Cute Story

Okay, so Noah has not really learned the 'knack' of being tactful!!!

Jacques family are all BIG into golf. While visiting this past weekend, they were watching a golf tournament while visiting with family at Denise's on Saturday night.

Naturally, Noah was right into it (as he is with EVERY sport) and asked why the crowd kept hollering "BOOOOO". One of his uncles (I can't remember who), described to him that one of the golfers 'nick-names' was BOO (Boo Weekley).

You could just imagine the wheel's turning before he said "His parents must not have liked him very much to give him a name like that?"

YES - of course we all had a great laugh! My little comedian!!!

Back from another road trip

Life as an accountants widow is getting kinda costly. With all the work Jacques has been doing lately, Noah & I took another road trip this weekend. This time, we went to Moncton to visit Jacques family (and last weekend to PEI). Mostly it started as an excuse to get our Saturn into the dealership to have it's semi-annual inspection - then I got thinking of all the things I could 'get'.

When I say costly - I mean costly!!! It started off by me getting a ticket for having an overdue (by 2 months) NB Safety Inspection sticker - ON JACQUES CAR...that I have been bugging & bugging him to get fixed since July. A few days before I left, I found out that he had never got it done. I 'jokingly' said, "I hope I don't get a ticket" - blah, blah, blah! Well, SURE ENOUGH (for the first time in my life) I was stopped in a road block on the highway - and guess what they were checking for? You gotter - Safety Stickers. So I (the 'sucker wife') got a $172.50 fine for having and EXPIRED safety sticker - ARGGGG! Yes, I was just a little pissed! I called him and told him how frustrated I was (well, it may have not been 'that' pretty)!!!! LOL

While in Moncton, we made it a shopping weekend (to get caught up on all the shopping we DON'T have in Grand Falls)!!

Places we went included:

• Costco (I finally got my 14L stock pot)
• Sears (finally got a new pillow - can't wait for beddy-bye tonight)
• The Bonne Nouvelle (a Christian book store) to get some more Bible highlighters (for me and 2 people in my study class)
• Saturn dealership to get our semi annual maintenance done (we don't have a Saturn dealership in Grand Falls, either)
• Sport Check to get (or try to) Noah's hockey gear (the pieces he out grew this year) - to find out they had no skates left in his size (thankfully the skates from last year still mostly fit - for the first few weeks at least) - I guess we'll know for next year to shop early!
  
• ALL OVER to complete my 'evening cocktail' attire for Jacques CGA graduation ceremony in November. I am so excited to get all dolled up as well to see my hubby lookin' handsome and proud in a tuxedo while accepting his graduation certificate - YIPPY.
  

By the end of of the weekend, I had calmed down about the Safety sticker and enjoyed myself a great deal. I had a GREAT visit and chats with Denise (Jacques sister) & Luc, Mike (Jacques brother) & Brenda, and Jacqueline (another sister)! Thanks for everything, Denise!

And - I guess Jacques wanted to 'redeem' himself cuz when I got home he had MUCH outdoor work that needed done - completed. Stuff like, the pool dried and cleaned, grass cut, BIG shrubs all cut down (we're getting rid of them), all the deck bolts now installed, furnace 'stuff' complete, etc.... He's now snoring on the couch - so I'm assuming he worked his butt off today!!! PLUS, he got MOST of the work he needed to get done - done (deadlines are still a week away - so he's got time to complete).

I'm happy to be home and for now, no more road trips for me for a while. They're gettin' kind of expensive.... LOL

Happy Birthday 'Grandpa'

It's my stepfather's birthday on Sunday and rather than send a card - Noah & I have been working hard on something a little more creative.

Hope you enjoy, JOHN. Happy Birthday - hope you have the best birthday EVER!

School Bus Incident

Like every school day, I anxiously waited at the door to hear the faint squeals of the big yellow school bus slowing down the hill to come to a stop in front of our house. Today was different....the bus never came?

Considering we are all new to this school bus routine - I paced back & forth wondering what had happened.

We've grown accustom to the bus arriving between 2:05-2:10 pm, as well there being several children left on the bus when Noah arrives.

When the bus finally arrived around 2:35 pm (with NO children remaining on the bus) - Noah got off the bus walking very sluggishly towards the house. As usual, I opened the door to allow Mimi to run up to Noah in her excitement only to find that Noah was crying.

He told me that the 1st time the bus stopped in front of the house, his head was down and he was talking to someone. He only looked up after the bus passed the house (down the hill and turning the corner off of our street) then he got really scared. I'm not sure how the bus driver (who was NOT upset one bit) found out Noah was still on the bus - but after all the other children were dropped off, he came back to our house and dropped off our very scared little boy!

Noah walked sheepishly up the driveway, crying the whole way. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me how scared he was that he would get "grounded" (weird choice of words considering we have NEVER 'grounded' him per say). Poor little guy....scared of having to tell the bus driver, scared to get grounded and scared because he wasn't sure whether or not he would make it home or not :( All one of those life lessons, I guess!

He's happy now - happy that he got his 1 hour of XBOX per day back (after losing it for 3 days) - this sure took his mind off the bus incident pretty fast!

Wonderful 'last minute' weekend

Friday morning, I called Krista to see how she was doing. We chatted for a while. We discussed how Jacques was busy Friday night for a work function, Saturday had a golf tournament then had to work on Sunday to get some stuff done....she told me that Leo had to work on Saturday.

Then it HIT me - totally last minute - to take a last minute road trip to Prince Edward Island.

I love having this freedom. So I packed and when Noah came home from school, we left on our 6 hour 'trek' across the Canadian maritimes. I LOVE traveling through New Brunswick - it's such a beautiful province (especially in the Fall months).

We had a wonderful weekend and I had a FIRST. This was the first time EVER that I stayed awake longer than Krista. Man - did we chat and chat, then chatted some more. It was SO nice. Krista fell asleep around 4:30 am, then Leo & I continued chatting until 6:00 am.

AFTER Kitchen Reno's

I can't believe it's FINALLY completed - new counters, faucets, sinks in the kitchen & ensuite (the main bath remains to be completed and should be done by next week *fingers crossed*). It's been a VERY long day with a few more than a few 'snags' - but the end result is fantastic! I am REALLY impressed and especially LOVE my new sink!

Here is the AFTER result of the kitchen:

Before:

As we began preparing the 'shut-off's' last night to disconnect the taps & sinks, we noticed there were many plumbing 'irregularities' that prompted us to call a plumber for some help. Luckily, we found one that ended up to be 1. AMAZING 2. eager to help at a moments notice 3. available 4. very helpful & 5. extremely useful - I am so thankful in the end that we had a plumber come and upgraded all of our 'under-the-sink' plumbing! You see, everything happens for a reason! He ended up being here for 'most' of the day so I'm a little nervous to see the final bill - EEESH!!!

Okay, so when you find something like this (photo below) when you're removing your old taps - you know you have a problem! Luckily, the problem ended up being to my advantage - I got new taps after all!!!


The old taps were leaking. I knew we had a leak, but thought it was the plumbing - not the taps! Needless to say, I am feeling very lucky considering I got my new sink AND new taps. It looks SO, SO, SO pretty now. I've always wanted one of these white acrylic sinks - yippy!!!

See my new sink & taps:

And lastly, our "teeny-tiny" ensuite AFTER photos of the new counter & faucets:

BEFORE:

More happened today too - that unfortunately I did not get photos of. We had our chimney & furnace cleaned out. It was COMPLETELY clogged with old soot and crap. THANKFULLY we had not started a fire up until now - or else we probably would have had smoke THROUGHOUT the house and probably would have had a FIRE (and not just in the furnace). I am counting our lucky stars that we had it professionally cleaned - you SHOULD have seen how CLOGGED the pipes were. It really was NASTY.

So now we are about to sit with a nice fire crackling in the furnace - pumping off some pretty cool heat (on this c-c-cold night - going down to 2 degrees C tonight or about 30-somthing degrees F).

Kitchen Renovations

These are the BEFORE photos. Tomorrow is a big day in our house. We are finally getting some more of our renovations completed. On the list for tomorrow is: install new kitchen counter's & sink, install new ensuite bathroom's sink & faucets. Unfortunately, the main bathroom's counter was ordered incorrectly (for the 2nd time), so they will come back to install the main bath later.

You can't even imagine HOW excited I am! This is going to CHANGE the whole look of the kitchen (and bathrooms, too).

I'll be sure to post photos as soon as we're completed!