Nature hike - Rotary Park, Dieppe

What a GREAT weekend. Hockey's done. Swimming only one week to go. Things are finally winding down and now we have time for some more fun stuff (that includes poor little Mimi).

Sunday - we went for a 1 hour hike through Rotary Park in Dieppe. Let's just say, we have to warm Noah up to hiking again! For the 1st 30 minutes he complained, then he had a cramp, then I asked him if he would like to help me take some photos on our hike....this seemed to do some tricks and HEY, this way I make it into our family photos (even if I have a DUMB look on my face - see below!!!) All in all - we had some great family time TOGETHER! Once he got a cramp....Jacques had a brilliant idea. He found a stick (perfect size for a walking stick) and told him that GOD left put it there JUST for Noah to help him walk and help get rid of his cramp. It was a perfect solution. About 20 minutes later (once he discovered the camera), he placed the stick down for GOD to give the stick to another little boy who was walking and needed help! What a little doll....he's such a little prince!

This photo below was my FAVOURITE! It shows Mimi's dedication to Noah. All Noah did was take a poop bag to the garbage and Mimi sat (ever so patient) waiting for Noah to catch back up before she would even move (see Noah on the top left of the photo). How sweet!!!


The snow was so deep that it almost buried 1/2 of a huge garbage pail! There's a photo of Noah standing next to it. We ran into (what I believe to be a 1/2 frozen/dead) a chipmunk. It was the sweetest creature. It just stood there looking at us. As soon as Noah walked over to the tame little creature, she turned the other way pushing her tail up at Noah. We teased and told him she was farting. As soon as Mimi spotted her, we figured she'd take right off. To our surprise, she let Mimi sniff her butt then took off into some fallen down trees! It was cute to see Mimi interact with a smaller creature than herself. She appeared very gentle at first...then when the chipmunk ran off Mimi WANTED to play!!!



The below photo was taken by Noah - pretty good job, I must say!

The below two were taking by me - something about bird houses THRILLS me!

You gotta LOVE b&w photos of a winter scene!

Hockey Awards

This is it - end of the year hockey 'banquet' & awards. The kids all acted a little crazy (only 1 collision resulting in 2 injured boys) while we waited for the food. The middle photos are those with the head coach and the team manager....what a FANTASTIC group of parents/families. We'll definitely miss them next year!

NOW for the real fun this Saturday when we have an ADULT ONLY party - for the parents of the hockey team! Can anyone babysit for us?

So glad Noah was able to finish the season of hockey with this team. So proud of Noah for his hard work & effort this season. So excited to see if he will choose the position of goalie next season. It's weighing on his mind - and frankly, I'm a little excited for him. It's probably one of the biggest decisions he has ever had to make. And frankly, I'm so proud of this process he working through. He has been weighing all of the odds, thinking of all the pro's and con's. No matter what decision he makes....we'll be so proud of him (as always).

WAY TO GO, BUDDY!

Weird stuff...

So the other night I was typing away on my computer and Mimi (our 8-10 lb dog) went into our DARK family room, began looking out the window and started BARKING HER HEAD OFF. OKAY, now I was freaked thinking 'Oh my goodness....NOW what am I going to do if a burglar tries to break in'. I went around trying to find something (really anything) that would protect me and all I could find was 2 screwdrivers...hmmmm? I was like a scaredeecat downstairs - closing the blinds (as if this would help) and holding my screwdrivers (one in each hand) waiting, while the dog growled and barked at the window.

She (Mimi) finally stopped and I felt safe again.

The next night - Mimi started to FREAK out AGAIN only this time it was upstairs. When we looked out the window we counted 6 deer walking up the side of the house, across our front lawn and across the road to our front door neighbour's lawn and we live in a subdivision. It was just like a scene out of a movie. They looked so out of place and scared....there were several babies too :o(

For the past several weeks, we've been noticing at dusk & dawn almost every other day (or so) - deer wondering through our yard (not usually 6 at once though, usually like 2 or 3 at a time), walking up our street and disappearing into neighbours yards. I wonder if we should be calling someone - like....ummmm.....not the humane society or SPCA but the department that takes care of wild animals??? I'm not sure if this is safe for these poor deer, IS IT??? I just don't want to see one of these little BAMBI's getting hit by a car or something.

Anyways - NOW I realize that Mimi had been barking at the deer (that she could see out the basement window the other night) - because I could see the paw prints out the side of our house!!! So next time - I won't need my screw drivers for protection!

Basketball - year in review

So my new found hobby has been keeping me busy - YUP and I'm lovin' every minute of it. It's so fun to see the end result and NOAH....well he thinks he's a MOVIE STAR now! The look on his face when he watches the video's are priceless!! I have 10 more videos that I have in mind I'd like to do for practice - so I'll be busy, busy, busy!! Let me know what you think - I'm open for feedback (as I'm just learning)!!!

Easter 2008

Okay - well our weekend was pretty varied. Watching movies, playing some games, watching some TV, on the computer, playing some games, watching some more movies, etc. It worked out quite well considering Noah had a fever most of the weekend and there were NO activities. It was a welcomed break.

Here's a collage of our silly man doing his funky dance! Crazy cat, don't you think!!! He makes us laugh with his little dances (wonder where he gets these from Jacques?).


When Noah went to bed on Saturday night - he wanted to leave a carrot for the Easter Bunny (you know, because bunny's eat carrots - right?) and a note. He wrote "I love Baster Bunny" (hmmm, not hard to figure out why - any creature that leaves candies & chocolate in the night - must be loved)!

Got up Sunday morning, had an egg hunt as well as searched for our hats (oh yeah - I should explain this, in our house we put out a hat of choice and the Easter Bunny fills the hat with treats and hides them), found our hats and ate lots of chocolate & candy (for breakfast - but don't tell Mom...oops, oh yeah I am the Mom!!!)!!! Noah's hat was filled with an Easter activity pad, Kinder surprises, colouring stencils, an Easter creme egg & a golden egg with $2 in it! Mine was filled with lip gloss, nail files, hand creme and an Easter Creme egg (I told the bunny that I did NOT want chocolate) and Jacques had his (usual) Mr. Crunchy, Easter Creme egg & some other chocolates.

Noah's holding his present from us - he got a new bike helmet (like the skater helmets) with skate boarder's on it! He LOVED it - too bad there is way too much snow & ice still on the ground to go biking (that and his one tire is blown - must go get that fixed)!

Learning new things....

Yippy - I love it....I finally learned to do this (see below and click - it'll take you to a video)! So thrilled yet afraid that his will now mean more time spent on ANOTHER new hobby! At least most of my hobbies align (photography, scrapping, journalling - family)! I am going to have find the balance between the size & quality to make it work - but you get the idea! Isn't this too cool? When I showed Noah & Jacques (only once the final result was complete) they LOVED it - and I mean Noah was BEYOND THRILLED!!! He wants to learn how to do this also....



If you too would like to learn - send me a message I would LOVE to share the knowledge!!!

Easter Preparation

I can't believe we almost forgot to paint eggs this year. Thankfully I saw some photos on Facebook (of Michele D's) that reminded me. I had everything here ready to go - but the last few days Noah has been sick (he spikes a fever of 102-103 then when the Tylenol kicks in - he's okay until the next dose wears off) so I completely forgot!

As SOON as I saw the photos - I boiled the eggs - prepared the dye and within 1 hour we were painting eggs. Had some fun TOGETHER but I forgot to take some pictures as we were decorating! Oh well!

Some really happy news for Jacques and I - we finally convinced Noah to get his hair cut. Only - he thought he was getting a 'little' trimmed off. I secretly asked the hairdresser to cut a little more than that off ('bad Mommy')!! The end result is terrific - we love it. At first, poor Noah was a little perturbed - but once I convinced him his hair was just like Tony Hawks now - he was COOL with that!!!

So now tonight - we're just relaxing watching some movies (Snow Dogs & I Am Legend) - TOGETHER (lovin' it)!! Happy Easter 'EVE' to all!

Goodbye Typepad...

...I officially deleted my account (our old family blog) at typepad today :( It's a sad day because thanks to typepad (and my dear friend Leslie) - I was introduced to the world of blogging and it has changed my life. I LOVE writing - it's a great passion of mine!

So - just to let you know, if you try to visit our previous family blog (at typepad) the site won't work because it's deleted!

Conclusion to March Break Vacation...

On Sat Mar 8 (and the last day of our vacation) - we went to see Matthew (#11) & Tyler(#17) play hockey. Talk about fast moving after watching 5 & 6 year olds!! They both played fantastic!



After Tyler & Matthew's game (and the whole purpose of our trip) we went to see High School Musical - ON ICE. We're still not sure who was more excited - Noah, Mommy or Daddy! I've been listening to the music on my MP3 at work for months now (since October, when the 2nd one premiered) - and it's no secret! I LOVE bopping to that music! We all LOVED the show - it was FANTASTIC! But then again we all LOVE musicals in this house. Some of our favourites - Annie, Grease, Dirty Dancing, etc - you name them, we love 'em all!

A great highlight to my night was that we met up with an old friend of mine, who I hadn't seen in over 10 years - BARB. It was so nice to meet her husband and 2 boys. They joined us at the Ice Show then we all went out for supper after (MAJOR STORM & all)! The poor kids, they couldn't really relax and let loose in a restaurant. It was - well - fun and ummm, interesting? We couldn't chat much - but luckily Barb and her family live only about 1 hour from Ottawa. So I think we all agreed that the next time we are headed the Ottawa way, we will definitely plan a more 'child friendly' activity so the kids can let loose as well as the adults!



We left Sunday morning (despite the over 40 cm of snow Ottawa received over the night) and this is what we got stuck in on the way home....YUP, the remnants of the storm. Quebec City and area (Levis, to be exact) got hit really bad with winds and lots of snow. The highway was closed between Levis & Riviere du Loup.....12 feet snow drifts across the highway. We drove for 3 hours (with the help of Jacques new toy - his GPS) to try and find an alternate route (which we found 3 routes in all - all of which were CLOSED). Finally, we surrendered and got a hotel room (in VERY cranky states of minds)!!! This was an adventure in itself - lineups out the doors and parking lots FILLED with New Brunswick & Nova Scotia license plates!

We got a good night sleep and headed out in the morning.....yippy, homeward bound!


We arrived safely to Edmundston where we dropped Jacques off then Noah & I kept going. We were really happy to be home - as was Mimi to see us (God love our little pup)!!

All in all - we had an AWESOME vacation TOGETHER! It wouldn't have mattered WHERE we went for our March Break vacation - as long as we were TOGETHER!!!

PS....Sorry Tricia if there are spelling mistakes - I just want to get off the computer, so I'm not checking! LOL

A New Earth - Chapter 1

I finally had a couple of hours to watch Chapter 1 Podcast session with Oprah & Eckhart Tolle. What an inspiring, educational & exciting one & a half hours. I received so much insight into the most difficult conceptual chapter in this book. Luckily the remaining chapters are mostly practical (much more exciting).

I have so much to say - I took 9 pages of notes that I want to document for later lessons in my awakening. There was so much.... There were many quotes, some 'take home - to-do's' and some questions & comments for me to post on the Oprah website.

I will start by mentioning that despite the difficulties with the live session (on the night this podcast was aired) the format and delivery were extremely user friendly. KUDOS to Oprah & her team for taking on such a risky platform and a job very well done! It was simple to use, relaxing to listen to, the flow was easy to follow and the content was explained in a way that was simple to understand. They (meaning Oprah and Mr. Tolle) took the time to answer the questions in depth for the viewers, as well they chose questions that were relevant to many. By the time the 1.5 hour session concluded, I had all but a few questions answered and left finished with incredible insight and peace.

I'm going to 'throw out' there much of what I wrote - it may be 'mumble-jumble' to some but I just want document in order to continue on to the 2nd chapter (to get caught up before Monday night):

• Rather than asking yourself what you want to do in life ask WHAT DOES LIFE WANT FROM ME?
• Ask for moments of stillness and when you find them, these are potentially where the answers are
• What is my place within the WHOLE?
• Experience the world like a baby - for the first time
• Stop labelling, starting with nature (it's easier with nature than with people)
• When you have mental abstractions (lost in thought, listening to the voice in your head) you can't take in what's around you
  
• Religion is the open door to spirituality
• Christianity - the free thinking form has many paths to God
• Technology amplifies egoic function
• Awakening is not just about thinking or being positive, it's about putting our ego's in check
• The voice in my head is conditioned thinking (from your upbringing, your childhood, society, etc) - when you begin to awaken, these thoughts still come up....allow it, be aware of it and recognize that it is an old thought process
• To go beyond this - just be there as the witness and don't fight it
• Your thinking is only a small part of the totality of thinking
• Don't identify with the thought, just give it space
• Energy fields are formed when groups of people come together (even if not physically). Don't just live this way in your group only, don't become dependant on your group....your responsibility is to bring this new level of consciousness into your own life & your family.
• LIVE PRESENCE IN YOUR DAILY LIFE (even when you are surrounded by the old egoic consciousness).
• Bible quote: BE STILL & KNOW THAT i AM GOD.
• Get in touch with the deepest part within & invite the stillness in (book idea below).
• Go back to nature to feel it - sense the stillness around you, that is also within you.
  
• Find the stillness, presence in your daily life moments in everyday motions (ie. getting a cup out of the cupboard, walking down the stairs or washing your hands - feel the water flowing over your hands, smell the soap, etc) - do it consciously, be present
• Learning to do these simple things will retrain your mind
• Everything we do is a 'means to an end' - so you rarely think in the moment because your mind is always on the next step (ie. making a cup of coffee - your mind is on drinking the coffee)
• When you purchase things (forms) from your ego, they don't satisfy you for long however you can enjoy the world of FORM but don't let yourself be defined by your 'things'.
• Ask yourself: What is MY relationship with the present moment? (and be conscious of the answer)
• What you resist, persists.
• Make peace with the moment to get yourself out of it
• Experience the book, rather than explain it.
• Accept that this book is NOT for everyone, only worry or concern yourself with YOU!
  

BOOK IDEAS to further your understanding, mentioned by Oprah
Note: the Author's names may not be spelled correctly

The Power Within You
By: Erik Butterworth
In reference to finding out how to reconcile spirituality & religion

The Seekers Guide
By: Elizabeth Lesser

Stillness Speaks
By: Eckhart Tolle

Coming to Your Senses
By: John Cabit Zens

NOTE: I will continue these entries on my Gratitude Journal so click on this link to read my thoughts each week.

More March Break fun

More fun, fun, fun (oh yah and more snow on the way - yah, like 25-35 cm -BOOOOO). Yesterday we went to the Museum of Civilization. Jacques went his separate way - to finish the museum that he started 4 or so years ago. I took the 3 boys and we wondered through the Children's Museum. Noah quickly discovered the craft room - which he wanted to stay at. The older boys went to wonder for a while then came back to meet us. We all met at the IMAX for a show called Blue Planet - WOW, talk about an experience for a IMAX Virgin! As well as the show itself....WOW - talk about having a TRUE desire to treat our planet better after watching this show! After the show - we all went our separate ways again.

The kids had fun and Jacques finally finished the museum (reading every display and visiting every floor). Noah's highlights: building aliens with modeling clay in the Children's museum, learning how to POOP & PEE in space, the IMAX experience and of course the escalators (which was his favourite). For me, well I'm pretty simple to please. I'm just happy that everyone had a great time - and this is what makes my day happy!

So TODAY (Saturday) is our biggest day of our vacation YET - #1, we are going to see the boys at their first playoff hockey game, #2, we have the High School Musical - ON ICE this afternoon & #3, meeting up with an old friend & her family. Through all of this, I pray the weather stays on our side and does not storm too terrible!!!

March Break Vacation - to Ottawa

Our trip so far - excellent. Our drive here, thankfully was uneventful and fast (thanks to our new electronics - mostly Jacques GPS as well as my new PINK DS that Noah & I played for much of our drive). Thankfully we left a day early and missed a nasty storm for driving in. Now we are faced with ANOTHER storm heading our way on Saturday night (the night we have tickets to see High School Musical ON ICE and are meeting an old friend of mine) into Sunday (the day in the early morning we intend to leave). We'll wait and see what happens!

During the storm on Wednesday, Jacques (my honey was a trooper) took me to IKEA. I was disappointed and proud of myself all in one - I only spent $12! How weird is that - we even had lots of room!!! It was nice to drive around a town (you have no idea how to get around) with the GPS!!

Yesterday - Noah went ice fishing with Mathew & Tyler and their dad. What an experience for him. A limo picked them up from Lise's to take them to their destination (about 45 minutes from here). They left around 9:30 am and did not arrive home until after 7:00 pm. He was SOAKED and one happy boy! The report from the adults (who had never met him before) was that he was a SUPER polite, VERY well behaved little boy. WOW - something is paying off - now too bad he couldn't ALWAYS be like this with us!!! :) Guess that's the way it goes and a very proud moment! After our late supper his eyes were pretty much rolling into the back of his eye sockets. He went straight to bed - and when I went into check on him 30 minutes later he hadn't even moved an inch. He was WIPED out!While Noah was gone, Jacques and I went to the Royal Canadian Mint. Talk about COOL! Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos during the tour (dahh, I wonder why!) but we did manage to get these below photos prior to entering the building to remember our visit. We had the chance to hold a $400,000 piece of REAL PURE 24K GOLD (heavily guarded with an armed Mountie) - it was massively heavy (28 lbs). Talk about a thrill!

The absolute highlight (I know this seems small but it was for me) of my day was when we were walking around a little room of 'money' momentos. There were some displays with old money, videos and some activities to do. One of them, was a HUGE bucket of $2 TOONIES and the question was how much money do you think is in the bucket? Jacques asked me, I did my quick calculation in my head and said $6000. He said 'you read the answer already'. AND I swear on my LIFE that I had not already seen the answer. I almost fell over - WOW, how cool was that?

So today we are heading to the Civilization museum - Jacques to finish his tour around the museum and me, with the 3 boys to do the IMAX and the kids section. Will post more later!

Below: Jacques & I - our famous self-portrait infront of the Royal Canadian Mint.

Below: Touristy photos at the Mint!

A New Earth - Week 1

8:15 pm, Monday night :-)
Oooooooh, I am so pumped for the first class TONIGHT!! All my homework is done and I'm ready to learn! Although I have to admit I'm FREAKING out over how the heck I will stay awake so late - class starts at 10:00 pm (local time) and goes to 11:30 pm - OIFF! Especially considering we are leaving tomorrow on our March Break vacation - I guess Jacques will be driving alone while Noah & Mommy snooze!!!

10:24pm, Monday night :-(
Class has started, I managed to get 40 minutes in (starting at 9:45 pm) but unfortunately there must be too much internet traffic for this podcast to work properly. Great news though - each Tuesday after the live class (on the Monday night) you can view it on Oprah.com or even download it for later viewing pleasure. WHAT A RELIEF :0) , considering my hesitation of staying up so late!

So until the next time, happy reading & learning!

Jacques new toy...

Finally - we got Jacques his 'Graduation' gift for passing his CGA (in October). Noah & I have had a plan to purchase a GPS for 'Daddy' for a long time now and we finally got one this afternoon. He has WANTED a GPS for several years now and we just never got around to getting him a toy he would love. He is THRILLED with his new toy and has already played with it for several hours already (check out all the finger prints on the screen already) - so we know he loves his present AND what's really cool is we got in just in time for our March Break vacation to Ottawa (we leave Tuesday).

So on a more serious note Jacques, CONGRATULATIONS! You are so deserving of everything you have and where you are! Noah & I are SO proud of your accomplishment and we hope you enjoy your new toy!

A New Adventure, A New Earth...one more sleep.

WELL, if you have not read this book you simply HAVE to. I am not much of a reader - but I finished this (over) 300 page book in less than a week. It has captivated my attention and resonated my soul. Though I will admit, at first I was LOST. I mean, completely confused and thought to myself 'maybe this book is TOO deep for me'. As I continued to read - more and more made sense. Finally, by the end it all cames together. I still look forward to learning more every Monday night for 8 weeks, taught by Oprah and Eckhart Tolle in the worlds largest online & live classroom. Through reading this book, I've had many 'A-HA' moments, gained much insight and found so much inner peace with who I am.

I now feel a sense of calm and carry so much less stress than I did before. I now easily identify with situations and people. Now I observe, I observe EVERYTHING - not just with other people but also within myself. I feel like I am a better parent with these observations and now when situations arise, I mostly giggle because now I understand why people do what they do - at least according to the concept of this book. I have a different perspective on humanity and where we are headed. I hope and pray that this is the beginning of "A New Earth" - they way Eckhart Tolle writes because the universe will truly be a better place to live if everyone could live this concept.

Send me your thoughts if you have read the book. ONLY ONE MORE SLEEP to the beginning of the teaching's of this book. Are YOU enrolled? Have you completed YOUR Chapter 1 homework? How did you find it? Personally, I'm struggling a little with my answers - you really have to dig deep!

Day of Champs (and a little more)

He certainly is OUR champ. I'm a little behind posting these photos because the last few weekends have been crazy.... spreading our time between hockey, basketball AND now swimming lessons (2 times a weekend).

What SOME may call NO life, we LOVE! I wouldn't change enrolling Noah in these activities for the WORLD (well, okay there may have been once or twice - that I may have moaned, but for the rest we have LOVED every minute of our busy'ness). When we enrolled Noah in swimming, we knew that there was only 2 weekends left of basketball and hockey was winding down (not as many practices as often).

Well on Feb 23, Noah's basketball team celebrated the DAY OF CHAMPS. They played 2 back-to-back games. Our team worked their little behinds off - I mean, the other team had a full 2 line ups (so while one line up played, the other got a break). Our team only had 1 substitute, so they played the ENTIRE time and MAN, they were pooped at the end of the games. All in all, you didn't hear them complaining (only the parents in the stands - lol!!!).

After the games, there was a pizza party for the two teams. It was EXTREMELY well organized - two thumbs up for the Moncton Kiwanis Minor Basketball Association! The kids loved it! Each of the children were awarded with a Banner that each of the players signed - what a great memento. Noah came home and immediately hung his in his room.

So now basketball is done, hockey is down to only 3 more practices (spread out for the entire month of March) and swimming is on break until after March break - so we have a few weekends where we have NO activities. Which is a REALLY nice break - but on the other hand, you could tell (by Noah's behaviour yesterday) that he was missing the 'energy burning' aspect of the activities!

Speaking of Noah's bedroom earlier - I think (when we move) we've decided that we're going to get away from the Hab's theme. I'm not sure how I feel about this considering we have invested so much effort on collecting SO MANY accessories over the years (he's had this decor in his bedroom decor since he was 2 years old). WHERE am I going to incorporate all these things if we change his room?

I DID say that I would allow HIM to decorate his own room in a previous blog entry (CLICK here to read) but I have to admit I struggle with this as well! I mean, he is talking about Pokemon, Transformers, Basketball, Hockey, etc - ALL OVER HIS WALLS - and this makes me cringe. Is that so bad? I mean, I will have to look at his room every day, right? Am I being too fussy? All I want is a theme - like sports or robots - it doesn't even have to be a specific sport or team - just a similar theme!!!