How did THAT happen?

Not really sure what happened there, but a MONTH has already passed since my last post!!!   All I can say is that we are having a BLAST this summer!  Life can't really get any better!

Our house is still not sold, in fact, yesterday someone STOLE our  FOR SALE sign right off our front lawn???  I'm not too up tight about this, in fact, I am thoroughly enjoying our time in Grand Falls this summer.  It's obvious that God has a plan for us to stick around her a little longer and it's all good!

Got lots of posts coming up, lots of fun stuff we've done over the past month! 

It's great to be back (again)!!!

From boredom to PURE fun!

And so the life without Jacques begins! Well...it's not as bad as it sounds.

January is Jacques' "year end" time and this means A LOT of hours, which translates to not seeing him in the evenings and not seeing him on the weekends.

AND...  If you know our family, you probably have heard me complain EVERY January!!!  Thanks for listening to me and not judging!!!

The great news is that each year, it seems to get easier.  Not that we don't like it one stickin' bit, but we know it's a part of his job that allows us to live the life we have! 

THANK YOU honey for working SO hard for our family!

Yesterday, boredom set in :(    Considering we are trying so hard to save money for our adoption, and we live in a town where there is not much to do, what do you DO when you're really bored.

Well...we did it.  We changed our boredom into something fun, and it was quite simple! 

We got up and went to a petting zoo (that is closed now for the season, but the animals are still there) and fed them some old bread we had been collecting for the past few months!

This guy here was my favourite! 

It's not hard to tell why...

...just look at THAT attitude!

Then a simple car wash, somehow turned into some more fun!   Noah was SO excited considering he had never washed a car himself in one of these 'self serve' car washes!  And...to BOOT, he did a pretty good job!

After church this morning, Noah had a great idea!  We went to Edmundston to visit Jacques.  We snuck in an hour for a lunch date.  Then, Noah & I went to do some rock climbing and swimming!

So a weekend that started off in pure boredom, ended up to be quite the adventure after all! 

As Noah was going to bed, he said 'Mom, I can't believe the weekend is almost over.  It's been the best weekend ever.'



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'!

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!!!

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!