My Dust Had Dust on It!!!

Wow. I kicked ass Martha-Stewart-style today when I cleaned the house. I made the dustbunnies my bitches. haha. Okay that was a little extreme but I'm feeling such a hyuuuuuuuge sense of accomplishment at what I did today.

My Mom (my dear sweet wonderful helpful kind and generous Mom) came over this morning. She took both my boys for a walk to the park, and I cranked the tunes. I put on my running shoes and my rubber gloves and started fly-ladying all over my house.

Living Room: 1) Hauled out most of the toys. 2) Dusted the room top to bottom. 3) Vacuumed all the fallout. Vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed. Even the corners and edges and behind the couch. You should have seen what was behind there! 4) Hauled out all the papers and garbage and crap from the computer desk. That was the biggest task. 5) Dusted the TV, TV stand, took all the crap off the top of the TV stand, cleaned wall mirror and glass door on TV stand.6) Dusted off the birdhouse hanging up above the computer...


**DISCLAIMER**
Not EVERYTHING in my house was this dusty (or should I say furry). I do dust once in a while, though I don't kill myself over it if I miss a few things. This little birdie house hangs way up in the corner above the computer desk and I had to do some climbing to get it down and clean it. I got it from my coworkers at the office a couple years ago for secretaries' day and it's been hanging up there ever since.

Bedroom: Stripped the bed. Put on clean mattress cover and new sheet. Put on new comforter and new pillows in new pillow cases. Hung pictures on walls. Brought up coordinating dresser from basement. Washed inside of filthy windows. Spot-washed walls. It is SOOOOOOOOO pretty in there now. I sprayed some vanilla room freshener in there and locked the door so Carter couldn't get in there and mess it up! But I kept having to go back in there though I kept it locked most of the day! I guess I wanted to lock in the clean!

Dining Room: Moved table and all chairs out and swept and mopped twice. Dusted chair and table legs. Cleaned table top and put nice plate stand on it with a candle. Moved microwave cart (that isn't used as a microwave cart) to another location in kitchen. Spot-washed walls and cabinets.

During all this, Mom had come back and started helping me do laundry and she was still doing most of the kid-wrangling. OMG did she do laundry. What a woman. She used the clothesline and the dryer. It was a gorgeous day so the stuff outside was drying fairly quickly. She would bring in a load from the clothesline and fluff it a little in the dryer so the towels wouldn't feel like sandpaper. In the meantime she folded a virtual mountain of clothing, blankets, towels, etc. There isn't any peepee laundry anymore!

The Boys' Room: Piled buckets of clothes and blankets and toys in there. Do NOT go in there.

Bathroom: Scrubbed walls and floor and mopped. Still need to do a good cleaning of the tub and toilet again, but I wanted to wait until Chris got home from work and showered. I'll do that stuff in the morning.

Kitchen: Scrubbed stove top. Cleared junk off fridge top, and cleared off things that were magneted (new word?) all over it. Just kept a few pics and computer projects on there. Cleaned out disgusting microwave and put the glass turntable in the dishwasher. Swept floor and mopped it twice. Filled and ran dishwasher. Will shine the sink tomorrow morning. Didn't want to have to execute anyone for running water or putting a glass in it this evening. haha

Entryway: Chucked the mats outside for shaking and beating at a later time. Put all the extra shoes and boots in a box in the basement. Moved shelves out of the way and swept and mopped twice. Hung a pretty mirror with coat hooks on it above the shelves. Cleared off shelves and dusted and washed them and put them back. Put one pair of shoes for each of us on the shelves. That should last about a day. Shoes seem to multiply around here.

That's about all I can remember. Basically everything is cleaner than it has been in years. We've lived here for four years now and I haven't cleaned everything in one day ever in that time. Thanks to my Mom. Most of that could NOT have been done with two kids around. Maintenance, however, SHOULD be easy...let's see how long I can make this last!

I went grocery shopping at Safeway and Wal-Mart so I can feed my company. Tomorrow evening we'll all head out to Cedar Point for the pot-luck fish fry. Thursday I'll cook a nice dinner here and have my parents over too.

Now I realize I didn't blog yesterday. I don't remember much of yesterday except for the Wal-Mart run where I purchased all the nice new bedding stuff and cleaning supplies. On the way home I did a drive-by and brought Kelly a tea from Tim Horton's. I did a couple scrapbook pages for the opening this weekend. I'll finally get to post all my new stuff tomorrow!

So tomorrow I go for my blood test at the hospital for the unrelated bone marrow donor program. Kelly has an appointment at the same time so we're going to go for a walk there. Marsha and Ryan are scheduled to arrive sometime mid-afternoon. I'm so pumped. Can't wait. Especially since my house is now fit for human habitation!

Aw Man, No Blog Post for 3 Days. Now I Have to Think!

Ok. The weekend. Here's how it went down.

On Friday, I managed to get an 'emergency' eyebrow appointment with Serena. When I don't book each time I go, things get a little hairy. Ok. A lot hairy. So I hopped out of the shower, put my hair in a wet ponytail, no makeup and went to see Serena. Crisis averted.

We came home and before I got my rear in gear and did my hair and face, Dad stopped by. I took advantage of his presence and quickly took off downtown to Wilson's...they were having a 'garage sale' on all their business and stationery supplies so I bought over four hundred dollars worth of stuff including 12x12 scrapbooking paper, ink-jet cartridges, cards and vellum, labels and a few other goodies all for the low low price of forty-seven bucks total.

I came back home to relieve Dad of his grandfatherly babysitting duties. Unbeknownst to Dad, Carter did his trick (2nd time doing this)...of emptying an ENTIRE roll of toilet paper into the toilet. Dad thought he was just going in there to pee. NOT. So I got home and busted Carter just as he was trying to flush it. So, for the SECOND time, I reached my hand in the toilet bowl and pulled out a big soaking wad of toilet paper, squeezed it out the best I could and disposed of it in the garbage. Crisis averted. Again. Scrubbed my hands like a surgeon, then carried on with my day.

Dad left and I finally did something with my hair and face. Chris came home after work and we got ready to take the boys to the fair. (Cooper's first fair.)

Our first order of business at the fair was to eat. We had M&M cheeseburgers and rib-on-a-bun. We brought the double stroller to transport the boys around the money sucking ecosystem that is the fall fair. I was really excited that Carter is a little bigger this year and that he would love to go on the rides. Nope. Not this year. He loved the slide again (pictures shown in the previous blogpost). I traversed those stairs with him five or six times then dragged him away screaming to try to interest him in something else. He loved the games where he could win prizes. Those are bloody expensive. We spent over a hundred bucks in just over three hours on one kid. I took Cooper on the merry-go-round. I think he'll probably like the rides next year. Carter was appeased briefly by some cotton candy. We came home by ten o'clock.

I ate a candy apple and some cotton candy when we got home. Mmmmmmmmm. I bought three candy apples and my own bag of cotton candy. On Saturday morning, I ate another candy apple. I figured it would be messy and difficult for Carter to eat anyway, so along with the candy apple I finished off my bag of cotton candy. Breakfast of champions!! Woohoo!

Chris got off work at noon (this is still Saturday I'm writing about!) and we just had a lazy afternoon. Everyone napped. Yum. That rocked. We had pizza for supper. It's been ages since we had pizza. I was pretty hungry since I hadn't eaten anything besides sugar all day. Carter had toast for breakfast and an apple and a few bites of a sandwich at least. So he nibbled the toppings off the pizza. I almost ate a whole medium pizza. I finished it off a couple hours later. It was a quiet evening as well and I crashed pretty early. Before midnight, anyway.

This morning Chris took off for fishing pretty early. I was only semi-conscious when he left. My final wake-up call was just before eight o'clock. We got up and I quickly got us all ready for church. Carter was a nasty little monster. I had him all dressed in his handsome shirt, gotchies and shorts and sandals. Turned around to dress Cooper and Carter undressed himself from the waist down. So I had to wrestle his gotchies and shorts and sandals on a second time and wrangle both boys (carried both of them and the diaper bag) out to the Jeep.

When we got to the church Carter was still in his mood, so I had to carry both him and Cooper in to the church. My parents were nowhere to be found, but I sat with my Aunt and two uncles. Carter didn't want to be put down, so Auntie Josie held Cooper for the entire mass, and I held Carter. Guy saved the day by having those pink spearmint candies in his pocket. Then Carter was a changed little man. Though he started goofing around a little. But by then mass was over. We left and stopped at 7/11 to phone Mom & Dad to give them heck for not going to church. haha. Mom had one of her nasty migraines this morning so their absence was understandable. She asked us to come out for tea and bring some Timbits with us. So we went to Tim Horton's then out to Mom & Dad's house.

It turned out to be a blazing, beautiful day. Carter was my Dad's shadow and followed him around the yard. I took a lot of pictures. So we had a great visit then came home. Both boys were asleep when we got home, and Chris had just gotten back from fishing and helped me carry them in. Lucky me; they both stayed asleep. I got to have a bath and get ready to go to Cindy's for supper. Mom & Dad were going there too.

Supper rocked. We had HOMEMADE Chinese food. Homemade eggrolls, chicken balls and chicken-fried rice. It was gooooooood. And dessert wasn't too shabby either. Fresh banana creme pie. Yum. I'm becoming more and more of a dessert person. I never make dessert around here but I sure enjoy it when we're out. Carter had a blast playing outside with water guns. Dominic and Noah are gone camping at Rushing River with their cousin and their Nana.

We came home and I remembered we were out of diapers. Oops! So I left Chris and Carter at home and went on a quest for diapers. It was just after eight-thirty when I went on this mission. Safeway = closed. Shopper's Drug Mart (whose sign says open until ten o'clock) = closed. Wal-Mart and Extra Foods = closed. I refused to go buy diapers at 7-11 or another convenience store, so I just came home. I have a couple diapers left and if those aren't enough to last us until morning (they will be) then Cooper can borrow a pull-up from Carter.

Mom is coming over tomorrow anyway to help me with the boys so I can get this joint cleaned up for company on Wednesday. Our first 'houseguests' since we've lived here. Marsha and Ryan will be arriving on Wednesday for two nights. I'm so glad I switched rooms with Carter. Our room looks liveable. I just have to decide what to do with all the buckets of clothing that haven't migrated into the closets yet. I'd like to shove all the junk and clothing into the basement and hermetically seal it for all eternity, but I do have to get down there to do laundry once in a while.

So that was our weekend. It was a good one. This week is going to be awesome. I can't wait to see my friend Marsha (and Ryan!) We haven't seen them since their wedding FOUR YEARS AGO. Wow. They just had their anniversary three days ago. I'm gonna hug her so much I'm gonna squish her.

Here are some more assorted pictures from the weekend...

The Fair

The Fall Fair Parade

Well wasn't I just a little mover and shaker this morning? I think Cooper had me up for about 45 minutes last night. I can't really remember - I'm such a zombie when I get up in the middle of the night. It was around 4:00 anyway. So when we got up, I breakfasted the kids and got us all ready to go for a walk! Just before ten we took off. First stop was my office. Had to get a photocopy of my daycare receipts from last year. Seems Revenue Canada does periodic checks to make sure people aren't illegally claiming day care expenses. So they can have my $7000+ receipt. I don't know why they don't just require the receipts in the first place.

We attempted to get the fluoride varnish put on Carter's teeth but I had to hold him down. That's getting a lot harder now that he's getting so big and strong and it did NOT go over very well. I got smacked and kicked, but I think she managed to get the teeth covered during the ear piercing screams. Cooper was happy to be passed around to all the girls. We left with Carter still fit-pitching. He was Mr. Opposite. He didn't want to do anything. Didn't want the cup of water after the varnish. Didn't want to push the door-opening buttons like usual. That is UNTIL WE WERE BLOCKS AWAY FROM THE OFFICE. THEN he wanted the cup of water. THEN he wanted to push the button. He screeched about both items for quite a few blocks. I realized the stroller tires were kind of low so we headed for the tire shop to see Chris and get some air.

We took the pedestrian overpass (skywalk) over the train tracks and highway. The elevator mildly impressed Carter momentarily; long enough to chill him out for a few minutes. He even apologized for hitting me. On his own. Without my asking him to. After that he was a little better but I had to use reverse reverse upside-down and backwards psychology to get him to carry on. Somewhere along the way I realized that it's Thursday - Chris's day to go to Ignace for work. But we still needed air for the tires so we continued the trek. We got aired up and walked back through downtown. We got home and of course Carter didn't want to come inside the house.

We stayed outside for a while to play. When we finally came in the house I was soooooooooo tired. Mom stopped by for a visit and I had just managed to get Cooper to sleep. It was going to take a miracle to get Carter to nap. That's where Mom came in. I was falling asleep on the couch and she got Carter to go to sleep on the floor. I think I dozed ten or fifteen minutes before Cooper woke up. Dad popped in then Mom and Dad both left. I thought I might have a slim chance of getting Cooper to go back to sleep so I crawled into bed and nursed him to sleep. Yay me! I got to have a delicious nap for about an hour!

Chris came home from work and of course there was no supper prepared due to my tiredness and laziness. So we had McDonald's. I had their chicken fajitas; they're pretty good. Carter had nuggets and Chris had the Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. Right after we were finished supper we realized the Fall Fair parade was about to start. We live almost right on the parade route - we just have to walk out to the corner of our street. The Santa Claus parade goes by here too so we have great seats and don't need to worry about parking! We loaded up the boys in the double stroller and headed out to watch. There were the usual horses and tractors and Shriners in the parade and I took pictures of most of them with my trusty new camera.

After the parade I suggested taking a walk to go get some ice cream. Chris suggested taking a drive to get ice cream, and thinking back, his idea was wayyyyy better. So we did a DQ run and had ice cream cones. We drove by the fairgrounds and piqued Carter's interest. He definitely didn't want to wait until tomorrow to go. But we're going tomorrow evening. Rain or shine, I say.
We came home and watched the movie "RV" with Robin Williams. It didn't work well on the PS2 so we finished watching it on the computer and finally got to see the whole movie. It was pretty funny. Robin Williams and comedy still go well together. Carter JUST went to sleep and Cooper just got up. Those two events so often go hand in hand. I got Cooper to go back to sleep and now I'm off to bed. Not bad...it's only 12:36. I'll probably be up in a couple hours anyway.

My Spiffy New Toy!

Wahee, lookie me! I've been so tempted for so long to get a new camera. There wasn't anything WRONG with my other camera (Kodak 5.0MP) but this one is sweeeeeeeeet. It's 6.0MP, takes movies with sound (so did my other one) and it's the size of a deck of cards and the screen is way bigger than the old one. The list goes on as far as features and image quality go, but suffice it to say I loooooooooove my new toy.

So both my boys slept through the night last night. Yippee! And Carter got up dry. Yay! But he made up for it by pooping in his big boy gotchies this morning. I caught him after the first turd hit the fabric. (I know, I'm sick but I'm so tired.) I pleaded with him to try the toilet, but no go. So I managed to get him to wear a pull-up. He finished his business and proceeded to take off the pull-up by pulling it down, resulting in streaking his legs with the stuff. He dumped the main event into the toilet, as he had seen me do with the opening act, but he was a mess. So into the tub he went.

I got him all cleaned up then a while later he was walking out of his room kind of holding up his foot as he walked. There was another little turd on the bottom of his foot. I dreaded asking him where he took off that dreaded pull-up and where he stepped on said turd. But I never found any more anywhere so I think we're in the clear. At least Cooper was kind enough to refrain from pooping today.

Mom called and we went to her house for lunch. Cindy was there with the 5 kids and we all had lunch. The kids were busy catching frogs outside and bringing them inside. They had quite a collection. I haven't seen that many frogs there since we used to have contests catching them at my birthday parties back in the day!

We came back to town and headed for Wal-Mart, where I purchased my new toy. I'm pretty sure I'm sold on it, but I have the option to return it if I'm not satisfied. I'm pretty sure I'm in love. I just have to figure out a few more things. So far so good.

After Wal-Mart, we came home. Carter played outside for a bit and I started taking pictures using the new camera. Here is the very first picture I took followed by one that Chris took shortly after.


Mom and I went to Bingo tonight. Unfortunately we didn't win anything, but it's always fun to get out. Chris did well with both boys again so this is definitely going to be a regularly-scheduled event. I got home and finally caught up a little with Angie. Now I'm off to bed. And it's not quite midnight. Seven minutes to spare!

Four Boys and Me

Wow. Both my kids slept through the night last night. No need for Ferber. Cooper was up fairly early so I scooped him up and brought him to bed so I could recline while I nursed him. The little darling went back to sleep so I kept him right beside me. Around 8:30 Carter quietly arrived at my face and it was time to get up for all three of us. Good timing, since Dominic and Noah were scheduled to arrive at any moment!

Cindy dropped off the boys and we just hung out for most of the day. Cindy brought McBreakfast for everyone and left for the school. All four boys played awesomely together. Carter still goes kind of nutso when those two get here, but it wasn't too bad. Dominic was showing Carter some new games on the computer and as long as he had a turn once in a while, he didn't mind watching his big cousin running the show.

Mom stopped in after her hair appointment for a while. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch that Dom & Noah gladly scarfed, but Carter didn't touch. He had eaten some popcorn and numerous Mr. Freezes so his appetite was scarce. After the boys left, Dad stopped by and Carter ate about a half of a half of his sandwich, but only after he saw me take some of it.

Chris came home from work and I cooked chicken breasts, baby potatoes, and french style green beans. Cooper loved the beans and a couple little shreds of chicken, then he enjoyed a good helping of blueberries. Carter had a few bites of chicken and potatoes but I'm pretty sure he craftily avoided the beans. After supper we tried to watch the movie "RV" but the PS2 stopped reading the disc. It was time for me to exit the room to go have our creative team chat on the other computer anyway. It was much easier to have the chat with both boys sleeping!

Carter didn't nap today so it will be interesting to see if he sleeps through the night from 7:30 this evening. Cooper got up during the chat but went back to sleep reasonably easily. The chat was fun as usual, and very productive. I'm very excited to get to do a template for the upcoming sketch challenge. Yay me! Guess what I've been doing instead of sleeping the rest of this evening?

Vicky has been up to her eyeballs with moving, so she unfortunately missed the chat, but we had a good catch-up talk on Yahoo. I'll be thinking of you Thursday morning, Vicky - best wishes with the big trip! I'm starting to like Yahoo IM better than MSN Messenger; I might switch over completely. We'll see. In the meantime, I have both running most of the time. One of these days I'll be able to catch up with my long-lost friend Angie too!

So that was the day. It's now after 1:00 - I'm outta here!

The OPP

No, not the Ontario Provincial Police. OPP in my life means other people's poop. Or pee. Or both.

Carter has gotten into the groove of peeing in the toilet. And that rocks. But at nighttime he doesn't want to wear a pullup. Many mornings he wakes up dry and that makes my day. But many mornings he wakes up and I have to change the sheets. And he strips all his peepee clothes off and ditches them in my bedroom. I try not to make him feel upset or ashamed but man I hope he either learns quickly or I'm gonna lose my mind washing bedsheets and clothes. If you come over and it stinks like pee in here, don't tell me. I know.

I actually talked him into wearing a pullup tonight. Most of the time when I manage to get a pullup on him he takes it off and puts his jammies back on so I don't know until puddle time that he's done a quick change on me. So currently he's on the couch near me and the pullup is still on. Wish me luck.

Today was a relatively quick day. Dominic & Noah came over for a while while Cindy went for her orientation at the high school. Wow. She starts her new teaching job in under a week! Which reminds me I still have a job and that I'll be going back to it soon.

The fall fair is this weekend - something fun to look forward to. Chris's Dad brought over admission tickets for Chris and me, and a ticket to buy Carter a bracelet for the day to ride on all the rides he wants. I sure hope he wants to go on something! He'll either bail on all the rides or we won't be able to get him off them. We'll see. Hopefully we'll go with Cindy and her family and my nephews can take him on some rides. Maybe I can take Cooper on the merry-go-round or something. It's his first fair.

For supper we had corn on the cob. That's it. Just corn. And it was good. Chris got a whole bunch of it from his head office in Manitoba so he came home from work and cooked it up. Even Cooper chowed down on some. He is getting so dexterous that he can pick up anything and it goes straight for the mouth. Like yesterday when I found a NICKEL in his mouth. Chris and I both had a fit and couldn't believe it. I have no idea where he got it from. Scary stuff.

After supper Chris and Carter played outside. I took Cooper out too but it was pretty cool out so we didn't stay out long. Carter is getting pretty good at swinging a baseball bat and can hit a few pitches or hit the ball off a tee.

We spent the rest of the evening flossing corn out of our teeth and watching TV. I fed Cooper his bedtime cereal. He has been sleeping pretty well but the Ferberizing kind of went out the window pretty quickly. Last night it was 2:30 when he woke up. I nursed him back to sleep. Seems he's at least cut it back to getting up only once per night. That helps.

Carter just zonked on the couch so I'm going to scoop him up and put him to bed and I'm gonna go to sleep too. Dominic and Noah are coming to visit again tomorrow so I'll try to find us all some fun stuff to do.

Almost Sold the Whole Garage...Smooth Sale-ing!

I know, I haven't blogged since Friday. Thursday, really, since Friday was the Freebie day. But I can sum up the weekend fairly quickly.

Friday was spent getting ready for the garage sale. Dad came over after lunch and brought the rest of the stuff and when Mom came over after her lunch date I went out to help him. People started showing up shortly after that and we had boxes and boxes of stuff to put out still.

The sale technically started at four o'clock. Interesting how many people came for a Friday garage sale. That was a good idea starting Friday evening and continuing on Saturday morning. Throughout the evening I kept coming in the house and finding more stuff to sell. Some household items and baby stuff that I was ready to part with. And it seemed each time I brought something out, someone would buy it right away! We wrapped it up around eight o'clock and after I got the boys to bed I started looking for more garage sale fodder.

I sorted through a bunch of rubbermaid bins of baby clothes that are too small for Cooper now. I put all the name brand stuff (Gap, Old Navy, Gymboree, Please Mum, Oshkosh, Roots etc.) on hangers and priced it at five bucks per outfit. Other outfits were a dollar. Onesies were fifty cents, and brand-name onesies were a dollar. I stayed up super duper late doing all this. I even made an awesome poster stating the pricing and that all the clothes were washed and come from a smoke-free, pet-free home. Let me tell you it was worth the lack of sleep - it paid off very well when I sold over a hundred bucks worth of the stuff!

So Dad arrived shortly before seven on Saturday morning, along with some earlybird customers again. I set up all the baby clothes and other baby items. Both boys were still in bed - Chris was long gone to work already. I took the baby monitor outside and Cooper got up first. I bundled him in a blanket (quite a cool morning) and brought him outside. Carter woke up right away too so I got him dressed and outside. Cindy had brought over a big tub of toys to sell and that kept Carter quite occupied for quite awhile. Plus when kids would come to the sale, he'd to up to them and say "Wanna play with me?" It was very cute. He played very well with the other kids. He almost left with one family! I'm not sure if it's 'cause he liked playing with their kid, or if he was following the toys they bought!

I took the boys and did a Tim Horton's run at around nine o'clock. Tried to pick up a decaf coffee for Dad, but they were OUT of decaf coffee. Weird. Coffee shop runs out of coffee - could be a major headline. haha. I had my usual extra large French vanilla cappucino and picked up some donuts and Timbits and a regular coffee for dad and went back home. Things rolled along pretty steadily until about eleven-thirty. We started cleaning up a little and condensing things into boxes to take to the Salvation Army. We called a couple flea market places to see if they wanted any stuff and I got rid of a couple more items that way. We called it quits at noon and packed everything up and loaded up Dad's truck. It was a shame to see some of the stuff that didn't get bought, because once the Salvation Army passed it up, it was off to the garbage dump. Even a clothing dryer that works, a food processor, and a waffle iron. I guess if nobody buys the stuff for a buck or two, then no one wants it right? Mom had to leave so she wouldn't see what we were throwing out. Usually I'm the packrat that can't throw something out if it's still good, but I encouraged Dad to take it all away. Otherwise, it would sit in our basements and garages until the next sale where no one would want it all over again.

When Mom left, she took Carter with her. She took him for lunch then to her house. He played in the water, had a bath and snacks and even a nap. I napped a little with Cooper, then we went out to get Carter. We stayed and visited and had supper. Chris had gone fishing and was still out, so I decided to stop and visit Cindy "on the way home"...a slight detour to her place but on the way I saw her vehicle at Pete & Claudine's house so I stopped there. I had a tour of their phenomenally amazing house. I brought the boys home and called Chris to see if he wanted a ride home. Nope. They were just starting to have a fish fry. So I got us all settled in.

Chris called a couple hours later asking if we'd come pick him up. I reloaded the boys in the Jeep and we headed to Wabigoon. We picked up Chris and came back home. Everyone went to sleep right away except for me. Then Carter got up and wanted some chocolate milk. I got him some then he got some kind of crazy second wind and was up past twelve thirty. Crazy. Last time I remember looking at the clock was about twenty to one and he was still awake. Good thing he didn't wake up Cooper!

This morning I was up early enough to get ready for church, but I was too tired and lazy. Carter slept in due to his late night. I got ready and we eventually went to pick up Chris's truck. Then we met up with him at Wal-Mart and we picked up some essentials. Baby wipes, milk, baby food, baby cereal, drain cleaner, hair spray. Fifty-six bucks worth of stuff. As soon as I started reaching for stuff not on the list, we ran for the till. Otherwise it would have been our usual hundred buck trip. We went for lunch at McDonald's next. Cooper can really put away the French fries. He had two of them gone in no time.

After lunch we came home and hung out. We watched a cyuuute movie "Sky High" with Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston and that cute kid that played Jack's son on Will & Grace. After the movie we ALL took a nap. Heavenly! For a couple HOURS. Yummy delicious sleep!

For supper I made spaghetti and we just hung out for the evening. Kelly drove over on the new gas-powered stand-up scooter that she bought for Ben's birthday. It is so cool. We played outside with the kids for a bit and I took these way cool pictures of the boys. Chris was chucking Carter up in the air like in the pictures I took at Blue Lake a couple weeks ago. I'm pretty sure I caught him at the top height of the throw, as you will see in the pictures. Fun stuff. And Kelly had Cooper sitting on Carter's little trike and he looked pretty proud of himself.



All in all a pretty good weekend! Now it's "just" 11:30 and I'm tired even with that awesome nap I had today! Good night y'all!

FREEBIE!

Here is a FREE layered template for you!

Also shown is a layout I did with the template and using Christy Sturm's Brick Coffee House kit from Butternug Squash Designs. I just love the rich, warm colours of this kit. I made the metal paper clip, buckle and brad elements. You can click the layout sample to enlarge it.

Speaking of templates, you should check out Christy's new template freebie at her blog...and join in the sketch challenge at Butternug Squash Designs! Prizes people, prizes!

Thanks for looking and...Enjoy!



To download the template, just click right here. If you download the template, please leave a comment here on my blog.

My Little Prince (That's actually Pee-Rinse)

Yesterday...

In the morning, Diane stopped by to drop off some beans from her garden. Next at the door was a parcel from Vicky!!! Photoshop Elements 3.0...THANK YOU VICKY! YOU ROCK! And the card was absolutely beautiful! Next came Mavis - out for a walk with Sammy, but I was waiting on someone coming to look at the stroller so we didn't go.

At 11:00 someone came to look at the stroller and they bought it. Whew. Now I only have three strollers! (The el-cheapo-piece-of-crap-little-umbrella-stroller, the single jogging stroller that goes with our car seat, and the new double stroller).

I made an awesome stirfry for supper - I really winged it, so there is no recipe. I used some oriental noodles, a big bag of frozen shrimp, snow pea pods and a whole bunch of seasonings and stuff with consomme as a base for the sauce. I dumped in some soya sauce, oyster sauce and some miscellaneous seasonings.

There was a big storm, so I decided to shut down the computer. Of course I couldn't take it with no computer. I didn't know what to do with myself. I mean, I could have sorted laundry or dusted or cleaned the house, but no. The kids were gone to sleep. So when the storm kept on a-flashin' I cashed in my chips just after 9:30. Last I remember looking at the clock was 9:44. Chris came to bed at 2:00 and found that Carter had climbed in with me earlier and peed the bed. Dang it!

So instead of waking to a baby, I woke up to a puddle. Thankfully, Cooper slept through that ordeal. I picked up Carter and told him to go change his pants and go pee in his own bed. haha. Chris was completely disgruntled. (I imagine mostly because it was HIS side of the bed! heehee) Set his alarm and went to sleep on the couch. I changed the bed and got everything cleaned up and got him to get into our bed since I might not hear his alarm.

Everyone went back to sleep at 2:22 and Cooper didn't wake until 7ish. Woweee! At least I didn't hear a peep out of him! I nursed him and he went back to sleep again! So we all got up just after 9:00. Feeling fresh as a daisy! I even had a shower last night. Though I went to bed with a towel on my head so I looked like Medusa this morning.

The two previous nights I let Cooper cry himself back to sleep when he woke up. I about cried right along with him but the first night was ten minutes and the second was about five. Either it was just a freaky coincidence, Cooper's going thru a growth spurt, or that Ferber really knows what the heck he's (she's?) doing since he slept through the night last night!

Today...

So with all that sleep I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today. I had fun playing with the boys and doing some scrapbooking stuff. I did a new layout with one of the new kits Christy is releasing for the big September gala, and I created a couple layered templates that I might just offer as a freebie on the blog one of these days!

Dad brought over some more garage sale stuff and Mom came to visit before she went out for lunch today with her sisters. I deep-fried some shoestring fries and made gravy for supper. Not a meal fit for a king, but it worked. Carter had fun with it. It was a late supper too, and it almost didn't happen at all, but I was hungry and hadn't taken anything out of the freezer.

Silvia called me when she got home and I went to her house to help with their computer. I brought Cooper with me and she and he entertained each other while I checked out the computer situation. All is well, and now Silvia can upload pictures from her digital camera too!

I came home at 10:30 and put Cooper to bed and headed for the computer to catch up on emails and the blog. I really had to rack my brain to remember two days' worth of stuff! Now I can go put my brain to bed. Hopefully we'll have a rerun of last night except for the pee in my bed part.

You Are The Sunshine In My Life

Ah. A glorious sunny sunshine of a day. In so many ways.

This morning Carter's former babysitter Mavis came to visit. She brought Sammy, another little boy that she babysat when she took care of Carter and still does sometimes. We had tea and a good visit while the boys played. Sammy is almost exactly a year older than Carter. Since we don't go play with many kids near Carter's age I always like to see him and how he interacts with other kids. He wasn't bad. A little territorial, but I think that's to be expected on his home turf, with his home-turf toys. There was no hitting, punching, kicking or yelling so it was wonderful.

In the early afternoon, Mom came over to visit. Dad stopped by with the first load of stuff for this weekend's garage sale. Mom and I took the boys for a walk in the new stroller. Works great! We walked to the lotto centre to cash in our meager winnings (a couple free tickets) and then to McDonald's for lunch. Carter barely touched his happy meal, but I on the other hand ate all my Big Mac meal, and one of Mom's two fajitas. Those are really good - I think I'll order those from now on. Cooper had a fry or two too.

We walked back home and sat outside in the warm summer breeze. It was wonderful. Carter played on the swingset and the climbing toy and Mom joined him. It was pretty priceless... Couldn't pass up that photo opportunity! You can click on each picture separately, or here for a slideshow. Carter sure has a cool Grandma. (That's My Mom!)




While Mom was still here, I grabbed Cooper and took him to my office to weigh him. Eighteen pounds, thirteen ounces. It's been a while since I last weighed him, so I was expecting him to be close to twenty pounds...Just over a pound away now. Pretty soon we'll have to switch car seats!
I came home and Mom left. I was going to cook fettucine alfredo for supper, but Chris felt like barbecuing hot dogs. Far be it from me to discourage my husband from cooking anything at any time, so that was supper!

After supper Chris's grandpa stopped by for a bit. After he left Chris took Carter outside to play. I brought Cooper out too and we had such a fun family time outside! We played catch, climbed on the climber, swung on the swings - it was sweet sweet fun. We need to do that more often. Carter is getting better at catching with his little baseball glove and hitting with the baseball bat. Needs to work on the throwing some more so he isn't destined to throw like his mother forever. (I'm so lame!) And Cooper loves his swing so much he's never complained once. I just have to go give him a push once in a while and he enjoys watching everything going on around him as he swings. I bet he'd stay in it all day if I let him.

I brought Cooper inside to change him and got him ready for bed. Chris and Carter came in too. I also prepped my 'other computer' for another chat with the girls from Christy's Creative Team. That was a hoot again. Lots of fun. There were seven or eight of us this time. Always good for a laugh, and some big plans were made for the anniversary of Butternug Squash Designs the first weekend of September! It's all very exciting.

So as I chatted Cooper was still up for quite a while. I managed to multi-task and entertained him while I typed the odd comment here and there as much as I could. He drifted off and Carter stayed up until about a half an hour ago. Yikes what a night owl that kid is. (It's now 12:15)...

Then after the CT chat, I got to catch up with Angie and Vicky and read my email. I got an email that Angie had made a blog entry so of course I went to read it. It was very sweet. Got me all misty and teary. It's amazing the friends we can have that we have never met face to face. I'm so glad I found Angie and that we talk every day. Who'da thunk it? Such a ray of sunshine, that Angie.

I'm also so happy and proud to be on Christy's Creative Team and to have met all the dynamic women on the team and on the forum. What a great, fun, warm and sweet and friendly bunch. Good times.

I'm very thankful for this sunny sunny sunshiny fun fun funny friendly family day.


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A Little at a Time

Today was a long one. I had a few wake-up calls in the night as usual. This morning after Chris left for work I finally got Cooper to go to sleep. He seems to sleep well when I put him on my soft duvet. Maybe I should get one for his crib!

I didn't do as much laundry today as yesterday; there are still baskets all over the place. I did a few scrapbooking quickpages for my CT duties at BSD...but they won't be released until September. I also played around with a Christmas card template - we are going to have some kickass Christmas cards this year now that I'm a digiscrapper!

I did a few 'housewifely' things today, but not until around three o'clock. Until then I felt like a lazy sleepyhead couch potato. I wanted to accomplish something before Chris came home, so I did a couple more loads of laundry. Folded and hung a bunch more stuff. Purged another half-bag of clothes. Much more to follow. Took the closet doors off the closet in Carter & Cooper's room (my former room)...for two reasons. 1. So no little fingers get pinched in them. 2. It's easier access to the closet and saves a little space in a little room.

I moved around some furniture and did a little bit of closet-switching. There is just too much stuff. Have to purge some more.

Chris came home from work and we had leftovers from supper at Cindy's last night. Duck soup, roast beef, sweet potatoes, rice casserole - just as good as yesterday. And I'm not big on leftovers. Oh yeah, pie too...but I didn't have any today. But it was all good - again! Cooper LOVES sweet potatoes, and ate them all.

Chris's grandpa came over for a visit then Chris and Carter played outside for a while. I fed Cooper some cereal and got him ready for bed. My back is killing me for some reason. Gee, maybe all the laundry basket-hauling and furniture moving is getting to me. We're having a garage sale this weekend. Maybe I should just let people come right in the house and make offers on all my stuff so we can have some more room around here!? Well, no new pictures today...and I'm just about spent. G'nite!

Mount St. Laundry

(My affectionate term for the endless laundry spewing forth from my house...)


Crikey we have wayyyyy too many clothes in this house. This morning I bailed on church again. I was awake in time to get myself and the boys ready, but by that time, Cooper was finally asleep again, so I zonked a little longer. When I finally got up, it was too late.

So I launched into laundry mode. I started doing a few loads of laundry, and I brought up four baskets of already-clean laundry from the basement including what was in the dryer to sort and put away and donate to the Salvation Army. Chris played the role of "Awesome Husband" and took both the boys for at least an hour. I cranked music on the computer and wittled away at the gargantuan task at hand. I think I ended up doing five loads of washing. I purged two large clear lawn and garden bags full of clothing and there is more to follow. I sure opened up a can of worms with this project. There is so much to do. I still need to swap closets with the boys and there are baskets and bins of clothing everywhere. And I still have about 4 loads of clothing and two or three loads of towels and blankets to wash. Yikes.

We were invited to Cindy's for supper today, so thankfully I didn't have to cook and worked on the laundry situation as long as I could. Cindy and the boys got home after we got there. My parents followed a little later. Supper was amazing as usual. We had duck soup (that was a new one on me - and it was goooooooooood). We had roast beef and roast duck (also new to me and good), rice casserole, sweet potatoes (which I usually detest but they were gooooooood), salad, corn on the cob and four (yes, FOUR) types of pie for dessert. I opted to try the sugar pie, and it was a very good move on my part. I went back for seconds. Awesome. Needless to say, we were all stuffed.

We visited for a while after supper then we headed home. I still had another load of wash waiting to go in the dryer. I emptied the dryer and dried the last of the laundry I was going to wash for the day. Man there is still so much to do. Hopefully Carter and Cooper will help me tomorrow so I can finish. Yeah right! I'm gonna go hit the pillow right now...oh but here's a picture of Cindy's and my boys taken after supper tonight...

Carter & Cooper's Sweet New Ride

I saw this stroller on the CKDR web site last night. We have a double stroller already, but this one has a few more features. So I emailed the girl selling it to tell her I was interested. She emailed me back this morning with this picture and said there was someone else that might be coming to take a look at it today.

I hustled and rustled up the boys and got them and myself dressed. I threw on my face and snagged some nice wrinkly clothes out of the dryer and headed out. I stopped by to tell Chris at work that we were headed to Vermilion Bay to check it out. As soon as I saw it, it was SOLD. We folded it up and I had it in the back of the Jeep and we were on our way.

I was thinking of taking the boys to Fort Vermilion to play, but I figured they'd be a bit of a handful without Chris or someone there to help me wrangle them both. So instead, we stopped in at Cedar Point Lodge - the tourist camp I used to work at. Since it's Saturday, changeover day, I figured everyone would be around. Yes, they were! And we had a good visit with Pat, Sharon, and Janel. I met some of the new staff. I still miss them bigtime. I started working there in 1994 when they were expecting their first child. She's going to be TWELVE on Tuesday. Man that hurts my brain. I can't believe how time flies.

We got back to town just as Chris was almost finished work. We stopped at McDonald's drive-thru and came home. Chris got home shortly after we did and we all had lunch. Even Cooper tried a fry. I was hoping the boys would take a nap, but they were going strong for a couple hours after lunch. They finally both went to sleep. Cooper first. Carter much later. So I think I might have napped about a half an hour somewhere in there.

I got up and emptied the dishwasher and started to make supper. I started with one of those chicken soft taco kits and doctored it up. I added onions and mushrooms to the chicken and seasonings. They were really good. We had pineapple and blueberries for dessert. Cooper ate a whole bunch of blueberries. I squished them a little so he could chew them and he made them disappear. He's getting so good at feeding himself. Cheerios on the high chair tray are certainly no challenge for him to pick up and eat by himself. Or anything else that's within arm's reach for him!

After supper Chris went to Cindy's for a visit. She's in Thunder Bay with the boys. So it's a quiet evening chez Groves. We're just watching a dinosaur movie for the zillionth time! As soon as the eyelids close on the little ones, I'm heading for bed too. I think this is my earliest blogpost in ages! Good night y'all!

Another Barbecue and Sixty-Four-Dollar Diapers

Ok. So yesterday I went to bed early and didn't blog. But I put the title up so I could insert the guts of it today and that didn't happen either. But I can't delete it again 'cause there are three comments on it! (Thanks ladies!)

So yesterday afternoon Cindy had a hair appointment so she brought the four kids over for a while. We watched movies. Carter went a little nutso as usual for the first while.

While they were here Dad stopped in then Mom came over later after her volunteer work at the hospital. I got to run to the grocery store for a few items for supper. I asked Mom to stay for supper and called Dad to come too. We had salad, barbecued chicken breasts, corn on the cob and oven-roasted hashbrowns with mushroom soup, onions, cheese and (hey Beth, I added sour cream this time!) We had ice cream for dessert and I had rented "The Shaggy Dog" and Dad rented "Inside Man". So instead of watching the fun family movie, we watched the long drawn out plot movie. I missed most of it bathing, feeding and putting the kids to bed. After Mom & Dad left I did some scrapbooking once everyone else went to sleep. I had a cool layout almost done and Photoshop decided to close itself. Nice. (Not.) I was also working on some cool Spiderman birthday invitations and lost them too. So I went to bed around 11:30. That was early! Good thing I did, because Cooper was up at 2:30. I nursed him back to sleep. He was up again at 3:30ish and just wanted to party. Would not go back to sleep at all. He wasn't overly fussy, just WIDE AWAKE until almost six o'clock. I may have dozed a little here and there but not much.

After Chris got up and went to work, I crawled back to bed with Cooper and thank God he went to sleep finally so I did too. But of course Carter had a full night's sleep and was up whispering in my ear "Mommy, get up - it's wake up time!" I gave him an apple and put on his TV show and got about twenty more minutes of sleep. Actually he raided the fridge himself and got the apple. I locked the fridge and did a onceover of the house to see what he could get into if I fell asleep. I don't think you can call it sleep when you sleep with one eye open.

We had a fun day doing puzzles and playing ball in the house and changing everyone's poopy diapers. I managed to recreate the scrapbook page I did, but I can't post it yet...it's for the first anniversary of Butternug Squash Designs! There will be a lot of new stuff the first week of September!

Mom and Dad went blueberry picking this afternoon - it's slim pickin' out there but they managed to get a couple pails. Just enough for Mom to make some pies and stuff. They stopped in after they were done and I ran to pick up some steaks for supper. I got home and Carter was still napping. Mom & Dad left and Chris came home soon after.

I had marinated the steaks when I got back from the grocery store. Instead of potatoes, I picked up some ready to cook onion rings. It said on the package you could do them on the barbecue. They were very bland and I didn't like them on the barbecue. I won't buy that kind again. The steaks were AWESOME and we also had corn and fried mushrooms. I was stuffed. We actually ate outside on our new-to-us patio table! It was beautiful out. We brought Cooper's high chair outside so he could join us at the table too. It was a nice meal outdoors.

After supper I cleaned up the dishes and stuff and ran the dishwasher. God I love that thing. I took Cooper to Wal-Mart since he was wearing his very last diaper and it would be requiring a change soon. Of course I can't go there and just buy one thing. I bought some cool 12x12 scrapbook frames, (so I have to get some of my stuff printed!) some more grocery stuff and some post-it notes. Yes, of course I needed them. Anyhoo, we left the store sixty-four dollars later.

We came home and Chris and Carter were still playing outside. The 'other' computer was still busy with the big windows security center scan I set it to do, so I came to use my neglected computer in the boys' room. I finally got to have a few words with Cooper's long-lost Godmother Kelly. She is pencilling us in for a visit on Monday. The woman is BUSY all over the country these days. Literally.

I fed Cooper some cereal and fruit and nursed him a little and when I set him in the crib to help Carter get his PJs on, he fell asleep. Now Carter is sleeping too, and I'm having a little chat with both Angie and her hubby - trying to help me with networking my computers. Wish me luck. Finally I'm caught up on the blog so I might just crash early tonight!

Had Six Kids and a Barbecue Today

Yesterday - Meatloaf...Today - Bingo!

First of all, a Big Happy Birthday to my friend Diane. I tried to call today, but I had to leave a message. Hopefully she's off having a fun birthday somewhere.

Next, I was ever so kindly reminded by my friend Angie that I didn't blog yesterday, so I figured I'd better get a move-on! Though I must mention that if I weren't chatting online with Miss Angie until the wee hours last night, that I might have blogged. Ahem.

Yesterday was generally uneventful until Chris came home and I cooked supper. I made a yummy meatloaf and rice and veggies. Carter ate his weight in meatloaf; I was suitably impressed, since he usually eats like a chickadee. Cooper ate some veggies - those tiny little cubes of carrots and potatoes, and the peas were perfect for his little fingies to pick up.

After supper we hung out and watched TV. I did a new scrapbook layout for Angie - I had a picture of her daughter Caroline that she had sent me and when I put a filter on the picture, it so perfectly matched the kit I downloaded. Here it is...Credits: Everything is from Miss Mint's Honeydew Lemon kit except for the chipped paint alpha I made from the font Aurora. The other font is called James Fajardo.


I also did a layout for Amy - she posted a thread at Digishoptalk asking if someone would be willing to do a page with her baby picture. So she emailed me the picture and I did this layout...
Credits: Almost everything is from Butternug Squash Designs...
Floral paper and ribbon from Conservatory 5: The Pinks
Pink Leather Paper from Ethereal
Chipped paint alpha, photo corners (recoloured) and flower from Antique Butterfly
Stitches are from Atomic Cupcake, Daisy chain (recoloured) is from Tabby Lewis’ field of gold kit.


And Beth has been feeling under the weather and has been very absent in the blogging world. I've been wondering if she's been deported or something! So I did a layout for her too in hopes of lifting her spirits a little. It may have; she has it on her blog! Credits: Andrea Burns sampler for the most part. Pink diamond from Mrs. Schmuck's jeweled petals. "Special Days" overlay by Spaceraven.



So today was an average ordinary day. My two boys continue to amaze me with how much they grow and learn. Over the past couple weeks Cooper has learned to clap his hands (with his hands open instead of in fists). Carter is becoming more fluent all the time and blows my mind with the stuff he comes up with. The alphabet is already second nature to him, as well as all the numbers to at least 10 visually - counting to 20 if he's not being goofy. And he still remembers the names of all the planets after I only taught him a few times. Fun!

This afternoon my Mom called to ask if the two of us were going to go to Bingo. The last time I went was with Kelly a couple months ago and we won pretty bigtime. But that time Mom took Cooper and I just left Carter with Chris. So this time, since Chris figured he owes me a night out for all the fishing trips he's gone on, that I could leave both boys with him and go to Bingo. So I called him at work to ask him what his plans were for the evening...then I sprung the Bingo idea on him. He sounded a little tentative about it, but agreed.

I had everything ready for him for Cooper when he came home. Both boys were napping when he got home, but of course Cooper got up before I left. I topped him up with some milk. He was in a good mood playing on the floor. After Chris showered and got hotdogs ready for Carter and himself, I exited stage left, making sure I said bye to Cooper.

I stopped for cash and gas, then met up with Mom at the corner of her road and the highway to Bingo. (sounds like a song...Highway to Bingo) We got there good and early and proceeded to pig out on the best hotdogs in the world. And chips and pop. Mmmm. I managed to win a bingo game...the intermission game. I won seventy-nine dollars. Woohoo! Mom and I were both close a few other times but neither of us won anything else. I dropped her off at her car and zoomed home. While I was at Bingo, I was as much hoping that everything was okay for Chris as I was hoping to win.

I got home and it turns out everything was fine. Everyone had supper and an appropriate amount of sleep etc. So, it looks like this might just become a regular event. When I thanked Chris, I think I even heard him utter "Any time." If only he knew the gravity of those two words... muuuhuuuhaaahaaahaa. So I fed Cooper when I got home and he drifted into a sweet little dreamy sleep. Carter fell asleep on the couch and Chris carried him to bed and went to bed too.

So now I have the computer to myself with no distractions and got my blog done at last. (Well, not NO distractions...after all, I'm chatting with Angie again...heehee) That's it for now!