Flu Season

Blah...

I am sick.

The first thing people tend to ask me is if I have the H1N1 flu. I have only been sick for 1 day people, I don't know what I have. But it sucks. It hit really fast, I have a fever and I am exhausted, unfortunately I can't sleep because my whole body hurts.

I so feel like that cartoon. Except that would be me holding Wilbur instead of a teddy bear.

But when your the mom, you don't get time to be sick. You get to still take care of the kids, do the laundry, make supper, do the shopping and still find time to drive everyone from A to B to C. Not that I am trying to complain, but men just don't get it! I have a great husband, until I am sick. lol Anyone who is married understands what I mean when I say that. You don't get the whole, let me take care of you thing. (although they do usually say it)

Nope, men just don't get. They come home from work and still wonder why you haven't fed the kids all day and why you aren't dressed. "Did you get this done today?" "Did you remember to go...?"

Nope

No rest for the mom's.

"If you have more than one friend, you have more than your share!"

I remember when I was younger my mom told me that if you have one true friend throughout your life, you are more blessed than most. I have had many friends come and go over the years but a few have stayed with me and some new ones have joined. Of course my sister has a special place in my life, not just because she's my sister but because she is also my friend. Even if she lives far away from me, I know she is always there.

I had one friend since I was a little girl that I thought I would be friends with forever, and although we still keep in contact via facebook we grew apart just before high school. But it was because of my friendship with her that led me to my oldest and dearest friend. (It's my blog and I can call her what I want, so we'll call her Mandy) Mandy and I started off as rivals but became friends eventually. I am happy to say that we have been friends for more than 27 years! We have survived moves to different towns, to different countries and back again. Our friendship has seen us through so many things that I couldn't possibly even list all the things we have gone through together. She has by far been one of the most influential people in my life thus far. She even helped me with my decision to marry my wonderful husband! She has been my rock for so many years, and even though we don't have the kind of friendship that we would talk everyday, the times when we do get to talk are wonderful. I would be lost without her.

I have had other friends that have impacted my life over the years, and if any of them are reading this, I am not trying to overlook anyone. I am using my blog as an outlook of thoughts and feelings, as I seem to be having a tough time with the changes life brings lately.

I had another friend that I was really close to for several years. Even to the point that we moved next door to her and her family. Everything seemed to be going great- I thought. We would play cards and go for lunch and have the everyday kind of friendship that everyone needs. Until one day she told me she didn't want to be friends with me anymore because of my religious beliefs. She didn't want our kids to be friends anymore so they would not feel influenced in anyway. I was shocked and so hurt that I swore that I would never let anyone in again the way I let her in. It took me a long time and MANY, MANY tears to be able to face the loss of that friendship. She sold her house about a year later and moved away. We have since started talking again, very little and distantly, but it's nice to not feel completely broken over it anymore.

Getting over her was not easy, but I made a new friend that helped me along my journey. She knew my fears of opening up to someone again and walked me through it. Literally. We would go for walks in the evenings for HOURS just talking, laughing, venting and even losing weight while we walked. Others joined us along the way, some came and went, some left, but through it all we stayed close. She brought out the person in me that laughed. I don't mean just a little, occasional laugh, I mean the type of person who can laugh till their abs hurt, tell there our tears in your eyes, till you can't stand up and walk because you are laughing so hard. I became that person. I starting really laughing. I found humor and joy in things that I took for granted. It was great. Sure enough... she moved away. Again I am trying to face that crappy loss of friendship. Yes we are still friends, don't get me wrong, but our friendship has changed. We don't get to hang out or talk every other day. We don't get to have our "what's for dinner Wednesdays" or our "Bree" moments or all the other many things we established that I miss dearly. I know she has a new and hard (VL) journey ahead of her and I know that I have to take a backseat to that. I just don't have to like it.

My common denominator is that they have all moved away.

I want to laugh again! I want to stop being angry at all the things and people that influenced my loss(es).

People stop moving away! My poor little heart can't take this!

Job Well Done

I have been very proud of my kids the last couple weeks. They both have some financial goals in mind and have been learning to earn money and handle it properly.

My son's goal is to save up for a new BMX bike and my daughter's goal is to save up some money to go to China to visit Regan's parents. (although that possibility is looking very slim at the moment)

After a recent snow fall, J-Bear and Regan went door to door shoveling sidewalks. Regan made him go up to the door and talk to the people and he just helped when J-Bear needed help to shovel the walks. He was able to shovel 3 walks and driveways and earned $22.00. He came home and we made up three jars for him to put away his money. 10% tithing 10% savings and the rest can go toward his bike. It was really exciting for him to see the money and it was a great math tool too!

There was a day last week that J-Bear had school and Babbling Brook did not, so I brought her to work with me. She was a great helper! She put together a whole bunch of new patient charts, got some filing done, pulled some charts for the next day, helped the hygienists with a few things and even got to help out with babysitting while moms were getting their teeth done. She did a super job! So much so the EllyMay gave her $20 for helping out. She was so excited! She came home and did the same thing J-Bear did with the jars.

Yeah, maybe now the kids will get a better sense of money and budgeting! Maybe they'll be able to teach us a few things. lol

Thanksgiving weekend

We celebrated our thanksgiving like alot of Canadians. We went shopping in the states! lol The dollar is very close to par and judging by all the sales, they were expecting us. Even at the border the lady asked us if we were going down to visit all our next door neighbours and she didn't mean the US citizens!

We went down to Kalispell for the weekend. We had stayed over night at my parents house and left early Saturday morning. We had a FANTASTIC day shopping. Even the kids were into it! We got our Halloween costumes and my daughter even got all her Christmas shopping done. I got a fair bit of things knocked off my Christmas list too.

My parents met up with us on that Saturday evening. We stayed at a hotel in Whitefish. It was the Holiday Inn Express. We stayed in a family room that slept 6. It had a water slide for the kids and a hot tub for the grandparents. I have to say, we were very impressed with this place. The price was very reasonable and that's not just cuz I split it 50/50 with my mom. The continental breakfast was easily a $20.00 a day savings in itself. If you are ever in the area, I would totally recommend this place.

The next day, the girls went in one vehicle and the boys went in another. It is alot different shopping with girls! We had a great time. My daughter is at a great age, she was right into the shopping thing and was helping grandma try to find new clothes. We ended up finding more things for her than we did for grandma though! We did some of the things boys wouldn't think to do. Like go up and down the isles at the grocery stores. Americans have a lot more selection of food than we do. (Ok my American bloggy friends, don't get excited, we just have higher food standards! lol) Seriously though, I got tons of products that we can't get up here, not to mention all the different flavors of pop we brought back!

We came home on Thanksgiving Monday, but not before we hit a few stores in Whitefish! hehe We had lots of fun shopping! Overall we had a great time with my parents.

Just hanging

I haven't felt like blogging much lately. I have had this whole week off of work and really have no excuse why I couldn't blog. After my last post I have since made an appointment for Regan to go get his moles checked. Our doctor is out of town for a few weeks so we get to wait a bit. Plus of course being the in the Canadian Medical system we'll probably wait another 6 months or so to get him into a specialist to really evaluate them.

We haven't heard anything new on Regan's cousin. Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts and prayers.

My daughter had another cross country race last week. (the second and final one of the year) and she came in 3rd again. She wasn't feeling very well as they got their immunizations at school that day. So she was thrilled to come in 3rd place. The field we were at for the run was an off leash dog park. There were HUGE dogs running around! It was all I could do to not have Regan run beside her the whole time to keep any dogs away. LOL Unfortunately if any of you know my husband and a dog did come after them, I think he would run faster than our daughter! haha he's going to hurt me for that one!

It really sucks to have a whole week off and nobody to spend time with. :( I know- poor me! But really. My kids are at school, Regan has to work, my friends all seem to move away. You can only clean the house so much before you get discouraged and bored. That's where I am at. Completely unmotivated. I even made a list of things to do today so that some things would actually get done. I wonder if I will get to the list! lol

Somebody please motivate me....