Jia's Gotcha

 

Oct 10.  We bought a bunch of seafood and ate dinner at home.  It was very low key.

Today I drove Jia to school to pick up some work.  We are having an  extremely difficult time getting Jia to willingly go to school so today was a big win.  We brought home a pile of projects to work on at home.  I have low expectation but there was some surprising talk of future careers that was encouraging.  We ate a late lunch out, picked up the boys, dropped them at home and headed back to town to hit Best Buy so Jia could upgrade her gaming gear.  The paychecks are healthy and Jia definitely enjoys the spending part ;)

Our first morning together. 15 years ago.  Feels like a zillion years ago and at the same time just a few months ago.

Happy Gotcha Jia!

Accomplishment?

 

Many times through the years I have attempted to read Dracula.  I could never get through it.  Audio books for the win.  It's taken a week.  I fell asleep over and over again only to wake and have to go back.  It's a good story.  Told in a long and boring way.  

I do feel a bit of accomplishment.  Haha.

I don't love shows and books that rely on texts to tell the story.  Funny that this is told through letters and diary entries.  Much the same thing.

A few more pics of the Woodgrove Nanaimo Run.

Another project.  He has wanted to remove the gas lines and furnace out of the basement since we bought the house.  Now that Mom is contemplating making an apartment in the space it's time to revisit this one.  

Another issue I haven't mentioned is that I took my last paycheque in June.  So we are officially retired.  The company is still alive, we have one salesman left.  I will still put through his paperwork for the time being.  It isn't a lot of work.  Work being defined as something you do for pay so we call it my side gig.  Cell phone and extended are still covered for now and that's helpful.  I'm definitely nervous living off the saved retirement fund but so far it's going ok and we are learning to relax a bit.  Our financial guy assures me that we have enough.  But, do we?  How much is really enough?  We are 59.  A few years off getting pensions. 

We have discovered that the conversation of retirement makes a LOT of people quite uncomfortable.  Hence staying quiet.

This is a picture from yesterday of where we were planning to camp had we gone on our road trip.  Brrr.

Eric is going to dismantle my bed in the Jeep today.  I think we can safely say it's just too cold for me to be camping for the next bit.  I'll be anxiously waiting for spring so I can get back to exploring on my own with Onyx.

  

Happy Birthday Mom!

 

We had a nice relaxing family dinner.  78 looks good on you Mom!

Eric and I went on a Jeep run today. 6 Jeeps and a Bronco.  It was a good day.  Lots of challenges.  Gorgeous foliage.  Great peeps to hang out with.

Eric did have tire envy today.  It's time to upgrade Oscar so he can play with the big Jeeps.  

Mt Bensen got snow today.  Yeesh.  We had some good hail today.  It was nice to be warm and cozy in Oscar.  We both need to upgrade our footwear.  Sneakers aren't cutting it.  

We had planned to be away this morning for a few days and traveling car camping in Oscar to Jasper.  I wasn't keen to go in the rain.  We're sort of swamped with things right now so we canceled going.  Eric is reporting to me all the places that got snow today so I'm not being sulky about sticking close to home ;)

Jia, Kai and Luk were assigned a family Docter.  They had their intake appointment on Friday.  The health nurse talked to me on the phone to get their history.  She was absolutely gob smacked at the list.  She was saying "oh no, poor kid, really?  oh Mama, how is this all possible?"  And we were only on Luk!  I said, oh, wait, we haven't talked about Kai yet.  Hearing her take on our situation was jarring.  By the time we got through all three she was beyond shocked and asking if Eric and I needed home support.  We still live day by day here.  When we got off the phone I kept realizing that I forgot things that should be in their files.  The first appointment with the Doctor is next Friday.  We're not sure what the point of a family Doctor is for the boys but Jia needed one since the pediatrician dropped her a while ago. We were offered spots as well but I'm too scared to leave our guy in Victoria for the unknown.  

Soooo many appointments.

Twins

 

Hahaha.

Autumn Moon Festival

 

We have a LOT on our plate these days.  For the 1st time ever I didn't make a plan for Autumn Moon.  In the morning Eric and I went to Victoria to have his stitches removed.  We decided on route to go just our family to Osborn Bay and that I would go in the afternoon and get a site for the night so that I could try out the new usb/power pack blanket I bought for car camping.

The weather was gorgeous.  Mom and Poppy came early and we got some time in the sun.

The blanket was lovely for the three hours the battery pack lasted.  I had it on high and on top of my other blankets.  Turns out after reading the info online that I should have kept it on low for a whole night and it's meant to be a pad underneath you.  So there is still hope for it to work out.

We had a perfect view of the moon!

Jia was working, she missed out. We picked up food for dinner on our way home.  So last minute. 

Eric assembled and brought dinner, round cookies, tangerines and tea.

It was a peaceful evening.

But cold.  So cold.  This is how happy I was that they all left so I could crawl into Onyx and get warm.  Haha.  I also had a new book waiting that had been on hold for a long while.

Prepping for Halloween.

Kai is liking school these days.  It looks to me like he mostly plays in all his classes.  Doing his own things, his way.  A couple times I've had to sit and wait because he's wanted to keep playing.  This picture is of him in IT class.  The whole class is at a computer working and he is on the floor with a giant box of bits, motors and straps.  He has no clue what he's building but they snap together much like Lego.  I was told that he had a good time playing badminton in gym class.  I asked how that was possible since he can't see the birdie.  They blew up big colorful balloons and threw them towards him and he smashed them with the racket.  He thought that was pretty fun.

We are noticing that he is doing more and more by feel.  He often or most times doesn't even attempt looking in the direction needed.

An all Jeep Weekend

Woodgrove Jeep Nanaimo hosted a Jeep run today.  

The pictures loaded all out of order and I'm too tired to fix them.  It was a long day.  We got home with Teen burgers and then Albi dropped in with gelato.  So the troop is fed ;)

Kai was first, he picked cantaloupe.  I didn't ask how it was.  Honestly, we're not exactly sure that Kai can taste much.

We came home looking like it was a successful trail day.

There were 45 Jeeps today so that was fun.

Lunch was provided.  Plus a swag bag of goodies.  Oscar gained three more ducks today.  Frankenduck is on his antenna now.

We knew quite a few of the Jeepers so that was great.

We got to explore the hills of Nanaimo.  All new to us.  We were in the beginner group.  It was slow, boring and easy.  We knew it would be but the goal was to hang out, see the area and just enjoy the day.

There were a lot of peeps there heading out on trails for their first time.  Having never even put their Jeeps in 4x4.  

A lot of hurry up and wait.  We gathered at 8:30 but didn't get going until 10.  Sigh.

Our host was Stu from Driving with Stu.  YouTube channel.  There were 2 camera men and a drone with us all day.

Oscar started out pretty.

Sunrise to start the day.

Random picture posted in a Vancouver Island group and I immediately knew it was Rathtrevor.  Of course now I want to be there ASAP.

We went for a walk.  I was stalking the lady behind Eric.  She had a puppy.  Haha.

Koda.  3 months and a total doll.  I got to play with him while Eric was on the phone. 

Coco cuddled with Finn! She forgot for a bit that he was the stinky, annoying little brother.

Coco walked a whole block with Lili and I. So much work for those tiny legs.  Sassy was upset when we got back.  I was too lazy to find the stroller for her.  She typically only walks a short distance and then lays down.

So, I've talked Eric into a wee car camping trip in Oscar. Our coolers are huge, family size and difficult to wrangle through the weird Wrangler back doors. Or too small and soft sided. I wanted something more manageable. I shopped online, hated the prices and went to Marketplace next.  I found this beauty for $10 a few minutes from home.  We used it today, it worked great. Oh, and Eric found dragon ducks at Walmart in a dollar bin. I wish they were red ones though.

Taylor's music release.  We went to the Release Party movie.  It was good.  That woman is a marketing genius.

Friday we went to the weekly Duncan Jeep meet.  Saturday we went to our first Jeepapaloosa volunteer meeting.  We didn't know what to expect.  It's a lot.  Jeepapaloosa 2026 we'll both be a part of the crew.  So that'll be different.  We joined the organizers for a late lunch afterwards.  So, really, Jeeps were the focus all weekend.

I ordered a USB heated pad/blanket for car winter sleeping.  It came today.  I'm so excited to try it out.  I was tempted to try it in the driveway tonight but the weekend really has exhausted me.