What?????

OK. With all due respect to my wonderful Sister-in-law and brother, and nephews, this is why most of the world finds Americans so arogant.

Yesterday I took Matt out to shop for some desparately needed new clothes. After a successful trip we started heading out of the mall to the van. Matt was walking a little ahead of me with his bags. He wasn't doing anything overly inappropriate (although I couldn't see him from the front.) As I got to the doors (Matt had already passed through them) I noticeds a group of 4 kids (maybe around 13) sitting on the floor laughing and making comments... obviously about Matt. As I continued to walk, I made eye contact with them and they stopped. I noticed there was a mother with them, who I also made eye contact with. As the door shut behind me there was a huge burst of laughter that came from the group. The thing that struck me the most is that the adult in the situation did nothing to stop their behaviour.

Before you think I'm over-reacting, I've had this happen many times over the past years. I remember one time when we were watching one of the boys playing hockey, there were two boys who started making fun of each hockey player on the ice as they passed by. The father who was sitting with them said nothing. After a few minutes of listening to this, I glared at the boys and the father. Then he started telling them to be quiet.

It's bad enough that kids (and I'm talking about older kids who should know better) will treat others with this kind of disregard, but then the adults don't step in and put a stop to it. It's no wonder that there are so many mean kids in this world. As a mother of a boy who has been on the receiving end of these kids all his life, I'm getting a little fed up with it. I'm the one who has to do the damage control and try and mend the wounds that will always leave a scar. My son deserves more than being treated like that.

Every so often when we're out shopping, a book catches out eye and we have to buy it. Our boys love reading books that contain trivia and other useless bits of information (well, maybe they aren't all useless!) A few months ago we found such a book and had to pick it up. It's from the Uncle John's Bathroom Reader series (yes, that's right!) It is the Extraordinary Book of Facts and Bizarre Information . Well, since we bought it, it has travelled from person to person and has been the source of a great wealth of information - some funny, some gross (which are usually the best in our house.)

I found this page called "Blame Canada"
Canada has the larges national coastline in the world - 151,400 miles.
More than 50 percent of all the lakes in the world are in Canada. (wow! That's a lot of cottage country!)
36 percent of the Great Lakes lie in Canada.
40% of the worls'd newspapers are printed on paper that come from Canada (not sure this is something to be proud of!)
Per capita Canadians buy more diamonds than anyone else in the world. (really??)
Per capita, the cities of Winnipeg and Calgary drink the most slurpees in the world (I wonder how much that useless study cost?)
Canada has more doughnut shops per capita than any other country (yeah, and your point is....?)
Canadian citizens consume more Kraft Mac and Cheese than any other nation. (O.K. That's just gross!)

Getting my mojo back

I didn't do a lot of scrapping during the summer. There was too many other things to do. Then, in September I spent the time getting ready for my week away. During our scrapping week, I only ended up getting 21 layouts done which was way less then I thought I'd do.

Now that I'm back into a routine, I seem to have found my mojo. Yay! It's about time. This past week I've been back to scrapping at home again ... which is a good thing. Now, the key is to keep up the momentum because I'm sooooo behind. That may be difficult to do because I want to also start getting the rest of the house painted again.

Here are some of my latest layouts. It feels so good to be able to post some layouts.

This is pictures of Cathy, Mom and I and with my brother Ricky at my nephew Jason's wedding. Rick has Down's Syndrome. He looked so handsome all dressed up. He loved all the attention!

Odd pictures from Jason's wedding. This was an inspired layout from one in the Scrapbook Trends magazine, June 2007 edition.


OK, so this is a total scraplift from the Scrap Trends magazine too. I really love this magazine. I just wish it was more affordable so I could pick it up when it comes out.

On Saturday Barb came to town. I met Barb through an online scrapbooking board. Over the past couple of years we've got to know each other a little through the on-line chat, emails, and following each other's blogs. I felt a connection with Barb long before Saturday because we are both walking the same road (a road that can be very tiring and tedeous at times.) Barb has a son who has Asperger's Sydrome which is on the autism spectrum. Asperger's Sydrome and Nonverbal Learning Disorder are very similar syndromes and both deal with the same type of issues.

I'm very fortunate to have a great, supportive family who understands Matthew and the disorder that he deals with everyday. I also have wonderful friends who are very non-judgmental, and let me talk on and on when I need to. ...but it's rare when I actually get to sit and talk with someone who truely understands the road. It was so nice to share with someone who really knows what it's like.

Barb is such a wonderful lady who is a fantastic mother. We had a wonderful time together, but it was way too short. When I dropped her off at the convention that she was attending I felt like we'd just been together for 5 minutes instead of 4 hours. I only hope she wasn't too exhausted from all the talking we did about our sons and that she was able to enjoy the reason for coming to town in the first place ... meeting Nic!

On Thanksgiving we took the boys up to the Cheltenham Badlands. Cathy took us there last year but since Cameron wasn't with us, we decided to go back to show him. Who knew that something like this existed in Ontario? Not me!

I found this on The Greenbelt

Looking distinctly like Martian topography, the Cheltenam Badlands are a bizarre geographical spectacle that lie hidden in the Caledon Hills. "Badlands" is a geological term for an area of soft rock devoid of vegetation and soil cover that has become molded over time into softly undulating hills and gullies. The reddish hue of the Queenston Shale is caused by iron oxide, while narrow greenish bands show where circulating groundwater has transformed the rock from red to green iron oxide. This distinctive geological phenomena is extremely rare in Ontario, and the Cheltenham Badlands are one of the best examples in the province.

It's an amazing place to see. Unfortunately, there isn't much there to control the tourists from climbing all over the hills. We didn't see any signs there telling us to stay off the hills. We, and everyone else, were climbing all over them. Apparently you're not supposed to, according to some reading I did on the internet. Well, at least we'll know for next year.

September Photo Challenge

Stephen issued a September photo challenge on harvest. Well, even though he hasn't put his photo up, here's mine. It was taken in Tennessee. Many of the stores and businesses had big elaborate displays out in front.



Now where's your's Stephen?

Wow! What an awesome trip!

The trip to Tennessee was amazing. There were 15 of us in that 7 bedroom cabin that you see below and there was so much room. We all had a blast. I've never been to that part of the US before and so I didn't really know what to expect. I was so surprised by the beauty and the amount of stuff to do there. We spent less time scrapbooking this year and more time just relaxing, shopping, and touring around.

This is our cabin from the front.


and from the back


The girls were all great and we all had so much fun together. We seemed to create a scene no matter where we went ... even shopping!



Deb and Darlene saw these scarecrow guys in the front of a store and found a lot of humour in the way they looked from behind so they had to join in.



We did manage to get some scrapping done ... inbetween everything else.


Now that I'm back home, and back into the routine, I'm really wishing I was back there.