The countdown is on...

Steve is coming home this weekend for the twins' birthday! We are all beyond excited! I must admit that I'm surprised at how well I'm doing so far. Of course I miss Steve terribly but am doing much better then I anticipated.

I have come up with only 3 positives for Steve being away...

1) less laundry (contrary to popular belief he still dirties a lot of clothes even though he wears a flight suit everyday!)

2) no toilet seat up (self explanatory)

3) not going to sleep and waking up to Sports Desk (complete control of the remote is very nice! ha!ha!)

I feel so blessed with the out pour of support. Everyone is checking in on me which is nice. I received this email from a friend of ours, Kim, who's husband, Jody, is also a military pilot and I go back and read it from time to time to make me feel better. Here's a little snippet of her email...

I just read that you will be single parenting for the next five months. I single parented Emily for 5 of her first 12 months, off and on. The last time was for 9 weeks when Jody came home one day before her first birthday. It is taxing but totally doable. You will be absolutely fine. You will miss Steve like mad but you will be a better wife/mother (is that even possible with you? I know how fabulous you are!) as a result. Focus on your blessings and let go of the crap that doesn't really matter (like dusting. OK, so not for 5 months but you know what I mean).Hang in there. And ignore all those people who say, "I just don't know how you do it. I could not do that." I honestly believe God hand picks military wives for our strength of character and ability to focus on the bigger picture. We have fantastic men who are worth the wait. And if you get really ticked with people comments, tell them how hot the reunion sex is. Ha! Ha!

It's nice to know someone went through it and is stronger for doing so. Thanks to everyone for your love ! I appreciate your friendship so much!
P.S. To my Mom and Dad...I'm doing well BUT I still want you to come visit OFTEN! hee!hee!

Muffin Madness!

Today was a warm day in the Valley but rainy too. We were only able to get out for a little bit so we made the best of our time inside. Baking is always a favourite activity when we are stuck inside...there's only so much Barbie and Tonka Trucks I can play ha!ha!

Look how concentrated Michael is on filling his muffin tin just so. So funny!

We ended up making banana muffins and at the end I decided to let Abbey and Michael add some chocolate chips.

Guess which one is Michael's? ha!ha! What a little monkey! They were very delicious...obviously! :-)

Halloween!

Halloween was super fun again this year! Abbey and Michael were so excited! With them being in school now, there was a big build up all week. They learned some cute songs, did fun crafts and even got to dress up at school for a costume parade. How exciting!

My good friend Donna offered to come over and hand out candy while I took the kids Trick-or-Treating. God love her! With Steve away...I obviously couldn't be in two places at once so she was a total Halloween saver.

We (not so patiently) waited for the first Trick-or-Treaters to come to the door and we were off!!! Michael as a race car driver in his Lightning McQueen outfit and Abbey (with Donna) as a dolphin.Very cute if I do say so myself! ha!ha!

Here's a picture of my little Trick-or-Treaters laughing hysterically while Donna had them "practicing" going door to door.

Since we live in such a small community, all my students know where I live therefore a lot of them come to my house for Halloween. They were just as excited to see our friendly school secretary offering them candy. Here's Donna and Abbey on the front porch. Please note the "M" and "A" carved pumpkins...I'm so creative eh?!? lol!

Here's my favourite pumpkin. When Michael picked up this big pumpkin, the stem fell off, so we improvised and made the stem into a nose. Turned out pretty nice though!

Here's Donna, Michael and Abbey sorting through their loot! Thanks Donna for making Halloween so perfect! You are a true friend and I'm so thankful for you in my life! xo

P.S. Donna blogged about our Halloween adventure too.

Check out her blog at http://peterssm.blogspot.com/

The Night Before...

Thursday was insane in the McAlpine house! Carving pumpkins, getting special treats ready for the kids at school, getting school costumes packed...not to mention getting supper on the table, dishes done, all before Survivor and Grey's Anatomy! I literally didn't stop until 9:30pm (which is why my PVR is so vital!). I was so ready for my Coke and chocolate by that point!

Here's Michael and I carving pumpkins. Abbey was the official photographer. Here we are sampling roasted pumpkin seeds. Yummy!

I had so much to do for my classroom too. I always do Halloween activity centers usually Math and Literacy based....complete with a little passport for the kids to stamp when they've completed a center. If Steve would have been home I could have gone back to school to prepare ahead of time but that's not the case so Friday morning was craziness getting stuff prepared in time...thank goodness I've been doing this awhile! ugh!

Here's a picture of Abbey and Michael eating their white chocolate ghosts! Delicious!!!

The Dream Team

For those of you who were feeling bad for me being alone since Steve left...well...save the sympathy. hee!hee! The day after Steve was Ontario bound, the Dream Team arrived on my doorstep. The Dream Team consists of my wonderful Mother and her fantastic sister, Germaine.

We had an amazing week visiting together and I was totally spoiled (the kids too!)...meals, free time, cleaning services, gifts AND ironed pillow cases! Great company too!!!

We even had an early birthday party for Abbey and Michael.

They were super excited to open gifts and blow out candles.

Big hugs for grand-maman!

...and the final picture is the Dream Team "high-fiving" for a job well done! I hope I have half of their energy when I'm 60 something! Thanks for everything this past week! I appreciate it very much...now...when are you two coming back?!?

Single Parent...

Well today was the day...Steve left for Trenton this morning to start his Herc course. We knew it was coming for a while now but that didn't make it any less hard. He left while the kids were sleeping to make it easier on everyone but it was still so difficult. Ugh!
The first words out of Michael's mouth this morning were "Where's Daddy?"... so heartbreaking!
Yesterday while I was at work and the kids were at school, Steve went shopping! When I got home the kitchen table was loaded with treats. Abbey got Ballerina Barbie, Michael got a new Transformer and I got beautiful roses and a book I've been wanting to buy. We were all very excited and it was nice to have something new for the kids to play with this morning.
So day 1 without Steve is over! We survived it! ha!ha!
Only 130 days to go...yikes let's not think about that!

Good Friends...

I came across this picture today of my friends, Alex and Shawn and their two children, Ethan and Lauren. We had a Pizza Night at my parent's house this summer and had so much fun catching up. I've been best buds with Shawn since as long as I can remember and now his family and mine hang out twice a year...summer in Ottawa and Florida! (Shawn's parents and my parents are friends as well and we've all travelled together since we were teenagers).
Michael and Abbey always have fun playing with Lauren in Siesta Key and it's VERY nice for Steve to have Shawn as a drinking partner on the beach and for me to have a shopping partner at the outlets in Florida (and Alex and I do a little drinking too! hee!hee!)



P.S. okay Alex...hopefully this pic will inspire you to start blogging again...SOON! :-)