Happy Birthday, Ryan!!

Ryan is NINE today!! Ryan has brought much joy and laughter into many lives. We are grateful for his presence in our family. It's hard to believe it's been 9 years since he was born. Look how adorable he looks here:

Ryan, we hope you have a wonderful day and that we can see you soon!

Happy birthday!!

We love you!

xoxo

Missing the Snow!

I miss the days when winter guaranteed snow in our city!

The Ring

Have a look at my ring. I love it, although I don't wear it often. I usually wear the ring from my mom that she got on her 25th anniversary. However, occasionally, when I'm wearing silver, I wear this ring:
It came from my mom. I got it out of her jewelery box. I inherited it from her. I love it for sentimental reasons. I love it because it is so unique as it was crafted from a spoon, from Holland. Do you see it? They clip the spoon part off, and make a ring from the handle of the teaspoon. I remember my mom telling me this. Isn't it beautiful?? What clever Dutch people. Always finding a way to do things frugally.

So, a few weeks ago, I am wearing said ring and my dear sister-in-love, Kathy, comments on it's beauty. I presume to tell her the whole lovely story:

"It's my mom's so it's really special to me."
"It came from Mom's jewelery box"
"Well, actually, it's a spoon handle!"
"I know... very cool, eh?"
"Well, you see, they take one of those fancy tea spoons and cut the spoonie part off and bend it around to fit your finger. Very clever, isn't it??"



at this point I am taking said ring off to show her the creative spoon workmanship...
"...and look inside the ring here..."



Now, here is where I had an SLR camera to take a super duper close up of the inside of the ring...
(I know, you're getting goose-bumps here...)
There is something engraved there.... maybe this will help solve the mystery of when the ring was created... was it an heirloomed, passed down from generation to generation? Did Mom buy it on a trip to Holland? I can't remember, but wish I knew...

Exciting...




"Uh....."
"hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"
"Welll................................................................................................"

thinking" Call me crazy... but...


I'm pretty sure they didn't have AVON in Holland that made spon rings"

Yeah, me too.

Never saw that one coming. I am so sure I remember that I heard that story of the ring coming from a spoon handle. Really. Heard it. Somewhere. But I guess it wasn't from my mom. Must have been in my other life. Or someone else's mom...

And as funny as this was to me, it was twinged with sadness as I can never ask Mom the true story behind the ring. I know Dad won't have a clue where it came from (sorry, Dad, the truth hurts sometimes...) So, it will always and forever now be the Antique Spoon Ring from AVON in Holland...!

Olympic Fever

Yes, we've got it, too! Olympic fever has decended on our house. There is a certain national pride that comes when your country hosts the Olympics.

Despite what we may think about the billions of dollars spent, infrastructure built at the expense of nature, homeless displaced, and the focus on the glory to be only THE best, we can't help but jump on the Olympic bandwagon.

We love our country and are proud to be Canadians. We are in awe of the beauty of God's land of Canada. We enjoy seeing scenery of the beautiful west. We are excited when we win a medal.

So, these two weeks, we will enjoy history in the making. We will be grateful for the land that we live in. We will be grateful for the opportunities we have here.

Go, Canada, Go!!!!

My New Obsession...

Want to see my new obsession?

OK... obsession is a strong word. But I am in LOVE with the new scrapbooking digital software from Creative Memories. I've always been a novice scapper, using materials from here and there. I've been scrapping books for each of the kids since they were born. However, unfortunately, I'm about 3 or 4 years behind. You know... you just get a little behind, then a little more, then it's way too overwhelming to even begin. That's where I'm at... (however, I did do a whole book on our Disney trip 2 years ago...)

So when I heard about this digital scrapbooking, I knew it was the answer for me! I have all the pictures from 3 years ago on as digital images. Press, click, save-presto! So I'm planning on working backwards with the pages. Here's what I accomplished during the Superbowl:
You can upload these pages to Costco and slip them into a 12 x 12 album. Super excited!!

I was doing a lot of hard thinking about how to change the year 2009 to 2010 for the Halloween page. Connor then came up with the briliant comment, "Uh, Mom, it WAS 2009." Yes, sometimes I'm not smarter than a second grader...

Got a Few Minutes...?

Want to read something so touching? A blog friend, Tara Marie, found this beautiful "birth story" and shared the link. It is l-o-n-g, but it is well worth the read when you have a few minutes. You will be touched!


(Click here:) Welcome to the World, Nella Cordelia!

BAHA

You might be dreaming up images of white sandy beaches when you read that word (OK, so the place in California might be spelled "Baja", but the sound is the same...) That once unknown-to-us word (or, more accurately, acronym) has become the centre of much research in our house.

The story begins last April, when Steve came down with a bad case of flu-like symptoms. Shortly followed severe ear pain which prompted a trip to the clinic, a course of antibiotics, severe dizziness and illness, another trip to the prompt-care, including IV fluids and antibiotics and culminating in a deafness in one ear, which we hoped would dissipate with the resolving of the virus. Unfortunately for Steve, it did not. Unbelievably, the virus attacked his auditory nerve and permanently destroyed it, leaving him 100% deaf in his left ear. Not only can he not hear from that ear, but he has constant, loud, jet-engine tinnitus (TIN-i-tus) ringing that drives him crazy on a good day. After a lead on an option called the BAHA from his ENT, we began to research.

A Bone Anchored Hearing Aid is a remarkable newish assistive device. It relays the sound from his left side (the deaf side) through the BONE in his skull so that he can hear those sounds on his right side. It involves a short operation, during which a titanium post is screwed into his skull. The post fuses with his bone and becomes a part of it after 3 months. Then a processor is worn on the post. The processor picks up the vibrations of sound and relays it through the bone where it the sound is then processed in the good ear. So, in actuality, Steve will be hearing (hopefully) all the sounds a normal person hears, but in one ear! Technology is remarkable!

We are hopeful that this will help him hear more and also hopefully alleviate some of the tinnitus. We are grateful that we live in a place where Steve is able to receive this procedure and device. As it is a fairly new procedure in Canada, it is not covered by OHIP. However, the hospital where we went today covers the procedure because of experimental grant money they receive from the government. Steve is a great candidate and so has been approved for one of the twenty surgeries they are able to do each year. The processor is not covered by any government agency and comes with a hefty price tag. However, we are hopeful that our insurance will cover most, if not all of the processor.

(These are pictures from this website...)

The process is worn on the skull. That will be an adjustment. It can be removed for showering and sleeping.

The sound travels through the processor and through the bone in the skull.

We remain hopeful that this will restore some of the things that Steve has been missing for the last many months. It will take 3-4 months on a waiting list for a surgery spot to come open for him. You can read more about the BAHA here.