Third headache this week............

Migraines! I could live without them...they used to come sporadically. Since last week I've had three 'episodes' that were heading into migraine territory.

I had these weird lightning bolts in kaleidoscope colors last week, then I took my Advil, and went to bed. Managed to escape the vertigo that comes with my migraines.

Had slight vertigo and then the headache started the other day in Trail, so I took my Advil straight away and the headache never materialized.

Today while at Office Depot I got that same spinny feeling and took my Advil and went straight home to bed. I fell asleep at 10:30am and woke at 1:15 pm this afternoon!

I still have a minor headache, and NOTHING got accomplished today at home! Uugh!

Tomorrow I'm going x-country skiing with Michael's class. I know it's good for me, but it's sooooooooo cold out! Wahhhh!

Stay tuned for an update tomorrow!

Hockey Tournament Update..........

Man alive, it is freakin freezing here in the booming(not) town of Rossland, BC!

I have yet to regain feeling in my fingers and toes. The rink was sooooooooo cold that even with the small little heater on above where we were sitting, you could still see your breath!!

We are here for Michael's tournament. Jacob came along too because he really wanted to ride on the chartered bus! It's a 4 hr trip here through windy mountain passes filled with snow! We left home on Friday morning ...had to get up at 3:35 a.m. so we could catch the bus which left at 5 a.m. Michael and I slept on the bus, but Jacob only slept for 20 mins,and then proceeded to stay awake ALL day until we got back to the hotel after the evening game!! I was about ready to collapse, and probably fell asleep before Michael that night.

Unfortunately, the boys lost both games on Friday so that meant they played at 7:30 this morning. Michael had to be up at 6:00 a.m. I got him up and dressed/fed and out the door as they were all going on the bus with the coaches. I then went back to bed....just for 10 mins, and woke up 2 hrs later! Jacob was still snoring away but I had to wake him up or we'd miss the entire game! Turns out we only caught the third period, and the boys lost that game too. We had one more game in the afternoon and we managed to WIN that one....21-1! Seriously, they could have spread all those goals out between the other games and maybe we'd have done better than last place. Oh well.

Tonight the boys went to the aquatic center and swam for 2 hrs. They're winding down now with a glass of milk and a pb&j sandwich. I'm ready for bed. We head home tomorrow.

Andy, Nicholas and Christopher are in 100 mile house for Nico's hockey tournament. They drove there on Friday. Andy said it was a loooooooooooong drive into the middle of no where! It's absolutely freezing cold there too. Today he sent me a text message saying that his privates had frozen and fallen off! lol, what a funny guy!

Nicholas is playing very well and scored 1 goal in the first game, a hat trick in the 2nd game, and a hat trick in the third game tonight! He also got player of the game tonight too!

Ah, it will be nice to be back home tomorrow. Tournaments are all finished for Michael and his team starts playoffs the first week of Feb. The other boys all play till mid March....we're almost on the downhill slope.................to Spring! Counting the days till we see and feel the sunshine again.

The 44th President of the USA!

Today I witnessed history!

Today Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th American President!

It gave me goose bumps to watch it all.

I've recorded it all for the boys to watch later on.

Here's a link with footage of the events of the day.

God Bless Obama.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/obama-inauguration-speech-ceremony

Asleep!

Finally Jacob is asleep!!

Michael's heading back to school tomorrow. We just found out his hockey tournament schedule, and that we have to be on the bus ready to depart at 5 am! Waahhh! That is going to be horrible! That means getting up at 3:45 am when no one should be awake! lol

We play 2 games on Friday. One at 10:45 and the other at 7:30 pm. It will make for a L O N G day that's for sure.

Why is it?

That bedtime was an hour an a half ago, and I still have a 7 yr. old that's wandering the halls? The other three have been asleep for an hour, but no way will Jacob settle down to sleep!!!

I'm watching Jon and Kate plus 8 and marvel at how Kate can just point to the corner if one of her kids isn't behaving and they ACTUALLY go to the corner!

Apparently the night owl wants me to lie down with him............stay tuned for a report! lol

Also, I can't believe how diligent I've been in blogging the last few days! Good on ya Maria!

Home sick today.........

Monday....three boys at school and one home sick today!

Michael has a throat infection and is currently on antibiotics. He also has a really bad cough.....although I haven't hear him cough in hours now.....hmmm back to school tomorrow....I have WAY too much to get done and organized before heading out of town this week for a hockey tournament!

Both Michael and Nicholas have out of town tourneys this coming weekend so that means Andy and I are going opposite directions on the highway....last time for the season....but then there's playoffs to contend with and I'm not sure where that will take us.

Apparently the deer are loving our succulent cedar trees that were planted in the fall. We found a family of deer eating the cedars on Saturday morning. They're not frightened either as the papa deer was eyeballing me as I drove by! I stopped and watched then(sorry Andy!) they were so darn cute! Today Andy wants me to go to Buckerfields store to buy burlap sacks so that we can cover the trees before they eat them all!

Trascending: Words on Women and Strength by Kelly Corrigan

This video clip was sent to me by the numerous wonderful women in my life. I watched it with tears as I related to what she was saying. It's so true!

Love you all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_4qwVLqt9Q

Pizza and movie night.......

Pizza and a movie.....that's what we have planned for tonight.

Although Christopher had other plans because he wanted one of his friends to come over and have a sleepover. Normally I'd say yes, but it's been awhile since we've had any ALONE family time, and I don't think it's wrong to have said no.....he does though and has been just a joy since he got home from school today.

Christopher's team was in the newspaper today!

http://www.bclocalnews.com/okanagan_similkameen/kelownacapitalnews/sports/37720704.html

Had dental work done this morning and the freezing came out about an hour ago. It's made eating a challenge, and quite funny for the boys to watch!

Busy weekend of hockey coming up with 4 games tomorrow, and three on Sunday.

What is it with boys and wrestling????

I so don't get the whole wrestling thing!

Currently, Nicholas is watching Drake and Josh on TV and Christopher has Jacob in a hold and is pretending to 'slam' him on the couch! WTH? Jacob is of course screaming at the top of his lungs and laughing and I'm losing my mind with all the noise and the fact that the TV keeps getting L O U D E R!!!!!!!!!!

Uugh, I break it up, get them to change gears and then it starts all over again...... 90 mins till bed time, 90 mins till bed time, 90 mins. till bed time...................

Great..........chicken pox!!!

Not the kind of phone call you want to receive from the parent of the kid yours was playing with and even had dinner with last night!!!

Apparently Nico's friend Drew woke up covered in chicken pox this morning! LOVELY!

Thankfully all our boys were vaccinated....although so was Drew apparently....hmmmm, we watch and wait, tick tock, tick tock......I'll freak if they all get them now!

Waaaaaaaaahhhhh!

Jacob

Jacob's teacher says that he's a leader in the class. He's been working so hard at school, and sometimes she has to tell him to put his pencil down and go out for recess as he's so focused on getting his work done! lol

Back home from the tournaments.......

Funny how the weekend goes by so quickly when you're having fun.....the boys teams did well with Michael's team coming in third at the Kamloops Pee Wee Tier 3 tournament and Christopher's team WON the Enderby Bantam House tournament!! Michael's team had the worst draw...not only did they have to play most of their games on the Olympic size ice, but they also had to play till 10:00pm both nights. That meant bed time was after 11 pm and then up at 5 am on Sunday. We met the other Kelowna team in the semi final. I so hate that team! The parents are a nightmare too. But it wasn't meant to be and we lost in a shoot out. Andy was with Christopher in Enderby this weekend and he said that Christopher played really well and in one game he scored 2x and had 2 assists. He also got the hard hat award from his coach(for the hardest working player on the team). Way to go!

Right back at it on Monday....the house was a minor disaster, and it took me awhile to get the laundry caught up.....it's washed and dried but not folded yet. Floors are vacuumed and washed and counters are sparkling!

The fog was something else earlier today. It's finally lifted now and I can see the lake from the kitchen window.

Andy's parents gave him their car, so he's taken that to work today. It's a newer car than he had....although I'm sure it came with strings attached.

Looks like it will be another busy week, but no hockey tournaments this weekend.Yay!

Ok better get back at it. The Christmas decorations need to be put away, and I'm guessing they won't jump into the boxes themselves(darn). Most of them are put away already last week, but the last little bit is taking it's time being put away as I don't have the energy to get it all done atm. At least the main floor of the house is orderly and clean. Not enough hours in the day...and I have a first communion meeting to go to tonight.

The snow is melting slowly and it's nice to see a bit of the concrete again....I was thinking it was going to be April before we saw it again with the way the snow kept falling and falling.

Dinner is cooking in the crock pot too so that will be nice to come home to tonight after Nicholas hockey practice.

Re-cap of the Christmas Holiday 2008

It seems that December flew by at such a speed that I didn't get the chance to blog about our day to day happenings.

Here's a re cap:

The boys finished school on Dec. 19th and their cousins Julianna and Matteo arrived on the 20th. The amount of snow we've received so far has been unbelievable. We've shovelled more than we'd hoped,and it still keeps coming down!

On December 23rd we had our family and some friends over to celebrate Christopher's 13th Birthday. It was a fun evening, lots of good food and fun.

Christmas Eve was spent at Mass with mom, dad, Mina, Carlo and all the kids. Christopher was an usher at the afternoon Mass. He looked so handsome all dressed up. Hes growing up so quickly, and is such a nice boy. I hope he continues to grow into the young man I know he can be. We all had dinner at mom and dad's and then went to Uncle Sal's for dessert. I kind of miss the days when we ALL got together for dinner. Times have changed since Nonno Giovanni died, and it seems that some of our extended family has become distant. Sad really as I have such fond memories from my childhood and even through to three years ago, when my cousins. aunts and uncles were so much a part of our lives. I still invite everyone over for the boys Birthdays. Sometimes everyone comes and sometimes only one of my cousins and aunt and uncles comes. Nonina is getting older and it's harder for her to get out. I love it when she's there though and it's so wonderful for the boys to have her in their lives. All this talk of families has me thinking that I've never typed out Christopher's birth story, so I will have to do that and add some photos. I'm on my laptop atm, so don't have access to his baby photos.

Christmas Day!

The boys got all sorts of new gadgets: A cell phone for Christopher, digital cameras for Christopher and Michael, a new PSP for Jacob and new ski boots for Nicholas. Lots of PS 3 and PSP gmes, DVD's. I bought Andy a new watch which he loves and he got me this fantastic lap top computer! I'm loving it! One thing we did learn though this year, is that we seem to have been caught in a situation where some of the boys feel they're hard done by compared to what some of their friends received for Christmas. It's ridiculous, and makes me crazy. Next year we may just go away for Christmas and that can be their gift!

On the 27th we spent with Mina and Carlo taking the kids to a movie and other stuff.

Dec.28-Jan 2nd:

BIG WHITE!!!

We stayed in the nicest chalet at the ski hill. It had three bedrooms, lots of space and a great view of the Monashee Mountains. They got lots of snow while we were there, but it was COLD!

Had dinner at Jen and Tim's pizza one night and then yummy ham the next. I cooked a Turkey for New Year's Eve and we completely gorged ourselves......it was delicious, but then we all felt like we needed a nap afterwards!

New Year's Day:

I cooked dinner for all of us and for Jen, Tim and their kids. We had spaghetti and meat sauce. I don't know if it's the fresh mountain air that makes all the food taste so good, but man alive this spaghetti sauce was amazing....if I don't say so myself!

I didn't ski alot....it was nice to just hang out by the fireplace in the chalet, and the day to day stuff like laundry, and dishes weren't such a chore when I could putz around in complete quiet most of the day, It was nice.

Headed back to Kelowna on the 2nd.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Concert 08

It was only Jacob in the Christmas Concert this year as the primary kids put on a singing show!

The gr. 2's looked so cute all decked out in green and red. Jacob sung his heart out. It was very cute.

Here's a photo of Jacob and Sophie. Sorry it's not the best as I was far away from the stage.

42 cm.............

That's how much snow we got over the last few days....and it's still coming down. Today driving was really treacherous....poor visibility and slippery.

I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of school for the Christmas break.....it feels like it should only be Thanksgiving. Yet another school year is whizzing by.

Here are some photos of all our snow, and Nicholas and Jacob hard at work shovelling!

When will this snow stop???

Hi everyone, and greetings from snowville! Oh my, it started snowing yesterday and we've received over 20 cm of snow already and it's STILL coming down. I kind of see the beauty of it all, but that's really been clouded by the fact that my arms and back are KILLING me from all the shovelling we've been doing!

Oh ya, and throw in two hockey tournaments this weekend...one here for Michael, one out of town for Christopher and 2 in town games for the other boys! I think I'll become a bear, what a great idea, I could be hibernating right now!

I called Andy who's out of town with Christopher, and begged him to buy a snow blower......that could be my Christmas, Birthday and Anniversary gift for the next 10 yrs, I don't care.....at this point I'm desperate....we just came inside to warm up, and looked outside and the entire driveway is covered again....now I wouldn't complain normally because I like shovelling, but our driveway is almost 300 ft. long on a downhill slope no less. Uugh, it exhausts me to think that after Michael's next game we'll have to come home and re shovel the beast again.


They haven't ploughed our street or subdivision yet and some yahoo down the street used his snow blower and blew all the snow into the middle of the road in a pile..I didn't see it as the driving conditions are white out and 'hit' the pile which threw a ton of snow onto my windshield causing me to lose vision all together, and after the wiper blades cleared it I see this man jogging on the sidewalk laughing at me.....whatever buddy, I'm glad you got a chuckle out of it! Needless to say I've called the city road works and told them to get up into the hills where we live soon before someone causes an accident!

On a good note the boys teams have been winning at their tournaments! Christopher got player of the game today, and Nicholas got 1st star at his game this morning.

I'm going to soak in the tub. My body aches!

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.................

Typo!

Ok, I seriously need to use spell check with posting this late at night on my blog!

In my last entry I misspelled Pumpkin!

It's PUMPKIN, not pumkin you ninny!

It's really amazing how fast this month has gone.........

Hard to believe that it's almost the end of October and Halloween!

The boys are doing well.

Hockey is in full swing and we finally have all the boys schedules so now we can figure out which directions we need to go in! Note I said 'directions!!'

Christopher's foot is not causing him any pain. He' s skating well and last game had 2 goals and 2 assists.

We are having homework and test score issues atm with Christopher. Seems he didn't do well on his latest Grammar test and neither did 90% of the class. I was shocked to see his mark, he can do so much better. He's a smart kid, but for some reason he's in la la land....could it because he'll be a teenager in a few months? Yikes!

Jacob's reading is coming along so well! He is a very keen reader and for that I'm thankful!

Nicholas devoured 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' and is now on to book 2 by the same author.

Michael's actually wanting to read novels now which is fantastic. Used to be that we'd say
" Michael pick a book to read(and he has tons!)", and he'd say or do anything to get out of reading. To see and hear him read now is wonderful.

Tomorrow is pumpkin carving day at our house! I had to laugh at Christopher's choice in pumpkins this year.. it's teeny tiny!...He hates the guts of the pumpkins and having to stick his hand into the pumpkin makes him gag! Last year I was laughing so hard at his facial expressions I nearly cried!

Andy started working out again with a personal trainer. I so want to go back to see her too, but am soooooooooooo exhausted at even the thought of a work out. Heck every day around here is a work out.....I've driven over 300 km in the last 4 days..........and that's just in town driving!

Tomorrow is another day...........come to think of it, I'd better get to bed cause tomorrow is only 31 minutes away!

Robo Boot is off.............

Christopher saw the Dr. yesterday and she said he can remove the robo boot now. He is of course thrilled with that! Repeat xray on Friday afternoon, and if all looks good then he can go back to his sports.

Nicholas saw the physio yesterday for tx of his ankle. He has some stretches to do each day and will go in for another physio session next week.

I'm loving this fall weather! Sunny, warm and just beautiful!

We still have to get to the pumpkin patch and start decorating for Halloween, and oh ya, get three of the boys their costumes!

Today was the Gr. 7 Mass. It was lovely. Christopher did a super job with his reading.

Have a little bit of quiet time before picking up the boys, then it's off to music for Nicholas.

Hard to believe that it's already mid October......good grief!

Oh, and the winner of the day was the guy at the dirt bike store....I went in to get a copy of the bill of sale for the gear and bikes that were stolen....and the guy behind the counter (Andrew)says.......

Andrew: " so no word on the bikes yet?
Me: "No, we're just waiting for the insurance money now."

Andrew: " A funny thing... about 2 weeks ago, someone called in who said they were going to buy a bike from some guy on the westside, and the guy suspected the bike was stolen, so he called us(M&M performance) to run the serial number. Sure enough it matched Andy's dirt bike!"

Me: " What? Did you call the police?"

Andrew: " Um, no it's really difficult because we tried to get more information out of the guy, but he wouldn't tell us anymore."

Me: Standing there in disbelief at their stupidity, and wanting to throttle the guy for not giving the police the heads up.

Uugh, makes me crazy!

Hockey Weekend in Abbotsford..........

Michael and I drove to the coast with some other parents yesterday as he had a hockey game at 2 p.m. We won that game 3-0!!

Andy and the other boys arrived last night.

This morning was an early game and we tied that one 3-3.

This afternoon we're going to Gianna's to drop off Christopher and then heading to Michael's other game tonight at 6:30 p.m.

The weather here is fantastic and the boys are enjoying the 80 ft. water slide and pool at the hotel.

Grade 6 Shots!

All the grade 6 students are getting their shots today. Michael was a bit nervous this morning asking how much it was going to hurt. Poor guy, I wish I could be there for him today. No one likes getting shots I know.

The shots they got were for: Hepatitis B and Meningitis

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is upon us and there are so many things to be thankful for....here are just a few:

• I thank God for my wonderful family
• I thank God for their health and happiness
• I thank God for all our wonderful friends
• I thank God that we have plenty of food to eat and clean water to drink
• I thank God that he watches over our family and friends and keeps them safe
• I thank God for the talents and abilities he's given my children
• I thank God for my husband and for loving me
• I thank God that we belong to a faithful and amazing school community
• I thank God that our parents are healthy and participating in our children's lives

Here is one of my favorite Thanksgiving Prayers:

"MY THANKSGIVING PRAYER TO YOU"

My Thanksgiving prayer to you from me;Is for love strong and true that you hold within thee. A heart that beats steady and holds love within; For your brothers and sisters and all creatures by Him. A soul that is worthy of all of His love; That is given to you from the Heavens above. Food on your table that you thank the Lord for; Friends to surround you forever and more. A house filled with love and the light how it shines; Showing all of its beauty till the end of time. Kindness towards others for all of your days; To be returned I pray in many a way. A good job to keep you and pay all your bills; That you spend it all wisely and not on the frills. A family around you that is loving and true; That you all stand together for there are so few. Children to bless you if that is God's will; To cherish and nourish so your life is fulfilled. Dreams of pure beauty as you lay there and sleep; Through the peaceful night when darkness is deep. An angel to guide you through morning and night; To protect you and love you till the end of your plight. And last but most important your love for God will shine through; To the Heavens above for He's waiting for you. Amen and God bless!