Bachelor of Webology

Shawn finished his course this week at the Hamilton Spectator. He was required to take it for work. He had a lot of fun learning how to use video and the internet to the papers advantage. On Friday they had a little graduation ceremony. It was total cheese right down to playing "Pomp and Circumstance". He received a diploma for "Bachelor of Webology" and graduated "Magna Cum Laude". At least that's what it says on the paper! We all got a good laugh at it but still I am very proud of my hubby!

Wanna-be photographer

Now mind you I do not own a sophisticated digital SLR ( i wish!!!) but I do think I manage to take some pretty good pictures every once in a while. So I thought I would show off a little of my work! It's something I really enjoy, getting that perfect shot. Please feel free to comment!

The next great book series

I love reading. I am a huge fan of books and that love has passed itself down to my children. my son takes to books like fish to water. His nose is in a book nearly ever waking moment. That of course means books stores have come to love us. But myself I find in a bit of a lull lately. I call it my Harry Potter post traumatic stress disorder. I fell in love with the series about a teen wizard and his fight against evil. I could read those stories over and over again. But now the series is done and I am left wondering where do I go now. I have read several good books in the meantime, but I miss having that series of books to fall in love with. I have often thought about joining a book club, but that just hasn't presented itself to me as of yet. If anyone who reads this blog has any book suggestions I would love to hear them. Word of mouth is as good as a new your times review in my book. So off I go to find my next great adventure! In the meantime here are a few of my favourite potter-isms and jokes.

The house

So for those who don't have facebook and are curious I thought I would tell you about the house. We are moving to Stoney Creek mountain. It's a nice little 2 storey home nestled on a quiet court. We have nice sized pie shaped backyard with an inground pool. The kids are really looking forward to that! There is a little porch out front where the bay window is. The window is in the eating nook of our kitchen. Once you enter the house the kitchen is on the right and the pantry room/garage access is on the left. The kitchen is a galley which some people hate but we aren't the best cooks so it will be fine for our needs. There is also that pantry room right across the hall so whatever doesn't fit in the kitchen can go there. There is a living/dining room with nice hardwood flooring and a small bathroom and laundry room as well. The hall closet is a walk-in so for once all our coats may fit in one closet! The stairs take you up to the top floor where you have Ethan and Jenna's rooms. They are both a really good size. Jenna's has mirrored closet doors so as you can imagine she will have lots of fun having concerts and fashion shows and karate displays up there. Then there is the main bathroom and hall closet to the left then our room on the end. It's a really good size with a walk-in closet and a small ensuite bath. If you went down from the main floor there is a nice family room with a wood burning fireplace and then a playroom area for the kids. It will definitely serve ours needs for now and when the kids are teens but them won't be so much room that we will be lost once the kids are gone. I think we are going to be very happy there.

The Front of la maison de Lafrance

le pool (sorry it was winter when i took these!)

the pool again

hall, like the diagonal tile!

Kitchen nook

Galley with new stove and fridge!

more galley kitchen it will be getting some updates shortly!

living dining room

very pretty

family room...dumb me didn't photograph the fireplace!

Ethan's room

Jenna's roomupstairs bathmaster bedroom (hi Jenna!)more of the master with a view of the walk-in on the left on the ensuite on the right

We are due to have one more visit to the house before we get the keys so I will get some more pictures then and I will post them. Hope you enjoyed my little tour!

LOST

Most of those who know me know that I am probably bordering on obsession when it comes to my fave TV show, LOST. Tonight is the finale and I find myself torn between the sheer thrill of seeing the season the finale to the heart breaking realization that after tonight it will be 8 months before I see another episode. It was hard enough dealing with the writers strike! So anyway my hubby and I are gearing up for a night in front of the tube watching the show and playing LOST bingo! That's right. I found this online. It has various options of what will happen in tonights episode and the first one to get a row...wins! So what should the prize be? Some Dharma peanut butter? Anyway, consider this a warning....if you phone me tonight...I might have to kill you.

Hanna all grown up

Once again I realize something I have forgotten. I'm never going to get off this thing. My baby sister, Hanna, had her senior prom last Saturday. She was a vision in red and it makes me happy and sad to see how much she has grown up. There are days where I just want to shrink her back into my little baby girl again but I see how she is growing into a young adult and watching the process has been amazing. (and hopefully a tutorial for when my kids are teenagers!) Here she is on her big night!

This is Hanna's boyfriend and date for the evening, Scott

Marni and Daves new arrival!

I can't believe I forgot to mention one of the most exciting pieces of news to come our way in recent months! Our dear friends, Marni and Dave have waited years for a little miracle to come into their lives and finally on May 30th she did. Her name is Marie Melissa-Ann Gravis. She weighed 7lbs 13oz and was 21 in long. She came at 12:30 in the morning. So now she is nearing 2 months of age. She is gaining weight and starting to get a real personality. I love to be with her. She is my little baby fix! So here are some pictures for you to enjoy!The proud parents!

Marie Melissa-Ann

Jenna singing to her

My new obsession!

One month old...smiling in her sleep! How precious!

So Marni and Dave, if you read this, we just wanted to express our sincerest happiness for your new baby girl. You are like family to us and to see the joy that Marie brings into your lives it fills us with so much love. Welcome to the world little angel. Know that we are all here for you and love you.

All caught up!

Alright so now I have added what I feel are the pertinent posts from the old blog and we are all caught up to today.

So recently I have begun packing. It has been a wonderful thing but in so many ways it has been more a pain in the butt than anything. It's getting hard to walk around our house because everywhere you turn there are boxes piled like crazy! It's hard to clean because you are stuck trying to get around stuff and then inevitably you will need something you have already packed and now you must attempt to figure out which box it lies in. Now I label my boxes well, but when you need that one plastic bowl and 3 boxes say "tupperware" on them....it isn't always easily found!

I am also in the process of giving our service providers etc our new mailing address. Oh joy oh bliss...... I hate being stuck on the phone waiting for the "next available agent". If I can do it online I have been. Thank goodness for the internet folks!

Ethan and Jenna have been well. I enrolled Ethan in a social skills club. He took to it rather well and graduated from it yesterday. He also won the mustang award at his school for showing personal growth and maturity in the third term. I am very proud of my little man! Jenna has been great. She told me all about how things are going to go when she is older. She is getting married when she is 30. Her husband will have blonde hair and blue eyes. He will also be "a little bit rich" (that's my girl!!!). He will take her swimming on dates because that is "relaxing". When he proposes he's better have flowers with that ring and there will be no kissing while they are dating cause that is just gross! They will have a boy and a girl named Kimmy and Johnny and one will be blonde and one will have brown hair (both with blue eyes). And to top it off, her future career aspirations? She is going to work at the "coolest place ever", McDonalds! Can you imagine a better life than that?

Shawn has been with the Hamilton Spectator all week in seminars on webbing and what not. The first day apparently was mind numbingly boring but yesterday he finally felt he was getting something from it. Hope today isn't that bad either. But in the meantime he goes to work once he's done at 4 which means I have hardly seen him so far this week. Glad it's only for one week! I want my hubby back!

Well I hope you will enjoy this new blog and I hope I actually write in it more. Hope this finds you all in good health and happiness. Cheers!

This one is from May 08

Well this last month or 2 (or 3 or 4) have been a whirlwind for us. We started house hunting which was fun but stressed us out most of the time and we FINALLY went to Walt Disney World!

We left on January 27th at night and drove our way down the I-75 to arrive in Florida on the following Tuesday. My in-laws have a time share vacation club thingy so that is where we stayed. It was a cute little condo apartment on the main floor with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths a full kitchen and a laundry room. After we got settled in Shawn and his mom went grocery shopping while I bathed the kids in the "bubble tub" (jacuzzi). They loved it!



On the Wednesday we headed for the Magic Kingdom first thing in the morning. We were there for the opening of the park which is a big song and dance number. My first peek at Cinderella's castle brought me to tears as the realization of a life long dream was finally coming true. The first ride we went on was the Haunted Mansion. After we got off we were thrilled to learn that we had won Disney fast passes to all the major rides and shows for the day. We wore lanyards with cards that had rip off tabs for each place. It was nice to be referred to as the "dream family" all day. We met princesses and Mickey and Minnie and lots of other characters. It was great that they were all out there so you could have that interaction with them.

Mickey's Philharmagic is really cool. A lot of shows are 4-D which means not only are you watching a 3-D show but there are accompanying surprises like water or smells to make the experience just that more intense.

Jenna had a wonderful experience meeting her favourite princess, Jasmine. She was so good to her and spent a ton of time with her. Aladdin was there too and he was great. He kept trying to find Apu in the tree's for her, but he kept hiding...silly monkey. Ethan met the one and only Jack Sparrow and became part of his crew. I think he would make a great pirate one day. Ask him how to fight...it's fun!

The day ended with a remarkable fireworks show. Tinkerbell even made an appearance flying from the top of the castle! It was simply amazing!

The next day we went to the Animal Kingdom. This was Charlene (the MIL's) favourite park. We went on some really cool rides there. One where we were attacked by dinosaurs and then another where we were nearly eaten by the Yeti!

The animal kingdom tree with hundreds of carvings on it!

Expedition Everest - the Yeti lives there beware!!

The Lion King show was so much fun with acrobats and lots of great music. I love how interactive this place is! Again we met lots of great characters and saw an awesome parade. There is a great safari ride there where you feel like you are literally in the Savannah. There are trees there nicknamed the "upside down" tree because they grow little foliage and the branches look like roots. We saw a lot of wildlife that day which is great because you are always afraid they will be napping.

Our next Disney park was Typhoon Lagoon which isn't so much a Disney Park but is one heck of an amazing water park. They have a wave pool like nothing I have ever seen before! I have ventured into many a wave pool in my day but this one had tidal waves you could literally surf on. I got knocked on my butt so many times it wasn't funny. Not to mention....it doesn't make you look very cool! They have a water roller coaster tube ride. That was a lot of fun and Ethan's favorite ride of the day. Unfortunately for Jenna she was a bit to short to ride. Shawn and I ventured on many a waterslide and even went snorkeling in a mini diving area. It was nice and relaxing to just scull the water and look at all the live vegetation and the beautiful sea creatures there. We even convinced Nana to go on a water slide....no small feat I might add!

Then off to Hollywood Studios, formally the Disney MGM studios. This is a great park for all the movie buffs out there! There is a great ride that takes you into scenes from various films like Casablanca and Wizard of Oz. Really well done. There is also the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller Coaster....great thrill rides (and trust me with this place being geared to small children thrill rides are hard to come by!) Jenna got to be part of High School Musical and become a Jedi Knight...much to her big brothers dismay! And can I just say....Darth Vader.....kind of intimidating! The night ended with an amazing fireworks and light show called Fantasmic. It featured some of Disney's greatest villains ever. Ethan loves his villains!!! By the end of the night the kids were exhausted and we carried them to the car.

No joke....that dude is scary!

We took a couple of days off and went shopping, hung around the pool at the hotel. The kids did some crafts and we generally took it easy and recharged the batteries for the rest of our vacation.

Our next Disney experience was EPCOT....probably my favourite after the Magic Kingdom. It is the one park where you actually feel like you are being educated while having fun...just don't tell the kids that! ;)

Soarin' was our first ride and it was amazing! We loved it. My MIL and I got freaked out at one part on Honey I Shrunk the Audience....I won't spoil it for those who have never been, but I dare those who have to guess which part I am referring to! We toured the World Showcase and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the different cultures. From the Mayan Temples of Mexico to the Terra Cotta warriors of China. Then off, to the immense patriotism of the USA and the drummers of Japan. Jenna and I tried on Kimonos while we were there. It took a lot of self control to not walk out there with my arms full of japanese clothing....it is truly gorgeous! Then off to France, the UK and finally Canada. There were other countries in between as well. We saw a show about Canada and hooted and hollered with Canadian pride through the whole thing. I think people thought we were nuts but we all know that Canada is the greatest country in the world! We saw a Finding Nemo show which was fantastic as well as the Finding Nemo ride. We went riding on test track which Jenna loved. She's a little thrill seeker like her parents! We took Ethan on Mission Space as well (you can call me Commander Rachel LaFrance!). And of course we rode the iconic Spaceship Earth. The night ended with Illuminations, a fireworks and light spectacle over the World Showcase lagoon

Our last Disney day we spent back in the Magic Kingdom. We went on the rides we loved and tried out some new ones (in the tiki tiki tiki tiki room!). It was nice to finish our trip where we started. We didn't win those fast passes again though! LOL

I have wanted to go to Disney World for as long as I can remember. I had a book with photographs of all the different rides and a stack of 45's with the songs from all the Disney Movies. I would spend countless hours in my room listening to my records and flipping through my book. This trip was a culmination of a lifes dream for me. I am so happy that I waited to share it with my children and my husband. The Disney spirit really comes alive in their eyes.

Well, enough about that, now onto the next chapter in the life of the LaFrance Family.

Once we got back from Florida we got into full house hunting mode. We have this amazing real estate agent, Frank Russumanno. He is a saint and we all love him to death! He took us to house after house after house. Finally at the end of February we found "the one". We put in an offer and after a little "finaggling" the house was ours! We are so excited! We've waited a long time for this. It's a great little 2 story in Stoney Creek. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and even a pool in the backyard! We fell in love with it immediately! We aren't moving until the kids are done school so it been a trial of our patience to say the least! We are dying to finally get into a home of our own.

Home sweet home!

Then the last little bit of news is that I have given notice at my job. I am not out disparage anyone so I will leave it to say that things just haven't worked out and I have daycare issues so it was best to just leave now and look for something in Stoney Creek for the fall. I'm ok with my decision and look forward to what awaits me in the future.

I can't think of much else to write for now. If I do I will make another post I guess! ;P

If you want to see my photo albums of the house and Disney check out my facebook profile! Hope you are all doing well!