9 Years

9 years ago today I totally missed the moment. I missed the moment when they called out Jade's Chinese name so her family could take her from the arms of the orphanage director. I missed it because the restaurant at the Dolton Hotel in Changsha was full of tears as baby after baby was placed in the arms of their mothers and fathers. I couldn't stop watching. I couldn't stop crying. It was one of the most emotional moments of my life. Every family had a story and to see them finally, after years of waiting, receive their daughters did me right in. I did not hear them even call my daughters name (which, even if I did hear it, I wouldn't have recognized it because they pronounced it totally different than the way we had been for 6 weeks) I didn't even know she was in the ROOM until Mike brought her over to us. HE heard them call her name. HE went and got her.

Oh well. She loves me more.

Maybe.

No, not really....

If I let her eat chips she does.

But in China she did only want me and her grandpa to hold her though :)

She would only go to Mike if he fed her Cheerios.

Now she's a daddy's girl. She knows to go to him because he never says no. She had a t-shirt a couple of years ago that said "Daddy's little princess" and he would say to her when she wore it "Yes, you are...daddy's little princess, yes you are" *in a sugary sweet baby talk voice* Mark and I teased him, and still do to this day, about that!!

I remember that I could not stop looking at her. It was so hard to believe she was finally right in front of my eyes and I could actually touch her and smell her anytime I wanted. She was such a good baby. She acts more like a baby now then she did then! Ha ha...she will mad if she reads that :0

I think I have 2 of the cutest children ever created....

I am truly blessed.

It wasn't the easiest thing in the world to have these 2 kids but I would go through all I went through all over again just to have THEM

And by the way, you will never ever see Mark caught in a Maple Leaf shirt ever again!

We have been a family for 9 years today! Yay....

Parents of the Year Awards Coming our Way :)

One thing our family loves doing is hanging out with the M family. Whether just at home or going on a little vacay we always have an awesome time together. This past weekend we went to Toronto to see the musical Rock of Ages. The play was fabulous. Mike and Ron laughed through the entire thing and my husband, who hates musicals, said he would see that one again. I thought it was the best play I had ever been to. The kids all agreed that it was better than The Sound of Music (which we all went to see last year) The thing is, this play is NOT appropriate for children!!! Ha!! And we had 5!! There were maybe 7 kids in the whole building!! My friend Birgit told me that the kids might hear some language and see some skimpy costumes but it should be fine for them. Let's just say that they all saw their first strip show (and I saw mine too!) For the first 1/2 of the play Pam and I looked at each other a number of times with our jaws wide open and our eyes popping out of heads! We would think 'now that they've seen "THAT" it can't get worse' and, guess what, I did!!! Occasionally Jade and Emily had the programs covering their faces and would be peeking over the top. At one point Jade was sitting on the edge of her seat soaking in all that inappropriateness. We left that place feeling like every other adult was judging us for exposing our kids to strippers, drugs, and foul language. Thankfully some of it was way over their heads (the camel toe t-shirt) but they all KNEW they had just experienced something really, really wrong!!

Saturday night while we were eating dinner my cell rang. I answer it and hear "Your limo is waiting out front"

Me: "I didn't order a limo"

Him: "Is this 519-###-####? And you are at the Hilton?"

Me: "Yes, but I didn't order a limo"

Mike hears this and takes the phone and walks away.

Now, would you not think OMG My husband got us a limo?!?!?!?!

The normal person would.

Not me.

I think "How did someone get my phone number and order a limo? Did my phone get hacked the way my email got hacked" (and sent viagra spam to everyone on my contact list)

Mike and Ron decide to go see the concierge to see if they can get Leafs tickets. Pam and I are wondering where this idea came from all of a sudden. Whatever, we think. Go ahead.

Now Kaitlyn gets a text from a number she doesn't know and we have it all figured out that someone we both know is playing a trick on us. Which is a huge relief because we were really freaked about how someone got my number and ordered us a limo. I remember saying "They better not charge their limo to me?" Seriously, I'm that dumb.

Text from Ron: We are not paying Scalper prices meet us in the room.

A min later text from Ron: We got a cab meet us out front.

Crap Pam and I say. Text from us: Cab for what?

Text from Ron: Distillery district. See the lights. 3X bigger than ours.

We are not impressed. It's cold out and we are going to be stuck in an Aerostar that fits 9.

Then the light comes on. "OMG what if they got us a limo" 4 girls start squealing and jumping up and down. Then we start putting all the pieces together. And then we laugh because we are the dumbest people on earth. We get to the lobby and see lots of taxis, no limo!! Ha ha...we are not that dumb!!!

But as we get right outside, we see a huge white limo and Ron and Mike standing beside it. We all start screaming and jumping up and down. I'm sure it was a sight!! LOL!!

We are off......everyone is laughing and soooooo excited. None of the kids had been in a limo before so they were thrilled.

After about 20 mins Mike says "Don't you want to know where we're going?

Me: "I thought we were going to see the lights"

Wrong.

We took a limo to the Playdium in Mississauga. The kids all got unlimited playtime cards and they went wild playing all the games and getting a zillion tickets to trade in for tattoos and Skittles! It was seriously crazy. We could not believe that Mike and Ron planned such an exciting thing to do and kept it a secret for so long.

The playdium was what the kids needed. A reminder after their adult afternoon that they are still just kids!!

While the kids were in the Playdium we adults went and sat in the limo and had a couple of drinks. The driver offered to take us to a great club nearby. LOL....we told him thanks but no thanks. We are bad enough parents taking our kids to a show with strippers and then leaving them alone in the Playdium while we sit in a limo drinking! (Don't worry: We could see the doors and we all had phones to text or call each other) It would somehow be really, really wrong if we actually took off on them :) That is when we decided we deserve Parents of the Year Awards.

I don't know if I have ever laughed so hard in my life than during this past weekend. Jade and Emily were telling Pam and I that we always act like teenagers when we are together. I wonder if it's leftover from our teenage years because we always laughed then too. Anyway, I'm just glad that Pam and I shared that experience together. We were bad parents together. We'll talk about this weekend when we are roomies in the old age home together. And I hope the kids never ever forget this weekend either. Well, some of it I hope they do forget.

You will notice they are all wearing Abercrombie clothes. We spent a good hour in there...teenagers you know :)

Mike pulled the door shut and it actually came apart and he was holding the entire plastic piece in his hand. He leans over and says to Pam as serious as anything "Well, you know I had that vitamin drink for lunch today". It was definitely a 'you had to be there' moment and I'm only blogging it because it was one of the funniest moments of the day. We were laughing so hard it was quiet. And our stomachs hurt. Do you know what I mean? Those moments come few and far between and need to be remembered.

Kitchen Renovations

After many years of talking about redoing the kitchen we finally bit the bullet and went for it. It was so much fun designing it and picking everything out that we wanted. We went with cherry wood cupboards in the Russet colour. I love how they are dark, but not too too dark. We bought really dark stools to use at the island and we are still trying to pick out a really dark kitchen table set. We did our countertops in quartz. They are so shiny I just love them!

If you are in the market for a range hood we found a site kitchenhoods.ca. They are about half the price from a big box store.

I love, love, love my pot filler. It's going to be so nice when I'm old and unable to carry heavy pots of water from the sink to the stove! Mike did all the backsplash himself (yay Mike) We put a bar fridge in too and all our beer, pop, water and juice go in here now and out of my fridge. It is nice not having all that beer taking up food space! LOL!

Instead of switching to a gas stovetop, we went with induction instead. This is the way to go! It is just as effective as gas but much more efficient. Without the flame the kitchen doesn't heat up and the kids are safer when they are cooking. And it itself doesn't get hot. So when you are frying bacon you can put a teatowel under your pan to save yourself from cleaning up all the grease splatters on your cooktop.

And here is a dream come true! Cooking a turkey in one oven and the pumpkin pie in the other. I love my double oven.

Ice Cream....Mmmmmmm

My kids are huge ice cream lovers. When we did the renos on our kitchen this summer I bought all our appliances from Sears and racked up a ton of Sears points. On top of that there were some adjustments to my bill and I ended up with a lot of credit on my card (yay!!) So I used some of my credit to buy the ice cream attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer. It's honestly the best kitchen gadget I own yet. The ice cream is so easy to make and it's so, so, so good (if I do say so myself!)

One of the favourites is Cookie Dough. They also love the Skor bar ice cream. I think that might be my favourite so far. The fruit flavoured one is the only one that sat in the freezer for more than 3 days!

Happy Halloween

We had the greatest Halloween last night. Mark decided to dress up like a nerd. When he made that decision I said "Let's go and see what Dad has in his closet" Mike heard me and yelled out "You won't find anything nerdy in MY closet!!" Lo and behold we found a shirt and a tie :)

Mark had part of the shirt pulled out his zipper and with my old sunglass frames wrapped in tape, his hair gelled and parted in the centre and the funny things he said he pulled off being a nerd quite well! Of course we teased him terribly that no one will be able to tell he was any different than his usual self!

And Jade went as a Chinese girl! Seriously.

When Winners opened their new store in August Debbie and I were there and when we saw the costume we knew I had to get it. We debated whether or not you can dress a Chinese girl up as a Chinese girl for Halloween but she loved the idea and wasn't at all offended. She looked gorgeous. Seriously, she took my breath away. Mike was kind of shocked when he saw her in makeup and said something about buying a shotgun!

Craig and Ryan trick or treated as Tigger and Pooh. They were adorable but were a little standoffish when they saw the kids. Actually Mark kind of freaked Ryan out! He hid behind Jeff. Ron and Pam were already here with their girls so the house was full of kids and it was a little loud and scarey for the boys! Click here to see the awesome treat bags Tammy made for the kids. She's the most creative person I know!

Pam and I filled our insulated mugs with Baileys and After Eight hot chocolate and took the girls out trick or treating (Mark went with his friends) It was coooolllllldddddd. Kaitlyn had fishnet stockings on her legs and refused to put her sweatpants on until after we went by the house where the guy she's crushing on lives.

After trick or treating the kids dumped all their loot on the floor and inspected it all. They were trading the stuff they don't like with stuff they do and there was candy flying all over the living room.

Pam and I were commenting on how different the candy is now from when we were kids. Our kids get mostly chocolate bars and chips. We used to get those awful Halloween kisses. I don't think they even make those anymore. One house gave out money and the kids were so excited to get a handful of money.

More pictures:

Jade dressed Jax up as a Chinese cat :)

Moving Day for Ovie

We had to find Ovie a new, much higher place to put his fishbowl. This morning Jax knocked the whole thing over and poor Ovie was laying on his side on Mark's carpet. He must have had a heart attack looking up and see Jax without glass between them! Thankfully I was able to get to him in time and dump him back into the 2" of water that was left in the bowl. Since I was panicking I missed and dropped him back onto the carpet first (sh...don't tell Mark) Ovie's alive and well with only a minor rip in his flowing red tail.

FYI: Fish don't die immediately after they are dumped out of their water. I was in the kitchen when I heard the thump and by the time I clued in to what it was and ran upstairs at least a minute had passed.

Busy Little Kitten

Oh, it's a good thing he's cute and cuddly because he's trouble with a capital T!!!

This fun started with Jax pawing at the floppy aloe plant that grows, even though it is neglected (that's the great thing about aloe plants!) in the corner of our bathroom beside the bathtub. Well, those floppy leaves (is that what they are?) of aloe bounce back when you touch them. But why stop there, why not knock the whole thing over, pull the plant right out and play in the dirt.....

Jax then leans over the side of the tub to look at all the neat stuff that he knocked into the tub before he discovered the fun of the aloe plant.

My overnight bathroom bag was on the side of the tub and that went in.....everything in the bag all over the tub. He knocked in some socks too.

He watched with a very sad face as I vacuumed all the dirt up and put everything away. But have no fear, there are other things in the house to keep a kitten amused.....like fish.

We need to move Ovie (Mark's fish named after a hockey player...Ovechkin) to a much higher spot. Jax had not only his face right in the bowl, but his paw too.

The one thing Jax does that cracks us all up is when he ambushes us. He will hide beside a doorway and when you walk past him he jumps in front of you on his hind legs and swats like a maniac with his front paws. If he could talk I'm sure he would say "Boo" Mark is sure Jax learned that from him :)

It sure is different having a kitten after having a 20 year old deaf cat who slept all day :)