YES!!!

what a beautiful day it was today. hot and sunny. the kids loved it. :) it's strange that this is september and we're all running around in shorts again. last week, we had the fireplace going due to the chill. bizarre, wonderful weather.

we had some good news from the lawyer on friday. my profit sharing finally came through. omg!!!! we're planning on paying off our loans and investing the rest. i put in my month's notice at the office and told them if they want me to stay on as a consultant, great. if not, well, that's great too. greg and i spent the weekend with some friends to celebrate.

court news

it's been an anxious couple of days. my nails are bitten down to the quick.

on monday, they had matt's custody hearing and decided to terminate his mothers rights. we weren't there at the hearing but the social worker kept us apprised. today, we went to another hearing about being his permanent foster parents. we had to testify about his condition when he came to us. i was extremely nervous about it but at least i had greg there. he kept holding my hand and telling me not to be scared. it wasn't as bad as i feared. we brought his medical records and talked about his eye and how underweight he was. his pediatrician and social worker testified too.

the judge said matt could stay with us permanently until he's adopted! :) :) :) he was very nice. i'm quite mistrustful of anything to do with the police or legal system but everybody there was very nice to us. i talked to matt about it and asked him if he wanted to stay with us. he said, YEAH! when we told him that he could stay he started jumping on the bed. that boy has my heart, i swear.


in other news, i'm putting together a computer for our xmas family. i ordered everything at newegg and it all arrived, except for the floppy drive. so the comp is sitting there mocking me. it better get here by next week or i'll have to brave the shops to pick one up. i haven't wrapped any gifts yet and i need to get to it. greg's family celebrates hanukkah and i want to ship everything so it gets there by the end of next week. it's going to be a busy weekend. hanukkah starts on friday, the same night as matt's xmas pageant at school. on saturday, elisabeth has a yule celebration for spiral scouts plus we're supposed to go to another yule celebration. why all this has to happen on two consecutive nights is beyond me. we'll need one of those time-turner things to get it all done.

card making and decorating

the kids and i finished making our holiday cards today. elisabeth wanted them all to be *purple*, matt wanted to put bodhi's paw prints on them, ian wanted to put glitter on everything and katie was amused by the little ones. i used my executive power to veto the purple and we went easy on the glitter. that's one more thing crossed off my holiday to-do list. i'm a compulsive listmaker. greg teases me about it, but i doubt i'd get anything accomplished without my lists.

we also made our evergreen wreath and decorated the house. aunt greta has me knitting up a storm. i also crocheted some angels with magnets in them. she just told me about it last week. she goes, 'meg, how are those hats coming?' what hats?! she does stuff like that. she signs me up for things and then forgets to tell me about it until the last minute. ah, the joys of living with an absent minded aunt. i wouldn't have it any other way. i do love the old gal.

tomorrow is the custody hearing. keep your fingers crossed. *is hopeful*

interested in making your own cards? check these out:
how to make holiday cards
making cards with the kids

free hugs!!

it started in sydney, australia. now the free hug campaign has made it's way here.

taken at granvilles public market in vancouver:

seep!

countdown to lil dude's b-day. i got a helium tank for the balloons. greg and i were cracking each other up talking in our mickey mouse voices. then he pretended to be stephen harper on helium, it was pretty funny. ian was looking at us like we were a couple of loons. he had the same look katie gets when we kiss in front of her. ah, embarrassing the offspring, that's always fun.

i hired a magician guy who makes balloon animals, he's NOT a clown though. *shudders* i have to go shopping tomorrow and pick up some stuff for his cake. i ran out of pastry bags, they always seem to disappear. elisabeth has put in a request for purple frosting on the cupcakes, so i need more food colouring. i need to get down to the Y and sign the girls up for swimming and belly-dancing (katie only). then i have gifts to wrap, a house to clean and decorate and a zillion phone/fax/emails to return for work. oy.

ian was all aflutter today. he had his nose stuck to the window. so i went over to investigate, i go, whatcha doing? he says, SEEP! SEEP! our neighbours sheep decided to come over for a visit. they like hanging out in our yard, for whatever reason. we went out and visited with them. i even managed to get aunt greta to come out! :) :) :) i don't know where the older ones were, it was just the babes today.