salad social

On Saturday April 17th I hosted a salad social at my house for some Lady-Friends! I got the idea for a WM Event many years ago... and it went over well. We all brought a salad and filled our plates with them as our dinner! We had all made such large salads we all went home with half of our bowls for our families! We visited and played Scattergories and then the Lemon Layer Cake I made, I topped with birthday candles in honor of Korinne who was celebrating her birthday soon after! She was certainly surprised...It was a great evening!

cinnamon

I have this bear here and his name is Cinnamon. I received him as a Christmas Gift from my brother, Matt, when I was a teenager. I had really wanted a big teddy bear and so Matt fulfilled that wish! Thanks!!

This is going back to February - when Gabi learnt that this was Momma's Bear, during a week period she kept bringing Cinnamon to me. I don't recall what she would say, but it was something along the lines of "here Mommy, here's your bear". It was just so cute!She's not much bigger than Cinnamon!

sick, sick, sick

School was back in session too soon this month! It was sooo hard to get back into the groove quickly on the Fourth of January! But we managed.

One week later Elijah's class went skating for 50minutes. I had the privelege of joining him there to help tie skates...etc. I ended up getting some skates myself and getting out on the ice with him - since this is all new to him. He was able to use this bar thing the whole time, but even with it, he wasn't able to motor too quickly. I got behind him and then we got motoring. It was quite fun!

Since I am doing some posts here to more or less get the blog updated, I may as well mention that Elijah missed this whole past week of school. He started out with some spots on his cheek and around his mouth that I was unsure of and so was the Doctor at the Walk-in Clinic I took him too on Friday (Jan 22) - by Monday Elijah's ear hurt soooo bad, but the spots had mainly faded on his face - I took him to our Family Doctor. He called it a 'staff infection?" I think - and that was caused by his runny nose... never seen anything like it! His ear was actually discharging liquid - and by the next day at one point his ear was discharging green snot like mucous. It was unreal. He had to keep using a tissue to wipe his ear, not his nose! We got him some antibiotics (even though we are otherwise against them), a saline flusher thing for his nose and ear, and eardrops. After five days missing from Class, I sent him back on Friday (29th). Poor guy.

Samuel started all this sickness in a different form on Tuesday (19th) - which ended up being Strep Throat in combination with scarlet fever! Yikes! And not to mention myself - I ended up heading into the Clinic too for some meds for my painfully sore throat - which I'm calling strep throat even though we didn't do a swab for it. Sick, sick, sick. Everyone seems on the mend now!

nativity set

I was reading back to last year's posts from around this time of year, and just love reading the 'journal' of how things went! Something I haven't posted this year is about Alexa and my trip down South again for Black Friday weekend! She took some pictures, so I should get them from her!
We had a blast and shopped even longer this time around!

One thing I picked up from Toys R Us, was this PlayMobil Nativity Set for the kids. I have always wanted one that they can play with safely and usually had my eye on the Little People Set - but when we spotted this one for $20, I got it once and for all.
I gave it to the kids on Monday evening - I thought I would work it into a daily "advent" countdown thing, but I didn't get to it --- and the countdown begins (or continues I guess) - only 8 days until Christmas!

italian food

Pamela, a good friend from High School, is home for a quick visit from her other "home" in East Asia where she is a Missionary! So us 5 Girls got together for dinner and gab session...Left to Right: Miriam, me, Alexa, Anita and Pamela

snail mail

The contest mentioned in the post below is now closed; I didn't win the large dandelion but I did get a confirmation email saying my 2 caterpillars (one in tangerine and one in ocean blue) are in the mail! Sweet!
Can't wait...
now it will be my goal to have my "happiness" wall rub-on up before these caterpillars arrive! I'll show you once I do! (part of a gift from Alexa for my birthday!) Thanks so much!)

A big Thank You goes out to lifelong friends of mine, Laurie and Jamie - thank you girls for surprising me with a package in the mail for my birthday! Here's what they blessed me with - it was like I won a prize!

Thank You Jason

Well, today is my birthday. Jason is in Montreal for the week, but all is good! On the weekend we had the privilege of hosting Jason's Sister, Suzan... and hosting a Family Dinner complete with guests: Lorraine (Jason's sister), Tim (Lorraine's boyfriend), Michael (Jason's nephew) and Kylie, Grandpa George (Jason's Cousin - who is also our kids' Honorary Grandparents), Grandma Micheline and Meme Lilian (Jason's Aunt). I had a turkey in my freezer that needed to be cooked one of these days and so I suggested we have it for this large Family Dinner. Thanks to Suzan who took over and got that huge and amazing meal taken care of! It was delicious and great to visit with Family!
Here is Aunt Lorraine, Elijah and Grandma Micheline:Jason surprised me with a cake and the biggest (most expensive) gift ever! Something I have wanted for a long time...(no, I didn't win this from one of the giveaways I enter! LOL - we are joking that Jason spent a pretty penny on me; but we are catching up on all the spending he does/done - which will never get anywhere close even with the accessories I can ask for for many birthdays and Christmases to come!)
And Lorraine brought a dozen roses for me - I am soooo excited about my camera. I took it to the lake on Sunday and will do a post on that once I figure out why the SD card I had in that camera says it needs to be formated... I just want my pictures off of it first (any ideas?)... I'd like to take a photography class eventually now too!
Happy Birthday to me... it was a great day. I enjoyed my kids probably more today than I typically do (that sounds bad; I love my kids to death but today was just a little bit different yet) - we did a little shopping for one of my brothers, storytime at the Library, street hockey outside, DQ for supper... it was a lovely day!
Thanks for all the FB birthday wishes Family and Friends! And thanks Jason for this wonderful gift! I love it!

Date

On Friday it was high time I got to take Elijah on a date. Anita, a friend of mine, once heard to plan monthly (or how ever often you want to do it in the year) dates for each of your children on their birth-date day... get it? Like IF Elijah was born on 25th (he wasn't), then I would (could/should) plan to reserve the 25th or as close to that date as possible each month for him and I (or alternate between Jason and him) to go on a date together. I thought that was a pretty cool idea! This date didn't happen to be anywhere close to the date of his birthday, but it was a special date none-the-less! With that idea, the more kids you have though the more often you are going on dates if you did it monthly... might then be considered to be 1 date/month alternating between kids. ANYWAY-
do you have dates with your kids? If so, tell me about it! When, why, how, what????
I know a Family {that did and probably still does since they are still having kids (12 kids so far) }- where the Dad takes the child out for breakfast on his/her birthday to a restaurant of their choice. I thought that was a cool idea too!

Elijah and I went to White Spot - we never go to real restaurants with the kids... but one on one we(I) can manage and enjoy! So White Spot it was, with a cool Pirate Pack and a milkshake - lucky bum! I brought books along that we read together... it was nice! We then went to HOJ to find a gift for a birthday party he is going to this coming weekend.

Music Box

On the way to the Gym this morning, the song I am so familiar with from a local Christian Radio station, sounded a little different to me today as I sang along.

The song is by Chris Tomlin "I Will Rise" and here are the lyrics:

There's a peace I've come to know
Though my heart and flesh may fail
There's an anchor for my soul
I can say "It is well"

Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead

[Chorus:]
And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise

There's a day that's drawing near
When this darkness breaks to light
And the shadows disappear
And my faith shall be my eyes

Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead

[Chorus:]
And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,
"Worthy is the Lamb"
And I hear the cry of every longing heart,
"Worthy is the Lamb"
[x2]

[Chorus:]
And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise

With my Grandpa being called by name by our Father two days ago - this song just rings a little new tune in me and the words become so real. Take a listen:Oh, how will it be to hear the voice of many angels sing, Worthy is the Lamb! Sometimes it's inconceivable to realize I know someone who has now met Jesus and experienced what we were born for, what we are to long for...this is last September when we were there for my Grandma's Memorial Service.

We will be headed to Gibsons next week for the Celebration of his Life. Elijah is quite excited to go to Gibsons again - we all are, though as I said before it is a weird thought for me to think that this is our "last" trip to Gibsons for the sake of visiting my Grandparent's.
Anyway, Elijah has asked if "old Grandpa" (that's what we called them when we went to visit both my Grandparent's in May 2008) will be in a Music Box like Old Grandma was (music box is the casket). I'm not sure where the "music box" idea came from while at the viewing of my Grandma... but you know, it could be a great description of a coffin - Music Box - where our body lies while we are making music with the Heavenly Hosts. (I'm not an analytical thinker, so someone might have a better idea of I could have said, but for me, this will do!)
Be encouraged!

Edit: My Mom told me today that it was actually Sammy that had the conversation about "old Grandma" in the Music Box last August when we were there to view my Grandma... Sammy wanted to keep going up to look at her with my Mom... regardless the "music box" idea stuck with Elijah from hearing Sammy talk about it I guess, because we don't believe Elijah actually went up to see "old Grandma" in the casket...
For Old Grandpa's service, apparently there won't be a viewing at all but the boys have been told by my Mom that Old Grandpa will be in a flower pot instead... Elijah of course is quite interested in how Old Grandpa fits into the flower pot and has now learned about cremation.

goodbye Grandpa

This morning my dear Grandpa was called Home. I haven't quite collected all my thoughts - but it is weird to think now both of my Grandparent's are not with us on earth but in Heaven where I'll meet them again - which is the HOPE we have in Him. :) This photo is from a year ago, May, when we went over for the day to visit my Grandparent's! (I think I have more to say, but not now...)

second blog

Last weekend I found a Photo Challenge (as I wrote below for the Round Robin Challenge) from someone's blog... which led to quite a few people coming to my blog to see the challenge I participated in... which then led me to make a new blog for such challenges! (to keep my not-so-private blog a bit more "private" still by not having the entire world and their dogs visiting here)

Photography has always been an interest of mine... and although I have just a basic camera, someday I'll get something bigger and better to experiment with.
Here's my other blog: Phun With Photography

a date with Samuel

On Sunday (yesterday) Elijah went to a birthday party for a girl in his class (the whole class was invited!) and so at that time Jason stayed home with Gabi who had a nap and I took Sammy with me for a date! We were in the area of a beautiful park I've wanted to go to for awhile, so we headed up the mountain first (and it was a dry weekend so we did enjoy time outside!) - you can see the sky above is blue with few clouds and then the lookout is where the clouds are collecting before they make their travel overtop of the mountains.cool piano, hey?!Sammy just soaked up the time he and I had together! We played for over an hour at the park and then headed for an ice cream cone at Walmart McD's and browsed around there for a bit... it was fun!

The Excalibur

So I will do a few posts on the different days of our vacation in Vegas.
We are very grateful for our week away - Thank You Dad, Mom, Matt, Paul and Carla for making that possible for us!So Jason's plane arrived in Vegas at 8:30pm and was only theoretically supposed to wait an hour or so for my flight to arrive... when in reality my flight was over 3 hours delayed, so I wasn't even in the air until 10:50pm. Jason grabbed a cab and checked into our hotel room... and then he went to a Walgreen's on the Strip to grab us some snacks and water... and then he walked back to the airport at 12:30am to "pick me up"... that was so sweet. I thought I was going to grab a cab on my own to the hotel... it was a 50 minute walk to the airport from our hotel which is pretty close to the airport. Everything seems close in Vegas but in reality takes a long time to walk from here to there!
We were in Tower 1 on the 26th floor with our room overlooking part of the Strip and the airport:The Strip in Vegas is jampacked with hotels - gorgeous, expensive 5* hotels, theme hotels, old hotels, even a Travelodge was on the strip... we stayed at the Excalibur... which was kinda a medieval theme/castle. It was great. At $41/night you can't beat that! (rooms in other hotels were as low as $20-25 a night!) We were quite happy with our accommodations and pool area. There were 4 pools and 3 hottubs that we noticed.As you can see, our hotel offered some different shows - which Vegas is all about going to shows, gambling, eating and drinking. We didn't go to the Thunder Show that our hotel boasts of, as you can see... LOL. Nor did we partake in any of the other sensual shows that you might know that Vegas has. But I am happy to say we did go to a world class show!

Monday and Tuesday - The LV Way

On Monday we started our day in the hottub. It was a very windy day with clear skies! On our walk to the pool area (I tell you everything is a good walk... they want you walking through the casino everywhere you go in hopes that you'll gamble on your journey) we were approached by Timeshare representatives to go to their gig in exchange for free things! Well... we agreed b/c this is what we got out of it: we paid $50usd and got lunch, 2 tickets to Tournament of the Kings (a Dinner Theatre show at our hotel) (tickets for that go for $60each or so) plus they gave us vouchers for $75 worth of food/gambling credit in our hotel. We chose $50 of food and $25 play money... not too shabby of a deal for going to the presentation. The Timeshare dude was a black guy named Demetrius Lynch (I think his last name was Lynch, but not certain) - does anyone recognize that name? (Bryan???) He played for the BC Lions for a bit - so that was a neat "connection"...
The rest of the day was spent going by bus to an Albertson's (grocery store) to get ourselves some fruit, breakfast foods and Smirnoff Ice and Mike's cases for WAY cheaper!! (for example: on Friday 5 guys in the hottub each bought a drink from the pool bar which cost them $9 each. Teeny drinks that looked to be OJ with whip cream on top, LOL... Jason made a point of saying to them that my flight down there was cheaper than that round of 'slushies' they just bought!)

Tuesday we started the day in the pool/hottub again on a much less windy (windless) day... and then we headed out for the day. We went to get a PowerPass (like a City Pass) that would be good for 2 days for us to get into a # of different things in town. We've been to Vegas twice before... though we didn't really know about all the things we did this time around. It was nice to be able to do so many things with a million more things we could do next time.
We walked to Caesar's Palace to get these passes... man, it took us forever to get there though! This is The Forum Shops in Caesar's... quite the mall hey?!We had to validate our passes at Planet Hollywood and were presented right away with a $20 credit to use... which is why I have that pink PH shirt!

We hung out, people watched, walked and went to the World Famous Popovich Pet Comedy Theatre Show. It was pretty cute and funny!

And like I mentioned we went up the Eiffel Tower:it was my goal before we left for Jason and I to take 5 pictures together every day... I don't think we made that quota, but we did get lots togetherThen after we had dinner, we took The Deuce (double decker bus that goes up and down the Strip) to the Stratosphere. (click the name for info about it and a picture of it since I didn't get one)
There is an observation deck indoors with couches and windows circling the tower. The signs say "don't lean on glass" - can you imagine?! Yikes! Here is Jason looking kinda over and down, inside through the glass - There are 3 rides outside on top of this tower... not for me! Here is one that accelerates down and jerks to a stop facing you down the Strip...After we finished the going to the top, we bought Jason a iMassager thing that is the size of an iPod and with that sale we each had an Aqua Massage. It was neat and nice to relax on a massage table.

What a GREAT day! What a GREAT vacation! :)

Wednesday - part 1

Time was going very slow for us for which we were very thankful. We were able to see and do lots without feeling like we didn't have enough time!
Speaking of time - something you will not find is a clock in the hotel shops and casinos! Vegas is a 24-7 town which is really fun! Even more fun if you are partier and night owl!
We began our day as usual, in the sun and hottub... and then made our way over to The Mirage. A beautiful hotel (most of them are) with beautiful gardens inside (nothing grows in Vegas... nothing can grow in Vegas; it is a dessert. Thankfully they make it beautiful with palm trees and teeny bits of grass here and there - the palm trees are delivered from California! I'm not sure how they keep them 'alive' but I would assume they are a low-maintence, low-water kinda tree).
This is outside The Mirage - this hotel usually has a volcano "show" but it wasn't running while we were there.We were headed to The Mirage to enter the Siegfried & Roy Secret Gardens which I talked about in an earlier post. (click the link and then click the photo tour and video to see more)This was a neat place to go to- with the dolphins that are there. I'm not sure why they have dolphins there but they do. They didn't do any shows but if a trainer was working with them by chance you'd get to see them do some things. Which we were there at the right time. We literally sat feet away with no glass in front of us watching these dolphins - the most beautful, happy creatures - don't you just love how a dolphin always looks like it's smiling due to the way the mouth crease works?! I love it! I know I posted this exact picture before, but I'll post it again... know that I wasn't really zoomed in much either!After the dolphins, we saw a small area that was kinda like a very upscale zoo - with Llamas (they weren't Llamas actually but I can't remember what they were called), 2 white Asian Lions that were gorgeous --> this picture isn't great at all but I'll post it to give you an idea -...some leopards, black panther and this baby Leopard (I think) named Java. He was behind glass with a "trainer" playing with him. Java is only 3 months old. So adorable.

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

We went here and had fun taking pictures with these stars... do you know who they all are?this wedding dress isn't very flattering, but thankfully I'm just pretending to marry George! I thought it was a fun prop... which all the props and statues we were encouraged to touch!

I forgot to say after this we went on the Deuce to Freemont Street (old part of the Strip) and went to a movie that was part of our Power Pass. We saw Mall Cop. Kinda cute! Out of an 11-cinema theatre, we were probably the only people in the place! Crazy!
We didn't do nearly the amount of things we could do from the Power Pass, but enough to justify the cost. One big thing we could have done was a Hoover Dam Tour. We've been there before so it wasn't urgent and then $6pp Gas Surcharge above and beyond the pass price wasn't too appealing either!

Well, on Thursday we got "roped" into (not roped at all, we saw a value and went for it) another timeshare presentation! Who can pass up (if you know you are strong enough to say NO to the Timeshare!) going to see a World Class Show like the Cirque du Soleil for $40usd???!!! Not us! We didn't get a world class respresentative and thought the whole thing was extremely cheesy in their 'ra-ra' presentation, but whatever! We had fun laughing at it and more fun going to the show that night! Oh, PLUS, there was another couple that only had to pay $20 for their tickets to Ka... so we also jimmied $20 back! Sweetness!
Here we are by the Ka Store in the MGM Grand Hotel when we booked our tickets after the Timeshare presentation - having fun!
We spent part of the afternoon back at the pool and then got dressed up for one of our two shows that evening.
First was Tournament of the Kings - it is in an Arena with actors that were King Arthur, the Prince, King's Men with jousting, sword fighting on horses and of course Maidens. It was really fun! They get the crowd to get into it with different things to say and a certain King's Man to cheer for... it was really cool! They first served us tomato soup in a French Onion soup bowl thing (no utensils) and then this was the dinner to eat with your fingers:(I had to sneak these pictures at the Tournament of Kings...)
Then we had a couple hours to walk to the MGM Grand Hotel, people watch and hang out before our Cirque du Soleil show began at 9:30pm. What a great performance! It was sooo fun to be able to go to something of this calibur. :) (click the link to see a video-ad of the performance)
Awesome day!