1st birthday ever!

Happy 1st Birthday to my littlest niece Stephanie! Way to go little one!

Happy Birthday Athena!

Happy birthday to my wonderful sister-in-law. I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy a year filled with excitement and joy!

Samantha Lee

Cora-Lee had her baby!
wow.. what exciting news. And so sudden!
Samantha was born at 27 weeks, February 3. She was taken off the ventalator this morning and she looks good from the photos I've seen so far. She's expected to stay in hospital for about a month. She looks so strong. Full head of hair! I'm going to see her in hospital tomorrow. This is such a surprise. I just got off the phone with Cora-Lee and I still can't believe it! Wow... how amazing life is!

Birthday

Happy Birthday Andrew!
I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy yourself!

Happy Birthday Meghan!

It is with much pleasure that I announce the birthday of Meghan!
Happy birthday girl! I hope you have an amazing time!

The time has come

I dropped John at the airport this morning. He's been packed and ready to go for almost a week now. He's so excited to see his family after such a long time. I really am very happy for him. I can't help, on the other hand, to be sad for myself. No Christmas together, I'll miss him on my birthday too and don't even get me started on Valentine's Day. That's just the romantic in me, I guess. We took the Anthony Henday to the airport this morning. Wow... was it ever fast! Half an hour tops. I'm glad we got there early because there were tones of people there. He made it through the check-in and my eyes only teared up a few times. Then I watched as he went through the gate and that's when the watergates opened up. I'm sure people were watching me but I didn't care. He looked so happy as he made his way through the metal detector and they only had to scan him 4 times on the other side. That's not bad. I watched as he collected his things from the conveyor belt and made his way down the hall. I could hardly see through my tears as I made the long walk back to the truck.
I'm sure it hasn't totally hit me yet that he's gone now for 3 months. It's going to be a rough Christmas. To make myself feel better today I went shopping. Got all my Christmas shopping done, I think. I was on auto-pilot today so I'll have to go back through the bags and see what I got. I don't even remember the day passing. I'm just feeling numb. He's not gone forever though, just 3 short months which I'm hoping will pass quickly and he'll be back before I know it.
I got to hang out with my girlfriend today, though, and her niece who was with her today because she's sick from school. I just love little kids and all the stories they tell.
Anyway, I'm going to try to get some sleep and we'll see how tomorrow goes.

17 Days till Christmas

And only 3 more days until John leaves. Everytime I think of it my stomach starts doing summersaults. I'm really excited for him to come back and hear all the stories he'll have and see all the pictures. I'm not looking forward to waiting for him to come home. Now I wish I was going with him. I guess I can wait until we go together someday. That'll be fun. It seems like yesterday there was still 3 months until he leaves now it's only 3 days. My my how the time flies. Christmas is right around the corner. I'm not yet mentally prepared for it, but I get this way just about every year. It's all good.