Happy Halloween

This is the first time that neither John or I have accompanied the boys (or this year, the boy) out for trick-or-treating. Boy, does that feel weird. On top of that, we have two teenagers who are more than happy to shell out for us ... that may have more to do with the fact that they get to eat from the treat bowl when they are shelling out.

It seems like just yesterday when I would make the boys' costumes and take them around. Those days are now long gone.

I told Barb that I would post my pictures from a Halloween 11 years ago. We were living in Barbados at the time. Halloween wasn't celebrated there, but the Canadians would get together to have a halloween party for the kids. My boys were into Star Wars in a big way. Matt wanted to be Darth Vader and Spencer wanted to be Luke Skywalker. Cameron got to be an ewok (since he was only a year old!) There were no store-bought costumes there so, we had to make them.

Some food for thought

I saw this posted on another blog this morning and had to share it here.

The following was written by Ben Stein
and recited by him on CBS SundayMorning

I am Jewish, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it doesnot bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.. I don't feel threatened. I don't feeldiscriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. Idon't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisterscelebrating this happy time of year.

It doesn't bother me at all that thereis a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is theMenorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.

I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (Regarding Hurricane Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?' In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.

I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her bodyfound a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?
My Best Regards,
Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein

Great Wolf Lodge

Wow! What a great place. I was expecting something great, but it really surpassed my expectations.

The hotel was so cool and all done in a lodge theme. The lobby was filled with animated animals, and trees that talked to the kids. Every night, the kids (smaller ones of course) show up in front of a giant talking tree in their pajamas to hear a bedtime story.

When you check in everyone gets one of those plastic wristbands to wear, but the coolest thing is that there is a computer chip in each one. It unlocks your hotel room door, locks and unlocks your locker in the waterpark, and you can electronically put money onto it which you can use at the restaurants and arcades to pay. It was really cool.

The indoor water park was huge and there were lots for 4 twelve year old boys to do. They spent the whole time going from slide to slide, riding the lazy river (which is never really lazy!) and playing in the wave pool. John even managed to drag me on a waterslide. He told me that I had to ride this certain ride, which had conveyor belts that would shoot you up and over hills very fast. (It really was a great slide!)

The boys had a fantastic time. They had to be dragged out of the waterpark on Saturday when it was time to head home.

Sharing some recent work

Where did the week go? Can you believe that Friday is here again?

Both Matt and Spencer attended some post-secondary school sessions this week. Matt went to four different sessions, and Spencer went to five. We have a lot of reading to do over the next couple of weeks to help Matt sort through some of the information. Wish us luck! Hopefully he will be able to start making some decisions. Fortunately we still have another year before going through this with Spencer (although I think Spencer already has a good idea of where he wants to go and for what.)

Have I ever mentioned how much I like working with sketches LOL! I really enjoyed doing the Sketch 201 class with Valerie Salmon at Gotsketch. She now has another one going. It's not really a class per se. Every week she emails us a project sheet and sketch. I'm behind by a couple of sketches, but this week I managed to get this one done using her second sketch:

These pictures are from Matt's birthday celebration when we went to Niagara Falls.

We're off shortly to go to Great Wolf Lodge for the night with Cameron and three of his friends for his birthday celebration. He has been counting down the days for a few weeks. The last couple of days he started counting down the hours. So cute! I will be taking lots of pictures!

Check this out!

Every year I have made calendars for Christmas presents for both my mom and John's mom. Last year I ran out of steam and decided not to make any. Yesterday these arrived at the Scrapbook store while I was there! How cool are these?????

The kit is made by Basic Grey. The pages are preprinted. In the kit are all the embellishments to finish off each page.

We are going to have some very happy grandmothers at Christmas time!

Things on my mind

So much for my promise to blog more often! Sheesh! Life has a way of getting in the way sometimes.

So, here are a few things on my plate, and on my mind:

-as I posted, Cameron got into the Halton Junior Jazz Band. He also got into the newly formed Divisional Young People's Band. That means he has a lot of practising to do ... fortunately there are four of us in the house who can help him practise. I worked with him tonight and my boy really surprised me with his playing. Wow!
-Cameron had a retreat for the DYPB band this past weekend. He had a blast, and I got some visiting and some scrapping in. We put our trailer into hibernation for the winter ... very sad!!
-Matt had had some anxiety issues during the last month and a half. For the most part, he's been able to manage it. He's been much better the last couple of weeks, but I have seen some glimpses of it in the past few days.
-There have been some university and college fairs at school, as well as some post secondary planning meetings. Matt still doesn't know where he wants to go or what he wants to do. I hope he's able to figure it out soon. I'm not looking forward to the next few months with applying to schools and anxiety (both his and mine).
-Spencer seems to be able to coast along without a lot of effort. Why is life so easy for some, and so difficult for others?
-We are celebrating Cameron's 12th birthday this weekend. Instead of spending a lot of money on taking 12 kids to someplace like laserplanet (again) we are taking him, and three of his best friends to Great Wolf Lodge. We'll stay over on the Friday night. The boys get to play in the indoor waterpark Friday night and all day Saturday. It should be a ton of fun!
-We have another busy weekend ahead. On top of Cam's party, either John or I will have to leave Niagara Falls early, run home, grab Spencer, and take him out to Oshawa for a practise and a concert. ...a lot of running around ... oh joy!
-I ran into an old friend today. It's been a long time since we've chatted. She's going to start coming out to scrapbook on Tuesdays. Yay!
-we have found our place for our next girls' scrapping vacation. We found a fantastic place in Maine! Now I have a whole year to wait.
-I managed to squeeze some scrapping time in this weekend ... at the trailer, and on Sunday afternoon. I've got some scanning and uploading to do.

Caution: Bragging Ahead

Cameron made it into the Halton Junior Jazz Band!

Some of you may remember that Spencer was in this group when he was in grade 7 and 8. This is an audition band for grade 7 and 8 students in the Halton District School Board. Only 20 students make it in. They play advanced music, and go on school tours, as well as perform at various events around Halton.

He was so excited when I picked him up and told me that he made it. He just kept saying "I can't believe I made it!" I wish I had a camera to capture the look on his face. It really was priceless!

Way to go, buddy! We are so proud of you. Enjoy the ride.

The boring, the mundane, but good!

I'm always in awe of some of my blogging friend's (ahem, Barb) who blog regularly. Not because they are able to make the time, but because they have stuff to be able to blog about ...even if it's about every day stuff ...and it's a fun read. I always feel that my life is boring and that most of the it isn't worth sharing. Let's face it, I'm a stay at home mom. There's not a lot of excitment in that. (now don't get me wrong, I love being a stay at home mom, and I love it when times are boring ... because when you have a special needs child, that equals good!)

...but, this is my blog after all. It's about what I want to write about, the boring and the mundane. So, with that realization, I'm going to fight the "is this blog worthy?" thought process that goes on inside my head, and just blog, and blog more often.

I have a busy weekend ahead of me. If you know me, you know how much I hate being busy. It's not that I'm lazy, I just function much better when I exist in a slower pace. I don't do well with time pressures. Well, John leaves tomorrow for 5 days, and that means that I will be running around all weekend. Tonight we will be heading up to camp. Cameron has to be there for a band retreat and so Matt, Spencer and I will just stay over in the trailer (and freeze our butt off as I hear it will be a chilly night ... YIKES!) Cameron won't be finished until about 4 tomorrow afternoon, so that gives me time to pack up the trailer and close it down for the winter. Sunday we will have Church in the morning, run back to Oakville to get homework done, and then back into Toronto for 6:30 for Spencer's band practise.

I was hoping to participate in an on-line crop this weekend, but I don't think I will have time to get anything done.

OK, time to share some recent work:

The Wedding

I love weddings ... especially when they are family weddings.

Last weekend, we went to John's neice's wedding. Lisa and Doug got married at Hockley Valley up in Orangeville. It was a beautiful setting, on a beautiful day, during the most beautiful time of the year.

It was a little surreal to watch Lisa marry the man of her dreams. Almost 21 years ago she was our little flower girl.

It was a great day. We had such a blast. ...even the boys had fun. Matt surprised me in how engaged he was socially. He enjoyed chatting with his cousin during the reception and even got up and danced a couple of times!!! At the end of the night we had to drag him away. That doesn't happen very often!

The picture in my new header was taken at the wedding. Aren't my boys handsome? My boys have become fine young men before my eyes!

Last night the DY(Divisional Youth Band) was on duty at the Salvation Army Congress in Toronto. I would have loved to attend the weekend-long event, but it coincides with a family wedding that will take us out of town today and tomorrw. So, I dropped Spencer off at the convention centre last night and then went up to the Eaton's Centre (as I had a few things that I needed to get for the wedding - such as clothes for my boys to wear, gifts, etc.).

After picking up what I needed I went to the food court to get something to eat. I was sitting in my own little worlds watching the people around me. (I love to people watch!) I started to think about all the things that must have transpired in each person's life to bring us all together in the same room and cross paths like that. (weird, I know ... I think of stuff like that all the time.)

As I was lost in my thoughts, a woman came along. She was older, Chinese, and spoke with a strong accent. She asked if she could talk to me for a minute. I was taken off guard, but I agreed. She sat down and started rambling about how the Canadian Government has mistreated her. They took her boys from her and forced her to live with her abusive husband. As she talked on and on, her story got very strange to the point where she was telling me that the police tell her that she must obey her husband if she wants to ever see her children again, that her husband knocked out her teeth (although at one point she told me that someone forced her to have them removed), the police made her go to the dentist where he drilled two holes in each side of her mouth and had microphones or something put in, and that the government is watching her all the time trough cameras all over the city and satelites. Although I'm not a pshyciatrist, I'm sure she has schizophrenia. After listening to her for about 10 minutes, I politely excused myself. As I left she asked me to tell all my friends her story as it would be the only way for her to get help.

She has no idea how true those words are. I felt really sorry for her and am very aware that the help she needs she won't get. (due to the cutbacks in our health system, people like this will fall through the cracks ... unless she has family who will advocate for her.) It is only through people talking about her, and people like her, and forcing the issues with our politicians that change will occur. It's all to easy to call her crazy and not worthy of our attention.

Crossing paths with her yesterday really made an impact on me ... even to the point where I layed awake last night thinking about her, and people like her. It's pretty ironic that as I sat lost in thought thinking about how we were all crossing paths, that she crossed mine. I know that my life will go on as usual, but for a brief moment she touched mine, and made an impact. I promised her that I would tell everyone her story and I've kept that promise.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We're off today to the trailer. We need to get it ready for closing. I'm going to love being there today as I know it will be very quiet and peaceful. From there we'll head to the wedding, and then to my sister's for Thanksgiving on Monday.

It will be a weekend filled with our families. What better way to spend a weekend!

I'm back from a fantastic week in Virginia Beach with the girls. Wow! We had a fantastic time! I had every intention of blogging throughout the week, but I just couldn't seem to tear myself away from all the other things there was to do. So, that leaves me with this post, and the Reader's Digest version of the week.

The house was right on the beach (as shown in the previous post). It was huge!! There was so much room. We were a little worried about having a space big enough for 18 of us to set up all our scrapping stuff in one room, but we had tons of room! So, everyone set up there stuff and worked whenever we were back at the house ... mostly in the evenings.

Our days were filled with shopping, shopping, and more shopping. We also spent some time walking on the boardwalk, sitting and walking on the beach, and watching the dolphins.

There were so many dolphins. We were all in complete awe. Each morning and each evening we would stand out on the deck, overlooking the ocean, and watch the dolphins swim by. There were sooooo many of them. It was so cool to just watch them swim, feed, and jump and play in the surf. It was amazing. They say that that area of the US East Coast is the dolphin Disneyland, and now I know why.

I got quite a bit of scrapping done ... not as much as I had hoped, but enough that I was happy with what I accomplished. I finished 24 layouts (alot of which are duplicates). I'll try and scan some of these layouts to share.

I even had a nice bonus dinner while I was there. My brother, David, who lives in Fairfax, Virginia, had to come to Virginia Beach for business. So Tuesday night he and I went out to dinner and spent some time catching up. We went to a very cool steak restaurant where they bring you the raw meat, and you go into a room where there is a huge charcoal grill and you stand around and cook your steak along with a lot of other people. Anyway, it was so nice spending the evening with David. It really was the icing on the cake for me. (he even came into the house and met everyone ... I'm sure he was in a little shock at seeing the cropping room LOL)

Here are a few pictures from the week. The dolpin pictures were from a boat trip that we took out, although we certainly saw enough of them in front of our place that we didn't need to go on a dolphin watch trip.

This was one of the vehicles as they arrived ... before shopping.





Some of the ladies standing on the deck watching the dolphins playing in the water.