Mental Health Day

Today, Dana, Christopher and I went to Mt. Baker to do a little skiing. The weather was absolutely perfect. The conditions weren't perfect...it was really icy in spots and a little slushy in others, but it was just so beautiful being out there in the mountains. When you're out there in the snow with the sun shining all around, feeling the wind in your hair as you go flying down the mountain, it just does something for your mental health.

Organization Update

The way Chris and I (mostly Chris) have been cleaning house this week, you'd think we were retiring and moving across the country. Chris can not stand clutter and gets rid of absolutely everything...even if it's something brand new and in perfect condition. I've been doing a pretty good job of getting rid of stuff too. We've made a few trips to MCC and the local dump. Closets, cupboards, behind the fridge...nowhere has gone untouched. I must say it feels really good to know that everything has it's place.

This evening I even finished up a sewing project. I had a duvet cover that I had put snaps on years ago and just finally put on a zipper instead. It took me forever, but it's done!

I guess now I can go shopping and make way for some new stuff! ;)

Happy Birthday Peyton!

Three years ago today, the person I had been waiting years for came into my life...my first little niece, Peyton. She is such a doll and I just LOVE being an Aunty. One of our special things to do together is to go down to the pool. We play for about an hour, sit in the hot tub for a few minutes, and then it's off to McDonald's for a treat. She knows the whole routine off by heart. I look forward to the many more special times we will spend together.

It's Back!

My mom and I have a tradition of watching certain shows together during the week. At any given time during the year, you will find me on my parents' couch once or twice a week. There are so many good shows coming up, that I will have to be choosy...or else I'll be there every night! For now, we've been watching American Idol, which just started up again last night. Some of our other favourites are Grey's Anatomy, Lost, and So You Think You Can Dance. Luckily, a few of these are on the same night, so we just make a whole evening of it. Our TV nights are starting to get quite the reputation...so I just wanted to thank my Dad for giving up his spot on the couch to his daughter every so often.

Name That Spot

This week, our family has been playing the "Name That Spot" game. A few days ago, Chris noticed a few spots on his arm. Then the boys discovered that they too have spots. I, did not...until yesterday. We all went to separate walk-in clinics over the last week, and all got different diagnoses. We've been researching our spots online and thought perhaps we had impetigo, but have since come to the conclusion that we are all suffering from....ringworm. I guess our new little Christmas kitty came with more that we bargained for.


Impetigo...

Ringworm....

Kenton's back....

FYI....just so no one is creeped out by us...we're all undergoing treatment and are no longer considered contagious. The boys can go back to school tomorrow and the doc says I can go to work.

Book Club

It's been about two years now that I've been a part of a book club. My neighbour lady invited me and it seemed like a great way to meet new people and read books that I wouldn't normally read. I haven't been disappointed. It's a great bunch of ladies, some of whom I ended up already knowing from work.

We meet once a month and each take a turn picking a book and hosting at our house. We bring appies and usually have a glass of wine while catching up on each other's kids and new events in our lives.

Our book for December was Dean Koontz's "The Good Guy". It was like reading a movie. It was action packed and I could totally envision it in a theatre near you.


This month's book is "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" by Kate Atkinson. She is a British author, so it should be an interesting read.
I'm also trying to get through this stack of books sitting on my nightstand table. I've already started most of them at some time or another and need to finish them. Some I look forward to reading in the future, perhaps this summer when we take a break from book club. You will notice quite the variety...self-help books, dramatic novels, mysteries and children's novels adapted to the big screen.

If you see anything of interest to you...sit down and have a read and let me know what you think!

God's Creation

I'm happy to say that I'm in much better spirits today! This evening, after our wonderful Sunday Night Dinner, we decided to pop in a Planet Earth DVD. We bought the series for Chris's dad for Christmas and he made us a copy. I've got to say...I'm a huge fan! I love watching all of God's miracles that he created. It's just not possible to watch Planet Earth and not believe in a Lord of Creation!

I also love the conversations it starts with the kids. During one section, the narrator was explaining how over time this one particular species that lives in caves lost it's eyes because of the dark. Of course we explained that God made the animal this way because it did not need eyes in a dark cave.

This is another great tradition for our family. I definitely recommend a family night of Planet Earth for everyone!

Not In The Mood

Hey folks...Just got to be honest with you all...I'm just not in the mood to blog tonight, but I'm way too stubborn to not succeed at this month's challenge. This day has just gotten away with me. Work, the gym, the fam...
Tomorrow is a new day, just waiting to be blogged about!

Meet the Fam

Dad and Mom with their two grand-daughters...

My brother Scott, his wife Krystie and their two little girls.

My two bros, Scott and Matthew...

My three boys!

Guilt

Ahhh....guilt...that awful feeling that sneaks it's way in to every decision I make. Now, it's not true guilt I struggle with, it's false guilt. A few weeks ago, while locked in my bedroom wrapping presents, I happened to have the radio tuned in to Focus on the Family. Not something I usually listen to, but I was just too lazy to find another station and in a hurry to get lots done. The guest on was R.T. Kendall and he was speaking on Total Forgiveness and the subject of "pseudo" guilt came up. He was totally describing me and, I venture to say, many other moms. Just one example for myself is...when I'm at work I feel guilty that I'm not spending enough time and energy with the kids and Chris and when I'm at home, I feel guilty that I'm not working and contributing financially.
Since hearing the broadcast, I've done some research on the subject. Someone with false guilt has an overactive conscience and as a result is in a constant state of uncertainty. A person driven by false guilt is afraid to let their mind rest for fear they may let their guard down and possibly offend someone. They need to be considered an assest or worthy, a ''good person'', instead of letting someone down and becoming a liability. This guilt is a way of feeling in control.
Now here's the part that impacted me the most...true guilt is easy to deal with...the sin is obvious, we confess it and we are forgiven. False guilt is sinful because it is not from God, it is an idol...we dwell on it and obsess over it, because pride won't accept us being weak. We then suffer from the "martyr syndrome". When we won't forgive ourselves we're doing the devil's work for him.
Dealing with my false guilt is definitely one of the things at the top of my resolutions list for this upcoming year. With a little more time reading and praying I know this is possible.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God,
and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ."
Phillipians 4:6-7

Lunch Out With the Girls

Today, I worked until noon and then met up with my mom , her four sisters and my grandma for lunch. It was my grandpa's birthday, but sadly, he's been gone for just over a year now. We thought we would all meet for lunch to brighten up grandma's day. It's not too often all the girls get together and it was interesting observing how sisters interact, seeing as I grew up with brothers, not sisters. It was definitely a treat and I captured the moment on camera. :)

Keeping in the spirit of blogging about food, here is my lunch...the mega melt...yummy!

Winter Nights

Now that the holidays are over, and most everything is back to normal, I've discovered I have quite a bit of spare time in the evenings. I know this is a rarity, so I do not take it for granted. Soon, soccer will start up again and then one thing will lead to another and I will be busy all the time again, but for now I'm enjoying having nothing on my "to do" list...nothing to do but have a hot bath, get into my pj's early, read a book, play a DS game, maybe watch a TV show or update my blog. Some nights, I even do all of the above! I'm sure with all our nasty weather lately, more than a few people are looking forward to spring time, and usually I'm one of them, but for now I'm quite content with my winter nights...in fact, I can hear my bed calling me now...

My Bucket List

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I've always kinda had a bucket list in my mind, only it wasn't called that...it was more like "Things I Want to Do in My Lifetime". Some of the things on my list are realistic goals that I can accomplish and a few are just lofty dreams...a good combination, don't you think?

1. Learn Spanish.
2. Take a photography course.
3. Take a dance class.
4. Take piano lessons.
5. Go on a missions trip.
6. Travel to Europe.
7. Go back to school.
8. Live on a hobby farm.
9. Have a house by the lake.
10. Invent something.
11. Write a book.
12. Be in a movie.
13. Build a dream deck around my hot tub.
14. Learn to fly a plane.

I think this list is a good start, and a few of them I might even try to accomplish this year...This year is all about change and challenges for me, so I challenge each one of you to think of your own bucket list, and perhaps at this time next year we can look back and see all that we have achieved!

Sunday Night Dinner

For the past few months, we've started a tradition with a dear member of our family. Dana is a mother, grandmother and friend to us all. We decided awhile back to keep these family ties close by having Sunday night dinner together. We've only missed maybe a couple of dinners together since. I'm really thankful for the relationship Dana and I have. She is a wonderful friend and mentor, in every way.

We've discussed getting creative this year by adding more people to the group once in awhile, and maybe even having theme nights. Tonight it was just the five of us, but we did have a bit of a mexican theme going. We enjoyed fajitas, nachos, refried beans, guacamole and all the other great fixings.

Here's to many more Sunday night dinners...

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!