I'm almost feeling complete again!

Well, as you all know I have spent the last five years spending only weekends and summer holidays with my entire family. It's taken some adjusting for everyone. We've all gotten into our routines and life goes on.

This week marks the day when my family is COMPLETE again and I am overjoyed! Aimee returned home last week and Miss Jennifer is coming home tomorrow! ONE MORE SLEEP!

I'm sure that this will come with it's own adjustments. My babies are no longer babies. Honestly, I have never been one of those parents that needed to have ultimate control over their children's activities. I've always wanted to know where they are (to know they are safe) what they were doing (to know they were safe or give the being safe lecture prior to departure) and when they were gonna be home (to know when to stop worrying cause I knew they were safe) The girls have always been more than respectful of our relationship and provided me with all the detail (or what was safe to tell me so that I wouldn't worry to much that they weren't safe) that was necessary. I knew about the occasional drinking, I knew about the bush parties and I can honestly say I probably knew more about my kids and their friends because they shared almost everything (sometimes after the fact...refer to Thanksgiving announcements post) with me.

Anyway, now the only reason they have to tell me where they are going, who with etc is out of respect for the fact that they will be living under the family roof and they don't want me to worry!

I love my girls and I'm excited to have them home....the grocery/hot water/hydro bills...not so exciting! LOL...ahhh the joys of parenthood! SO worth every minute and dime!

WELCOME HOME LADIES!!!
TTYL!

I'm Back....

The last few days have been a flurry of activity at our household. Aimee completed the final chapter of her life in Waterloo and I went to rescue and bring her home for at least the next two years while she completes her Masters at U of Toronto starting September. With that being said you can imagine that the items she had to complete her household in Waterloo have now come home to "roost" one might say.
Anyway, in order to accommodate her new chapter, Aimee purchased a lovely, couch like futon that will replace the queen-size bed in her room. This will hopefully provide her with sufficient room to install a desk in her room so that she has a private, quiet place to study if required. This will be picked up from Waterloo next Saturday and in the meantime Aimee will be doing the "CLEANSWEEP" of her room and trying to find storage space for all of her things. In the mean time they will live in the dining room, the hallway, up the stairs and in the upstairs hallway. Most of this will hopefully be accomplished by the time this Friday rolls around and Jennifer moves home after five years of University with all her stuff!

On Saturday, Jennifer, Aimee and I went to a conference for a little fun and relaxation. Our first session was with a key note speaker named Loretta that was funny and gave many fabulous little tidbits on eliminating negativity from one's life. She suggested that the first thing that everyone should do when waking up in the morning is to slowly open your eyes, put a smile on your face and announce with conviction..."I'm Back!!" and if you share your bed with someone, look over at them and announce "Well it looks like you are back too! No funeral planning for us today!!" This just struck me very funny and worthwhile! I think that on a whole we don't appreciate the fact that each day is precious and deserves to be lived to the fullest! Then we participated in 2 work sessions-first with renowned Medium John Holland from Boston. He discussed his experiences as a medium and went on to connect several people with their loved ones. He also was very funny and it was extremely interesting to be in a room seeing people being connected with loved ones. He was general in his comments at some times but very specific in others. After lunch, our second workshop was on past life regression with Denise Linn. This was very interesting and all of us got something different out of it. Our last keynote speaker was the wonderful Sylvia Browne. Her discussion in general was much the same as we have seen in the past and clearly she's getting old and intolerant. She had little patience for the people in the audience that were chosen to ask her questions. I think that will be my last time spending money to see her in person.

Sunday was spent catching up with Hubby, grocery shopping and relaxing.

I look forward to the time when, my own cleansweeping will be done and we can spend some down time relaxing in the backyard just doing nothing!!

Have a good week everyone!!
TTYL

I'm Back!!!

The last few days have been a flurry of activity at our household. Aimee completed the final chapter of her life in Waterloo and I went to rescue and bring her home for at least the next two years while she completes her Masters at U of Toronto starting September. With that being said you can imagine that the items she had to complete her household in Waterloo have now come home to "roost" one might say.
Anyway, in order to accommodate her new chapter, Aimee purchased a lovely, couch like futon that will replace the queen-size bed in her room. This will hopefully provide her with sufficient room to install a desk in her room so that she has a private, quiet place to study if required. This will be picked up from Waterloo next Saturday and in the meantime Aimee will be doing the "CLEANSWEEP" of her room and trying to find storage space for all of her things. In the mean time they will live in the dining room, the hallway, up the stairs and in the upstairs hallway. Most of this will hopefully be accomplished by the time this Friday rolls around and Jennifer moves home after five years of University with all her stuff!

On Saturday, Jennifer, Aimee and I went to a conference for a little fun and relaxation. Our first session was with a key note speaker named Loretta that was funny and gave many fabulous little tidbits on eliminating negativity from one's life. She suggested that the first thing that everyone should do when waking up in the morning is to slowly open your eyes, put a smile on your face and announce with conviction..."I'm Back!!" and if you share your bed with someone, look over at them and announce "Well it looks like you are back too! No funeral planning for us today!!" This just struck me very funny and worthwhile! I think that on a whole we don't appreciate the fact that each day is precious and deserves to be lived to the fullest! Then we participated in 2 work sessions-first with renowned Medium John Holland from Boston. He discussed his experiences as a medium and went on to connect several people with their loved ones. He also was very funny and it was extremely interesting to be in a room seeing people being connected with loved ones. He was general in his comments at some times but very specific in others. After lunch, our second workshop was on past life regression with Denise Linn. This was very interesting and all of us got something different out of it. Our last keynote speaker was the wonderful Sylvia Browne. Her discussion in general was much the same as we have seen in the past and clearly she's getting old and intolerant. She had little patience for the people in the audience that were chosen to ask her questions. I think that will be my last time spending money to see her in person.

Sunday was spent catching up with Hubby, grocery shopping and relaxing.

I look forward to the time when, my own cleansweeping will be done and we can spend some down time relaxing in the backyard just doing nothing!!

Have a good week everyone!!
TTYL

I'm Back!!!

The last few days have been a flurry of activity at our household. Aimee completed the final chapter of her life in Waterloo and I went to rescue and bring her home for at least the next two years while she completes her Masters at U of Toronto starting September. With that being said you can imagine that the items she had to complete her household in Waterloo have now come home to "roost" one might say.
Anyway, in order to accommodate her new chapter, Aimee purchased a lovely, couch like futon that will replace the queen-size bed in her room. This will hopefully provide her with sufficient room to install a desk in her room so that she has a private, quiet place to study if required. This will be picked up from Waterloo next Saturday and in the meantime Aimee will be doing the "CLEANSWEEP" of her room and trying to find storage space for all of her things. In the mean time they will live in the dining room, the hallway, up the stairs and in the upstairs hallway. Most of this will hopefully be accomplished by the time this Friday rolls around and Jennifer moves home after five years of University with all her stuff!

On Saturday, Jennifer, Aimee and I went to a conference for a little fun and relaxation. Our first session was with a key note speaker named Loretta that was funny and gave many fabulous little tidbits on eliminating negativity from one's life. She suggested that the first thing that everyone should do when waking up in the morning is to slowly open your eyes, put a smile on your face and announce with conviction..."I'm Back!!" and if you share your bed with someone, look over at them and announce "Well it looks like you are back too! No funeral planning for us today!!" This just struck me very funny and worthwhile! I think that on a whole we don't appreciate the fact that each day is precious and deserves to be lived to the fullest! Then we participated in 2 work sessions-first with renowned Medium John Holland from Boston. He discussed his experiences as a medium and went on to connect several people with their loved ones. He also was very funny and it was extremely interesting to be in a room seeing people being connected with loved ones. He was general in his comments at some times but very specific in others. After lunch, our second workshop was on past life regression with Denise Linn. This was very interesting and all of us got something different out of it. Our last keynote speaker was the wonderful Sylvia Browne. Her discussion in general was much the same as we have seen in the past and clearly she's getting old and intolerant. She had little patience for the people in the audience that were chosen to ask her questions. I think that will be my last time spending money to see her in person.

Sunday was spent catching up with Hubby, grocery shopping and relaxing.

I look forward to the time when, my own cleansweeping will be done and we can spend some down time relaxing in the backyard just doing nothing!!

Have a good week everyone!!
TTYL

Lunch time visit

I went to visit Iris and her parents at lunchtime this afternoon. Here is a picture of the little beauty!

Congratulations Mark and Kate!!!!

It's a GIRL!!

So very exciting!

Little Iris was born sometime this morning (1 am call) at a healthy 9lbs 12oz's!

I can't wait to see her!!

Congratulations Mark and Kate you guys are gonna make WONDERFUL parents!

Hugs and Kisses from all of us at the Campbell House!

It's Baby Time....

Today I will sit on pins and needles waiting for that call! The one that is my very excited good friend Mark announcing that his lovely wife Kate has delivered their first child!

If it's a girl...She will be named Iris and if it's a boy...He shall be named Jack!

Kate is in the hospital as I write this and my thoughts and prayers are with them! God is watching over Kate and Babe making them safe and healthy. He's also got a calming hand on Mark that will move him out of harms way when Kate starts to throw punches! I cannot even express how excited I am.

On other baby news...Marty and Nicole are also in the final weeks of pregnancy and the Doctor has announced that they too could go at any time.

For this wonderful couple this will be baby number 3 and the family are taking a poll to see what everyone thinks of their choices of baby names. You can go and vote on the question of the week and give your opinion. I like Reed (such a strong name) for a boy and Kiera (different and I love the way it sounds!!) for a girl. Both those names go so good with their family name. So...That's my vote!

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.

- Elizabeth Stone

I'm glad I made the decision to have my girls...They are my greatest accomplishment! I know that these new little lives will bring much love, joy and pride to these very good friends of mine!

Call will ya please call!!!

I'll keep you posted.
TTYL

Somebody once said...

"Oh...I may have my faults....being wrong just isn't one of them!!"

Oh wait that was me! I know I've said this before. So why is it that nobody fricking believes me when I speak?

DD3# was warned at the beginning of the school year that unacceptable grades in this academic year would lead to her mother (that's me) taking over control of her social, financial and scholastic life.

Well the not so stellar report came to me by way of the kind man that my grandpuppy barks at every day. We won't publicly humiliate the child as no good will come of that...let's just say....

"She's MINE, MINE, MINE ALL MINE!!!"

So upon receipt of the note, we calmly sat (we had company) and doled out the punishment. The list was long and brought significant tears! Tears that only a Mother Crocodile could love!

Fast Forward to this morning:

7:30 am
" Knock, knock on the front door"

Lo and behold, it is the young co-conspirator of the lovely GROUNDED grade 10 math challenged youth that I call "Baby"

It was a great way to start my day! Extending the punishment really doesn't hurt me at all!

Let's hope she gives up, gives in and pulls up her marks before Summer....Summer school will greatly inhibit her ability to hang out with friends.

Spring has Sprung!

I love the spring, it brings new things. Buds on trees, new babies (3 days and counting for Kate and 3 weeks for Nicole)and baseball

Well the teams have been chosen, the shirts have been picked and the first game is May 7th at 1pm! How cool is that!

Rob has been playing baseball with the same core group of guys for a number of years now and this has enhanced our lives tremendously. We have met new friends, welcomed new babies into the world, watched those babies grow into beautiful young people and played some pretty exciting ball (until it comes time for payoffs and then well...let's just say it can only go up from here and it will!). We have made teammates and their families a part of our lives all year long! Our team has successfully been the most fan supported team in the league. The other men are definitely jealous of the fact that their opponents always have a cheering section.

We have had fabulous sponsors and this year is no different. This year our Sponsor is Marty and his company Advantage Car and Truck Rentals. Marty has been a key person on our team for a number of years bringing us great ability for ball, babies (baby #3 due in 3 weeks) and laughter! He and his family are a pleasure to spend time with!

Go check out his website...explore a little, check out the bantering in the guestbook and check out the great shirts our guys are gonna be sporting this year!! At least they are gonna look good!

Put me in Coach....I'm ready to keep score!

Fun, Fun, Fun.....

I honestly have to say, I never thought that I would be one of those people that forms friendships with people on the internet...These are things that I warn my girls about!
I mean honestly...how do you know that people are who they say they are blah blah blah...

Blogging is so different! While surfing the blogosphere you find all sorts of random people that open up their lives to you and how can you help but go back for more. These people often have something in common with you, have similar writing styles, similar views on the world and when you blog you generally do it for you..therefore it's a place to vent, share or maybe keep friends you know updated. It's not like a chat room that predators could be out there seeking out their next victim.

I have found so many people that I have come to know and love and frankly become interested in their lives. People that I admire their courage, their strength, their sense of humour and their wonderful talent for writing. I have found people locally, through other friends that blog and I have people I call friends from all over the world that I regularly peek into their lives for an update and they peek into mine!

I met Brianne over at Heather's blog. I was so intrigued by the fact that her name was the same as my youngest child that I started to read and one comment led to another and the next thing I know...hell, she's one of the family! Aimee's got to know her, hell we read Bri's blog and we need to discuss a) how fricking funny she is! b) what would we do in her place....Brianne has a writing style that draws you in, makes you feel warm and cozy and makes you wanna reach out and give her a hug! She's always fresh and funny, even when she's sad or annoyed.

I'm pleased to say that Brianne's arranged to come for a visit. It seems that Canada is her Dad's birth country and he has some relatives here in Toronto, that Brianne can visit while she's here. If you are Brianne's parents checking out to see who we are....well have a read,check out Aimee's blog and Heather's blog..I think you'll find we are pretty normal in most things. But feel free to shoot me an email, I'll send you my number and we can chat...I have three girls as well and I'd wanna know who my kid was going to visit! I promise we'll take good care of her!

We'll be looking for suggestions for fun things to do...Niagara Falls, CN Tower, exploring the U of T campus where Aimee is starting her Masters in September and working in the lab starting May 1st. Maybe the zoo...cause it's Jen's favorite place to go (depending on the weather) Any suggestions??

Let the planning begin!!!!