Happy Mother's Day

While I know that today is the day to celebrate all things mom, I want to give a shout out to Craig who helps make me the mom I am

what I love about him:
1 - I love how he sucks at loading the dishwasher but kicks ass at unloading it
2 - I love how he always makes sure the back door is locked before he comes to bed
3 - I love how he always kisses me on the back of the neck when he gets home from work (probably what got me the two kids!)
4 - I love how he does things without me even expecting it
5 - I love how he bought me flowers AND took time to write a wonderful card
6 - I love how he doesn't complain when I don't make supper although he is groaning inside
7 - I love how he puts my MP3 books on the computer and never complains when he is in the middle of a hockey game and I ask him to put one on my phone - NOW
8 - I love that he makes me "mixed tapes"
9 - I love that I don't need to teach division or photosynthesis to the boys because he's got it covered
10 - I love how he always tells me he loves me - even when he is ready to throttle me
11 - I love how he bought me an awesome gift for Mother's day and he is already putting it together
12 - I love how he has helped make me the mom I am

It doesn't hurt that he is the best looking guy I know.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms. Especially you, Shirley - you done good .

sorry

Not too much posting over the next few days. Have another kid home sick today. No, mom, it has nothing to do with my house! Lots of work this weekend. Will be taking some time off to spend with the fam on Sunday afternoon and to take the boys to the doctor tomorrow morning. Have a happy mother's day to all the mom's who read this. All 4 of you.
Hope to be back with details of my trip.
I will only say one thing - a lot of daiquiris were consumed.

ha ha

So much to write about I don't even know where to start. Will get my thoughts together tonight or tomorrow - and get my photos downloaded. Sad to leave, glad to be home.

s

Gourmet

Well it sounds like everyone is having a great time in Alberta and thanks Mom for sending the pictures, the kids really enjoyed them. Everything is going good here, had football yesterday and it was fun as always. At Shannon's suggestion, I laid the seats down in the back of the van, laid out blankets and the kids watched movies while I played. The weather was a little cool and damp so they were more than happy to sit there and watch. After the game and 'post-game analysis' I came back to the van and was promptly told, 'we are at the good part in the movie, go have some beers with your buddies, we'll be done in a bit'. As a treat for their good behaviour, I suggested we make our own pizzas for supper. Sterling didn't want them on pitas as we usually do so I asked if he wanted to buy the dough and make them from 'scratch'. The were enthused and after a quick trip to the grocery store, the following pictures are the result. They had a fun time making them, probably more than actually eating them. There was a bit of mess, but worth it for the experience. Guess which ones are Kaedo's, as a clue, he made three (of course).





Who knew you could make pizzas with cookie cutters?

The kids, up to their usual antics, also had a game of what I can only describe as 'Plastic Bag Sumo Wrestling'. Each pilfered our stockpile of plastic bags for their traditional Sumo garb and proceeded to wrestle downstairs, until I came around with the camera at which time it became 'Evade Dad for Fear He Might Post These Pictures On the Blog'. I caught an unsuspecting Sterling as he donned his gear, Kaedo was much more elusive as I only caught blurs of plastic and white hair. Sterling will spaz if he knows I posted these but I risked it before and thankfully they don't read the blog. Besides which, I think its a flattering picture, not like he's naked or in his unders, he is fully clothed in plastic bags :)





In baby news, our Momma robins eggs finally hatched and here are some pictures of the butt ugly babies. Thank God this camera isn't that good. Once Shannon comes home we'll try and get some pictures of them with feathers. See Sterling, now these are some embarrassing pictures. Nudity alert, nudity alert.






Until later,

C

day 3

Dear Craig -
Hi Honey - having a wonderful time.
Spent the afternoon with your mom and dad. They are darling as always and we had a lot of laughs. Your dad was red faced when I told the Mike Hunt story and was very uncomfortable throughout the childbirth and piercing conversations. He was a great sport and laughed when he wasn't cringing. Your mom was game as always, playing and dancing with Emma. She laughed so hard she was crying. Of course, lots of pictures were taken. Lots of tears at the end of the visit, as usual.
Having a great time with mom, dad and Jessica. We have been spending a lot of time together and enjoying it. Everyone (minus me) is sitting around Ken's huge TV watching to Habs. They are winning right now, so hopefully they stick with it.
Emma is hilarious. I hope you get to see her when you come to Alberta. I have laughed so much and we get along so well.
I am missing you and the boys and while I am having a great time I look forward to seeing you guys on Tuesday night.

I love you,
Shannon

PS - did I mention that Jessica and I got our noses pierced again?

day 2

In Medicine Hat now, enjoying myself at Jessica's. Emma is hilarious and I think she may get a complex from me laughing at her so much. No, I'm not laughing with her. Jessica's house is beautiful and you can see how much work she has put into it. She has set up a great room for me to stay in and I feel so comfortable here. We had pedicures this afternoon followed by a late lunch at Earls where a bottle of wine and two Malibu daiquiri's were consumed. I think we ate too. Now we are just hanging out and who knows where the night will go. Missing the boys and Craig like crazy but am happy to be seeing Stan and Shirley tomorrow.
Hopefully more from the road will come. If not, look forward to Craig's more entertaining posts through the weekend.

Tearful Goodbye

Well, so begins 5 days of peace and quiet... just kidding. Shannon is off to Alberta (Hi Shann) and we have settled into a boy's routine. (Not much different than when Shannon is her 'cept we're all boys) A little tearful this morning as usual, Kaeden got a little choked up that Mom was leaving for 5 days and once again as soon as we got home and ready for school he was back to normal. Sterling was feeling a little under the weather this morning but the mean Dad I am, I forced him off to school with true words of encouragement, 'Here's some Tylenol for your headache and Sucrets for your sore throat, call me if you need to come home' Strangely enough, for a kid who claims to dislike school, his words back to me were, 'Yeah, I might as well go learn something today' and he stayed the whole day. I wonder if Sterling got sick after I had to drag him around last night looking for football cleats. To steal a line from Shannon, the person who invented men's shoe sizes must have been a woman. The junior sizes go up to size 6 while the men's sizes started at 8 or 8.5. Bigfoot here is a 7.5 in men's cleats, so it turns out the only cleats I could find that came in that size were Under Armour (after telling him when we left the house, 'you are not getting Under Armour'). The other convenient thing is that Under Armour is the only brand in the store that never, I repeat NEVER goes on sale. Signs everywhere, 20% off all cleated shoes... then in small print, excluding Under Armour. So $75 later Sterling is thrilled with his new shoes (even though they are technically baseball cleats, they have the same pattern as football) and hopefully he gets some good use out of them. Really, with two practices a week then practices and games when the season starts, I'll be happy I got him good shoes.

Until tomorrow.

C