Paige's Page

I really have no desire to update this thing, but I thought I should. I have a little bit o' time on my hands. This has been a most interesting summer. Definately the most active one. Phil and I have done something every weekend. We've done lots of camping. Last week we hiked into this remote lake called Andy. It was about a 2 hour hike down Mount Lolo, that was at a very good pace. Jogging through much of it. We ended up getting, not really lost, but we missed the path into Andy many times. We ended up sleeping under the stars in the middle of some clearing. It was about 9:15 at night when we gave up looking, couldn't see much and we weren't too crazy on encountering any bears. We ended up hiking another 4 hours before we stumbled onto the lake. We backtracked so many times, took some interesting ways through the dense forest, came accross the most amazing wild rasberry bushes, which made the whole journey not seem so bad. It was a sureal weekend. Our own personal lake. Not a single human being for miles. Because we hiked in, we took in only the very necessities, a couple of sleeping bags, some oatmeal, trail mix, a pot.. we boiled water to drink. It was a completly different world. We hiked back Sunday. It took us about 3 hours, pretty much all up the mountain. We plan to go back and start building a cabin. It may have to wait until September. My weekends are book until the 2nd week. This Friday I leave for my 10 year highschool reunion. I know so lame, but it's really important to me. After grad I just left and never went back. I really look forward to seeing some of these guys. I can't imagine anyone in my class going to this thing, but I guess I'll find out soon. I was a little disapointed today, my employee was suposed to start today and was going to work Friday and Monday for me so that I wasn't going to have to drive the 10 hours there and the 10 hour back in 2.5 days, but she didn't show up. I called her, turned out a friend of hers died and she wasn't going to be back until next week. Thankfully Phil will manage everything while I'm away. I will be getting back Monday and will leave again to go to Edmonton on Friday for my sisters wedding on the 26th. After that Phil and I will drive to the island and kayak the Johnson strait. I've shut the daycare down for the whole week. I'm in so much need of a break, however, I'm not sure a full week of kayaking the ocean is going to be super restful. After our last kayak adventure, I'm a little hesitant as to how I will fare, but I can't imagine how incredible it'll be. The Johnson strait is supposed to be one of the best kayaking places in the world. I am super excited, and other than gas, ferry and my kayak rental it shouldn't be too costly. We'll take a tent and just set up camp where ever it looks good. Distilling sea water will be very interesting..

Saturday morning..didn't quite make it to the lake

big trees

hiking into lake andy..one of the wrong turns

our bed. I tried to dig out underneath a bit more, my goal was to make a stand-up little home, hit some rock though

our camp

our own private lake

Phil built this kayak. Pretty crazy hey? It's amazing. We've been kayaking all weekend. His friend Ian Brooks came down and we rented one for him and myself and made sure we got our rental money out of it. Friday night we kayaked down the river and back, we left at 9 pm and got back around 11. it was a nice ride for our first time out. It's so beautiful at night being on the water. Saturday we went to Paul lake and put in around 4 hours going around the lake. Sunday night we kayaked to this little island called rabbit island on the river and then left the next morning around 7 am and headed to Kamloops lake. Going down was nice, we just rode the river, took it very easy we made it in like 1.5 - 2 hours. Heading back UP the river was a whole different story. Oh my gosh. I thought I was going to die. We didn't get back until after 4:30 pm. I was exhausted. It was fun though and beautiful. A bear swam accross the river right in front of us. He was cute, just a cub, but oh can they swim.

	The Kayak that Phil Built
	The Kayak that Phil Built on Paul lake		The Kayak that Phil built.. and me

oh funny, I just re-read some of my past updates. I wrote in Sept that I should be licensed in only a few more weeks!!! wow, talk about being a little off!!!!

Hot water tank blew up this morning. The new one doesn't look any different than the old one. I'm not sure what I had expected, I just figured you spend 800 plus dollars on an item 20 years newer than the last it should have some sort of rocket jets coming out of it or at least painted a different colour.

We may be postponing our Europe trip. It was initially my idea, but now I think I want to change my mind. One moment a year seemed like nothing but now it seems like we'll be putting off our whole life. My older sister will be having a baby and also getting married this year and it would greatly sadden me to miss that. As well, Phil's sister Janessa is also graduating this year and it's an absolutely HUGE thing for her. I will also have a very new business and there is a fair amount of uncertainty surrounding whether or not it's feasible to continue with it under a manager. I do think I figured out all the details, I'm unsure as to whether licensing will allow it though. I was informed they may want to inspect every 3 months, so being covert about it may not be an option. My licensing issues are a whole other subject. I had my first inspection on Thursday, and unfortunately my deck which at it's highest height reaches the formidable (and deathly-dangerous) 30" does need a rail to protect my precious little ones from plunging to their death. I had suspected that but was hoping my licensing officer would not notice it. She did leave me quite puzzled with her comment saying that at 2 feet she would not have had a problem, but 4 feet definitely needs a fence. So I either misunderstood her or she is measurmently challenged. If it was the latter, I'd be a little upset as I probably could have negotiated my self out of a rail.

I learned a few new things this past licensing visit. The most surprising of them is that the children's belongings MUST NOT TOUCH. I had installed a coat hook for their coats (a similar system that I had initiated at my past two licensed facilities) and apparently it's inadequate because the hooks are too close and their belongings may tough therefore increasing the chance of spreading communicable diseases. The same goes for dress-up clothes. If I choose to include that sort of play in my environment, the dress-up articles must be hung up on a hanger not touching. So, so long to Mr Dress-ups tickle trunk.

I'm almost there. Phil has almost finished building me my deck railing and the licensing officer will be back this Thursday to hopefully hand me a piece of paper that says I'm licensed. It's been a way too long of a road to get here. yeesh.

Well happy new year everyone. Mine has definately had an uneventful start, but that's ok. Christmas was wonderful. We spent it with the inlaws. Phil so so surprised me. He usually never shops for me until Christmas Eve, but this year I came home from working at Sun Peaks, mid Dec. and under my so very beautifully decorated tree with all my wrapped christmas gifts matching accordingly- I know, so lame, but it looked very wonderful.- were two rather large packages wrapped in the ugliest wrapping paper ever with huge tags on them with my name printed boldly on the front. I was convinced that he had purchased all my presents at Wallmart, (I just happened to see the bags crumpled up in the corner and therefore assumed away )which wouldn't have been the first-and I had decided he had gotten me a pair of boxing gloves as he had in the past threatened. After he told me he spent quite a bit I concluded the other gift had to be some sort of jewelry just wrapped in a large box. I couldn't think of anything else that would cost that much at walmart other than furniture. Christmas morning arrived and I am now the proud and loving owner of a brand new snow board, boots and bindings. weeeeeee!

and again I refuse sleep...for the moment. It's not like I won't make up for it in the morning. I have conclusive evidence that if I don't have a reason (with consequence) to not rise, I will surly not rise. This weekend and today has proven that. I soften my conscience with thoughts that "it's Christmas, I should just enjoy this moment, bask in this moment, eat all the left over cheesecake and all the leftover chips and all the left over trifle and all the left over...." I'm sure you're all aware of where I was going with that, I’ll restrain myself before I truly disgust all you faithful readers of mine. I am forever putting off for tomorrow what I should be doing today. A wise Dr. Hodges often a time would say "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." shall I just say it's getting awfully warm in here... ( click to read more. )

I did not make it to bed fast enough, basement suite guy is home, main disturbance in nose honking. all though he has managed to run into probably every wall and I am beginning to smell the beginning of oil being heated. Radio as of yet has not been unleashed but that is just a matter of time. I'm sure once all his nasal caveties have been cleared he'll be able to focus on an intrigguing radio show.
...k no joke this guy has been blowing his nose for at least 15 min. now. That is something no one should have to listen to. k Im off to attempt to sleep.

I should really be sleeping right now. I hate starting off Monday wrong. Now I'll skip the gym 'cause I'm too tired, be not as nice as I could to the kids I babysit, especially when the little 3.5 year old boy poohs his pants for the 3rd time for the day. Chris (little poopy boy) actually hasn't been at my house for probbaly 3 weeks. So I'm not sure how it'll go. His gramma would take him for days and weeks at a time and return him to me totally regressed in everything we had worked on. The pooping issue was driving me crazy. So much so that I've had two distinct poop dreams. They both really stand out to me so I'm not sure if there's actually more to them. One of them was that I was babysitting Chris and I go check on him while he's on the 'potty' and he not only defecated his pants but he had poop everywhere, he had smeared it all over my walls, and he just sat looking at me with a sinister mocking smile...very disturbing. my other poop dream was very much different, it was just a side incident, the main story line of my dream was that I was hanging out with Tim Sawatsky and some other people I hadn't seen for ever, was feeling terribly bad because I was out having fun and Phil was at home sleeping, I decide I'd finally better go home (I think we were at Dennys for coffee) and I find out our truck was stolen, I was extremely scared. Laying on the ground was my brown jacket, so the thiefs must have chucked it out. I put my coat on, put my hands in my pocket, feel something squishy and realize that someone had pooped in my coat pocket. The dream ended with our truck not being covered under our insurance. So if anyone has any ideas on what my concience may be trying to say to me through these poopy dreams, please feel free to share.

On another note, I'm having a christmas party on Friday. I'm quite curious as to how that will turn out. One of the guys is going to hike the churches projector and hook up an xbox to it so the boys will hopefully have fun. My husband still says he's not coming. So you're all invited. it's at 7ish. I'm gonna go chocolate crazy, do a huge chocolate buffet...so the girls will hopefully have fun as well.


Well I should probably go to sleep now before my basement suite guy gets home, starts banging walls, slamming doors, frying onions, blaring CBC radio and preventing me from a peaceful sleep. I actually have a lot more to share but it'll have to wait for another day. bye.

I had a pampered chef party last night. I think it turned out all right. My biggest fear was that no one would come. I had I think 8-10 guests. phew. no ones ordered anything yet though. I have some catologue orders coming in. This is something I normally would never do. I abhor going to these kind of parties. Actually no, that's too strong, I'm just not crazy about going to these parties, I usually always go and I usually enjoy myself so I guess they're no that bad at all. The story is.... After my week stint at almost selling filterqueen vaccumes, I myself was sold that they were absolutely the answer to all my lifes problems and any other cleaning system is slowly killing me. A new filterqueen vaccuum is $3000. (they were throwing in the Defender air filter for free, for a limited time only of course). A used one is still considerably out of my budget. My sil Miranda knew of my burning desire to have one and one day when she had a burning desire to have me babysit her kids for her, the topic of my vacuume plight came up again. She had mentioned that her friend Tammie has her moms old filterqueen that she doesn't use anymore. So I told Miranda that I would babysit for her if she secured me an in on the filterqueen. She immediatly called Tammie to ask if she would sell it to me, and Tammie in turned said she would give it to me if I threw a Pampered Chef party (she's a consultant). And there you have it folks, why I threw a Pampered Chef party. It was fun though, I've always wanted an excuse to have larger amounts of people over. I enjoy entertaining and I love showing off my house now that the kitchen is almost nearer to completion. I love my home, almost as much as my filterqueen vaccume. Want to know an even crazier thing though? I don't have any carpet!! It's all hardwood and ceramic tile. But I vacuume my couches every day now. weee.. I have totally gone stepford wife..minus the legs, boobs and hair..

My house is all decorated for christmas. I kind of went obsessive compulsive with it. Christmas cheer is on steriods here. It really is pretty. I have a white pine tree which I'm crossing my fingers will live until christams. Everything is decorated in creams and off whites. I got my inspiration from the wedding isle at Michaels. It just went out of control from there. For my wedding -five years ago today- my boquet was just a whole buch of red berry garlands with candles, so I have tonnes of red berry garland, but because my theme was white, I actually spray painted them..I told you I am out of control, I also tea-died some ribbon I bought because it was too white.. I wanted it creamy.. So yes this is the product of what happens when you give Paige tonnes of time stuck at home, a husband gone for 10 hours of the day working and too many credit cards..

I suppose an update is well over due. Very little has happened lately. Grace has come close again. It's so refreshing. Scripture is alive again. I'm humbled. The words of Jesus are so powerful. So untamed. Our culture and society has watered them down so much. Our Lord expects and deserves all that we have. How many times had Jesus spoke "oh foolish generation, stubborn generation, of little faith generation, wicked..." gosh.. it peirces my heart. I feel so undone. Those are harsh words, and most often spoken to his disciples in times of their unbelief. My heart is just filled right now. I love our God, all I have is his. I long for that oneness that he prayed for us. That we would be one just like he and the Father are one. that where ever I go, the power and grace of Jesus is completely overflowing bringing healing and salvation to those around me.

On a competely different note. daycare process is inching along. a bit of a waiting game still. I'm waiting on my charactor references to get in. My mom was one of them and I guess my sister picked up the mail and had the package for well over a week. then after that they will come, inspect my house and hopefully won't mind my never-in-use pond and consider it as being sufficiently child proof. I don't even use my yard, I'm right next to one of the best kid parks in the city and play there each day. So if they are unhappy with my yard, I have another 2 weeks of either putting up an ugly five foot fence (which I had and took down last year) or filling out more paperwork and filing for an exemption. The kids I care for are so cute. and with that I leave you.