Celebration of life

Today is a day like any other except to me it is the anniversary of my Mum passing away. If you've lost a parent, child or close friend/relative then you know how hard a day like this can be. It is easy to dwell on the sadness and what I've lost. It is easy to cry and lament to God about how cruel he is, but none of this brings her back or takes away the pain. Instead I would like to focus on the wonderful person she was and how her legacy now continues through me and her grandchildren. She loved us very much and there wasn't much she wouldn't have done for us. To lighten things up a little, I would like to share a couple of fun memories involving her. When I was about 3 years old, Mum and I lived in Bournemouth, which is on the south coast of England. She took me to the beach and we went out wading in the English channel. We were having a ton of fun when suddenly her foot came flying out of the water and she started screaming. I looked up at her and she had a crab attached to her big toe! Of course in retrospect this was painful to her, but all I can remember is her yelling "get it off! get it off!" and wildly swinging her leg around! One of the best things we did was when she and my cousin Sophie came out to the States to see me, when I was 5 months pregnant with Jessica. We went to New York city for the day and had so much fun. We went to bloomingdales and got something just to get the brown bag! We went up the empire state building and I remember Mike showing me the twin towers. After eating at a really good indian restaurant, we had tickets to see the phantom of the opera on broadway. It was amazing! Sitting next to my bed on my dresser is a picture of my Mum and I holding hands, standing in front of the theater. We had a great day. Today and every day I miss her. I miss hearing her voice and knowing that she loved me unconditionally, no matter what I did. I miss talking to her on the phone and I mourn that my kids won't know what an amazing woman she was. That being said, today I celebrate the life of Ann Patricia Napier and wish she had not been taken so soon. She is sorely missed and was loved very much. I miss you Mum.

Long time no write....

I suddenly realized that it had been a long time since I had put anything on my blog. Whoops! So here goes the condensed version of the last few weeks. Mike and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. It really doesn't seem that long ago that I walked down the aisle and married my soul mate. So much has happened over the last 11 years and we had much to celebrate. We have an amazing family and we're very fortunate in todays climate to have stable income and a roof over our heads. We are lucky. Jessie is back in the strings program and has her violin from school. She is still having a little trouble adjusting to her new school. Not with the work but with making friends. Its very important to her and its not happening fast enough for her. Josh has now joined the strings program and he will be bringing his cello home this afternoon. He is very excited. Abby and Ben are both doing well at school and Sam is now number 1 on the waiting list for pre-k. We have all his paperwork and shots up to date, so we are just waiting on a spot to come available for him. He is so ready for school. He's driving me crazy with all his energy and boredom! Chloe-Anne has turned out to be an eating machine and will eat pretty much anything you put in front of her. She's finally ready to crawl also. About time girl! Last week Mom and Dad came to visit and they finally got to meet our baby girl. All the kids had a great time seeing their grandparents and they wished it could have been for a little longer. Fall is finally here. The leaves are starting to turn and the temps are starting to dip down at night. We are able to turn the ac off and have the windows open to let the fresh air in. This is my favourite time of year. I think we are going to try and go apple picking this weekend. Anyway, that's about it. You are now officially all up to date on our lives. Thanks for reading!

Sam strikes again

So yesterday I was sat on the couch and as usual the boys left the bathroom door open, so I couldn't see the front doorbell rings. I ask Ben to see who's there and he opens the door and there's no one there. Sam has this habit of going outside, ringing the doorbell and then coming in and acting innocent, so naturally I ask Sam if he was the one to ring the doorbell. Here is his response.
"Maybe it was the flying dutchman!"
Spongbob fan anyone!