Boys will be boys...

Just had a major disaster.... Sean got up and lit a fire in the wood stove, we're sat watching TV and I thought that it smelt funny in the house.... I went over to one of the wood stove vents and it really smelt funny! Sean couldn't smell anything at first but finally he realized what was going on! There are two vents in the floor for the heat to come up from the wood stove, the kids have been dumping their toys down them, the one had pretty big holes to fit things in... He realized that there is actually something on top of the wood stove (which is encased) burning. As soon as he realized that the smoke that started coming out of the vents in the floor was crazy. I can now imagine what it would be like if your house was burning down... Just as all this madness is going on Todd walks in for a coffee and thinks we have a chimney fire.. we are now all in panic mode!


They rip the metal off on the front wood stove off and there melting away - an offending golf ball. Not only had the little shits been dumping toys down there but all my OPI nail polishes, I now have one left and a colorful pile on the floor in the basement....

This one's for you Nat!!!

My sister, after 4 1/2 years of blogging just discovered my blog.... She read the entire thing and is now bugging me for a blog post for her to read. I have a huge headache and am not feeling terribly inspired to write anything so I thought I would post a few pictures from hunting season on the Island. Luckily I had my camera as I was running into the grocery store this day and I thought as I snapped this shot "only on the island"!! So Nat this is for you.. Just to gross you out (and I know it will)!!!!

P.S. Someone did give me a venison roast to try out so I am going to cook it and I will post about it when I do. I have never had a venison roast or tried to cook one so it will either be great or a disaster!! I saw a Jamie Oliver show on TV where he cooked a venison tenderloin and it looked amazing so I made sure I got my hands on one!

RIP Tugboat

Wednesday is hockey night!!

Wednesday is hockey night.. I have to post some videos because these kids are so cute!! This one is an exercise they do where they line up and have to shuffle sideways... I love this one because you can see how little they are with all their hockey jerseys almost at their knees!! So cute! FYI Caleb is #3 and he has blue socks on! May help you recognize him!



I laughed my head off when I caught this one on camera. They are doing a squatting exercise but I think when it was demonstrated Caleb thought he wanted a hug (?).. what can I say he is a love!! But the funniest thing is that all a few of the other kids seemed to think it was a good idea and joined in on the hug fest! SO funny!!



Ok so the last one is Caleb shooting the puck in the net.. Too cute!!!

A Tug Update.....

So we went back to the vet on Friday... The vet thought he looked like a completely different dog. She thinks he may have been having muscle spasms or a pinched nerve the other day which is why he was howling in pain as he is now moving around better. She thinks he still has cancer and he still has blood in his stool. She gave us some medication to try for a week to see if he has an ulcer that is causing the blood in his stool. If we can fix that good news, if not then bad news and we may be saying goodbye to him. It is going to happen soon, but for right now she said he is not ready to go and is not in pain or suffering so he gets to get spoilt and pampered before we have to say goodbye to him. Either way it is going to happen and probably sooner than later.. I guess we will see what the end of next week brings....

Red Velvety Heaven...

I decided tonight to make Red Velvet Cupcakes with the boys for Valentines Day. Usually we would just make sugar cookies so that they can go crazy with the sprinkles but I have been DYING to make a red velvet cake! Cupcakes are always easier with the kids, the perfect size for them to eat and decorate. Also I don't have a huge cake staring at me in the kitchen begging me to eat it. Cupcakes can be handed out to Grandma and Grandad, the Uncles and anyone else leaving less for me to eat in the kitchen!

I looked on the Internet for a recipe to use and found a ton... so I picked two trusty ones, a Martha recipe and a Paula Deen recipe. I figured you can't go wrong with one of those! I was feeling pretty brave to bake cupcakes with the kids and an alarming amount of red food colouring!

Isn't that colour great!! I read online that you can substitute the red food colouring with beet juice... I might try that next time.

The best part about baking - licking the beater!!

Mason making sure that he doesn't miss any of the cake batter, good job the stove top isn't hot!


Out of the oven and ready to cool for icing! I made the bream cheese icing but I also found another recipe online that had a meringue icing that looked good.

Here are the cupcakes... I have a ton of cream cheese icing left over so I may have to bake another batch tomorrow!! :)

If I told you how bad my day was yesterday you wouldn't believe me....

Still reeling.. I am an emotional roller coaster. The last two weeks has been rough.. I have been sick, the kids have been sick, a week later Mason is still sick. I had to sit my citizenship test yesterday so while in bed with a vomiting child I sat up until midnight the night before just to make sure I knew everything in the book. I would hate to fail and get kicked out :) So I get up bright and early - it's snowing... drop the kids off and head on my trek to Sudbury. I had my father-in-laws car it a little Aveo. Tiny shoe box thing.. great for around the Island and great for long need to be gas efficient trips but in the snow I would rather take the gas pig 4x4 Escape. I get into the Espanola hills, about an hour and a half from home, in a snow storm, no cell coverage and my car starts chugging. Really badly and shaking and I am thinking "I am not going to make it to Espanola.. I am going to be stuck on the side of the road with no cell phone, in a snow storm and a broken car" I am now also balling my eyes out.

I do however make it to the Canadian Tire in Espanola where they fix my car and get me on the road by 10am! Great staff there, they dropped everything for the hysterical balling woman with the "chugging" car (they actually put "chugging" on the form they gave to the mechanic) who was hysterically talking about being in Sudbury for being sent back to England.. They got the parts from Northern Ford, and had me flying out of there so that I could get to Sudbury on time!

Got there, passed the test.. yay for me. 1st drama for the day done.

On the way back after, Sean called me very upset. Tugboat our dog has not been doing that great this week... It all happened so fast that he seemed fine, then it looked like he hurt his leg or maybe had some arthritis in it... Took him to the vet and they thought he had torn ligaments and needed $2000.00 surgery. Sean took him back for x-rays while I was in Sudbury and it turns out he has cancer - bad. There is a mass affecting his hips and cutting off his intestines and affecting his colon. They think it may have started as Lymphoma. After a bad experience with his time at the vets he is resigned to the fact that he has to be put to sleep. Tug is the sweetest dog in the world. He is so gentle with the kids and so good, always obedient. It is so sad, we are all devastated that we are losing a member of our family. Caleb (after the cat incident) is still trying to grasp it and asking lots of questions as a curious 4yr old does... some that seems impossible to answer. This is really hard on all of us, but really hard on Sean that he is losing his 'buddy'. He keeps flip flopping from knowing he has to put him to sleep to somehow saving him or waiting to see what he will be like tomorrow in case he gets better.... It's so hard because it happened so quickly it's so hard to wrap your head around it... He was fine last week. So I balled my eyes out all the way home. I was so distracted that I pulled out to pass a car and there was a car right in front of me. I wasn't on a hill I was on a straight stretch I was just so distracted that I just didn't see it.

Rush home, take Caleb to hockey, get home, make supper, kids in bed.

An hour later Mason is crying... and there is vomit ALL OVER his bed.... AGAIN.

Can you guess what happened next? Yes... I am balling my eyes out... again.

Worst day ever and unfortunately it's going to be a rough weekend for our family.. :(

Saturday was key lime pie day....

Did you know that Saturday was Key Lime Pie day? If so you missed out! I LOVE key lime pie and have been searching for the perfect recipe that mimics the key lime pie that they serve at Garden's Gate in Tehkummah. There really is nothing quite like it. Girls day at Audrey's and she found an amazing key lime pie recipe...


Good job Audrey! It was so yummy! Just give me the pie plate and a fork! I think for my 30th this year I should find someone who would make me a giant key lime pie. Seriously, no cake.. just pie.

The other great thing about Saturday was that I actually got to meet a fellow blogger. When I first started blogging I was mainly just doing it so that my family overseas could keep up to date with what we are doing here in Canada but it has kind of transformed into not only a McLaughlin family update site but also my place to rant and rave (the good and the bad), review books, music, FOOD! I really enjoy reading other people's blogs too but I never thought I would actually make friends through the blogging world AND get to meet them! I met C from 'Random thoughts and musings from the Island'. We started reading each others blogs as we were both on the Island and realized we had a mutual friend - Audrey. After making 2 cakes for C, phone calls, blog posts, face booking... I finally got to meet her! Had a great afternoon and am looking forward to our next key lime pie/girl time session!!

The house of sickness...

This is my new best friend:
I have just used it all over my house... I used the liquid version to clean my floors, and the spray bottle version all over my bathroom, kitchen and tables. I am DE-GERMING!!!!

There is a nasty flu bug going around. I had it last week... it knocked me on my ass for a week. This week it is the kids that have it. Caleb wasn't too bad he started at 4am and was fine by the end of the day. Mason started last night at 8pm and was up all night vomiting. You feel so helpless as a parent... I mean there is nothing you can give them to make it stop and they look so pale and scared.. it just breaks my heart! But I did say to Sean this morning that we have actually been VERY lucky as far as illnesses go with the kids. They have had their fair share of fevers and colds but this was the first time they actually vomited. Pretty good considering Caleb is 4 now!

I just hope this is it, Sean doesn't get it and I killed all the germs! I don't think I can handle any more of this!

Judgement day!

So I was reading an article in the Jan. 25th Macleans and it really struck home. You may have heard about a lady in BC Jenny Manzer who was kicked off a BC public transport bus and had to walk 14 blocks home carrying her 20 month daughter. The bus driver pulled over and asked her to get off the bus because her daughter was crying and shouting 'no, no, no'. He told her she had to learn how to control her child!!!!! What makes it worse - as if this is not shocking enough is the reaction people had to this story once it hit the press and the Internet, calling her child spoilt, calling her names, judging her and telling her to go to college so that she could buy a car..... read the article http://www2.macleans.ca/tag/jenny-manzer/

It left me really shocked. I know as a mother there are times when you feel like your head is going to spin off and you just want to rip your hair out, times like when your children decide to have a temper tantrum in the middle of the restaurant, or at the hockey rink, or on a public transport bus.... I think my kids are pretty good, and I am not just saying that because they are my kids but sometimes they are SPUN and I hate that feeling of having to make the excuse 'he's not normally like this' as I am starting to sweat.... You know anyone present is sat judging you are thinking 'yeah right' and have already formed their opinion on your bad parenting skills before you can whisk them up under your arm and run out! I hate that feeling of panic and anxiety as your child screams and you are frantically tying every motherly trick known to man-kind to pacify them... as you are swearing in your head that you will never eat out or venture out in public again with your child!!

I am sure even the most angelic children have their devilish moments but why do people judge you as a parent??... I'll admit to it.. I have been guilty of it too! If you have children or have ever been around them then you know that at some point in time it is bound to happen. They don't want to sit still and quiet in church for an hour, or on a plane for 7 hours, or wait in a restaurant for food at lunch time when they are hungry and nap time is approaching! Babies are born impatient... it's a natural survival instinct! So when my child is throwing a temper tantrum and you are looking down at me with your 30 or 40 years of adulthood on my toddler I suggest you start looking the other way or invest in a pair of ear plugs!!