Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa and Grandma!

This evening, the Klassen family gathered to celebrate both Grandpa and Grandma's 80th birthdays. Grandpa's was on December 29th and Grandma's is on January 14th. It was an evening of great fellowship and wonderful memories. The common theme for everyone was my grandparent's commitment to the Lord and their family. The highlights of the evening were the slide show my cousin prepared, and the surprise copies he made for everyone, and when all of us gathered around my grandparents and prayed over them.

Here are a few pics for you to enjoy...

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for instilling a love of God and family in your children and grandchildren...Have a very happy 80th Birthday!! We love you lots!

January's Goals

I suppose goals and resolutions are pretty much the same thing, but I just prefer the word goals. One of them I started on today. I'm glad to have finished the task of cleaning up my tree and Christmas decorations. After cleaning up the aftermath, I got started on going through a bunch of my drawers and cabinets. This leads to my first goal of the new year...

Organization: I'm determined that this year is the year that I am going to declutter my life and my surroundings, even if it means spending some hard earned money on rubbermaids, baskets and anything else helpful.

My next few goals are of a more personal nature.
Things such as to be more patient, more attentive to others, to use my voice to praise people and to just be more positive in general. This will all be accomplished through goal number three...

My number one goal this year is to grow in my relationship with the Lord. He is always on my mind with everything I do, but I need to pray more, read the bible more and just spend more quiet time with God.

This year's trials have made me realize that the relationships you have with others are what life is all about. Happiness, positivity, and fulfillment all come from how you interact with others. This is something I am excited to delve into in a future blog, so stay tuned!

I wish everyone much success as they pursue their goals for the upcoming new year. :)

Happy New Year!

The first day of a brand new year...a day of reflection on the year past and resolutions for the new year ahead. I'll go into a bit more detail in future blogs, but for now, I just want to ease myself into my first resolution gently...I've decided to participate in NaBloPoMo. Now, I know this will shock some of you, but I figure I've accomplished much bigger goals and there's no rule that says every one of my entries must be witty and long drawn out. So, with that in mind, I'm going to wrap this up for today and make you all wait until tomorrow (and maybe even the next day too) to read all about my reflections and resolutions...

Boxing Day Miracle!

For those of you who know our family well, you will know that we always have some sort of fiasco or funny story tell. These stories have been affectionately named by all of our close friends as "O'Donnell Stories". They usually involve my husband, Chris and I suppose in an inadvertant way today is no different. Chris always has some project going on and the latest one has been getting all of our speaker wires and home entertainment equipment set up. This would involve a hole in the wall underneath all of our equipment. Fast forward to Kenton and I playing with our new kitty this morning...See where I'm going with this one folks?? You guessed it...before I could even react to what was happening, our brand new Christmas kitty crawled into the hole. This particular wall is connected to another wall in our bedroom by our ensuite shower. We knocked on all the walls, hoping to scare kitty to come out, to no avail. After about 20 minutes, we no longer heard the kitty meowing in response to our knocks. We all were a pretty sad bunch trying to figure out what we were going to do. We finally decided that the only thing to be done was to cut a hole in the wall behind our dresser and see if we could see anything there. Finally, we heard another meow, but unfortunately kitty was stuck in the very spot Chris had hoped that he wasn't. Christopher had to poke the kitty from one side of the wall, while Chris tried to pull the kitty out by his tail on the other side. Finally, our new little baby was saved! What a miracle!

Christmas Gift!

I have been trying to get my hands on a special gift for my family for a week or so now, but things just weren't working out. By Christmas Eve day, I had given up hope, but lo and behold, I finally found just what I was looking for...It was delivered to us on Christmas Day...

Opening Presents

Just thought I'd share a couple of pics of the boys opening their presents...and their different styles of doing so....

An eleven year old opening his present...

A teenager opening his present....

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve everybody! All of us O'Donnells are enjoying a wonderful white Christmas. The snow started falling on Christmas Eve early in the morning and hasn't let up much since. My family all met up at my parents' a little earlier than usual on Christmas Eve, due to church being cancelled because of the snow. While we were waiting for all of our favourite appies in the oven, we took turns taking Dad's snowmobile out for a spin. What a perfect thing to do on Christmas Eve...go for a sleigh ride!

Christmas Is Coming!

My favourite time of year is soon upon us.
Here are some treasures...new and old...

My pics don't do these cuties justice...I got the penguin from Chris and the boys for my birthday, and I had bought the hedgehog earlier.

This is another birthday present from my favourite store, Home Sense. He's a black beaded reindeer. So cute!

Each Christmas season, each little critter or decoration becomes a part of the family to me. :)

Night Out On The Town! Part I

Last night, I got to relive an amazing experience from my teen years with two of my favourite girls. (No pun intended...well, ok, maybe...) We headed off to Vancouver to see the New Kids on the Block. Years ago, it was my parents who drove us in, but this time around it was our husbands.

Sonya and I both have birthdays coming up, so there was lots of celebrating to be done. We sat in the back seat of the car and exchanged birthday gifts and Christmas gifts. Do we know how to party or what?!



Here is Sonya showing off her birthday gift from me...a book of chocolate and a beautiful plate to show off her wares...




We were all getting pretty hungry, so we went for an early dinner to the Mongolian grill. Here's my bowl creation....yummy!

We still had quite a bit of time to kill, so after stopping by Costco for a quick errand ;) , we stopped for a coffee at Starbucks....mmmmm.......

I could definitely get used to this lifestyle...and the concert hadn't even started yet!

Night Out On The Town! Part II

After our treat at Starbucks, it was time for what us three girls had been looking forward to for a very long time....the New Kids on the Block concert at GM Place!!
The boys (or should I say Grown Men) :) did a few songs from the middle of the stadium. We had really good seats and could see them quite well in the middle and on the main stage.



Here's Barb and Sonya having fun!!

The boys did a good mix of all our old faves and some of our new ones. This is my favourite pic of them....probably because it turned out the best.

It was a dream evening all around and I look forward to doing it all again someday...maybe even sooner than later....;)

He's Baaack....

On Sunday afternoon, I got the most dreaded phone call....Charlie's new owners decided that he wouldn't be a good fit for their family. He didn't even last 48 hours! This was especially disappointing because I had just spent the entire weekend washing all our bedding and every single throw blanket in our house. Just five minutes before the phone call, I had spent an hour and a half vacuuming my couches and getting them to look just like new.
So we are once again the owners of a rambunctious Jack Russell Terrier...free to a good (any) home.

Goodbye Charlie...

Last night, we said goodbye to our dear little Charlie. Charlie came to live with us this spring, when his intended home with Chris's grandparents didn't work out. Kenton has always been an animal lover, and Chris too, so we thought we'd give it a try. What a cutie Charlie was! Unfortunately, it turned out that our lives were not condusive to a Jack Russell terrier. These dogs are extremely hyper and high maintenance. This does not work well in a family that is already extremely busy. With both of us working and the boys having busy social lives, Charlie was in need of attention that we could not give him. His behavior started to escalate to the point that we knew he deserved a better home. Chris put out an ad yesterday afternoon and by the evening he was on his way home with his new family. The mom is a stay-at-home mom, and they have two little girls. They fell in love with him instantly. Kenton was upset with us and cried a few big crocodile tears, but he's already coming around and accepting that we did the right thing. Hopefully Charlie is loved at his new home and we'll have our memories of him in our hearts forever.

Something New....

Today, when catching up on some of my favourite blogs, I was inspired to change my template. This is something I had wanted to do when I started blogging again in September, but didn't have time to surf the net for a site that offered something I liked. I'd like to thank Sonya and all her blog buddies for doing the leg work for me and finding a new look for my blog. It ended up being really easy once I figured out how to update blogger so that I could make the changes. I hope my new template inspires me to be more faithful to blogging. I guess only time will tell!

Beachwood in September

This post is getting out a little later than I had hoped, but I haven't been feeling 100% this week.
It's gotten to be a tradition that my mom and I go to Beachwood every September. I think it probably has something to do with the fact that my dad goes fishing every September. We always have a really great time shopping, eating good food, watching movies and laughing. This trip was no exception. Mom even let me snap a picture of her at the till when I told her that I was taking up blogging again.



Here is a picture of our biggest weakness at Bellis Fair...Auntie Anne's almond pretzel with caramel dipping sauce...mmmmm.....

This is CJ's Beach House...it's become one of our favourite for dinner. They have great burgers, fish and chips, and many other scrumptious meals.

Sorry...I took a few bites of my dinner before I remembered to take a pic...this is the special of the day...seafood pasta with alfredo sauce....yummy!

The sunset at Birch Bay is always beautiful....

Well, there's another great weekend with my mom. Thanks for a great time!

Unexpected Gift

This week I received two gifts, in the form of having two unexpected days off. I've been on call at the hospital extended care unit for over 13 years now, and can generally count on working any and every day that I want to but, for some unforseen reason, this week I just didn't get called for a couple of days. I feel so spoiled that I only worked two days this week. It's amazing how rejuvenated I feel. The thing is I should have been accomplishing all the little tasks that I always think "If I had some extra time off, I could get this and that done". I did catch up on some visiting and cleaned out Kenton's closet, but mostly I just enjoyed the little things like being able to take my boys to school myself in the morning. By Monday morning I should be good and ready to get back to the ol' grind...

Anniversary

Well, here I am. Making a comeback on the one year anniversary of my last blog entry. Maybe this could become an annual thing....Everyone could stay tuned once a year for Heather's annual blog. That would make it so much more special, the anticipation would drive people wild.

I suppose, though, the pressure of that would be even greater than just trying to come up with something interesting a couple of times a week.



I generally think of my "New Year" as being in September. For me, that's the time for new starts and a time for reflecting on the past. I missed blogging about some really great events this last year. Let me see...I've lost some weight, the boys have gotten bigger, Sonya and I went to see Jon Bon Jovi, I got a better time in the Sun Run, we took the boys to the Dominican on a family trip, Chris changed jobs, I took Biology so that I can apply to the LPN program, we went on a couple of great camping trips this summer and now suddenly another year is gone and a new one is in the waiting. This year promises to bring a whole new series of experiences to blog about. I hope I can meet the challenge....if not, I guess I'll see you next year.........

Back to Reality...

Well, I don't really have much to blog about, but, quite frankly, I'm getting sick of seeing my last entry pop up whenever I'm checking out other people's blogs. School is back in and the boys seem to be really happy. Kenton got the teacher he was hoping for, Ms. Ritchie, who was a teacher at North Pop way back when I was in elementary school. Christopher went off to high school and loves the idea of not being stuck with a teacher all day if he happens to not like them. And I'm sure all the hot high school girls are a bonus too.
The wind is slowly cooling, the leaves are falling and I am ready for fall. Ready for long hot soaks in the tub, fireplaces, warm blankets, reading good books and watching movies. And, I suppose, maybe a little blogging here and there.

Weekend with Mom

This weekend, my mom and I went down to Birch Bay together. We did a bit of shopping, sat by the pool and in the pool with our floaties, and laughed a lot!

On Friday night, we went over to Semiahmoo Resort for dinner.

I had fish and chips....the fich of the day was halibut...

What a great evening!!

Part II

Okay, I know my mom secretly reads my blog, so I hope she's not really offended when I tell everyone how she got me hooked on Coronas. I don't usually like beer, but on a really hot day, it's actually pretty good.

Here, we decided to get a bit silly and took a few photos of "Woody" enjoying a nice cold one too!

Mom cooked us up a terrific feast of steak, baked potato, and a great new Asian salad that is absolutely delish!

Thanks for a great weekend Mom!!

Camp Squeah

This evening, we dropped Kenton off at camp. This is his first year at camp. I know he'll love it, because he is such a social butterfly. I don't think he even said "goodbye" to us!

Kenton was put in a cabin with a couple of buddies from school and two new boys who will be his friends by Friday, no doubt.

Of course, you've gotta pick the top bunk!

Old friends and new friends....

'Bye Mom and Dad!

Have a good time Kenton! See you Friday!

Camping at Deer Lake

This weekend, we went on our first camping trip of the summer... to Deer Lake. We had never been here before, but enjoyed it very much. The sites are very secluded from one another and the lake was great. The kids did a lot of fishing, as you can see.

I was amazed at how fast all the organizing of camping comes back to you. Once we got there, all we had to do was relax. It was great being able to take a nap in the trailer quietly while all the kids are busy playing around, sitting by the fire. The only sad part is we don't have another trip planned until August long weekend, but maybe something will come up before then.

...And my favourite part of camping....
is for the boys to do the dishes!

Can't you see just how much Christopher loves to do the dishes?
What a ham!