Time to blow the dust off this thing.

Boy I am seriously overdue for a post on here. Luckily not many people check in here anymore and I can say what I want. 

We are about to have our third Christmas here in Nova Scotia. Although I am in a much better place than I was this time last year, I still to this day get an ache in my heart for my métis family. I would so love to be back there for a Christmas. Luckily geography is the only thing between us, as I am still in contact with people back there. 

We didn't do a family picture this year, and for that reason I did not send out Christmas cards. I am been quite discouraged with photography here, and a recent cancellation of a family photo shoot has left me just not wanting to do anymore. Maybe my New Years resolution will be to do one of those 365 photo challenges. 

Boy, I am a big downer right now. Feel free to move on to pictures of kitties or screaming goats. 

In other news I have been invited to be a part of the volunteer committee in the local  community centre. That really excites me as it took a year to be part of it. It's a small knit community here and you pretty much have to know someone to get you in. Luckily I did. I was a Santas helper for the local breakfast with Santa and have already been asked to help with Canada day and next Christmas. The joke is once they get you, they never let you go. 

Rob and I are both really happy in our jobs. I have finally found a place where I belong and rob works for a local company. He is now the head of the occupational health and safety committee and the hr department. Well, he jokes that he is but there are only 3 of them in the entire company. :)

The boys are fantastic. Colby currently in junior high and I am currently drinking a bottle of wine each night to help us both survive it. Joey is getting taller by the minute and is blessed with my beautiful smile. My child will be financing our dentist's child through college. I may have to drink more wine. 

Mom is doing quite well. Her and I have started a small bakery business out of the kitchen. If you have ever had my moms homemade bread you will understand why we have been very busy. 

I can't believe Christmas is only a few days away. We have a huge surprises for the boys so I will definitely be posting!

Happy birthday Sonic

Among For anyone who knows Joey, he has a vivid imagination. He decided yesterday that it would be Sonic the Hedgehog's birthday. In true fashion I jumped on that train with both feet and ran with him. 

All of Sonic's friends were invited and they all brought gifts. 

We went to the superstore here in sackville and the most amazing woman named Lisa in the bakery decorated a cake for us. She was slightly taken back when I said the cake was for his stuffed animal but quickly jumped on board the crazy train with us. 

Joe was very excited to see what was in each gift and then talked to Sonic about it. The greatest part of all of this is that he wrapped all the gifts. 

Sonic received Joe's DS and my IPad as gifts. He then took the time to show Sonic all the apps on it. Then we cut the cake and everyone including Sonic had a piece. My kid really is amazing. 

The night before school started.....

I am a mental mess and they don't even go to school for another 2 days. This will be the first time the boys will be in separate schools. Colby is going into junior high and French emmersion. They have always been in the same school and more importantly been on the same bus. They will be getting home at different times, and luckily Colby will be getting home first. After the first few days I am sure it will be fine but right now the thought of joe on his own makes me weepy. 

Babies having babies

I have a really hard time watching pregnant teenagers do stupid things that could risk harming their babies. I was out tonight and saw a young very obviously pregnant teenager smoking. I honestly wanted to punch her in the face. Getting pregnant isn't nearly as easy as people think it is. For those who don't know  we spent thousands of dollars on fertility drugs and missed work hours trying to conceive Colby. This may be a TMI situation for you but I have to tell you baby making on a fertility schedule is not romantic or fun at all. So for these teenagers who seem to get pregnant so easily and then blatantly put their child at risk I wish them hourly Charlie horses, heartburn and swollen feet. Take care of your babies, there are some of us who could only be so lucky to be as fertile as you. 

15 years.

That is how long I have been married today. It certainly doesnt feel that long and at the same time I have a hard time remembering my life before Rob was a part of it. We have been through hell and back a few times over those years, but after all this time there is no one else I can honestly say would be there for me. I love you Rob you make life so fun. 

Snuggle time

I have been trying to spend as much time as I can with the boys at night as this is the first time in 6 years I have had too work over the summer. Joe and I were sitting on the couch and it turned into a snuggle fest. It looked like this:

Which quickly turned into this:

And this 

And my pictures with the boys ended up just looking like this. 

I have the best kids ever. 

The best thing I got for free in a long time.

There were many activities on the go here in sackville for Canada day and one of the grocery stores hosted an artist doing free characachures. (sorry can't spell it but sound it out you know what I am trying to say). 

He captured Joe's eyes perfect. 

So perfect. 

1 year ago today .....

One year ago today my world was turned upside down and inside out with no warning it was coming. It still hurts, so much at times it stops me in my tracks. It hurts a lot less now, time has a tendency to do that. I received a phone call tonight from a woman who I love dearly. This woman opened her heart to me and my family and I miss her so very much. She called because she knew it was almost a year since we left. Tomorrow will be one year since Rob received the visit from head office that they no longer wanted us and we had to leave. It tore a huge hole in my family's heart that has never truly healed. Some people just don't understand the impact. I have heard many times over the last year "well I lost my job unexpectedly too so I know what you are feeling". No you don't. We didn't just lose a job, we lost our family's way of living and a community of people who we love and who love us. With that being said, we have done alright in the past year. My boys are happy, although they both keep asking when we are going to visit Saskatchewan, Rob is finally working in a job that he enjoys, and me? Well, the winds of change are again blowing in my direction but that is another blog post. What I can say us regardless of what day it is, at the end of the day I go to sleep beside the man I fell in love with 20 years ago and in 2 weeks we will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. My kids are safe and my husband is happy. Everything else is gravy. 

My amazing trip.

I spent the most amazing weekend in the Yukon with 4 amazing ladies. I am not going to go into detail on here because I am assuming you have all followed the blog through Facebook links or through here. I am just going to say it was amazing, I learned a lot about myself and have solidified some life long relationships. And I kissed a girl, but that's another story. :)

 

I have a lot of pictures on my phone so I thought you and I would just go through them and then when they are here I can delete them. So here we go in no particular order. 

I have been trying for months to grow my hair out and it's driving me foolish. So I went to my hairdresser and said "do something or I am going to shave it off" this is what she did and I must admit I like it a lot. Comments? Be honest. 

My very first ever Starbucks. It was Iced Coffee. Honestly the ice coffee at McDonalds is better. In my opinion of course. 

In a bathroom stall in Mayo, Yukon. There are still some places where you can smoke and pee at the same time. There were actually cigarette butts in there, yes I checked. 

How I spent most of my evenings in the Yukon. I believe this picture was taken close to midnight. 

Snow baby!!!

Who is that bearded fool standing in the snow??

Oh Kennie how she loved to lick everyone. 

My amazing blogger buddy Kara who I have been waiting 7 years to meet!!

The campground we stayed at in Dawson City. 

Kara said she found us a house to live in. Bit of a fixer upper but with my husband being a carpenter shouldn't be a problem!

Or maybe this beautiful side by side?

Taken from the plane as we are flying over the Yukon. That's snow on them there mountains!!

Enjoying the Yukon.

I am currently sitting in Mayo Yukon waiting to do a 5k midnight sun run. I have been on the go for the last 5 days and I am on top of the world. 

Check out the snow on the mountains!

Snow baby!!!  I had to get in it. 

Having such a great time 

So excited to finally meet Kara for the first time. We have virtually known each other for 8 years!!

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And best of all look who I found!!

Long gone to the Yukon

I am currently on vacation and if you choose jump over to www.indigosravens.com. 

Closest I have been in a year

Right now I am on a plane flying over Saskatchewan and all I can think is that this is the closest I have been to my métis family in a year. So close but yet do very very far. 

Welcome Gabriela

My beautiful niece Gabriela was born on June 14th. We went up to Amherst today to see her before I leave for my epic trip on Tuesday. She is amazing and I can't wait to spend more time with her. 

For tawny and Jody.

My footwear for the evening. Even painted my toes. Aren't you both proud of me? 

My love

Rob graduated from fire fighter training tonight. I am so proud of who he is and how much community means to him. He is now an official volunteer fire fighter. 

I actually did it

My very first tattoo. It is to celebrate the life changing trip I am about to take with my fellow ravens to the Yukon. The purple one is actually the color indigo in memory of the very beautiful Indigo Sweetwater who left us much too soon and was the inspiration for this trip. 

2 weeks from today.....

I will be on my way to the Yukon for the most amazing adventure ever. I am giddy I am so excited but I have to keep it contained for the next 2 weeks or I will drive everyone foolish. Today in the mail I received this:

The contents look like this:

My amazing friend Jenn who is also going on this trip was thoughtful enough to send me this little goody package as I am traveling the farthest to get there. I can't wait to get there. If you so desire (which means of course you do) you can follow the whole trip as we blog from the road. Check it out at www.indigosravens.com. I think. If that doesn't work google it. You'll find us. :)

Jr high

So we went to colbys jr high tour last night. He will be attending the same jr high that I attended. Which means each day he gets to walk past this 

Momma is always watching. 

Please bring back winter

I must admit I dont do well with the heat. It was 27 degrees here today. Its too hot to think. People think i  crazy for hating the summer. The reason is that you can't dress for it. At least in the winter you can dress for the cold. How many months until fall?

Laundry soap and fabric softener.

I am back to making my own laundry soap and have now stepped it up one more by making my own fabric softner also. I stopped for a while as it was very cheap to coupon for laundry soap. The problem became storage. The secret to great savings with coupons is to buy small bottles and boxes. The smaller the box the cheaper the price and the cheesy value when you combine that with a coupon. The problem is that we just don't have the storage space for 50 bottles of laundry soap.  So I am back to homemade stuff. This way I can control the smell and I know what's in it. 

Here is what we made tonight. It has to sit overnight to set up and then tomorrow I will put it in mason jars for storage. The best part? I actually did the math and that entire pot cost me 1.46 to make. That I figure should do me almost a month and I wash everyday. Fabric softner is even cheaper. :)

The most important people in my life

I am such a lucky girl to have all 3 of these fantastic people love me.  

Goodbye Facebook

I have decided that I am tired of the foolishness of Facebook and have decided to stop using it as a way of keeping in touch with people.  There is a status on my Facebook that says if you want to keep in touch with me this is the best way to do so.   I promise to update this more and there will be lots and lots of pictures.

Happy 7th birthday baby boy

My baby boy turned 7 yesterday.  Good lord someone please tell me where the time goes?

We had a small party here at the house for him.  We invited a few of his friends and a lot of family and just had a day for him.  They spent the time playing WII and just being boys.

Here is Joe blowing out his candles.  We were not going to let a little thing like geography keep his best friend of 4 years away.  That`s Brian you see on the phone, watching the whole thing.  He even sang Happy Birthday with us.  God I miss that kid.

From there we went outside to break the Pinata.  Everyone took a turn at it and then we left it up to
Colby to bust it open.  Candy went flying everywhere.  It was fantastic.

From there we went to opening presents.  This is one of my favorite pictures.  This is Joe's friend Jack.  Jack's mom and I went to school together from Kindergarten right through high school.  Jack had told Joe in school what he bought for him for his birthday.  These two are adorable together.

I want to thank everyone who came out for the party.  Joe had a great time and it was so wonderful to see the house so full of family. 
 

One of my favorite places

It is beautiful here today in Nova Scotia and I decided I needed to take the boys somewhere that I haven't taken them yet since being back.  We went to the Hemlock Ravine Park in Bedford.  It's a great place with many walking trails through the woods.

This is Hemlock Ravine Park.  It has a heart shaped pond at the beginning of it.  The pond is called Julie's Pond.  There is actually a great sign at the beginning of the park explaining the history of it that I really should have taken a picture of.  Long and short of the story is Prince Edward (the guy who went on to name the little potato island) had a mistress here in Nova Scotia.  Guess what her name was? She lived here in a mansion and he loved her so much he had this pond made for her in 1790.

We went walking through the woods and I snapped this shot of Joe.  Damn this kid is getting tall!  I can't keep him in pants that fit.

Oh Colby.  Please stop growing up.  I am not ready for the extremely attractive teenager you are turning into.

Unedited because I couldn't bring myself to edit it but DAMN when did he learn this?  He asked me if he could do this and I really didn't think he would!

I love this picture.  You can tell Colby is faking but it's still funny.

They make my  heart sing.  I love Joe's face in this one.

Nothing better than hugging a tree.  I told them we were taking these pictures for Kassie.

Then I gave the camera to Colby.

Photobombed by Joe!

My life.  They constantly amaze me.  This picture was Colby's idea.