This weekend was a very special time for our family. We were blessed to be able to attend two family events.

First on Sunday we got to go to the baby dedication for my cousin's Andy and Sharalee and there baby Kiara. Kiara is a very beautiful baby, even if she does puke a lot, and loved by so many people. The dedication was held at Arnold MB Church, in Arnold. I love going to that Church. It is a small Church that seems like a big family. And I know that Andy and Sharalee have been blessed to attend there as well. God is definitely living and moving there. It was a great service. I really loved how real the dedication was, and how much conversation their was about the importance of the parents being dedicated to raise Kiara up in a way that is pleasing to God. Which I have already seen in Andy and Sharalee. They are such great parents. Way to go guys. Keep up the good work!

After the service and some time of visiting, we joined some of the family for a lunch at Boston Pizza. It was good conversation and food. I hadn't been there for a long time. And hadn't seen some of those cousins for a long time either. I miss getting together with everyone. Maybe I'll have to do some more planning this year. Adults need play-dates too! :)

After the restaurant I was lucky to get to help another cousin decorate the Church for her wedding. I have been helping her with some of the flower details. It was cool to spend time with her, and everyone else, and see everything come together. She did a great job with all the wedding planning! She was just a baby when my Mom started babysitting her. She has grown into such a beautiful, godly young woman. I am so proud of her. It was also fun for me to learn more about her, and about flowers.

On Monday, the Wedding Day, I picked the flowers up from the nursery at 9 am and was busy for the rest of the day. The Wedding started at 4pm and so we had most of the day to finish the live flower parts of the decorations. My Mom and sister and I met at the Church and we made flower arrangments for the centers of the tables at the reception. My Mom brought some flowers from her garden as well. Together we made 17 wild/natural looking flower arrangements in about 3 hours. Then we moved to the sanctuary. My sister and I cut, wrapped and hung bright pink Gerbera flowers on the pews. It looked so pretty!

Onto the next task, I quickly went home to make a hot dish that I was asked to bring to the wedding. It was a potluck! It was a neat idea. There was a lot of great food to taste. Too bad you can't taste everything. And then there was the dessert buffet . . . Back to the days events. As I was making my dish, Mark took the kids to pick up the babysitters. When they got back, I was just finishing getting ready and the oven timer was going off. Perfect timing. A few last minute words to our wonderful babysitters, and we were off again! This time it was a little more relaxed. It was so nice to sit back and enjoy the evening and the wedding. Date-night! It was so great not to worry about anything, and enjoy all the beauty of the decorations, flowers, commitments made, God's blessings to a wonderful couple, conversations with friends and family! And in the end I even got to take some flowers home! I love flowers. Especially on this rainy rainy day! So glad the sun was out for my cousin's special day!

Thanks for the wonderful day, guys! We love you!

On August 26 -

What a bitter-sweet kind of day. First it started sweet. Mark and I were celebrating our 1oth anniversary. My Mom had offered that her and Dad could come and babysit for us, so we could go out for dinner and the evening. Sweet! Definitely sweet! I was really feeling like a break would be a good thing, plus I was excited to be celebrating our tenth anniversary!

The day started ok. Well the first 15 minutes or so. Then it seemed like the kids had all woken up on the wrong side of the bed, just like everyday this week! (Maybe they are coming down with something or maybe they are all growing again!) Oh well, here we go! After the morning we headed out to do some errands. I thought maybe a change of scenery would do everyone good! Didn't quite work the way I planned. At least the final leg of the journey the kids all relaxed and enjoyed the ride. So the CD stories were on and I took the long way home.

I was just starting to feel more relaxed driving down the main road that runs by our house. I looked over at our field and noticed one of the cows was laying down. A little weird I thought, concerned, I pulled into my brothers driveway, got out of the van and made a bit of noise. The cow got up and it seemed there was no problem. I got back into our van and continued on a little further heading to our house. I looked back and saw something strange, bloody, hanging from the cows butt. I parked the van, set the kids up to play, put my farm boots on and headed to the field to check it out. Just about as soon as I got there I realized that she was in labour. How exciting! Mark got home from work about 5 minutes later and we made the appropriate calls. We were told that it would be fine if we still went out for dinner etc. So that was our plan. Until then Mark went back to check on the kids and I went back to check on the cow. The hoofs of the calf were coming out further.

I had heard that cows don't like people watching to closely, so I backed off a little and planted myself on the field, enjoying the peacefulness of the cows and the field. I really need to do this more often. Steve, my brother got home from work and came to check on the progress, not much more had happened. I finally had to go and get ready for dinner.

Mark and I headed to White Spot in Mission and then headed off to a movie. Funny thing is that my brother and sister went to the same restaurant for dinner too! They were going to hang out while we were out. They were actually planning on going to see a movie too. But declined that part once they found out that we were going to go the same show!! That was very nice of them. We ended up going to Dispicable Me. It was pretty good!

Unfortunately, the bad news came once the movie ended. Our calf had been still-born. We rushed home, to find the Mother cow crying over her young. It was so sad. You could just feel her pain and sadness. We were soon met by Murray's farmhand, a friend, who owns the cow. Once we got the calf out of the field, we realized that it was a pretty descent sized Bull-calf. There wasn't any indication of why he didn't survive. It was a shorter delivery, didn't seem to be too difficult. Even if there was someone there, it wouldn't have helped. I guess this is all part of living on the farm. Some make it and some don't. It's not like there are many doctors visits, ultrasounds, monitors, etc. Just nature. It's sad though. I know it's just a cow. But it's still sad, for me anyways. Especially when you see her staring out at the place where she had her calf and cries out to it. Mostly at night now. But how can you comfort a cow? Give it more apples?

I just feel really bad for her. Maybe it's because we lost one too. And that empty feeling you have once they are gone. I still think of her and remember our Megan Emily. How long does a cow remember? They sure remember when it comes to food! I quess they are the strong silent type. Do they think like us? Feel like us? Or is it just us humans projecting our feelings onto them. I've always loved cows. These big calm beasts. I'm so blessed to live here and have them in my backyard. I guess we've kinda gotten attached to them...

The rest of the night was a little depressing. We were both feeling a little sad. Mark got a headache and we went to bed! Happy anniversary.

Well at least our celebration won't be a total bust, we hope to go away for a weekend, if we can, in fall after things have settled down with school, and the beginning of the year.

Beginnings and endings . . .