Christmas 2011

Well it's now December 28 and our Christmas celebrations are now over! The boys had a wonderful time this year!
On Christmas Eve we went out for a fancy dinner with my Dad, brother, sister and her fiancée, my other sister and my Nan (my dad's mom). We went to Element's restaurant in Peterborough. It was really nice. D-Man and I split pork tenderloin stuffed with roasted chestnuts, on a bed of apple coulis with seasonal vegetables. Mister M had some delicious grouper (fish) breaded with panko and miso, served with broad beans and rice. For dessert we had a chocolate mousse cake served with a blackberry sauce... sooooo good! We exchanged gifts there too.Then when we got home the boys got to open our traditional Christmas eve presents, new PJ's and a Christmas book to read together. This year's book was Dr Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas. One of my favourites! The boys loved it too.


Then Christmas morning they got up and opened their stockings. I'm not sure if Mister M really believes in Santa, or just the magic but he was sooooo excited to get what he had asked for. {In our house Santa only fills the stockings, nothing else. They get to ask for 1 smaller thing from him in their letter/e-mail and that's what they will get sitting beside their stocking on the couch. I do this because I don't want my kids to feel bad for not getting an Xbox from Santa when the bully down the street does. I also want them to be grateful for all the love and time their friends and family put into choosing the perfect gift for them.}We then had the entire day to sit around and wait. My sister and her fiancée had Christmas morning at his grandparents, my mom was sleeping (she works nights) and my dad had to work until 4 (turns out he was an hour late too). So we waited until everyone was there before starting gifts.The boys had a great time! D-Man really got the hang of ripping the paper off of the presents! Mister M got pretty much everything he asked for, and then some! They were pretty spoiled!D-Man really didn't understand the whole Christmas thing yet, but Mister M made sure to thank everyone for their gifts and hug them when he was excited!

Collages

So every year for my guy's birthdays I make a collage. It features every birthday they've had (or in D-Man's case every 3 months). It's crazy to see how much they've grown while still staying them. I just wanted to share them with you! Enjoy!


They sure don't stay babies for long.

End of Sem 1 and start of Xmas!

Semester 1 is finally over! It was brutal, class from 8-3 Monday, Tuesday, class from 8-4 Wednesday and placement Thursday and Friday from 6am-2pm. And of course final exams were all pretty much on the same day lol. I don't think I did too bad, I went into everything already passing the course, so that's not the issue. But I want Dean's list, which means I need an 80% average, which is my usual lowest mark, but now with the two kids and the stress from my family being stupid and useless it's been harder to study. We'll see next week!
The boys and I have been getting ready for Christmas, still have some outside decorating to do later today, but since this global warming thing keeps happening, there' no snow!!! Since I live in central Ontario we usually have some by now, but I'm not complaining. If there is no snow all year that would be perfect for me!D-Man has been really good with the tree, he had some grabs at it while we were decorating, but since then hasn't touched it. I'm really impressed since he's pretty evil and usually does the opposite of whatever you ask him to do (which bodes well for the teenage years). Mister M has picked out our decorating colours this year, we usually do red and gold but he has decided that they aren't' christmassy enough so this year it's red and green, with a splash of gold.I'm sending the boys to daycare all next week so that I have some time to get the presents wrapped, clean the house, do my baking and try to get over this brutal cold that I managed to fight off until school was over, but is now attempting to kill me.I don't have my full schedule for next semester, but from what I can see it's pretty dumb, huge breaks in between classes, staying until 5pm most days, two days of placement at a hospital, I'm hoping for the one in town but my luck I'll be sent to the one 45 minutes away. We shall see I suppose.I'm going to be posting a bit more this week, tons of news to catch up on!

Halloween, School and Placement

Well my attempts to blog more during reading week were a bust. On the plus side, I almost got caught up with laundry and sorting out old clothes that don't fit, I scraped wallpaper and painted a bathroom, and I did my assignments, homework and studied. So it's not that bad.I took the boys out for Halloween trick-or-treating this year, they both had a ton of fun! I even dressed up too. Mister M was a scary vampire, D-Man was froda... Yoda with a 'fro, and I was a witch. They got tons of candy!I've been back at school for two weeks now, and started my new placement. I'm at a long term care facility, and so far so good. I'm on the locked ward where all the dementia patients are, and I like being able to help them, but it's so unbelievably sad. I want to cry everyday when I leave. They're scared, confused, want to go home, don't know who they are or even when they are. I talked to one little lady who was telling me all about how she needs to find her keys so she can go home and take care of her mother, who's been dead for 20+ years. Another is scared of everyone in uniform and begs to be allowed to leave. Some are really sweet though, tell you they love you and give hugs and kisses. Some are crabby and hit and slap, fight you when they don't like what you're doing. It's just sad. I think dementia is the absolute worst disease you can get. When you get that old, everyone you know is either gone or going and all you have left are your memories, and they're stolen from you along with your freedom and your mobility. It's the absolute definition of unfair.
Mister M will be 6 years old soon! I've got all his presents ready, his party booked and his birthday dinners scheduled. He's one spoiled big boy that's for sure!
I've got tons of assignments and tests coming up so I'm not expecting to be able to get on to blog all that much, I'm going to try though, so hopefully I'll have a few more before the end of the month!

Reading Week!!!!

It's finally reading week!!!I really needed the break, although I'm not sure how much of a break it really is. I've got a crazy amount of stuff to do. I've gone one more research essay to write (I've already done 2) and studying to do for school, plus I've got to do about 600 loads of laundry because I've let it pile up, and I'm also going through and washing/sorting the boys old clothes so I can sell/donate them.. I've also got to continue with redecorating my parents house so they can list it in the spring, and since I'm apparently the only one who can do anything around here it makes it a bit harder. And that doesn't even take into account spending time with my boys.... egads that's a lot to do in a week. .We finally had some nice days last weekend (first time in months it hasn't been raining it seems) so I took my sister AuntyM, Mister M and D-Man to the pumpkin patch. It was a blast, there was a corn maze, a hay ride, a spooky barn, farm animals, a pumpkin cannon, a picnic and we got to go to the patch and pick our own pumpkins for Halloween! The boys had a blast! When we got home from the pumpkin patch we decided to get all of our Halloween decorating done. We really like to do a lot, it's Mister M's favourite time of the year for decorations. He loves it when we make our yard super spooky and cool. This year we've got a cemetery, a crime scene with a glowing skull and hands, three spider webbed trees, bones all over the place, the front door is covered in webs and caution tape and spiders, and the piece de resistance is the giant blow up spider in the front yard. It's pretty awesome! Too bad we hardly get any kids trick-or-treating.
Oh well, more candy for Mama lol. I'm hoping to be able to get a couple more blog posts up before reading week is over (provided I have anything to talk about that is), but for now it's research essays on an ethical issue in nursing practice for me! Yippee... ;)

Sorry

Wow! It's been forever since I've last blogged. It's been crazy busy around here, but I think things are finally starting to get back to normal.
I've started school, midterms are actually next week, so I'm studying like crazy! It's going really well, the program is hard, but not too hard. I start my first placement next month at a retirement home in town. I'm looking forward to it, it'll be nice to get out of the class and actually provide nursing care to real people.Mister M is in grade 1. He's still in french immersion, and still loves school! His morning teacher isn't my cup of tea but luckily his afternoon teacher is great. He'll also get some valuable life lessons on working with people he doesn't like. Which is always good. He's started an art class at the local art school (not the one at the YMCA this one is more involved, less for little kids). He goes to his second class Saturday and he's going to be working with clay, which he's excited for!D-Man is in full time daycare, and it was super rough at the start. It took him almost three whole weeks before he wouldn't cry for the entire day. It was so bad that the lady said that she wasn't sure if she could handle him anymore, but luckily he's accepted that he needs to go there, and that Mama will always be back for him. So now it's actually nice for him to go, he gets to play with other kids and learn about sharing and not being the spoiled baby of the house.Halloween is coming up! We're excited, I'm taking both boys out this year, Mister M is dressing up as a vampire, and D-Man is dressing up as Yoda. Value Village is awesome for costumes, they get in so many new ones a year that it's hard to pick just one to be!Last weekend was thanksgiving, I hosted this year, made all the food for the entire family. 3 roasted chickens, squash soup, cheddar and bacon mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, stuffing and 5 pies! Hardly anything was left over.Fall is my favourite time of year, it's cool but not cold, the air is fresh, the leaves are beautiful. We went for our annual walk through the woods last weekend, snake hunting. Both boys had a blast. D-Man even walked the whole way himself. They explored, got dirty and found 10 snakes and 1 salamander. My dad came along with us, and helped Mister M hold the snakes and the salamander so that I didn't have too lol.
Hopefully now that we're back on track I'll be able to keep up with this blog a bit more, and I hope that it won't be another month before I'm able to post next!

Niagara Falls Trip 2011

So the boys and I just got back from our annual vacation to Niagara Falls (the Canadian side). We had a blast!Last year I actually put myself into labour with D-Man while we were there. This year I carried him around on the outside instead.We did a lot of fun things! Ripley's Believe it Or Not, a fun Maze that Mister M was amazing at getting through, the Skywheel, and the Rainforest Cafe.We found a pretty garden and went for a walk in it.
I think it was one of the boys favourite things. They could run/crawl around to their hearts content. D-Man explored everywhere and got a girlfriend and Mister M made some new friends and played tag with some puppies!We stayed at the same hotel as last year. The Comfort Inn on Clifton Hill. Its not fancy but its affordable, clean the staff are super friendly and they have a nice pool! For two nights including fees and taxes it came to $200 3which is way less than I paid for our Toronto mini vacation). Each night and morning we went for a swim! The boys love it. Mister M would live in the water if I'd let him.We took GO Transit to get there and back, which is a nice way to travel! I only have to pay for myself (kids 5 and under are free) and since its mostly by train D-Man can be down and playing instead of strapped into a car seat. The buses are nice too. Especially since I planned our travel time around Nap time, D-Man slept on both bus rides there and back! The GO bus from Burlington to Niagara Falls was even a double Decker bus. Mister M was thrilled! Its about a 5 hour trip one way from home to Niagara Falls, but worth it for sure!That pretty much wraps up our summer this year, we might have one or two more Toronto day trips, but I've got a two day CPR/First aid course this week, my drivers test on the 1st and D-Man needs his 12 month checkup and needles on the 31st, so we're pretty busy. Hopefully I'll pass my test and be able to drive us everywhere! Keep your fingers crossed for me :)