This is Noah on New Years Eve...he was not impressed to be doing chores!!

Noah has a really big stye in his eye and I was wondering if anyone knew how to get rid of stye's? It looks so painful for him.

Thanks
Melissa

Boston 5 - Ottawa 0...YIKES!!

Congratulations Dad and Ian...your team kicked our butt last night!!
Melissa

Game of Tag

I am going to start a game that I have seen on other blogs. It is called tag. When you are tagged you need to answer the questions below on your blog and then tag 4 more people. Hope you enjoy.

1. 4 jobs I have had:

*home daycare
*Sales associate at Norhtern Reflections
*Manager of the Salvation Army Food Bank in Vernon, BC
*Front end supervisor at LOEB

2. 4 movies I can watch over and over:

*The Notebook
*Sweet Home Alabama
*The Wedding Planner
*Season Finale of Dawsons Creek

3. 4 places I have lived:

*Toronto
*Listowel
*Vernon BC
*Ottawa

4. 4 tv shows that I love:

*24
*LOST
*The OC
*The Amazing Race

5. 4 places I have vacationed:

*we do alot of camping
*my mother in laws
* (sigh)
* (sigh)
(we do nothing apparently!!)

6. 4 favorite foods:

*Lone Star fajitas
*bananas with peanut butter
*tacos
*spaghetti

7. 4 sites I visit daily (often)

*my blog
*friends blogs
*td bank
*yahoo

8. 4 places I would rahter be:

*somewhere without snow
*somewhere warm
* do you see a pattern??

9. 4 bloggers I want to tag:
*Ian
*Sue
*Christina
*Kristin

Emily and Noah

I want to post some pictures over the next little while of the kids. This was Christmas Morning.
Melissa

LOST: 3

Last nights epiosde did not disappoint once again. It was mainly about Charlie last night...and he was having a rough night. He was having very strange (and meaningful) dreams, was told to stay away from the baby, accused of taking drugs again, stole the baby to baptize it himself, and was beat up (by John Locke of all people!)
I love that Hurley has a crush on Libby. They had a couple good scenes.
I am not sure what is going on with John Locke...it was very weird at the end. Something is not right with him but I am not sure what yet.
Over all a great episode. We could use more air time with Jack, Kate and Sawyer though!
Melissa

MOLD!

well...the project keeps getting bigger and costing more money. We (I mean Rob) pulled up the tile in the kitchen last night so that we could start tiling this weekend. Well...we found mold under the tile where the fridge was. It just keeps getting better and better!! Now we have to take out the cupboards and counter and replace the rotten wood under there as well. Which just adds more time to this originally very short, small project!!
So...we decided that Rob would stay home and work and I will be going to the retreat alone. I am not very excited about it...I would rather be with Rob on our weekend off from the kids...but we also don't want moldy floor around our kids either. Rob insists that I go and have fun...so i guess I will (sigh).
Melissa

Bathroom Update

So it has been awhile since I have talked about our leaking bathroom. We are now in the midst of renovations. Last Friday, Rob stayed up all night and ripped up tile in the hallway and on Saturday he fixed the hole where the toilet was and put all new sub floor in the bathroom and hallway. We discovered when we pulled up the tile that the sub floor was done wrong and that too needed to be replaced. YAY!!! (sigh)
So, right now there is no hole but still no toilet and nothing but sub floor in the bathroom and hallway. Tonight Rob is ripping up the tile in the kitchen. Then he has to put new sub floor in there and then we get to start putting in new ceramic tile. Which by the way we got at an awesome price. Regular $1.98 per square foot...we got it for $0.75 per square foot!!
Our church is holding a retreat this weekend for the college and career group...we have to decide if we should stay home and tile or go and have some fun. What do you think we should do?
Melissa

Don't Forget

Just a reminder ...don't forget to vote today.
Thanks
Melissa

WE WON!!

7 - 0

Need I say more?

Melissa

LOST: 2

I apologize to those reading this that do not watch this show. I will be talking about it a lot...it is our favorite show. 24 is our other fav show. But we are still watching season 4.
Anyway...Some people have been complaining that last nights episode was boring. I disagree. We need to learn the back information to understand them. And how can meeting up with "the others" be boring. It was awesome!! I actually got butterflies in my stomac. (I know...I am a loser!)
So Rob heard a theory about LOST. It was that they are all dead but living in purgatory. I am not sure...Rob thinks it might be true. What are you thoughts on this?
Melissa

Freezing Rain

I hate freezing rain!!! Why can we not have a nice normal winter with some nice normal snow?? Last week the kids got soaking wet because it was so mild and everything was melting. Then over night it went down to -35 and we froze our noses off. Now it is mild again and POURING RAIN...but not just any rain...FREEZING RAIN. School buses are cancelled and all my kids are home (if they can cancel a bus...I am not walking!!).
Sorry for the complaining...I had to get it out!
Melissa

I might need ear plugs

Both kids received their instruments last night at beginners band. They are very excited to start playing. Noah got a cornet and Emily got a horn. They were told to practice every day and with Rob being the leader of the group, our kids have to do it!! There are some interesting noises that come out at first!!
But we will suffer through because both Rob and I know how important music is for children.
Could be a long winter!!!
Melissa

LOST

Finally a new epiosode of LOST was on last night...and it was really good!!! I do have to say that while I am enjoying the new characters, I am missing the old characters this season. I love Sawyer and wish he had more air time...especially with Kate. I wish they would get into the Walt thing a little more too. I want to know where he is!
We did get to see the "monster" last night but we still have no clue what it is.
This show is weel written. I love that we really have no clue what will happen next. It is awesome how they bring things back from last season...like the plane last night, and make another storyline out of it. Very cool.
Do you like this show? Why or why not?
Melissa

WOW!!

I cannot believe how much better this washing machine is. I thought my old one was fine but man this new one kicks butt!! Because of my dryer, it was taking me 2 days to do a load of laundry...I had to run the dryer at least 4 times. Last night Rob had my new ones set up by 6:00 pm. I did 4 loads between 6 and 10!! AMAZING!!!! With it being a front loading washer...it uses less water and spins the clothes better. The clothes are half dry by the time I put them in the dryer...hence, less dryer time!!
I know I am rambling about a washer and dryer but...I don't lead a very exciting life apparently!!
Anyway...if you are in the market for new ones...I highly recommend the front loader type!!
Melissa

This is my new washing machine that was delivered today!! I am in love!
We got the maching dryer too.

Melissa

Our Bathroom

So, over the holidays we discovered that the toilet in the main floor bathroom is leaking. We never noticed before because it was leaking right into the laundry tub. Rob only found out because he was down there and someone flushed. So he decided to pull up the toilet and see if it was just the wax ring (what we were hoping). Well...after pulling up the ceramic tile (and breaking more then half) we realized that the sub floor was rotten right through under the toilet! Real Safe!!
So we made a trip to Home Depot to get supplies. We discovered that they do not make the same size of tiles (at Home Depot anyway). Our bathroom...front hallway...and kitchen are all the same tile.
We are making a call to the insurance company today and we are hoping that they will replace the whole floor for us otherwise we will just replace the bathroom and match the floors later this year. We are also hoping that they will cover the cost to have someone fix it so that Rob doesn't have to!!
I can tell you that having only one bathrrom with a family of fou plus 5 daycare kids really sucks!!
I will keep you posted on the progress.

Melissa

Back to school!

After 2 weeks home they are going back to school today!!!!!!
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Melissa

Michael

It has been awhile since I have put in a update of Michael, so I thought I would today. He is doing amazingly well. He has been assesed by the hospital a few times and they are amazed at his progress. He no longer needs any physical therapy...he is walking on his own without a walker. During the holiday season he passed out 600 small candy canes to people in the hospital!!
Right now thay are trying to get him into a center that will start therapy on his mind. He is doing well but there are some things that still concern Kelly and the doctors. He has turned very stubborn and when he does not get his way he acts a lot like a child. He tries to bully Kelly into things and then tries to make her feel guilty and punish her for it. He tries to manipulate her to get what he wants...he really wants to come home from hospital.
Please continue to pray for him. He is getting depressed at the hospital but is still not ready to be home full time. He is threatening to sign himself out which means he won't get his meds and that is very dangerous. Please pray for more healing...for his depression and for Kelly to have the strangth to deal with it all!
Thanks
Melissa

It's a girl

Loretta (my friend) finally had her baby. She was having contractions for 4 weeks but on January 2nd at 7:18 am, Morgan was born. She was 9 lbs 4 oz. Both mom and baby are doing well. As soon as I get a picture I will put it up.
Congratulations Peter, Loretta, Taylor and Morgan!
Melissa

Back to work!!

Well, the holidays are over and it is back to work today! I took advantage of the 10 days off and slept in every one of them...some days until after 10:00!!! It helped that the kids slept at Mom and Dad's for a total of 5 nights over the break!!

Some highlights of the holidays:

*Christmas Eve service was really nice. Our neighbours, who do not attend church at all, came with us again.

*Christmas day was awesome. The kids had a really great time. They were spoiled again by everyone. Emily's "Santa" gifts were a pixal chick and a Bratz phone for her room. Noah got a robot and a pirate ship K'Nex set. He played with that all Christmas day...well, in between playing his new Lego Star Wars game for game cube!!

* Rob gave me the cell phone that I wanted...not the one he wanted!! Thanks babe! He also gave me a new housecoat that feels like I am putting on Heaven after the shower!!

* Had a great time with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin who came down for the holidays. Although my aunt was a little crazy at the Family skate on boxing day!!

* Started using our new tread mill that we bought ourselves just before Christmas. It is awesome. I love running but don't feel comfortable on the ice or in the dark by myself. This way I can get up before the kids arrive and get in my run!!

* On Tuesday we made our annual trip to Leons. Last year we bought a new fridge. This year we bought a washer and dryer. My dryer has been dying. I have to run it 3 times to get the clothes dry. Not good for the hydro bill!!

* Spent time with good friends...eating brunch...playing games...hanging out!!

* News Years was spent with my brother and sister in law and my parents. The kids got to stay up till midnight for the first time. They both did really well. Noah told us the next day that he was getting tired until I brought out the snacks around 10:00pm...that got him going he said!!

* Overall a very realxing holiday. We ate way too much... but with the tread mill we felt that was ok!

I hope your holiday was lots of fun. What was your favorite part??

Melissa