- to open our trailer...  only 3 days left.

- for Jasmine to be 5 months.... only 5 days left.

- to celebrate our 10th anniversary....  only 23 days left

- to go on VACATION!!!....   only 25 days left.

- to celebrate Alexandre's 7th birthday....   only 42 days left.

Time goes by fast... Unbelievable.    I still need to find some camping ground for stop we will make on the way.

In PA, we will visit Heidi and her family , go to Lancaster, Hershey, Philadelphia, Easton for the Crayola factory,... and hubby will go to Club Worship in Reading to check it out.  Oh!  And I also want to see an Amish farm and house.   I'm fascinated by their simple life.

After some fun time in PA, we will drive to Massachussetts...  direction Plymouth where the first Pilgrims arrived and where the First thanksgiving happened.   I am fortunate to have found a book on Squanto and I am planning to talk about with the kids.   Fun.  We are also planning to go to Boston.

From there, we will drive to Maine and visit some childhood places I went.    York with the GoldenRod store where you see salt water taffy being done (I told hubby that we need to stop there for the kids!!!), Kennebunkport, Kittery and Freeport...   Pantagonia store here I come... LOL

From there, we will drive to NB.   We are planning to stop around Saint-John for a few days...   Then we will drive to PEI.   I would like to drive around the island and see the potato museum, lighthouses, Anne's of Green Gables, Souris,...  try Malpeque oysters - mmm not sure I will like but I will try, celebrate Alexandre's birthday on the island, go to the CCSB conference in Charlottetown.

Then it will be the drive home.    Home sweet home.  I wonder how we will stand the one month trip.   Surely hope we will enjoy it - even with 4 kids.  I am packing a box of books and things like that for the trip to keep them busy.  

It might be our first and last trip with the trailer - with the gas prices going up like they are...   We shall see how much it will cost us.   We will keep track of it.  Oh man!   I can't wait to discover new places with my kids.   Hopefully we will be done school by then!   I'm confident we can make it.   My deadline of this week might be tight but next week... we should be done.   Yeah!

Yep!  My house is a construction zone these days.   It will be a week tomorrow since it's started.   I'm a bit sick of hammer and saw but it has to be done... so I suck it up!  

It is taking shape though....  Love it!   Can't wait to have the walls all done.   We will have an extra bedroom, an office area, a rec room, a bathroom and closets as well as storage.   One specific storage will be for the comic collection we have.    There is a wall next to it...  Might ask my father-in-law to paint it white so I can paint some heroes on it...   It's tempting.  Will I have the patience though?  

Then when this is done... Rob will bring back his office downstairs.   The old room of Alexandre and Dominic will become my office which means I need to get the walls painted...    Mmmm!   Then even though their clothes will stay there as well as their desks, my office will go up and I will have a scrapbooking area.   Yeah!

Once my office is upstairs, my actual office will become the schoolroom...   Painting again here!   Maybe convincing the hubby that a wood floor be nice - especially for crafting time.

I'm excited about it - even though I feel extra tired lately.   

Then when all this is done... maybe we could paint the dining room...   probably not this year but a girl can dream no?

We needed a place to eventually do some training and other kind of meeting for our church...  We are renting the basement of a church downtown our city and it's great but if we want to do some team training, well... we had nothing.

And as a business, we have many contracts going on this year (compared to last year that is...) and we were planning to pay off some debt to be more free.

Well, God put the training area in our hearts...  and we prayed about it.   Bottom line is that we do have an unfinished basement.   Soooooo..........    we are finishing the basement.    Debt is particially paid, the rest can wait a bit.    Hubby and his father will work on the basement.   Nothing fancy. 

We will have a bathroom, an office for hubby, an extra bedroom and a rec room which can be transformed in an office area for the employee when needed or a training area for church.  We will also have a wall dedicated to the comics we owe!

Now, I need to pick some colors for the walls as my mother-in-law will keep an eye open on sale or the kind of situation that someone ordered a color and didn't like it...   I'm not picky - really.   Even though I want something that I would like.  

A while back my friend Heidi had a contest on her blog.   I won the gift certificate at Little Piddles!!!

After much debate about what buying...  I had picked something that unfortunately was not available anymore.   Soooooo I picked a tutu and was willing to pay the difference and the shipping.   It was planned to get it shipped to my friend who lives in PA since I was going to visit her in June...

Well, I got blessed like no tomorrow.   Not only I just received the package at home but they waved the extra charges and the shipping.   How nice from them!   Thank you so much for the nice gift...

Jasmine needs to grow up a bit before putting this tutu... but I am certain she will like it.    For now, I will keep it safely in my wardrobe until she is 2-4 years old.   Right now she is 4 months... quite a few months to go before she can wear it.  

I love it.  So nice in turquoise with the brown and turquoise ribbon.

Once again, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART, Heidi, Little Piddles and Fuzzy Me!!!!

I'm so into finishing the school year that I am not updating my blog as much as I should probably.  Then we will be gone on vacation (and I can't wait for it - I need one!!! real bad!!!!) that probably this blog won't be update as often as I would like....  But here is what happened since last week.

First - I finally told my mom about the church plant.   Oh she knew about it from two or three years ago but now it is a reality and the truck has been decked out promoting the church.   Well I expected her reaction and I got it all right....  when I hung up I had a black cloud over my head but I didn't realized it....    Got a really bad day on Friday   - that's when I realized that the black cloud was there....  borderline depression. 

But my friend in Quebec facebooked me and asked if they could come and visit....  Her common-law husband had to meet a client so she was coming down with the kids.   Sure why not?   Tried to invite her to church on Saturday night but they didn't come.  That's okay.    They came for Sunday's lunch.   We had a grand time...   Then supper time came around with my brother-in-law and his family.   Monday, my friend came back with the kids while her hubby was in meetings all day.

It was nice to see them as it has been three years I think we saw them.   We need to make a better effort.   Now they live in St-Jean-sur-le-Richelieu.... near a place where they make the most fabulumouse cheese (see I am reading Geronimo Stilton .....).   

Tuesday, my dear husband drove the RV back to get the sway control installed.   Wednesdsay he drove the RV back to our spot in Logos Land with his mom.   They got stuck on the way because of no gas in the truck...  Hubby learned that when you pull the RV - if the light comes on, go put gas right away.  Like he says - He is learning on the job.... LOL

Gymnastics afternoon on Wednesday went okay....  Apart from Jérémy running around to do it too but he is not allowed.  Try to explain this to a 2 year old...   Good thing I needed to go to Costco for toilet paper.   There I found a book on drawing that I bought and told hubby to give to me for Mother's day....   LOL Typical, I buy the stuff that I like...   Anyhow, I can't wait to have it....

Hubby is formatting his old PC (which is not so old afterall) because he got a new one.   So his old one will go to me and he will redo the one I am using right now and set it up for the kids....   OUF!    Anyhow, my new PC will be red like a ladybug.   Cool!   Love it.  

Oh I got myself some Mary Jane Crocs... Fushia color....  LOVE THEM!  I had a pair of regular Crocs since December - thanks to my mom.   I needed something to put my feet in it since they were soooooo swolllllllen.    Love them.   Got some jibbitz to decorate them too (including the ladybug obviously!).    Hubby got himself a pair of close Crocs and a pair of sandals one.   I had bought him some jibbitz with Spiderman, Superman and Batman.   They are now on the sandals ones...   Nice!    We had bought a pair for Alexandre when a sport store was closing...  Dominic wanted one too!   We went to the store this week and got him a pair of Lighting McQueen ones (only pair there with his size believe it or not!!!).   Then when I went back yesterday for my Mary Jane ones, I bought another pair size 10-11 which were on sale.   Too big for Jérémy right now - he wears 8-9 but eventually.   Can't buy some for Jasmine right now.   Her feet are too small.   But this little girl will get some eventually - Mary Jane style.   As you can see we are now a Crocs addicted family...   No really, hubby likes them because they don't smell if you sweat in it (like other pairs of sandals he owned in the past...).  So the Crocs are coming with us on vacation!

Now I need to plan our stop to Boston...   I am thinking of sleeping in Plymouth as it is where the first pilgrims arrived in America.   And there is a nice coastal drive near by.   Boston being only 44 minutes away.

Thanks to our membership with museums here in the city, we can go to museums in the States and in Canada for free....   So there is a few in Philadelphia and Boston we can go too for free.   We will do that.   We also ordered the Entertainment books for Pennsylvania to use coupons for the things we want to visit.    The great thing is that they are on sale for 9.99$ right now.    Super!

Yes... yours truly can't wait to go on vacation.   Pennsylvania and Prince-Edouard-Island have been a dream for such a long time....  

Last year, Alexandre won 50 books through a contest with Scholastic.  They were celebrating their 50th anniversary in Canada and he was one of the fifty winners.   50 books fill a bookcase believe me.  But I am glad because they are all in French...

This year there was another contest.   This time we had to write an acrostic with Junie B Jones...  The contests is close since April 20th and the winners won't be contacted until May.   So I am being very patient (yah!  Right!) and hope that he wins again this year.  

We could get the whole collection of Junie B Jones in French as well as a bunch of "Mots Mystères".   That would be nice.

Recently, we ordered a whole set of Geronimo Stilton (books 1-26).  Alexandre read the #31 about the Olympics and he loved it.    Since there was a good price on the May catalogue - we ordered that set...  I think we will miss only 5 books from the collection when we get them.   Anyhow, it's so nice to see your child enjoying books as much as I did...   The fun part is I read them too!   Now I will be able to surprise him with some new books for our trip in June.  

This past week-end we went to the homeschool convention while my in-laws were babysitting for us.   We had a great time and I was able to get a few things on my list to buy...

Homeschooling in French I need to buy the other things in a French bookstore in the city but the Math program, Math U See, was available at the conference.   So I got the Beta for Alexandre and the Primer student book for Dominic.   Dominic keeps asking to have his Math U See so I got the primer book now and we shall see if he will be doing it slowly and surely.   

I went to a workshop given by a mom doing homeschool since 20 years or so... She had interesting tips and tricks for homeschooling for multiples children.   At one point she said that younger siblings have an advantage on older ones since they see and hear about what the older one is studying and when you get to teach the same thing it can come easily for them since they went through it already (indirectly).   I thought it was interesting.   I love to see Dominic being excited about doing Math U See as well.   

Another thing that I bought was the Mystery of History which I am planinng to do slowly with both kids.   Alexandre can't wait to start this...   I got the book and the CD so that I can reprint the tests and quizzes without having to do photocopies.   So nice...   

There was a few more things on my list but the prices at the conference was more than what I would paid at Indigo online store.   So I will go through the online store to get them.  

I also want to get the timeline figures from Homeschool in the woods...   If my friend Heidi can't find them at her homeschool convention then I will order them and get them delivered to her....   After all, I will see her in June!   I'm TOTALLY excited about this...   as I just made the reservation at the camping site where we will be staying!!!

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine was introduced to me from an homeschooler while I was investigating to possibility of homeschooling my children.   To do so I had send an e-mail to a bunch of people from my church who were homeschooling.   One of the answers suggested that I look into your magazine which I did.   I loved it right away since it was very informative on all the different ways to homeschool with lots of real life stories.   It was fun to read and helped me to discover many potential curriculums.   I was also glad to have ideas of unit studies to do with my kids.

Thanks Old Schoolhouse Magazine!

PS You should do a unit study on Canada or do a whole magazine on homeschoolers in Canada...

The HSB Front Porch is having a contest and you can win a $50 gift certificate just for blogging about The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Spring Promo before midnight April 30, 2008. Subscribe now to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and receive 25 BONUS gifts valued at over $550! The Winter Promo sold out, don't miss out on the free gifts this time!

They are also giving away a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store. All print subscribers (new or renewing) between April 3 - 30, 2008 will be automatically entered into a drawing. No purchase necessary to win. To enter without subscribing, please send a postcard with your name, address, telephone number, and email address to:
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Spring Promo Contest
PO BOX 8426
Gray, TN  37615

Good luck to everyone!

H.E.A.T. Worship House is starting tonight...

How do I feel about it?   To be honest I don't know.  I think I have butterflies in my stomach.   I wish that it will be a success and that people will love it.   I hope that God will bless us beyond what we can imagine.  I dream of many people coming through the doors and enjoy a new way of doing church.

I hope we will have an impact on the young adult generation.  That they will be drawn to God like we can't imagine or even dream off.  

I pray my kids will be accepted by the people coming.   That drugs and alcool will stay out of the building.  That the neighbours won't complain of the music.   That the venue where we will meet will see the good we are doing for the unreached.

I will stand and support my husband in this adventure.   I'm scared... I'm honest about it.   I still don't know what God wants me to do in this ministry.   Tonight, I will really become a pastor's wife...  Mind you I am already being a mentor I think to the young women in the group - well I hope so...  

So if you don't mind... please pray for H.E.A.T. and for my husband, Rob, my kids and for me!

Oh and if you want to read about H.E.A.T. check out the link to our website and the blog on the right side...  It's worth reading about it!

God bless!