Haiti DONATIONS - THANK YOU for your support.

See my blog post HERE to see what's going on with our Haiti Donations raised from Earring Sales!

So exciting!

THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all who have donated their time, supplies and money to buy earrings or Haiti Jewelry!

Where do I begin?

So much exciting stuff has been happening these days, I don't even know where to begin.


For starters, I got a blog makeover over at my Eyes Wide Open blog AND I even got my very own blog badge thanks to my friend Nikki at Blogs for a Cause.   I also highly recommend going to check out Blogs for a Cause, this girl is phenomenal.  She has traveled the world and raised money for so many charities all through the proceeds of this blog.  If you'd like a blog makeover, go check her out!


Now...I have a blog badge for the fundraising I do through Eyes Wide Open.  Could I ask you to post my blog badge on your blogs to help out my efforts of raising funds for so many worthy causes? 

Nikki is trying to figure out how to set up a little box on the main screen (below the badge) WITH the code. For now, if you'd like to support this way please contact me and I'll send you the code (I've tried to add it in the text, but it keeps doing 'funky' things': tara.morin473@gmail.com.

 

Here's instructions on how to apply my blog badge:
1. Log onto your blog.
2. Click on your 'Design' tab or 'Layout' tab.
3. Click 'Add a Gadget'.
4. Click on the (+) sign next to 'HTML/JavaScript'.
5. Paste the entire code in that space.
6. Click 'Save' and you now are officially sharing my story (thanks)!
Lots of changes are taking place on my Eyes Wide Open blog, so be sure to go on over and check it out.  All the changes are not completed 'yet', but soon!


Next bit of exciting news, here's a hint:

Can ya tell what the application is for?

OK....I'll tell you.

I'm going to be entering the largest Craft Show in the Atlantic Provinces in November (held in Moncton) -yeeehaaa!    This is the 23rd Annual Christmas at the Coliseum with over 30,000 attendance in 3 days (that's ALOT of people)!

It was a BIG leap of faith, that my gut said to take (Jacques as well, he encouraged me to do it full heartedly)!  Naturally, I am nervous and excited and very proud all rolled into one!!!!  But I'm sure once my plans are in place and I have my stock built up, all will be a great success.  And even if not, at least it will be a great experience to 'chalk up to experience'!

Great Mother's Day Weekend

What a wonderful weekend, despite not feeling all that great (again)! I'm tired of being sick...3 times in 5 months is too much. All respiratory related. This time, I'm going to the doctor to inquire as to why so much but I figure it has a lot to do with working with 33 Kindergarten students!

So to start, we went to the Shriner's Circus in Presque Isle, Maine.

What terrible parents we are considering Noah had never been to a circus (that he could remember anyways). We had only taken him to the circus once when he was still in a snugly carrier and I remember THAT day all too well. It was STIFLING hot at the Moncton Coliseum and we took our nephews to see the circus (along with Noah in the snugly, cuddled all in tight to my chest). It was SOOOO hot and stinky, it was unbearable!


So we met some friends (that we had met at camp in the winter) - or tried too. It was so busy, we couldn't find them until intermission then the boys came to sit with us for the last half of the show.


Here are some of our favourite parts of the show:

The clowns, for sure!

The tigers!

The dogs, I LOVED the grey dude on the left!

This acrobatic!

This was my favourite clown - his name was JINX.

He had a broken arm - how appropriate!

This was my FAVOURITE act...

Thought it was absolutely amazing when this girl started getting INTO this little box.

Then when she got in, absolutely amazing.

BUT....

when the 2nd girl got in we were ASTOUNDED.

This all happened on Saturday afternoon....then my Mother's Day was the absolute best!

Then ALAS, Mother's Day

My day started very early with Noah bringing me a card he had made.  It was SO cute.  On the front, had a flower pot glued with 3 flowers with stems.  You could pull out the flowers and written on each stem was a 'coupon'.  One for Noah to make my bed, one for Noah to make a tea for me and one for another chore to do for me.  It was SO sweet & special!

Then our day was started.  Without a question of what I wanted to do just happened!  We made plans to drive a friend of Noah's (and his little sister) to a hospital in Quebec City (about a 3.5 hr drive) to visit their mom (as a complete surprise to their mom!).  It was a wonderful day with 2 extra kiddo's in the car.  The boys had a blast...singing and dancing.  We had SO much fun.

When we arrived, we all had a big cry watching the kids surprise their mom.  It was AMAZING....  So we left the kids at the hospital while Jacques and Noah took me out for a Mother's Day lunch (at a place we found (and LOVED) the day we flew out to Orlando).  I was one happy girl!

Though this photo is blurry, it was the MOST hilarious when it happened.  The boys were 'rockin' in out with their pencils (pretending them to be telephones) singing and dancing to the song 'Telephone' by Lady Gaga!  It was SO cute and fun.  Just two bud's, on a road trip, having some good ole' fashion FUN!

Here's Destiny & Isaac getting ready on the elevator to surprise their mom on Mother's Day!

ONE HAPPY MOM...

NOTHING could have topped this gift that we gave to Monica & her kids.

Almost 8 hours of driving time, NO dvd player and only ONE side of the highway pit stop!!!

Another highlight to my Mother's Day:

The PERFECT gift (next to Noah's card and coupons)! 

Thanks so much for the MOST wonderful Mother's Day, boys!

Blessings

I hate to sound so positive & sappy...but I have SUCH a blessed life.  I am so lucky and lately things are just going the way I want them to!  No complaints here....

I have to tell you a funny story that happened tonight....

Reading some 'Dinner Table Devotions' tonight at supper, Noah said the sweetest thing that I have to document and share!

One of the questions at the end of the devotion was:  'what would be the first things you'd like to ask Jesus if you got to meet him?' (or something along this line).  Jacques answered, 'why does he allow people to do wrong?' (or something like that).  I answered, 'why does he allow children to get hurt?' (or something like that).

Noah's response (are you ready for the deep thought out answer)!!! 

What colour is your robe?

Only MY boy....I love that kid to bits!  He's so honest and true!

On a more fun note, Noah and I are committed to doing more excercise.  Now that the nice weather is here - we are committing to 10-15 minutes (non stop jumping) on the trampoline each day.  We made a playlist on my iPod - JUST for our jumping time so we can put the little stereo in the window and we jump.  We jump and we jump some more.

Today, we lasted 2 and a half songs (how pathetic) - but it's a start, right!  We have so much fun.  After our 2 and a half songs, we played, jumped, did flips (ouch!) and I created a new AMAZING game that Noah loves! 

We spell words and jump.  Each letter you shout out, you have to jump down on your bum then back up. 

We did this for another 15-20 minutes....

In total, we did the trampoline for 35 minutes today and we feel GREAT!!!

Life really couldn't be better.  I'm so thankful for an amazing life that I have always dreamed of!!!

Weekend BLISS

I have such a great life...no complaints here.  OK, maybe momentarily but they never really last.

I do know just how blessed I am to have a great family, my health and really no worries in the world!

Our weekend has been such a great weekend..... let me share with you some of the details!


FRIDAY NIGHT:

Jacques got home from work and we made homemade pizza (including an amazing dough from a new recipe I got from a friend).

I put our new FLIP video camera to the test by videoing us making the dough & pizza - yay.  (only one problem, i can't figure out how to convert the video format over to an mpeg or mp4 in order to make a video using windows movie maker - any out there have any suggestions?)

Separate videos:

Making dough:

The boy's decorating their pizza:

The dough turned out fantastic (a little thick, but that's because we put too much in the pans). 

Noah enjoying our creations!

Mom's panzarotti.

The boys pizza!

SATURDAY MORNING:

We got up Saturday morning and got ready to go to Noah's basketball jamboree in Centerville (or so I thought)!  LOL  We arrived in Centerville, went into the school and went to pay.  I asked the man if we had to pay for players.  He responded with a funny look at Noah and said 'is he playing?'.  I said yes.  We continued to pay for Jacques and I alone and went past the table.  I asked the man if he knew where the teams were gathering.  He said 'what team does he play for?'.  I said, 'Grand Falls'.  He said, 'but Grand Falls is playing right now'.  Ummmm.....  He continued to ask, 'does he play for the girls or boys team?'.  I said, 'it's a co-ed team'.

Eeeesh....then I realized that I had probably made a mistake (considering Florenceville is very close to Centerville)!!!  It turns out, the tournament at this school was girls only.  This explains the look on the mans face when he looked at Noah and said 'is he playing?'!!

OK...so we got to Florenceville on time still but soon realized that the games were running about a half an hour late!  Feeeuuuu.

They played hard, had fun and came home with a metal (just for participation only).

SATURDAY AFTERNOON:

On the way home from the basketball games...we had to go pick up Noah's new guitar.

He starts acoustic guitar lessons on Wednesday and we had NO guitar.  We did have a little guitar that my dad had given Noah several years ago, but the bridge mysteriously went missing??  So, to fix it it was going to cost us almost as much than to get a new/used full size guitar with the case.  So, Noah is working towards paying for 1/2 the price of the guitar and is one happy boy. 

He is SO excited...he say's he is living his dream, that he has always dreamed of playing guitar.  I tend to think that these lessons may go better than piano lessons.  I remember for years now, he's been carrying around this little guitar that he got from Grandpa....check out this video from Dec 2007.  My little rock star!

As for his new guitar, he's awfully proud! 

His favourite part of the guitar was this little pick holder that came on the guitar!!!

March Break Madness...

Uggggh...it's March Break and I'm SICK.   Not a great feeling when I don't usually get sick.

To back track about our weekend away....Jacques finally arrived home around 3:30 pm on Saturday.  He is my hero.  He dropped his bag (from the week) in the door, picked up a new bag and off we went.

We arrived at our desitnation around 5:20 pm - just enough time to stop in at my favourite Christian bookstore.  Just enough time to get the bookmarks I had intended on buying and the book, So Long, Insecurity (by Beth Moore). 

Thanks to my blogger buddy, Angel (and this post), I knew I should buy this book as soon as I saw it!  Of course, it will probably be the next book I read as well.  Any of Angel's book suggestions (that I've read)....have really moved me, so I am looking forward to jumping into this book.  Hopefully it won't sit on my book case for 1 and 1/2 years like Dangerous Surrender, did! 

As soon as we finished at the book store, we went to Michaels Craft Store to get beading supplies, East Side Mario's to eat dinner then browsed the mall.  Such a romantic evening, huh?  On top of that, I started to not feel so great - but I made the best of it because we were together!

Monday - we had a 'get-to-gether' to make earrings.  Thankfully, our pastor let us use the basement of our church so we could have more women.  In total, we had 15 women and made 240 pairs of earrings.  MAN....am I ever thankful for all the help. 

One problem though, I think I pushed myself too much.  NOW I am really sick....lost my voice and struggling to breath (in the sense that it hurts my chest to breath).  I'm contemplating going to the outpatients tonight, just to make sure.  Last time I left it too long, I ended up with acute pnemonia (sp?) - so I don't think I want to wait that long.  I just HATE sitting waiting in the hospital thinking that I am wasting their time with a minor cold (thinking I am a wimp)!

So yeah...that's my March Break news :(

Home

One of the blogs I follow is SO incouraging - ironically, this is the name of the blog:  (In)Courage.

Check it out....great blog brought to my attention by a friend who is ironacally very incouraging!!!

Last week, I struggled with a decision I had to make.  For some, it may have been a small decision but for me it was a hard one.  I made it and now this morning, when I read this post, it was a confirmation that I made the right decision.

Mimi, Claudia and Grateful once again!

OK....so I've decided to come out of hiding now (long stories that I won't share but I'm back).

Thought I'd share some cute photos I took of Mimi, our dog last week. Not that she's getting old or sick, but I want to always remember (by documenting, writing, video & photos) how good of a dog she is.

This is HER pose.... you'll often find her sleeping like this and it's just SO darn cute.


She has such a calm (you would have never known that her first 2 years) and loving personality. She is MY dog without a doubt. Anywhere I am, she is. She is a lap dog through and through. If there is a lap in sight, she will curl up on it. BUT, if she is on someones lap and I come to sit down she comes to me (what a momma's girl).

She sleeps on our bed and we let her. I am the type of dog mom that if she is sleeping in my legs, I will move to accommodate her on our bed. Crazy as it sounds, that's just who I am.

She's a spoiled girl and we all love her to bits in our family.



Surprise, surprise....I got off my butt this year and finally got Claudia (our sponsor child from Guatemala, through World Vision) her Christmas present shipped (hopefully in time).

Not too long ago, we received our Annual Progress Report with a long letter from her and a photo. She has grown up SO much and is SO adorable. We just found out that she dreams of being a doctor when she grows up...WOW.

I hope one day to meet her and her family and give her the BIGGEST hug ever!



So life in our neck of the woods has been busy, challenging and this is why I disappeared for a while....just couldn't write what I didn't feel. And considering this blog was created for remembering all I am grateful for.....I felt a tad hypocritical by writing that I felt grateful...because I didn't.

I do again...it's a whole new me and I'm baaaa-aaaack!!!

Hope you will begin to follow our family's journey once again!

First day of school - ups & downs

OH what a day it's been!

This morning:

Well let's just say we had a few challenges.... *end of discussion*

Once the kids left for school, I did some running around as the Treasurer of the Home & School Association for Noah's school then headed back to the school to help with the first day of school 'Welcome Back' barbecue. I got an easy job - I barbecued over 600 hot dogs (and I'm heading back tomorrow to do it all over again - but only for the Kindergartner's that only start tomorrow).

Then tonight, as I waited for Noah to arrive on the bus - I waited and I waited and I waited some more.

After a few phone calls to the school, the school contacting the bus driver (finding out that Noah was safe) and Noah arriving home over 1 hour late - I could B-R-E-A-T-H!!! NOT something I expected or ever dreamed would happen!!

Lots of changes to our bus routes and (in my opinion) poor planning in the execution of the changes. Hopefully in the next few days, things will improve (or I at least find out where Noah is supposed to be catching the bus and the time would help)!!!

Lots of events on our first day of school....

...hopefully tomorrow will go more smooth!

School is starting...YAY!

Twas the night before school starts when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
The pencils are sharpened, the back packs all packed
And MOM's so excited that school's finally back!

The children a tad nervous and feeling a little blue
Now mom on the other hand, is one happy goose
And mamma in her excitement and father in his joy
The kids are a thinking, what's gotten into them - 'oh boy'.

When out on the doorstep there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
When, what to my wondering eyes did appear
But a BIG yellow school bus to take them this year.

So off went the school bus, with the children of me
And I got to sit back and enjoy a (peaceful) hot cup of tea
With the fumes of the school bus made me feel just so right
thinking:
Happy School Year to all, and to all a Good Night!

Weekend in Shippagan, NB

This weekend we WENT AWAY - again! Though this weekend was for Isabelle. She was asked to play on the Provincial Team for the final tournament, in Shippagan, NB (about 4 hours from home).....yay! Considering we did not find out that we were going until late last week, we were left with slim pickin's for accommodations in these rural *very small* communities.

Fortunately, we were able to find some cottages in Tracadie-Sheila (about 25 minutes from Shippagan) and they were BEAUTIFUL!!!

CHECK THIS OUT:

our morning view from our deck at the cottage.

W-O-W

When we arrived Friday night, the kids walked on the beach to collect shells while Jacques & I barbecued our 24hr marinated T-Bone steaks - YUMMY. Well...the shell collections were short lived when Jacques & I discovered (after supper) that NO shells were allowed to be collected from the beach - woops! So we made the kids take them back - as upset as they were!

In the morning, we noticed a car that 'slightly' missed their driveway and NOT just a bit - so I took a picture.

This was SO cool....and outdoor church. I've never seen this before - so I had to take a photo!

Unfortunately, the girls team did not overly great - 10th place out of 10 teams. THOUGH, despite their place - they did do AMAZING!!! They were the ONLY team with NO substitutes (in other words, they played 5 games straight out). When they got tired, they kept playing. When they were thirsty, they kept playing. When they got hurt, they had to keep playing. They just played their TUSHIES off.

I am SO proud of Isabelle and how hard she worked!!! Way to go!

Scary thing....when we got home, the garage door was open. We can hardly believe that the door was left open ALL weekend. The other unbelievable thing (and a perk to living in a small town where everybody knows everybody) - not ONE thing was out of place or missing (and the door to the house was open too). HOW amazing and felling rather grateful right about now.

More photos of Isabelle on Count Your Blessings (email me to add you to the viewing list).