Baby it's COLD outside!!

Every Labour Day weekend, we venture off camping with our friends the Sibleys. It has become a favourite tradition of ours! We were all excited about our upcoming weekend until we saw the weather report - cold and dreary ALL WEEKEND!!

We were determined to not let it sway our spirits. We would be the sunshine if we had to be!

Well......

It was a lot colder than we expected! Luckily we had a site with electricity ( a no-no in camping world). I was very thankful for the heater. It kept us dry and toasty warm!

We decided we would make the most of it. We played in the rain, the kids LOVED it, we hung out and chatted.

On the last day, we braved it and went to the beach. The kids dipped their toes and even did an underwear dip - very quickly. The water was cold! Even for the kids!

Here are some of our shots. All in all, a great weekend!

It's finally happening!!

After 10 years of living in south ajax and creating many memories, we are venturing off to a new town to create even more memories!

We are moving to Brooklin!!

It has been quite the roller coaster ride and we were thrilled to be on it. We are in Brooklin often since our church is up there as well as our friends the Sibleys, who Sean has known since he was a wee gaffer. We have always said we wanted to live in Brooklin. Timing just happened to be perfect when a friend of the Sibleys happened to mention he was selling his house! Across the street! We asked if they would consider selling private and they said yes. Next thing out of my mouth was "We'll buy it!" We hadn't even seen the inside of the house and we offered to buy it. We felt that strongly about - and if you know me well, you know I am damn picky, so to buy without yet seeing it is just not me! Bottom line, we were not buying the house so much as we were buying the neighbourhood/school/church community for Jonah. Within a month we prepped our house to put it on the market (at the worst possible time!) and made our offer official.

We had a few bumps in the road with offers falling thru so we firmed up on the Brooklin purchase taking the risk of having 2 mortgages. Made me sick to my stomach to be honest!
And now our moving day is almost here. As of September 10th, we will be Brooklin-ites!! And to make it even sweeter, last thursday we received another offer on the Ajax house. We are awaiting their waiver of financing and inspection to make it final, but we have faith it will go smoothly.

It certainly has been a whirlwind summer!

We are certainly going to miss many things about Ajax - our neighbours especially - but we are very excited about this move.

I am in awe of how things can come together!

Much love,

Friday Fill ins - August 20th

My answers are in red!

1. Laughter really is the best medicine.

2. "For our meeting" are the three words that started off the last email I sent.

3. What I'm most looking forward to today is signing the papers for our purchase of sale in brooklin! YAY!

4. Jonah puts a smile on my face.

5. Where in the world was I when Dexter premiered?? I can't believe I never watched that show!

6. That hot fudge sundae that I inhaled last night was just what I needed!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to seeing Marcel and Angel to finalize the deal, tomorrow my plans include a whole bunch of driving around and Sunday, I want to enjoy church and a visit to Kitchen Stuff Plus with my momma!

Help by Voting please!

APX Alarm is doing an awesome and generous thing by donating money to favourite charities. I need your help getting the votes!!

Vote for CHERUBS at http://www.facebook.com/apxalarm, the charity with the most votes on August 23rd 2010 will receive a $100,000 donation from APX Alarm!

If you are not on facebook, please visit: APX Alarm Gives Backhttp://www.apxgivesback.com/

CHERUBS - The Association of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Research, Awareness and Support
Diaphragmatic Hernia sounds simple, but with unborn children and especially when this concerns a hole in the diaphragm, it allows abdominal organs to squeeze through into the chest cavity. It can be operated on in utero or immediately after birth. Most often the harshest side effect is resiratory failure from stressed lung or heart. Even more dangerous is the liver, spleen, or kidneys leaking toxins into the vital organs. This leads to serious life-long diseases, of the 50 percent who survive birth. For more info:http://www.cherubs-cdh.org/

This will not take long at all, a few simple clicks can go a long way. Please help make a difference! Time is running out.
I appreciate everyone voting.

Love to all!

Pool Quest for Jonah

Everytime we go to Aunt Sandra and Uncle Mark's pool, Jonah learns something new.

This time it was diving!

Recipe for a Great Life

This was sent to me from my wonderful friend Steph:

Recipe for a great life:

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Talk to God about what is going on in your life. Buy a lock for the door if you have to.
3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'I am thankful for______________'.
4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants. 5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli , almonds & walnuts.
6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
7. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
9. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
12. You are not so important that you have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
14. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'
17. Forgive everyone for everything.
18. What other people think of you is none of your business.
19. GOD heals everything - but you have to ask Him.
20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
21. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch!!!
22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for__________.
24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
25. When you are feeling down, start listing your many blessings. You'll be smiling before you know it.

A great reminder :)
Have a great day friends!

Friday Fill ins - August 6th

Rock on Dude

My answers are in red! Do you participate in Friday Fill-ins?

Leave me a comment if you do so I can check it out!

1. Life is definitely testing me right now. Just another hurdle I have to overcome and try to smile while conquering it.

2. I keep going, even though there are days (like today) that I want to throw my hands in the air and surrender. But that is just not me.

3. My last text message (or IM) ended in these three words: "my way home" Sean was letting me know he left work

4. Salsa Chicken is what I'm thinking about for dinner sometime soon.

5. On the 1st day of August we enjoyed a wonderful day celebrating Miss Emily’s 6th birthday with her family. So touched to be considered part of the family.

6. I am often amazed at how kids can always be so lively and energetic.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to back to school clothes shopping for Jonah, tomorrow my plans include a manicure and pedicure while we have a house showing and Sunday, I want to be able to say we have an offer on the house!!

Friday Funny

Everytime I get this in my email, I laugh. Had to share!

Just Dance

This has to be one of my all time best purchases for the Wii!!

It is called Just Dance. You have to copy the dancer on the screen. No mat is used, just the remote.

The fabulous dancers in this feature are my mom Sharon, my sister's boyfriend Ian and my 14 year old nephew James.

Oh, the person laughing hysterically.....that would be me.

And this is my Bubbaloo Jonah giving it a go:

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

A Roller Coaster ride......

......is exactly what my life has been the past couple of months. I put my blogging on hold to "deal" with all that has been going on - more like I abandoned it - and then I realized that my blogging is actually good therapy for me! Not to mention, helps keep track of what has been happening when life sweeps me away. I have received a few emails asking where I am and I very much appreciate that!

So many things have happened in the past few months! A few bad apples, but also a lot of good ripeness! I haven't kept you up to date on my weight loss (down 7.5 pounds and 6 inches), my church had a fantastic turn-out for the March of Plenty, my sister bravely ran a 5K to embrace turning 40, I changed jobs, good medical results, SOOOO much to tell!!

The biggest challenge I haven't blogged about is that we are selling our house! At least we are trying. What a frustrating, emotionally draining, pain in the arse task this is! This is the main reason I haven't been blogging, all the preperation, constantly cleaning, people coming thru the house, I just didn't have time to sit and blog about it. I will fill you in on this adventure in another post. There is so much to tell!

I appreciate all the emails and encouragement to get back to blogging :) I have missed you.
I promise to be back.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Can you believe it is August already??