Mmmm. Is That Barbecue I Smell? Nope, That Would Be Me!

Ugh. Chris's first day back at work after being off for two weeks! Ugh. Turns out it wasn't so bad. Kelly is back from camping and MSN'd me to say she was heading out to her pool later in the morning. I got the boys all juiced up with sunscreen and went to Kelly's around 11:30. Ben said she was washing her truck so we left and found her at the carwash.

I decided that with the extra time we could visit Chris at work. He was ready for lunch, so we brought him a combo from Dairy Queen. I tried one of the onion rings and they were so good we went back to Dairy Queen and I got myself a flamethrower combo with onion rings and a kid's pack for Carter. Then we went back to Kelly's. I sat on the grass and ate my glorious burger and onion rings. Awesome. Then we all started lounging in the pool. I ran home to get all our floatie toys and lifejackets that I should have brought in the first place.

Carter and Cooper both had a blast in the pool. So did I. Around 3:30 or so, Carter started to say he wanted to come home. We were about done, so I rounded up all our gear and packed up the Jeep. I swear Carter was zonked before I finished backing out of the driveway. We came home and I carried two sleeping boys into the house and did some stuff on the computer. Chris came home after a pretty good day at work. Since I was out playing all afternoon, there was no supper to be found so it was a double fast food day. Gee I'm disgusting. I went to McDonald's and brought home supper.

It was my parents' 41st anniversary, and they were out for supper. They stopped by after and I gave them a card, lottery ticket, and ice cream for dessert. Cindy had stopped by earlier too so I got to see all my main peeps. It wasn't until I bathed the boys that I realized I was cooked. I didn't 'feel the burn' but I was pretty red and seemed to get redder as time wore on.

I did a photo project for the girls at work for their friend who is moving away. I stayed up until forever working on it and got progressively more cranky with my new printer. What a piece of CRAP. It works great, prints great, but doesn't print what it says it's going to. It does a print preview in which the layout looks completely different from what it actually belches out. Peeves me bigtime. I managed to eventually get a reasonable facsimile of what I wanted from it. In the meantime I was trying to burn all the picture files on a disc and it didn't work. Twice. I decided to go to bed a few minutes past three. And that's precisely when Cooper got up for the second time. And he was ready to PARTY. I nursed him a little to try to get him to sleep, then put him back in his crib. He wasn't crying at least, but he was noisily happily playing. I forgot to mention Carter was sleeping in my bed with Chris. Sideways. So I went in Carter's room and curled up in his little toddler bed. I think I got about 2.5 hours of sleep so pardon me if my next post isn't titled 'Bright-eyed and Bushy-tailed'.

Kick-Ass Lightshow

This is gonna be short...

Watched an awesome thunder storm on the horizon tonight...we have no south view from in the house so Chris went outside and took a couple short videos on the camera to try to capture some of the wicked lightning. I took Carter outside to see it too. The storm was far enough away so that we couldn't hear the thunder. It's now after midnight and the storm must have mostly gone around us. It only rained a few drops here, and we could really use it! Heard a couple big boomers and that was it. (So far.)

Today was a relaxing day. We just hung out at home. I didn't even go to church. Cooper was up A LOT last night. So I napped every chance I got today. We spent a little time outside but it was pretty darned hot and muggy.

Yesterday Chris went fishing with the boys from work at Avery Lake. He'd been anxious to get out fishing the whole time he was on holidays and this was the first time. We were invited to Cindy's for supper so I took Carter and Cooper there. Pete and Claudine and the kids were there too, and his parents came for supper too. Supper was an enormous feast as usual, and gooooooood. Massive steaks (I believe it was beef this time!) roasted potatoes, crab legs, huge butterfly shrimp, salads, and a gorgeous strawberry margarita cheesecake for dessert. I was stuffed.

Carter had fun playing with all the kids in the pool a couple times. On our way home we stopped for ice cream. Chris was at Greg's for a while in the evening and he came home and ate the plate of food I made for him. (I helped...don't ask me how because I certainly ate enough at supper!) They also sent me home with some of those herculean steaks that we made into steak sandwiches for both lunch and supper today!

Tomorrow Chris goes back to work (waaaaaa). The weather is supposed to stay nice, and Roberta and Derek and the kids are back in town so hopefully we'll get together with them while they're here for the week. It's gonna be a rough day without Chris around...Carter will ask where he is every five minutes I'm sure. I'll leave you with a video of tonight's light show...seems every time the camera got clicked on, the lightning would stop...but Chris caught one real gooder on here...

Just the Weekend Left Now...

Well, that was Friday...we're into the last weekend of Chris's holidays. Auntie Nancy, Christine and Keith and the kids left this morning to drive back to Brampton. I don't envy that drive with two little kiddies! I sure hope we don't have to wait ages to have a visit with them again. Today Chris went and had coffee with the guys at work then started making plans to go fishing tomorrow.

I ran a couple errands then after the boys woke up from their naps, we went out to Mom & Dad's for supper. We had hamburgers, fresh corn on the cob, and potato salad. Mom puréed some carrots for Cooper, and he had a little, then she decided to let him go at it himself. There were carrots everywhere. I would love to post a picture, but I forgot my camera! We took a couple pictures with Dad's camera so I'll blog them next time he brings his picture card over. Mom bathed him in the kitchen sink and I got him into some new clothes.

After supper we had a visit and then we watched "Nanny McPhee". Excellent movie for everyone. We had a couple brief intermissions...one for Cooper. He was sleeping so peacefully in his bouncy seat then I noticed he was wide awake and just looking around. Then I started to smell something. I didn't want to ask if anyone was letting a couple go...I started to think it was me for a minute; that it might be "bambi gas" from the supper I had last night. Then I decided to check Cooper. That explained it. His diaper overfloweth. Mom came to the rescue and helped me peel his poopy clothes off. She bathed him again (in the bathroom sink this time!) and again I re-diapered and clothed him.

We resumed and enjoyed the rest of the movie then headed home. Both boys were asleep when we arrived. Chris put Carter to bed, and I put Cooper to bed. I headed for the computer (duh...of course) and Chris was watching some sort of vampire show. I'm working on a couple projects. Carter appeared for a visit and a snack, then fell asleep on the couch. He had booted Chris off the couch and I turned around to find them both sleeping, though Chris was on the floor!

I just carried Carter to bed again (after midnight) and Chris is awake and again watching the vampire show. Now we have to make the most of every remaining moment of this weekend 'cause it's gonna suck bad when Chris goes back to work on Monday. Not just for him because he's the one that has to go to work, but for the three of us too 'cause we'll miss having him around all the time! Carter has gotten so used to having Chris home that he won't let me do anything for him! Now I'm ready to hit the hay myself...good night!

Who Knew Bambi Would Be So Good?

Today was a full day. Full of fun and full of food! (Again!)

Chris went out for coffee this morning. When he got back we were tossing around the idea of going to Blue Lake to the beach again. We talked to Cindy and she was planning to go with the kids and Christine and Keith and their kids too. So we ran around all over the place and got everything ready and bought munchies and lunch and stuff and headed out.

We got there by around 1:30 or so. We spent the afternoon enjoying the sun and water again, and the company of our cousins and all our kids. It was partly cloudy but cleared up as the day progressed. Cooper went for a little float in his little boat again, but mostly enjoyed sitting in the water and splashing. He must have sat there for at least half an hour with me. He loves to grab a handful of sand and let it run through his fingers, taking the odd little nibble of it. Carter is quite the 'water baby' now and gets right in, except for his head.



My cousin Mike (the gadget KING) had a great sunshade tent that he and Chris set up for the babies. Here's a picture of Cooper playing in it, and of Cooper and Ethan snoozing in it. It came in really handy and folds up into a tidy little carrying bag.

Around 5:30 everyone was packing it in. Cindy asked us to come for supper; Christine and Keith were going too. They're leaving for Brampton in the morning so we wanted to have one last visit. We drove to Cindy's and there was a beautiful feast prepared. Seasoned, oven-roasted potatoes, a hyuge fruit tray with dip, Caesar salad, cucumber salad, and...an awesome meat and mushroom gravy dish. I coyly asked what kind of meat I was thoroughly enjoying eating, and was only semi-surprised I was told said it was venison. OMG. I just ate Bambi. And Bambi was goooooooood. That was the first time I'd eaten and enjoyed deer without gagging and spewing.

After supper the kids went outside and played in the pool. Chris and the guys went to Pete's place for a visit. When Chris came back we packed it in and said our goodbyes to Christine and Keith and the kids. God only knows when we'll all get together again. Hopefully before our babies graduate! So, another fun-filled, sunny yummy summer day. Here's another video of Cooper playing in the water...he was in a little further this time.

By the way, a big Happy 2nd Birthday to my Godson Graeme! Can't wait 'til you come back to Dryden! (Auntie Lurdes, if you're reading this, I haven't forgotten about the stroller! Have a great day at work - it's the weekend - Love you!)

The Fish Fry Where I Gained Five Pounds!

When I blogged earlier, I neglected to mention (because at the time I forgot) that there was a fish-fry at my parents' house for supper today. Mom summoned as much family as is still in town and we had a hyuuge feast. Dad deep-fried a ton of battered fish, there was potato salad, coleslaw, my oriental salad, beans, lasagne, chantrelle mushrooms, buns, fresh blueberry pies and rhubarb pies. Hope I didn't forget anything, because it was all very blogworthy! I pigged out big time. Silly me...I weighed myself after supper and I was five pounds heavier than the last time we ate there. Yikes!

This oriental salad recipe card was inspired by Beth, who posted a really cool smoothie recipe card on her blog...this recipe is from my sister Cindy, and I used Christy's Kodoku kit from Butternug Squash Designs. (Click to enlarge image)


Let's see, who all was there? My parents, the four of us, Cindy & family, Auntie Nancy, Christine & Keith and Paige & Ethan, Uncle Barry & Auntie Maggie, Marnie & Sean and Kaia & Vann, Uncle Bob & Auntie Josie, Uncle Cliff & Auntie Lurdes and Kevin. Whew 28 of us. And that's not even the whole clan! But it's so great to see my mom with all her sisters and get together with as much family as possible!

A while after supper the group started to dwindle as everyone left. Christine & Keith and the kids are staying at Cindy's tonight. So we were the last to leave and I played Yahtzee for a while with Mom and Auntie Nancy. By 10:30 or so, Carter was done. "I want to go home". So we packed up all our luggage and headed for home. It was a beautiful day. (And I'm still full!) It's now almost 1:00 as I'm finally finished posting...I'm heading for bed.

New Kit This Week

Well, yesterday wasn't overly eventful so I figured I could capture the essence of it in a brief paragraph on today's blog entry. The main event was the four of us going to Wal-Mart. Chris took Carter in one cart and I had Cooper in another. We had a couple races and did our shopping. We stopped at McDonald's on the way home and therefore had a quick and easy supper when we got home!

Chris went to help Greg again with his deck or something. I went to bed fairly early. Wow. Sounds like it was a boring day - can't think of anything else we did!

Today looks kind of yucky outside again. If it gets nice out we might go for a drive to Blue Lake or Sandbar. We'll see.

I did a few layouts last night with Christy's new kit called "Marquis". Lots of rich colours and textures of papers and ribbons and elements. She's also coming out with a new word art series called "Expressions of Love" which I have used a couple of in these layouts. Here they are and that's it for me right now...I've gotta hit the shower!




And here's one for Christy...these are the "other men" in her life. You will never see her make a scrapbook page of them, but that won't stop me from making one for her! (Christy whenever you want to see them, they'll be heeeeeere!) (Click the image to enlarge)

Sons O' Beaches!

Ahhhhhhhh. What a glorious day. I was up quite early with Cooper and the little turkey would NOT go back to bed. So by the time Chris and Carter got up I was already exhausted. Chris played Mr. Awesome Hubby and let me go back to sleep. I slept for over an hour. Cooper played happily while I slept a blissful sleep.

After I got up we decided to go to the beach. We got all our stuff together and picked up some lunchmeat and snacks and headed out to Blue Lake. My cousin Mike and his family were there camping so we went to visit. We parked near the beach and I walked down to look for them and found them right away. We got a perfect parking spot right next to their campsite which was just across the main road from the beach.

I had slathered the kids with sunscreen before we even left home so they were good to go when we got there. I took a zillion great pictures and movies. We stayed down at the beach at least three hours. Both of my sons love the beach! Cooper loves the water and floated around in his little boat. He also seemed to take great pleasure in grabbing handfuls of sand and trying to eat it. He definitely had a few tastes of it anyway. I had a regular diaper on him when we got there which filled up quite quickly like the Hindenburg but with water. Then I took off the diaper and just had him in shorts. That must have felt good to go commando when he's so used to having a diaper on! I'll probably be finding sand in all his little nooks and crannies for a couple days! He took a nap and I put him in his little tent. That thing rocks. Chris and Carter had a blast and Chris was chucking Carter up in the air and splashing him down in the water. Carter was running and splashing and crawling around in the water like a pro. We had snacks and a great visit down at the beach.

Mike & Monique asked us to stay for supper. I had brought hotdogs and buns just in case, but they fed them to the kids and fed us steak and rice and potato salad instead! Mmmm. After supper Monique and Oliver and Trey made some really awesome s'mores. She used these cookies that have a chocolate coating on one side, so all you need to do is put the cooked marshmallow in between and it's an instant s'more. No fuss, no muss. Just awesome.

We hung out and sat around the campfire for a few hours (I also must mention the fantastic awesome cappucinos we had complete with whipped cream. Now that's camping! heehee) Then Carter lost steam and wanted to come home. We totally could have stayed. Mike and Monique had enough gear and a spare tent we could have stayed in, but we weren't totally prepared to stay the night. But we might just go back and visit again this week, if this fantastic weather holds up.

We came home around 11:30 and both boys were sound asleep. It was an awesome day. With all that fresh air I'm sure I'll be able to head straight to sleep. Here are a few 'fotos and flix' of the day...

Ever Wonder How They Make Holy Water?

Speaking of holy water, today was Ethan's baptism. Ethan is my cousin Christine's baby, who is nine days older than Cooper. I got up this morning and took Cooper to church. After church we went for breakfast at the P.I. with the parents, aunts and uncles, the usual drill.

After breakfast I was already dying for a nap but we had to get ready to go to the baptism. We all got changed and ready and went to the church. Again! My halo must really be shining now! heehee. The baptism was lovely. There was another family having a baptism at the same time; I have NO idea who they were. Didn't recognize a single one of them. And I've lived here FOREVER! Anyway, it went just great. It was kind of hot and muggy in the church, and unfortunately everyone scattered before we could arrange for a whole fam-damily picture.

We went home and I was sleeeeeeeeepy. Cooper had snoozed a little both times we were at church, so he was full of P&V and didn't want to nap. Chris even took Carter for a drive so I could try to nap with Cooper. After a while we fell asleep but it wasn't for long. Next thing I knew it was time to get ready for the baptism supper/party.

The party was at the Holiday Inn Express. All the kids were swimming so I had to be a cool mom and take Carter in the pool. Got to try out the new bathing suit at least. I really didn't want to get my hair wet, but with Carter splashing me and all the other kids in the pool the odds were against me!

It's been ages since Carter swam in a pool (aside from Kelly's place a couple weeks ago). He enjoyed having a lifejacket on but got all freaked out if I tried to let go of him so he could float. He had a blast jumping to me from the side of the pool. Getting him out of the pool was the hard part. He was maaaaaaaad at me. I managed to get him dried off and dressed and waited my turn to dry off and get dressed. My hair was toast of course. So since I live so close by, I burned home in the Jeep (took one minute to drive home) and blow-dried my hair, powdered my nose, re-deodorized and perfumed and was back at the party in under ten minutes. And I felt much better.

Supper was great - a buffet catered by a local restaurant. We all had a good visit and the kids played rather well then everyone started to disband again. We came home and got into some comfy clothes. Chris went over to Auntie Lurdes & Uncle Cliff's house to do some more visiting. After a while I walked over with the boys in the stroller. I timed the walk on my cell phone stopwatch...took us 14 minutes, 20 seconds to get there. (see, we live in a small town!)

There were six kids aged five and under there. It was fun chaos. We had a visit then came home. Chris had driven the Jeep there so we drove home together and left the stroller there. There was too much stuff in the back of the Jeep to bring it home so we'll pick it up tomorrow.

Cooper was asleep by the time we got home. Carter is probably still awake watching Lilo and Stitch 2 for the umpteenth time. Cooper just woke up and is snoozing on my shoulder as I finish typing this. It's now almost midnight and I'm going to fall into bed. Hopefully it's a nice day tomorrow so we can go to the beach. Below are a couple pictures from the day...oh and the answer to the title question? Boil the Hell out of it.

Too Boring to Blog

Today was not very eventful. I spent most of the day trying to sneak in a nap. Chris too. He was tired after his late night/early morning...I got up really early with Cooper and Chris had just gotten home shortly before.

I never even went outside today, and the batteries for the new dirt bike for Carter didn't take a charge so I didn't take pictures of Carter on it. I actually went the whole day without taking any pictures!

We had a great supper. I made a hash brown casserole-thingy with my new Epicure spices, cheese and mushroom soup and cut pork tenderloin into medallions, wax beans (Cooper liked those!) and stuffing.

We finally watched one of the movies I rented, Rumor Has It. It was alright. Glad I didn't buy it. But it was okay. Chris is watching Edison Force right now. I'm in the living room, but with my back to the TV and didn't get into the plot. Something about a couple cops who are pretty much just murderers...all I hear is Morgan Freeman's voice the odd time. Otherwise I'm just ignoring it.

Carter and Cooper are both sleeping. Two nights in a row they've been in bed a little earlier than usual. Carter had an earlier nap today too so I'm hoping this trend continues.

Well that's pretty much it for today. I did a scrapbooking layout last night of the blue heron out at Mom & Dad's house. The poem is from some Canadian poet - it's just an excerpt. Speaking of blue herons, I don't know if this is the same bird, but about 9 times out of 10, and I'm not exaggerating, a blue heron flies over on my way to my parents' house. Right close to the turnoff from the highway onto their road. I've made a point of looking for it every time and I've noticed this for two summers in a row.



Anyhoo, as the title indicates, that's it for today. I can guarantee that there will be pictures and stories to blog about tomorrow. The whole fam-damily will be together and that's always a hyuge event.

Bring on the Jackpot

Today was a fairly low-key one. I tried to go back to sleep many-a-time this morning but I didn't catch very many extra winks. Of course I was up late as usual; not completely my doing - Cooper was up 2 or 3 times before I went to bed. So if I had gone to bed earlier I would have been up anyway!

So of course the first thing I do when I get up is head for the computer, check email and read blogs. Much to my surprise and delight I was the header of one of Beth's Blog entries today. Plus I had sent out one of those 'meme' questionnaires that I received by email. The kind that you receive over and over and send to your same circle of friends and have memorized the information but you send them anyway because you've been "tagged"... well I have a new group of friends, all my internetland friends so it was a bunch of new information to get back this time and it was fun. Beth posted hers on her blog, again with reference to me, and I had a few good chuckles. I feel like such a celebrity...whee! By the way, Beth's blog is chock full of adventures, family and food...lots of great meal ideas and recipes...check it out some time!

We had a thunderstorm this afternoon. I went downtown and did some banking then stopped by my office for a visit and to pay my lottery dues. I was "in arrears" in our office lottery pool. I'm the one that used to run it and send out little reminder notes for people to pay, and here I was, a few weeks behind. God forbid we ever won the jackpot and I wasn't up to date with my payments. I think I'd just roll over and die. So now that I'm all caught up, bring on the jackpot!

I had a visit with my coworkers for a while then I went to the video store and rented five movies! Titles are Doogal, Hoodwinked, Firewall, Edison Force, and Rumor Has It. Carter watched Doogal twice already and Hoodwinked made a couple rounds with Carter dashing in and out.

We had spaghetti for supper; I had frozen some leftover sauce last time so it was just a matter of boiling the pasta. Easy squeezy. Chris's Grandpa stopped by for a while to bring over a motorcycle for Carter. Cool! This thing has been in the family for about 15 years and it is so cool! Chris's Aunt Wendy sent it down with her son Tyler who is in town visiting for the summer. It looks like a real motorcycle, and it's one of those ride-on toys that runs on battery. It has training wheels and I think Carter is going to have a blast. Gotta find that helmet! I should have taken a picture when Carter sat on it, but I had Cooper with me and didn't think to grab the camera. But I'm sure there will be many many photo opportunities with this way-cool new-to-us toy. I'll pretty much bet that I'll have a picture of him on it on my next blog entry!

Chris went over to his buddy's house tonight to play video games, maybe watch movies and definitely drink beer. I was a "nice wife" and stopped by the beer store for him today. I find beer quite loathsome, so it wouldn't be for me even if I weren't still breastfeeding. Cooper and Carter both went to bed relatively early so I've been on the computer fiddling around with the template on my blog. If your speakers are on, I hope the music didn't startle you. And I added a clock (mostly for Helen) to show what time it is here.

I'm now just having a chat with Angie. That's when I realized the time and with the length of time it takes me to do a blog entry, I had better sign on to create this new post so that it gets in before midnight. I never usually finish typing, inserting pictures and editing before midnight but at least the post time/date reflects the correct day's activities.

On a sad note, I called Mom today to ask how baby bird was doing. Unfortunately he didn't survive. He was just too darn tiny. I was so sad. So was Mom. She had tried feeding him some more; he had eaten some of the wormy mush she made him but he just was too weak. Amazing how life is so fragile, isn't it? Especially when you're holding it in the palm of your hand. Make the most of every day...

Get Your Feet Outta My Stew

This morning Chris had an appointment to go for a tattoo. Yes, I'm serious. And it's a biggie! Here is the picture of it...


I was possibly going to go golfing this afternoon with Cindy and my cousin Christine, but I didn't get a hold of Cindy to say I could make it so instead I went SHOPPING! I bought a new bathing suit, a pair of pants, a tank top and a really pretty shirt to wear to Christine's baby's baptism on Sunday. Yay me!

I came home and Mom was calling to see if we wanted to go there for supper. So we packed up the kids and went to pick up dinner rolls for supper. I also had to renew my license plate stickers since my b-day was at the beginning of the month and though the stickers say July 2006 on them, they are expired on my birthday. So I've been driving 'illegally' for a couple weeks. So that took a while but I got it done.

Then we were about to leave town and Mom called for milk. We were right by Safeway so we did a quick stop. I carried 2 half-gallons of milk, a gallon of ice cream and quickly grabbed a watermelon and carried it all to the express lane. So there I am holding a TON of stuff and the woman in front of me was buying a pack of gum. I know she saw me but she stood in front of the conveyor belt, unaware I was benchpressing a ton of groceries. Because I know she saw me, I didn't say "Excuse me" as I normally would have. I am usually soooooo polite but I was just annoyed she didn't let me through! I stood and powerlifted my groceries and chatted with someone else in line. Finally I got to set down my stuff. I guess that trying to burn a hole into the back of her head with my eyeballs didn't work so I kind of weaseled my way in and excused myself and put it down. Once it was bagged I couldn't believe I had carried all of it!

We finally went out to Mom & Dad's. Cindy & Christine had just returned from golf. Mom was saying something about a baby bird they found. I was picturing this little chickadee type of bird that had maybe hit the window or something. Nooooooooo. You are going to flip when you see this picture. This is amazing. I guess they found this little bird that fell out of its nest out at Cindy's house and brought it to Mom & Dad's. Apparently it's a "fly catcher" bird. I Googled it and it sort of looks like it but it's such a tiny thing it's hard to tell! Marsha said it looks like a crumpled up yellow condom with hair stuck on it. She kills me. It's so amazing he's surviving. (I asked who was chewing up worms and spitting them into its mouth...) My mom has been mushing up worms and feeding him/her with tweezers! Anyway, without further ado, here is the cute little fella...(I put a penny beside him to give you an idea of the size of this cute little birdie!)


We had an awesome supper. Mom made beef stew and I had brought fresh partly-cooked rolls that you finish off in the oven. AWESOME. Carter ate quite a bit and I even fed some to Cooper. He was just as interested in sticking his feet in it, and Dad laughed when I told Cooper to get his feet out of my stew. Dad and Chris took Paige and Carter for a boat ride to town to get ice cream treats. Carter is usually freaked out but he did pretty well. Takes a few moments to get him used to it. I took a couple pictures of the babies playing on the floor again...and of Carter playing in the storage box on the deck.


We came home and I fed Cooper some cereal. He was still WIDE awake for quite a while. Carter watched a movie in his room for a while and fell asleep. He didn't really nap today so I'm hoping to work toward a better sleep schedule. Marsha called me earlier today and asked if I use Yahoo messenger. So we chatted for a bit this morning and she was online when I got home. We just finished chatting a little while ago. It's so great to catch up with her 'cause we haven't seen each other since her wedding in 2002. Almost four years. But she's the kind of friend that is easy to catch up wherever we left off. And she never ceases to make me fall off my chair laughing. She got to see both Carter and Cooper on the webcam, both of whom she has yet to meet in person. She and Ryan are coming to visit at the end of the summer. I can't wait to see them.

Well, I'm going to try to do as Kelly says and "try to have a nap before the sun comes up". Love it. Now it's the weekend and it's going to be a great one. The rest of the cousins, aunts and uncles arrive and Ethan's baptism is on Sunday. Will be great to have everyone here. Wish cousins Jason & Kelly could come too.

BY THE WAY, I LOVE blog comments. My main goal in blogging is to keep a record of daily events to share with my children and my friends and family. I love that there are people to witness my life on this planet. So go ahead and leave me a comment if you have a peeky-peeky at my blog so I know you're out there. But please note that I've had to switch on the comments moderation 'cause I've had about 30 unsolicited comments on my blog that lead to more unsolicited advertising for various CRAP. So if you would like to comment, I will post the comments as soon as I receive them. Thanks!

Attack of the Mutant Raspberries

I couldn't resist making a page of Carter with the raspberries on his fingers at the supper table last night. I used the "True Blue Buddy" kit from Butternug Squash Designs. It was exciting to post to my new gallery over there.


Today I had lunch with my mom and all her four sisters. They all live in Dryden except for Auntie Nancy who lives in Brampton...about a thousand miles from here. So it's a real big deal when they all get together and it's quite a hoot!

I took Cooper and we met up for lunch at a chinese restaurant with "the five sisters" and my cousin Christine and her kids (also of Brampton). Someone suggested we all get lottery tickets together so after lunch I was in charge of buying the tickets. Tonight's draw was 14 million dollars. I think we got five bucks. I'll have to get the ticket checked to make sure. Better luck next time.

My fortune cookie said :

and on the back there were lottery numbers. I played them for myself and didn't win on that one either...maybe for Friday's draw. I won't hold my breath.

I did a quick Wal-Mart run with Cooper while Carter and Chris napped. Came home and we had a "whatever's in the fridge" supper. Chris and Carter had hotdogs while Cooper and I were gone, and I had a sandwich. Cooper had vegetables and beef. Sort of.

We didn't do much else this evening. I posted my new layouts for the new "Delightful Daisies" kit coming out this week. Here they are. It's hard to believe they are all from the same kit considering they are so different. Christy's kits are very versatile with so many papers and elements to choose from!



Not an overly eventful day but I'm beat! Goodnight everyone in blogland!

That Ain't Pea Soup - We've Just Had A Poop-Smearing Incident...

Portions of this entry are dedicated to the Sarcastic Journalist. Her blog often speaks to me.

Last night sucked at around 2:30 in the morning. I actually went to bed "early" at 12:30ish. Carter woke up at 2:30 crying. He had fallen asleep on his floor watching a movie. That part is no biggie. But he had peed in his shorts and frrrrrrrrreaked when I tried to put a pull-up on him. His obstreperous outburst woke Cooper so I scooped him up and left Carter hissy-fitting and nursed Cooper back to sleep. That was lucky. Went back to Carter and managed to get him to settle eventually. He had a big-ass nap at Mom's yesterday at around suppertime. I tried to wake him after an hour or so, and my Mom said, "Let him sleep"...2.5 hours later or so he finally got up. I told Mom if she didn't have company I would have called her at 2:30 to say thanks for letting him have such a long nap! The woman never sleeps so she would have been up anyway. Here are a couple pictures of Cooper and my cousin's baby from yesterday...



We got up this morning and Chris went out for coffee then to buy a few pails of driveway sealer. Our driveway hasn't been done in years so we figured it would spruce it up a bit. He did a nice job. Meanwhile, Cindy brought over the four kids so she could go out for lunch. They were great, but Carter turns into a lunatic when they get here. He just gets excited and goes cuckoo the whole time.

After they left I was getting ready to go grocery shopping to buy some steaks for supper. I was fixing my hair with the hair dryer and I could hear Chris mumbling about something in the living room. I went to find out what the matter was. Cooper was playing in his little 'step & play' piano and Chris could see something under his feet all over the piano keys. He thought someone spilled pea soup and Cooper was doing the 'wet banana' dancing with his little feet in it. Turns out he had a massive poop. I put a blanket on the floor and Chris set him on it. Cooper was of course oblivious to his mess, and was happily kicking his feet. The piano was messed...up. I had butt duty and Chris cleaned up the piano. I had to take the fabric seat off it and wash it and Chris cleaned up all the smeared poop from all over the piano keys. Yikes what a mess. No, I didn't take any pictures. Here's to SJ for dealing with this on an ongoing basis. My hat goes off to you! (But it might have some poop smeared on it)

I went to the grocery store and picked up the steaks and marinated them. Chris and Carter fell asleep in the living room so when Cooper zonked out while I was nursing him, I took a nap too. Supper was quick to prepare. The steaks took about 9 minutes. We had pan-fried mushrooms, baked potatoes and snap peas (addicted to these). For dessert we had mutant raspberries and Carter had fun with them.





After supper Chris took Carter outside to play on his new climber. Cooper fell asleep, and I was dying for some ice cream so I did a DQ run. I had my usual Reese Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard. I managed to juggle it with a baby cone for Carter and a blizzard for Chris plus a Mr. Misty for Carter in case he changed his mind about the ice cream cone fit in the cup holders. I drove about 50 miles per hour most of the way home and didn't drip a drop of ice cream.







We all came in and had our ice cream and Carter fell asleep shortly thereafter. Now my blog is done and I must sleep.

Just About The Whole Fam-Damily

Ahhh. Every day feels like Sunday when Chris is off on vacation! Yesterday (the real Sunday) I took Carter and Cooper to church. They were very good. It was a mass in memoriam of my brother-in-law Nick. It was exactly two years to the day that he passed away.

Cindy and her boys, my parents, aunts and uncles, my boys and I, and Nick's family, including his two sisters from Thunder Bay and their families were all there.

After church we all went for breakfast at the P.I. Chris met up with us there too. After breakfast we came home and I got to have a nap with Cooper. Chris played outside with Carter for a while. I did a little scrapbooking and did this layout using Christy's "Quemadura Del Sol" kit. This picture is of Carter a couple months ago. He was 'photogenerous' that day, but only with a goofy expression on his face. It was a fun layout to make with his funny face in front of me the whole time.



We had supper then Chris went to help Greg put the forms in for rebuilding his deck for a couple hours. The new gallery at BSD went live, and I stayed up really late chatting with Angie and posting all my layouts to the new gallery. Each creative team member has her own gallery spot. Here's mine...Very exciting!

We all got up this morning and had breakfast. We got ready and went out to Mom & Dad's house. My aunt Nancy and cousin Christine and her kids arrived today from Brampton. Ethan is being baptized in Dryden on Sunday. He's just nine days older than Cooper so it's cool to get our babies together. We rarely see them except for weddings and funerals and the like, so we make the most of all our visits with them. Uncle Len and cousin Frank and Christine's husband Keith will arrive on the weekend.

My mom has four sisters and all 5 girls including Mom will be here this weekend, and all of their kids and grandkids except for my cousins Kelly and Jason in Calgary. I wish they could be here too but this is about as close as we can get to having the whole family together anymore. Marnie & Sean & kids will be here from California, Roberta & Derek & kids will be here from Calgary, Christine & Keith & kids from Brampton, Uncle Len, Auntie Nancy and Frank from Brampton. And all of us Dryden ones'll be here. No matter how far away everyone goes, Dryden is still the centre of the universe for this family and our home base.

It was a beautiful day today and we had a great visit. Cindy & family came out to Mom & Dad's as well as Uncle Cliff & Auntie Lurdes. We had an amazing roast beef dinner à la Mom with all the trimmings...creamy, light-as-a-cloud mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh snap peas, salad, fresh rolls...mmmmmm.

We came home and Chris used the pressure washer to clean the new-to-us climbing cube that Dad delivered today. Carter was outside with him. After a while I took Cooper outside to inspect the new toy and Chris asked me if Carter was with me. I said, "Are you kidding me?" We split up and went in opposing directions around the house and garage. I went inside to make sure he didn't go in by himself and to his room. Nope. I'm sure I would have heard him come in. While I was looking inside, Chris found him in the Jeep. He got in all by himself. Chris could hear the locks clicking and found him. Jeez. Major adrenaline rush. Usually we keep the Jeep locked in there but it wasn't since we had just gotten home and there was still stuff to bring in the house. All the Groveses are 'present and accounted for'. Whew.

Now Chris and Carter are playing the "Cars" game on the PS2 and I'm trying to wrangle a gassy baby. Gotta go!

Oh The People You Meet...In InternetLand

(Today's title inspired by someone mentioned below...)

Today was Chris's last day of work before his two-week vacation. He worked until noon. Chris's brother Jason is in town from Thunder Bay and came over to visit. He took Carter for a ride to Wal-Mart to buy a new pool. Carter played in the pool awhile and I took Cooper out for a quick dip too. Definitely not as cool as Kelly's pool - we need to go there again!

For lunch I made awesome chicken salad sandwiches with that ready-cooked chicken already cut into pieces. It's ridiculously priced but wow it's so handy. I bought some last night on sale just to try it and would definitely recommend it and I will use it again. (Ready-crisp bacon is the bomb too).

Chris and Jason took Carter out for a while and Cooper took a nap so I did too right after I finished this new layout. I got to sleep for almost an hour. When Chris and Carter came home they napped too. When they got up I barbecued some hotdogs for a late (as usual lately) supper.



Because Carter took such a late nap he is still going strong. Cooper is gone to bed and after I finish blogging, I'm crashing too.

So now for the real intent of today's blog...
I've been meaning to post a tribute to my new friends that I've met online since starting digital scrapbooking. First, if it weren't for Christy's inviting me to join her forum, I wouldn't be here. She even wrote about me in her blog which was so flattering and funny and fun. I am truly honoured as a relatively new digital scrapbooker to be on her creative team; she is an incredible designer and artist.

Because of Christy and Butternug Squash Designs, I have met an abundance of wonderful women:

First we have Angie, my dear sweet bright and funny friend with whom I chat many times a day. She is warm, welcoming and witty. And she's a long-time paper scrapper who has just "hopped over the digital fence" and is already digiscrapping like a pro. Really, I could go on and on about Angie, but she'd take up the whole darn blog with stories about her and her sweet family...Caroline, Edison and hubby Mark, who often reads over her shoulder and injects our chats with little jabs at this Canada girl...very funny!

The Butternug Squash Creative Team (aka The Squash Squad): Vicky (a source of many tips and tricks and with our two-hour time difference, some late night conversations for me!), Jeanette (Army Wife: Toughest Job in the Army with a kick-ass sense of humour and great eye for design), Jamie (with a beautiful style that I admire and always willing to share ideas and techniques), Lori, (the sweet, fun school teacher and mom to three boys and one girl fur-child!) and Marci (who has recently let us have a peek at her from behind the hand and is so cute and sweet) all welcomed me to the team and have been wonderful and supportive and encouraging, with tips and tricks and great ideas, beautiful work and fun banter they share on the forum.

And more recently on the Squash Squad: Audrey, Karen, Katherine, Kristy, and Lesley whom I am getting to know a little more each day through sharing on the creative team group. I pray for Katherine and her beautiful little daughter Corinne who was recently diagnosed with Leukemia, and Kristy (whom I have yet to really meet) who was just seriously re-injured in a car accident.

And then there's Beth...Beth posted a layout at BSD and I noticed she's from Thunder Bay, a mere 200 miles from me. All of my other digiscrappin' friends are from the U.S. (Beth is originally from Florida) but here she was, practically in my back yard! I posted a reply to her layout commenting that we were fellow Canadians and we found out through our messages and blog comments that her husband is from Eagle River (sort of a "suburb" of Dryden - that's a laugh), and that my Dad's aunt taught him in school and they know my peeps and I know some of their peeps, etc. etc! It's been very cool corresponding with her and having her know of all the places I mention in my blog, especially that she reads it! I was also honoured to be in Beth's blog one day...man I feel so darn cool. Beth rocks.

And most recently I've become acquainted with my most faraway friend...Helen. From "down-under" in Australia! She commented on a layout I posted at Scrapbook.com and she followed the link to my blog and left me a message. We've been emailing ever since, and now I'm her "up-over" friend. With a 15-hour time difference it's been a little tedious trying to find a time we're both awake to chat, but we've touched base on msn a couple times. Email seems to be the easiest way to communicate! I sure wish the time zone difference meant that with her being 'from the future' she could get me the winning lottery numbers!

The world of digital scrapbooking is vast and busy, but oh the people you meet...even the people you don't know are so friendly and encouraging leaving praise on posts if they catch their eye. Oh what fun it is...

And with that, I will close for today (but not before I post a couple pictures of the boys in the little pool). 'Twas another beautiful fun summer day that I end in sipping on my smoothie, (another thing inspired by Beth's blog)...which has big honkin' chunks of ice in it since I didn't want to wake Cooper by running the blender too long...I gotta getta magic bullet.

(Pictures were taken by Jason)

Be Prepared for Gale-Force Winds...I'm Gonna Be Windy

No, I don't mean I have gas. I have a LOT to say today. Okay. So to me it's Friday night but I got home late from grocery shopping and didn't hit the computer until after midnight. So pretend the date still says Friday, July 14th okay? And I haven't blogged for a couple days so I've really got a lot to say.

Yesterday we had a regular morning then my sister needed me to watch her two boys and her 2 foster girls. So I had SIX kids for a couple hours yesterday afternoon! It was pretty good because they are much older than my boys. So they pretty much look after themselves. But Carter gets so hyperactive when they're around and shuts off any listening ability that he has when they're here! I went and dug out the wacky ducky sprinkler to attach to the garden hose outside. All the kids went outside to run through the sprinkler. I took a few pictures that I will also add to the end of this blog entry (if it ever ends).

A while after they all left, Chris came home from work and in my laziness I went to get McDonald's for supper. I haven't had a Big Mac in ages! One of Chris's friends from work was over to visit for most of the evening.

We set up the crib for Cooper last night. The cradle has just become too small. We only used the cradle for Carter until he was 2 months old, but he has his own room so it was no biggie to switch right away. But Cooper rooms in with us so I was saving space and the effort of setting up the crib for as long as possible. It was SO hot in here last night, even with our air conditioner and a fan. It was still 25ºC and felt even hotter with the humidex. But we got it done. Chris helped me put it together. In the meantime Cooper was asleep in his bouncy chair. I was tired, but of course I stayed up until he woke up. I fed him and put him in his "new bed".

Lately Carter is really becoming more affectionate...not just to Chris and me but a little more to Cooper now too. He can be such a sweetheart. (Or a little turkey!) But it is always interesting! And OMG he is getting so flippin' smart! He is perfectly fluent and I swear the kid can read... definitely some words anyway. He knows his name when he sees it, Cooper's, mine, Chris's, my mom's and the words CAT and DOG. Not to mention he has been typing his whole name as his computer password for a few months now. Whoa. And he rarely gets any of the letters of the alphabet wrong. He blows my mind more and more every day.

Okay. Now for today...had the usual type of night last night. Up a few times then got to sleep in a little this morning. We played, drew pictures, identified letters, played cars and blocks, etc. There was a brief period this afternoon where both boys were napping, and silly me...I didn't nap. But sleeping in a bit this morning helped so I wasn't too tired. I was surfing the net for new blog and scrapbook ideas and chatting with Angie...currently there is no one that I talk to more! It's been so fun getting to know her...that will bring me to a blog subject but I think it will go on a separate entry after I finish today's stuff...stay tuned.

Chris came home from work and went to pick up his boat trailer to lend to his buddy. He came home and took Carter for a walk in the wagon. Yes, my husband took my son for a walk. This is unheard of on any regular basis. I was suitably impressed! I got ready and took Cooper grocery shopping.

By the time I went to the video store it was after 9:30 so Extra Foods was already closed. I knew Wal-Mart would be open until 10:00 so I went there. And I power-shopped! I got almost everything on my list except for fresh meat. Diapers, wipes, cleaning stuff, any grocery stuff I could get, I got. So I closed down Wal-Mart. Cooper was a pretty happy shopper so I figured I'd attempt Safeway too since they're open until 11:00. So I had about 45 minutes, and again...I power-shopped. We have FOOD in the house!!! Yay! I mean, we've never run OUT of food, but it's so nice to have some yummy choices! So I also closed down Safeway.

By 11:15 I was home and had a lot of work to do putting away all the food. Carter was snoozing in the living room but as soon as he saw all the groceries coming in he quickly got up. He gets so excited when I go grocery shopping. He had salami, a rice krispie square, a cookie, and some crackers; probably more than he's eaten all day, just because it was new stuff! For once I even bought the value packs of chicken breasts and went all "Martha" and spent the extra effort to separate them into little ziploc baggies before freezing them. My friend Diane's been trying to get me to do that forever!

So at last I got to get on the computer. I read my email, visited the Butternug forum to see who was around and read the new posts, had and am still having a chat with Angie, and finally got the blog going. Whew!