Happy New Year!

I for one am not too sad to say good-bye to this decade. It has been filled with some wonderful experiences (getting married, having Bennett, etc) but it has also had some very difficult, life altering, hard to get up in the morning moments.

For the next year and next decade I am going to try and take some advice from Bennett and William W. Purkey who said:

"You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth."

I hope you'll try too.

Oh, how Bennett loved those belly dancers....

Well....

...it has been awhile. Like most people, we've been busy with life. My one and only New Year's resolution is more blogging.

December has pretty much been a blur. Since we had such fun at Disney last year we thought we would go again and bring my parents. What we thought would be a relaxing, fun vacation in a warmer climate turned into a bit of an ordeal. On our first day there my father ended up in the hospital with an infected foot and had to have surgery - he was released the day before we left. Overall he had some great treatment and a good experience with Florida's healthcare system - having insurance helped of course. He's happy to be home and the foot is getting better. Hopefully we'll be able to convince him to try Disney again someday.

It was a crazy week with my dad in the hospital and Bennett and my mother both celebrating birthdays. Neither went as planned but that's life I guess. Fortunately, Auntie Bonnie managed to save the day with a quick birthday party the day we left Orlando.

If I were to ever get a tattoo it would probably include the words "*#it Happens". Those who know me well would know that's pretty much the theme of my life - especially for the last four years. Bennett found out when I was 5.5 months pregnant that life can be one heck of a bumpy ride. So you might as well hang on tight, try your best and squeeze in fun whenever you can.

And that's pretty much what we did on our Florida vacation...enjoy the video and the song.

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Santa Claus Parade

We went to our local Santa Claus Parade this past weekend. Bennett was so excited all week and would ask about it every morning. It was cold so we bundled him up in last year's snow suit (which is too small - I must go shopping soon). I even made hot chocolate with milk on the stove and filled our thermos. Bennett was so very patient as we waited for 45 minutes for the parade to start and then another 2 hours for it to finish. He cheered and waved at every float and happily sipped away at his hot chocolate milk. As you can see in the video above, he was so star struck by Santa at the end that he waved with his right hand!

Late Halloween

Ahoy there maties - or whatever it is that pirates say! This is so very late isn't it? But still worthwhile I think. Bennett is pretty much the cutest pirate to ever walk the plank. I truly believe Johnny Depp should be nervous.

Bennett had a great Halloween. He had two parties because he goes to two schools! On the actual evening he had a lot of fun knocking on doors. He was actually rehearsing before he left. He would walk up to a wall, knock on it and say "Trick or Treat, then candy, then thank you, bye, bye, next house". By the time it was all done, he was back at home and had even more fun handing out the candy. He kept looking out the window saying, "more kids, I hope so".

He is turning into a bit of a chatterbox (music to the ears)! I'm going to try to get some it on video soon.

Another Good-bye

A couple days ago we had to say good-bye to another beloved member of our family. My parents had to make the difficult choice to let go of their dog, Katie. She was 12 years old and appeared to be dealing with old age well until a few days ago. She was a good dog - a funny dog - who was very set in her ways. She was a real homebody who refused to go out in the rain, walked around every puddle and would sit in a vehicle for hours if she thought someone might be leaving her. She will be missed so much by everyone.

After Bowser died, the vet's office sent us the story about Rainbow Bridge. If you're a dog lover, you've heard of this special place where our pets wait for us to join them. I do hope such a place exists and if it does I have no doubt that our sweet Bowser was waiting there for Katie with a football in his mouth and the full body wag that he was so well known for.

Good-bye Katie Jones...

The Wiggles

A few nights ago we drove 3 hours to go see the Wiggles!! Bennett likes the Wiggles but I think Jim and I were more excited than he was. When we finally we got to the arena Bennett took a quick walk around, started to cry and insisted on going home. We spent the first 20 minutes of the show in the lobby waiting and gently urging him to go inside. He finally started to reconsider when he heard the music start. Once we got to our seats Bennett had a great time and danced his little bum off!!

The Wiggles put on a very good show. We all loved it and I'm kind of sad that by the time they make it back to Canada, Bennett will likely be too old to go again.


Sam - the Yellow Wiggle. Bennett's jaw pretty much hit the floor when he walked right beside us.


The only Wiggle that wasn't there was Murray. His replacement was great though. Of course Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus and Wags the Dog made appearances.

Anthony - the Blue Wiggle. He carried Dorothy all around the arena floor. Those guys must burn a few thousand calories during each show.

Dancing to Hot Potato.

More dancing...this is my favourite video.

The Wiggles

If you ever have a chance to go to see the Wiggles, I highly recommend making the effort. It was a lot of fun.

Thanksgiving

Last weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. It was also the last weekend for camping so that's where we cooked and ate our dinner. We used the nifty fireplace oven pictured above to cook both the turkey and the sweet potatoes.

The hardest part was keeping the temperature stable but it worked out.

Maybe not the fanciest table setting but hey - we WERE camping! And the food was good.

Of course the meal was finished with everyone's favourite (except mine) pumpkin pie (store bought - we had to draw the line somewhere). Afterwards we were busy bringing the leftovers back into our trailer when I must have become distracted while daydreaming about turkey sandwiches. Without really thinking I put the turkey down on the picnic table bench and let Murphy out. You can probably guess what happened next....Murphy got the turkey...the entire thing was in his mouth (he is a big dog). Jim managed to get it out mostly intact but it was too late to salvage anything. I love dogs but I have my limits. On the bright side, at least we all got to eat and didn't have to deal with leftovers. And Murphy had a good sleep...

The next day Bennett got to enjoy even more pumpkin pie (homemade this time) when our neighbours had their dinner. Lucky guy!

New House

Just a few pictures of the new house. We've been here for 1.5 months now and I think it feels like home for all of us. Bennett settled in very quickly - he even refused to drive by the old house the day after we moved. Murphy took a little longer and paced for the first few nights. We haven't unpacked much but fortunately there's lots of room to hide the boxes. We have yet to hang any pictures and there are only curtains in the living room and blinds in our bedroom. We've met most of our new neighbours who seem very nice although we really miss our old neighbours.

Lots of work left to do but we have lots of time to do it!

It was a cold weekend but we couldn't resist squeezing in another weekend of camping. I love this time of year - fall should last at least 3 more months! We have one more weekend left and that will be it for the season. The last weekend is Thanksgiving and once again we plan to try and cook and eat our dinner outdoors.

Bennett had a great time - as usual and enjoyed stopping (a lot) to examine every pine needle, leaf, blade of grass, etc. He also had fun rolling in the grass - a new favourite. You can watch his antics as well as enjoy some of his developing language skills in the video at the bottom.

I promise to deliver a couple more updates this week including the promised house photos as well as a JK update.

10 Years

Today is our 10th Wedding Anniversary. We've been though a lot in that time - especially the last four years. Hopefully the next ten are less eventful!

Here's my tribute to Jim...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fall Camping Trip

For those of you that enjoy pictures, you're in for a treat. Despite the horrible weather forecast we decided to go camping anyway and as you can see, we had a great time. In the first picture Bennett does not look impressed - he's just trying to figure out who is taking our picture (a kind fellow hiker - the only one we saw on the trail that day). The fall colours are starting to peak and provided spectacular views despite the clouds. However, going on a fall colour tour with a husband who is colour blind, an impatient 3 year old and a dog who is mainly interested in tearing trees apart, is underwhelming to say the least.

We had record rainfalls at the end of last week. Lots of rain equals lots of puddles - the final result - a VERY happy Bennett who managed to find every single one!

Junior Kindergarten

It sure has been awhile! All is well for those readers who might be worried. We've just been very busy with the move and with Bennett starting school. We also had major computer issues that we had to get fixed. Fortunately, they were able to save all my photos but unfortunately everything else was wiped out. I've got a lot of stuff to put back on the computer and have to search out all my favourite sites again. Definitely a lot of catching up to do blog wise - both reading and writing!

But in the meantime, here's a quick Bennett update. Back on September 9, he started JK. I've had a hard time wrapping my head around it though and I'm still not convinced that sending him is the right thing to do. He's only 3.5 and if he was born when he should have been born or even a few days later, we wouldn't even be considering school for another year. Because of the way the system works here, Bennett will pretty much always be the youngest kid in his class. This is a disadvantage for sure - combined with the fact that he has other disadvantages leads to a very stressed out mother. I'm not so worried about this year but more so, the long term effects of always playing catch up.

As of now, this is what Bennett's school day is like...In the mornings, he goes to the JK at our local Children's Treatment Centre where they follow a regular curriculum but pull the kids out to get their therapy. There are only 6 kids in the class with a teacher, an educational assistant and a couple of students. In the afternoons, I bring Bennett to our community school where he has an educational assistant but is in a class with 21 other kids.

So far, he seems to really like it and is adjusting well to the full days (9am-3:20pm). I drive him to the CTC in the morning and pick him up to bring him to his other school. At the end of the day he takes a very short bus ride home. I think that is one of his favourite things - on his first day riding the bus he had a HUGE smile on his face when the door opened. He's also been assigned a helper who's a little boy in grade 5. Bennett thinks the world of him and talks about him all the time.

I just don't know what will happen. We thought we would give it a try and see how it goes. We also plan on giving Bennett a lot of afternoons off - time when he can hang out with family and do other stuff. This JK transition has been hard - mainly on me.....

Pictures of the new house next....stay tuned....

End of July

Wow - time flies! It has been a busy couple of weeks. Jim is in the middle of a crazy work marathon and I've been busy doing things related to my car accident. On top of that we move in 3.5 weeks! The blog posts will probably be few and far between but who knows. Here are some pictures and videos from the last couple weeks.

Here's Bennett helping to wash the vehicles. (As you can see, he's really not that much help).

Bennett and Grandma practicing counting to twenty in French. He did a lot better the first couple of times. It seems Murphy wants to learn as well...

Speaking of Murphy....here's a picture of him napping with Jim. I don't know how he stayed balanced up there.

And now for some pictures of the house. Not much to look at. The outside is done except for some trim work and our garage door. Inside, we have drywall. They are supposed to paint and texture our ceilings this week. I was reassured by the builder yesterday that I was ok to hire movers. I've started the packing - there's no looking back now...


Living Room


Dining Room & Kitchen

Main Bathroom

Second Bathroom

Den

Rec Room