on and on and on and...

February is a crazy month around here. Here’s the rundown!

First, the puppy has arrived! My goodness it was so exciting! I arrived home from work on Thursday, Feb. 10 to our Mindy who was obviously in labour. The only problem was that Brenna and Will were in Whitehorse at a Hockey Day in Canada event and we wanted so badly for them to be there for the birth! Ken and I flew into action and set up the video camera and the waiting began…

But Mindy was a dear and seemed to know how important it was for our whole family to be present when she gave birth so she waited until Brenna and Will were home and within 10 minutes the pup had arrived! Our buddy Travis from across the street was there as well (our “adopted” son) and softie that he is, cried at the miracle of seeing this little life emerge. It was pure Travie and Jay followed with some tears of his own. Everyone was quite enthralled with the whole process although Will kept darting away and then back. I think it was all a bit much and easier for him to take in small doses.

Only one pup arrived and he’s a little boy we’ve dubbed “Charlie” after his charcoal colouring. His nickname is Charlie Chub Chubs because he’s a voracious eater and is growing exponentially fast! Mindy is a wonderful little mother and is her happy little self in spite of her new responsibilities. Wags, the new dad, has been great. Very concerned about Mindy throughout the whole labour and delivery, even sneaking in to lick her whole face afterwards. He’s fairly disinterested in the pup at this point in spite of Ken coaching him to NOT be a “dead beat dad”. We’ll see how that goes when the pup starts playing with him! For now everything is fairly easy but once Charlie opens his eyes and starts to explore his world more our home will shift into puppy training gear and all that entails…

On the heels of all this we had the pleasure of having James Hill here in the Junction. Now this fellow is absolutely amazing and if you don’t know who this is, you just have to get to know what this guy’s about. For our family it was like having a rock star walk into our living room! He is a Ukulele GURU! Simply mesmerizing and inspiring to watch. Ukuele has become a big thing for the Symanskis and deserves a whole post to describe the “Birth of Uke” into our family. Suffice to say we are captured by it and to have someone of James’ caliber come and do workshops and a concert was a gift and a thrill. Will was even a part of the concert, chording for James while James played a song. Will floated off the stage! Please, if you ever get a chance to see James Hill in concert RUN, don’t WALK and get yourself there. You won’t regret it and you’ll never look at a ukulele the same way…

And then to keep things at a fevered pace there was the Atom’s Hockey Tournament (Will’s) this past weekend here. Meanwhile Jay was in the NorthwesTel Soccer Championships in Whitehorse. So after making a huge pot of spaghetti sauce for the Atoms banquet and a few dozen cookies for the concession, Jay, Brenna and I were off to Whitehorse for soccer while Ken stayed to be with Will. Will played HARD in his tournament (4 or 5 games) and Ken worked at the concession, Jay played 4 games on Saturday and 2 on Sunday and came away with a Bronze medal. I played chauffeur and crazy soccer mom, cheering on our kids til my throat was hoarse!

Also this weekend, Jay and I had the pleasure of helping out some friends from the Junction who ended up having their baby in Whitehorse on Saturday. Jay and I watched their two-year-old girl while they went in for a c-section and then had the pleasure of seeing the new addition to their family! It was so exciting and such a treat that we were able to help out. And to top it all off their new little girl was born on the big sister’s birthday! How neat.

Now we’re into another week of school and gearing up for this coming weekend. Jay plays at the Novice Hockey Championship in Teslin so we’ll all be going there. It’s 4 hours away (approx.) and should be lots of fun. The weekend after that Brenna and I are heading up to Fairbanks, Alaska to take part in a festival there. Brenna is part of the First Nations Dance Group here called Dakwakada Dancers and they will be performing and I’m going to go along as a chaperone. I’ve never been to Fairbanks so I’m looking forward to discovering a new city.

Needless to say that in addition to doing more subbing than usual, attending all these great events and taking care of our new puppy, blogging has fallen by the wayside. I’ll try to get something thoughtful down soon. I have quite a bit rumbling around in me especially regarding church and what that looks like here in the Junction for us. I’d love to mooch some wisdom from you about your thoughts so keep posted for my wonderings!

Jesus,


In the midst of it all, you are with us and I’m glad. I’m still looking to you about this whole “church” thing. Let me know what you think. I love you!


‘til next time,

Dianna