School is finally back in session!

Well, after a trip to the dentist this morning, the older two boys are sitting in their third period class as I type this. They were most irritated and unenthusiastic when I dropped them off after their teeth cleanings.

They had over a week's vacation! There was no school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and this morning there was a two hour delay. I am not exactly certain why. However, the kids were extremely happy and I was loving having them all home again, just like the good old days, so I don't really care why! It said something on the school and/or weather site (can't recall which one) about another "winter storm". We got a chuckle out of that! A few inches of snow is a storm!?!? Hmmmmm...

Tomorrow is a half day and then the weekend again. So basically a total of one full day in one week, is how much time the boys will have spent at school this week. They are so pleased and have had a lovely time playing video games, sleeping in and playing in the snow.


Speaking of snow. All the sledding was most helpful in extracting one of Clown's loose front teeth!







It also knocked another loose one so hard that it was just barely hanging on. At his dental appointment for his fillings this morning, it popped out. So he has it under his pillow waiting for the tooth fairy. I told him the $ he is earning is just in time for buying his siblings their Christmas gifts. He didn't seem too keen on that idea! LOL





Poor Princess. We noticed some months ago that her two lower front permanent teeth (I never know the names of these things) were coming in behind the baby ones who were not even loose. So when I took her for her regular appointment and cleaning a few weeks back, they said they would pull those as well as one on either side of those. By then, the front ones were a wee bit loose. But since the permanent ones were coming in behind, it was messing things up. So the poor thing had to have those four teeth extracted this morning. She was really brave, but they came to get me and told me that she ended up crying a bit anyway and they thought I should sit with her. When she saw me, she really started crying and laid her head in my lap. I thought she was really brave! She bled for quite a while and is now laying and watching a Christmas Movie with Clown.






So that is an update for now. I hope to get Brain's birthday post done soon, still trying to get my hands on some baby pictures of him. He has told me he doesn't want me to call him Brain on here and he is thinking of another name. Hope it doesn't confuse anyone when I start to use it!!!

What snow is good for ~ besides looking beautiful!

Sledding...

















Catching on your tongue with your friends...





















Going in bare foot and seeing how long you can stand it...




























And perhaps, best of all, writing your name in it with your own urine (if you are a guy!)...

Look what we got today!

This is what we did today:)















Looks like the kids will have at least a FIVE day break from school, not just four.

Taunting

We are busy today. Getting out the Christmas decorations!

The energy is high around here today. Flitting all about, Christmas music playing, Loud exclamations of, "OOOOH!! I remember THIS!?!? JOCK! Do you remember this!?!?!" On and on it goes.

We were stringing lights around Princess's headboard in her bedroom and she and Clown were so excited they could hardly stand it. They were sharing with each other how excited they are and jabbering away about how this is their favourite time of year. They are at such a perfect age for this stuff!

So I was listing off many of my favourite things about this season when Clown covered his ears and exclaimed in a pitiful voice, "AARRRGG! It's like you're TAUNTING me or something!??! I can't stand it! I CANNOT WAIT! STOP TAUNTING ME ABOUT CHRISTMAS!?!?"

I didn't mean to:(

All This Town Remembers

So today Brain is 14. I will post about that soon, but wanted to post a bit about my brother's book.

The title of this post is the title of the book. Please forgive me if you are tired of me going on about it. I went on about it before I read it, it will certainly take me some time to calm down after finishing the book this afternoon! I am so hyped up!!

Stud and I took turns and he eventually had more time and surpassed me and finished it last night. It was hard for either of us to put down. It was SO GOOD! It was really neat to read about things I had forgotten, living in the prairie. If none of you have ever lived in the Prairies of the North, then maybe you cannot relate. Even if you have not, you will certainly still enjoy this book. If you can get past all the times the main character uses the "F" word!

So shortly after I finished it, my one brother called Brain to wish him Happy Birthday. We were discussing our brother's book when the author himself called. Also to wish his nephew Happy Birthday. I spent so much time talking with both of my brothers, that Brain's birthday supper was ruined:( He had requested Chicken Fettuccine (Is that the correct spelling???). It is something that you need to really pay attention to, when you make that Alfredo sauce, etc. Also, we were out of garlic bread. I am slacking on his birthday big time! I felt SO BAD. More on that in his Birthday post, though.

Anyway, my brothers and I had a lovely time on the phone. I spent almost two hours on the phone in the course of both conversations! I feel bad, I yapped so much with R, that he missed tucking his wee son into bed. Young Mr. J (you may recall him from my July 4th Post from this summer) is closing in on 20 lbs at five months of age. In fact, he may have surpassed that by now!

My brothers and I have lively conversations and talk for long periods of time. Sean (might as well say his name, all of you will find it out when you google the book like I know you want to:) Teehee) teases me sometimes and when he calls he will take a deep breath and count "One, two, three ~ GO!" and then sit back and listen while I launch into an hour long gabbing fest. Sometimes he even gets a word or two in!


So we had a nice talk about his book. I asked many questions.

Me- "So at this one part when such and such happened, were you thinking of so-and-so??"

Sean - "Yes, kind of."

Me- "So when this happened, was it about this or that??"

Sean - "Kind of, mainly about that."



He did a great job of describing things. I felt as if I were home again, standing in our yard. I remember our Dad burning the garbage in the burning barrel. He always loved doing that. Now that they had to move into the city, he can't do that anymore. Of course, I also remember my brothers peeing against it in the winter, to watch the steam rise off. I remember being SO JEALOUS that they could do that and I couldn't. teehee I remember that vehicles had to be plugged in during the winter and the biting wind (I should post my worst frostbite story soon!) and vehicles ending up in ditches full of snow during winter.

I am going to post a few quotes. I love this one ~

"The world was too lit to stay any colour for long. You had to stop looking - you believed in the space beside the road, but you could not look at it directly- it moved between white and blue, between blue and black and it moved back. You see all the movies, with something so good the bright light shines out of it, but the viewer cannot see. The characters stand and murmur or are silent in awe, and this is what they've fought for. It isn't gold or some big fucking secret, Adam thought. It's the prairie in winter, and it surrounds you."


I really loved this part, for some reason ~

"Adam loved to watch her read like that, at night, beside him, and imagine how events and people slid in her story. He loved to imagine how they held her, too, when they did. What was it about one character that might hold her?? What are the things about this same character that disappear as she falls into sleep??? How are the people transformed in her brief dreams??"


Here ~

"The morning sun was somewhere hidden above, but it filled the yard with a kind of rehearsing glow, amplified by the snow and frost that covered everything. The winter yard seemed aching to shine, and would, soon enough, when the sun just stretched a simple grade higher."


Last one ~

"Adam looked down at the boy and his typical grin. The steam coming from his body made his face glisten and his eyes were open to the world. And where was this world?

It was from his bedroom to the tiny school and from there to the rink and back. It was from this tiny rink his father built to the barn where he would work most of his life after school."




Want more?? You must buy the book! I hope my bro doesn't mind me doing this. I can't help it. I asked him when we can expect more. He said he is working on more, I won't say when here in my blog. Just leave it that there are two more works in progress and I am so proud and excited I could burst! Can you tell??


A piece of Trivia for you. The town we grew up near is named after Helena Bonham Carter's great-grandfather.

I thought that was neat!

Ok, Brain says we are watching "Ice Age II: The Meltdown" now. Better get that popcorn popping even though it is very late right now!!!

Survivor

Anyone watch it??

The guy named Oscar (Ozzy) looks like a combination of Orlando Bloom and my nephew, Scott. Yes, I used his true name. He gave me permission. He will be 20 on Christmas Eve! I can't believe it!

Anyway, here is one of my favourite shots of him. I love him in this shirt. This was when he was 16 and my brother (his father) and I flew down to Costa Rica for his high school graduation.




Now, if anyone watches the show and knows who Ozzy is, tell me if you see a resemblance or not, please.

That is all.

Advice

So I have been trying to grow my hair longer again. When Brain was a baby, it was very pretty if I do say so myself.

I can't get it that way again. Three years ago, it looked like this:




I almost forgot what my natural hair colour looked like! It is pretty close to this one shown here.



Now, it was getting layered all the time and looking funky. So almost a year after this photo was taken, I got it dyed darker and chopped off.



They continued to layer it, which causes a sphere shape. Thus:




Well, you can't really tell from that one. But trust me, it is a sphere. It is just now finally getting to be close to one length all over again, as it was in the good old days.

Do I go lighter on the colour again and grow it more, or stay darker (which causes the grey to be MUCH more noticeable between salon appointments!! NOT a good thing) and shorter??

Do I go lighter and stay shorter??

Do I go longer but keep it dark??

Help me please! I know Stud wants it longer, but I am not sure on his colour preference. I should go and ask him, eh??

Also, I am ready for my newest tat. I have waited over a year now since my last one and I am tired of waiting. Stud is due for one, but won't decide. I have narrowed it down to one of my calves or my lower back. I want to lose more weight before I get one anywhere fatty, so it won't sag or something once the weight is gone. I am hoping that my legs and lower back are fine...I think my lower back is. Doesn't FEEL very soft...hmmmm...anyway. Nighty night!

Interesting photos

During my search for photos for the Brain's Birthday post, I came across some photos of professional photos we got done almost four years ago. Please excuse the bad quality. The original photos are much better of course!

I wanted to share ones of me with each kid. What really struck me is how the pose each kid strikes, pretty much sums up their personality.

Behold:



Me with Brain ~




















Jock and myself ~

















Shy Clown ~





















My Little Princess who had just turned two~





I love to look back on photos! Enjoy!

All manner of news

Where to begin??

So much going on. Do I start with my freakish health issues?? Brain's troubles in school?? Jock's awesome-ness on the ice?? Clown's sweetness?? Princess's mice stinking up the house?? Holiday plans?? Wow...I really don't know where to start.

Let me start with my sweet Brain. Poor guy. He really enjoys public school and when Jock asks to quit and stay home, Brain insists he is not ready to quit. Which is great, we are encouraging them to stick it out until the end of the year. Jock is just bored and gets discouraged that teachers cannot spell and various other things of that nature.

Brain is discouraged for many reasons. Every group he gets paired up with for labs in Science either take over and mess the thing up so that it brings his grade down, or are so clue-less that Brain needs to explain everything and ends up doing all the work. On top of it all, the teacher tends to freak out and yell at kids.

I guess a few weeks ago a beaker burst and shattered when they were studying something about pressure and using hard boiled eggs, etc. The teacher swore at the kids and went on quite a rampage. Then last week, Brain said everyone was sitting quietly doing their work and suddenly there was a loud THUMP! Everyone jumped and looked to see what was going on. The teacher had slammed a book down and was right in a boy's face, screaming about him writing on the wrong side of the paper?? He screamed at the boy and yelled to get out and the boy gathered his things and ran from the room!?!?!?

I told Brain we need to speak to someone at the school and maybe have him change Science teachers. He said no, things were fine. If there was another incident, he would tell us and then we can look into that.

Well, he has been very slow to get up in the mornings. Science is his first class and I was sure he was nervous and that was why he was in no rush. I asked him a few times and he maintained all was fine, do not worry. I asked if he was tired of school. He said in many ways he is. It is pretty boring and he isn't learning too much new information that we have not covered here at home long ago. Yet he still enjoys the interaction and wants to continue. I said then you need to be responsible and get up on time. He has been late for first period about five or six times in the past three or four weeks.


I was writing note after note and then they would still interrogate him once he got there. Once the counselor even pulled him from a class to question him for half an hour (twenty-seven minutes by his calculations) on all kinds of things about his home life, etc. We were not impressed with that at all. They act all concerned that he is missing class time (the latest he has ever been has been five minutes) yet they cause him to miss almost an entire class to interrogate him about how many siblings he has and what his chores are at home!?!? HELLO!?!? None of your business. He came home and told me how uncomfortable that made him. We told him if they try it again, to tell them to call us and that we don't want him wasting his class time when we can answer any questions they have. I think it is awesome they have counselors there, if kids need them and seek them out and have any trouble. But Brain was really upset by it and said he felt violated. There was no need for it in that instance.


Now we got some things in the mail saying we will need to go to juvenile court if he is late one more time!?!? Man, they need to focus on other things. The kid has a B in that class, and the only reason his grade is that low, is because of labs that get messed up and he has no voice or say in what happens. His tests, etc are all 100%. We know he understands the material, ya know?? They claim that him being five minutes late a few times is cutting into "valuable learning time". Really? Well then why does he have 100% on everything that he does on his own?? And why do you pull him out of class to violate his privacy??

So Stud went to the school yesterday. They pulled Brain from one of his favourite classes and the counselor met with he and Stud for half an hour. They talked about what the Science teacher has done and saw the correlation between that and Brain being late for that particular class. They are going to speak with the teacher and Principal and we will go from there. I just hope they don't let the teacher know that it is Brain who is bringing this to their attention. You would think the guy would learn. Jock said that a friend of his, who is in high school this year, ran home last year because of this teacher screaming at him. His parents marched right up there and changed teachers. It is coming to our attention that others have complained about this teacher. The guy better get his act together and not yell at MY baby. He DOES NOT want to deal with ME.

He will be 14 on Friday and is none too pleased about it. All he is looking forward to is the gifts and pampering. The growing older? Yeah, he can do without that. Wants to stay a kid. Poor kid though, he has been an adult trapped in a kid's body his entire life!

So he finally got to over eighty pounds! We are SO EXCITED! I took him to his allergist last week and we have him on Prednisone for ten days. Just to see if his sinus stuff is an infection or what exactly. If it doesn't go away with this, it means it is infected. The doc wants to avoid scanning him all the time. It has been a few years, but he wants to avoid another CT scan if he can. Brain's sinuses were SO impacted a few years ago, they were considering surgery if we did not get it under control with antibiotics. We did (after about six months on four different meds!) and then with his surgery almost a year ago for GERD, he has been a lot better until recently. If it is not an infection, we will know it is allergy related and he will do a nasal steroid from now on. They are also talking about allergy shots. Various docs have suggested them over the years, but they scare me. His allergist never bothered me about them and said he did not feel that great about them and did not want to encourage that. Now, things have improved so drastically that he says he feels good about it if we need to.

So that is what is going on with our Brainster. I got more dye for his mop, better go get that taken care of and then he can shower. Jock had to stay late at school to finish some work he is behind on. I love this program they have for that. The VP called me and asked if it was ok. The boys tend to get distracted once they get home and we are still getting used to this whole thing, so we aren't that great about reminding them to do homework. More on that at a later date, though. I know our views on this may baffle some people, but...what can ya do??

I guess the other news can wait, this is long enough. I need to start and look through photos to do his birthday post on Friday:) I wish we had baby ones of him that were digital. Our scanner hasn't worked in a long time. I have GOT to get these old photos sent to this place that will make them available on-line for us.

I can see his face again!

Jock decided to get his hair chopped off. I had forgotten that he has two piercings in his left ear. Could not see his ears, face, neck, chin, etc etc for some time now. He promptly took the earring that he had in one hole, out. I asked why and he said he didn't know. Asked him if he is ashamed to have earrings and he again asserted that he was not sure. So I left it at that. Whatever.

There is a lot more news, but I just wanted to share some photos of my handsome boy. He was letting me know that I was using the camera incorrectly. Something about these shots really struck me. I think he is looking more "teenagery" than he ever has before. He is most excited to hear that, can't wait to grow up. Whereas when I let Brain know that perhaps the peach fuzz on his upper lip could be shaved off soon, he freaked out. He REALLY was not impressed to find a zit on his chin yesterday, either.

I will try to catch up on all of your blogs soon and comment etc. LOTS has been going on here! I am afraid to publish comments without the time to respond to them, or else I never will. Which I guess is not the end of the world, but still. I must go and get Brain some birthday gifts today, since he turns 14 on Friday! Man, THAT is hard to believe.

So I close with Jock, our fountain of wisdom, who takes it upon himself to correct everyone and just all around enlighten all of us.

Just an update

Well, we got the news that Stud's Paternal Grandmother passed away last night. We knew it was coming to this and it is a real blessing. Her husband died back in the '50's sometime and she raised 7 kids on her own!!! She was in great health until the past few years and kept on rallying around and making it back ok.

By this summer, she wasn't sure who anyone was and was pretty confused and in a nursing home. Stud didn't take the kids to see her this summer when they were down, because it would have been too hard for him and too hard on the kids, not understanding and seeing her that way. We just wanted them to remember her when she was more aware. I understand completely how Stud felt, it was the exact same with my own father's mother. I saw her once when she was senile and it was too hard and sad to be around her like that. Her kids all went to see her often and were so good with her. Same with Stud's Dad and his siblings.

I was just craving some of her amazing chocolate pound cake the other day. I can't stand cake, and aside from angel food cake and her Chocolate pound cake, I won't eat any. But that cake of her's....MMmmmmmm, that stuff was fabulous! She would make Stud her chocolate pies, he loved those! Our kids always adored her, even though they rarely got to spend any time with her. I am so glad they have the memories that they do. I am glad that we went down there for Christmas 2004 instead of going to Canada to be with my family. She was in failing health then and I was worried she would be gone at that time and I wanted the younger two to form some memories with her. Brain and Jock had memories from the three years they had lived there. The only downfall to going then was that it we missed my brother's last Christmas. Little did we know, you know?? The plan had been to be at my family's, but I just thought we needed to be with Stud's Grandma and then last year we would be with my family again. So that is what happened, only of course, my brother was not there:(

We told the kids this afternoon. They are sad, but all of them said like we did, at least she is now with her husband and various other of our loved ones. She is not feeling sick and weak anymore. They even commented on how we have been expecting this and it is easier. Whereas, when Davy died, it was so sudden and unexpected and that made things way worse. We agreed with their observations.




Today the public school kids stayed home from school and I took them to this really fun place our HSed friends go to a few times a month. It was also Book Report Lunch and I wanted them to be able to do that. So we went to this place full of inflatables and had a blast! Brain was reading to the younger two on the way and was very hesitant of putting the book down and joining the other kids. We finally convinced him and he had a great time until the woman running the place told him to take his glasses off. He is close to blind without them and was too scared to be climbing and doing all of this without them on, so he went to read again.

I was racing Jock and Clown and Brain through these obstacle courses they have. Man, that is a WORK OUT! I don't feel so bad that I didn't make it to work out at curves today! It was so fun, and Brain is FAST. Jock was kind of annoyed, Brain beat him EVERY TIME! LOL

At one point, I couldn't find Princess. I was asking other mothers and kids, all my boys, etc. No one had seen her. I was just about to really freak out when I went to check this one huge inflatable thing in the corner that I had not looked in yet. As I was walking over to it, this is what I saw:






How HEARTBREAKING is that!??!? She had been in there, stuck and unable to climb out from either side of the section she slid into. She said she had been calling me and calling me:( POOR THING! I felt horrible. I got in with her and hugged and kissed her all over. I explained that I had been looking and looking. I got her calmed down and then we agreed that I could shove her through the part she was struggling with. Once I did that, I couldn't get MYSELF over! Teehee. I asked her to run and get Brain to come and help me. While she was doing that, I got myself up and over on my own somehow. She later got it all figured out and learned the trick of what she needed to do. It is so slippery in there! We had SUCH FUN! None of the other mothers went in there, I can't understand.


Once Princess recovered, she looked like this:














Then we were off to Book Report Lunch at the Pizza Place. Jock and Brain both went up to the front and shared something. Jock had thrown together a little something to share about hockey and brought his skates and one of his sticks. Brain went up there and told three things and then the people were supposed to guess which one of the things was true. It was neat, there was a thread of truth to all of the things he told about. He went into detail, but the three things were basically:

My 13 year old Uncle died last summer.

I had GERD and needed surgery this past February.

I have a skin condition and I could have died from it if we stayed living in SC.

Most of the people guessed right, but the new people who don't know us well and don't know about his illnesses, would have no way of knowing if any of what he told was exaggerated and embellished. It was interesting for sure!


Lots more to share, but Princess wants me to play something with her and her Twinn doll. Hope everyone is doing well!

Show and Tell

Princess did her first Show and Tell in Kindergarten today! Just so happened that I was helping in her class, so I got to video tape.

I was surprised at how shy and quiet she was. When we go with our Home-schooling group once a month and do similar things, she is loud, clear and articulate. This morning, she hung her head, muttered and had to repeat herself. No big deal, I was just surprised. She was a lot more clear and easy to hear than the other kids, but still not how she usually does it. Maybe she thought that is how they are supposed to do it?? LOL Most of the kids actually just sat there and stared at everyone and the teacher had to do it all for them.

She was to make a "News Plan" to help her explain the show and tell object. She worked hard on it last night. She took her "My Twinn" doll that Santa brought her last year for Christmas.



So this is:

When ~ Christmas Time.

Who ~ Herself.

Where ~ In Canada (I was impressed that she thought to use a Maple Leaf to symbolize Canada and remind her where she was when she got the doll).

What ~ The Doll.

Why ~ Because she asked Santa for it and he brought it for her!


Here she is with the doll, sharing with her friends this morning in class.















Here she is with the doll, wearing their matching Holiday Jammies that I just gave her after we got home from school. I got these on major sale back in the spring and was excited to give them to her this holiday season.





It was fun to be in her class. I got to help all the kids make turkeys with handprints and paint! I love that stuff! They are so sweet and cute. She was hugging me all the time and would motion me over and indicate that I was to lean down to her level. Then she would always whisper, "I love you" to me. She was beaming and obviously just tickled to have me in there. Every time her teacher, Mrs. W would say anything about "Go see Mrs. D" (that is me, in case you are unaware!) or anything, Princess would just BEAM at the mention of my name! LOL

When we got home and were eating our lunch, she said, "I wish you were Mrs. W". I asked why, thinking she would say how Mrs. W is so much nicer than me! No, it was because if I was Mrs. W, I would be in her class every day and be all the kids' teacher all the time! I reminded her that normally I AM her teacher and will be again when she is not in public school anymore. She was happy and asked when that will be, she doesn't really want to keep on going. Jock has been saying the same thing. They are tired of it and very bored. More on that another time, perhaps.

So I am just saying, it was nice to be in there. We are working on painting her bedroom, as well as hopefully finishing what was started in Jock and Clown's Room back in March. I must get going on more painting, etc. Although my head it really throbbing. Need to update you all on my neurologist appointment last week, although I am seeking a second opinion first.

Hope everyone is having an awesome week!

New photos

Some friends have requested an update on the blog so that they no longer have to view the photo of poor Jock's leg! SORRY GUYS!

I will throw a few photos out there and then must get to bed. Will do a decent and more exciting update soon. Have not even had time to read blogs lately, let alone update my own. Craziness going on!

Ok, the kids on their way to church this past Sunday, Brain on his way to school Monday morning with his new winter coat and toque (the eyes of the dragon on the toque light up!) and Princess still enjoying her mice:)

Hope this helps! Peace out!

Hockey injury

One of Jock's boo-boos.

This is a few days after the fact. Doesn't look fun, does it?? He took a puck to the calf. Forgot (or maybe there was no time??) to turn away when a team-mate made a slap shot.


Please ignore the filthy kitchen floor:)

Emotional Time

Man, the past few days have been very emotional. Been missing my brother more than usual. The meme I did the other day did not help, but seeing this again the other day REALLY got to me.

Just a warning, Mum and Dad, if you are reading this, you may want to get yourselves prepared to read and watch that. You really may want to avoid watching it. I told Mum about it on the phone a few months ago and have been debating about showing it to you or not. Stud says I should not, he doesn't think you guys can handle it yet. It is about a father and son, the son is like Davy. The father has done amazing things to allow his son to experience all kinds of joy, like when you would hook Davy up on that thingy and pull him in his chair behind the tractor you know, Dad?? And how we played hockey with him and pushed him in his chair??

Anyway, this is VERY emotional. The song that plays reminds me of Clown's reaction right when we told him Davy died. He knew immediately where Davy was and closed his eyes to watch him do all the things he had never been able to do before. The song is very happy and it is a wonderful thing. Anyone who watches it cries, I am sure. But for people who had a guy like that in their lives and now he is gone, it is especially emotional. We wish he could have lived to be a man also.

So that is what must have made me have a dream about Davy the other night. I dreamt that he was alive, it was all a big mistake. We found him. We were not sure where he had been, but it didn't matter. He was laying in his bed at the farm there and we were all gathered around him. I was trying not to scream and I was trying to share him with everyone, but I admit to shoving people out of the way in a desperate attempt to get at him. When I finally got my turn, I was kissing him all over his precious face and trying SO HARD not to scream with joy. We didn't want to frighten him, but it was pretty loud in there. We were all jumping around and hugging and freaking out, yet trying to keep it mildly controlled. I got to see those gorgeous eyes again and he was beaming around at everyone, doing his wonderful sounds, trying to talk. Trying to tell us all something. The kids were all climbing in bed with him to watch one of his movies with him. It was so awesome!

Then I woke up. It was not awesome at all, it was devastating to realise this is reality.

So yesterday, Princess was trying on some new earrings that Granny and Grandad sent her. (I will call you guys soon, she got the parcel and is THRILLED!) She was going ON and ON about how much she loves them and how she misses them and how they send her the nicest, prettiest most beautiful things EVER. She was saying how she wants to go to Canada and see them again really soon and she hates being away from them. Then she got really quiet and her chin started quivering and her eyes welled up. I knew she was missing Davy also. So I told her it was ok. She has not cried about him or talked about him in a good six weeks or so.

We both lost it and had about ten minutes of a sobbing, rocking back and forth hugging each other, snot and tears all over...time. I dunno what to call it. She was saying she can't let her brothers see her like this, EVER. I said it was fine, they understand. Guys are just different and they miss him too, they just think it is ok not to talk about it, but she and I know we need to talk about it.

So yeah. There you go. I need to go get her from school now. Great, now I have a head ache and my nose is running again. I can't even type about him without losing it!

Thankful Thursday

Ok, I am going to copy my friend Library Mama and do what she does on Thursdays. Maybe today it the appropriate time to start this, since the poor woman didn't have anything for us today. She is not very happy right now, so I can try and take over for her, at least for this week.

I am thankful for...


...the fact that Stud is going to be working from home starting (most likely) next week. There were lay offs at his office yesterday and sadly many of our friends lost their jobs. Stud was not one (Praise God!) but now has no office to go to daily. He will not miss the commute and we will be thrilled to have more time with him here at home!

...that it is raining and cloudy today. MY KINDA DAY!!! YAHOOO!

...that I am almost done Christmas shopping for the nephews and nieces in South Carolina. Also, I have some packages ready to send them, with Christmas PJ's and colouring books and ornaments in them. I am HOPEFUL that I get my act together and get them in the mail SOON!

...that I had a lovely visit with my friend yesterday when she came back to get her two sons. I watched them for her while she had a Dr. Appointment.

...that Stud went to Brain and Jock's school this morning and gave them what-for about their lack of communication. More on that later...maybe.

...that Jock asked last night if he had to go to school today. Told us he is bored and doesn't like it anymore. Of course, he will most likely finish out the entire year, but I am still happy that he is bored and wants to be HSed again. I was most worried about him going in there. Again, another post expanding on that may be coming in the near future.

...that Clown reminded me of one of my favourite snacks. Peanut butter and pickles on saltine crackers.

...that my water aerobics class is tonight!

...that I got a nice e-mail from my brother, the author, this morning. I need to call him soon and catch up.

Ok, I need to go eat my crackers with PB and pickles:)

Have a Great Thursday everyone! Hang in there LM. This too shall pass:)

FINALLY!!

That nonsense is OVER! YES!

Now the REAL fun can begin:)

So here are some photos from last night...










Jock could not find anything that he liked when Stud took he and Brain to the store to purchase costumes the other night. Nothing was good enough. By yesterday late afternoon, he was panicking! He refused to wear any of his old ones or wear his hockey gear like last year, so went as himself!
Brain's had eyes that lit up all red under that ghoul face thing. It was pretty creepy and he was very pleased with it. He has not had a new costume in about three years, so this was a real treat:)








Stud only got two of these done.

Ok, now the fun of Christmas begins! YAHOOOO!!! Bring it on!!!:)