A year of Blogging

I was just looking back over my Blog and realized that I've been at this for over a year now. Not bad for someone who was unsure about this whole strange world of internet journaling. A year later and I'm still going strong (actually stronger!)

So, for today, I'm going to share with you some of my favorite posts from the last year:

Celebrating all the father's in our life.

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon. This made me smile this morning.

hahaha! He asked just the other day again if he could die his hair!

OK! This makes me laugh out loud everytime I see it!

Awwww! Way to go buddy!

Our lives and Nonverbal Learning Disorder

The loss of innocense

This one makes me laugh too!

apparently I'm a needy person

What can I say?

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Well, today is the last day of school and the first day of another very busy summer. After the boys get home today we will head up to the trailer for the weekend. We will be back on Tuesday to get ready for Junior Music Camp. When we get home from that we will have a couple of days to get ready for Calgary (we are going for three weeks). I will try and Blog somewhere in between all the moving around.


If you're reading, leave me a message. I'm curious to know who's reading.

Last night was Spencer's grade 8 graduation. Can you believe it? I can't. My cute little boy with the white hair (he's the one on the left) has graduated from elementary school! Where does the time go? I know every parent wonders the same thing, but really! Where does it go?











He looked so grown up last night in his suit and tie. It was one of those wow moments for me ... you know the ones ... when you see your kids in a whole new light. The grad went well. Spencer won a music award for musical excellence fromt the Halton Junior Jazz band. His music teacher had some wonderful words to say about his musical ability. Spencer thought it was cool that the teacher said that he was jealous of Spencer's musical ability.

After the grad, they had a dance for the kids. All the girls were dressed in their gowns and most of the boys in suits. They all looked so grown up and eager to move on to the next phase of their lives.







Auntie Cathy and Uncle Don came to the graduation.

LOL! I think the author was watching me one day.

Cleaning Poem

I asked the Lord to tell me
Why my house is such a mess.
He asked if I'd been 'puttering',
And I had to answer "yes."

He told me to get off my fanny
And tidy up the house.
And so I started cleaning up...
The smudges off my mouse.

I wiped and shined the topside.
That really did the trick...
I was just admiring my work...
I didn't mean to 'click.'

But click, I did, and oops I found
A real absorbing site
That I got SO way into...
I was into it all night.<>

Nothing's changed except my mouse
It's very, very shiny.
I guess my house will stay a mess...
While I sit here on my hiney.

What's the best present you can give a mother of young children? Time alone at home. Guess what I've just been given? That's right! John took Matthew away for the weekend to celebrate his 16th birthday, Spencer is at a party, and Cameron is at a friends house swimming. Ahhhhhhh! Time to myself, on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Can life get any better than this??

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So last night my sister Cathy and I took Spencer and Cameron to the drive-in movies. Oakville still has a drive-in theatre. It has three screens and each one plays a double feature. We went to see Cars and RV.

I love going to the drive-in. It's so much more than just a movie ... it's a whole experience. We pull the van in backwards and open the hatch up. put the back seat down, turn the middle seats around, and put a pad down in the back with lots of pillows and blankets. Add to that lawn chairs, a cooler full of drinks and snacks, and you have the makings of a fantastic evening. It's a great way to spend a night. The only problem is that when the first movie starts at dark it is 9:45 p.m. (that's when it's finally dark enough in the summer here in the great white north!) So, when the second movie finished it was 1:45 a.m. I fell asleep before it finished, but Cathy and the boys were still going strong.

So here's the story of the water colour

We had just moved to Barbados a few months earlier. There were a lot of Canadians living there and so we had a large group that we hung out with. One day we went to a multi-national fair for the day. The group we were with all had children around the same age. Spencer was two at the time and all the toddlers were running around and playing together.

We noticed a woman with a camera who was taking pictures of all the kids. We were a little alarmed at the thought of what she was doing, when she came over and explained that she was an artist who loves to paint children. She takes her camera and snaps tons of pictures and when she sees one that she likes, she will paint it.

We thought nothing more if it, but always wondered if she ended up painting any of the kids.

Fast forward a year. A friend of mine phoned me and said that she was at a school event when the artist approached her and asked her if she had a daughter with curly hair that had been at the multi-national fair. She told her that she did. The artist then told her that she had painted a picture of her daughter and Spencer playing with the stoller, but unfortunately had sold it already. She then said that she had been looking for the mother of the other child as she had painted a large picture of just him. She had been looking for us for months and even had published the picture in the paper in hopes that we would see it.

We weren't even sure that is was Spencer (as there was more than one little boy with the same blonde haircut that day) but we rushed down to her studio and there it was, on her wall. A fantastic water colour of my baby boy.

There was no question ... we had to buy it!

OK, so Joanne cheated. She tagged me back, but added some extra questions.

4 most cherished possessions:
a water colour picture of Spencer. (I will add the story in later.)
hand-painted monkey jars from Barbados
my scrapbooks
my jewelry ... especially the costume jewelry that my boys have picked out for me for Christmas and birthday presents.
OK, I had to add one more - my camera


4 least favorite chores:
grocery shopping
toilets
ironing
dusting


4 best stress relievers:
scrapbooking
hiking
puttering in the garden
surfing the net

Starting my own game of tag.

I saw this tag game on a blog in my travels this morning and thought I would start it here. For those I'm about to tag, you take these questions and answer them on your own blog and then tag others.

4 jobs I've had:
I worked in the cafeteria in KMart when I was 16
I worked at the Salvation Army camp in the summer when I was 15
I worked for many years with the Mentally Handicapped as a Residential Counsellor
I currently work harder than I ever have at any other job as a Stay at home Mom. (according to Dr. Phil, stay at home moms work the equivilant of two full time jobs ... I can believe it!)

4 movies I could watch over and over again:
None come to mind. I'm not a movie person. Usually once through is enough for me.

4 places I've lived:
Brampton, Ontario
London, Ontario
Barbados
Oakville, Ontario

4 TV shows I love: (much easier than the movie question)
Desparate Housewives
Greys Anatomy
Dr. Phil
Everybody Loves Raymond

4 places I've been on vacation:
Sailing on a yacht in the Grenadines
Skiing in Whistler, BC
Salt Lake City, Utah (went for CKU!)
Quebec City (one of my all time favorite places)

4 favorite dishes:
enchilladas
Balsamic chicken (a la Kelsey's)
Chicken Divan
Anything I don't have to cook myself

4 websites I visit daily:
Cherished Scrapbooks
Two Peas
Scrapping Buddies
Scrapjazz

4 places I'd rather be right now:
At the trailer
On a beach somewhere
Quebec City
traveling Europe

4 bloggers I'm tagging:
Evie
Cathy
Joanne
Jennifer (who has just started her Blog!

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So, guess what I did yesterday? I scrapbooked ... at home. It's been a while since I've done that. I've gotten out of the habit of working at home and so the piles of pictures just keeps getting higher.

I scrapped the picture of Matthew that I posted the other day, and the pictures of Mom, Cathy and I from Mother's Day.

So I finally got the film from Mother's Day developed. (yes, I know. I can hear all you digital people yelling at me through the screen. I'm just not ready yet to make that leap!) These pictures are of Mom, Cathy and I at the mother/daughter banquet that we went to in London. The theme had something to do with scrapbooking and part of the evening was spent making a photo card. Cathy and I had to take some pictures because my mom DOESN"T SCRAPBOOK!! Her idea of preserving memories is just to throw them into a cardboard box and store them in the basement! Arggggggg!


Here it is! The picture of all pictures. Mom scrapbooking! Do you think we can convince her to dig out those boxes from the basement??


Mom and I.

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So last night we went to Philthy McNasty's for supper ... Matt's choice. We had a fun night of playing foozeball, pool, and watching some of the world cup on TV. The food was pretty good, and there wasn't a speck left on the table when we were done. My boys devoured everthing that was put in front of them. Someone needs to teach them some manners!

When we were done eating we gave Matt his present. I tried to disguise it by putting it in a big box with lots of socks and underwear. I think he knew anyway, because he wasn't even phased when he saw the underwear on top. He just dug down for the real gift. He was thrilled. Funny thing is that after I played with it for a while, I thought that I'd like to get one for myself. (I certainly don't need one ... I'll just borrow his! Alot!)

Happy birthday Matthew

Today is Matthew's birthday. He woke up with a huge smile on his face. He's sixteen! Where has the time gone??

16 years ago I held the most beautiful baby in my arms. At that moment life was perfect. We had huge dreams and expectations for that little one. The road we envisioned was so completely different from the one that we ended up on. It hasn't been the leisurly walk that we expected. There have been a lot of steep hills and huge bumps in the road. We were not prepared. God has been with us every step of the way, however, and gave us a great teacher ... Matthew. Matt has taught us so much about life and people. He has taught us how to be better parents and how to love unconditionally. He has taught us how to help him to navigate the rough terrain. It has been a tough haul, one that I wouldn't wish on anyone, but one that has made us all better people because of it ... especially my beautiful 16 year-old. Life has not been very easy for him, and yet he continues to look at the possitive side of life and sees the good in people (regardless of how they treat him.)

The young man that jumped out of bed this morning, eager to start his first day as a 16 year-old) is different than he was a year ago. In the last few months he has been relatively anxiety free, and has really been maturing. We are on the upswing of some difficult years. He's been looking forward to today for over a year.

He's so happy to be 16. He will be even happier tonight when he receives his birthday present ... an ipod that he has been drooling over for a while now. Tonight is his night. He chooses what we do and where we eat (all between studying for his first exam which is tomorrow morning.) Enjoy it buddy! You deserve it and so much more!

Toronto Island

It's been years since I've been over to the Island. Yesterday, we had to stay in Toronto after Church as the band was playing at another Church in the evening. Since it was Father's Day, we decided to go to the Toronto Island for the afternoon. We had a fantastic time (even with the competitive arguing that goes on between brothers!) It wasn't quite so hot there, but we could still see the smog. We spent the afternoon riding a four-seater bicycle, walking on the beach and pier, watching the ducks, and enjoying each other's company.

Here are a few of the pictures I took yesterday:



Riding the four-seater.




Matthew trying to look cool in these Canada flag sunglasses.


These people gave us a laugh as they were rowing their boats backwards, and didn't appear to realize it.


The boys had to ride the log ride before leaving.


Cameron was making us all laugh by playing the damsel in distress.

Happy Father's Day

I missed wishing all the "fathers" in my life a happy fathers day yesterday. To all the men in my life who help me raise my boys; who share our joys and our heartaches; who are glowing examples of good men who live their life according to their faith in God; who support my boys in prayer and love everyday, happy father's day. We are all blessed to have you all in our lives and I know that my boys are better because of each and every one of you.

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband and father of my boys. You are a loving, supportive man, and a great father. You have a special relationship with our boys that I will never understand, or be a part of, but I know that your relationship with them compliments my relationship with them and they are very fortunate to have you as their father.

Today was a very sad day.

I've been dreading this day for a few months now but it came anyway. Today was Spencer's last gig with the Halton Junior Jazz Band. They toured schools all day today for the last time. They did four schools. Myself, and 7 other groupie parents followed them around today, all of us wearing very sad faces. They played fantastic, and really started hamming up the performance by the last school. Even the two directors were going for the comic relief. We are all going to really miss the group and the incredible opportunity it has brought. They are all a great group of kids with incredible talent.



Thanks to Mike Elmer, Brian Vincent, and all the kids and parents. It's been a great ride!

Boring ... but that's the way I like it!

Don't ask me what I got done off my list the other day. Let's just say that the boys had food when they got home.

Not much to post today. We are heading up to the trailer for the day and night. We'll be back tomorrow. Hopefully we will be finally able to cut the lawn. We also need to check the roof for a leak that happened last weekend with all the rain we had. Hopefully we can fix that without much expense and hassle.

Check out these funny pictures! The first one I've had in my files for a long time so I don't remember where it came from. The second one is from imreallysad.com.






Have a good weekend!

I shouldn't be here!

I've got a lot to do today. I shouldn't be playing on the computer. If I don't get out and get some grocery shopping done, I will have some very miserable boys on my hands at 3:00. For the last couple of days they have resorted to snacking on dry crackers, canned fruit, and dry pasta. I feel like the old lady in a shoe. The cuboards are bare! I keep putting it off because I dread grocery shopping. I hate everything about it. ...ane then they eat everything within a couple of days.

Here's the list of what I should be doing right now:
-grocery shopping (as already mentioned)
-filling out and sending in the camp applications
-making a reservation for Jasper for our trip to Calgary this summer
-cleaning the house yet again urgggggg!
-ironing
-get out and buy more mulch, and gravel and get in down
go to Toys R Us to purchase a birthday present for a party that Cameron is going to on the weekend
-get out and buy Matthew's birthday present (for his 16th birthday!!!)


I was talking with some moms at Cameron's baseball game last night. It seems that one of them has a child (who is on Cameron's team) with Nonverbal Learning Disorder. The other mom said that she knew someone who also had a child with it. Wow! It seems to be getting a lot more recognition now. It's nice to not feel so alone on this road.

On that topic, Matt is doing really well. He has had a great semester at school and all his teachers are very pleased with how things have gone. He is fairly relaxed of late. We haven't seen a lot of anxiety from him in a long while. He did some work for the principal at school and the principal is planning on putting his name up permanently in the school for his efforts. Matt is also making more efforts to try and connect with his peers (I'm sure that has a lot to do with him not feeling anxious right now.) He's trying to make plans to visit a girl from school while both our family's are vacationing in Calgary this summer. Even if it doesn't happen, it shows some big steps forward for him just to be thinking like this. His cognitive therapist has ended scheduled sessions with him as he has done well. We can (and will) go back and visit on an as needed basis.

Cameron, on the other hand, is so social. All he wants to do is get together with his buddies. I got a few of the pictures back from his water wars that he had with some of his friends.



Spencer got home last night from his grade eight trip. Since they went to Quebec City last year, they went to a camp this year. He was exhausted. They did a lot of canoeing, rope climbing, swimming, and other outdoor sports. He had a blast. It's hard to beleive that he only has three weeks left of elementary school!

Happy birthday to my big sister!

Happy birthday Joanne! Just as you used to say with a smile on your face when we were little "I'm older than you" I now say with a smile on my face "You're older than me."

Have a great birthday!

Another Something I saw on the WWW

Am I older than dirt? Sometimes I forget that I'm not 20 something (or even 30 something) anymore.

Older Than Dirt Quiz: Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3 Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5 Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
16 Hi-fi's
17 Metal ice trays with lever
18 Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

It appears that I am indeed older than dirt. I rember 18 of these! Oh man! That's scarey. The ones that really brought back some childhood memories were blackjack chewing gum, candy cigarettes, and the wax coke bottles shaped things. I remember me and my siblings going to the candy store and buying all these things. The candy cigarettes were my favorite.

We used to have a milk box in our house. It had a door that opened on the outside and the milk man would come each day and put the fresh milk in bottles into it. There was a door from the inside of the house where we would take it out. More often than not, the milk box was used for us children to climb through to get into the house. Why use the door? That was too easy!

I also remember going out to a family friend's house and they still had a party line. They lived out in the country.

When I was very young, I remember my brother and I playing in our basement and he decided to play with the washing machine wringer and while it was moving he put his hand in. It ended up pulling his whole arm through. My mom, of course, came running. My next memory of that event is seeing them jump into our neighbour's car to speed off to the hospital. He was fine in the end, at least until the next trouble he got himself into ... which was likely only a few days after that.

Such wonderful memories.

I think this is a scrapbook page!

Another one of those summers?

Do you know the joke? What is followed by two days of rain? ..... Monday.

What's up with this rain? We've had some great weather but it seems to be raining every weekend. OK. So it didn't rain last weekend. It seems to rain every time we go to the trailer. OY!

Yesterday there was a big street garage sale. We decided to join in as we've had a garage sale pile for about a year and a half that just keeps accumulating. We managed to unload a whole bunch of stuff. It facinates me that the things that people seem most interested in are the things that I was almost too embarrassed to put out. Cameron was so cute. He had his little "toy department." All his old toys were all set up separately and he was the manager. LOL! He did really well too. He managed to make $45.

Ater it was done, Cameron and I went to the trailer. I had to go up to pick up Matt's retainers that he left there two weeks ago (his mouth is going to be sore tonight!) By the time we got up there, it was pouring! It poured all afternoon and evening. We ended up going into town to pick some things up, and then spent the evening together, playing games, doing the paint-by-number, and watching TV. In spite of the rain, it was a great night. Just the two of us, laughing, and chatting.

Now, we need to go back up in the next week, because Cameron left something of Spencer's there. I think he did that on purpose so we would have to go again.

Life is good!

Wait!!! Don't leave!

You are in the right place. I got a little board with the other template and so I did a little rearranging around here. What do you think?

Funny for Today

I saw this today on my travels around the internet. It made me laugh so I thought I'd share it here. I think I may try the last one tonight at supper.

Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit in Your Parked Car with Sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.

6. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds"

7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."

10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

14. Put Mosquito Netting around Your Work Area and Play tropical Sounds All Day.

17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won! I Won!"

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot yelling "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."

Last week's field trip

Last week I went along with Matt's grade 10 science class to the Toronto Zoo. They needed some parent volunteers. It was the easiest field trip I've ever done as the kids all did their own thing. Matthew wasn't thrilled with having me there, but he did spend some time with me in the afternoon. It's when I see Matt with his peer group that I really see how his disorder has affected him (both good and bad.) He tried to talk to his peers, but it was very awkward. He said that he wanted to hang out with his "friend" and pointed to another boy, but then couldn't say what his name was. While he was on the bus, he would try to join in on conversations, but it was like he was on a different planet. He didn't know how to talk about the things that his peers were talking about. In his attempt to fit in, he says things that are out of place, or too familiar to the person he's talking to, and it just doesn't work. On the possitive side, he's not talking about girls and parties and doing things just to be cool. He's still very naive and innocent in things of the 16 year old world. There's so much that falls outside of his comprehension which facinates me considering just how smart he is. While all the boys his age were trying to impress girls, goofing off, purposely disobeying rules to be cool, he was doing the assignment, reading the information boards, and really examining the animals around him.


It was a great day as I just walked around with my camera and snapped a bunch of pictures. I had my zoom lens on the camera so I was able to take some great pictures.