March Break

• Mark and Jade spent Saturday night with Jeff, Tammy and the boys while Mike and I hit the town with 2 other couples. We went for dinner in a fancy restaurant and left hungry. Honestly, for the amount of money we paid and the time we waited for our meals we should have left stuffed and satisfied. We then went and saw Sloan live and had the whole top floor of the bar to ourselves. We bopped around and sang (terribly) like there was no tomorrow.
• On Sunday when I went to pick up the kids they didn't want to leave. They have so much fun with their aunt and uncle. I left them a while longer and came home and had a nap!
• Monday we went with friends for lunch at East Side Mario's and then went to see Hotel for Dogs. It was a cute movie. Everyone cried!
• We shouldn't have gone because Jade wasn't feeling well. She really wanted to go though so off we went. By the time we got home she was fevered and complaining of a sore throat. She slept soundly on the couch for the rest of the day, and was pretty much parked there yesterday. She's better today but still not 100%. In fact, everytime I look at her she coughs...strange!!
• Mark is outside all the time. Playing road hockey, basketball, baseball, bike riding. He breezes in once in a while for something to eat.
• He is in a hockey tournament this weekend.
• Heather and I are taking the girls for manicures and out for dinner on Friday night.
• The sun is shining. You have no idea how happy that makes me!

Mike and Mark spent a couple of hours drooling over fancy cars at the Detroit Auto Show on Saturday. Mike wants this Aston Martin....

Mark wants this....

And I think this reclining backseat with wetbar would be perfect for me.....

They had a horrible drive home hitting snow and slippery roads. I was very relieved when they made it home in one piece.

On Sunday Mike had a lot of shovelling to do on the rink. It has snowed almost every day last week and he hadn't shovelled at all. I couldn't believe he was out there without a coat on.....

Last night I was on the phone listening to my aunt when I heard the sound of a snowblower awfully close. I looked out Jade's bedroom window and could not contain the excitement I felt at seeing Andy clearing out my driveway with his new snowblower. Poor Cath, I think I yelled in her ear! I called down to thank Andy who said it was no problem. He will gladly do our driveway.

I guess some wishes do come true!

Jade went back to Brownies last night after having a month off. She just loves going and hanging out with other girls. Last night she received a bag with some badges she earned so I will have to get them sewn onto her sash.

Mark is having a snack of milk and cookies. He's been asking me to buy these cookies (Dad's Oatmeal) because they remind him of my dad, who always had some in the house. I don't know if he's missing my dad or the cookies more! They taste so good dipped in a glass of cold milk.

Today

This picture is for Missy! Yes, the rink is at my house...it fills my backyard! This is what I see from my kitchen window.
We had another bunch of kids skating here all afternoon today. Mike has a fire going in his Mancave and they are all outside leaving me in my nice warm house baking cookies with the Christmas tunes playing.


These are the cookies I baked for the cookie swap tomorrow. They are called Raspberry Ribbons and they are buttery and delicious with the raspberry jam in the middle. Yum. I had to lock them up so Mike wouldn't eat them before the swap. He's terrible, and I mean TERRIBLE for eating all my baking. I actually stopped doing cookie swaps a couple of years ago because he would eat it all all by himself. It was extremely frustrating going to the freezer to pull out treats for the company that would be arriving shortly to find the Tupperware containers empty. One year I hid it all in the garage right out in the open. He was so surprised when I had baking out one day, couldn't believe I pulled one over on him!! I don't know where I'm going to hide it this year. Maybe I'll just leave it down the street at Heather's and just go and get some when I need it. He'll never find it there!!

Craig spent quite a bit of time at my house this weekend. Why? Because mom and dad were busy at the hospital with his brand new baby brother! Ryan was born bright and early Saturday morning (4:20am) and he is the sweetest little baby boy. I will take some pictures of him to post soon.

While at my house Craig cleaned out my Tupperware cupboard!

And he kept turning off the Gameboy while Mark was playing it. Mark thought that was pretty funny.

Mike, Mark and Jade all worked hard on the ice rink this weekend. It is ready for skating after school today. This is the earliest it has ever been ready to use. I think this is a sign it's going to be a very long winter.

You Never Know What You'll Find....

...when you empty out someones attic! Dad's attic has been sealed shut for years so Jeff and I were tempted to just leave it be, but conscience/curiosity got the best of us so Jeff pulled out some tools, pried the door open and we entered a small room full of itchy fiberglass, junk and treasures! We found old movies on reels and a couple of projectors so Jeff's project (if his new baby doesn't arrive and take away all his free time :) ) is to set it up and watch them. I imagine the scene to be just like when Clark Griswald in Christmas Vacation finds the movies in the attic! We also found a bag of pictures that are from the mid 60's when my mom and dad likely were first going together. We found a couple of other bags full of pictures from when we were kids too!

• The baby in the old faded picture is me. When I saw it it reminded me of a picture we had of Mark when he was just a baby. Don't we look alike! Of course, you can't really tell in this picture, but it really is amazing.

• Apparently at the age of 16 I was a packrat. I threw away an entire bag full of notes written during class. I didn't read them all before I ditched them as only skimming over a few was enough. The topics: What are you wearing to the dance?; Please don't hate me and I hate my mother (not me, MCH did) Incredibly boring reading material at the age of 41, majorly important at the age of 16. I found all my Sweet 16 bday cards, a box full of stuff that was the dog's....and a stack of letters written by my lifelong friend Deb!
  

I am going to somehow scrapbook a lot of these pictures. The kids were looking at them and couldn't believe who some of the people were. I wish I knew the stories behind them. I guess this is why journalling is so important when you scrapbook.

I have to apologize to Jeff. He's picky from the fiberglass, sneezing from the dust and pulling out really dumb things that I saved. He'd chuck them behind him out the door and ask the obvious question "Is this yours?"

Gotta love him!

Thankfully, this will likely be the last of my stories on this topic. We have one more room to finish cleaning out and closing day is Dec 31.

My Morning and Why I Wish I Lived In The Cul De Sac

Mother Nature came to visit during the night and left us with this.....


Lovely...
Just yesterday I was raking leaves and cleaning out the gardens and this morning I was shovelling! As I was shovelling, I couldn't help but hear the sounds of snowblowers in the cul de sac to my left and the cul de sac to my right. If I lived in either cul de sac, I would have had the privilege of staying in my pjs and having one of these 2 neighbours clear my driveway for me. Since I live in the middle of two cul de sacs where snowblowers do not cross the line out of their respective cul de sacs, I had to leave my shovels laying in the driveway while I took a picture (on zoom so they wouldn't notice) of the neighbours blowing out all the other neighbours driveways:


This is friendly guy Joe. He waves to me each and every time he sees me, but will not walk that darn machine across the street to my driveway! He's doing driveway #3 by the way....and my friend Heather's driveway was one he cleared! He saw me with my shovels and waved, of course, because he is so friendly!

And here is Brenda and her dad Bob. They both live in the cul de sac to the right of us and when Bob moved in this past spring, he brought a snowblower with him! They are finished with their own driveways and are working on 'The Neighbours' now. They have beaten the other neighbour in the cul de sac, who in previous years blew out all the driveways, to it. Apparently Bob's snowblower doesn't leave the cul de sac either!!

There are times when it really is not bad shovelling. Like this morning, it wasn't blowing in my face and I was layered up so I was toasty warm. The kids were extremely excited to see all this white coldness when they woke up this morning. Can you believe I sent them without snow pants to school? After I finished the shovelling, I took a nice walk to deliver snow pants to school so the kids could play.

Life....

Life goes on. It is really hard to believe how when someone dies it really doesn't take long before all that is left of them is memories. We have been taking our time emptying out dad's house because, thankfully, we live in the same city and can do that. Some of the items I thought we would never be able to sell have sold and the one item, his brand new truck, which I thought would sell fast, is now on consignment on a used car lot....grr.....

This week we sold the house.
The house Jeff and I grew up in.
The house my mother died in.
The house were all of our childhood memories are.
Dad's neighbour bought it so he can use it as a rental. He will be making a lot of changes, which he is excited about. He tells Jeff and I constantly that we have given him this blessing. I don't know what to feel sometimes. I am thrilled that with the housing market the way it is that this has happened so easily for us. It makes me sad that once that house is not ours anymore then that's that. I'm sure everyone goes through this, as all parents pass on. I know that what I'm feeling is typical but all the same it's heartbreaking and so....final.

I have not taken many pictures this month. I can't believe that November is half over!! It just can't be!!
On Friday night Karen and Ed came over for dinner. Mark was at a birthday party and Jade was being creative, until she pulled out the dominoes for us all to play. She likes to team up with Karen because they always win! Jade made herself this lovely tie which she had hanging in front of her face! Notice the calculator in front of her.....Mike had sooooooo many dominoes left that she pulled it out of the drawer for him so he could add up those dots easily!!

Jade made this lovely crown for her dad! It's full of jewels and hockey sticks!

Ed was the model for her beautiful creation!!! He's such a good sport!!

Doll of the Month

I have written before about my friend Marcia who designed the sweet little dolls Jade is laying with in the picture below.

Now Marcia's daughter Angelina has designed HER own line of dolls. They are the sweetest dolls and you can see them here. I ordered a March one for Jade for Christmas. *Shhh* Don't tell her!

When we adopted Jade Marcia's family was in our group adopting their twins Angelina and Christalina. We don't see them often enough even though they only live an hour away. Below is a picture of Jade with the girls last summer. Don't ask me which one is which because I cannot tell them apart!!

Ewwww....

Once upon a time a nice young couple bought a nice big house. The woman was very much a yes woman and let her husband make many decisions. Some of those decisions were not to repaint the "builder paint beige" kitchen right away, hang an ugly hunter green floral border around the perimeter of the kitchen and replace the countertop with an ugly hunter green countertop. The nice young man was very much drawn to the colour grey so it was exciting for her to see him want something with a "colour" in it. A few years later, the nice young woman was a little tired of being so accepting about the kitchen and put her foot down....insisting it be changed now....a colour that brought excitement and joy to the house NO MORE BUILDER PAINT BEIGE!!!! So she went to the paint store and brought home dozens of paint chips and when she found a colour she liked she would tape about 10 of the same colour chip into one big chip so she could she what it was really going to look like because you can't tell from a 2x2 inch square. Terra Cotta was the colour she chose. She ragged it so it looked textured and after she finished the first corner she was in love with it! He would be too once he laid those baby blues on it. After ragging for many hours she secretly started to despise the orange colour that it became. What the heck was she thinking painting her kitchen orange. He took one look and commented that the builder beige was actually a nice colour. She asked him how he could say that when now the kitchen finally had life and excitement. She swore at that moment she would live with that paint for 1 year and almost did. That orange paint did something to the body that immediately made you feel like you were stuck in a furnace....So the orange was replaced with a shade of beige, which the nice husband insists is what it was in the beginning, but he knows nothing because it's not. It's a great shade where sometimes it looks beige and sometimes it looks green depending on the light. And it's been on the walls for a few years now.....time to be replaced again. But a whole new kitchen is going in too. It may take time because this nice couple is still in the planning stages, but there will definitely be no orange in it!!
I know, I know you want to know who the young couple are. Well, she is not one to admit when she makes a mistake so you will likely never know who she is. She would die if I let it be known who it is!!! But it's not the lovely lady making the turkey gravy on Christmas Day in the above picture. She does have a lovely beige kitchen too though!! The nice young lady has her dreams set on a double oven where that pantry is and a cooktop where the stove is.....

This and That

A random group of pictures from August.

• Mark went to a paintball birthday party for his buddy Matt. Mark's the kid in the front dressed in black. The boys had so much fun shooting each other in a field of mud.

• It's so much fun playing in the rain. I wasn't here when this picture was taken but from what I hear there was a huge, loud crack of thunder right overhead and these kids flew into the safety of Pam's house in seconds! (Pam needs to change the date on her camera!!)
  

• I really want my kids to love roller coasters just like I do. Normal roller coasters, not insane ones like the Behemoth at Wonderland or the Magnum at Cedar Point. Mark, Jade and I went on the pirate ship swing at Wonderland and whenever they got that feeling in their stomaches when the swing went down I told them that is what a roller coaster feels like. They were raring to go and since they were so brave we went on the Wild Beast. Jade thought she was going to puke and Mark was ok with it, but not too anxious to try other big roller coasters. I sat behind them and kept leaning over patting their heads and saying "Weeee" "Isn't this great?!?!" I did have a little scare though, I thought Jade was going to fly right out of her seat.....yikers!
  

• There were not many water rides the kids could go on together because of Jade's height. Here is the one pic of Mark and Jade together on a tube slide.
  

• Last week a bunch of my friends and I gathered up all the kids and we spent the day at Splashdown. We had the greatest time! The kids checked in with us once in a while, mostly when they were hungry and needed money!
  

• Jade loves mini golf!
  

• I sent a surprise package to my cousin Mary- Anne. She's pregnant and craving Kraft Dinner. When Kraft changed their packaging they also changed the product and the new KD is nothing like the old KD. MA is craving the old KD which you cannot buy anymore. Her mom (Anne) went all over town looking for the old KD. Imagine her surprise when we were emailing each other and I told her I have a case of it in my basement. She called me right away and said "You have a CASE of it in your basement?!?!" Now MA has 12 boxes of the good stuff!
  

• This is how our backyard looked for Mark's bday sleepover. They were calling it the resort!
  

• Craig celebrated his first birthday on August 9. He had a big party and was banging on the table waiting for his first piece of cake!
  

It will be quiet here on the blog for a couple of weeks. We are camping until Labour Day. Have a great couple of weeks....and then summer's over :(

Muggin'

Mark is having some boys sleep over tonight in Jeff's huge vacation tent. Last night, after Mike and Jeff set up the backyard into a 'resort' the kids were extremely wound up and were begging me to sleep in the tent with them last night. We played around with the camera and took some fun shots.

The Most Inspiration Canadian

Of course it's only my opinion, but Terry Fox has to be the most inspirational Canadian. His story always brings tears to my eyes. His brother Darrell is travelling across Canada with the van that was used during the Marathon of Hope and when I heard it was coming to town I just had to go and see it.



The van has been refurbished to how it was when Terry was running across Canada. In one of my books it says how it became notorious to all the reporters for it's smell. Gross!

My mom was a huge Terry Fox fan. Having lost her own leg to cancer when she was 25 she was fascinated with this kid. She and my dad were following him when his story was written in short little pieces in the middle of the newspaper...before he made headlines.

I was pretty emotional when I met Terry's brother Darrell. It all of a sudden hit me that this was Terry's brother. They actually met and probably beat each other up! Darrell was sooooo nice and he says it is all the "details" about Terry that is so amazing. He signed my "Terry" book and even though I look extremly goofy with that grin on my face I had tears in my eyes, as I do everytime I think of Terry Fox.

There was a reporter for the newspaper there and she did a little interview with us. I told her about how Mark was so inspired by Terry Fox that when he was in grade 1 he took money from his piggy bank to make his own donation to the cancer society. That always brings tears to my eyes too....now I need a kleenex!

From Another Planet

Tonight Jade was reading her book to me and in the story the girl ruined a tablecloth that came all the way from Ireland. At this point Jade becomes quite excited and says

"Ireland! That's Mrs. Hughes home planet!!"

Well, I laughed. It was so cute and adorable and innocent and I couldn't help myself. But it devastated and embarassed Jade and I think it broke her heart. She hid under her blankets and wouldn't come out. And she was crying. I couldn't convince her that I was sorry for laughing. I hope I didn't destroy something.....but it was just soooo funny. And it still is....but now I feel soooo guilty.

And speaking about other planets...I felt like perhaps I was from another planet earlier this afternoon when a young girl, lets say 20 years old, came to the house to give us an estimate on windows. This girl did not look at me once. She flirted with Mike the whole entire time she was here.....I kept sticking my finger in my mouth like I was going to throw up and Mike just laughed loudly along with her, and grinned at me. I heard her comment when she went into our bedroom to measure our windows "This is a nice big bedroom" Somehow if an old man came to measure the windows this wouldn't have sounded as wierd as it did coming from her.

A Million Bajillion Pieces

My klutzy husband knocked over a C*orelle bowl off of the kitchen counter and never in my life have I seen so many pieces from a broken bowl. There were teeny tiny shards everywhere and so much of them were stuck in the grout. I had to wash the floor 3 times before I felt like I got them all. Pieces flew in every direction from one bowl.

A broken dish, glass or jar is not big news in this house, but I just HAD to blog this after I found this broken piece in the debris:

A Lesson in Geography

Yup, that's us...a story in a grade 8 geography textbook. Dennis' book is finished and is already on it's second printing so next year a whack of grade 8 kids will be reading all about "Jade's Story"

This is the cover.




This is the page featuring Jade's Story. This study is going to help teach about the one child policy in China. I would love to hear each and every classroom discussion.

Dennis even put his wife Shirley in his textbook!

Dennis did an amazing job on this book. He is such a brilliant man and we are so proud of him.

And now Jade thinks she's famous......