Matthew the Archaeologist

Leave a reply

For Christmas, Nanna and Poppa (Mom & Dad) got Matthew a gift that would let Matthew “dig” for dinosaur bones. It was a block of sand of some kind, and there was a toy dinosaur inside in pieces. It would have taken Matthew a few years to chissel out the pieces as they were in there pretty good. Even Lisa wasn’t able to help much. The set came with “tools”, but I even had to get out a real hammer and chissel to get the “bones” out. Regardless, Matthew had a great time, and we made a huge mess (you can see stuff all over the table and floor). Here are some pictures.

Matthew “digging”:

20090126_mattthew_01

You can see lines from Matthew’s goggles:

20090126_mattthew_02

Here is the raptor that we put together with the bones we dug out:

20090126_mattthew_03

The Wedding Invite

2 Replies

Hello again family,

The wedding invite is done it just needs to be printed now. Jason worked very hard on it and it looks amazing. You will all be receiving a “real” copy do not worry. This in not an “evite” I just wanted to share because I am so excited and so happy about it!

othercards

For the next two, you can click on the picture to see a larger version:
back-7

front-7

Mike’s (Lisa’s Dad’s) birthday in Florida!

5 Replies

I’m sure most of you have heard by now that we are going down to Florida in February. Lisa’s parents have rented a house for a while, and we are flying down to spend 8 days with them. We happen to be going when it is Mike’s birthday, and we will be going to Disney World that day. Well, the park heard about it, and this video was released. Wow, when the Rowland’s celebrate, they sure do it big!

March 28th!

2 Replies

Hello Family!

Ron and I are so excited. We have heard back from Balls Falls and we got Saturday March 28th!!!!!!

We will have an Hors d’œuvre, dessert and dancing reception at the Balls FallsConservation area at 6pm.

Jason is making beautiful invitations as we speak, so they should be out in the mail in a couple of weeks if not sooner.

I will keep everyone updated as time goes on.

2008 year in review – 2009 look ahead

2 Replies

For our Family Home Evening this past week we reviewed the year and talked about what we were looking forward to this year.
Here, in no particular order, is our list of things that were noteworthy in 2008:

  • Andrew ate lots of Nanna’s hospital food
  • Andrew got 2 trophies from bowling in the summer
  • Lisa got a new calling (released as Primary Music Leader and called as Enrichment Leader)
  • We got a new van
  • Andrew got his own room
  • Matthew got his own room (because Andrew got his own room)
  • Matthew got out of Nursery and started Sunbeams
  • We got some of the bathroom redone
  • Christine kept getting cuter
  • Graham kept his calling
  • Matthew learned how to write his name
  • Andrew learned to tie his shoe laces
  • Christine learned to walk (it was a Christmas miracle)
  • Andrew passed a swimming course
  • Matthew passed a swimming course (Sea Turtle)
  • We put in new tiles in the kitchen
  • Andrew really got into LEGO
  • Christine says “Hi” to everyone
  • We spent a lot of time at the hospital visiting Nanny, Mom, and other people
  • Andrew spent the March Break at Grandma and Grandpa’s house
  • Graham started a monthly father/son night
  • Andrew started grade 1
  • Matthew started JK
  • Christine turned 1
  • Matthew turned 4
  • Andrew turned 6
  • Andrew was the student of the month in SK
  • Lisa went in her first craft sale
  • We went to Buckhorn

Here are some things were are looking forward to in 2009, or things we would like to change (quasi-resolutions):

  • Andrew will start grade 2 and turn 7
  • Matthew will start SK and turn 5
  • Christine will turn 2
  • We will go to Florida in February
  • Julia will get married in March
  • Both boys want to pass another swimming course
  • Matthew would like to whine less (honestly, he said this himself)
  • Andrew will listen better
  • Lisa will be more fun (when she said this, the boys yelled out, “Yay!”)
  • Lisa will exercise more regularly
  • Graham will be less of a “junker” (this is the boys nickname for Graham because he always gives them junk food)
  • Graham will keep working on the house
  • As a family, we’d like to do monthly service for someone
  • Lisa and Graham want to get to the temple every month.

In case you were wondering, Graham and Andrew stayed up till midnight on New Year’s Eve. Matthew was allowed to, but was too tired to stay up so he went to bed. Lisa was obviously allowed to stay up, but slept on the couch for a couple of hours. Lisa, Graham, and Matthew were up for the actual date change at midnight.

2008 Christmas Gift Exchange

2 Replies

This morning I used an advanced algebraic formula along with a secret combinatorial factor supplied by NASA and I figured out who should buy for who (or it is whom?). No one is buy for their spouse, and no one is buying for anyone that they have bought for since we started this.

  • Alisa buys for Julia
  • Andrea buys for Graham
  • Brianna buys for Lisa
  • Dad buys for Andrea
  • Graham buys for Dad
  • Jason buys for Mom
  • Julia buys for Nanny
  • Lisa buys for Jason
  • Mom buys for Brianna
  • Nanny buys for Alisa

Just like last year, the gift is to be approximately $50. Just to be clear (in case anyone asks), there is no rule about spending exactly $50 to the penny, and no rule about whether it is $50 including tax or $50 plus tax. Just get something nice for the person that is close to $50. For the record, it wasn’t until I typed up this posting that I actually paid attention to the fact that Andrea was buying for me and could use her discount. Honestly!

We will be hosting the traditional Christmas Eve party at our house again. Lisa has a couple of new additions to the snacks. She’ll be contacting the various households soon with food/refreshment assignments. Nanny will provide a game again. And of course there will be singing 🙂

With regards to the take-away gift exchange game, there was some small debate as to whether it should continue, what the price should be, how it should be run, etc. One thought was that it was more fun when the gifts were cheaper. Another thought was that the game hasn’t been very fun for a while, and maybe we should do something else. After talking it over, here’s what we are going to do:

  • We’re going to do the gift exchange game one more time this year
  • The price needs to be no more than $10 including tax
  • Everyone needs to purchase something. No baking, giving away freebies that are worth a lot, etc.
  • Remember, the point of the game is buy a gift that someone would want to “steal” from someone else

The point of the rules obviously isn’t to take away from the fun. It’s to make sure we are all doing the same thing so things are fair. If the game is a dud this year, then maybe we’ll come up with something else next year.

I think that’s it. If you have any questions, email Lisa or me and we’ll get back to you…

Matthew’s trip to the hospital

Leave a reply

Last Tuesday night, I was in the bathroom with the boys when they were getting ready for bed. Matthew went pee, and I happened to notice it wasn’t the right colour. It was very dark. By the time I had called Lisa and she came in, it had diluted so it was hard to tell. We were concerned, but waited until he went to the bathroom again. He was up shortly after going to bed, and we agreed that the pee had blood in it. Lisa took him to the hospital.

Matthew hadn’t been complaining about anything really (other than his normal whining), so we didn’t know what the problem was. At the hospital, they checked him out and said things looked fine. They did a urine test, and he had a blood level (whatever they measure, I’m not sure) of 50. This is high. The pediatrician wanted to keep him in over night to do some tests in the morning. By about 1 am Lisa called me to bring some stuff up to the hospital. I called Dad/Poppa, and he came and looked after Andrew and Christine while I went up to the hospital. Within 15 minutes or so of getting there, they took Matthew up to a room in the pediatric wing. It was a private room with a cot in it for a parent to stay. We decided it would be best if I stayed and that way Lisa could deal with things in the morning at the house. By the time Lisa was gone and Matthew and I were settled, it was pushing 3 am.

At about 7:30 Wednesday morning they told me to get Matthew up so he could get an ultrasound done of his abdomen. He didn’t like how cold the gel was, but other than that, he did fine. The technician was super nice.

Lisa made it up to the hospital shortly after 9 am and we waited for about 2 hours for the results. Matthew had his hospital breakfast (he ate almost all of it) and then we went into the playroom. The pediatrician found us there, and said they couldn’t see anything wrong. The blood count in his most recent urine was down to 3. The ultrasound didn’t show anything. They wondered if he had been hit or kicked at all while playing, but Matthew said now.

So, the end result was nothing. Overall, Matthew was very good. He didn’t like the needle he got that they used to take blood in the Emergency Room. He loved the food (he recognized the Corn Pops as the same thing you feed the bears at Marineland). And he certainly entertained the various nurses.

Here are a couple of pictures I took with my cell phone camera:

New Job

2 Replies

So, to make answering everyone’s questions a lot easier… I got a new job at Future Shop in the Falls. I’ll be making $15 an hour. I start training on Monday and have given my notice to HOCO. My last day there is the 2nd. And I also have to attend Cell University in Toronto from November 3rd to 6th. It’s a paid business trip. Since I’m not seasonal I don’t believe I get a staff discount until 90 days have passed.

Any questions… leave a comment I guess.

I’m walking, yes indeed, I’m walking

1 Reply

As of a week or so ago, I’ve been using my pedometer for a year. Here is a screenshot from the software that keeps track of everything.

So, in the last year, I’ve taken at least 3,661,400 which gives me an average of just over 10,000 a day. I’ve walked 1,847.48 miles or 2955.97 km (I could almost be in Calgary by now).