It's cold today!! It was -31C at 9:00 a.m., and with the windchill it was supposed to have been around -47C. That means another day of no school and staying at home where it's warm! The forecast is for -52C windchill tomorrow, if that happens, I guess we will be seeing three days off from school this week! I was on CBC's website before and I came across this:

It could be worse…
The coldest wind chill recorded in Canada was at Pelly Bay, Nunavut, on Jan. 13, 1975, when 56-km/h winds made the temperature of –51 C feel more like –92 C.

So we have nothing to complain about...

In other news:
We are fighting flu bugs and cold bugs. Nothing serious, but it's there. Jeziah has been feeling the worst with some strange stomach ache. He seems better today (the 4th day), but still cries out in pain from time to time. The puppies were weaned from their mother on Saturday. They are doing well, but we really would like to find a home for them. We did have one family come and look on Monday, but they thought the pup would grow into too big of dog for them. And the most exciting news for me...I finished all our bookwork for 2007!!!! I think that's the first time ever that I have been done before January, before all the donation receipts even have arrived! I had a deadline for a government grant, that's why! But I think it's motivated me to stay on top of it for the rest of the year because January 08 bookwork is done already! Honestly, I'm so pumped, this means I don't have to sit inside for two weeks in April when it's nice outside already! And to top it all off, I'm totally caught up with Titan as well! Yay...

Today we will spend our time indoors. We are going to make buns & stew for supper, scrapbook a little, and maybe hang some pictures on the wall. And if the kids get too bored, they will have to clean my kitchen cupboards!

Stay Warm!

PUPPIES FOR SALE!!

PLEASE, Please come buy me or one of my five siblings! We are starting to wander around the yard, and walk over our owner's shrubs. We are really cute, maybe a little too fat? Our little owners would love to have $50 OBO for each of us. Our older owners would just love to see us find a new home. We may be cute, but we are trouble in the making! Please have pity on us, and give our owners a call!

January Happenings

January is about getting back into routine, and catching up on the day to day things, so I don't have a lot of exciting things to share with you! But here are two highlights...

Dexter received an award for his academic work for the month of December. It always boosts his morale when he is awarded for his work. And of course, we are proud of him as well!

Raquel celebrated her 11th birthday on the 10th. If I would have taken the time, I would have looked for the picture the nurses took of her 15 minutes after birth and you would see what a true miracle it is that we were able to celebrate another year! We celebrated with the grandparents & Kim & the girls. Dexter was off at another party, so he missed the picture.

Healing

Jeziah's episode with the dog has become a thing of the past. He had his stitches removed on the 11th. His eyes watered a little when the second stitch came out, but otherwise he never flinched. He was willing to brave it if this would be his last visit to the doctor! God has been so good through it all, and we're so grateful that Jeziah will walk away with minimal scarring.

Our brave little boy getting his second stitch removed.

This was taken on the 15th, 11 days after, and at a distance you can hardly notice. He does have two small scars above his lip and a little scar under his eye at this time.

OUCH!

Jeziah was sooo excited about his sleep over at Rebecca's house on Friday. We didn't tell him until that morning because otherwise the week would have felt like a month to all of us. He has wanted this for sooo long! We dropped him off at 1 and by shortly after 2 we got the call that he was on his way to the emergency in Portage because their dog had attacked him. We have no idea what happened, Jeziah claims he was looking in the window and the dog came and bit and scratched him. The kids had just gone outside to play. The girls went inside hysterical, but Jeziah was totally calm and determined he was staying, even though the blood was running. We're told he didn't cry at all. Rebecca & Randy took him to Portage where he got two stitches just above his lip. We're told he was wrapped mummy style and his eyes were covered, all you could see was his mouth. He got 4 needle pokes to freeze the spot, and two stitches, and he barely flinched. Before they left for the hospital, Rebecca put her arms around Jeziah and told him God would take care of him. Rachel & Regan both went to their rooms to pray for him. He was in good hands! Some think I was crazy not to have turned around and headed home to be with him, but we both knew he was in good hands. He was well taken care of, and well prayed for, and I believe that is why he (and we) was at peace about the whole situation. And we can look back and see how God was in the whole situation, from Randy's plans being cancelled previously so he ended up with a free afternoon (to spend in er!) to being able to have our own family doctor stitch Jeziah up. (And we've only had a family doctor for 3 weeks) Jeziah has had minimal pain in the past 72 hours, he sleeps well, eats well, and is totally normal! (The dog has found his way to dog heaven) The stitches come out on Friday morning.

This is Saturday afternoon, 24 hours after the incident. It was a bit shocking to see him for the first time. But he did not like all the attention he was getting, he told me "I don't like everyone looking at me", so I told him he should tell everyone he was fine. So when we came home he told me he was going to show Curtis his face, but he was going to tell Dexter he was fine! Dexter couldn't stomach the site of Jeziah, he spent lunch hour in his room! He has since gotten over it, but we're not allowed to discuss it too much!

This was this afternoon, 72 hours after the attack. It's looking much better already! He's taking an antibiotic and a cream for infection prevention. We went to the ER this morning to see the doctor. He cleaned up the scabs a bit, and said it was healing nicely. The Dr. told me he had a 23 year old male in the same afternoon as Jeziah and he refused his stitches because he couldn't bear the pain. He was amazed at Jeziah's patience. We can all learn so much from children!

The Latest

Henry made the kids a snow hill in the front yard. They have spent so much time sledding during the holidays, and just loving it! They also made some great memories with different cousins sledding away in the evenings. Jeziah is the lucky one, free ride down, walks back up on his own and waits for the next ride down! The mild temperatures have made it so much more fun!

Last Friday we took the oldest two, and cousin to the Moose game. We had decided that Jeziah wouldn't probably enjoy sitting there for hours, so we left him at Rebecca's house, and well, you can read about his adventure above! The Moose won 5-1, and of course there was a great fight to witness and talk about. It had been a while since we'd been to a good hockey game, so it was kind of fun. The cost of popcorn and a drink is highway robbery though...

Sunday night the tree left the house. What a mess!!! But after an hour, everything looks like new again! Even the dust under the sofa is gone for another year ! (lol)

Oh, and Lacy might actually have 6 puppies. Henry seems to find another one every time he sticks his head into the dog house. One of these days we'll have to get them all out of there and get their photos taken. Puppies for sale!!! Contact one of the kids if you're interested...

Christmas 2007

Jeziah is our avid "Cars" fan. The kids have collected most of the cars, and one thing Jeziah REALLY wanted was "Mack". You should have heard him when he opened his gift at Grandma's!!
The boys both wanted bib overalls like Dad. It took some searching on my part, but Santa delivered two pairs of overalls for Christmas morning.

Dexter's reaction when he realized there were tickets to a Moose game in the envelope Raquel has.

Every year we buy my Mom and ornament for her Christmas tree where she can display a photo of the family for that year. So every year we pile together and let the self timers on our cameras do the rest!

The chaos at my parent's house, and we've already been cleaning up as they open gifts! The excitment that these kids let loose is worth ringing ears for the next couple of days! Christmas is just a lot more fun with kids!

Another Christmas has come and gone. We plan, we shop, we peel kids off the ceiling, we cook, we clean, we count the days...then you blink an eye, and it's over. We had a good Christmas, we are so blessed. The 24th we were at Henry's family, and the 25th was with my family. Our kids opened their gifts Christmas morning. So we have a lot of excitment in two days, and then we sleep for the next week! We've had a relaxing holiday after Christmas was over, and as of today we're looking for routine again. We do have a trip to the city on Friday,another Christmas party on Saturday,and a gathering on Sunday if we want, but otherwise Christmas is done and we're planning a birthday party for Raquel instead.

Winter Beauty

We had beautiful temperatures during Christmas this year. In fact, it was just like the movies, we had soft falling snow for three days. It's so pretty when the sun comes out and the hoar frost and snow glisten!

One of my favorite pictures I took on Christmas Eve. The snow almost looks fake.