Carpe Diem

I'm kind of embarrassed that it's been almost 2 months to the day since I've blogged. What's been going on in the Bly house? Let's start with the youngest, I suppose.

Brettley is 3, and I kind of feel like that explains everything to do with him right now. In our house, it's not the 2s that are terrible, it's the 3s. Brettley's circumstances of birth were, shall we say, less than ideal. As a result, he's been spoiled a lot, and we are going through the process of trying to break him of that. I'm reasonably certain that he's plotting his revenge half of the time, but he's still just so stinkin' adorable. We're going to start patching his good eye soon to try to avoid any more eye surgeries, so hopefully that will go well. He is currently obsessed with The Lego Movie and would watch it over and over all day long if I let him. His favourite person in the whole world is Grandpa Mattson, so he's very excited to be spending a special day at Grandpa's tomorrow without his brothers.

Ty finished Kindergarten in June and, much to his teacher's frustration, I have opted to move him forward to grade 1 next year. We had very different ideas about what would be the most beneficial for him, but I did my research and talked to people who had been in similar situations and strongly felt that he'd be far better off going to grade 1 instead doing another year of Kindergarten. Ty is still one of the most hilarious people I've ever known. He keeps things real in our house, and man do I love him for it. This summer he's been helping me take care of my flowers, and he is very sad that his special orange flowers that he picked out all by himself aren't faring so well anymore. He is such a sweet little guy.

Caleb...*sigh* Caleb's first few weeks of meds went very well. He wasn't hurting anyone anymore and he was a lot more willing to hear people out before getting upset. Then he started travelling for most of July and since then they haven't been going so well. I'm sincerely hoping and praying that once he gets the routine of school back that things will get a bit easier for him. My poor sweet boy, my heart just aches for him as we go through this. I can't imagine being that young and losing control so violently. On a lighter note, he is THRILLED to be going to grade 3 this year. He finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and has been reading lots of books from the library. He's also gotten into making crafts. He loves all things history and space.

We had our family vacation last month. We spent over a week in Magrath, where my allergies were absolutely awful. Luckily, my friend/cousin-in-law suggested a medication rotation that actually worked pretty decently. While we were down there we went to my father-in-law's grave and had a good cry. We went swimming in Raymond. It was a cooler day, but we had lots of fun there and took along our oldest niece. John had his birthday, and we had a blast in Lethbridge together while the kids stayed with Grandma. We went to dinner at Firestone and it was just as amazing as the first time I was there, if not better. John's sister, Kathy, threw her big birthday bash for the kids and rented a whole theatre just for us to go see Rio 2. The boys LOVED getting to see a movie that way with their cousins, and it was a lot of fun. We took in town celebrations and by Sunday morning all 5 of us were sick, so we went home a day early so that we could sleep comfortably in our own beds.

On Tuesday we headed to North Battleford to stay with my uncle and aunt for a few days. We all went to the museum there and the kids had SO much fun seeing all of the old buildings and items in them. They also spent time in the pool and sprinkler and finally discovered the joys of the Kinect for the X-Box, since we don't have a Kinect for our's. It was super hot while we were there, but it was so nice to get to spend time with 2 of my most favourite people. We left there super early Friday morning so that I could attend my brother's mother-in-law's funeral, and then we finally got home the day after that. We were all very happy to be back home.

I got to attend Stake YW camp at the beginning of July. I managed to injure my leg on the first day, and we never did figure out how it happened. We had an AMAZING (!!!!!) fireworks show at camp on Canada Day, and I discovered the amazingness of a Nutella & Marshmallow Fluff sandwich. Seriously, it was so super yummy. I love serving the Young Women again, it's one of my most favourite places in the whole world to be.

So that's where we're at...

Yesterday evening, we found out that Robin Williams had died. It prompted me to again watch one of my favourite movies, which he happens to be in, Dead Poets Society. My brother and I used to love to watch that movie together a lot, and I still can't watch it without thinking about him. It makes me cry even more than most movies. I love it. This quote from the movie has always been a favourite of mine "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." And my other favourite, "Carpe. Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."

So that will (hopefully) be my goal for now. To seize the day and make my life extraordinary!