Summer....hold ON!!!

Well, this week we are trying to hold on to summer as hard as we can. We have had wonderful weather, but the long range forecast looks like fall weather will be here next week.

With the arrival of summer again, we are trying to get outside and do some activities out there before we are no longer able to. We have headed out for a bike ride, played some t-ball, had the soccer net out as well as the golf clubs. The weather looks like it is to be wonderful for the next couple of days, but then my favorite season of all will be upon us.

I had my follow up dr. appointment today from being in the hospital. It looks like the virus that I picked up was the stomach bug that was going around at that time, and this darn bug decided that it was going to attack my fluid in my spinal cord. A very rare fluck thing, but it can and did happen. We also found out that the virus that my mom had probably came from me. I guess that is was she gets by not following the rules. She did not put on her mask and gloves when she came in my room in the hospital!!!!

The doctor also informed me that it would probably be a good 3 months before I will feel like my old self again. Oh great...a lack of energy does not really go over well when you have a very energetic little 2 year old to run around after. Thank goodness that he still likes to nap and have a good nights sleep, and I take full advantage of those times to rest myself.

Other then a our very quite nights, everything is pretty much back to normal around our house. Jaxon has got into his new routine of Day Care 'school' quite well, and actually wants to go now. He tells that he is going, walks in no problems, and talks about his days now. It is a true relief that he is liking it. A lode of worry is off my shoulders each day.

Happy Anniversary

3 years....oh my. Where has the time gone? Our life has been a little crazy since this day 3 years ago. Not soon after we got our wedding presents unpacked, we were expecting Jaxon, and the rest has been a blur.

Here we are 3 years later, and we are all still in tact!!!

Well, life around our house has been a little hairy, to say the least.

I got home, and finally got feeling better enough to head back to work and them my mom went in the hospital. She was in Stratford, with what ended up to be enlarged lympnoids around her heart. It was pretty scary though, with lots of tests done, and a lot of questions not being answered. Finally we got what we needed, and she is now home resting and trying to get back to her old self. It was a virus that she picked up that attacked her in a bad way. She will have to go back for more test in a couple of months, and hopefully they have gone back to normal size.

So...we are trying our best to get back to normal here at the McLaughlin ranch, and we hope that there will be no curve balls thrown our way this week.

End of Summer 2010

The Labour Day weekend marks the end of summer for most. At least for us it is usually the last time that we make it to the cottage for the year.
Unfortunately the last weekend at the cottage did not bring good weather this year. It was quit chilly for still being summer, and it held a little rain which prevented us from having our camp fires.
Because I had just got out of the hospital on the Friday, Curt and Jaxon headed to the cottage with Sid and Lois on the Friday night, and left me at home to rest and get a good nights sleep all by myself. I woke up in the morning freezing because of the temperature change and was in no rush to get up to the cottage in the rain. Hurricane Earle had been hitting the East cost the same weekend, and I think that our weather was from some of that. I have never seen the lake like it was that weekend.
I finally make it up on Saturday afternoon, and the Johnston's came up Saturday as well for the last weekend of the summer. We were to take the kids to Story Book Park this week and it had been planned all summer but when I got sick we decided that we would let it go for this year and plan a weekend next year for sure to take the kids.
We did manage to get our last ice cream at the Trading Post on the Sunday night though, and the sun even decided to join us.We had a few coupons from the amusement park left as well, so the guys got to take the kids down the slide once to use them up.

Jaxon and Jazlin got to spend the weekend in the cottage watching Mickey Mouse, and that was pretty much it. There was a little outside play had, but most of our weekend was spent in doors.So here we bid a farewell to the summer of cottage life of 2010!!! It was a GREAT year!!!

On The Mend

What a week we have had around our house.

I am not sure if I mentioned it, but during our holidays I was just not feeling myself. Achy body, bad head ache, chest and tummy pains and the diarrhea were all the symptoms that I had present when we were at the cottage. The symptoms stayed with me through the weekend and progressively got worse over Monday and Tuesday. By Tuesday night I thought I was dying. I could not even lift my head of the pillow without shooting pains into my head and nearly throwing up.

I did make my way into work on Wednesday, but as soon as I got in there I headed down to the couch and had to call my manager in from her holidays so that I could go to the hospital.

It ended up that after 10 hours in the ER they admitted me to the hospital with viral meningitis. No laughing matter. After about 24 hrs of being on IV and IV Antibiotics I was coming around. Except for a trace of a headache, I was feeling back to my old self. I was discharged from the hospital on Friday around noon and proceeded to come home thinking that I could get my house cleaned and laundry done. Well, after I was home and got one load of laundry put in the machine I was whipped.

I have soon learned what a toll a virus like this can take on your body. It is know a week later, and I am still not back to my self, and defiantly not back to work. It takes me about 2 hour in the morning to even get my self ready when I have to sit down and even lay down to regain some of my strength back. I am planning on going into work on Friday morning for a couple of hours to go through some e-mail and set my week up for next week. It has been nice to be at home, but I am kind of getting bored. Jaxon has been going to day care so that I can rest and although that sounds like a nice day, after about the second day if I had the strength I would have jumped in my car and went to work. We will see how it goes Friday. I might be wishing I did not say those words.

First Day IN

Well, we successfully completed our first day of 'school' yesterday. He was still talking to me when I arrived home last night and was very excited to show me his painting that he had done.
Apparently they had to wake him from his nap yesterday afternoon though, and that never is good. He was a little bit of a bear for the afternoon but he will soon learn that he might have to cut his 4 hr. sleep in the afternoons down. He apparently went to sleep fine though. That was my biggest fear. I would have love to seen it. They say they set up 25 cots in this one room and they all lay side by side in their own cot for their nap. I did not think that there would be any way he would go to sleep under those circumstances, but apparently he proved me wrong.
Today was looking good. We pulled into the driveway, and he said 'cool'....for school and then when I was getting him out of the car he told me he was going to paint. We entered the door with a big smile on our faces and he said hello to all. We hung his back pack up in his cubby and put his hat on his hook, and then he was attached to my neck. He did not want down. He did not want to play with the boys that were playing with the tractors. He did not want to go and see the girls. He did want to play with the elephant, but only if I was holding him. When I left he was in the teacher's arms crying....so hopefully after I walked out the door the waterworks stopped and he played just fine, which I am sure that is what happened...;)

Where has the time gone?

Well, today was Jaxon's first day of 'school'. It is actually day care, but it felt like I was sending him to school. We had to get his back pack packed, and put labels on all of his things. Pick out his outfit for his first day, and go to bed nice and early so that we could get into our new routine.

Our summer has been relaxing, and there really has been no routine involved in our days what so ever, so now we have to go back to getting up earlier to get out the door on time, laying our cloths out the night before, and having everything packed an ready to get out and start our days.

It was hard dropping him off this morning. My heart was aching. He is the youngest child there. They usually have to be 2.5 years old to go to day care, but they are allowed to have 3 children that are only 2, and since Jaxon only turned 2 less the 2 weeks ago he is the youngest. He was not sure about me leaving him there but then he saw that they had an elephant, and tiger and giraffe, he was OK with going to go and play with them. That is when I made my move and snuck out. It was a tear drive to work, and I have been waiting all morning to call and check in with them to see how thing are going. I wanted to wait until he might be down for his afternoon nape. When I called I was reassured that he was doing fine. He had asked for me a couple of time, and although his lip was out a few time, there had been no tears shed. FEWF...all is good.

I hope that he is still talking to me when I go home tonight since I dropped him off at the strange place and never did say good bye. I am sure he will love it, as I know that he needs it. He is an active kid and they will keep him nice and busy. He needs to be around other kids and he will get that at day care, and more!!!

Nice Day for a Wedding

Other then my sister and I, there has not been any of our cousins on the Strachan side get married, until yesterday. My cousin Sheena got married. It was a beautiful day filled with such love. The ceremony was at her Grandma and Grandpa Hamilton's place just outside of Listowel and was a beautiful outdoor ceremony. They had golf carts to bring the guest in to property, and Sheen and her dad drove in on my uncle corvette.(my family)

(my dad and his mom, brother & sisters)

The reception was at the golf course and was decorated beautifully...pink was her color, and even the guys had their pink on!!!

(my grandma with all of her grand kids)

Summer Holidays - part 2

After the birthday party was all over, and things were back to normal around the cottage we spent the rest of our holidays lazing around and doing a whole lot of nothing.
My mom spend the night on Sunday night after the party, and Cara stayed up with us until Thursday.
Tuesday we did manage to actually leave the cottage, and do something. We headed into Sauble took in a little mini golf,and the amusement park.Other then that day out, we pretty much lounged around the cottage, had afternoon napes, and mosied on down to the beach. Jaxon spend a lot of time playing with his new toys that he got for his birthday as well.
The dog days of summer are almost over, so we took full advantage of the last week of summer holidays that we had.

Birthday Party @ the Beach

Since the start of our holidays started the weekend of/after Jaxon's birthday, we decided that we would do his party at the beach. Since it is in the summer, and we have the availability of the cottage at our hand, we were very fortunate to be able to do it there.Curt, Jaxon and I headed up to the cottage on Friday afternoon to start to get stuff ready for not only our holidays, but the big party too. I did all of our grocery shopping and organizing before some of our guests joined us on Saturday.
Sunday was the big party day. Our guest started to arrive around noon, and the party began. The weather was not to nice. Overcast and a little cool at time....but no rain!!!
I had got the kids fishing poles that were magnetized and fish to go with them, and we did some finger (or body) paining as well.Some headed down to the beach for a bit, and then it was present time!!!
What a haul. Jaxon did no need anything, but he certainly did get spoiled. He has played with absolutely everything that he got for his birthday, and I can pretty much say that he loves it all.We planned on having an early dinner because people had to travel home from the cottage, so I did not think that Jaxon needed to have an afternoon nap. Well, he demonstrated during the gift opening that me thought otherwise. He was one tired boy, and did not have his head on his pillow for more then 10sec. before his eyes were closed. He even had to take his new truck that he got from friend Riley to bed with him.While Jaxon had his little cat nape, we had our dinner. I did not think that he would be missing too much if he slept through that. We did decide to wake him for cake though. We maybe should have just left him sleeping, but he could not miss blowing his candles out on his cake.After he blew his candles out, he was done with the birthday stuff. All he wanted to do was go into the cottage and watch Mickey Mouse Club House. He was the birthday boy, and he could do whatever he wanted to do. It was getting late in the day anyways, and people had started to pack it up, as they still had to make the drive home from the cottage. The kiddies were all played out, and were ready to go home too.We had a wonderful day celebrating Jaxon's birthday. We are very lucky to have such great friends/family to come celebrate our special little boys birthday with us too.

Happy Birthday Uncle Justin

Happy Birthday Baby Boy

Where did my baby boy go? Happy Birthday Buddy!!!!

Baby Rhyland

Last night after swimming lessons we stopped in to visit my friend Jill and her new (well, not so new) baby boy Rhyland.
What a cutie!!! Jaxon loved him. He would rock him in his vibrating rocking chair. He had kisses for him, and if I was holding him he was right there to watch him. He was on the rough side with him, but all in all it was good.
Baby Rhyland looks exactly like his mommy, who was the maid of honour in our wedding. She is a lucky mommy, because I have a little boy that looks nothing like me!!!
We had a great visit, and we will have to make sure we get out to see him sometime again soon. Jaxon might have to stay at home so I can actually have a relaxing visit.

Let the Birthday celebrations BEGIN!!!

My baby is going to be 2 on Thursday....I can not believe it.
This year we are planning on having Jaxon's big birthday party up at the cottage, as it is the beginning of our holidays, and the theme this year for it is 'Fun In The Sun', and really, what better place to have a party then at the beach.
We always have birthday dinner for everyone in our family though, and since Justin's and Jaxon's birthday are only a day apart, the two of them always have to share their meal.
When it is your birthday you get to choose the menu. This was a little bit of a problem for my mom though, she had a 2 year old and a 28 year old, that really do not have the same tastes. We ended up having a great meal with a wide range of item from macaroni and cheese, to ribs, to stuffed potatoes. We had 2 birthday cakes, Mickey Mouse for Jaxon and an angel food cake for Justin. There were golf decorations for Justin and Mickey for Jaxon.
My mom truly out did herself, yet again. I wonder where I get my attention to detail from. She always have to go above and beyond, but we love her for it. She truly makes every special occasion, even that more special.

Fun in the big Smoke

Well...what a weekend!!!

Saturday morning we took off to Toronto with the Martin's for a weekend filled a fun for the kiddies. For Jaxon, this was a weekend away for his birthday.

We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel in down town Toronto, and arrived there about 10:45. It was too early to check in to our hotel so we parked there and got loaded for our day at Centerville.

We walked down to the ferry, hitched a ride over to the island, and arrived around noon. What a great place. If you have small children and are looking for something to do with them is summer, this is a great place to take them. They had rides for everyone....from the train ride around the park, to the big log water slide. It was awesome. I was not too sure what Jaxon would think about it, and what he might do on the rides, but all in all it worked out good.

When we got there we thought we better take get some lunch into use before we went on the rides so we had some pizza and then the kids and their dad's took a ride on the train to see what the park all had to offer. Jaxon was not at all sure if he wanted to go on the train, but once his dad and him got on, and seated, he really enjoyed it. We pretty much hit up everything that the kids could do and once we did the whole park they got to choose to go back to the rides they wanted to do again. After standing in the lines for the little fire trucks (they ride on their own) Jaxon decided that he did not want to go on it, and when we got to the pony rides...he did the same. Oh well. I think that if we did it next year, he would love everything and would not hesitate to do anything.

Around 5:30 we headed back to the docks to catch the ferry back to the city and got back to our hotel around 6:30. We got checked into our rooms, and headed out for dinner. There was a Keg just down the street from where we were staying, so we decided to eat there. Thank god we got a table in the back corner of the bar part of the restaurant because we had 2 kids (well, mine in particulate) that had had little to no sleep for the day, and were wired!!! There were no tears, or upset children...just one that was way too happy/climb all over the table/floor/people, and did not want to sit if his life depended on it. Oh well, it could have been worse especially since there was no sleep to be had all day.

We got back to the hotel, took in the pool for a little late night dip, and then tried to get the kids to sleep. I was not sure how this was going to go, but as soon as I laid down next to Jaxon, and pretended to sleep, he was out. I have never seen a kid crash as fast/hard as he did. It was latterly 30 sec. and he was sleeping. I soon followed suit and shut my eyes.

Yesterday we woke up and puttered around the hotel, sent the guys and kids out to get us coffee, got packed up, and checked out. We were going to the Jay's game, so we had a little time to kill, and were only a couple of blocks away from the Eaton's Centre so we decided to go and do some shopping. We took the kids to the Disney store and Jaxon got to pick out a toy for his Birthday. He decided that he would get a Mickey car and figurine, and loved it. I was going to wrap it up for him to open on his birthday, but he wanted it right then and there, so sorry buddy...but there is no present to open on the 19th.

After a quick trip around the mall it was time to head to the Jay's game. We wanted to get there and get a bite to eat and to our seat before the game started. It was kind of a boring game...until the final few inning were the pitcher was going for a no hitter. Unfortunately the second last batter did manage to get a hit off of him, but it turned out to be a pretty interesting finish. Curt and some guy fought over a fly ball that was hit to us, and in the end the guy did give it to Jaxon. Hadleigh and Rob made it on the jumbotraun, so it was one heck of a day.

We did not even get out of the Roger's centre before both kids were K.O'd. It was a good thing that it was a good walk back to the hotel to get our car so they managed to have a good little nape before we had to wake them to get them loaded into the car.

It was a great weekend. Family fun at it's finest. Those kinds of weekends are what I truly remember about my childhood, and I hope that Jaxon will have the same memories when he is growing up. I cherish all the time that I get to spend with my little man, and to be able to do stuff with him like we did this weekend is amazing and we are very lucky.

Swimming Lessons

Jaxon is in his second year of swimming lessons this year. Because I am not home for the summer like I was last, we decided that we would forgo the 2 straight weeks of swimming, and do the Tuesday evenings for 8 weeks. You get 2 less classes, but with our schedule it worked out much better.

Unfortunate with they way our holidays are scheduled, Jaxon missed his first week, and will miss the last one too. I don't think we will have a problem though, we have a little fish on our hands. He loves swimming!!!! He is not too sure about having to listen to an instructor on what to do, but he just pretty much does his own thing, and loves every minute of it!!!