RIP Grandma

I've been home since the 28th but have not had the time to post! We had a good trip and it was great to see my mom and sister again. We arrived late at night in Montreal for my grandma's Wake and saw all my French relatives again. Feeling a bit out of place and awkward as everyone is chattering in French, at least I had Christina to talk to. My mom was happy to see one of her brothers she hasn't seen in years but then came the hard part of seeing my grandma laying there....it was an opened casket, just what my mom didn't want. It just makes things so much harder. Mom was brave but as they began to talk about my grandma's life the tears began to flow, it was so hard to see my mom so sad, Christina and I began to cry. The next day wasn't any better as we sat there again in the same hall to look once more at the cold, peaceful face of grandma before they closed the casket. Why do they have to make it so sorrowful, it was torture to have to stand there and see her like that. Don't get me wrong, my Uncle did a good job of organizing everything and there was beautiful flowers everywhere and they past out this stickers with her face on it that everyone wore on their shirts and they even had candles and key chains to pass out. It's just that that side of my family is all very Catholic and everything was done just so. We all drove to a church where we experienced a very traditional Catholic service....in French...which last a good hour or so. That defiantly gave me time to think about life and death and how I would never want my funeral to be that way. I want people to celebrate my life not morn my death. Talking about this with some friends later on they also agreed and one even wanted to have people come and take shots by her coffin which I thought would be a cool idea ha! Anyways, I don't like talking about death. We took some photos afterwards with some of our cousins and Uncles. It seem to have been that Christina and I were a object of attention as we were the only ones that didn't speak French and just a lot different then the rest of our family so we would be standing there and people kept hoping in the middle between us taking photos, it was rather embarrassing and amusing at the same time. I didn't get any of the photos but I'm hoping one of my cousins will send them to me.
Later that night after we traveled 3 hours back to Kingston, Christina invited me to her bowling bonanza birthday celebration. I had a lot of fun meeting her friends and bowled pretty good considering I haven't bowled in 4 years. I beat all the girls and even a few of the guys coming in at third place! It was nice to get out and have a good time after all the sadness from the day before. Moms back home and I've been busy getting caught up with home life. But after attending a funeral it sure makes you cherish your family and friends and gives you a renewed outlook on life.

Trip to the eye doctor

Today I took Devin to his first eye check up. He was so nervous at first saying that he was scared and didn't want to go. But after talking to him about what he could expect and that he didn't need to worry he was ok. The check up went good, Devin has a very good right eye but the left is a little weak and sometimes things are blurry for him if the right eye is covered, but it's not to bad where the doctor felt he needed glasses, so that good. I just need to take him back in September to make sure it's not getting worse. In the end Devin was very good and got a cool spiderman sticker which he was quite happy about!

Now I'll be off for awhile as my mom's flying up here tomorrow 'cause my dear old French grandma just died and we'll be attending the funeral in Montreal. Of course I'm a bit sad but I didn't really know her that well and she was not in very good health so I know she's a lot happier now! But I am happy that I'll be able to see my mom again and my sister Christina will be joining us as well. So something good is coming out of this sad time. I will write when I get back!

Prayer for my brother Jamie

Please keep my brother Jamie in your prayers as I just found out he fell from his top bunk and fractured his skull from his ear to the top of his head. He was in the hospital for a few days and is home now and seems to be doing better, but needs our prayers for full recovery. His ear was damaged as well and was bleeding a lot, he can not hear out of it at this time and will be seeing a specialist. Please pray for a complete healing of his ear and fractured skull and that he'll be able to hear again. Also for the comfort and strength for my parents during this time as there's a lot that they're going through and need extra prayer and support. Love you Dad and Mom, I admire you so much and pray everything works out for the best! Your in my prayers! Xoxox

Happy belated Birthday Sis

I know this is late, sorry Michelle! But I do want to wish you a very happy birthday and pray you have a wonderful year ahead of you. I miss your crazy self, your smile and laugh, our talks and times together and all the great things about you that makes you so special. Your a wonderful sister and I hope you dont kill me for posting some of these old photos but I thought they were priceless and captured all the different styles and crazy sides of you ha! Love you lots and wish you a very Happy Birthday!

Our new little fishy

Today was a big day for us, we went out and got ourselves our first family pet....a goldfish! Thought we should start off with something small. Devin had been asking about getting a fish since his friends got a fighter fish last week. So today Mike took us out and Devin looked around at all the fish and decided he wanted to get a small red fan tailed goldfish. Then we proceeded to look around for a fish tank and fish food. We ended up getting a small glass bowl and some colorful rocks for the bottom. Then Devin said he found some fish food, but when we saw that he was holding a container that looked like it could last a year we opt for something a bit smaller ha! We came home and set it up on our dresser. Devin is now trying to think of a name for his little fishy friend and he asked me if it was a boy or a girl...hmmmm how do you know if a fish is male or female? Well we told him it was a boy so he's now thinking of a boy name and he is hoping to get another fish soon as he feels this one might be lonely, so we might get another soon. I was going to go to the library with Devin and google about how to care for goldfish so that it won't die on us. Devin seems very excited about the idea of study up and learning about the care of goldfish. I think this should be fun! I'm happy we have a new little member to our family! He's name will be posted soon.

Stories for the Heart

One:

I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
What I can do, I should do and,
with the help of God, I will do!
Everett Hale

Vision:

If your vision is for
a year
plant wheat.

If your vision is for
ten years,
plant trees.

If your vision is for
a lifetime,
plant people.
Old Chinese Proverb

Beautiful Things:

The best and most beautiful things in life
cannot be seen or even touched...
they must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller


Those are just a few short tidbits from a book I recently read. As I went to the hospital the other day for a blood transfusion I knew I had to be there for quite a few hours so a friend lent me this book called "Stories for the heart" compiled by Alice Gray. They were such beautiful and touching stories that I wanted to recommend it to anyone who might be interested in it. It will lift your spirit and you walk away from it with the feeling that there is still some good in this world and that maybe there is something that we can do to help change things for the better.

Forward progress

Another year has come and gone and I'm looking forward to this one. I'm so thankful for my health and to be busy with teaching again. I feel like there's so much I want to do and things I want to work towards I can get a little ahead of myself, I'm already deep cleaning and organizing my room, getting things set up for a new school year with Devin and thinking about the needed changes in my life. But one thing I have learned during my times of sickness is patience. I just pray I can keep that mindset as I head into this year and not try to do to much on my own as I know it won't get me anywhere and I'll just end up collapsing. I sure am looking forward to seeing all the changes that will come.
Well, I'm hoping to start school next week but I have to go to the hospital tomorrow morning for another blood transfusion.(This is the third one in 5 months) Please pray that my red cell blood count goes up and stabilizes so that I don't have to have another one. Thank you so much!

Just want to say...

Check out my Slide Show!

Here and there

Sorry for not posting anything lately. I have been busy the season traveling to visit some family. First we went to see my Dad and brother and sister up in Kingston on the 23rd then came back to have Christmas with my home then it was off for a 7 hour trip the next day
to see Mike's family down in Mich. We just got back tonight and I'm tired. We did have a wonderful time though and it was so nice to see everyone again after so long. (I will be posting pictures soon.) This has been an extra special Christmas for me as I'm feeling much better after being sick for so long and I really got to enjoy my time with everyone so much more. I'm very thankful for everyone's prayers for me, that has truly been my best gift this year... my health and everyones love and concern for me. I means so much and I can't thank you enough! Your wonderful!
A now for a surprise I'd like to share with all of you......
as of today I am now up to 120 lbs. I have a healthy round face and my thighs and butt have come back! I have so much to be thankful for.
I do hope to get up to 125 and my prayer for this new year is that I will stay healthy and fit this whole year round and for many more to come. This is going to be such an exciting year no?

For my Family with love

We will ROCK YOU!

My dad and his wife Janna came down to see us on Saturday night. He bought us some tickets to go see the musical "We will Rock you" by QUEEN at the downtown Toronto Canon theater. And I have to say I really enjoyed it. I just love live theater. The only other time I've gone to one is when I was 15 I saw "Beauty and the Beast". That was an awesome performance that I still remember. This show "We will Rock you!" had a great story and dialog, great outfits and lighting. The song numbers were amazing and man can those guys belt it out, just fabulous voices. I wish I could have taken pictures of it but they don't let cameras into the theater. I'm so glad my dad took us out to see it, it was so much fun. It's something I hope I can do again with friends as it's quite an experience.

Please forgive the horrible photo of me but it's the only one we took of us in the main lobby
They had these beautiful paintings on the walls
It was a full house
Some ceiling art work I was admiring. Beautiful no?

Gingerbread house

I found this cute gingerbread house at the dollar store the other day that I thought would be a fun project to do with the kids, so for an afternoon activity the kids and I put it together . It was a rather sticky messy ordeal as the icing was getting everywhere but the kids had fun placing all the candy around it and then sprinkled some coconut around the house for the snow effect. We enjoyed looking at it for a day or two then the time came to demolish it as some of the candy on it started to mysteriously disappear. So the kids gathered round and I broke it up for all the kids to get a small piece with some coconut sprinkled on top.

Christmas Party

We were able to host a Christmas party for the teens in the area on Saturday night. It turned out real well. Lots of people showed up, We had snacks and drinks (everyone helped out) and we were able to set up our Christmas tree just in time. It had been a real hassle getting it up as we couldn't find any of the lights or decorations from last year. But we found a few and bought a few more...sigh of relief! We had games planned thanks to Abi but ended up playing only one, which turned out to be lots of fun (see pictures below). The rest of the time was spent with just everyone enjoying time together. Thanks to all who were involved in making it happen.

Some of the lovely, crazy ladies

Mike and Amy sharing a moment...
Sonya, Gideon and Amy
Laila and me
Seti and Jack frost???
Game fun.....love the outfit!

Oli showing off his new look

Christmas singing

The kids here have been practicing so hard every day for the last 2 weeks and yesterday was their first show. It was a mad house as we worked on getting last minute things for their outfits, going over their songs, getting dressed, doing hair, bundling up for the cold,  In the end the kids were so sweet and well behaved and everyone had a good time and enjoyed the songs. Then later that day we got a Christmas tree. The man was so sweet and started to giggle as the girls sang a carol for him. He then gave a big Boston Fern tree!So pretty... what a surprise!
Here are some pictures of the kids singing



My little singing man

Check out Devin's belly sticking out and how he's so intent on listening to the little old lady
Here's my cookie monster...yummm COOKIES!





And here's the manger I made from bark,sticks and twigs. I even got to work with some bark that came all the way from Italy (thanks to Sarai) It was a lot of fun putting it up. I placed it on the ledge by our staircase.


Here's more snow!

Let it snow

So I braved the cold yesterday. It was family day and there had been a snow storm during the night so there was lots of beautiful snow on the ground that I just couldn't resist going outside with Devin. After bundling him up to where he could hardly move, I got myself dressed up in the same manner (not so fun). We then proceeded out to the back yard where the fluffy yet cold white snow covered everything and waited for our presence. We then began to make a snow man...I started it off then Devin and his friend Mikey took over once it got to big for me to roll around. The sad thing is we didn't get to finish our poor snow man as Devin and the kids got board of rolling this big ball around and just wanted to run and dive into the snow and do what kids do best....get crazy! Ha! Plus it started to get to cold and we had to hurry inside to the warmth of our home and have some chocolate pudding and pancakes. But all in all he had fun and so did I and I know we'll be able to enjoy more adventures in the snow on a later date.
Oh I also set up a manger scene that day and will post a picture of it soon as I think it came out pretty nice, if I do say so myself!
Here's Devin in the snow

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

24 days till Christmas!

Happy Belated B-day

Last week was Laila's Birthday and we threw a party for her. Had a few friends over, some drinks and dancing. It was also a sad farewell for Thomas and Chantal who will be leaving soon. We'll miss you guys!I didn't blog about this earlier as I didn't get the pictures till now.
This one's of us ladies: me, Chantal, Laila, Abi, Celeste and Marcos who happened to sneak in
uh-hum!



Beautiful Abi

Snow and School

Today Devin got to go out sledding with the other kids. I can remember as a kid I always looked forward to tobogganing, slipping and sliding on the ice and snow. It was so much fun and now it's great that Devin gets to enjoy it. Maybe when I get brave enough to face the cold I'll join the kids and take a few pictures for you all. I did go out the other day to the library that's just two house down the street, it was dusk and as I walked along, the snow seemed to glisten in the streetlights, I breathed in the crisp winter air and enjoyed the sound of the snow crushing beneath my boots. I then realized that winter can be a very beautiful thing and I look forward to many a more winter moments.
As for now tomorrow starts another school week with my kiddos, we've been doing more art projects which I love to do especially this time of year . I love decorating for Christmas time also baking while listening to Christmas music, makes me feel all warm and cozy inside. Ahhh Christmas is here!

Here's my kids studying hard!

Devin with his owl puppet he made.