I'm having a baby!

And its name is MBA! Scared you, didn't I?




I can finally let this cat out of the bag. I have applied and been accepted to do an executive MBA program at Athabasca University! We are so excited, its just like finding out we are pregnant again! The late nights, the early mornings, the juggling of responsibilities... well, you get the picture. The gestation period is longer than an elephants (22 months... and yes, I checked) - it will take about 2 1/2 years to complete, and I start this September.... along with my return to full time work, and the older boys at school in grade 1 and 2. We are completely nuts, or rather, I am completely nuts. But I really think this is the right thing to do for me at this time - I need the challenge, the network of interesting people I am going to meet, and the exercise for the brain. There are also other indications that I am on the right path, but I can't go into that right now as its all very hush, hush. Let's just say that when it rains, it pours around here!

Now, before you think that we are moving to Alberta, we aren't. The beauty of this program is its distance learning, and you do your courses and your work according to your schedule. There are lectures that you download, course work that you complete on your own, and then you have your thesis project to do and some final comprehensive exams to do also. No need to drive downtown, park and sit in a lecture hall... I can do it in my jammies if I want! DH finally gets to get his dream computer now that I need it for school - I wonder if that is tax deductible???

So that's my big news for today! WEEEEEEEEE..... look, Mom, no hands!

We're back!

What a crazy, crazy, crazy month this has been. We are just back from our very first family vacation to New Brunswick! We had a great time, staying in a chalet that we rented by the sea, swimming in the ocean, and doing "sorties". I think it might be best to do this with photos, so here we go!



Sunset in Riviere du Loup - this was the view from our balcony at a bity little motel that DH found. It was just lovely and a perfect way to start things off. They had a huge lawn in the back of the hotel for the kids to play on, with stunning views for the adults.


We started at the Acadian Village, in Caraquet. The kids loved it, especially the farms! Tristan was the most enamored with the whole Acadian feel, and would stop and ask as many questions as he could. Jacob loved the music, so we ended up buying a CD of Party Acadian music which was requested numerous times. I personally loved the molasses cookies, and couldn't get enough of them!


We stopped for lunch at a typical Acadian restaurant, in the Acadian Village. Everyone cleaned off their plate, and had dessert consisting of sugar pie and poutine au pain avec sucre brun... mmmmm!


We didn't always run around on sorties, we stopped and played at the chalet site too. Here are Zach and DH playing crocket together.


We also played catch. Check out Kaitlynn's pink glove! (Yes, I know... I am impossible!)


Day at the beach... what does Tristan do? Well, he immediately starts to build an aquaduc system. I think we have a civil engineer on our hands!


Playing on the beach. Oh, and that would be Tristan and Zach bringing water from the ocean to Tristan's aquaduc system.


Another one of our sorties: this one to Miscou Island, where the loneliest lighthouse resides. Its the farthest tip of NB and the lighthouse was built in 1816.


A brief stop at one of the marsh's on Miscou island. Kaitlynn was sleeping in the car with me!


Rainy day (the only one we had) involved a visit to the aquarium in Shappigan. The kids are at the touching part of the exhibit where they can touch any number of things that are found in the local waters, including a blue lobster (very rare).

On another day, we went to an eco park where we got to see the local birds up close. This one is a rare bird now, native to NB (can't remember the name), where they used to be many, many more but with the advent of colonization and man they have dwindled to very few.


The highlight of the eco park for the kids was the fishing. They actually caught a couple of fish!


Tristan proudly showing the fish and passing it around so everyone can hold it.

One of the beautiful sunsets from our chalet!

Our chalet is the orange topped one, second from the left. As you can see, we were almost right on the beach!


A very cold day at the beach does not mean we can't have fun. We went for a long walk and picked up neat-o rocks and shells and all sorts of treasures. The waves were extremely powerful that day, and the wind was so strong that it woke us up at 4 a.m. - I thought it was the ocean coming to swallow us up! It may have been the tail end of a hurricane, we thought.

This shot was done by DH... just lovely!

Hanging around!

It was an adventure, to say the least. I did not get much sleep, so I was extremely, shall we say, cranky and I could only focus on the negatives unfortunately. Thank goodness DH stayed positive. The roughest parts were putting the kids to bed (they didn't want too, especially Jacob) and the mornings, when they would get up at 6ish a.m. after having fallen asleep at 10:30 pm (the kids usually are in bed by 7:30 pm). The driving was surprisingly all right. We made numerous stops to run around, and when we would find a park we would jump out and play for a bit. It took us 9 hour and 40 minutes to get back, the first 5 hours 40 minutes out of NB to Riviere du Loup. Would we do it again? Definitely... but I need some sleep first! Maybe next year we will do mid-NB, around Bouctouche and day trips to PEI. Oh, and we watched the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy... all 12 hours of it, one disk per night (the hobbits are off to Isengard, to Isengard, to Isengard!).

More later on the other fun we have been having, notably work related for me (its all good).