Learning the Hard Way

Scott got up at 5:30 AM this morning to drive to Toronto to catch a flight to the US for a business meeting he had tomorrow.

Unfortunately, his passport had just expired, so he didn't make it through US Border Patrol at the airport.

We didn't even think of checking it, as we were just in Florida a couple of weeks ago, and crossed the border twice without incident.

He came back to London, drove straight to the Passport Office, and had it renewed today. In fact, he's picking it up as I type this.

But, he's going to have to settle for a Conference Call tomorrow.

Live and learn!

Update: April Fool's and Other Random Thoughs

Some thoughts on what we've been up to lately:

1. Meaghan's concert on Thursday was so much fun! We all loved it!

2. Samantha woke up early (or stayed up late?) to play some April Fools Jokes on her brothers:

Brett was livid and couldn't wait to get the marker washed off. This wasn't surprising given that the boy is 8 years old and has never had his face painted (his choice). He refused to even let me snap a quick photo of the prank.

Jesse was indifferent, but washed his face before leaving for school.

Nathan loved it and wanted to leave it on all day. He thought the moustache made him look like one of the Super Mario Brothers.

3. I loved watching General Conference this past weekend. Especially the Sunday afternoon session. Elder Scott, Elder Robbins, and Elder Holland's talks were some of my favourites.

4. We all loved having Nana in town for the weekend! She taught Brett some Math tricks, danced with Clara to imaginary princess music, and listened to our kids play piano duets.

She also learned what happens when you don't lock the bathroom door at our house.

One minute she was enjoying a peaceful soak in the bathtub... Until the door flew open, Nathan ran in, and decided he needed to take a bath too.

5. Scott and I were able to attend a baby blessing on Sunday night at the home of some friends.

All I can say is newborn babies are precious beyond words. Holding a newborn baby makes me so happy. And sad. Because my children were that tiny once too. And now they are growing up and they do things like wipe my kisses off of their cheeks and foreheads.

6. This week Scott and I made trips (separately) to Toronto to work at the Bishop's Storehouse. He went on Monday with a group of friends and I went yesterday with 3 lovely ladies.

It was neat to see people working together to help those in need, and I was grateful to be part of it, even if just for a few short hours.

7. I think the best (worst) April Fool's Trick of all is that it snowed on Sunday! Spring, where are you??

Little House on the Prairie

Samantha has loved the Little House on the Prairie books for a while now, and this Christmas she got the Little House TV Series on DVD.

We've enjoyed watching the DVD's here and there over the past month.

And then this weekend we had a bit of a marathon. I think we watched about 10 episodes.

I used to love the Little House series as a girl, and it's fun to enjoy it now as a family.

This morning we woke up and found out that buses were canceled. That's right. Another snow day.

We stayed in bed a little longer. Had pancakes for breakfast in our pj's. Did some piano practicing and caught up on theory sheets. Made the beds and tidied up a little.

Then sat down to watch some Little House on the Prairie.

Snow Days

Last weekend we got our first snow of the season. Up until then it had been ridiculously warm. The night we set up our Christmas tree it was pouring rain.

But December came, and the weather changed... and we got snow.

Lots and lots of snow.

Our kids had not one, not two, but three snow days this week!

So... we hibernated in the house for three days. We ate soup and homemade baked goods, watched Christmas movies, sipped hot chocolate, wrapped presents, and pretended we were having an early Christmas vacation.

The only time we went outside the house was to build snow forts and go sledding and work on the backyard ice rink and shovel the driveway.

And when I say "we", I mean Scott and the kids, of course.

I stayed inside by the fireplace to stay warm keep an eye on Nathan and Clara while they napped and watched Dora.

A Little Catching Up

I finally made some time to get our photos from the camera onto my laptop and realized the many things I haven't blogged about in the last several weeks.

So, bear with me while I tell you about Clara's birthday (in September).

And Cross Country (which ended weeks ago).

And maybe even the house we moved into (back in July).

I'll try to keep some current stuff in there as well.



(Is Thanksgiving still current?...)

Saving a Baby Robin

A few nights ago Scott came home and saw a baby robin on our lawn. The robin appeared to be hurt, and was struggling to hop around to safety, as he was too young to fly.

After deciding that a night on our lawn would surely turn the poor little creature into a midnight snack for a hungry raccoon, Scott suggested we take him to Salthaven.

It turned out to be the right decision, as they quickly assessed that not only was his left leg broken, but he had a cat or dog bite on his back as well.

Samantha was very happy to be part of the rescue team and got to sit up front on our drive out with the bird in a basket on her lap.

Update: 7 Random Things

This is the time of year when I look at the upcoming schedule and wonder if we will survive the next few weeks of complete insanity that is our Play On! life.

But somehow we always do.

Before it gets too hectic, I want to share a few random things that are happening right now.

If you don't hear from me again until July you will know why.

1. We had a wonderful family getaway last weekend. I know I said we were going to the cottage, but we changed our plans. About 5 times.

And when we finally rolled out of the driveway at 5 something PM on Friday night, only 7 hours later than we were hoping to get away, I still wasn't sure exactly where we headed.

But I packed bathing suits because I knew there was going to be some kind of lake or pool or water slide involved.

Scott found us two great hotels to stay in and we had an awesome time getting away from work and school and the business of life. Not that chasing five kids around a water park isn't busy too, but it was a good change of scenery.







2. My Mom is moving out of her apartment tomorrow and will be moving in with us for a couple of months until we move out when our new house is done.

She is going to watch our kids when we are both working or traveling to events, which is going to be such a blessing! She is amazing.

3. Samantha was home sick from school today. With a fever and upset stomach. She just fell asleep on the couch watching me blog. Apparently it's pretty boring.

4. Our washing machine is acting up. It works on ONE setting and only ONE setting and if you take it off that setting it will run water into the drain non-stop until you take it off.

Consequently, I can only wash teeny tiny loads right now, which means that I literally have to wash five loads a day to get by. Not catch up. Just to get by, which means to give everyone a clean pair of underwear daily and socks too if we're lucky.

5. Nathan made a "dinosaur party" for his friend who was coming over to play last week.

He loves his dinosaurs. It's probably his favourite toy right now, second only to playing Lego with Brett.


6. Tomorrow I am going to donate blood. I'm pretty much a regular donor at the blood clinics and have been for years. I have a rare blood type so it's always in high demand.

I'm also a card-carrying organ donor and hope that my heart, lungs, liver, or kidneys will help save a life when I'm dead and gone.

I worked at the Multi-organ transplant unit for a semester in high school and was heartbroken to watch people die while waiting for organ transplants.

7. Clara loves to chatter. Nobody understands her but she thinks we do. She loves the sound of her own voice.

She also loves to wear dish towels. She grabs them off the oven handle and drapes them around her shoulders and no matter how many times we hang them back up she steals them again.

Weekend Plans

Friday is a PD Day for our kids, and a perfect long weekend to head north to the cottage. So that's where we're going, either late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Snapped this photo last Sunday before church.


Nathan looks... skeptical? Hesitant? Awkward?

At least he's smiling.

Sort of.

And I could barely convince Clara to stay on the couch for longer than 0.0002 seconds, let alone try to pry her two fingers away from her mouth while simultaneously getting my hand out of the way and snapping the picture.

Don't even get me started on the pink & white dog.

But after considering the outtakes, I'd say this one is a keeper.

Cookies from The Big Apple

My Mom went to visit my sister in Manhattan last week and brought back some fun treats for the kids.

The sugar cookies were decorated so nicely, but the gingerbread bear was my favourite to eat.

Thanks Grandma!


Nathan had already eaten half of the taxicab before I snapped this last picture...

The Missing Cottage Cheese

I mentioned in my last post that Scott and I went out of town on Saturday night.

Well, about 8 minutes before it was time to pick up the babysitter, Samantha and I pulled into the driveway with a van loaded to the roof with groceries and stuff from our shopping trip to Costco and Superstore.

I quickly put the perishables in the fridge, and plopped all the non-perishables in the back room, still in the shopping bags, to unpack later.

While on the highway en route to the concert, I realized the two containers of cottage cheese we had purchased had never made it into the fridge.

I quickly called home and asked Samantha to please go to the back room, look through the unpacked bags, find the cottage cheese, and put it in the fridge.

I listened while she went downstairs, but after several minutes of searching, she said that none of the bags had the cottage cheese.

Scott suggested asking her to check the fridge, in case I lost my mind and had put them away without realizing it (which I had to admit was very likely).

She went up and checked. No cottage cheese.

I then asked her to get the keys, go outside and check the van to see if we forgot to bring one of the bags into the house.

A few minutes later she had found a grocery bag with the cottage cheese, which had been left forgotten in the van.

We hung up and went off to enjoy the concert.

Several hours later, when we returned home, the first thing we saw when we walked into the house was the grocery bag with the cottage cheese sitting on the floor.

Apparently, after all the trouble that went into finding it, Samantha forgot to actually put it inside the fridge. Go figure.

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month

.... for blogging, that is! On the whole, it's been a good month, really, I just wasn't busy blogging about stuff and sharing photos. I think the proper blogging-etiquette would have been to inform my readers (all four of you) that I would be taking a little break, and to please check back in a few weeks. But it really wasn't planned, honest!

Here are a few snapshots of what we've been up to....

Vana, I mean Samantha, setting out milk & cookies for Santa

Christmas morning - Nathan quietly raided the stockings, hoping we were all too distracted by presents to notice...

Brett doesn't like to waste time - why not colour when it isn't your turn to open a gift?

Jesse's favourite gift was his new hockey stick, but I didn't snap a picture of it :(

Samantha got the movie, "Bridge to Terabithia". I have never read the book, nor did I know what the story was about. OH MY GOODNESS! Do not watch this unless you are prepared to cry your eyes out! (It's really good though - just be sure to stock up on Kleenex.)

Grandma Paton came down with Scott's parents for Christmas Day!

Wake me up when the turkey's ready!

Wing Ki came for a visit to show us her Hong Kong pictures. I would love to visit there someday!

We all LOVE having Aunt Mona visit. We had so much fun!!! Our kids all suffer from attention deficit when she leaves.

Now, after all that, I have to say that I don't have any pictures of the REAL reasons why I haven't been up to blogging a whole lot.

First of all, Scott and I were working on something we nicknamed the OM (short for Operations Manual), which is basically a 90+ page document of every detail you would need to know in order to run your own Play On! tournament. We finally completed it last weekend, and it is such a relief to have it done! It was quite a project, for Scott mostly, as my contribution was only a small portion of the whole. Even so, after a few late nights of typing until 1:00-ish in the morning, I had little energy left for more "chatter".

Secondly, my trusty laptop here is on it's last legs. It can't handle too much stress, gets over-heated and crashes - often multiple times per day. With the purchase of a 500 GB portable storage device to backup my files and photos, I finally had to admit that, sadly, I will soon have to say goodbye to good ol'CLEVO. I just hope it can hang on until the replacement gets here, although we're not exactly sure when that will be?? Until then, I'm just grateful every time I turn it on and see the green lights as evidence that it may indeed function for one more day.

Snowed In

We've had a big snow storm here that has blessed us with somewhere around 30 cm of snow in the past 24 hours, and it's still coming down.

We enjoyed a fun family day of relaxing, wrapping presents, watching Christmas movies, eating lots of clementines and chocolate, and listening to Christmas music. It was wonderful!

Although I admit the snow is beautiful... the truth is I really enjoy it the most when I'm looking out my window, snuggled under a warm blanket by the Christmas tree with my slippers and hot chocolate. I'm definitely a wimp when it comes to getting bundled up to shovel it, scrape it off my van, or (heaven forbid) drive in the stuff. I think Scott and I are destined to be snowbirds, because as soon as the cold settles in we both start dreaming of Florida and Dubai.

The kids, bless their hearts, are thrilled with the snow and can't wait to get outside for snow angels, sledding, snowball fights, and snowmen, and I remember feeling the same way as a kid.

Speaking of Christmas Music, my dear friend, Meaghan, recorded a Christmas CD with two other female artists, to raise money for the Maritimes Food Bank. You can read about the details here, and you can even listen to samples from the CD and read a message from the artists. Scott and I just got our copy last weekend and we LOVE it! We have been listening to it nonstop for the past few days.

I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas preparations and finding fun ways to spend time with family and loved ones!

Jesse's 4th Birthday and Other News

There's so much to catch up on - where to start? First of all, Jesse's birthday was fun! We kept it pretty low-key, just some play time with the family at Adventure's On Wonderland, and he got to bring along one friend. Alex came over after school, so we had some time to do some crafts and stuff here first (open presents, eat dinner, etc). Here are some pictures:

Before school with his birthday cupcakes (you can't tell from the picture, but he had picked out gummy spiders to go on top).

Decorating Party Bags - Hey Brett, you might want to lean in a little so you don't get cut out of the picture!

Jesse chose this for a craft - painting piggy banks (Go figure - our one child that loves money as much as Alex P. Keaton)

Nathan - crawling around wondering why he doesn't get to participate in the cupcake baking, piggy bank painting and party bag decorating.

Jesse and his lovely orange drink mustache

Fun at Adventure's On Wonderland

That's Scott in the left corner having a ball war against the four kids

This past weekend Scott ran a Volleyball tournament at church. It was a lot of fun, although I didn't get to see too many of his games as I was running a Nursery for small children of some of the players (including our own). Thankfully, I had a couple of people to help out here and there, as we actually had, at one point, 23 children aged 8 years to 10 months in the Nursery. But I did enjoy the few minutes I was able to watch Scott - he's a pretty good volleyball player! Come to think of it, I can't think of a single sport he's not good at.

I don't have any pictures to share from the tournament, but I do have a couple from the weekend before. What a fabulous time we had in Cleveland! Samantha & Nathan were angels on the drive there and home. I was so glad I had Samantha in the back to hand Nathan a sippy cup or some Cheerios every so often! She's becoming quite a big helper.


Samantha & Jayna reading together the morning we left. Oh, and since it was Gibb's birthday that day, Jordana made German Pancakes with this yummy apple syrup - they were AMAZING!

Jordana and I spent most of the time shopping, of course, and we had so much fun! The first day we shopped at this great outlet mall about 40 minutes from her house where we found some awesome deals. I got tons of cute clothes for the kids. I think the best deal ever was a skirt for Samantha for $0.99! And this GAP sparkly sweater, which was 30% off the lowest ticketed price of $3.99! C'mon, that's practically FREE! The next day we went to the mall, which was a little more expensive, but I needed my Bath & Body Works fix. And I found a pair of shoes at Nordstrom at 8:59 PM on Friday night, my last night there, 1 minute before they closed. Another great place I discovered is this store called Marshalls (just like Winners in Canada). I found nice winter boots for Samantha & Brett, a winter coat for Samantha, and tons of practical stuff like socks and underwear for the kids (all name-brand) - and my total purchase was under $75.

Overall the trip was great, except for this one little thing that happened on Thursday night. It looks like this:

(In case you can't tell, that's a crack in my rear bumper. You know - the bumper on the new van we got to replace our old van that was stolen from our driveway the night Nathan was born).

So, we were driving home from the outlets on Thursday night, and I was going pretty slow to begin with as the weather was bad. This guy driving a blue Ford Mustang hit me from behind and then spun out in front of us and I had to come to a complete stop to avoid hitting him (did I mention we were on the highway?) Then he took off, exited the highway, and continued speeding away until he finally had to stop at a red light (at which point we got his license plate number). We went to the police station to file an accident report - luckily nobody was hurt. But when the officer called the guy to get his side of the story, he denied the whole thing and says he noticed me following him, but that he's not the one who hit us. We had to wait at the station while the officer drove to the guy's work to check out his car. (Meanwhile, I'm totally bummed because this whole thing was really cutting into our precious shopping time!)

After the officer saw the dent in the exact spot we described, the guy proceeds to tell the officer that the dent was "there when he bought the car". Riiiiiiiiiight. Anyway, to make a long story short... our insurance company is working it out, and hopefully we'll have a new bumper soon.

This post has grown long enough, and I need to go to bed, as I'm a little under-slept due to a flu bug that's been going through our family for the past two days. I've been the only one who's managed to avoid it and I'm hoping I've become immune after washing five sets of bedsheets and piles of blankets, plus scrubbing out carpets, couch cushions, puke-bowls, and pj's non-stop for 48 hours.

But I have one more thing to share before signing off. Uncle Eric and Aunt Chrystal had a baby boy on November 21 (Jesse's birthday)! Welcome, baby Dane - we can't wait to meet you next summer! Dane is my first cousin, born to my Mom's little brother and his wife. I think it's kind of cool that he's the same age as our youngest child - don't you just love big families?

My Birthday

So, I turned 29 yesterday. I had a great day - and THANK YOU to all of you who sent a card, called, emailed and/or Facebooked. I really appreciated it!

We went to Tony Roma's for lunch. This has been a tradition of ours for the past few years, ever since they started sending us Certificates for a free meal on our birthdays. We usually manage to go at least once for one of our birthdays (Scott's is only a month later).

Scott and the kids picked out an amazing cake from Angelo's (chocolate and raspberry), which we had later on when Samantha & Brett were home from school. We were all out of candles so Scott used just one huge sparkler instead. Jesse was scared of the sparkler, which is why he isn't in the picture.

It was a relaxing, fun day spent with my family. For my birthday gift, Scott is sending me to Cleveland to go shopping with Jordana. I'm taking Samantha and Nathan. I can't wait - it's going to be so fun!

Jesse loved the ribs!

Nathan actually enjoys the taste of lemons - even the rind! I know it sounds cruel to give a baby a lemon to eat, but we couldn't pry the thing away - he was loving it!

Girls Night Out

Two of my dear friends, Adrienne & Tasha, took me out last night with some other girlfriends to one of our favourite dessert spots - Caffe Demetre.

They were so sweet and brought along some birthday gifts, including a set of 4 cookbooks called, "Delicious Breakfasts", "Delicious Lunches", Delicious Suppers", and "Delicous Snacks". Each page has a recipe and picture (I love that!) and they all look truly delicious!

Today I was showing everyone my gifts, and I told the kids they could look through and find a recipe in each book that we could make, and to mark the page with a Post-it note. A little while later Samantha came and told me they had run out of Post-its. I went back to find this:

I guess I should have asked them to mark the pages they don't want me to make.

(Side note: Thank you girls - I LOVE the cookbooks and can't wait to try 'em out!)

We're Connected... Again

Scott and I went cell phone shopping today.

You see, we had canceled our own cell phones when Scott took the Deloitte job, since they provided his cell phone for him. Let's just say we were totally spoiled for the past 18 months, as we basically used the phone as much as we wanted and never saw a bill, ever.

Now that we're back to working from home, we have to enter the real world again and get some phones. So, we bundled up Brett and Nathan, picked Jesse up from school, and walked across the street to the mall to buy a couple of cell phones. Sounds simple, right? Wrong.

First of all, you have to decide what kind of plan you want. Not only are there about 50 plans out there, but there are also choices for add-ons, opt-ins, bundles, shared plans, and calling features, to name a few. After spending way too much time discussing all of our plan options, we realized that none of the plans were right for us. So we had to settle for a mediocre plan and add on the features that we really wanted (i.e. pay extra to get what you need).

Luckily, Scott had researched Blackberries before our excursion, so he knew the exact model he was going to get. I was getting a free phone for signing up, so there wasn't too much choice involved there either. All we had to do was sign our life away to this company for 3 years, and we could then buy the Blackberry for ONLY $299.99. Somehow they make this sound like a great deal. Oh, and if you decide to cancel anytime before your contract is up, you have to pay them $400 per plan and give them your first-born child.

The whole ordeal took about 2.5 hours. Brett and Jesse were bored after the first 5 minutes. After wrecking a phone card display in the middle of the store, eating a whole pack of gum out of my purse, and getting scolded by the mall manager for ripping some plants, we decided they'd had enough. Scott took them to Zellers to look for a small toy to keep them occupied for the rest of the time while I continued shopping.

The nice part is that we left the mall with two new devices activated and ready to use. And it's amazing what you can do with a phone these days. My phone doubles as a camera, video camera, mp3 player and PDA.

Well, if you've actually read this far, send me an email and I'll give you our new numbers. But I should warn you that we probably won't have time to chat as we'll be busy looking for part-time jobs to help pay for the phone bills.

Cassandra Needs...

I saw this on another blog and thought it was kind of funny. You type your own name into a Google search bar, followed by the word "needs". Then you list the top 10 things that come up. Here are mine:

1. Cassandra needs some major plastic surgery or somethin'

2. Cassandra needs to make a phone call

3. Cassandra needs a family that will establish clear rules and give rewards for appropriate behavior

4. Cassandra needs no introduction

5. Cassandra needs transportation!!!

6. Cassandra needs to spread her wings and may the success and the blessings of God be with her in whatever she does

7. Cassandra needs a pill for the banging in my head

8. Cassandra needs no curse other than the blind optimism that surrounds us from birth

9. Cassandra needs to use the new logo

10. Cassandra needs to start practicing in the new make-up room; she just came out looking stiff

The first one made me laugh... just a little random humour for today. What do you need?

Update From the Cottage

This past week has been great for summer vacation... not so great for blogging! I guess it's time to get caught up a little bit.

Scott's officially on vacation this week and we are spending our time up at the cottage in Tobermory. It's so fun to be up here with the kids - it's the perfect place for children to be during the summer!

Last Sunday we went to visit Jeff and Lindsey in Michigan. Monday we went out for brunch, did some shopping, Jeff & Scott played a little tennis, and we went for a swim in their pool before driving back Monday evening. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday our kids had play dates every day with friends. Friday was Brett's 5th birthday and he celebrated with a party at the Children's Museum. On Saturday Aunt Corinne watched our children while Scott and I went to the temple and out for dinner at the Mandarin.

I will have to share pictures later, as I didn't bring my own laptop up to the cottage, and haven't put any pictures on Scott's laptop yet. Just a couple of other things before I go...

Scott got a promotion at work this week - congratulations Scotty! :)

Saturday Brett scored his first soccer goal! Scott was far more excited about this accomplishment than he was about his work promotion. Brett and Jesse have really enjoyed playing soccer together this year. They're both bummed that it's all over now (there are technically 2 weeks left, but we'll be away for both of those). I'm definitely looking forward to a lot more soccer games in the future.

Happy Birthday, Canada!

It's so nice to have a long weekend once in a while. I know Scott really looks forward to an extra day off these days. We went to Brett & Jesse's soccer game this morning, then stopped by Scott's office on the way home. It was my first time actually seeing the inside of his office building. It was empty, so we got to explore the whole place without disturbing anybody. It was fun for our kids to go see where Scott goes to work every day, now that he's not working from home anymore. Scott went golfing this afternoon and I took the kids for a walk down to the movie store to rent some Scooby-doo DVDs. We're hoping to get together with Scott's family tomorrow and Monday.

We don't really have any traditions for the July long weekend. We have done fireworks in the past, which is always fun for the kids. They've been keeping track of how many Canada flags they've counted today, and get excited when they see people "decorate" for the holiday.

My most memorable Canada Day was probably 5 years ago when I was 9 months pregnant with Brett and 3 days over due...! It was a hot summer and I remember the bottle of castor oil was looking pretty tempting at that point. I've learned now that babies eventually come when they're good and ready, and that maybe a lesson in patience was just an early introduction to motherhood.

I hope you all have a happy, fun, and safe long weekend and that you enjoy whatever it is you're doing! Happy Canada Day!

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school for Samantha & Brett. Looking back, I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. It seems like just yesterday I was fretting over how Brett would do with his first school experience (I was worried over nothing - he did awesome and loved every minute). I was concerned for Samantha too - as she was going into grade 1 and starting full time school for the first time. She has had a great year too. Her French is very impressive and it is amazing how good her accent is too. When I try to reply to her "en francais" she is always correcting my brutal pronunciation!

I'm looking forward to having Samantha and Brett home for the summer. We have lots of fun activities to do that we've been planning for a while. It's going to be busy - it will be the first time for me to have 4 kids home full-time. But they're excited about it and so am I. The older ones are good helpers (most of the time...) Bring it on!

This afternoon, just as I was picking up the kids from school, we had this crazy thunderstorm. It started pouring rain and then actually hailed for about 10-15 minutes! The hail was HUGE! We were in the van and it sounded like big rocks hitting the doors, roof, and windows. Then it all ended, just like that. I hope it's nice tomorrow as we've planned a picnic and trip to one of the splash pads in town.