November is flying by too!

Here we are with a month left till Christmas! I'm on the ball this year, already have my Christmas letter typed and saved, ordered my photo greeting cards from Costco, and have completed a lot of my shopping! Woo Hoo!

I want to have everything in the mail by the end of the first week of December and then I can sit back and relax and enjoy the season ahead.


A month from now we'll have a teenager in the house! That sounds so strange and unbelievable! I'm making Christopher an album of photos taken over the last 13 years. Something he can look at and cherish in the years to come.

We got an e-mail the other night saying that Christopher had been cut from the select soccer team. This left us a bit stunned as they'd sent an e-mail a few days earlier stating that he'd made the team. Well, to make a long story short, I e-mailed the director as I'd noticed a mistake in the e-mail stating that Christopher is a goalie. He's not a goalie! They sent us an e-mail intended for someone else. Thankfully, they looked into it, and noticed their mistake and apologized profusely saying that they'd cut and pasted stuff and forgot to check who it was addressed to and hit send.....ah e-mail, it can be a wonderful tool or a dangerous tool! So, he's made the team, and is very happy about it!

Still haven't spoken to the in laws. I'm going to have to send an e-mail, but whenever I sit at the computer the words just don't come out the way I want them too. I mean I know what I want to say, but it's saying it without stooping to their level that's the problem!

Today is a busy day with 2 hockey practices, one piano lesson, and a soccer practice! Early to bed as tomorrow is an early start.

No snow here yet, and I'm loving that fact! It is getting colder though.

Dryer just buzzed........... why can't someone invent an automatic folder and putter away machine????

Sunshine and Happiness!

The sun is shining today, and it's beautiful!!!

I wish the entire winter was going to be like this. I could care less if it snowed at all, just keep it sunny and cold!

I worked out today with Lynn. It was great! I always come away from my sessions with her feeling energized and good.

Heck, I may even clean my patio windows today as the sun is shining through the window and I see some spots!

I'm taking Nicholas to the Rockets game tonight as Andy has a meeting. Nonna is coming over and the boys are excited.

Where do I go from here?

Last Thursday something terrible happened to me.

I wanted to write about it, but just couldn't.

Well, now that I've had time to digest it all, I can speak about it.

I had been at an appt. with my personal trainer for an assessment. It felt soooooooo good to get back at working out again.

After the appt. I got into the van and noticed that there were a few voice messages on my cell phone.

I listened to one of them and noticed that whoever had called me had gotten my voice mail, and didn't hang up their speaker phone, so, my cell phone recorded their entire conversation.

At first I heard the radio, and then I heard my father in law angry and yelling obscenities....to only realize that he was actually talking about ME!

He said some horrible things about me. Dropped the "F Bomb" followed by the B word repeatedly and said how F'in stupid I was etc. It was horrible. I cried when I heard it. It was like I had walked into a conversation that I was never supposed to hear. It left me shaking. Andy happened to call me that afternoon shortly after I'd listened to the message and he was stunned, didn't know what to say. He felt sick for me having to go through that.

Later that night he confronted his Dad on the phone and I over heard him say "How dare you talk about my wife like that, she's always been welcoming to you both, and she's the best thing that's ever happened to me, and if I have to choose between her and you guys, then you won't be seeing me again." " Even if you apologize to her, how do you expect things to go back to the way they were?" He NEVER apologized but he did say he regretted saying those things. (whatever!) And then all the crap that ever happened in their immediate family between Andy and his parents from the last 42 yrs. was re hashed, and of course I took the brunt of the blame.

The bottom line after 3 hrs on the phone with them and Andy is this:

1) They're worried about Andy
2) They think he's depressed about his work situation over the last few years which is my fault
3) They think we spent too much money on our house(none of which was borrowed from the bank of J & F Macdonnell btw!)
4) They think I spend too much money
5) We don't take the boys over there very much lately(again my fault)
6) They think that Andy does the majority of the work around here and that I'm taking advantage of him


So, after 2 days of crying, I then moved on to being pissed off. Angry that they said those things, angry that no attempt was made to apologize, angry that they were willing to sweep what happened under the carpet with the explanation that 'sometimes people say things they don't mean and that I should just forget about it'(like that's ever going to happen!) After that fiasco, she sent an e-mail to Andy stating the above, and then had the nerve to say "tell Maria to bring the boys hockey bags over tomorrow"(the three other boys had to stay with them this past weekend when I was away and that made me feel like vomiting.)Oh my did she really think I would go over there the next day after all that was said about me???????

Andy was so good about everything, never said that I should just forget it. He completely understands how I feel about this and if I never have to talk to them again, then I won't!

It's a difficult situation and I'm not sure how I get past this. I feel paranoid in my own home thinking that they'll pop over and I'll be here alone and have to talk to them. I just can't. I have nothing nice to say.


Then yesterday FIL called and left a message on my cell phone apologizing for the things he said, and for the language he used. What he said was unforgiveable.

I realize the Christian thing to do would be to forgive and forget, but I just can't at this point.

I also don't want to call them, even though they're expecting me to and to say that it's ok, well it's NOT ok!

I think I'll put my feelings down in an e-mail to them and leave it at that.

I certainly do not want ANY help from them with the boys. I'd rather run myself ragged than ask them for ANY help.

I can't talk to them, and I'm cringing about the fact that Christopher's Birthday is in December right before Christmas and I'll have to have them over then.

They're going to the coast for Christmas so we won't have to see them then, and after Christmas we're taking the boys skiing for a week. Believe me if I could avoid them for the rest of my life and not subject my kids to their mind games and stuff then I would!

Oh my, could you imagine if one of the boys had heard that voice message on my phone? That would have been the end of any sort of grandparent/grandchild relationship that's for sure.

Another thing that ticks me off is that how many other times did they talk about me behind my back and then come over here for dinner and act all nice and sweet?

I don't deserve any of this.

Highlights from the weekend.................

Christopher's hockey team had their first out of town tournament this past weekend. As Andy was busy taking a dental implant course, I got to take Christopher to his games. The trip to Trail took 4 hrs. and thankfully there wasn't much snow on the roads at the top of the hills through the pass.

The team did well, placing 2nd in their division. Christopher had a fantastic weekend and scored 5 goals, 2 assists. He did however spend some time in the penalty box too!

We got to know parents on the team, a really good group of people and I was really impressed with his coach, who had the team captain say Grace before our team meal!

We arrived back home on Sunday and I've been running ever since. Seems that the laundry didn't get itself done this weekend. Oh well.

The days are getting shorter......

ick! I hate that it starts getting dark so early now! We've been blessed with mild temps and sunny skies for the first two months of fall, and now the fog seems to have settled in, we're getting rain, and even a tad bit of snow up here last week.


Jacob has become an avid meteorologist.....the other day he says to me:

Jacob: "Mom, put the news on"

Me: "Why?"

Jacob: " I want to hear if it's going to snow tomorrow."

Me: "ok"

Jacob: " I heard snow!"

Me: "That doesn't necessarily mean it WILL snow tomorrow"

Jacob: "What percent did they say?"

Me: " 60%"

Jacob: Well, that means it WILL snow!"

What a funny little guy he is! Of course it didn't snow, and that concerned him because he'd heard it on the radio and what they say goes! lol

Today was a relatively quiet day......Nicholas had a hockey game this morning, Michael this afternoon, and Christopher is at his game now.

Jacob has one tomorrow morning @ 6:30 a.m. Uughhh! Looks like I'll be taking him since Andy got up to take Nicholas this morning.

The boys have 5 days off school! They had a half day on Friday, no school Monday or Tuesday. Gee, I should have been better organized and we could have gone somewhere this week!

I have a rotten sinus cold. I feel ok, just get the chills on and off, and am taking Advil Cold and Sinus which is helping with the sinus pain.

Nicholas has a croupy cough today(Great), and now a stuffy nose.

Jacob came into our room last night sniffling.

Ok, this has been bugging me for awhile........so minor hockey instituted this ridiculous policy that all rep teams have to wear dress pants, dress shirts, ties, dress shoes to every game. Let me first tell you that the novelty of this wears off pretty darn quickly! Today Michael came home WITHOUT his dress pants! Someone on his team must have put them on mistakenly. It's too much to ask 11 yr. old boys to get dressed up, go to the rink, get out of dress clothes, change into track suit, go to warm up, get out of track suit, put on hockey gear, play the game.....get out of hockey gear, get dressed into dress clothes again for the ride home! C'mon what was the minor hockey executive thinking when they instituted this policy? Morons! I can't tell you how many boys have misplaced their dress pants already this season and it's only November! Hopefully someone e-mails me that they have his pants.

I must get organized with the Christmas decorations.....it'll be here before I know it! I have to find an artificial tree for our living room. The live tree we had last year was a disaster, and our old artificial one is just too short.

Andy's off this weekend, and then has Tuesday off for Remembrance Day.

He surprised me the other night with flowers and had his parents come over to look after the boys so we could see a movie. Trouble is that movies don't run at 7 and 9 pm anymore, they start at 6:45, 6:55 , 9:45, and 10:05 pm. There was no way I wanted to wait till 10 pm to see a movie,I'd have fallen asleep in my seat....heck I can do that for free at home! So, we went to a furniture store, Future Shop, and then to have an appetizer and a cocktail. It was fun to be out.

The boys are watching Polar Express...they've hauled out all their Christmas movies already! Fa la la la la la la la la!

Hockey/Soccer Christopher

Christopher was selected as one of the Assistant Captains of his hockey team!

He also made the select soccer team and he's thrilled! He was a bit nervous as he only got one try out because he missed the other three due to his foot being broken.

A historical day............

We've been following the US election and today I said to the boys:

"Today history will be made. The USA will either vote in the first African American President, or the first female Vice President". They've been interested in it all day and we're so happy that Barrack Obama has been elected to President of the USA.

It's November!

My goodness October flew by, and November is already going by too quickly!

The boys had a good Halloween. The weather was great compared to last year when we lost all feeling in our fingers after 45 minutes outdoors. It was nasty! This year it was balmy and a bit wet, but tolerable for the kids.

Despite it being a Friday night, the crowds of kids that we've had in previous years didn't appear, and therefore I'm left with a tonne of candy and chips!

Christopher didn't go out this year, but instead had 2 friends over and they helped hand out candy to the kids. They did go for a walk around the neighbourhood as one of his friends was dressed up, and got a few treats from the neighbours.

Here are some photos from our pumpkin carving....the boys printed off stencils for their pumpkins and Andy carved them. It was their job to 'remove all the guts' from inside the pumpkin and I roasted all the pumpkin seeds. Yum! Christopher who is totally grossed out by the inside of the pumpkins chose not to clean his out this year! Guess he's not going to be a surgeon when he grows up! lol

Here's one of the whole group of them just as they headed out the door.................