Life's Whirlwind Adventures

We spent half a week down in Idaho and Washington this summer.  It was a great time and we got to see so much! Here are a few other things we did while on our Lacourse Road Trip 2018! Spokane Valley Mirabeau Point Park: This was a cool little park, it had a spray park which was a lifesafer on the hottest day of the summer! Seriously, it was so hot and Teddy is a little thermometer and based on his behaviour you know when he is too hot. The more whiney he is the hotter he is. Frank's Diner: My boys love, LOVE trains and Teddy especially but Leigham also loves them, so when we saw that Spokane Valley had a train car that was turned into a restaurant we had to go.  It was so cute and cool and the boys thought all the little trinkets and displays were super cool. Spokane Valley Children's Museum and Science Center: After two days of hot temperatures outside we took the boys indoors! The kids were unsure of our day trip on this day but then they ended up having...

I just cannot adhere to Spring cleaning, our life is much too busy during the winter and spring months to take a weekend to clean the house. I mean I complete understand why people do it, but I cannot figure out where they find the time.  In my little world spring cleaning is a nice idea but it always gets pushed until the Summer holidays. Yes, yes I get it, summer holidays are for fun and relaxing and not busting yourself trying to do things that are boring and monotonous.  This all makes sense if you work a regular job where you only get two weeks off in the summer.  No way would I, or did I, want to clean my house as part of my summer holidays.  It just wasn't happening! Now that I have a teaching job and all of my summers are off I have to find things to fill the days.  If I could just ignore the cries of "what can we do?" "I'm bored" "Can I watch tv" and get lost in all the books I am trying to read this summer (there are 14 titles) then I...

Happy Family Day Everyone!!

Way back in November during the fall break I jumped on a plane solo and flew to visit friends and family in California. I hadn't been back to California since my wedding, so this visit was long, LONG overdue.  It was a great flight, it was on the smallest plane ever, I think there were a total of 12 rows so we were all in coach, but I was in row two so that was super nice and I was able to read and disconnect from everything around me for awhile. Upon arriving my California Sister, Alex picked me up from the airport.  It was my first time meeting her husband Ethan and her two young sons.  They were amazing and felt like I'd always known them, and Alex and I got to catch up. The next day I headed out to see my dad's grave site.  That was a definite bitter sweet moment for me, I realized that having my dad interned so far away from me, limited my ability to seek out his guidance.  That is actually weird to say, because I shouldn't need his resting place ...

When you go through tough times, it sometimes brings to the forefront those things that make life amazing.  And right now things have not been super great in my life, but there are things that if I didn't have those, my life would suck, and be worse than it is.  So these are the six things I have found keep me ground and keep me from spiralling out into the utter darkness. 1. My family: I have such a great supportive family, they let me bitch, they let me complain and they keep me grounded. I've been blessed with two best friends in my siblings and couldn't imagine not being as close to them as I am.  I've also been blessed with a mother who is my rock and supports me at every decision I make, even when she doesn't agree with me. 2. My friends: For letting me bitch, for letting me cry on their shoulders, for sharing their situations to help me see that I am not the only one to have gone through this and that it might be bad right now but there is another sid...

This year we were supposed to go back to Saskatchewan for Christmas, well orginally I was going to leave on December 26th and then Adrian was going to fly out to meet me on December 29th and we would celebrate New Years in Prince Albert with my friend Estelle. Then Adrian wasn't able to book a flight out to Saskatchewan so I decided since I wanted to go to Saskatchewan as a family and spend some time altogether and he had 4 days off at Christmas I would suggest we do Christmas in Saskatchewan.  He was agreeable to those terms and so we began planning to go. I was super excited. I haven't spent a Christmas in Saskatchewan in three or more years now.  Last year I had surgery, the year before we went to Disneyland and maybe the year before we went to Saskatchewan but I'm not sure, it has literally been that long. Well you can guess by the title of the blog post that we did not go to Saskatchewan, in fact we did not go anywhere this year for Christmas.  We were quaran...

I'm going to try to get back into my Friday Five Posts!! I love them and they help keep me focused! I am going to start my first Friday Five Post of 2017 as a Five Gratitudes I need to share. 1) I am so thankful for my mother.  She is one of my very best friends and I know I can count on her support for whatever I need.  She loves me unconditionally and even though we don't always see eye to eye on a topic I know she respects my opinion and decisions.  She is such a super hero in my books, she raised three kids on her own, she went back to school, she never let being older stop her from improving herself! I am thankful if I am half the person she is! 2) I am also very thankful for my grandma.  I have always had a special relationship with my grandma.  She has always been there for me and helped me out when she could.  She has had such an interesting life and lived through some horrible experiences, experiences that definitely altered her life.  Bu...

I've decided that I have a new five year plan... I mean you should always have a new five year plan and to be honest I've never really had a five year plan,  just a wing and a prayer!  And really it's done well for me so far, but I wan to be more organized and really plan out what we are going to do, how we are going to get further ahead. Things aren't great right now, the recession has hit our house and it is a little scary!! I am working at the moment, but my husband is not and there are just no jobs out there.  But this too shall pass and my husband will be working again and we need to be ready with the important goals when that happens. So where do I want to be in the next five years - A permanent teaching contract with Red Deer Public Schools as a Foundations Teacher! -A new home in a new community either in Red Deer or one of the communities within 20 minutes of Red Deer. -A new Mercedes paid for with my Arbonne earnings (RVP here I come) -A lake...

For February I am going to showcase women who I think are just amazing and that need a little pat on the back for doing such a great job in life and they are inspiring to me.  And as easy as it would be to say Oprah, Ellen, Reese Witherspoon or any other hollywood star I feel these women get enough accolades from the tabloids and other news venues that I'd like to focus on the real women in my life that inspire me daily. So today I am going to tell you about one of the most influential women in my life. It's an easy one, it's my mom! My mom is amazing! And I am going to share her story with you, at least from the time that I've known her. My mom is a divorcee and has been divorced from my father since I was three.  She also has two other children my sister and my brother, and she has spent our life being a single mother to the three of us. We moved to a small town just before my brother was born, in a time when single mothers and unmarried women weren't real...

My full name is Jennifer Louise Lacourse.  My mom never said I was named after anyone, but my nana once told me that I was named for a saint. Now I didn't actually believe her because I was 13 and didn't really know anything about Catholicism except what I learned in my little bits of attending church and the few religion classes we took, it's not like I was named Christopher or Mary which are very popular Saints.  I've since done some research and have found two things, there is a Saint Jennifer, she is the patron Saint of Disasters, and Saint Louise is the patron Saint of Orphans. Neither my mom or dad were very religious, my dad once told me his family was Jehovah's Witness and after his dad's death at 13 Nana converted to Catholicism. Who knows sometimes people say things because they think it but they don't really know.  I don't know Nana never said anything, but my mom was Anglican and I wasn't baptized as a baby, I wasn't actually bapt...

It's been 8 months since my little Prince joined our family!! 8 months, that's so crazy to think, it still feels like it hasn't been that long, yet it also feels like it's flown by!! I love and hate watching my children grow.  I think it goes by so fast in the first year because they change so much, and we measure everything in weeks and months, then they hit a year and then two so then things stretch out but they aren't changing as fast anymore.  It's great and sad at the same time because I'm so proud of my kids, they are the highlight of every day, and I couldn't love them more if I tried. Anyways I'm getting all sappy now!! Prince T, our little Teddybear,  is a mover and shaker. He's mastered our sunken living room step, he can get up and down(this is not as graceful yet), he's sleeping through the night (i'm amazed and scared to even broadcast this in case he makes a liar of me also there is a future post, tomorrow or monday abou...

So I had my whole month of blogs planned out, I wrote what I could ahead of time and agreed to work on the rest as time permitted. Then, Life happened.  One boy needed to go to soccer, one needed to go to soccer and hockey, the flu invaded our house, another boy is teething.  So all that adds up to very little sleep for mommy+no spare minutes in the day = no writing completed. Plus hubby should have been home yesterday but now he's extended another week so what I thought I'd get done by having him home to help out is not getting done, so what does that mean for my poor little blog? Essentially it means my Christmas holidays will start after this week.  I have three more scheduled blogs ready to go and then that's it until the New Year.  I'll post a couple more blogs in the next two weeks but they won't be daily as I'm going to go on holidays.  I'm going to enjoy the time with my boys, and file away blog entries for the New Year!! I wish all you my reader...

Where has the time gone?? My baby is six months old! SIX MONTHS OLD!!! Time is going by way too fast and soon he'll be moving out of the house!! But Prince T is 6 months old today (as I write this not as it's posted).  He's such a joy to have in the house.  He loves his routine, and his routine is very workable, he has a short nap in the morning, is awake over lunch then a longer nap in the afternoon.  He still doesn't sleep well through the night, but it's not horrible, he'll usually sleep for 6 hours from between 7 and 8 until 1-2.  Although, last night he was up every two hours to nurse, seriously, he doesn't eat that often during the day, but at night he's like a leech.  (Don't tell anyone I'm sort of ok with it because it means we get to snuggle) Prince T has some definite preferences right now!  He likes his exo-saucer and jolly jumper.  He likes listening to stories and hearing lullabies.  He likes food, but not pureed food.  He'...

I've always been a family person! To be able to spend time with my family just hanging out or playing games is one of my most favourite things to do in the whole world. So on holidays or when we go back to Saskatchewan that's one of the only things I want to do.  I also know that it makes my grandma happy to play games with us and as she's getting older I like to do things that will make her happy.  Plus I really enjoy that time with my family. I admit to being selfish, especially when it comes to spending time with my family when we go back to Saskatchewan. And I know that I have a lot of fun playing games with my grandma and mom but it's not really for everyone, and my husband didn't always enjoy it.  Where I could sit and play games for 3-4 hours in a row,  Hubby may have joined for a couple games but it wasn't really his thing and just sitting around would get bored. Hubby is a doer.  He likes to be doing things or going places so to just sit around and ...