Happy Holidays!

Flickr photo thanks to Gizmo_F

I'm hoping all of you have had a stellar Christmas, I certainly did. I've eaten enough turkey to last me a lifetime and although I'm still stuffed (we had Christmas number 2 today) I'm seriously considering crawling to the fridge to snag a slab of stuffing. My second mom makes the best stuffing ever created by human hands. Seriously. Just writing about it is causing my full belly to growl -- stuffing and wine, oh my. The bonus of hosting big dinners is leftovers and I have a massive chunk of stuffing sitting in my fridge waiting to be devoured. Oh and there's the cheesy cauliflower too... oh no.

A big thanks to Sarah for Christmas dinner number one, it was fab. Thankfully the snow stopped falling Christmas eve (our snow banks were 7 feet high after mike dug out the 5 ft of snow at the end of our driveway left by the plow) so Christmas day was perfect for traveling, not that we had very far to go. It was a lovely day with unexpected appearances from Mr. Napkin head and Prince Napkin head. If only someone had snapped a photo of the original Mr. Napkin Head - it's one of those 'had to be there' moments but trust me when I say my dad caught all of us off guard and it was hilarious.

Today we cooked the bird for the other half of our family. Gertrude, affectionately named Gertie, was a pretty turkey and tasted delish.

Mike and I were spoiled rotten by our families: loads of lovely gifts! We slept covered in our new duvet last night and it was heavenly; I'm currently wrapped up in the softest blanket ever and we have enough chocolate around here to last a lifetime. A zillion lovely gifts, far too many to name but I'll definitely share some of them with you over the next couple of weeks. One will be my new fab pick of the week.

I'm chopping the lid tomorrow, I'm desperately in need of a cut considering my last one was in September! Ick, my hair is a mess. I'm going to a new stylist and trying a new cut - not sure if a brand new style is a smart idea with someone I've never been to but I'm going to give it a shot and hope to hell I don't end up with a hack job. I'll report back to you soon, I'm sure you'll think of NOTHING but my hair until you hear from me again.

I can't resist it any longer, stuffing and wine here I come.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Happy Birthday Big Bro!!

My big brother turns 44 today. Happy Birthday John!

Did I say 44? I meant 34. Seriously, he's 34 going on 14.

On this date many years ago (for MANY years in a row) John would be threatening to tell me what all of my Christmas gifts were if I didn't tell him one or two of his. He couldn't handle not knowing and I loved being surprised. Of course the reality was he would have never told me what my presents were but I was convinced he would ruin it for me so I would always give in and tell him a gift or two.

As if you really needed me to tell you John! You were the master present opener and re-sealer. There was just one year I gave in and looked with you and I totally regretted it on Christmas morning.

Although you are were a total pain in the ass big brother who looked out for me rather than buying me vodka and cigarettes - what nerve!! And even though we could have been aired on UFC on more than one occasion - I so did NOT throw a knife at you, you simply imagined that... or maybe I blocked it out? I have loads of fond memories of us growing up and I love you more than you know John. I am lucky to have you as a big brother and I'm lucky to have you as a friend now that we are bigger kids adults. and I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of you, you are an amazing man and a phenomenal father.

I hope you have a wonderful birthday bro! May all of your birthday wishes come true.

Oh and I made you a little something for your birthday - everyone feel free to check this out and have a good laugh on John's expense. John this is what you will look like if you let yourself go a little... okay, a lot. Go Bro, it's your birthday!

Christmas Elf

The majority of our Christmas decorations have been hung at the three foot point and below this year and each was hung accompanied by a very intense look of determination. We had a fun night filled with decorating and dancing. Let the Christmas season begin!

Halloween Hangover

I ate far too many of the little chocolate bars meant for the goblins last night. I have a chocolate hangover. blech.

Of course nephews and niece were definitely the cutest trick or treaters stomping around town.

The Mario Brothers costumes Joanne pulled together turned out phenomenal if you ask me:

They've got the poses down pat.

And of course Princess Belle made an appearance.


Jess and I watched The Exorcist as planned last night. I arrived home at 130 am totally freaked out and planned to sit in the living room until Mike got home; that was until I checked my mail and realized Lola had sold. Her new home is in Savannah, Georgia! Thanks to the sale I was distracted and got over being creeped out.

Mike and I had planned to attend a Halloween party as zombies tonight, unfortunately Mike is really turning into one so we can no longer attend. He found out yesterday that what we thought were some nasty bug bites are actually shingles! Ick and ouch. Thankfully I've had the chicken pox; unfortunately we can't be sure everyone else has so we're skipping the bash.

I hope you had a wonderful Halloween and that you enjoyed my Blogtoberfest run this month, I can't believe October is gone already. I'm going to attempt to stick to the daily posting so be sure to stop on by regularly.

Still Going Strong

I'm sorry this is so late mom and dad. October 6th was a very special day; 36 years of marriage deserves to be recognized and celebrated. You are my inspiration, I love you both with all of my heart.

Congratulations!!

Your Heart Be Held With Tenderness originally uploaded by Imagemakercan

RIP Henry

I have one full belly.

Dinner at the Charcoal last night to celebrate my beautiful Aunt Sue's 50th birthday followed by Thanksgiving dinner number one tonight at Joanne and Paul's. I'm mega stuffed.

Joanne and Paul named the bird Henry. His full name was *drum roll please* Henry the 8. Get it?

Photo full belly originally uploaded by pinkorchid_too

Bring on the Birds

It is almost a guarantee that come Monday I will be in a self-induced turkey coma so if I skip a day of Blogtoberfest you can blame it on the birds. Yep it's that time again, Thanksgiving weekend in Canada.

Turkey, and stuffing and gravy OH MY!

Photo Talking Turkey originally uploaded by ReyGuy

This is...

This is what I want to be when I grow up.


A teacher!! I'll be all grown up next May assuming all goes well this year. The next thing I want to be is a mom of course. Hopefully I'll be as amazing at that job as my own mom is.

This is how I like to spend my weekend.

Spending my weekend with friends and family laughing, singing and dancing makes for one fabulous weekend.

Mike and our niece at our Fiesta this weekend. THANKS MOM & DAD!!


Joanne, Paul and the boys at the "August Birthdays" party on Sunday.

Of course laying in the yard with a good book and a cold glass of water makes for a lovely weekend too and after this busy weekend that's exactly what I hope to do on Saturday.

Thanks to Bird Bath for this week's "This is..." theme, it was an awesome weekend which made it easy for me to post.

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Back in June I asked for your positive thoughts and prayers to be directed in my cousin Ben's nine year old son Benjamin's direction, he had a brain tumor and was having surgery to remove the tumor. I haven't posted about it since then because I just couldn't seem to wrap my head around the news, I still can't but it certainly isn't going to get any easier as time goes on: little Benjamin has been diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. My mom expressed her feelings and the feelings of our entire family really well here. She's right, sometimes bad things happen to good people.

Benjamin's illness has brought out the good in an unbelievable number of people and we saw this on Friday night. We attended a benefit for Benjamin and it was truly unbelievable. There were loads of amazing items donated for the silent auction; hundreds of people were at the benefit spending money on drinks, food, t-shirts, raffles and more to show their support; the Harvey brothers who play for the Edmonton Oilers were there signing autographs... it was overwhelming.

My cousin Ben (Benjamin's father) got up and spoke to the room of appx. 500 and expressed his gratitude to everyone involved in this benefit and the other fundraisers that have taken place. It broke my heart to see him up there. Nobody should have to watch their child fight an impossible battle with such a horrific illness, it's not fair. Please continue to send positive energy in Benjamin's direction, pray that his time left here on earth is filled with more laughter and fun than tears and pain.

Happy Birthday Paul!!

Happy Birthday Paul from Mike and I... and Angelina too! I'm sure you would have never guessed it (hope you're catching the thick sarcasm here) but Mike chose the shot of Angelina for your Happy Birthday post.

Use your own photos for fun at this cool site: PhotoFunia.

Theme Thursday: Summer Fun

This week's theme was an easy one for me to take part in, playing with my niece and nephews is always a good time!

This is... what makes me happy.

Family and friends are at the top of the list of things that make me happy. These three in particular give me warm fuzzies: I can't help but smile when I see their faces whether it's in person or in photographs.




Better late than never. Thanks to One Little Acorn for this week's "This is..." theme.

A Day at the Beach

It was an incredibly windy day at the beach, so windy in fact that our little swimmer wasn't able to get close to the waters edge without holding tight to a hand belonging to an adult. We played in the water and built sand castles but a good deal of Neve the three year old daredevil and my time was spent on the jungle gym: climbing rock walls, swinging, going down the curly and bumpy slides, swinging, climbing up the slides and more swinging.




Playing in the sand with my parents sitting in lawn chairs beside the big beach blanket time warped me back to my childhood. My mom packed one of her famous beach lunches of course, loads of sandwiches, fresh fruit, cookies, cheese, chips and more liquid than an army could consume. Yum!




Grams, Papa and Neve being goofs.


Eight zillion shots later...


One of my absolute favourite pictures of the day: pure happiness on my parents' faces.

Two Mer Sisters Named Amelia

I cannot believe that I'm nearing the end of my second week of holidays already! Time flies. What have I done for the last week and a half? A little bit of this and a little bit of that, I have been busy so I haven't blogged much but I'll try to be a little more regular for the remainder of the summer.

Last Friday I spent the afternoon with Neve. We started our playtime with a swim shortly after I arrived at my parents place where Neve was spending the day with Papa (as per her usual Friday routine). After playing "sister mermaids" for half an hour Neve decided we should call each other Amelia for the rest of the day and I suggested that the Amelias take a trip to the park. Surprisingly 'Amelia' agreed and we ventured off to the nearby school yard where I often played as a kid.

A sweet little girl named Ping ran straight over to us when we stopped by the climbing equipment. You've got to love kids. When Ping asked Neve what her name was her response was to tuck her chin into her chest, scooch closer to me and then growl at poor little Ping. Thankfully Ping wasn't put off by this display of Neveness, she asked Neve a few more questions which received the same growl of a reply... I tried to coax words out of my beautifully stubborn niece but not surprisingly I had no luck. Ping looked at me confused and asked "Why can't her talk?" I couldn't help but laugh.

Ping asked Neve to play with her and suggested a few other things before giving up and focusing her attention on me. She looked up at me with a big smile and proudly announced that she was 5 years old, went to this school and could swing across ALL of the monkey bars. After glancing nervously at the growling girl tucked against my thigh I asked Ping if she would like to show us her very cool talent.

It was Ping's excellent display of monkey bar crossing that caught Neve's attention (as much as she didn't want to watch she couldn't help her eyes from looking in Ping's direction). Before I knew it Neve was chasing after Ping copying her every move, you would have thought the two were old friends. Ping showed Neve how to do a cartwheel, Neve watched carefully and then avoided having to try it herself by announcing "I can do ballet. Want me to teach you ballet?" She then spun around and fell on her butt which threw drew giggles from both girls.

A very sweet moment for me to watch was when Ping suddenly stopped what she was doing and crept closer to Neve. She peered into Neve's face, smiled her beautiful smile and chirped, "You have the same hair as me! You have the same kind of eyes as me too!" Neve smiled back at Ping and said, "Yes, we match."

Ping and her dad left the playground around the same time my dad drove by honking his horn, he surprised Neve and I with ice cream cones to devour before we made the short but hot journey home.

While sitting under the shade of a tree on the playground eating our ice cream Neve asked me if I thought we would see Ping again, she liked her new friend and hoped they could play again. Neve talked about the fun she had had playing with Ping and me and told me, "I was shy and then no more."

I asked her why she had been shy at all and her response made my day: "I didn't want to share you Aunt Jaime."

This is my most treasured childhood possession.

The item I loved most when I was a kid was a small pillow lovingly referred to as my "stinky" pillow; my dad always called it that and the name stuck. I used to suck on the corners of that nasty little thing and loved it until the foam insides turned to dust. I thought I still had the pillows stashed away but I can't seem to locate it so today you'll meet the runner up: Garfield.

I was obsessed with the Garfield comic strip when I was little so when I tore the Christmas wrapping off of this little guy one year I was a very happy little girl. My big brother picked him out for me and as you can see he chose well, this was one loved cat.

Thanks Danielle from teacups on treetops for choosing the 'This is...' theme this week.

Flashback Friday

Storybook Gardens in London, Ontario holds many fond memories for me. I remember visiting it on many occasions and for old times sake my dad (aka Chops in this picture) took my niece Neve last summer - we tried to pose her next to the less creepy Humpty Dumpty that now sits on the wall but she would have nothing of it! Thanks big bro John for holding on in this shot and not taking advantage of the moment to throw me to the ground.

14 Million Dollars!!

My brother-in-law Paul participated in an amazing fundraiser this past weekend: The Ride to Conquer Cancer. Participants rode 200 km (124.27 miles for my friends from the USA) on their bicycles in just two days!

Although tired and sore from his journey Paul crossed the finish line with an ear to ear smile plastered on his face. Seeing him and hundreds of other participants (2850 in total) cross that line was really an amazing feeling. It might sound cheesy but there was a real feeling of hope in the air. Although there were many seasoned cyclists taking part in the ride the majority of the participants were average Joes: people of all shapes, sizes and ages. Unbelievable... 200 km!

This was the first year the fundraiser took place and a jaw dropping total of 14 million dollars was raised for The Princess Margaret - one of the 5 leading cancer research hospitals in the world - the money will go directly to the highest cancer research priorities! 14 MILLION DOLLARS!! That just blows my mind.

Kudos to you Paul! I am in awe of you and your accomplishment, congratulations!

Happy Father's Day!!

My dad is the best dad on earth. Seriously.

I love him more than words could ever express. He is a wonderful one-of-a-kind man who I am proud to call not only my father but my friend.

I love you dad!! Happy Father's Day!!

Keep 'em comin'

The positive thinking and prayers have paid off for one on the long list I posted a few days back. The test results are in for the 'important person' I mentioned and all is good! What a relief!

The little 8 year old men still need your positive thoughts. B goes in for surgery this Monday to remove the mass on his brain and H is still in intensive care. Things with H are very serious and it is hard to say how things will turn out but there is a thread of hope and we are all holding on to it, keep those prayers coming.