2 MORE SLEEPS!!!

Well....we only have 2 more sleeps left until we fly away to Seattle to see Daddy! The boys are just so excited...before I even got up this morning, Jakey had already changed our countdown on the white board to two! Very cute!

I'm just about to put the last load of laundry in the wash and then I have a total of three to fold. Clothes are hitting the suitcase tonight!

Jakey has Beavers tonight and he's excited about that, because he gets a badge for participating in the Beaver Buggy Races.

Luke has refused to nap all day today and has finally fallen asleep! I'm hoping he sleeps for a while so I can get some work done!

Anyway...short post today, sorry! Just wanted to let you all know that we are almost gone! Yeah!!! (I do believe Todd just might be more excited than we are! LOL)

It was Chess Day today! It's Silver for Josh!!!

Well....Joshua competed for his school today in the Canadian Chess Challenge and he really had a good time. He along with 4 other class mates won a place at the county/city wide tournament today. They played 8 games each and you get 1 point for a win, 1/2 pt for a draw/stale and 0 pt for a loss....well Josh got 5 1/2 points total. He won 5 games and got a draw on one, lost the other 2. (one of which was a very useful loss because he learned something so valuable! I learned to grab your camera quicker....he lost in under 2 minutes! Very fast little game!) I have to give him credit...he paid attention to what he was doing, he was very polite to all his competitors and he was totally fine with the losses. So because his table had a 4 way tie...he tied 4 ways for the silver metal...one boy named Calvin (Chinese, no surprise there!) won gold at our table (there were 4 tables of Grade 3s). Anyway...he won a place in the "Playoffs" on Saturday in March to choose three players from each Grade level to send to the Canadian Chess Challenge in Toronto. So he's very excited about that! You had to get at least 6 1/2 points or win Gold or Silver to earn a place in the next tournament and Josh qualified. I thought the boy was going to go through the roof with excitement!

Above are a couple pics of the tournament and here is his special medal, he's so excited!

Alright....I'd better head to bed...as the boys are saying 4 more sleeps till we fly away to Seattle!!! I'll post more about that tomorrow! Love you all!

Big news for us today!!

IT WAS A SNOW DAY!!!

So I know I've not been very good at keeping this blog up...I'm trying, but didn't really realize how zonked I'd be all the time! We're making it through though and here's our updates for you!

On Tuesday, the classes in the boys' school did their "in class" speech contests...Grades one through three do poems and 4 - 8 do speeches/demonstrations, etc. So as you all know, Joshua is generally very timid and doesn't speak very loudly at all...but this time around...he won a spot to represent his class in the all school Effective Speaking Contest on Friday. He's just over the moon excited about it. The really cute thing he said to me yesterday though was "Mommy, I feel so bad for Indica...she wins every single year and this year she didn't! I wish I could give her my spot!" How thoughtful, eh? This really was a good thing to happen to him to boost his confidence level! We are so proud of him! His poem is just way too cute as well...It's called "Adventures of a Frisbee" by Shel Silverstein! Very adorable. He's got great inflection and enthusiam in his voice when he recites it! Good job Josh!

Anyway...then the even more exciting news today is that Todd is surprising the boys and I by going to the airport extra early and seeing if he could bump his midnight flight up to this afternoon. He'll be arriving in Detroit at 4pm! I'm so excited! We'll have a very long visit with him this weekend! Thursday night, Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday! The boys are just going to be so excited! I was thrilled when he told me!

Yesterday was a potentially challenging day with him being gone as I realized it was the first Valentine's Day Todd and I wouldn't have spent together in 15 years. That kinda sucked...however, he did send me some lovely flowers and a nice card...so that was nice. We awoke to a surprise phone call (ok...not a surprise to me, but to the boys it was!) and it was Mrs. Morin, Josh's teacher telling us that the boys were officially having a SNOW DAY!!! It was so cute, because when I was finished talking to her, (the boys were sleeping in bed with me) I hear out of the darkness "Did I just hear what I think I just heard?" Josh says! "IT'S A SNOW DAY!!!" He was up and yelling and celebrating in an INSTANT!!! He was so excited because it was their very first snow day ever!!! (I know, strange, huh?) Although I'm sure Josh had one in JK...other parents think we haven't...so I must be wrong. It was so darn cute...Josh was trying so hard to get Jakey excited too....but Jake just kept saying "Uhh.....whatever....go back to sleep!" LOL It was very funny! The boys' got to play outside in the snow for the first time this winter (we've just not gotten good play snow until now!)! Here are the pictures of them in their forts! We had to make signs for the flags they stuck in the ground!

So the boys and I spent the whole day together, which I think probably was the best thing for all of us...I hadn't realized how much I spend just telling them what to do next or yelling at them to stop fighting....I haven't spent much time at all just enjoying them and playing games and so on in a while...so that was fun yesterday.

Unfortunately last week, I was stupid and tried to play "Daddy" and decided to wrestle with my boys like he does...well....bad idea...because Josh decided to land on my back, throwing it out for a week! It's much better now...but still sore in places. I've been seeing the Chiropractor and taking lots of really good 'drugs'! LOL I sadly had to take some time off work too...today is my first day back with the kids since last Thursday. Too bad it wasn't just a 'week off' and enjoyable. It seems like it happened just yesterday. All is well there though...it's mending nicely. I was so appreciative of all the people that came to help during the week! Catherine came extra time to help out with the lifting of the baby and the laundry and helping with the boys too...she's such an amazing lady and we all love her so much! Cathe, Karleen and Angela, all friends from MOPS all brought me meals! It was so darn sweet of them! The meals were great! Thanks ladies! Maggie came over to sleep over and help me on Friday night...she was an amazing help with Luke and also with keeping the boys busy for me so I could rest.

So I suppose I should be off to get this house cleaned up for Todd! (yes Mom...that was said just for you! LOL) hehe!!! Oh and I should put on some makeup and get nicely dressed for him too, right? LOL Oh right...and an undershirt on the baby! Got it! Going to take care of all that! LOL

I'll try to keep the blog better updated and I'm going to send find some new pics too! Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!