoor soccer this fall which will be a good extra curricular to keep him busy as he hits Jr. High. As it stands he hopes to improve his skills and to maybe get a scholarship for university from his passion for soccer. He knows that not everyone gets the $140,000.00/day for warming a bench like Beckham.

Rare Turtle Sighting

Turtle is a happy boy who is always singing, smiling, smirking, dancing, etc but catching those moments on camera are next to impossible. This rare moment was captured by Kodiak who has taken a keen interest in photography lately. He aspires to be a wildlife photographer/next David Beckham at the moment.