Christmas portraits are now on!

This is a picture I did of the boys to show people that I am now booking for Christmas sessions. I also did a portrait of the boys, but this is NOT it. :)

The last week or so in pictures.. of course

We went to see a one man travelling magic show here in town. He was great and the kids loved it Brought out the craziness So proud I am, to say these are both mine. :)

Joe and Louie, our preschool turtle.

Joey got stuck in the tree at preschool, so of course I had to take a picture.

This is for you Kara. I took down the vent over my stove to seal it for the winter and this fell out. I still have it on the stove if you'd like me to box it up for you. There were 2 of them but Pebbles ate one. :P

Teaching him to read so early may not be a good thing after all.....

We have recently switched to the local cable provider here in town because they offer digital cable. We have had satellite TV since we moved to the north, carrying our receiver and dish with us with every move. We are advocates of supporting local business, so it was a no brainer for us to switch over. We were watching the local "scroll" channel the other day, which is where we find out what is going on in town, etc and the ad for the digital cable channels came on the screen. Here they are: (it will make sense in a few seconds why this is here)

News Pack $2.95 298 CBC Regina 504 CNBC 501 BBC World News 510 Bloomberg East 503 FOX News 511 MSNBC

Entertainment $5.95 405 Game TV 608 Sundance 512 Bold TV 573 COSMO 521 Showcase East 582 BET 528 Space 583 CMT 548 Comedy West 590 MTV 2 549 Game Show Network

Lifestyle $6.49 572 Travel 568 W West 575 ONE 564 HGTV 507 VIVA 565 DIY (Do It Yourself) 534 BBC Canada 567 W East 561 Food Network 571 Fashion

680 Playboy ($19.95)

685 Hustler ($15.95)

Without missing a beat, Joey looks at the screen and says very excitedly and loudly:

"Look, Playboy!"

I was torn between being proud that my son recognized the two words "play" and "boy" and was able to read them together, and mortified at the thought that my son can read the word "Playboy" and I'm sure will embarrass me publically very soon when we're out somewhere and says "Look mom, Playboy! Like on our TV!"

Colby's birthday

Thursday was Colby's birthday and he turned 9 years old. I'm still in shock that he only has one year left in the single digits and they the tweens and then... well, you see where this is going. When we talked about his birthday, he said that he wanted to invite 20 kids. So, being the good mom that I am, made 20 invitations, because well not everyone you invite comes to a party. Boy was I wrong when there was 20 kids in my livingroom. He had a great time, we had just enough food (3 pizzas, 3 cases of pop and 36 hotdogs) and lots of laughs.

November 2, 2007......

.... was by far the darkest day in my life. It started the day before when I got a call from my sister saying that my dad was dying in the hospital and we had to get there.. NOW. I'll never forget that call. I was on the phone with her on and off all that morning but that call at lunch time I will never forget. We had been living in Behchoko for 6 months at the time. Through the amazing support of the Northwest Company and a fantastic woman at Royal Bank Visa, we were able to leave pretty much immediately and arrived in Halifax by 7am the next morning. I'm just glad we were all there. It is no surprise to anyone who knows me in real life that I have always been the strong one in my family. Everyone has relied on me for as long as I can remember to be the one who holds it all together. I think that is why my marriage works so well, because with Rob I know I don't always have to be the strong one. Today for the most part has been a day of reflection for me. I'm at the point that the memories I have of my dad are the good ones. Dad and I were always very close, and it's no secret that I miss him like crazy and it super sucks that he's not here. It is not for anyone to understand why, you'll drive yourself crazy trying to answer that. For people who say it gets easier with time, they're liars or they've never lost anyone close to them. It never gets easier, you just learn to continue living without them in your life. I make sure to talk about Dad with the boys all the time, and I have a large family collage in my kitchen that has many pictures of him in it. Joey and I were looking at pictures just last night, and I'm proud to say Joe still knows who he is, even if it is just in pictures. Today sucks, but it's over and tomorrow is another day. Luckily for me the anniversay of Dad's death is overshadowed by the celebration of Colby's birthday, and I'll always make sure that it will stay that way.

My silly husband.... #2

For the last week I have had 2 husbands, albeit I didn't see them a whole lot. They spent the week hunting, and I didn't mind because they both work super hard in their jobs and needed a break. They were gone everyday at 0'stupid-hundred, and seems to have enjoyed themselves. While Adam visits here, he for some reason like to use 1 glass / mug per day. I just don't get it. To me, when I'm doing dishes if there are cups on the counter, I wash them. So Adam got it in his head that he would start hiding his cups. This started a friendly rival between him and I when I found one of his mugs in Rob's tool closet. I took the cup and left this note: I should have known Adam wouldn't have left it there. He left Sunday morning at 6Am and when I got up I found this in front of my coffee maker: I must admit, pre-coffee I'm not all that swift. I didn't really get it at first, until I opened up my cupboard and found this: Do you notice what's missing? That's right.. ALL MY COFFEE MUGS! He hid one here:

and here:

and here: and here:

and here:

I laughed for the entire day. Only Adam. And I guess he had it planned for days. I truly love you Adam, even if you still haven't shaved. :)