What a weekend!
Friday night was a little rough due to finding out about some troubles James has been having at school. *sigh* Keep giving out the Love, Support, and Strong Comfort… Picking them up was quick and easy and after Chantale met up with us, we headed to Fairview to get some nice new clothes for the kids! Yup, Special Weekend required nice clothes! 🙂 Melyssa got a nice red dress and white sandals, and James got himself a nice blue shirt and tie, as well as black pants and shoes!
Saturday was rather busy but nice. After lunch, we waited around for Brault & Martineault to deliver the goods and they did! Much grunting and straining on behalf of the movers, but by 4pm or so we had our new Couch, Love Seat, Dining Room Table, Buffet/ Hutch all installed and ready to be admired 🙂 (digital pics coming soon!) Chantale’s parents came over for supper and we even cracked open the bottle of Founder’s Estate Chardonnay we had picked up in Maine last weekend. (strangely enough, it didn’t taste as good or sweet as the same ones bought here). The evening ended when some friends came over for coffee and desert 🙂
By 10pm everyone was gone and the kids were in bed. Chantale and I just lounged around enjoying the fact that we didn’t have to sit on the floor any more 🙂
Sunday morning, we all got dolled-up and headed off to church. It was a really nice service which included a lot of participation from the Sunday School students and a baptism. What we were there for was to celebrate James’ being able to take communion. It was a very special moment which actually also made it into the Church Bulletin (you can just picture James beaming when he saw that 🙂 ). When the service ended, we headed out to Chantale’s parents place as they were hosting a BBQ for James. My parents came over as well as my brother, his wife, and new baby! It was, truly, a phenomenal time. The bit of rain in NO WAY dampened our spirits as the food was excellent! My parents were especially impressed with the BBQ chicken (with my mom insisting that the “secret” basting recipe be given to her! 🙂 ). My dad cleaned off his plate (which, honestly, does not happen) and joined in for coffee and cake! Everything was just wonderful and we all enjoyed the time together. I loved watching the kids huddle around their new baby cousin (much pictures taken, of course 🙂 ). A very magical day.
After some relaxing, everyone headed over to our place to see our new furniture and in the case of my brother, to actually see the house for the 1st time! 🙂 Bit by bit they left until only Chantale, the kids, and I were alone. We had a very brief supper and I showed the kids the last Standard Life commercials I was in. Then, it was into the car to drop them back off at their mother’s. When Chantale and I got back home, we finally took a walk around the neighborhood to see how far the construction has gone on some of the other houses. It was a nice short break. Getting back into the house, I went around to close the open windows as it had cooled down some. I got choked up in the kids rooms (and am getting choked up right now as I write this) when I realized they were gone for another two weeks… :_(
*deep breath*
I didn’t get to bed too late last night as we were both wiped. Chantale fell asleep immediately after we finished reading the latest Hawkman comic. I opened the Ultimate X-Men free comic book day issue but couldn’t get beyond the first 8 pages before I gave in, shut the lights, and promptly fell asleep as well 🙂 This morning was rough to get the internal engine started…