Parents of the year

YUP!!!  Jeff and I are the not-so-proud winners of the "Parents of the Year" award.

A week ago, the kids were so being so kind to walk some of the neighbor kids home and on the way, Ali tripped and fell.  Sarah brought her back and she was sobbing.  The problem: Ali is our Drama Queen and she often seems to exaggerate most things.  After "trying" to sympathize, we had enough of her complaining and quickly told her to stop crying or complaining about her "hurt" arm and to toughen up.  She needed help getting up and down from her bed, getting dressed, making her bed, you name it, she needed help with.  She has always been one for trying really hard to get out of work and we were not going to have anything to do with that excuse.

Until this morning when I was helping her do something and I grabbed her arm and she pulled it back very quickly and started crying.  The way she reacted to my grabbing her, I thought something has got to be wrong.

I took her into the doctor and sure enough, it was broken.

So, there you have it -- our parenting skills could use a little improvement in the sympathy area.  One more proof of that, when I called Jeff to tell him Ali was not faking it, our conclusion was something like this:

"Well, if she wouldn't cry wolf all the time and complain about everything so much, maybe we would believe her."  Okay, that was my comment, so I am the insensitive one.

We really do feel bad, and hope that our kids will forgive us of all our bad parenting moments that are far from being over.

What I love about Thanksgiving

I am a sucker for Holidays, let me just get that out of the way.  I LOVE them and I really wish there were more of them.  Not because I end up doing a whole lot for most of them, but just for the fact that it gives me a day to reflect about something other than my everyday, mundane list of whatevers.  I am one of those who gets caught up in doing "my" stuff and I find it easy to forget that there is anyone else that is present in my world.  I really appreciate those holidays that focus on something worth spending any brain power thinking about -- do you follow me???

As a kid I never could really understand what was up with some of these holidays and why we even "wasted" any time thinking about such days as Flag Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Presidents Day, Good Friday, MLK Day.  I mean, come on, how boring can a holiday get.  At least on some of them we get out of school, those were always a little bit more understandable.

Until now ..... that is.  I guess that probably comes with age for the most part.  I now look at these holidays and I have a new found respect and a sense of reverence whenever I see on the calendar that such a holiday is coming up.  Let's look at a few of these, Flag Day -- what is worth more to us in this great country than our freedom.  I LOVE seeing the ginormous flag waving at Macey's, or driving down the freeway and see it blowing in the wind at Colonial Flag, or just by the Fashion Place Mall.  There is a sense of pride when I see it waving at someones home, or at the school.

And then there is Veterans Day.  That gives me a day to actually think about those who have and are serving our country to keep its freedoms that we enjoy.  I have always got a little choked up when I see on the news that another group of soldiers have returned, and I love seeing the reunions with their loved ones.  Or the sense of sadness when a soldier comes home in a casket to the mourning family who, all to often, has young children who are left without a parent.  I give my thanks, as piddly as that seems, to all of you who have in one way or another, served our country with honor.

I guess this brings me to the point of why I really started writing this post -- Thanksgiving!!!  Oh how I love this holiday.  For one thing, the kids are out of school for 3 days (which means I am off work for 3 days).  Another thing is that it is a holiday where we don't have to think about giving and receiving gifts.  With Christmas just around the corner, every little kid has one thing on their mind, and it usually is not being grateful for things they have.  I LOVE having a day where we spend time with our family and eat, and eat some more, and then enjoy more yummy food.  It has always been a time of reflection on the things we are most grateful for.  We usually go around the table stating what we are thankful for and taking time to reflect on some of our most precious blessings in our lives.  The only problem with it is -- it seems to pass way to quickly.  One day it's here and the next it's gone.  But in its wake are some wonderful memories and a feeling of love and unity.

I LOVE my life.  I am in a good place right now.  My family means the world to me.  I KNOW my Savior loves me.  I am excited for what's to come.

3 Cheers for my NEW ROOF!

I think you can say that I am a little more than ecstatic about my new roof.  

A big, huge THANK YOU goes out to everyone who took time away from their family to help us out.  This means so much to both of us that we would have such great friends and neighbors who would give of their time and talents to help us out.

I still LOVE my new roof.

I can sleep better this winter knowing my roof will not be leaking on us.

Fun in the snow

Here's a look at what we've been doing in the snow---

It's really hard to see, but we got over a foot of snow overnight.  The kids were so excited to go play in it.  They cleaned off the snow from my parents car that was parked in our yard.  Just don't tell Mom and Dad that the kids used their car for a slide.

Yup, there is our girl who is usually doing her own thing.  That's what we love about her!!!

Prince Edward Island AKA -- Anne's World

There are 3 options to get to PEI:

*  Airplane

*  Ferry

*  12.9 km bridge over the ocean

We ferried our way over to the island, which carries cars, trailers, semis, or whatever needs to go.

We enjoyed being up top for a while, until the weather started to look a little ominous.

When we arrived, we were anxious to see the difference of the landscape.  It didn't take us long to notice --

You could actually see past the road!!!

The fields were gorgeous.  I believe this is a field of soybeans.

I'm not sure what this crop was, but they are famous for potatoes as well.

This was our view out of our window at the restaurant.

The next morning, we woke up and can you guess where we went???

What would a visit to PEI be without visiting Anne's house?  I guess you could say it would be somewhat like trying to eat pancakes without syrup -- a little pointless.

This was outside the Avonlea Village.  There was a hint of autumn in the air, and the trees were just beginning to turn into those fabulous colors that we all LOVE to see.

Milking Anne's Cow

Matthew's room

The coolest stove I have ever seen.  It had an oven on top.

Taking a stroll down "Lover's Lane."  They were laughing at us for taking a picture of their behinds, but we thought it was very sweet.

Jeff's driving his Dad pretty hard.

Here is the famous house --

Anne of Green Gables.

Eating lunch out on the picnic tables and drinking Marilla's famous "Raspberry Cordial."

After leaving the farm, we headed out to see the beaches that PEI is very famous for.  Because of the hurricane, we had extremely unusual waves breaking on the shores.

The famous red cliffs

The sandy beaches with wonderful white sand

Jeff thought he was very clever with this one -- this is mostly a picture for those of us who were on this trip.  FYI -- the whole trip, we would keep our eyes peeled for these cute little question marks, which would tell us there were "washrooms" for us to relieve the numbness.  We were very grateful for these pit stops, and when we couldn't find one, we became a little desperate.  At one point, we ended up buying 4 cookies just so we could use the toilets.

At the end of the day, we were able to go to a musical called Anne & Gilbert.  It was so cute, all of us loved it.  What a perfect ending to our stay on PEI.  If you ever hear us singing "Your Island Through and Through," you will now know where we got it from.

Upon leaving PEI, we drove over this bridge, that takes just about 10 minutes to cross.  Pretty incredible if you ask me.

Igor's Wrath at Louisburg

Igor was in all his glory on this "beautiful" Tuesday on Cape Breton Island.  His path was headed for Newfoundland, which is the next island over from where we were.  He did do some significant damage there, but, thank goodness, all we had to deal with was the extreme windy conditions.  Holy Hannah, I have NEVER felt wind quite like that.  That morning was relatively calm, but it sure built up to something fierce, I'll tell you!!!

We started the day in Baddeck, where our B&B was, and we went to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum.  I used to think he was the telephone guy and that's it, man was I mistaken.  He helped his dad come up with a phonetic alphabet to help the deaf speak, one of which was his wife.  He did come up with the telephone, but then he kept inventing stuff and really didn't stop until he died.  He came up with some really cool kites and tried to fly using them.  Then he helped in building an airplane that was one of the first to fly the longest distance.  He came up with this cigar shaped speed boat that was the fastest on water for years.

To me, the sweetest thing was how he took care of his wife who was deaf.  His life was devoted to her and helping her know what was going on around her, even though she couldn't hear.  I am usually not one for museums, but that one was really cool.

After that, we headed up to the Louisburg Fortress.  It was where the French had it's main hold on the America's and they had a huge fortress there that they would use to defend themselves.

After arriving, we were bused out to the fortress, then we had to walk some distance into the compound itself.  That is when we really got our first taste of the wonderful world of hurricanes.  I would be just fine to never have to go through one again.  We were literally being pushed in the direction we were walking, with occasional gusts that would carry us along for a short distance.  I was glad we were not walking against it at that time.

We ate at this "gourmet" restaurant inside the fortress.  We were each given a spoon and a rag.  We had a few choices for our entree, soup, meat pies, fish, or french toast.  They brought out some bread for our appetizer that was the heaviest, blahiest, disgustingest bread I have probably ever tasted in my life.  I had to soak it in the soup to even get it down.  My choice for food was the turkey pie, which was crust, turkey, then gravy on top, then as a side dish I had cooked carrots and turnips.  I'll just say, I'm not a fan of turnips and I wouldn't care if I never saw another turnip again.  The food was, well, let's just say it was food, nothing fancy about it, but the experience was very fun.  The waitresses were very cute, having a lot of fun playing the part of being a waitress back in the day.  I guess this was what they really had to eat when the solders were living there.

These are shots of what we really looked like pretty much the whole time we were there.

It was so windy and cold, but we did enjoy it while we were there.

 

This is the "outhouse", it's a 2 staller --

Which dropped off right into the ocean.  Nice -- Huh???

After that, we went to this fabulous lookout to see the incredible waves crashing against the rocks.  We just sat there for probably an hour or so just amazed at the power of the ocean.  Those were some monster waves we saw.  The wind was at our backs, so the waves were crashing and blowing the water right back into the ocean.  If it were blowing the other direction, we would have been absolutely soaked.

Jeff took some really neat pictures of this lighthouse.  The clouds and the sky just looked so awesome.

Ceiliah Trail

I am a little out of order with this one, but I still want to post some pictures.

Saturday we went along the west side of Cape Breton.  Now Cape Breton is very famous for their Scottish heritage, and with that, they still do many things that are very -- Scottish.

This is one of them -- it's celtic music.  We stopped here for lunch and to listen to this fabulous fiddler and his wife on the piano.  This was so amazing.  We stopped and listened for over an hour and we could have stayed there longer except they stopped playing.

A little further down the beach, we found this cute old man who, to pass the time in between his golfing outings, would set up his own golf course of sorts to practice up.  Jeff's dad took a swing at it and did very good.

Just playing on the beach.  The water was oh so cold.

But, there is something magical about the ocean and it's waves.  I find it so mesmerizing.

Another look off.

And here is the sweetest couple, George and Ann Little.  Jeff knew George when he was on his mission.  He had the opportunity to teach him the new member discussions since George had just been baptized days before Jeff came into the area.  It was such a neat opportunity to seem him and his wife, doing so well, and most of all, they are so strong in the gospel.  They truly are an inspiration to me, seeing their dedication to the gospel.  They fed us dinner and we had a very delightful evening with them.

Sunday, we had the chance to go to church in the Port Hawksbury Branch along with the Littles.  I think this would have to have been one of the highlights of my trip.  I am always amazed at just how strong some of these members are even when they are pretty much alone in their worship services.  When we went to church, we arrived just a minute late, but Sacrament meeting had already begun.  I counted the people there, the number was 10 and then there were 4 of us.  After a little while, I figured out that 2 of the others were visiting from the District, so that took this branches number down to 8 members at church that day, and 2 of them were children under 10.  They each had many hats to wear.  I felt the spirit so strong and it completely thrilled me to be able to attend church that day.  I have a strong testimony of the gospel, and I KNOW it is true.  I get excited to be able to go to church in different areas we are visiting.  I realize that the church is true wherever you go.  It is that simple.  I do see many of the hurdles these saints must jump over in order to practice there religion, and it is not easy for them.  Many of them have had to choose between family or church; friends or church; jobs or church; Life is much different here.  I am so grateful for the generations after generations of members in our families.  It is amazing the difference that makes in strengthening testimonies.