Please forgive me.

So last tuesday (november 23rd), was Dylan's 7th Birthday. Kennedy and I went shopping for cute decorations and stuff to prepare the Loop bags for the children that were attending the party. We picked up quite a few things and had lots of fun blowing the balloons up and setting up the house. It wasn't going to be a huge thing... Just a few of Dylan's friends and a bit of skating on the rink downstairs. A little hockey party :)

It was a great party and Dylan was really happy with the setup, the familly, the friends, and the gifts (especially the I-pod touch). I knew I wasn't going to be there for Kennedy and Curtis' birthdays so I didn't want to buy a gift or anything so I simply made him a card. But he was pretty happy with it. I simply drew the logo of his hockey team and that made it :) Plus, I knew I wanted to get them all something for Christmas so I figured he'd be alright with that, and he was. So it was a really nice and good night, and Dylan was very happy. Here are a few pictures.

      

I have been a bad girl, not writting for so long so I know I can NEVER do this again because I already forgot a few things.... I do know that the day after Dylan's party (wednesday), the boys got up, played with the Lego and Ipod and went off to school but then what did Kennedy and I do ? I remember picking up the house and taking off the decorations but besides that... Woupsy ! Anyhow, I think it was a good one ! And then Brian flew in later that night and got home when we were all in bed. So thursday morning, we got up and he was there. The kids were really happy to see him. I am finding this pretty bad because I actually don't remember much of that day either. OH ok I do ! Jillian (youngest of the Jackman's) came over for a play day with Kennedy. So that was awesome because they are the same age and get along very well so it was easy for me and Brian to do what we had to do because the girls were busy having tea parties and dressing up !

So I washed all the bed sheets and Brian did his thing. In the afternoon, we took the girls with us and went to the bank because we wanted to open a joint account so I could have access to money for groceries and gas all the time. On our way back, we stopped for Ice Cream :) That night, Curtis got his stuff ready as he was leaving with Brian in the morning for a hockey tournament. So that friday morning, I didn't have to get up because Brian was there so I was able to sleep in a little. Although I usually have a 4 day weekend when he is there, this one was different because of the tournament. So I actually did work, but only in the morning because Nicole was working from home, but only in the morning.

So while she was doing so, Kennedy and I watched Tv and went to do the groceries. Nicole mentionned that she was inviting me to "Pub Night" that night (If I wanted to go, which I did !) if she could get a hold of the little neighboor to babysit but it turns out she wasn't there so we just stayed in. We didn't really care for it anyways because we were both tired. It's simply a night they do once every other week with the parents of the Oakville Rangers hockey teams. They send e-mails to let them know where and when, and they meet and have a few drinks and chat. Nicole says it's fun because they can of course talk about hockey without the kids, but they can also catch up on subjects they don't usualy talk about in arenas ! So we said we would definitly attend one sometime.

OH and the main thing...... Sad, stupid and anoying thing : I didn't pass my math test. I got 70. I got my result that past wenesday I just mentionned earlier (the 24th). So that was definitly a desapointment. I was kind of sad.. Only 5 points missing... But anyhow... The next writting is Feb. 9th so I'm just right back into it now trying to do as much as possible. I am hoping that this next time will be the good one. And like my mom said, if I look at it from another point of view, I can make this overwhelming experience last longer and earn a few extra bucks to prepare our future home and get appliances for when we move in next spring. I had a good talk with Jean-François before deciding to persue because I wanted to be sure of our decision. And it turns out he was just great about it...

"C'est comme toi tu veux Lyne, tu m'as tjrs respecté dans mes choix. Peu importe ce que tu fais, j'va être content pour toi. Donc c'est ta decision. Pis comme tu dis on peut s'organiser pour se voir une coupe de fois. Si t'aimes ça pourquoi tu resterais pas ? Je t'aime bcp Lyne, xxoxo"

And then there was my mom....

Je viens juste de lire ton message, car hier soir je n'avais pas d'accès et je suis sortie voir à l'antenne extérieure ce matin et le fil n'était pas bien branché.  Je comprends ta déception mais dit toi que tes efforts sont quand même positifs, ta note a encore augmenté et tu vas finir par y arriver avec la persévérance. Je ne sais pas ce que tu en penses, mais peut-être que tu devrais t'y mettre tout de suite avec l'aide de Nicolas.   Comme dit le dicton le malheur des uns fait le bonheur des autres: Nicole et Bryan vont être contents dans un sens et il faut toujours ce dire il y a pire que ça dans la vie.  Je te souhaite une très belle journée et je t'aime beaucoup et je suis fière de ma puce.   Maman xox

And then Sara Ann....

I think you should stay ! You really seem to love it and now is the time to do stuff like that !

Like you wrote on your blog,  you know your relationship is strong !
Yay Belette !!! What a MAN ! Haha !
Love Youu BUgzy

And of course the fact that Nicole and Brian really seemed happy and told me they would love to have me stay for a while. So after crying a bit reading those messages, I decided I should stay. And I knew the hardest part was going to be the distance with me and Jean-François but at the same time, I thought "What if I had studied in another university than Rimouski?". I definitely wouldn't of seen him as much as I did. I mean in Rimouski, I was down home EVERY weekend. And then I thought about my third stage that I had wanted to do out west.. And then of Sara Ann who did it with Jay so many times... I just figured we were strong enough and that this was something we could easily go threw (Ok not EASY but not too bad!). So my decision is made. I am staying in Oakville until may. And the thing is, Nicole filled me in on all the good details that they offer when someone stays long enough ! So here's what I get :

- I keep my 4 day weekends once every other week

- I have 4 sick days

- And I have 10 days of paid vacation

So here is how it works out... Nicole mentionned that for them, it would be easier if I did not take those 10 days all at the same time.. Which was fine with me. But then it was even better when she mentionned this :

"So if you would want to, you could take 2 days off of your 10 vacation days once in a while and stick that to a 4 day weekend. So say you would take a thursday and a tuesday off, well then you would have thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday... You would actually have 6 days to go home or have your boyfriend come!"

This is amazing, I thought. So I just figured I could do that like once a month and it would be WAY more easier to get threw it if it was to get any harder for me! Plus, Jean-François would be taking a full week off in the middle of my journey so that would split the run in two and help :) I really loved the idea of that. And I was back to happy !

So back to my week... Since we didn't go to Pub night, we went to bed early friday. Saturday, I slept in until like 10am and when I got up, no one was home. I looked up on the computer and Kennedy had a Bday party (yes another one) and Dylan a practice. I decided I was going to go take a look at "Oakville Place", the shopping center not too far from here which I hadn't been to yet. I went online to see how the transit worked and where the nearest bus stop was. Turns out I had to walk about 5 minutes to get to one. So I Bbm'd Nicole to let her know where I was going to be and I took off. When I set foot outside, snowflakes were coming down. My first snow of the year :) I was really happy !

I shopped a little (Boots, tuque, tank tops, pyjays and a cardigan) and came back around 2:30. Nicole and the two kids got home but only to prepare for Dylan's practice. She asked me if I wanted to join them but I kinda felt like staying in. I was tired of my shopping ! So she said they'd be back around 6 and that we'd go out somewhere for dinner. She had just put a load in the washer but before leaving, she realized it was leaking a bit... She told me about it and said "Ah, I think i'll just put a few towels on the floor to be sure but it shouldn't make a big mess, its not leaking much and it'll only be running for 30 minutes cause it's a small load". Alrighty then !

After they left, I went down and started to straighten my hair and make my makeup. As I started putting my earrings on I noticed a weird sound but couldn't figure out what it was... I walked out of the bathroom and as I saw it, I simply stood there for at least 10 seconds.... Water was running threw a pantry downstairs... And around the sealing lights. Lots of water on the floor. I felt weak in the knees but it wasn't a good weak like when you have butterflies or something. I thought I was going to die ! I texted Nicole right away and she took care of having Brian calling me. While I was waiting, I went upstairs to stop the washer and when I finally got Brian on the line, he told me what to do to turn the water off in the laundry room. Fortunately, that solved the problem because it would of been way worst if it had continued. So I just threw some towels downstairs, started mopping and taking out the stuff to wipe the shelves and make sure nothing was ruined ! And nothing was so even if it seemed bad and sounded crazy for Nicole, it turned out not too bad.

When I first saw it happening, I figured "No dinning out tonight" lol. But it turns out there was really nothing more we could do besides picking up and replacing everything so when they got home, Nicole took a look at it and decided we were still going out. It was really delicious, we went to this Italian restaurant called The Olive Press. Very good. We were kind of scared about the walls being damp but it was nice and warm in the house so Brian said not to worry about mold or anything because it was going to dry up quickly. So Nicole was pretty happy. When they got back from the tournament sunday, Brian looked it up and it was the pump and the seal that had fallen in to the washer so water was just flooding out ! Nicole had mentionned before that she didn't really like that washer so we ran out to Future shop before it closed and shopped for a new washer (and dryer without brian approbation!!). She actually just got the washer but when she got home she had him take a look a the dryer and so he went out and bought it monday morning. They are really nice and Red ! :) Laundry will be fun !

So monday night Dylan had a game in Caledon (about an hour from here) so we all hopped in the van and went to see him ! Brian was also taking the plane right after so his things were all in with us too. Dylan's game was REALLY fun and exciting ! And a goal and and assist so that was great. It was his first goal of the season so everyone was pretty proud. And so was he. Before leaving to come back, Nicole's mom put all of the laundry in the van (she had made a bunch of loads since we were without one!!) and so we left to go bring Brian.

Yesterday (tuesday), Kennedy and I went shopping for a gingerbread cookie shapper to make some cookies again. I decided to buy Disney's A Christmas Carol but when I got here, I never got to play it. At about 1 minute into the movie, it would just freeze and there was nothing to do with it. I tried it in different players and it still didn't work. So while Kennedy was at Gymnastics in the afternoon, I went back to change it. Turns out it did the same thing. But I mean... EXACTLY the same thing... It stopped at the same moment. So I thought it must of been a problem with the whole batch so I looked it up on internet and I found out that it had happened to a few people over in Canada but even in a few places in the states... So I decided I was going to bring it back and simply take my money back.

So anyways today Kennedy stayed home because she was sick during the night last night but in the afternoon she was feeling just fine. So I took her out with me to go to the grocerie store to get a few things and I made it to Walmart too to get my money. Turns out they can't give it back if it's open (stupid) so I could only change it (either for another one the same or for a different movie)... So I decided to give it another try. Plus I bought the two first Home Alone's (My all time favorite movies). But the Disney one still did the same thing... 3 copies and the exact same problem with the three of them. I had read on internet that a women had called Disney and that they had sent a good one back... But I don't know what i'll do yet... That's the kind of thing I always wonder what I should do... By the time I get it back.. I'll see ! I might just call to see what they say ! But anyhow... Tip to all : Do not buy Disney's A Christmas Carol ! Nicole told me Brian could burn it for me so :)

So ya today, Nicole texted me to say her sister and two kids were going to come for dinner with Gail so I decided to do chicken Vol-au-vent and they simply loved it so I was pretty happy ! I was surprised to know they hadn't had it before. It was a good night with fun kids and nice women to chat with.

So this was definitly long and I seriously cannot do this again because I will regret it !!! And I won't remember ! And when I want to read it in a few years, I will wonder what happened in those long periods where nothing was written ! So for myself and for the ones who have been waiting (wink-wink), I am sorry and I will try not to do this again ! Please forgive me.