Rider Nation Headquarters - Kingston, Ont.

On November 25th, the Kotzer household was full of anxiety and very excited for the Grey Cup game. Just because we are two provinces away and haven't lived there in ages doesn't mean we have lost that loving feeling for the Riders. Yes, Rider Nation exists throughout Canada and definitely in Kingston Ontario. For Grey Cup, we had some friends over, reconfigured our living room upstairs, borrowed a projector and watched the game on a 5 ft by 4 ft screen on the wall. Yes, it wasn't the best game ever but we are not fussy and we will take a Grey Cup win anytime. Here are some photos from that night.



Other than that, we have had two touches of snow. It didn't last long at all and the kids were greatly disappointed. It didn't even last long enough to get a picture. So, we have been just hanging out and doing our thing. Here are a few more pictures over the last few weeks.

Sausage Fiesta and an Update

One week ago today, we made our way to the Strawson household for a big sausage making guild. Mike and Katie opened their house to an event that started with 180 lbs of ground pork and beef and resulted in over 200 lbs of sausage by the end of it. It was a long day, but fun, with 7-8 families reaping the benefits of all the hard work. Clay and I didn't get home until 1230 am, as it takes a while to smoke that much sausage.

Here are some of the pictures from that event.



And now, a little pregnancy update: I am doing really well after a long tiring week. At work, there was a test exercise for some of the officers who are undergoing training. I had volunteered to be an evaluator for the exercise long ago in July. At 7 months pregnant, I technically shouldn't be doing events like this, however, I was in a heated tent the whole time, so it wasn't much different than being at the office, except the hours of work were quite a bit longer. I was up before five every morning and worked until past six pm Tuesday and Thursday. So, needless to say, it was a little tiring.

On Wednesday, I got to skip out of my evaluation duties and head down for a prenatal appointment. Everything with the baby and I is going well. My blood pressure is great and I am growing, so that means the baby is too. The baby's heart beat was 132 bpm. The baby also moved around a lot at the appointment, like s/he always does. So, when the doctor came and checked me out, the baby was in the breech position, head up. Although I am not thrilled about this, I am calmed by the fact that this baby moves a lot and does full flips. During my last appointment, two weeks ago, baby was head down. So, there is still time for the baby to get in the go position. If the baby is not head down at 36 weeks, then the doctors will consider flipping the baby or I will have to start looking at a C-section. We'll see how it goes. Here is a picture of me at 32 weeks, this past Tuesday.

A "Not-So-Graceful-Moment"

Hi Everyone, We had a good but tiring weekend. On Friday, we went to the mess for Guy Fawkes Night and fireworks, followed by a visit to Mary Ann and Derek's house for some karaoke. On Saturday, we packed up and went to the Strawson household and made 180 lbs of sausage with a group of Clay's co-workers. I'll post more of the story and pictures of the event later. Here is a video of the kids running around our house. Check out our little girl, all gowned up in her pretty Disney princess pajamas. Anyways, more to follow on Saturday's main event in another post.

Trick or Treat!!!

Just a quick note to let you all know that Halloween was great and the kids had lots of fun. One house was super scary and Grace cried, otherwise, she push her way to the front of every house door to get her share of candy. Riley, Brodie and Grace were the monkey, the squirrel and the nut. The evening was absolutely beautiful and warm so the kids were all sweating in their costumes when we got them home. And, they all enjoyed a bit of candy before bed, even Grace. Hope everyone else had a safe and happy Halloween. I have included a slideshow of 13 pictures below. You will notice the squirrel trying to take a bit out of the nut and the neighbour' grandson, Luke, was totally in awe that there was another monkey just like him.