Cunningham Christmas

We had the Cunningham-side-of-the-family Christmas celebration on Sunday evening. It was a LOUD evening to be sure. Lots of little people running around the house.

This is Dad outside preparing a large candle holder. It looked quite pretty later in the evening with the candle in its proper place.


Here's the crew around the table.

A new word?

We were playing a game tonight as a family and Isaac came up with another saying that made us laugh. We've been trying to teach Isaac that he doesn't have to win every game or be first in every endeavour. And so tonight when Bonnie won both games, I told Isaac how proud I was of him in not getting upset. Then he proceeded to tell us how important it was to have good sportsgirlship.

I can only assume he was, in his own way, trying to instruct Bonnie on how to properly behave when she won a game.

Counting our blessings

At the end of the year, it has been a tradition in my family to look back over the year and recall some of the many blessings God has bestowed on us. I'll start with some recent blessings.

On Sunday morning, as we were waking up and preparing to attend Isaac's Sunday School performance of "Angels Aware", Curtis informed me that our hot water taps were frozen. After a couple of phone calls and acting out some good advice, they were soon thawed and the water was flowing once again. We went to church and were blessed by the childrens' performance, glad to see all their hard work over the past months turn out so well. We told Isaac how proud of him we were, and were glad to hear the positive comments of others, too.

After church, we made a brief stop on our way home to pick up a couple of things, only to return to our van and find out it wouldn't start! (The temperature, by the way, was about -20 or lower). Thankfully another couple from our church had also stopped there, and graciously gave us a ride home - another blessing! When Curtis returned to meet the man from BCAA (having been told it would be about 45 minutes, and that he would get a phone call when the repairman was on his way), the man was starting to pull away, and told Curtis he'd been waiting about 20 minutes already, though Curtis had not received the promised phone call. He did get the van running again, though, for which we were thankful!

That afternoon, Isaac had a second performance, and the van started without a problem, going and returning. It was another lovely performance, and this time his paternal grandparents, his uncle Michael, and the 4 oldest Cunningham cousins were in attendance, too.

Afterward, we had the grandparents, uncle and cousins over for supper, as well as some friends who came to help celebrate Curtis' parents' 40th anniversary - more blessings!

We truly have so much to be thankful for: enough work provided for me and Curtis over the course of the year to provide for our needs; new friendships to develop through work, church and Bible Study groups; a wonderful school and teacher for Isaac's kindergarten year; visits with family and friends over the year; the ability for one of us to stay home with Isaac while the other works; a beautiful place to live; Curtis' ability to persevere despite disappointments concerning his health and developing his business; new opportunities that are presented... I could go on and on.

Thanks to all of you who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers. We appreciate them very much! May God be with each and every one of you this Christmas season, and bless you with good health and happy memories!

After the snow: PM

Of course, Isaac wanted to go outside...

After the snow: AM

Here's what it looked like the morning after...

First MAJOR Snowfall

November 4, 9:41pm

After dinner delight

After supper tonight, Isaac and I had a little fun. We were having dessert, and, having finished his, Isaac decided to come over and try to steal some of mine. Curtis had his camera handy, and took a few photos of us. I liked this one the best. (By the way, I did let Isaac 'steal' a little.)

Isaac and his monster trucks

Here'san example of the fun that Isaac has with his monster trucks. Just yesterday he earned enough (through doing jobs around the house) to get another one. But these photos were taken a week or so ago, and so the new one didn't make it in.

Our amazing son

At the risk of sounding like I'm bragging, I wanted to share something that made Curtis and I very proud. Tonight I got out Isaac's Leapfrog "Word Whammer" game because I'd mentioned it to his teacher at the parent/teacher interview on Thursday night as one of the reasons he knows his letters and the sounds they make. She had commented on how smart he is, that he can already read and sound out a bunch of words in class. (There are some areas that he needs to work on, but this is one he does very well in). I told his teacher that I'd send it with Isaac to his next class, so we got it out - he hadn't played with it in quite awhile, so I had to put new batteries in it - and then we started making words. The game helps kids make three letter words, either by giving them words to spell, or allowing them to put letters together to make their own words. After awhile, I decided to write down the different words we were making. I don't know if I remembered them all, but there were about 40 words that he spelled, either completely on his own, or by my suggesting different letters to substitute for the ones he had, or asking "how do you spell...?". It was so fun to see the excitement of learning and accomplishment on his face! He even had fun telling me (or asking me) what the different words meant, and made a couple of four letter words beside the game.

The last couple of days I took it very easy, having worked 6 shifts in the previous 5 days. I could have worked more overtime, but decided to exercise my right to say no, and spend time with Curtis and Isaac. While I feel bad for the staff who had to work short-handed or do overtime shifts themselves, I realized that if I didn't make time to rest (which is biblical), I would get run down and sick and not be good for anyone. I'm glad I did. Hopefully they will hire more staff soon, and there won't be such a shortage of able-bodied workers!

Wet

Well the snow from a few days ago was just a teaser I guess. It came and went in a matter of hours. And here, six days hence, it hasn't returned. Although it has been raining quite a lot, and we can see the snow level slowly come down the mountain, especially on the ski runs. So I'm thinking that it, meaning REAL SNOW, will come sooner rather than later. But who knows. Only being here one winter season thus far doesn't really give us much to go on as far as what's typical.

New Signage

A couple days ago, I finished putting up a new sign for my business in front of the house. I also have some decals on the van (one on each of the back windows) with my name and contact details etc. With these new advertising efforts I'm hoping my phone starts ringing with a little bit more frequency soon.

...beat last year's first by 6 days

What you may ask did the beating? The first snow of the season that is. Last year it was October 22. This year's first snow here in Smithers was today.

The photo included here in this post was taken at 5:54pm this afternoon. BIG flakes that melted as soon as they hit the ground.



Isaac was really excited. He kept saying how much he liked winter a lot and was looking forward to shoveling snow.

bumps and bruises

On Thursday, I got to join Isaac and his class, along with the grade 1 class, at the skating rink. I was quite impressed with how well Isaac stayed up, most of the time, considering it was only his 3rd time on the ice with his new skates. I was also amazed with how many of the kids were able to skate on their own already. They even played a couple of games, like "British Bulldog" , and another tagging game. Isaac was quite determined not to get caught, until he realized that he could then be a tagger! He did have one mishap, though, near the end of our time there. He'd been pushing a wooden chair for balance, and had stopped to find out how the next game was to be played, when he lost his footing and fell to the ice, bringing the chair down with him . The curved part of the seat (fortunately, I think) hit him at the top of his nose, and resulted in tears and a goose egg right between his eyes. I managed to make a small snowball from off the ice to try to bring the swelling down, but he didn't want to keep it on long enough to do much good. Once he got over the initial shock and pain, he started pointing his goose egg out to anyone who would listen. What is it with boys and battle scars?

Yesterday morning I received a few wounds (bruises) of my own. As usual when I am biking to work, I had hooked my lunch bag handle over the right bike handle, only this time, I had forgotten to hook the strap as well. I hadn't gone very far when my right foot caught in the strap, and down I went, bike and all. My legs have a few bruises as a result, as does my pride. I was wishing I'd stayed in bed!

Since it is Thanksgiving weekend, I will start by saying I'm thankful that Isaac's injury was a minor one, and that mine was, too. I am thankful for the city and country we live in, where we have the opportunity vote and try to make a positive difference in the lives of others. I am thankful for our families and friends near and far, and for the ability to keep in touch through various means. I am thankful for God's amazing love and for all his blessings each and every day, whether we acknowledge them or not. I am thankful that you are taking the time to read this, and that you care about what happens in our lives. May God bless you and yours this holiday weekend, giving you many reasons to be thankful.

Isaac & His Bike

I've mentioned previously about Isaac enjoying his bike and doing the "tricks" as he likes to call them. Here's a short slideshow (about a minute long) of him in action. (p.s. If you have any pop-up blockers turned on, the slideshow will not show up. Please disable them if you want to see what I've posted).

View from house

On October 3rd at 8:11 am, here is what the view from the front of our house looked like.

Kindergarten Activity

A few weeks ago, I accompanied Isaac as he and his classmates went to the ice rink to go skating. All things considered, Isaac did pretty well. As they plan on going once every month or so, perhaps Isaac will develop a keen excitement for wanting to do more...

So how was your summer?

Hello, it's me again. Sorry I haven't been blogging for awhile - life has been pretty busy with work and stuff. Summer here wasn't very warm most of the time, so the gardens weren't as fruitful as last year - except for the spinach, which was just as prolific.

As Curtis has mentioned in previous blogs, Isaac has learned to ride his bike without training wheels, which has given all of us an excuse to get out and ride more often. He learned about a week before he (Isaac) and I went down to Penticton (August 16 - 24th) to meet my family and some friends who camp there every summer. It's a good thing he did, too, because that was his favorite activity that week - riding around the campground with the other kids, and learning to do skids. Of course, I can't forget to mention that he also enjoyed riding through any puddle he could find! The weather there wasn't as warm as other years, and there were a few thunder storms as well to provide the aforementioned puddles.

Another thing Isaac learned this summer was to kneeboard. On one of the few days (while we were in Penticton) that wasn't too windy or stormy, Isaac decided to give it a try, and got up right away! I was so proud of him! He said that next time he wanted to try water skiing, but next time never came.

One day I decided to buy a rubber dingy for us to use, and discovered that you need to be careful when using a high pressure air pump to inflate it, or it goes "boom!" Thankfully only the bottom layer went boom, and we were still able to use it. Boy, did I feel silly, though! Poor Isaac was so upset when he thought I'd destroyed it.

One night a bunch of us went go-karting, which was fun. I made sure not to wear flip - flops there this year, and walked down the stairs very carefully. (For those of you who don't know, I broke my leg there two years ago going down a short flight of stairs.) Other nights that week were spent either playing cards, visiting, or checking out the Iron Man festival downtown. My friend Jann and her two oldest kids came up one night for a visit from Abbotsford, so that was a treat, too. They got to experience the talent show that some of the kids from our group put on (which included Isaac wearing a costume and dancing - quite a sight!). All in all, it was a great week, despite having left Curtis at home to 'hold down the fort'. If only it hadn't ended with me hitting a deer about an hour from home! I have no idea how the deer fared, as I was rather stunned and kept driving until I found a safe place to pull over and check the damages, and call Curtis. Thankfully his first words were, "Are you and Isaac okay?" We were. Isaac was still sleeping, and I was just shaken up. The van, however, despite my attempt to swerve around the deer, had sustained damage to the passenger side signal light, front corner, and the side view mirror was ripped off. It has since been repaired.

Since returning from Penticton, I've been working quite a bit, Curtis has had a few jobs as well, and Isaac has started kindergarten. Thankfully he adjusted better to that than he did to preschool, and he really seems to be enjoying it. Not that he didn't enjoy preschool after the first few days, but it was pretty stressful at first. He's in the same classroom, which may help, and has some of the same classmates, but a different teacher.

So tell me, how was your summer?

Isaac's Jumps

On our way back from church today, we stopped so I could get some shots of Isaac doing his thing off the sidewalk at Heartstrings.



Now if we could only get Mommy to try!!

Fall Colours

Yesterday I went out for a little bit by myself to get some fall shots. Here's what I captured...

After dinner activities

After dinner tonight, Isaac and I went out for a bike ride. We had an hour or so before Isaac's bedtime so I thought it would be good to get some exercise.

Isaac had the most fun when we were at the parking lot of one of the stores along main street. He's had a thing lately where he is fascinated with doing what he call wheelies or jumps with the front tire of his bike. So we must have spent a good 20 minutes or so going back and forth over the edge of the sidewalk (about 4 or 5 inches off the pavement). It was really encouraging for me to listen to his excitement and see the smile on his face as he constantly was saying, "watch me daddy", "look at me daddy".

On our way back home we found a couple more "jumps" which also made him happy.

Thankfully the only problem we had the whole time we were out was when his chain fell off once. I'd much rather have that than picking him up off the pavement when a jump goes bad!

Isaac's first day of Kindergarten

I know these aren't exactly timely, but here are some photos from Isaac's first day of Kindergarten.











He is enjoying it quite a lot. Most days so far he rides his bike to school (with either Bonnie or me or both of us accompanying him) and is quite happy to tell everyone about his "new" bike! He goes Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 to 3:00 each week, plus the last Monday of each month as well. So it's a nice break for Bonnie and me to be able to have a significant block of time in which to do other things.

He's having fun playing, learning sounds/words and the show and tell times especially.

Isaac's latest Lego creations

Here's a series of shots of Isaac working on some new Lego creations.

We're still here

Time sure goes by fast. I knew it has been a while since we posted anything, but didn't realize it's been over a month. From my own perspective I would say that nothing really spectacular or out of the ordinary has happened in the past month. It's just plain old life. I guess I thought that no one really wanted to hear how we went to the grocery store and bought bananas, eggs and grapes...

Really though, it just the same old thing.

To make a long story short, perhaps I just don't feel inspired to write anything.

I'll talk to Bonnie later today and maybe she'll want to write something about the trip to Penticton she and Isaac took recently.

More Lego

A couple days ago Isaac built a truck that he wanted me to photograph.


Then this morning I created the following. I like it for it's overall symmetry.




The red/white/yellow/green top assembly rotates as well.






When I start projects like this, I really don't have a picture in my mind of what the finished product will look like. I have an initial idea that I start with and then with every additional piece I attach, new ideas suggest themselves and before I know it...voila! Although I will say that symmetry and balance are always the underlying foundation for most of what I build.

Another First

Yesterday Bonnie was outside with Isaac having another go at trying to teach him to ride his bike without training wheels. After a little while, Isaac excitedly comes in my office asking me to come outside to watch him do something. "Dare I hope he's actually got it this time?" was the essential question running through my mind as I walked outside. And it's hard to describe the feelings I felt as I then watched him take his first "pedals" on his own without support of any kind. Pride, joy, satisfaction, RELIEF probably were all mixed in there together.



Then this morning Isaac is all keen again to go riding once more. So we go in the front yard and practice again for a little while. Then we decide to go for a family ride together. There were a few stops and starts along the way, but honestly both Bonnie and I couldn't stop commenting to each other how well we thought Isaac was doing. It probably wasn't even a 5-minute ride to the park we rode to, but once we got there, we must have spent an hour or so just riding around on the baseball diamonds, the grass, and the bike park (complete with jumps). Isaac was quite excited to go to this bike park as he'd seen the big kids ride and jump there on previous visits. Isaac rode in between the jumps along the level parts, while I SLOWLY rode up and over the jumps. I know my limits believe me! We met a family friend in the parking lot on the way back home and Isaac quite proudly showed him how he could ride on his own now.



After Bonnie left for work this afternoon, Isaac and I rode our bikes to another park where there was a soccer tournament going on. So we watched the game for a while and then Isaac met some new friends and proceeded to play and even share his bike with another little 5-year-old who went for a ride as well. It's been quite warm here lately (in the 30's), and so we didn't stay that long at the park before we rode through town, down Main Street and then back home.



Quite a lot for his first full day of riding. But he told me at dinner when I asked him what the best part of the day was, that "riding my bike" was indeed the best.