Spoiled Rotten and Loving It!

It's Monday morning, after our big trip to Moncton. I've just spent the last hour reading everyone's blog (and may I remind some of you that you are seriously behind keeping us updated on your lives. :D I'd love to hear your news!). Now, I'm awake and I have a huge smile on my face. I was so excited to hear Amanda's news about her new job. I had an awesome time reading Tetcy's last blog. I felt like I had spent the evening with her. I reread some blogs and enjoyed seeing pictures of ... flowers, a cute little boy, and some beautiful scenery. You know what? I'm spoiled. I really like my family.
Marten and I had a wonderful time 'away'. I really thank Klaas and Alice for keeping the kids. What did we do, you ask? :) Well... we had a nice drive over without the chatter from the back seat. I almost forgot what it was like to have quiet in the car. After we settled into our hotel, we made a list of what we'd like to do. I wanted to shop although I had nothing in mind to buy, go to a restaurant I've never been to before, see the Fundy tide come in, and just have fun being with my hubbie. We accomplished almost
everything. Shopping was GREAT. Marten even convinced me to go to Canadian Tire and Princess Auto. That made him happy so I was happy, too. We've been wanting to buy steel cord for a zipline for the kids. It cost $.79 a foot here but we found 150 feet for $29.99 at Princess Auto. Wahoo. AND a car cover for his camaro was on sale for $22.99 (44% off) Another wahoo! We also got a great deal at CT. I thought it would be fun to put up a badminton net for Nicolle this summer since she likes the game so much. $29.99 for a cheap set here... we found one on sale for $12. 98 over there. Another wahoo! :) Of course, Marten bought some model cars, a camaro magazine and a car charger for his cel phone. He was happy! BUT... I was super excited. Marten decided that he wanted my digital camera and he wanted to buy me a new one for Mother's Day. Randall recommended a Sony, so we headed to a sony store. Great sales. We bought a pink cyber shot (DSC-W130 for all of you in the know). It came with a docking station and a cute little pink carrying case (as seen in the picture). I love it! And the really exciting part about shopping. .. I got summer sandles. That's really exciting to me because, as most of you are aware, I have to wear orthopedic insoles for my bad feet. Well, they don't fit into sandles -- that I would want to buy. Except in the very last store we went into. The inserts come out and my inserts fit in perfectly. A major WAHOO! I am so happy to have sandles. They were a little pricey but Marten insisted. You know what? I'm spoiled. I really like my husband.
So that was one very successful item off the list. Next, a restaurant that we've never been to? We decided on the Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant. Wow -- I've never eaten Indian food before. It was a relaxing, almost 2 hour, meal. I loved it because it took us more than 15 minutes to eat :) and because it was YUMMY (except for the green mushy stuff). Samosas, curry chicken, rice, pakaloo, Naan, indian mango icecream. mmmmm
Next... the tide. This is the part we didn't accomplish. :( We read the sign wrong. It said 2h40. We thought it meant in 2 hours and 40 minutes. So we set our watches so we would be back for 4:20pm. duh. It meant 2:40pm. Oh well, maybe next time.
We had a leisurely trip back. We took some exits to drive through Cappele, Point Prim, Cape Jarmaine, -- some places we never had time to visit on other trips. Here's a picture of us in at Cape Jarmaine. Awwww... don't we look happy?
We got home early and picked up the kids. We got Julie and Kenneth to babysit and we headed to David's birthday party. That was fun. Then they invited us back for a BBQ after church on Sunday. The kids played on the trampoline and Marten and David went four wheeling. That left Paula and I to have a nice visit. You know what? I'm spoiled. I really like my friends.
So, it was a very successful weekend. I needed to get away with Marten but it was good to get back to home and life.
Do you know what? I'm spoiled. God has giving me SO many blessings.
Blessings to you all --I love you! Karen

We told the kids about Disney!

Hi everyone! Most of you know by now that we have been planning a trip to Disney World for the last couple of months. We're going with Klaas, Alice and kids. We're not going til February 2009 so we've been keeping it a secret from the children since it's such a long time away. However, Julie had to be informed to make allowances with her UPEI classes. Since she knew, we thought we'd better tell the rest. I was so excited. We all gathered together yesterday and told the kids that we had a secret and they had to ask questions to find out what it was. We could only answer with 'yes' or 'no'. It took them awhile, but Andrew figured it out. They were pretty excited. Jason didn't have the reaction I would have thought. Later that night, while tucking him in bed, I found out that he was nervous to go because of all the talk about the rollarcoasters. I assured him that the two of us would do something else while everyone else was on the rollarcoasters. He's much happier now. Me too. A good excuse so I don't have to go on them. Phew!
It was Klaas and Alice's 18th wedding anniversary yesterday so they went to Moncton for the weekend. We had Julie and Andrew here. It was great fun. We watched I AM LEGEND on friday night -- creepy. Marten and David went to the car show in Moncton on Saturday and they took David's boy, Oliver, and Jason and Andrew. Julie was at work so it was just me and Nicolle for the day. Sunday was my mother's 83rd birthday. We shared some chinese food and cake and gave her presents after church. Then we headed back here to share the news about Disney.
I was giving Marten a hard time -- Klaas and Alice went away together, Randall and Elisabeth went away together and... Marten and David went away together. Sigh. Is there no romance in that boy?!?!? :) Well, I think he feels guilty because he informed me that Alice will look after the kids next Friday night and we're going to Moncton. How fun. But what will we do? I don't want to go all the way to Moncton to go and see a movie. I have nothing I want to shop for. What else is there to do in Moncton? Any suggestions? I'm sure we'll still have fun. It'll be nice to get away and just be with Marten.
Oh, and just to keep you updated... Nicolle did not make the badminton team. Awwwww. She was a little sad but happy that she had tried out. I was proud of her for trying.
I did get one call last week from the school regarding Jason. Don't worry, it wasn't an accident! He was supposed to get off the bus at Taylor's house and I forgot to send a note and the boys were panicing because they wouldn't allow Jason to go. Rose phoned to confirm their story. Ooops! He got to go and Nicolle and I went to town and bought her some much needed summer clothes. We had a great time. A girl's night out!
I have found my flower beds. The snow is now official melted off of them. We still have some in the yard but not on the beds and now the flowers have a chance to peek up. Nothing yet but we're always 1-2 weeks behind Alice and Elisabeth. I'll have to get out there this week and take away all the dead leaves and branches, etc. I hope we're going to have some nice weather.
Thanks for checking in on me. I know I don't write as faithfully as some of you but I love to read your blogs and you get to hear from me through those comments. :) I just love hearing from you all. I'll look forward to that. I think of you all lots with much love ... Karen.

I Really Have Nothing To Blog About...

... but I'll bore you anyway. I've been wanting to blog but didn't have anything blogworthy. Let's see: Since the last time I blogged we've had March Break and Easter. March break brought sleepovers, bowling, playdates, ... we didn't travel this year because of Easter celebrations. But Easter was great fun. We enjoyed our Good Friday breakfast at church with a lovely service. We had a family meal on Saturday with Mom, Kathy and Uncle Floyd. Turkey and Duck. Mmmmmm! Yum! I'm still full from it. We hid Easter eggs for the kids to find. They have so much fun with that. They laugh at the silly places we hide them. Then, they love to hide eggs for Nana and Aunt Kathy to find. Mom doesn't enjoy that so much but she participates to humor the kids. I think Kathy has a great time. Then , the kids hide eggs for Marten and me. What fun! There was an Easter Sunday service at church and then home. We were happy to have a surprise visit from Amanda and Matt. It was great to see them and catch up.
Back to school and another call from Jason's teacher. This time, he had been playing tag at recess and fell into a metal post. He broke his front tooth. I picked him up and took him to the dentist. It's amazing how they can fix it. It looks like new and you can't tell that he even has a fake tooth. That was the third call in 3 weeks. The first one was to inform us that Jason and his friend Taylor had been playing with ice (which was a no-no) and Jason fell on Taylor (a likely story) and had a huge scrape down his face. The second call was to inform us that Jason had been saying mean things to his classmates ("I hate you." "I'm going to kill you." ...). Yikes! I was horrified. However, Jason informs us that he had been playing a game where he was the bad guy and that he was just playing his part. He didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings. He cried and cried. He felt awful. After a long talking to, I'm sure he won't do that again. Sigh, boys!
Nicolle's lastest adventure is to try out for the badminton team. She only won 1 out of 4 games on friday, but she has this Wednesday and Friday to impress Mr. Matthews (the gym teacher). I hope she does better on those two days. Either way, I'm proud and impressed that she wanted to try.
I'm still helping out at our church's youth group for age 4- grade 6. Nicolle and Jason enjoy it. They were excited to see Aaron and Cassie join us this past Thursday. And I was excited to meet Tineke's "new friend" Jason afterwards. He came to pick up the kids with her. Good first impression. Very cute Tineke! (Gee, I hope it's OK that I blogged this Tineke! I assume that because you changed your relationship status on facebook that it is public news! :P) Are you blushing?
I was envious of Tetcy's blog and her 'front yard friends'. I'm looking forward to spring and getting in my gardens. It was sad to wake up to 3 inches of snow today. Although... it WAS very pretty and hid all that dirty old snow. So I'm glad that God sent us a present today. Hope He was good to you too. Love to all, Karen