Happy New Year

Here it is, 10:10 pm on New Year's Eve and I find myself ready for bed...

Have I gotten so old that I can't even see the new year in? Have I gotten so lame that my idea of a good time is my pillow, my blanket and a nice cold cloth over my head?

In a manner of speaking, probably.

Last year our New Year's Eve was spent at friends' house; we ate too much, watched the clock until it reached midnight, wished our friends a happy new year and were pretty much home and in bed by 12:08.

In my prime (my heathen prime that is), I was just getting started at 12:08. The party was just getting good and I could keep the dancing up for a few more hours. Ah, to be young and foolish...nah, I think I am happy older and wiser.

Today was spent at church, went to Bill's work for a few minutes(cha ching) and ran off to BPs for a spinach dip that a friend said would make me feel immediately better(yes folks, 3 months later and I am STILL sick). It was decided at BPs that we would stop by the Walk-in Clinic to see which doctor was working as there is one there that I really wouldn't want to see if my life were held in the balance let alone if I were attempting to recover from brochitis and that "special" doctor was there. Off we went back home for a long awaited nap and plans to come back after shift change.
Once I finally awoke we dropped off the movie we watched last night (World Trade Center) and headed off to the clinic for what I hoped was good news and a magical cure.

The doctor, a sweet, young lady, who looked at me sympathetically when I told her of my struggle to kick this and of my lack of sleep and lack of emotional balance due to sleeplessness, gave me 3 different prescriptions (a pharmacuetically concocted cough medicine, a flovent inhaler and nasonex) bore me this tidbit of bad news...my prescription for nasonex is for 3 months and it could very well take me that long to recover from my illness. I now have an irritated and inflamed airway due to the length of my bronchial mess. So, I could very well be sick for half a year because of bronchitis and a certain nameless doctor who I will go to extreme measures to avoid having to see for anything more deadly than splinter removal (who told me I have not been sick for three months and that all I had was nothing more than post-nasal drip).

The point of this long rambling, complaining post is not to ramble nor to complain but to tell you all that we love you. We have loved sharing this year with you in whatever way we have been able to. We can't wait to share 2007 with you! For those of you who are far away...remember: we think of you often, miss you like crazy and love you to pieces!

Happy New Year!!!!!


and...

Goodnight. I'll see you in the new year.

Merry Christmas

Our French Eggs (french toast) are eaten, our stockings and presents ever so elegently opened up and we are in the process of cleaning up the wrap. Everyone had a good morning. Last night was one of the best Christmas Eves I've had in a long time. We went to the CandleLight Service at Church and then Dad and Jude came over and we had pizza, taco dip, cheese ball and all sorts of goodies and sat in front of a roaring fire (courtesy of our yuletide fireplace DVD) and just spent time together. I loved it!

May you have a wonderful Christmas with your family's. To our family, who aren't with us today...we love you and miss you and emotionally you are right here with us. Big hugs to Billy and Natalie, Mike and Joyce, Daniel and Kristina, Shawn and Renee, Tanya, Crystal and Jay and all the kids, if you can grab them from the whirling and twirling of their sugar highs.

WE LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!

Traditions...

With the arrival of December comes a flurry of traditions in our house...tonnes of things for us to look forward to. A lot of them seem to revolve around food though. We have the traditional decorating of the gingerbread house. Dad's homemade pizza on Christmas Eve along with my Taco Dip while we watch movies. Lately the movie has been "Touched by an Angel's Christmas show" but, I think next year it will be "The Nativity", once it is on DVD. Christmas Eve also finds us opening one small gift and Big B and I getting to open our stockings from each other and stuffing the kids' stockings until the wee hours of the morning and playing board games with the older kids.

My most special tradition, just for me, is getting a box of Lowry's chocolate covered cherries, sitting somewhere quietly by myself and enjoying a sweet chocolate while I think of my dear GrandpaK. He always had these chocolates and it is a special moment I treasure in order to remember a special man in my life.

I want to make sure that we have special traditions in our household that will make our kids look back on them and smile or want to share them with their kids.

Growing up on the farm, we would go out as a family to find our Christmas tree and every year we were followed by the dog, the cats and the horses throughout the pasture while we searched for the perfect tree. We also went on horse drawn sleigh rides in my uncle's pasture and found new and inventive ways to push each other off the sleigh. In order to warm up we would have a weiner roast in the bushes; after Uncle married his wife, he move our warm up sessions to their house and had warm, toasty pizza buns.

I look back on those times with so much fondness and it makes me realize how special it was to grow up with the family I had. Traditions are more than just doing the same things every year; they are about building memories and a happy place for our children to look back on when they are older.

This post idea courtesy of Mama Says Ohm.

Out the Window...

Ever since I can remember I have had someone look out their window to wave goodbye to me even after we have bid farewell inside the house. By 'someone' I mean my dad. It is such a comforting vision to look at that window and know that he is there watching out for me as I get into my van and drive off. I can think back even farther to when I was a child and living 20 steps from my grandma's house and she did the same thing. She would watch us walk from her house to ours, waving as we walked.

The other day I was at my dad's and my uncle was there (actually my dad's best friend) and after saying our goodbyes and giving our hugs and Merry Christmas wishes I went to buckle Bug into the van. Much to my pleasant surprise, as I looked up from the van to wave to Dad again, I saw him and my uncle standing in the window making sure I left safely and offering one last farewell.

I want that feeling for my kids. I feel so loved and so protected and so special and I really want that for my children.

That means, I need to figure out how to rearrange my living room furniture so I can make it to the living room window to watch out for them and to leave them with one more goodbye as they leave.

Picture Update for LilB and Nat (and all my viewers)

It has been a while since I put some pictures up here and LilB pointed that out to me in a nice and subtle way the last time I spoke to him on the phone so, here is a flurry of photos for you.




Jellybean's missing teeth...

















Bug as Nuperman, aka Superman, as he begins his transformation from Clark Kent.



















This year's gingerbread house. We didn't even break anything this year. How about that skating rink?
















First time skating, ever...


















Falling... and, now, completely hooked on the idea of playing hockey. Don't want to tellhim he still has 2 years before he can start playing.

Not in these jeans...genes

Rush came home from school yesterday absolutely overjoyed. It turns out that she is one of 3 kids in her class who just started doing grade 9 algebra instead of grade 8 math. I don't know where she got that from but I know it certainly wasn't from me. I am thinking her Uncle S is the reason for this phenomenon because he is the only family member I know who is good at math.



On a great financial note...I just made the final payment on one of our credit cards. It is COMPLETELY paid off!!!! (happy dance...happy dance!) It has a zero balance! ZERO!!! I am so happy! I can now begin to focus on another debt until we, maybe, get them all paid off and have zero debt (until we can buy a house...) Slowly but surely I am plugging away at them chipping away slowly at the financial iceberg we have created for ourselves. It won't sink this ship though...not if I can help it!

Tis the Season

Christmas stresses...boy, how ridiculous it seems to get so stressed out this time of year considering what Christmas is and what it means. How far have we taken it that we stress over some pretty trivial matters, like baking, gift buying...heck, even buying groceries this time of year requires a lot of calm, serene mantras in order to not throttle some at times.

What happened to good will towards men?

Today, I saw a car wreck all because someone decided that they didn't have the time to wait for a car who had the right of way before they turned the corner.

I'm feeling bummed out right now. My oldest and dearest friend is moving away and even though we haven't been able to spend a lot of time together the last little while, we just always knew that we were there for each other and only an hour away. She will now be in a different province and even though I know we will always be there for each other...it just seems different.
I miss her all ready.

Sweet, Sweet Words I Live For

What greater words for a mom to hear than to have her son run into her room calling out for her just to tell her he loves her.

How powerful those 3 little words, 8 little letters are...

I Love You...


sigh....

Another Child Proposed to

Oh yes, that's right; that's what I said. I don't think I can handle this one at all. The thing is, this child said yes to said proposer.

Yesterday, at school, Jellybean was approached by her dear (and awfully cute) friend, Hunter. Hunter proceded to ask her if she would marry him when they grew up and as I said, she said 'yes'.

I think we have a while to wait for this one though.

In other Jellybean news, today she got the Character Award for her class for this month and the theme this month was Respect. She is so proud of this award, as are we.

She went to bed tonight looking very forward to tomorrow as she is going to the library for a Gingerbread Cookie Decorating Class for grades 1 through 3. Great fun.