All photos by Meagan McCance. I think she did such a great job! I love all the photos!
Merry Christmas!
December 2013
Celebrating Logan’s birthday with my side of the family.
Decorating the tree! The kids had fun, but Jason doesn’t seem very impressed.
We visited our friend’s cabin in Montana for a weekend in the beginning of December. The boys were going to go snowmobiling, but it was too cold. My friend MA and I left early Saturday morning so she could get to a funeral – I had to be back for something on Sunday. On the way home, in BC, we hit some ice (the roads were really bad that weekend) and rolled Jason’s new truck into the ditch. It was pretty scary. We were both OK – just some whiplash and MA got some cuts in her head that gave her some wicked red high lights. We were taken by ambulance to the hospital in Sparwood, but not before the put MA on a spinal board, taking their sweet time OUTSIDE when it was -25 or so. It was SOOOOOOO cold. My dear dad came to rescue us – it was quite the adventure. At least crashing with MA is always entertaining, if nothing else! 
The boys had their small piano Christmas concert at our house. They both played really well!
Jax singing in the choir at the school Christmas Concert. Logan was my date.
Logan had a cute little Winter Celebration performance at school. He had been saying the poem for months at home, but then we got to the school and he wouldn’t even open his mouth. The poem goes like this…
There was a little snowman, who had a carrot nose. Along came a bunny, and what do you suppose? That fluffly little bunny, looking for his lunch, ate the snowman’s carrot nose. CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH! (Logan used to say, ‘and what do you a-pose?’)
My mother-in-law and I took Nate & Jax to the Nutcracker this year, which they loved. It was great. I love the Nutcracker and teach it to my students every year!
We went to the Nativity pageant at Heritage Park with Jason’s parents and Nicky’s cousins that were visiting from Australia.
We spent Christmas Eve with my side of the family.
We always spend Christmas morning at home with our own little family. This year the boys slept in until 9:00 or so! It was so strange, but quite nice! We had a nice calm morning of opening presents and I think the boys were happy with their gifts!
Christmas Day, the Popowich side of the family came over for dinner. I didn’t even have to do anything, which was so great! Nicky brought the turkey and everyone else helped with the veggies. I made dessert the night before, so it was actually a nice, relaxing day!
The boys disappeared upstairs and claimed to be “rehearsing”. They came out of Nate’s room and did this performance for us as “The Technics” – it was basically Nate singing “Radioactive” while Charlie & Jax “fought” in the background. It was hilariously strange.
On New Year’s Eve, my family came over for treats and games. I made everyone get together for a photo, despite all the grumbling!!!
We played pictionary – it was pretty entertaining.
November 2013
Basketball season!!!
Visiting Logan’s class at school…
I convinced Jax to join the school choir for fall – he didn’t go back after Christmas. Here he is singing in the school’s Remembrance Day assembly.
Logan’s 4th birthday was at the end of November. We did the early morning gift opening on Mommy & Daddy’s bed…He was hilarious because he was so excited and grateful for every present. He was the most excited for his Ninja Turtle socks – I’ve never seen anyone get so excited about socks before…
Some new costumes – Ninja Turtle and Wolverine.
Celebrating with the Gran & Grandpa.
Logan helped me bake the cake for his party.
For his birthday party, we invited A LOT of kids over (I think there ended up being 18 with cousins and everything) over for a giant play date. It was a little crazy, but I think Logan had a great time – he loves being the centre of attention
October 2013
These might not be in chronological order because I can’t really remember when everything happened – it was so long ago! So we’ll start with this random shot of Logan wearing his Happy Meal “toy”. It might have been Wendy’s, although that would be surprising, because he makes my Mom and I go to McDonald’s every Wednesday when I am working.
The boys did a couple rounds of swimming lessons in the fall. It was Logan’s first swimming lessons (he’s the third child, we waited until he was almost 4 before giving him that life saving skill – ha ha!) He loved every minute of it – except the getting out part. He was super naughty. Because he feels really comfortable in the water, he kept letting go of the side of the pool and swimming off by himself, which kinda freaked the teacher out. So he had to get talked to a lot about staying on the side.
Red goggles Jax, blue goggles Nate.
Field trip with Jax to Heritage Park. He’s been loving learning about Pioneers and First Nations, so he was pretty excited to dress up like a pioneer (which means cowboy when you are looking through our dress-up box…) and visit Heritage Park. Thankfully it wasn’t too cold out that day!
These strange boys were “training” in the basement. It made me laugh.
Indoor wiener roast at Nana’s one night…
Logan and Avery – best of friends.
We also played Jenga and the kids LOVED it and thought it was hilarious.
The annual Run for the Cure – Mom and I finally got a record number out this year! We even got my Dad and Jason to participate. Nate and I ran it (and left my parents and Jason with Logan and Jax – ha ha, smart move!) I stand corrected. I ran it and Nate walked with Joel. I was getting mixed up with the Mother’s Day Run. I ran with my two friends (pictured below), although we got separated right at the beginning of the race. I caught up with Sonja close to the end though, so we crossed the finish line together.
The team!
I went to Montana one weekend with Joel and my parents to get some Christmas shopping done. It was pretty great to get away sans kids and actually do some shopping.
Preparing for Halloween, or just playing dress-up – a favourite activity at our house. In case you are wondering what the heck Nate is supposed to be, I posted a picture of his character. He is Finn from Adventure Time – a cartoon on TV. Pretty good eh? I didn’t want to buy the costume because it was expensive and crappy, so we bought pieces and created the outfit (for super cheap from Walmart in the States!) I bought a nerf sword and coloured duct tape and Joel helped me create the sword. (You can see it in the actual Halloween photos below.) I did order a cheap little green backpack on Amazon, but it didn’t come before Halloween. Thankfully, Jax actually has a green backpack for school. (Didn’t think of that when I ordered the cheap one on Amazon – duh.)
We went to Butterfield Acres with Logan’s class for a pumpkin hunt. It was cold, but fun. Joel came too, but I’m not sure how he escaped being in a photo!
October brings sweet little Avery’s birthday…
October is also, of course, HALLOWEEN!!! Some people hate Halloween, but I actually kinda love it. I love coming up with costume ideas for the kids and trick-or-treating and giving out candy and the whole sha-bang!
Here are our pumpkins! Logan wanted to make a ninja turtle – in case you can’t tell what his is supposed to be!
So the week before Halloween, my brother-in-law had a really serious accident and was in the ICU. So the night of the Halloween party at our church, I had all of my sister’s kids. So we dressed ‘em up and took them to the party! It was actually really fun. Joel came to help me and we convinced Kenny & Nathalie to meet us there too. I dressed up as Hermione – can you tell? I even made a S.P.E.W. badge. Joel’s a soccer player and obviously, Nathalie was an adorable cat. Kenny was a loser. He already had that costume.
Trick or treating! Logan is a character from Power Rangers BTW. I forget his name – some robot dude. I convinced Nate to still trick-or-treat with us this year, but he and his best friend that came with us (as Minecraft Steve) got bored with how long we were taking and went ahead. I ended up going back to the house and Nate stayed with his friend J and his mom and they ended up trick or treating over by J’s house as well. I thought it was going to be super cold, so I made the kids put on tons of layers, but it ended up being kinda warm, so the boys were mad at me for all the sweating they were doing. So we had to take a little break half way through trick or treating to take off some layers!
September 2013
We spent the September long weekend in Bigfork. Good times. I took this photo of Nathalie on the boat – it got pretty cool in the evening – playing Candy Crush on her phone. We got pretty addicted and there’s not a lot for us to do on the boat when everyone else is wakeboarding. So we just camped out at the front of the boat and played our silly game. And were silly. Like I said, good times.
There’s always a car show in Bigfork September long, so we went to check it out. It was HAWT that day! These are the boys posing beside their favourite cars.
We visited with our good friends the Loewers while we were there, and went to the car show with them. Here’s our little bus full of hooligans – of course Logan is sucking on his fingers. Missing the L baby.
On the drive home…(we went through BC)
First day of school! Grade two for Jax, grade four for Nate.
Posing with “the littles”. We had Avery with us that day, much to Logan’s delight.
Taking the boys to school, we had to stop to check out the fish.
Walking to the car after school.
This is Logan’s first day of preschool, the next week.
I took this hilarious photo of Jason and his Dad – like father, like son!
Fun times at Gran and Grandpa’s – all the cousins.
We did a hike up Mount Yamnuska with the 12-13 year old girls from church. I got Joel to come with – fun times! Here is us at the start…
And us at the top, as well as the peak we climbed! We didn’t climb the whole thing because we didn’t have that much time. Maybe next time!
September also brings the annual city-wide food drive. My kids love to go drop off the bags. Logan lasted a lot longer this year than in the past. Avery (and Kenny & Nathalie) came and joined us for a bit! I was so proud of my boys for all the hard work they did!
Crazy Craftiness
OK, so I know it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, but one of the things that makes me feel better when feeling down is crafting, Maybe it’s because it makes me feel less useless. So in the last couple of months, I have been doing a lot of crafting. I made a lot of things for Christmas gifts – it was pretty fun. So here’s what I’ve been up to…
I made these shirts for the littles (Logan & Avery) for the Run for the Cure using my fancy Silhouette. One is with fabric paint and one is with rhinestones. I was surprised how fun and easy the rhinestones were to use!
For Avery’s birthday…
I finally got around to “refinishing” this old filing cabinet.
Before…
After…
I sewed this blanket for my niece, Nora.
For my niece Addie, I made her this little blanket for her dolls. It matches the one I made her when she was a baby.
For my little Wolverine, Logan, I made these claws. He loved them. Now he can be aggressive with cloth claws. (I found the pattern here.)
I made this little makeup pouch for my sister-in-law for her birthday to go with some makeup I bought her. The pictures are really blurry, but you get the idea.
I was tired of our printer always being dusty, so I decided to make a cover for it.
One of my best friends from high school had her first baby, so I made her this blanket. (So I think it’s a variation of this pattern.)
Another friend’s son needed a brown toque for a school play, so I told her I could make her one. I made one that was way too big, so I added a flower and gave it to her. The second one was smaller. It was a cute pattern that was really easy. I made another one in blue for another friend for Christmas. (Pattern here.)
I made these advent calendars last year and had a bunch of leftover supplies, so I decided to use them up to make more for gifts. They all turned out so cute, I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to keep for myself!
I’ve been wanting to try out this little cake stand idea for awhile. It’s just a terracotta pot and tray spray painted.
I sewed a couple of these large bags for Christmas.
I decided to use up some of my yarn stash to make an infinity scarf. My mom had been whipping them up like nobody’s business and hers all looked so cute, so I thought I should give it a try. This one is just a bunch of rows of double crochet. I kept it for me.
This pattern I found on Ravelry and liked it so much I made 4. Two were for teachers, one was for my mother-in-law and one was for my granny-in-law (ha ha!) I really want one of the blue ones for me. The fourth one I made was black, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I kinda want one of those too. (Pattern here.)
I made these ear warmers for the girls I work with at church. (Pattern here.) If I had had more time, I would have added flowers.
I made little hats for my nieces and nephews on the Popowich side. One was too small though, so I’ll have to make another.
For Max… (Pattern here.)
For Nora…(Pattern here.)
For Addie…(Pattern here.)
And the crown jewel of my collection…I made this for my brother Joel, a huge Doctor Who fan. If you’ve seen Doctor Who, you will recognize this little creature. If not, why they heck don’t you watch Doctor Who??? (Pattern here.)
And last but not least, I thought my nephew Charlie would appreciate this cute little art kit more than a crocheted hat, so I sewed this for him. It is far from perfect because it is the first of it’s kind I have ever made, so the method has yet to be perfected. Hopefully he and his mother won’t look too closely at it! I found the tutorial here.
And that just about wraps it up! Now that Christmas is over, I have to find other excuses to make stuff!
Real Confessions, Not Just A Clever Title
I haven’t felt this crappy since…well, since before I was diagnosed probably. I HATE not being in control and my life is spinning out of my grasp. I can only do so much, I can only be so many places and I can only survive on so much sleep. My disease/condition/weakness and I have made peace a long time ago. Yes, having narcolepsy is a burden. A frustrating burden that most people don’t understand or don’t care to understand. To a lot of people, it’s a joke, portrayed poorly and inaccurately by Hollywood. Some people have never heard of it, or simply don’t know what it really is. But for me and for my family, it is very real and while I don’t mind the occasional joke, it’s just not funny. It’s my reality.
What changed? I found out at the end of October that there is a nation-wide shortage of my medication used to treat the excessive daytime sleepiness part of my disorder and it is unknown when the shortage will cease. They predicted mid-November, but now they are saying December and I’m not that optimistic. So I’ve been living unmedicated for almost a month and WOW, is it hard. I forgot. I forgot how tired I get, how easily I fall asleep and how hard it is to wake up. I forgot how much of my life could be sucked up by sleep, how out of it I could constantly feel – like I am living in a haze. I also forgot how awful it is to be constantly late because “I fell asleep” – how STUPID it makes me feel and how frustrating it is to not really be able to do anything about it.
It’s been a long time since I thought I don’t know how much longer I can do this, or had to say no to things because I knew it just isn’t in the cards right now. Or since I thought – WHY ME? DAMN NARCOLEPSY! and NO ONE UNDERSTANDS. It goes against the very fibre of my being to admit defeat, to admit that I can’t do something or to simply not be able to do something. I already hate the level of dependance my life has on other people, but now…
Our family is living off of pre-cooked, frozen or easy meals, like pancakes for dinner, my kids are in heaven because of their unlimited screen time hours…all because I can’t pull it together enough to NOT be sleeping at dinner time. And before dinner time. Or when my kids get home from school. Or when my kids are supposed to be leaving for school. Or when I’m supposed to be picking my kids up from school. Or when I’m supposed to be at work. And on, and on, and on.
I’m not writing this for a pity party. Or asking for help. Just understanding. Just forgive me my incompetence and have patience with me. I’m trying. And failing, but hey, at least I’m trying.
Confessions of a narcoleptic right?
August 2013
Our summer vacation continued into August. We spent some time at our friend’s cabin in Montana. This is Logan and his friend. They are still working on getting along, but I think they are destined to become great friends one day.
After that, we drove up to Jason’s family’s cabin in BC for the August long weekend. The boys are learning to play golf and had a lot of fun with it.
We were there at the same time as Uncle Matt, Auntie Heather and baby Max. The boys had fun swimming and pretending to be water benders.
This is Logan having a full out temper tantrum. I’m such a good mom, I just took a photo.
Playing at Gran & Grandpa’s – Max enjoys his first “quad ride”.
Home again for a couple of weeks – just in time to meet my new niece, sweet Nora!
Avery came to play for a couple of days while Daddy was working. We had lots of fun; playing dress up, going to the park…
Babysitting Max…
Nathalie’s birthday…
One night, I came home from a meeting to find this sign on Jaxon’s door.
It made me laugh, because not only was it at a height that was way above Logan’s head, but Logan can’t even read!!!
One weekend, we invited Kenny and Nathalie to come to the lake in BC with us.
On the drive there…
We decided to brave the road to the natural hot springs. It had been washed out in the past couple of years. We weren’t even sure if the hot springs would still be there, but someone had rebuilt them – they look completely different than they used to!
The road…
Kenny and Jason helped Jason’s dad with some roof building project. I took this picture of all the trucks because it made me laugh.
Nathalie, Kenny & Jason went quadding while I uh, had a nice little nap. I haven’t been back on the quad since last years accident and don’t really intend to go again. I’m a little bit terrified. Here is Nathalie and I pretending to quad.
Jason brought some of his guns, so Kenny, Nathalie, Jason, Ken and I went out shooting for a little bit.
We took the boat out for a little tour of the lake.
On the way back home…
The last week in August, Jason was in between his old job and starting his new job, so we headed back to Montana to hang out with my parents. We went through Logan Pass and had to stop for a bit because of construction. I took these pics out of boredom!
We were there at the same time as the Rawlings for one fun day! We played in the canal and went for dinner at Applebees – poor Applebees…
Shopping – Denver & Jax always hold hands. I think it’s cute.
More fun on the lake…
Joined on the weekend by Joel, Kenny, Nathalie and Avery…
Jaxon LOVES the tube and can ride for hours! Nathalie was kind enough to ride with him…
We went over to the Loewers to play in the pool. My kids love their friends and had a lot of fun playing with them!
