Sunday stroll..............

Winter sunflowers..............

He's lost his head!!!!!!!

woodpile................

Snow......the same yet different........

A few pictures of snow in various parts of my yard....

our fire pit................

So here is our fire pit.......complete with picnic table for our marshmallows and hot chocolate and my chair to relax on while Lloyd tends to the fire!!!! Cozy huh????? Lol.....kind of shows how much snow we've had :)

stretching their little legs......

Our ladies left the coop for some fresh air today....enjoying the warm sun and warmer temperatures.....I think it got to -1c today??????

Poor chickens have been 'cooped up' for months!!!!

Snow day..........................

Samsam helping to clear the driveway......

Abby Banana in the snow................

A nice day...

I've had a lovely relaxing day today......Lloyd and I drove into town and picked up coffee from Starbucks and I got s scrapbooking magazine and some treats while I was there...we picked Laurie up form his friends and then headed home....when we got back, we all went out for a walk around here....said hi to the chickens who were out of the coop because of the warmer temperature...then we all stopped in and spent time with Charlie and I took a ton of pictures of snow and scenery......we then walked down to the roadway to take more pictures and Sam did a little shovelling of snow with his Dora shovel.......

After that we all came in for some lunch and tidied a little ....then I sat at the table and did some more scrapbooking of our holiday pictures.....the children are all tired from their busy weekends so I didn't see the point of going anywhere with them...Susie swam twice this weekend and went bowling, Laurie went to the movies to see Bridge to Terabitha......and Chris went to the movies to see Norbit and also went bowling yesterday...so they have done more than enough for one weekend....I think we are all happy relaxing here at home :)

So the next few posts will be photographs of snow etc from our walk today......

Family Day

Its' 'Family Day' here in Alberta....a Provincial holiday to allow families to spend more time together and to do things 'as a family'....

With this in mind I just want to express how very VERY grateful I am for my family.....

I have GREAT children.......they truly are FABULOUS. This weekend has just shown me HOW fabulous they are!

Chris and Susie got back late last night.....about 10:30pm...having spent the day with their friends family and driving to Barrhead to visit their friends Grandparents.....

During the journey, the boy had wanted to watch Troy but Chris had said that it wasn't an appropriate movie because his little sister was in the car.......his friends started arguing and then his Mom agreed with Chris.....so then his friends started yelling at his Mom and swearing at her!!!!!

Christopher and Susannah were shocked...

This morning Susie came in and told me that she was thinking how lucky I am! She said that yesterday at the friends home, they had a HUGE breakfast...but afterwards the kids just got up and walked off to play...the Mom was left to do EVERYTHING!! Susannah went up and asked if she could help load the dishwasher and clear the table! She said she felt sorry for the other Mom because the kids do NOTHING to help her and they swear and shout at her!

Firstly I LOVE that my children NOTICE these things...that they understand and they SEE how unfair and disrespectful that is! They SEE that the Mom is a PERSON!!!!

Chris said he can't believe that his friend would tell his Mom to SHUT UP!!!

My children would NEVER say that to me...they don't answer back...they always help and do their chores.......

Yes my children's bedrooms are messy most of the time...yes I have to nag them to shower and pick up their dirty laundry lol BUT they are NOT disrespectful and they NEVER answer back...they ALWAYS help me and they frequently ask how my day has been and what they can do to help.......

This other Mom doesn't STOP....she has 5 children and they are all in sports.....yesterday one had a hockey match, one had a swimming session, then she took them bowling (with my children) and Susie had slept over.....and then she drove to Barrhead to visit her sick parents and took my children so her children wouldn't be bored.......yet they STILL don't help her and after all she does for them they are so SO disrespectful.......

I am rambling on and on and well.....it just makes me even more grateful for my wonderful children!

Last night when Susie got home she gave me a big hug and told me she had missed me...she also apologised in case she had hurt my feelings by going out with her friends for the day instead of to the library with me.......

I have great kids!

:)

Six years......

Six years ago today I left my husband and moved to Scotland with Lloyd.....best decision I ever made. I KNEW it would be better for ALL of us.....and it has been :) We are all so much happier...hopefully even my ex.......

Six years has flown by!

Introducing Goldie.......

Terry and Chris (Lloyds parents) sent Abigail some money for her birthday this week....and as Abby has been talking about getting a fish for a while (just like Franklin the turtle!!) we thought today would be a good day to go and get one....as the older three were busy with friends.....

So we went into town and collected my pictures (wow they came in a BOX I ordered so many...... I've never got a BOX of pictures back before!!!!) and then went to Timmy's for lunch before going to the pet store...

Abigail chose a specific fish she wanted and the sales girl spent ages trying to catch THE one! Finally she got it and we chose a tank and a few necessary bits and pieces.....

Abigail held Goldie in his bag all the way home and spent the ENTIRE journey asking me questions about fish....

Do fish sleep?
Can fish breath without water?
Can my fish have babies?
Do fish hump? (yep she has older brothers so knows all those kind of words yikes!)
do fish poo?
do some fish have big tails?
does my fish need breakfast ,lunch and dinner?

I patiently answered all her questions and she then tells me that I know a LOT about fish :)

So she named her fish Goldie......original huh? I'm not sure how long Goldie will live...I feel a bit like the dentist in Finding Nemo...I feel like I have given this poor fish to that 'child' in the cartoon who is 'over-kind' to fish and shakes them and kills them.........

Poor Goldie........

Sunday and plans change again......

Sunday morning.....I sat in bed reading for a while and we watched a nature show......slowly got up with the plan to wait until Susie got home at 11am and then head into town to pick Laurie up.....

Lloyd spoke to his parents by phone and then I phoned my Mum to find out how she is doing after her op.....she said she had a nice get well card from Lloyds parents.....

After I said goodbye, Laurie called to say he wanted to sleep over at his friends AGAIN tonight........and then Susie arrived home and asked if she could go swimming with her friend AGAIN and then go to their Grandparents in Barrhead for the evening (where is Barrhead???).......and then her friends brother asked Chris if he would like to go too and watch his hockey match......so off they went and won't be home until 9:30pm.....

So it's just Lloyd, Abby, Sam and myself AGAIN today......so we are going out for lunch :) OMG all we ever do is eat out!

Although last night Lloyd cooked at home and made the most gorgeous butter chicken and we had that with garlic naan and poppadums.............boy was it good!

When we go into town for lunch we are going to swing by Coscto and collect the 300 pictures we took to be printed yesterday......Woohoo!! Then while Lloyd is doing our accounts for tax season, I plan to scrapbook our holiday again :)

Tomorrow we pick Laurie up at 11am.....so hopefully we will finally get to spend some family time on FAMILY day......but the kids will be so tired that I think we may just do the family movie thing here at home rather than facing crowds anywhere.

Anyway...off out for lunch now! Byeeeeeee!!!