Breaking my own "rule"

First let me tell you that when you have a baby one of the most gifts next to clothes they receive seems to be stuffed animals. Over the past 10 years we have collect lots of them. I said about a year ago that we didn't need anymore. Since then though Kaitlin has become close friends with Ashlyn (her friend who is selectively mute.) Ashlyn loves Webkinz and has a big collection of them so of course Kailtin wanted one too.

(for those of you who don't know what a Webkinz is it's basically just a stuffed animal that comes with a code that lets you go on the Internet and create a world for the animals. These Webkinz are the "in toy" right now at school.)

Last year at Kaitlin's birthday she started her collection when she received one from a friend. Since then, with Christmas and Easter she has a group of 7 of them. 2 dogs, 2 horses, a kangaroo, a monkey, and a pig. Of course you have seen Dawson's Quackers on here (which we found). He now has 3 of them. A duck, and 2 dogs. Kortney also has gotten 3, a pig, a monkey and a horse. Travis has surprisingly gotten into this too and got a frog from the Easter bunny.

This week Dan told the kids that for helping with the baby sheep (that he just sold) he would give each of them some $ to buy something. Travis decided to by a game for his DS and Dawson thought he wanted a game too. Well when it came to Kaitlin and Kortney picking out their new Webkinz Dawson changed his mind and wanted another dog instead. I was really surprised...another stuffed dog over a Nintendo game??? What's even more silly is that we need high-speed Internet for the kids to go on the website, which we don't have. So for now they are just playing with them as stuffed animals.....Which I can't believe I've gotten sucked into the fad of them and allowing more animals in the house, but it's hard to say no when they are so in love with them. Last night Travis actually took quackers to bed with him so that froggy had a friend!!
Bizarre! So that's the update with us lately. More critters living here. At least these ones require little little care and are easily cleaned up after!

Tonight's dilemma!

This story starts back before Christmas. Kaitlin had gotten afew Webkinz over the previous months which she loves.

(For those of you who don't know, Webkinz are a brand of animal stuffed toys that have a code so you can "play" with a virtual version of them on the internet site) We don't have highspeed so Kaitlin can't go online with them, but that doesn't seem to matter. Webkins are the "hot toy" right now at my kids school.

So, while in the store buying one of these Webkinz for Kaitlin's friend Ashlyn, Dawson spots one that looks like a duck. Later, when Grandma Hoggart asks Dawson what he would like for Christmas he insists that he wants a duck Webkinz. It does seem strange, when there are sooo many other toys you'd think a little boy would like. Well Grandma did go ahead and get him the duck, which he nows calls "quackers". (Travis is sure it's acutally a platapus, but there's no point in arguing with Dawson!)

Well since Christmas Quackers has been going everwhere with Dawson who has become very attached to it. He's soo cute! He litrally walks around all the time with it looking over his shoulder!

Tonight while getting ready for bed Dawson was going all around calling for Quackers. I had to tell him finally that I would try to find him cause it was getting too late. Well I still can't find him!! I know he's got to be hiding here somewhere, but so far no luck finding where that spot is. I can just imagine tomorrow morning when Dawson wakes up to no Quackers in bed! I'm sure he will turn up sometime...hopefully sooner then later. Dawson was in tears tonight and it's just heartbreaking in a sweet/funny kind of way!

Feeling lucky

Bon Jovi pictures (His drummer)


Mel and me

People will look at my life with a husband like Dan, 4 healthy, beautiful kids, a farm ect and think I've got it all. And for the most part I will agree 100%. One thing that I feel I have had to sacrifice though is time for myself. You see being married to a farmer for me means lots of time with the kids without Dan. I am although, one of the first people to agree that Dan tries soooo hard to balance work, the farm and us. With that said, I am still with the kids a lot on my own. This could drive anyone crazy including me some days! :) For the longest time wherever I would go the kids came...and if kids couldn't go neither did I. I don't have my family close enough to rely on, and Dan's family helps out as often as they can, but they all have busy lives as well. Thank-god for them or I would truly be crazy by now! It's easy for people without kids or not many to take time away for granted, which I know I used to do too. After 10 years of devoting myself to my kids it's really nice to have a break once in a while. (Ok, I'm partially venting).....I am the one who agreed to 4 kids and take full responsibility for the work that goes along with them, so I guess that's why I'm feeling so lucky these past few months for being able to get away and do somethings I want to do. In the fall I was able to go on a girls shopping trip, go visit my sister in law in Pembroke, go to TO to see Dirty Dancing on Stage, take a trip to Nashville alone with Dan!, and finally to go see Bon Jovi!!! I am truly thankful to my in laws who are always there for me/us when I/we need them. As guilty as I feel for leaving them with the kids, it's been soooo nice to get away. I've felt tied down for so long that it makes "me time" something I no longer take for granted. God knows, I can't even get alone time to go to the bathroom most of the time! :)

And yes, for all of you wondering how Bon Jovi was....Awesome doesn't do the night justice!!!

More pics

Matt and TJ trying to sing! They were too funny!!
The group of us at the end of the night . Pat, TJ, Dan, me, Raphel, Matt and Brad took the picture. - Yes we were all still standing at the end of the night!
The class picture at the plant.

Nashville

As some of you know Dan and just got back from Nashville. I'll explain how and why we got to go. Dan works for Townsend Tire. Once in a while Bridgestone/Firestone pays for someone from the tire companies to go to a conference somewhere in the states. This time it was for training in Nashville. George and Matt offered the trip to Dan and I. Bridgestone/Firestone paid for both Dan and I to go - 1/2 our flight, our hotel, and meals. It was awesome! We left last Sunday (Dan's parents looked after the kids) we got to Nashville around 5:00pm. We spent some time the first night downtown then to the Opry Mills mall the next morning. Let me tell you this mall was HUGE! There were over 200 stores and the stores were huge too. We looked around for the morning then Dan had to get back to the hotel for the classes to start. I of course went back the next day by myself to do some serious shopping!

Anyway the reason we were there was for Dan to attend classes. He had 1/2 day on Monday then the rest of the week was 8-5. I didn't mind at all. I got to sleep in, see him on his lunch break then after 5 we had the night to go out. Did I mention we stayed at the Sheraton Music City hotel which was much fancier then we're used to! Thank god we didn't have to pay for it or the meals. We had $80 coupons to use for supper every night plus breakfast and lunch meals on top of that. The food was very good!

We went back downtown on Wed night with 5 other guys from the class. It was a fun night of barhopping! I couldn't believe how many bars and clubs were downtown and on a Wed night they were all packed! We went to the Wild Horse Saloon, Buck Wild Saloon, Coyote Ugly, The Stage, Tootsies and Legends. One of them was a Karaoke bar and all the singer that went up were better then American Idol! It was crazy. It was a great night of lots of drinks and lots of laughs!

Thursday was the last day of classes and the tour of the Bridgestone/Firestone plant. I went along to see it too. I think all of us were surprised to see how much actually goes into each and every tire. The plant was enormous with lots to see.

That night was the end reception with everyone. It was a great group of people who we'll keep in touch with and hopefully see next year at the second set of classes. Although we didn't get to see much of Nashville's attractions we had an amazing time. It's always nice to go somewhere new and have a break from the ordinary. But we're back to reality again....laundry, cleaning, cooking, and getting up early!