Been awhile....

Hello world....or the 4 people that actually check this lol....



So I left for Mb on the 23rd and it was not a fun trip....it started to snow here the night before and not that it's a bad thing, I mean come on I have a Jeep...but it was mild and the highways were slippery and visibility was not the best so it was slow moving to say the least...at one point going through Regina I looked down to my phone, missed a sign and proceeded to drive back into the city : needless to say it added some time to our trip...from our trip through Saskatchewan there was car after car after truck after semi in the ditch...still amazes me how people forget to drive over the summer...a little ways out of Regina we came upon a car with someone with hands up in the air waving down traffic and no one was stopping so I applied the brakes...ABS kicked in as it was a sheet of ice...and slowed down along with two other SUV's...one had 4 Marine's in it the other had one guy like myself, shovels, toques and boots in hand we walked back to the car to find a couple in their 70's quite stuck... the RCMP came by but as per rules they can't help but they did block the lane in case we got them out so that we had room and wouldn't die lol after a lot of pushing, a lot of shovelling, a lot of sweat and about 45 mins we actually got the car turned around and pushed back out....then proceeded to high 5 everyone there.....we were pretty pumped....Merry Christmas to all and we were again on our way....we finally hit the MB border and thank the lord, they salt their hiways....visibility still sucked, 11 hours later we were in Winkler...wooohooooo



Sam was at work for her second last shift, Bay and the girls were at Pams waiting so once we unpacked I headed over and picked up some of the hounds...and as per usual they were pretty pumped to see me as I was them....Jennifer had her first of two Christmas dances at church so after dropping the girls off with mom, Bay, who wouldn't let me out of his sight, came along to Altona so that I could grab Jen, and some stuff from storage and head back to Sam's for night...I got a big hug from Jen as per usual and stopped in to see Greg quickly and after 3 hours of being gone again I headed back to Winkler with the last of my hounds :)



So we piled into Sam's one bedroom apartment with 8 of us including Dan, Sam's 2 week roommate and long time friend and he was a great addition...so between air mattresses and our bed and the floor we all managed to get, well not a great sleep but some sleep anyways....The kids got up the next morning and went and had Christmas with their mom and Sam headed off for her final shift at BP's, mom and I ran around and got some last minute things and waited for Sam to get off work. We then picked up Jen and brought her to Altona for Christmas dance program #2. She was awesome and fantastic as usual and we even got to see some people we didn't think we would so that was a nice surprise.



We then headed back to Winkler to pick up the remaining hounds from their moms and head back to Sam's so that we could fall asleep and all wake up Christmas morning together and proceed to tear into the presents....

Well no one went to bed early and I needed to wait for Bailey to go to sleep so I could wrap his PS3 that he had been playing for 2 days...I told him a buddy let me borrow it, he was pretty stoked when he opened the empty box and I said "oh by the way, you've been playing your PS3 for 2 days....Sam and I then proceeded to get a HUGE hug from Bay! Jennifer was also a little pumped on her new purple ipod that records video :) good work Sam!

It was a little stormy that day so after presents I drove Sam to her parents and headed back to Winkler to spend the day with the kids...lots of PS3 lots of games, and a couple movies...good times...no great times....
the kids were again for night and the next day were off with their mom to their grandma's for another gathering, Sam also had another gathering so it was a lot of sitting still for me again...
On the 27th we headed to my sisters so the kids could exchange gifts and we could catch up on life...then we headed to my aunts just for some visiting and then came the worst part of my trip again and that was saying goodbye to the kids....it's pretty tough on us but only makes us stronger...Sam was finishing up her last gathering then it was time to clean up, pack up and get ready to head out the next morning...oh wait, we couldnt' do all that cause Sam locked us out of the apartment....sooooooo we spent an hour and a half driving around Winkler waiting for her lol.

The trip home was uneventful which is a good thing, we rolled in around 7:30 and unloaded the Jeep, somewhat got settled and crashed for the night after our nightly phone call from Bay. I headed to work on the 29th and that always sucks after holidays...Sam's interview has been delayed but hopefully will happen soon as she wants to get started on her next chapter as well....
there's more to say but I'll say it in a different blog....

I'll see ya when I see ya!