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!!
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