pictures!

John, on some horrific, God-forsaken lake in northern BC, during our vacation this summer. Frustrated that our lake (Konni Lake) was waaaay too cold for swimming, we set out to find something better. And found this. It was so windy, we could barely hear each other talking. Obviously, we didn't let John venture into the water here, but he had fun throwing things into the wind, and watching them blow the other way.

Joan and Mike by the shores of the freaking cold Chilko Lake in BC, on the same trip. The water was so cold, when I dipped my toes in, I got instant toe cramps. Not the greatest for swimming, but it was a fun day trip to see it.

Well, with luck, there's going to be a new baby on the way in a matter of days, so I picked up a new USB cord to get the camera functional again. Everyone cheer! Yay!

I don't have much time to post a lot today, but I did pop one up for you. More on the way from our trip to Dryden and northern BC this July -a whole month away from home for the kids and I, with Mike joining us for bits and pieces.

Today, I'm getting ready for the trimphant return of John, who is currently on vacation with my parents in Victoria, meeting all of the extended family on my side, and from the sounds of it, having a blast! "I've been all over the world!" he told me on the phone last night. He seemed to really like the ferry ride over to the island. "I was on the sea! There was water, water everywhere!"

It was a spur of the moment trip for him - my parents are out west to help out while I'm in labour and for a little bit after, but are on a detour to BC before hunkering down here, to stare at my belly and wait. And wait. And wait. Just before they left, they proposed that John tag along, and we thought it was a great idea, so we packed up Blankie Pink, and off he went! It's been a very quiet few days since. We've gotten lots of sleep, which I was badly in need of. Joan's had a ton of fun being an only child, with unlimited access to all of the attention and all of John's special toys. I didn't get as many chores done as I had hoped, but I made some progress. The house doesn't self-destruct nearly as fast with Joan on her own, so it's been easier to keep pace at least.

Everything's going alright here. We've mostly been resting up, as best we can. Joan has a little cane now. It's very cute watching her use it. She hasn't mastered it by herself yet, but she gets the idea, and is trying hard. It makes it very easy to help her walk as well, because there's not as much bending on my part.

In other news, the real estate agent told us we might want to start looking for a new place to live - but not to cut any deposit cheques just yet. The guy who had the inspection weeks ago is still working on buying the place. He wants to live in our side, and rent the other. He'd apparently prefer to rent OUR side, and live in the other, but ours is the next lease to expire, so it won't work that way. Mike is still hopeful, though. The agent says he's having trouble getting financing. He's already asked for an extension to get it in place, and that runs out on Friday. The property managers are also trying to get an answer from the owner on whether our lease can be renewed and at what rate, and told us they would be working on our case in this next week. So Mike is hopeful that the financing does fall through, and that the owner just agrees to let us sign for another year, out of frustration - this would be the second offer to go bust on this place. But we'll see. At least we'll have a concrete answer either way very soon - I really don't like living in limbo like this.