Bye Brian, Turning 30 and Halloween

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Life has been totally crazy busy again and I am beginning to think it will never slow down. I guess, as long as I have two little boys, extra-curricular sports, hobbies, & friends, it won't. I guess that just means that time will go by faster.
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Brian departed on the 28th and it was a tough day before he left. D was having a hard time with Brian leaving because he knows that Brian won't be home until after G's Birthday. D seems to be doing better now, but every once & a while he does have his moments. G just knows that Brian is gone, but again, has no concept of time. He does call his "Mom-Dad" on his cell phone quite often though! The boys are also testing the waters and getting their privileges taken away from time to time. The other night they went to bed with no show and no snack. They have had a crazy schedule since Brian left, with me being away for two nights and having their Daycare closed due to H1N1. Hopefully, things will settle into a little routine this week.

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I turned 30 this year and to celebrate, I went to the U2 concert, and had a little supper with friends. I was pleasantly surprised on my Birthday and walked in to the house to find flowers, candy, a cake and more on my kitchen table. Thanks Barb & Gary! I scrapbooked all day yesterday with Gill. It was great! I didn't do a single page, but I prepared my Christmas album and started working on an album that I have had on my shelf for two years. The intent of the album was to put pictures of Brian & the boys in their motorcycle outfits, but we never got around to taking the pictures, so I will fill it with something else. It was good to sit down for a day and just work on some things.

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My cake & flowers. The boys & I celebrating!

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Pumpkin Carving time! (No pictures of the final pumpkin as I forgot, and then it was mouldy. Yuck!)

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The boys were both superheroes for Halloween. D was Batman, again, and G was Mr. Incredible. G didn't want to wear the costume, but I told him that he had to wear it or there would be no candy for him. He gave in and went for the candy. LOL! Per D's request, I also dressed up ... as a witch. :) We went to about 10 homes and the boys got more than enough candy. They also enjoyed running to the door to hand out our candy to the 160 trick-or-treaters that came to our place.

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Getting ready to trick or treat!

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Batman & Mr. Incredible & the wicked witch from the west!

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G decided to put his couch on the couch the other day. Whatever works!

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Today while doing "our" chores. I had D move the chairs out of the kitchen so I could wash the floors. The boys set up their train with D as the conductor. Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, choo-choo!

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The boys LOVE this travel magna-doodle. They often fight over who gets it. G draws "snakes" and D has graduated from cars to planes. He showed me a plane as I got out of the van at the grocery store this evening and it was great! I told him that he should keep it on there so that I could take a picture of it when we got home. Of course, he erased it and drew another one. This plane isn't quite as good, but I'm still proud of how well he is drawing! (Photo taken by D.)

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I'm hoping that life will slow down a little, but I know that it won't. I have a hockey tournament this weekend, and then it's two weeks until Hockey Regionals, and three weeks to Jamaica with Brian, then Christmas. Yikes! I have a lot of stuff to do before then!

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'Til next time!
Happy Monday!
L
:)

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Hello out there!

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It's been a while again ... I know!  Sorry!  We have been enjoying a lot of family time before Brian deploys in 10 days.  Yikes! 
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We've spent a lot of time going for walks and having the kids ride their bikes.  They are both fantastic at it.  G will be ready for pedals next year.

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I played in a ball tournament at the end of September.  It was a LONG weekend, but great!  We lost our first game which made us "come in through the back door", aka play 6 games, 4 of them in one day.  It was a LONG day!  Unfortunately, we lost in the finals.  The team that we lost against we have flip flopped all season with.  Oh well!

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Spiderman also made an appearance at our house!  It was Family Day at Brian's work, which included free face painting.  D shocked us and actually sat through the face painting.  He was so excited to be Spiderman!

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We managed to get a helmet for D this year.  Yeah!  His head is finally big enough.  LOL!  We bought the smallest helmet, and it's on the smallest size, with a cage so that it will keep it snug on his head.  (It's also time for funny faces around here ...)

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Funny Face G!

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The boys are playing with their "mighty machines" a lot lately.  They lined them up the other day and wanted to take pictures.  I think this is the one that Dom took. 

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We've been slowly getting ready for Halloween around here too.  I pulled out the pumpkins that Grandma send us last year and got the boys to colour them.  D rocked the glitter glue and G was scribbling away, and ended up with a lot of marker on his hands. 

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Pumpkins!

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D also started skating lessons this year.  He way exceeded my expectations in his first lesson and was a superstar skating around on the ice.  Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating on the "skating" part, but I was very proud that he learned how to get up, walked/waddled alone on the ice, jumped and turned around in circles.  We have been taking him public skating every Sunday and he is getting better by the week.  This week he was lifting his feet off the ice and pushing, instead of just sliding around.  I'm proud of you buddy! :)

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We went to the Pumpkin Patch today.  We picked two pumpkins.  D's pumpkin is going to be a pirate, and we're not sure what G's pumpkin will be yet.

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As I said earlier, Brian leaves in 10 days and there are tonnes of mixed emotions flying around.  Brian is getting nervous, but he is very excited as well.  We are telling the boys about things that going to be happening, but I don't know if they fully understand what is happening.  They know Brian's going away for work, and that Grandma & Poppa are going to come look after them for a while and fly them "home" for Christmas.  Hopefully, things will all work out as planned with no major meltdowns!

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This time, I won't break my promise, and I will post more regularly!

'Til next time!

Happy Monday!

L

:)

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So ...

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life got in the way of my big update.
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Brian got really sick with Strep throat and we were totally consumed with trying to make him better.
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Without further ado, here is a hopefully quick update!
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The boys were still at "home" at the time of the last update. Here are a few more things that they did.

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The boys spent a lot of time with their newest cousin. G was in Love with him and couldn't stop giving him kisses! Here are the boys with Cousin C.

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Crystal & Harry got married! Congrats guys! Sorry I had to miss it. You looked beautiful Crystal.

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Brian spent a few more days at the lake and were joined by L, T & T. They netted quite a few minnows and went swimming. D didn't like the cold water, but G & Brian had a good time swimming. Here is everyone warming up in the sun!

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My little two year old finally got his first haircut!

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The boys went for some rides at one of the local festivals, and enjoyed some fresh corn on the cob. So sorry I missed it!

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One last good-bye supper at Mark & Shar's before the boys started their drive home. The boys loved riding on the quads and spending time at the farm with their cousins.

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On the drive home with Grandma Selman. A quick stop for some fresh peaches!

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The boys arrived home late Sunday night. I was expecting them around supper time and they arrived here at 11:00pm. There were many delays on their last travel day. Needless to say, everyone was very happy to arrive at home and drive into the driveway! D was excited to see his new room and new bed.

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While the boys were driving home, I had a great scrapbook weekend with some of my best friends. We had a great weekend and were extra happy to have Jen join us for some good quality kid-free-girl-time!

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We bought a new camper! Here's a self-portrait of Brian & I in front of it! We tested it out September long weekend. It was awesome! The camper feels like it has SO much more room in it! We now have king & queen pull-outs, an indoor/outdoor stove and a couch. There is a lot more storage in this one as well. And ... it's only 10 years old, not 30! So ... does anybody want to buy a 30 year old tent trailer? ;)

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Here are a few shots of the inside of the camper. From L-R: The boys sitting at the table in front of our bed, the stove, sink, fridge. The boys enjoying some blackberries. The camper & the van. The couch, queen bed and counter top. D doing "his job", drying dishes!

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Brian had to leave on Sunday for another week of training so I was left at the campground with the boys and Gill & Brandon. It was raining on & off during the weekend, but nice enough most of the time for the kids to play outside. Sunday night the boys decided to drive their bikes through the puddles!

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The biggest news ... D took his training wheels of his bike last week as seen in the video in the post below. He is super pumped and we are very proud of him. I totally credit G's new Runner bike for giving him the confidence with his balance to do it. I'm sure by next summer, G will be ready to ride a pedal bike as well. The boys ride their bikes day in & day out. That's all they want to do!

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Other big news ... I took G in for Vega testing on Tuesday to try to shed some light on his digestive issues. I have been thinking for a while that he has Celiac disease, but his blood test came back negative and his scratch allergy testing came back negative as well. The Vega test showed an intolerance to wheat which, untreated, could eventually turn into Celiac disease. So, now we're wading our way into the world of wheat and gluten free. Thankfully it's not so sever that he can't ever eat wheat, but we're going to eliminate it at home so if he does happen to have some outside of the home, it won't be that big of a deal for him. We did our first grocery shop today and it wasn't too bad. We found some rice flour that we will try to make our pancakes out of next time. It's going to be hard because G LOVES all things that have wheat included: pancakes, waffles, a lot of cereals, pizza, bread sticks, and so on.

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This weekend will be my last ball weekend of the season and I am starting hockey tomorrow. Man, it feels like all I do is play sports, but I love it! :) We have a hockey tournament in November and a few games here & there before regionals at the beginning of December.

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Brian is on the mend. Thankfully! His strep got really bad and I hope nobody else gets it.

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We're hoping to get one more camping trip in before Brian goes, but that may not happen as time is quickly closing in. We are still undecided on our first trip location, but now we're thinking Jamaica. We really need to get to a travel agent so we can get some insight on a few things! Hopefully that will happen this week.

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Alright, I've got to get to bed so I can start my last week in the cage!!! WAHOO!!

I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff, but I hope you enjoyed the update!

'Til next time! (I PROMISE, it won't be as long next time!)

L

:)

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Big update ...

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coming soon! I promise!
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In the mean time, here's my big guy riding his bike without training wheels!!!!!!!!
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Happy Monday!
L
:)

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