A few great stories!!

As you may know from reading our blog from time to time that as much as I use this blog to promote our B and B, I have also started to use this blog as a way to tell our story and let people know what is happening in our lives.  This entry will be a lot about what's been happening in our daily lives and maybe it will entice you to want to come and have some breakfast with me and my amazing family!

This morning I went over to my sister's place and we hung out with her and Simon, her son. Simon is only 3 days older than Clayton, my eldest son, and the two of them play together really well. We went to the park for a bit and then we went back to Ang's place for some lunch. We had cut up some watermelon, put it on the table for the boys, and then went back to finishing making sandwiches. When we peeked our heads in the room to see what the boys were up to, they both had their hands folded and were praying. Clayton was thanking God for food and friends, and if I remember correctly Simon was thanking God for friends and watermelon. It was a very precious moment.

This is what happens when I turn my back on CJ for a moment, and he has a large container of Cinnamon in his hands, I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to let him have the Cinnamon in the first place!!!  I tried to save some of the meatloaf but meatloaf and Cinnamon just aren't really a good combo....

A couple of weeks ago, my mom, sister, all the kids and I went apple picking in South Mountain, we didn't end up picking too many apples, the boys were not super interested in that part. But there was a great wagon ride, the boys were obsessed with the tractor. There was a tether ball, which if any of you know my mom, you will have to ask her to tell you about how it went when she played with the boys. And there was a large straw play pit, the kids loved jumping and playing in that! This is a picture of me with the boys picking apples. Cooper really enjoyed eating the apples.

My parents have a whole lot of land, and we all love going out there for a four wheeler ride. Clayton can't go there without getting a ride. This picture is a little red neck, I know, but I love it, and clearly so do Ben and Clayton!!

We have such a hard time getting a family photo done where all of us were looking and smiling, so this was the best of the 20 attempts that we made, at least 2 out of the 4 of us are smiling!!

Cooper is our youngest son, and man he is cute. The poor little guy has had a rough couple of weeks, but he is still super calm and happy. He has been teething like crazy. He now has 6 teeth and 2 more are just starting to pop through on the bottom.

He is just learning to take his first steps!!!! He started the week off by being able to take 2 or 3 steps, and tonight he took at least 5 without falling!! He is so great!!

And this is him with his Daddy, just after taking a bath. He is pretty good with his words too! He says momma a lot, but he often will say "hi dad" when Ben comes home or into the room. It is really sweet!

So that's what's been happening with the boys lately. Let's talk about Ben for a bit.  This past week Ben and I had the opportunity to go to SMD academy in Johns Creek, Georgia. And man, this was an incredible experience. For those of you who don't know, SMD is the level in Ben's business where he now officially owns his own financial service brokerage. This is a huge accomplishment, very few people actually make it this far with World Financial Group. To give you an idea, there were only 15 people, from Canada in the last 6 months who qualified for this promotion.(there are about 6000 licensed agents in Canada) As a reward for making it to SMD, WFG puts on this academy. There are 2 parts to the academy. The first part is recognition, all of the SMD's get applauded for their hard work. And the second part is training. We received some of the best business training and info that we have ever heard or gotten before. It totally prepared us for what the next steps in our business should be.

I just want to share with you one of the coolest experiences that we had while we were there. Once we got to John's Creek, and checked into our hotel rooms, there was a bus waiting outside to take us to the WFG head office. So we all got onto the bus and drove over. Once we got there, just outside the building,  the president of the company, and 2 founders of the company were waiting to shake our hands and say congratulations. And as if that wasn't enough, they literally had the red carpet rolled out, and we walked into the building where the foyer was lined with head office staff clapping for us as we walked through.  Seriously what other company does this for their top leaders!! And then to top it all off, they had an amazing dinner set out for us with wine, the fixings and dessert! It was one of the most exciting moments, and one of the most humbling experiences that Ben or I has ever had. 

The bed and breakfast is also doing really well. October has been a great month so far. We have had 6 people come and stay with us over the course of the month, and I know that I have said this before, but it is so neat being able to meet people from all over with all different kinds of stories. Every single person has something that is unique about them, and it's just so fantastic being able to get to know people over breakfast, even if it's just for one meal. This past weekend we had 2 ladies staying, who were studying homeopathy. I have heard about it before, but didn't really know what it was all about, so it was really interesting learning just a little bit more about it.

This week we have a couple staying here who used to live in Ottawa back in the 60's, so it is really neat being able to hear their perspective on Ottawa now versus what it was like back then. It's been fun hearing some of their stories.

Just for fun, I'll leave you with a couple of quotes, and the name of a good book to read. The name of the book is "I Dare You", and it's written by Joyce Meyer.

And here's some quotes that I thought were great. The first one is from Rich Thawley, the main speaker at SMD academy.

"I am grateful for the opportunity everyday that I can be the best that I can be"

And the second is from the book I mentioned above.

"Let God fight your battles while you remain at rest, trusting Him."

These are just 2 really great quotes that push me to be just a little but better everyday!! Hope you enjoyed!!

October is going to be great and Ben's man cave is almost done

This past weekend we had a bunch of family over to our house because Cooper, our youngest son was baptized. One of Ben's aunts asked us if we knew we wanted to build and run a B and B in our home when we had originally bought it. At the time, the thought of a B and B or any home based business had never even entered our minds. We hadn't even thought about additions or anything like that. We just really liked the space in the house and we loved the size of our backyard and the privacy that it has. So I told my aunt that we don't really think things through and we don't think about things very long we just do them! And that is certainly the case with the B and B! But it has definately turned out to be one of the best things that we have ever done.

So far in October we have 15 nights booked between the 2 rooms! Which is awesome. I still have yet to figure out if there is going to be a pattern for when it will be busy or slow. I really wasn't expecting October to be busy, but I did think that July and August would be busy. And I was wrong on both accounts! July and August were not very busy, but October is going to be. Go figure!

Ben made it into the SMD academy for his business! For those of you who do not know, that  is a huge honor. Because Ben achieved his SMD promotion this year, he is going to be reconginzed at a world class event in Georgia that is put on by WFG. It's an all expenses paid trip, in the middle of October and I get to go along for the ride!! It's going to be an amazing time. And then at the end of October we are going to be going to Mont Tremblant for another huge WFG event. Our Ottawa office is hosting a Super Saturday training event, and there is also going to be an awesome team party while we are there. It's going to be a great weekend!

All in all October is going to be a very busy month. It is just incredible to see how our businesses are growing and are becoming more and more successful. God is continually working through us and is making some really awesome things happen in our lives.

Over the last couple of weeks our backyard and B & B have been transformed yet again. We have been busy trying to get the cabin(aka Ben's man cave) completely weather proofed and ready to move into. The outside of the cabin is almost done. We still need to put up the veranda and paint some of the outside walls, but I think other than that the outside is done! It is looking very, very good!!

Gardening - who knew it was so much work! I have discovered that I am a big fan of perenials, that's the flowers that you plant, and then they just keep coming back year after year! I have to make sure that I water them, and cut off the dead blooms at the end of their season, but other than that they pretty much take care of themselves. Annuals are pretty easy too, they just bloom in season, and then they die and then that's it.  But then there are other plants, and I have no idea what you call them, but you have to dig up the bulbs and put them somewhere warm enough so that they don't freeze over the winter.  I didn't know that you had to do that. I still am not sure how many of these plants I have in my yard. So far I know of one. Although it's a bunch of work, gardening is great. I love that when you work on it you can see results pretty much immediately.  The yard looks better every time Ben's parents and I do any one small thing. We planted some grass this week, and it just looks fabulous. It does take years for the roots of plants to take, and then for the plants to grow and create flowers or blooms. The first set of plants that I have took 2 years to bloom!! I guess gardening will aslo teach me some patience!

Our backyard is looking awesome, our businesses are growing, our kids are cute, and wonderful, and our families are truly amazing, what more could we ask for!!