15
November
2006
I’ve been saving up my posting time, so now it’s all coming at once! Besides the Brandon screaming thing, we had a great visit to California. See our album for pics. We took the boys to the ocean where Holly and Jeffery take the dogs to play. The boys saw the water and got super excited. They both immediately ran right in, got hit with a cold wave (it was Northern CA) and then the undertow pulled the sand right out from under them and they fell onto their faces. It was the funniest thing. But they were cold and wet and a little bit scared so we had to do some damage control. After that they spent most of the time on the sand, running away from the waves.
Mike and I got to venture into the land that is Oakland, CA to watch them beat the Steelers. I was a bit nervous going in as to how we would be treated, since we obviously had to dress in all of our Steelers gear. Before the game things weren’t too bad, but afterwards we got an earful. I must say though Oakland fans have the strangest put downs. One woman told us that we should be careful on our flight home…I’m still mulling that one over. And in reality even though Oakland beat us we still came out with the same record, so every time they dissed us, they were really dissing themselves, too. All in all, though I have to say I came away from Oakland with a much better appreciation of their fans and their team. It was a good experience. It would also appear that Jon Gruden’s legacy lives on in his haircut. The Gruden cut (and sun visor) was everywhere. While we went to the game the boys spent the day with their Auntie Holly. Yay!
The boys got to explore the climbing gym where their uncle Jeffery once worked and now helps run. They got to play on crash pads and swing from belay ropes. Oddly enough Bran enjoyed it much more than Drew. Who knew?
We also got to spend a day at Google, which was awesome! We saw our friend Finn and the boys got to play in a ball pit. What could be better than that?!
So I have to say that in the midst of the month that was October, there was fun to be had. Thanks Holly and Jeffery for putting us up and putting up with us! Thanks to Kent and the 3 dogs too. If anyone wants to hear a funny dog/toddler story let me know.
Posted: Drew & Bran, Miscellaneous
15
November
2006
Okay there were some good things in there, but all in all October was the worst month ever! (Okay that could be a slight exaggeration, but not by much.) The month started with Drew getting a virus, then passing it on to Bran. Then happily Mike’s parents came for a visit. Yay! While they were here, B decided to spike a fever of 104 and vomit. So we got to visit the ER. Five hours and a chest x-ray later B was diagnosed with pneumonia and we got home at 4am. Within days of B being off the antibiotic, he and Drew both came down with the flu and gave it to us. Yay! (read this one with sarcasm) The day after I stopped being naseaus I threw out my back changing a diaper. It took me 1 hour to get high enough off the floor to reach the phone to call Mike. I knew adrenaline would kick in if the boys were in trouble, but I still kept praying that they wouldn’t do anything to hurt themselves while I was trying to get up. Instead Drew used me as a jungle gym to get onto the chair. (I had flashbacks of laughing as my dad lay in the wet grass with a torn knee, I didn’t know he had torn his knee. Drew didn’t know why his mamma was screaming at him either.) The boys also took this opportunity to figure out how to get the lids off of their sippy cups. They dumped juice all over the kitchen floor, sat in it, and walked through it…They thought it was the greatest thing and all their mamma did was watch helplessly trying to decide whether to laugh or cry. Two days later we got on a plane for California. Yay for visiting relatives! Boo for flying with a bad back. While there, Jeffery and Holly got food poisoning and Jeffery couldn’t go to the Steelers/Oakland game with us. Oh and B woke up at 5am every morning screaming. Oh…Oh…wait…We arrived back in Edmonton to -17C and 6 inches of snow. Unfortunately that was November, so now I don’t know what to say. Maybe mid-November will be better?
Posted: Miscellaneous
21
October
2006
Started Wednesday night still here on Saturday…
(on a happy note, I’ve lost 6 lbs in 2 days)
Posted: Miscellaneous
29
September
2006
To those of you back home, you will be so proud of me! Finally, three years and one month after moving into our house, we have living room curtains! I know you thought it would never happen. And it all happened because I bought a chair. It’s Capitalism at its best!
So I’ve spent several days over the past 3 years running back and forth to IKEA or Zellers trying out curtains, but I just wasn’t happy with any of them. They either looked like dorm room curtains or like they belonged in someone else’s house. You know someone who keeps their house neat and clean with nice furniture and wait…no kids (at least not mine).
We were in need of a new chair, so I bought one of those POANG chairs from IKEA and a cute little brown throw to go with it. Then it hit me, what about brown? After two different attempts to hit IKEA’s curtain section (the first time Drewie threw a temper tantrum) I found the perfect ones! Yay! Now they’re up and the living room looks a lot different. Now I just need someone to help me hem them. You know I don’t do that. 
Posted: Miscellaneous
27
September
2006
So this really odd thing happened the other day. One of our neighbors was out walking her cat (yes I really said “walking”, leash and all). For some reason the cat decided to dawdle behind our van. As most normal animal behavior goes, Noah went crazy barking at the back gate. I mean come on, there’s a cat basically in his driveway doing who knows what. That wasn’t even the oddest part. What was really odd was that the woman, rather than moving her cat along, or picking it up and carrying it further down the lane, put her fingers to her lips and tried to shush Noah! Watching out the window, I could see her continually trying to get Noah to calm down and be quiet. Well I have an idea for how he might be quiet, move your cat!
Posted: Miscellaneous
26
August
2006
Hi! My name is Shayna Bowling (a.k.a. mamma). I’m the mother of twin boys Drew and Bran, and the wife of Michael. I’m also just “me.†The point of this blog is to update folks on the life of our little guys and to write about things that are interesting to me. As a stay at home mom, perhaps I’m in need of other forms of communication! One of the things that I try really hard to do is to be interested in things outside of my kids. I’m not sure how successful I am, but I’m hoping this blog will be another way of keeping me looking at the world around me and not just the kitchen floor.
Posted: Miscellaneous
I’ve been saving up my posting time, so now it’s all coming at once! Besides the Brandon screaming thing, we had a great visit to California. See our album for pics. We took the boys to the ocean where Holly and Jeffery take the dogs to play. The boys saw the water and got super excited. They both immediately ran right in, got hit with a cold wave (it was Northern CA) and then the undertow pulled the sand right out from under them and they fell onto their faces. It was the funniest thing. But they were cold and wet and a little bit scared so we had to do some damage control. After that they spent most of the time on the sand, running away from the waves.
