My friend Gen came over last weekend to spend an afternoon and brought me such a nice present from her trip to Halifax…

Each time I look at it it makes me so happy, it is truly something that I will cherish forever

And speaking of Gen makes me think of Sparky… Sparky is a cat that Gen couldn’t keep when she moved into a new appt with some new roomates… So, Sparky came to live with us for a while and has since became part of the family… he is a great cat for the kids and is so patient and loves to cuddle them even when they get a bit rough… (not mean rough… just rough love ) Anyways… Sparky loves to sleep on the deck next to the pool and on Monday Simon took the chairs away and then cleaned the cushions and put them in the deck rail to dry… Sparky thought that it was just as good a place to lay down…

Well we had a great Thankgiving Weekend… we got some house work done and on Sunday I made a big Thankgiving supper with all the fixings… I roasted my first Turkey, made roasted Garlic mashed Potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, maple glazed carrots, Roasted acorn squash, homemade bread and made butter for the first time and then of course a few desserts… Apple pie, pumpkin pie and raisin butter tarts.

Everyting turned out so yummy and though it was a lot of work it actually wasn’t too bad…

My mom came for supper on Sunday and then stayed until early yesterday afternoon… it wasn’t too bad but there is still tention there and I really don’t enjoy having her around much… After supper, My next door neighbor invited me and Simon to go have a little dip in the spa… again she had it at a perfect temperature so I could stay in there for as long as I wanted without the risk of raising my temp…. it was great… It wasn’t too cold out for an October night, just perfect and the moon was still quite full and the stars were bright… it was so nice… (I brought her some apple pie)

On Monday, Simon’s mom and sister came by with sis’ new boyfriend…it was really nice to meet him and they make such a cute couple… he is really nice too… It was a gorgeous day… Simon got help getting the steps out of the pool and he put some of the summer furniture away and raked some leaves… The smokers (MIL & SIL) were pretty good and stayed in the front of the house near the end of the driveway so besides the stink that was on them I didn’t have to smell or look at people smoking in my yard or especially near the kids…My mom, who smokes something other than cigs went in her car…

Since it was such a gorgeous day we all stayed outside as much as we could and the boys helped Simon bring the leaves next to the fire using a tractor I bought for Xavier last year for his birthday… (for 5$)… It was great to see both boys work and play so well together…

Anyways… here are some pics…

Colin in the leaves

on the trike

filling and emptying the tractor

making a fire

Simon’s Mom, Sister and sis’s boyfriend

our pumpkin and a butterfly Simon saved from drowning

There are more pics on Flickr

Today would have been Roger’s birthday.

I miss him everyday. I don’t think that there is a day that goes by that he doesn’t pop into my head. Somedays it is just in passing, others it makes tear come.

This weekend is Thanksgiving and I am making a traditional supper again, just like the one I made a few weeks before he left us. I just wish that he was here to share with us. He woud have been so much in love with Xavier and Colin. It makes me sad that Colin will never have any memories of his Pops, Xavier however still has many, which is so surprising to me and makes me feel so happy.

I miss him so much.

Simon and I have been married for 7 years today. Our wedding day seems to be so close, yet so far but I have trouble thinking that it has already been 7 years.

I wanted May 8th because Miguel (my first step-dad) died on May 8th a few years before. I wanted the day to have good memories and never wanted it to be a forgotten or overlooked day…

On my wedding day, I`had a medieval style dress, and wore my “doc marten” sandals underneath. My dad got a limo that brought us to the court house and then we went to the bar were Roger (my step-dad) was working (well not that day of course) the bar was ours and we drank, danced, opened gifts and had a lot of fun until it was time to go to the restaurant. Roger arranged for an hour long horse and carriage ride through Old-Montreal to get to the restaurant and by the time we arrived our guest were all waiting for us. We chose “L’auberge St-Gabriel” in old Montreal which is the oldest auberge in North America (1754) and had the banquet room on the second floor with a buffet supper (french cuisine) that turned out to be amazing…

After, we went out with a few friends to a bar on the main (st-Laurent) and had Martinis and a lot of fun…

wow… 7 years ago….

So, happy anniversary to me and my love. I love you Simon and I always will…

you truly are my “perfect friend”

After supper, Xavier and Simon found Nelson (our older cat) on the stairs outside with something wrong with his leg.

I choose Nelson when he was about a week old. He still had his eyes mostly closed and wasn’t yet able to walk. We brought him home about 3 months later when he had been weaned from his mom. I was 13.

He became very attached to me and me to him, he slept with me every night and was always not too far. He was also Roger’s favorite also and we used to “fight” over who was his “parent”…

Over the years he was just part of the family, my little sidekick, my “gros nanou”…

In his first year we almost lost him a few times due to recurrent bladder stones and he went through surgery three times. We weren’t able to find a food that agreed with him and finally after the third time we finally found the right food and kept him on that….
When I moved in with Simon, he came with me. he became our cat… Xavier was born, then Colin… Nelson saw it all… he wasn’t close to the kids but would come running if they would cry… He would be around my feet looking at me like he was saying “What’s wrong” and would nuzzle a bit…

Simon brought him up the stairs and put him on the ground to see what exactly was wrong, I was thinking a broken or sprained limb at first but he tried to walk and both of his legs dragged behind him. He was paralysed.

I called the Vet and went straight away, knowing very well deep inside that he wouldn’t be coming back. We knew well enough that we let Xavier and Colin say bye and we told them straight away that there where good chances that he wouldn’t be coming back.

I got to the vet and waited for quite an bit being that they were full but had told me to come when I had called. When I went in she checked to see the extent and though we thought that it may have been that he had not landed well during a fall she explained that it was more likely an embulism. Pretty much he had a stroke of the spinal cord. She explained that we could try anticoagulants and wait 24-48 hours but with his pre-existing cardiac problems, his age and the fact that there was no pulse at all in his hind legs and they were as cold as ice, that it would probably not be fair to him. I had to agree with her. I don’t think it is ever in my right to choose the time of death of another being, but I also didn’t want him to suffer and I knew that it was the right thing to do… as hard as it was…

I stayed with him and brought him home after. My mom will be burying him up at my uncles place this weekend along side our dog and another of our dear cats.

Nelson was 15 years old, was still in great shape,was still as loving and cuddly and as handsome as he has always been, he slept with us each night nest to our heads and would groom me often. Today, he stayed next to me all day and even let Colin cuddle and pet him…

Xavier is sad and wants Nelson to come back but understands that he is dead.It seems that he told Simon that Nelson is with his Pops. Though I don’t beleive in such, I still can understand the comfort it brings…

I will miss him…

It has been a bit over a year since my dad died and for the last few weeks Xavier has been talking about him more and more… he talks about what they used to do together an what his Pops liked doing… he also remembers the funeral and talks about that also…
A few days ago he asked to have a picture of his Pops to put next to his bed… and we will be doing that soon together…

I still have trouble believing that he is gone. Even though Xavier didn’t get to know him long, I am so happy that he remembers him… It makes me sad that Colin will only remember him through our words and pictures…

I miss him so much…

Like I said the other day in the post about changes that I am starting to make in my life I mentioned the meal plans… I have been making meal plans each week so that I don’t have to go to the store as much… I can try to save a bit of money…. I know what we can eat and that we have everything for those meals, we waste less and it just makes my life a bit easier and less of a hassle…

Well… last week I was checking out some really cool vegetarian and Vegan blogs and got some good ideas for meals… Something that I have wanted to do for a long time is eat a more vegetarian diet… I don’t want to become vegetarian because… well.. I like meat! and I just love the BBQ season that is coming…. however, I would like to eat a lot less meat so that I get more whole grains and veggies in my diet and I happen to do that more when I cook less meat…

One little problem is that Simon doesn’t eat Tofu… won’t even try it anymore… It is not a “Taste thing” but a “texture thing” (at least that is what he says ) but I think it is more of a “mental” thing cause I grated some tofu into a soup and he ate it and then when he found out that there was Tofu in it he wouldn’t eat it anymore…

Anyways… this week is a veggie week in my meal plan and I want to try new meals and get more ideas (also great to get the kids to try more things) After this week I want to make each week have more veggie meals then meat based meals…and I want to try something new at least once a week…
Anyways… I need some good ideas….What’s your Fav meal?

BTW… these are the meals for the week in our home…

• Veggie Burgers
• Vege Pate (prolly in a wrap with a sauce, sprouts and grilled veggies)
• Grilled Veggie pressed sandwiches
• Pizza with veggies, sun dried tomatoes etc…
• Chile
• Toasted Pitas with a bean dip
• Stir Fry with Peanut sauce

(Trying to Conceive) for those who may not know what that means
Over the last few months, since I got my cycles back we have been ttc but without really ttc… just having the attitude… “Hey if it happens, it happens”… it hasn’t happened…

I have been taking my temp every morning, something that I do while ttc or not… so I have been really seeing my cycles and the last two cycles I have started getting sad when AF (Aunt Flo) arrived… I think I really want it now… I would love to have another baby… I miss having a newborn and I really do love the age difference between the boys… if I got pregnant this cycle there would be exactly the same difference in age between them….

It is crazy when this feeling hits… the need and want to be pregnant again, to have a new child, it completely consumes you…

The same happened to me when I was ttc Colin… it took ten months and each month I thought about it more and more… until this feeling came and then I thought about it everyday… I was ready… and I was ready now! It took two cycles after that and I conceived Colin.

It has hit me again…. I really want another now, For the first time in a long time I calculated when the child would be born if I had concieved last cycle. It would have been a Halloween baby… I was sad that I got AF, I was surprised that my LP was very short…
I really want to have the feeling of a little one in me again.

My family i not done growing yet….

I still have a lot more love to give….