Beating the heat!
Colette
We were fortunate enough to "inherit" two air conditioners from Slade's Grandpa when he passed away earlier this year. Our first Summer season in our new place was excruciating. All of our windows face south, which I LOVE, I can't get enough sunshine. But on the downside it is HOT all year round. Even in the dead of winter when the sun is out and it is well below zero...it still manages to reach about 26 degrees inside. Saves on heating I guess! But the summer time is relentless. I am EXTREMELY grateful to have had this luxury this year even though the means in which we came to have A/C is a sad one. With record highs of 45 degrees, even with the A/C our home was quite warm. Needless to say we only had to "beat the heat" for the 3 or so days that the temperatures were astronomical. This was Mason's choice:

A nap, a fuzzy and a fan.

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Mommy look! A bug!!
Colette
The dreaded phrase! One thing that is almost 100% expected with boys is that someday they will decide that picking up bugs and showing them to you is COOL! I was busy doing some budgeting on the computer and Ronan shows up behind me and says that awful and fearful phrase!! I turned around and this is what he had to show me:


Of course I scooted him back outside before I busted out the camera. Ronan has always been the type that thought bugs were gross, didn't like getting his hands dirty and generally is a clean kid. But with the influence and courage of his younger, more typically boyish brother he mustered up the courage to do it. Here is the original culprit:

Notice the difference in their facial expressions?! One is a bit uncertain, the other...pure joy. Ah ha...ah ha ha ha ha...Mason continued to bring me these nasty NASTY wood bugs every day for about a week. He even woke me up one morning by dropping one IN TO MY BED and THEN said "Mommy look! A bug!!!" Until that moment I had no idea that wood bugs curled up into a "cute" little ball so that they could roll around. Yeah, the thing rolled right at me!! So we've officially entered "boy-hood". Oh...joy... ;) Just for the record...I hate bugs.

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A Birthday!
Colette
We celebrated Erin Forchuk's birthday with her at a Japanese Restaurant here in Abby!
The birthday girl and Shannon!
I was very eager for this event because Erin is a good friend and also because I was in some serious need of girl time! So this was perfect! It was lots of fun, we talked, laughed, ate good eats, laughed some more...actually, most of the night was spent laughing!! We had lots of fun chatting and making fun of the chef. The restaurant was really slow that night and being a Japanese restaurant the kitchen and chef is in plain view. So he basically just stood there the whole night doing pretty much nothing. He looked incredibly bored. I felt bad for him. :)
The bored sushi Chef!
I love getting together with my friends. They are a really awesome bunch of ladies and we always have an ton of fun together!

My and Irene!

Irene and Marcy!

Angie and Amberlee!

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Big boy bike time!
Colette
My guy, Mason, has been anxious for a big boy bike! We still haven't made the purchase yet, mostly because we lack the funds and we are slackers in the bike training department. Eeek! We finally got Ronan his first big boy bike for his 5th birthday. We are thinking of waiting until Mason's 4th to get him his, but the dilemma there is that his b-day is in September...a little late in the year for a new bike. We'll see...He's almost to big for the smallest size bike, but still a bit to small for the next size up, so waiting until his birthday would make it easier to buy the bigger bike so he can grow into it without much frustration. Coming in to the fall/winter season there won't be a whole lot of ride time and his bike will be fairly new and fresh come spring! But just to make him feel a bit more happy with his current situation we purchased him his bike helmet and pads! (Probably should have done this ages ago to protect him while riding his trike...) He was so excited he couldn't wait to get it out of the package. So in the parking lot of the store, I took it out of the packaging except for a plastic cord that was holding the helmet into the plastic package. He wore it out for a short bike ride up at the park and then while we were at home. I was busy doing things around the house and found him here like this:


This is true love! Mommy's bed + Fuzzy + Bike helmet = the best nap ever!!

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A BIG little girl!
Colette
My Sum-bum has finally exceeded the weight limit of her infant car seat!! I'm always anxious for the time to arrive when I finally get to turn my sweet babies around so I can see them easily. I love watching them take everything in while we go for a drive. I love to be able to turn around in my seat and play with them, tickle their toes or just to watch them sleep. So precious. So sweet. So innocent. So beautiful!
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Camping Day 6 - Last Day!!
Colette
We woke up early as usual, and I let the air out of my bed. Ronan was full of questions and was begging to stay one more night. Would have been nice, but I was pretty exhausted by this point. Sleep deprived and dirty...I was ready to go home. So I let the air out of all their beds while they played around in the tent. I hauled all the bedding up to the van, took down the tent, packed up all the straggling items, and had an hour to spare before check out! It was nice to have that last hour to sit and relax, sit around a morning campfire and visit with my Grandparents. My mom had an appointment to go to early that morning. She had left at 5:30. By the time 10:45 rolled around there were new campers already waiting to get in. One even started setting up tent before we had even left!! haha You gotta be quick to get a site at Hicks unless you've reserved. It was fun. I said goodbye to my Grandparents who were heading back up to Merritt, the boys said goodbye to the campsite, and we were off. We got home just after noon. I bathed the kids and had a shower once I had unloaded the van and put some of it away. I can't believe how dirty I was!! My feet and legs alone took half an hour to scrub clean! That's what I get for wearing flip-flops all week! I have to say that I am so grateful for showers, flushing toilets, hair products and soaps that smell nice, and a nice clean house that Slade surprised me with! We left in a whirl wind and I couldn't remember what state I had left the house in, although I was pretty sure it was not clean. It was a VERY nice surprise to come home to! What a sweetie!!

Camping for 6 days with 3 kids...well worth the time and effort. It was so much fun, and my kids had the time of their lives!! I'm so happy that I was able to do this for them and for myself and build these lasting memories with them. I can't wait to do it again!
My Grandma!

I had to lie to Mason and tell him I was taking a picture of his orange not him...technically that's what I was doing!! haha

Ronan giving Summer some love as per usual!
Great-grandpa and Great-grand daughter chillaxin' by the fire!


My sweet little family!

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Camping Day 5!
Colette
Another early morning! Camping is always like that. I've never really been able to sleep in long while camping. My Grandma on the other hand...she and my Grandpa were sleeping in the back of their van. She had it all set up with a nice mattress and her big, huge, fluffy duvet. It looked incredibly cozy!! She slept well past 10 in the morning! haha I love it!

I called Slade this morning to talk to him about my frustrations last night. He had planned to come out and visit during the day so I decided to just suck it up and stay the last night. So we hung around the campsite for awhile. Brian and Brenda Leavitt showed up and took Irene's kids for a little ride in their car to explore the camp grounds and beaches. While they were gone, I put Summer down for her morning nap. While I wasn't looking this is what happened:



I saw Ronan (without his knowledge) hiding behind my mom's van. So I peeked to check out what he was doing. He had snagged Summer's bottle and was sucking on it!!!! hahaha Ronan, when he was a baby, LOVED his bottles!! It took me quite awhile to ween him off, he was 2 1/2! So this, some how, didn't surprise me all that much. He has been very interested in Summer's bottles when she started accepting one. I think deep down he misses having one. Either that or it is just the novelty of sucking on a bottle. Anyways, I crept around the van and snapped his picture. Of course he wasn't too happy with me, and he took off. This is also a common occurrence when I bust out the camera. Both Ronan and Mason declare they "hate getting pictures" and so I just take that many more! I know...I'm a mean mom. ;) So I chased them around with the camera for awhile.

Slade showed up at camp around 11:00. Summer was still sleeping so we decided to have lunch before we would go swimming. While we were cooking lunch Irene called out saying she saw a Raccoon. So we chased it through the woods and up a tree. It was so cute! It climbed up pretty high, but I managed to get a few good pictures of it! This must be a raccoon from the family that tromped through our sites very early in the morning the first night! As a recap: They had climbed up onto the bins some had stacked up underneath Irene's "bed" in the tent trailer. They woke her up by bumping the support poles for her bed. Of course she was scared at first, but realized what it was. The raccoons ended up getting into a fight, crashed into my mom's tent bumping Krystal's bed (who slept through the whole noisy affair) and then rambled past our tent. It was quite the fight, and I was surprised my kids slept through that. Anyways, here's the little guy peeking down at us:


When Summer finally woke up from her nap and we had all eaten lunch, we headed off to the beach again. The water didn't feel quite as cold as the first time and we stayed there for quite a while. I took Summer back to camp for a nap (my Grandparents weren't swimming and had stayed behind) and went back to the water and managed to get some good swim time of my own in. A rare treat! It was nice, I laid on a rock with my mom and suntanned while Jared and Alyssa played around in the water. The rest of the kids slowly went back to camp. Finally we headed back in time to start up some dinner. Irene and their family were ready to head home shortly after dinner. It didn't take long for a new camper to come along and snag up her site! It was sad to see them go, sad to be done camping with everyone. I've really missed camping and hadn't really realized it until I was there. It was especially nice that I got to go with my mom, sisters, and grandparents! Lots of fun!! After dinner I spent most of the evening sun trying to pack up as much as possible. Check out is at 11am, and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to do it all in the morning. I also like to have a nice relaxed check out. So by the time it was dark, the majority of my gear was packed and ready to go except for the tent and bedding of course! :) We had a nice campfire and then headed off to bed for our last night.
My baby in her "bed".



She likes to peek over the top. :)

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Camping Day 4!
Colette
We woke up bright and early this morning! (Not by choice!! haha) The sun starts to come up around 4:30 and by 5:30 it is nice and bright in the tent. Plus all the birds start chirping. So The kids woke up just before 6. I let them play around in the tent for awhile. Today we were going to have blueberry pancakes! Yummm!! They turned out alright, they tasted good, but cooking pancakes on a camp stove, on a camp griddle...well...they didn't LOOK too pretty. But taste is what matters right? They got devoured anyways.
After breakfast we just sat around for awhile. We were waiting for things to warm up a bit more so that we could FINALLY go swimming! By about noon the kids were loosing patience so off we went. There is a couple spots at hicks lake that are really good for swimming, but not so good for kids. They are underwater cliffs! Really fun for (sort of) diving. The rocks sit under the water about 2 feet deep. There is a large wading area before you get to the rocks. We started off there, but the water was FREEZING!!! Well, it was probably more like, we had been so cold the past 3 days that it felt like it was freezing! So we moved over to one of the more kid friendly beaches. The water still felt pretty cold, but the kids played around for awhile. Ronan and Mason have finally figured out that they won't sink while wearing their life jackets and LOVE swimming now! It's so great! Summer doesn't seem to be scared of the water at all. She really had a good time playing at the shore and kept walking out into the water. It was almost impossible to keep her out of it. When we were all done at the water we went back to camp.
We spent the rest of the day visiting and having dinner. It was a nice laid back day. My Uncle Greg came out to visit again, only this time he brought out his 4 month old Doberman puppy!!! It was SO cute! Very cuddly and lovable! After dinner the kids played around for a while longer and then it was bed time. My mom ended up having to take my little sister home. Her ear infection wasn't clearing up and she was in quite a bit of pain. I'm amazed she had stuck it out this long! Trooper! Summer had a hard time going to sleep and ended up staying awake until about 10:30. I was feeling pretty frustrated by this point and was 90% sure I was packing up in the morning for home. I thought about it while I was going to sleep and decided that I would wait until morning to really make my decision. I don't like to be a quitter and I also don't like to let certain things control my life. Going home would feel like giving in to something that I should be able to handle. So what, my baby was crying and upset for basically the whole evening...I knew she was just fussy and that shouldn't make me bail out on my boys who were desperate to stay until Saturday. (That wasn't happening for sure!! haha) But our intended day to leave was Friday, what was one more day and night? I'm a trooper too! :)

Playing around with my camera! Turned out pretty cute!

Mason really loves playing with his little sister!


Summer REALLY loves dirt! She was covered in it by the time we left!




Ronan has turned into quite the water baby!

These 3 are inseparable and run a lot of mischief together. The 3 stooges!!



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Camping Day 3!
Colette
Monday night didn't go so well. Between Summer and Mason, I think I managed to get about 1 hour of solid sleep. It was pretty nasty. Mason wakes up most nights around 12:30 usually to go potty, but sometimes just to tell me off. haha "NO Mommy, I-don't-want-to!" is the typical phrase and is repeated several times even if I say absolutely nothing to him. Even in sleep he is as stubborn as stubborn gets! So he woke up every hour from about 1:30 until 4:30 and Summer woke up 3 times in between that. I slept my solid hour of sleep from about 4:30 (when I could see that the sun was beginning to rise). Mason and Ronan woke up at about 6. All my crankiness, that might have been, dissolved almost instantly when they woke me up. They were so cute!! Instead of talking to each other they just giggle this goofy giggle to each other over and over! The novelty of sleeping in a tent must be thrilling for them!!
It was still a bit chilly on day 3, so we decided to hold off any swimming until the next day. I had decided before leaving for camp that since the weather didn't look to nice for the first few days I would come up with a treasure hunt for the kids to do to pass some time if there was a lull. Day 3 was the perfect day for it! No rain, but not much else to do. So while Irene and my mom went out for a canoe ride, I wrote up the clues and hid them around camp. The treasure was a box of smarties for each kid. I waited for Irene and my mom to get back so they could watch. It was lots of fun coming up with the clues (11 in total!) and the kids were all SO competitive! It was great! They seemed to have lots of fun, we had a few tears over taking turns to find the clue, but that's pretty much expected! haha!!
Finding the first clue

The kids with their "Treasure"!

I think Alyssa likes to pose! CUTE! She discovered the smarties on day 1(!!) and I had to hold her off until I found a moment that called for a Treasure Hunt. She asked a few times a day! So needless to say, she was pretty excited to finally have her treasure! haha

Smarties!! Mmmmmmmm! Mason was pretty thrilled too! He kept showing me his smarties!



Later in the afternoon, we took the kids for a walk. They seemed to be suffering a bit of "cabin fever"!! So we thought that would get them to burn some energy. By day 3 though, and with the rain and the cold, they were pretty cranky. The walk wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been, but they were doing pretty well for the circumstances! We stopped at a larger beach at the beginning of the campground. Alyssa and Brandon actually got in the water!! They didn't last long though before they got too cold. We had a piece of rope with us and so we used it to play some skipping with the kids. I got in there a bit! I think it's been maybe 20 years or so since I've skipped, let-alone to the chorus "Cinderella dressed in yella..."!!! It was fun!!

Day 3 was pretty laid back, we didn't do too much. My Uncle Greg showed up with one of his Dobermans, Grace. She was a bit skittish and came at me at one point in the evening!! FREAKY! But generally, she is a good dog. She wasn't handling the new environment too well and all the busy-ness of the kids. Slade also came out for a visit around 7! I wasn't sure if he was going to come, it was a nice surprise! Spencer also showed up as a surprise! Irene wasn't expecting him until Wednesday evening! We had a nice campfire that night. Slade left to go home at about midnight. I was sad that he couldn't stay for the night, but he had a busy day and also had to work Wednesday night. Today was good, a little boring, but good. Oh, and Summer finally cut one of her top teeth and the other is only days away also!! FINALLY!! ;)


My Grandparents are so cute! They have these wind up flashlights and they would sit there at the fire each night for about 1/2 an hour winding them together. Awwwwwe!!

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Camping Day 2!
Colette
So we survived the night. Everything is soaked, but we woke up cheerful despite the fact that the tent leaked a bit on me and Ronan! We went in to Harrison to pick up a few things from the little convenience store there. My mom had to take Krystal all the way back to Chilliwack to see a Doc. She had come down with an ear infection. So they were gone for a good part of the day. We played around at the beach there. It was pretty chilly, but the kids enjoyed a change in scenery and had fun digging in the sand. Ronan ended up getting an eye full of sand, but he handled it quite well! We went back to camp and cooked up some lunch. It was not raining hard, but drizzling enough to get us wet. The kids didn't seem to mind too much. Just after lunch the rain let up. My mom and Krystal returned to camp. My mom is a die-hard canoe-er, so she decided it was finally time to launch the boat! She took Irene and her kids out for a tour around the lake first. Then it was our turn! My kids have never been in canoe before, so this was a new and fun experience! Summer stayed behind with Irene of course. :) Ronan got to sit on the bench and "help" paddle. He loved it! We canoed out to one of the small islands in the middle of the lake. We beached the boat and went to explore a bit. It is a very small island and only took us about 2 minutes to get to the top, which was also the center, of it. haha The boys seemed a bit nervous being in such a "wild" environment. Ronan saw on one side of the island a "cliff" and decided he just had to PEE over it!! BOYS!!! Don't worry, no pictures of that. ;)


You can see the second island behind us. Also behind us is the cliff that was just begging to be peed on. We loaded back into the boat and went to explore the other island. The hike up was just as quick, the boys were a little more into it this time. My mom and Irene found a goose nest on their trip so we went to check it out as well.

I just looks like a pile of sticks and junk, but it was pretty cool. It had some broken shells in it and lots of down feathers. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...dowwwwwwwwwwwn...I love down. So soft and fluffy! Ronan on Island 2 with Island 1 in the background.

Mason on Island 2


So after that we canoed around the lake a bit more and checked out a couple other spots. My mom told a story about seeing a bear one time a few years back and I think that creeped my kids out. They asked to go back shortly after that story. :D It was a fun trip, the boys seemed to really enjoy it! When we got back to camp my grandparents had arrived and Summer was playing happily with some baseball hats on a large outdoor mat that my grandma brought. I'm not really sure why she brought it, but it turned out as a useful spot for Summer to play...if only she would stop walking off of it. Maybe then, she would only have gotten half as dirty!!


Mason and Irene played with an inch-worm. I was havin' NONE of that. Sick!
Later that evening just after dinner, Irene took Summer off my hands. She didn't get much sleep during the day, she was still adjusting to her new sleeping quarters, so she had been being a bit difficult. I was finishing up my own dinner and I could hear Summer screaming and screaming in the trees!! I was shaking my head in frustration. Irene came back over after a while and said "You gotta see this!!" She took Summer over to one of the trees near our table and Summer SCREAMED only not out of anger or fussiness, but out of pure delight!! It was absolutely hilarious! She has never been so up-close and personal with nature and was, apparently, fascinated by it!! She went on for about 15 mintues. It was so funny!! Here is a video of it:

All-in-all, day 2 turned out to be a pretty good day! Bring it on Day 3!

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Camping Day 1
Colette
I had been debating with myself as to whether or not I REALLY wanted to take my kids camping without the help of daddy. Ronan has been asking for a year straight to go camping so I decided it was time to take the plunge! It took quite a while to get all my stuff organized, menus planned, food bought and packed, clothes packed, toiletries, first aid, dishes...ugh!! You get the picture!! So once I finally had it all crammed into my van, we headed off to Hicks Lake. I met up with my mom and younger sister, as well as Irene and her kids, who had gone out earlier in the morning to snag a site. We ended up in a spot that functions much like a group campsite. This was perfect because we could still be near the kids and have campfire together after the kids were in bed. The space behind the site was also very large and so the kids had a lot of room to explore and spread out without being out of our sight and in the hair of other campers. The previous campers took FOREVER to vacate and it ended up being about 3 hours past checkout time before anyone could set up. A bit annoying, but manageable. Most of our first day was spent setting up and trying to beat the rain which had been hanging ominously over head for a while. Sunday was pretty uneventful, wet, cold and full of work. But it was exciting to be there and getting back into the groove of camping. I haven't been in 3 years!! We turned in for bed fairly early that night as it started to sprinkle out. Mason woke up at about 12:30am to go potty. After tucking him back into bed I heard thunder rolling off in the distance!! Of all the things to have happen on our first night! I tried to go back to sleep but the storm persisted for about an hour and a half all the while getting closer and closer. With each lightning strike and thunder roll, I would wake up and peek at my kids, just waiting for one of them to wake up and end up in a screaming fit!! BUT, thank goodness, none of them woke up. Once the storm began to fade I was finally able to relax and fall back asleep. Our tent leaked in two spots, one on me, the other on Ronan. We weren't too wet, but he wasn't too pleased about it. All in all, our first day and night could definitely have been worse, the rain sucked, but what's camping with out a bit of mud and grime???
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Camping!!! Ahhhhh!!
Colette
So I haven't been camping in 3 years. Mostly because of other travel pursuits that fit the needs of our family, but also because camping with children...not my most favourite thing to do. haha Well, my oldest boy, Ronan, has been pestering me to take him since summer last year!! So I've finally given in. Don't get me wrong...I love camping. The draw back...I'm camping as a single momma!! Slade is on shift at the fire hall this week. I guess technically I won't be totally alone, my mom and sisters are going as well. But still...I'm intimidated. o.O I'm really hoping that things go well though. I think my boys are old enough that it shouldn't be too difficult with them, Summer on the other hand...well, she doesn't like sleeping anywhere else other than her crib. So nights should be interesting. And she prefers to eat dirt over food, and there's an abundance of that around the campsite. haha Well, wish me luck and pray for my sanity!!! ;)
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My Little Man
Colette
Here is my Little Man, more commonly know in our household as My Guy...or Mason.

My Guy...he can be the sweetest little thing ever. However, he has come fully equipped with stubbornness and the temper of all tempers. It is not uncommon to have several arguments, contradictions, and full on fights with this little man. :) But with out these traits...he wouldn't be My Guy. I love him even when he throws punches at me (like he did first thing this morning). Things have not run smoothly in our household so far this morning. The boys woke up fighting and earlier than normal, which in turn woke me up. Yeah, not the best combination. Most people wouldn't believe it when I tell them that Mason is firey and quite aggresive. His more natural disposition is extremely sweet and laid back. But when it comes to being diciplined...he does not cope well. A joker at heart, and a spot of sun in our home. My challenge is learning how to handle this little bundle who...is actually JUST...like me! ;)
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Day 1
Colette
Day 1!!

Woke up early this morning. Major!!! I was out of bed mostly because Summer woke up but talked myself out of going back to sleep. I exercised for 1/2 an hour and then read from my book "The Ultimate Career - Homemaker" for 45 minutes. Made a yummy breakfast for everyone and have consumed 4 glasses of water already! So far so good, hopefully I'll be able to keep it up! :)
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A New Regime!
Colette
I've been diligently trying to get on a regular schedule of exercise, healthy eating/dieting, homemaking, religious efforts...basically a total remake of myself. My goal is to be happy. I tend to be a very pessimistic person and I want to change that about myself. I want to radiate happiness and good cheer! I want to feel happy for a change instead of a lingering negativity that I know affects everyone around me. Anyways...so my goals are:

1) Be a better, more organized homemaker. This includes regular house work, regular and uplifting interactions with my children and hubby, and taking time to create special moments through celebrating holidays and preparing delicious meals with a finely set table - just for the fun of it. :) Pre-planned menus , chore lists and grocery lists. ~December 2009

2) GET HEALTHY!! This is an absolute must. It has to happen. I know this road is hard but I am determined. So much rides on my ability to reach my weight loss goals. ~December 2009

3) Increase my spirituality and my standards with regards to church/ward function attendance. Meaning, being ON TIME for church and really making myself part of the ward not just an entity that exists there. Regular scripture reading and praying. Basically...the basics. it's too easy to get relaxed with the basics. ~December 2009

4) Finances! Watching the budget and really working on my spending habits. Paying down debt and getting financially ahead. I know this goal will take a LONG time, but I'm putting it in here anyways because it is a goal whether I give it a dead line or not.

That's it for now...pretty hefty stuff, I'm really determined to nail these 4 goals because life right now feels really ridiculous and chaotic and it shouldn't. I know that if I put in the effort right now that in the long run it will make my life easier. I know it will because I have done it before. I just need to get up to speed again. :)

So...here goes!!
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A New Blogger
Colette
Well, I've decided to try out this whole blogging thing. I'm a horrible journalist, but I try and try and try. So we'll see how this goes. Hopefully my life will be entertaining enough to keep me up to speed. :)
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