Joolee Bits Freebie!

Here is a new jeweled freebie...
I'm trying a new upload server so
if it doesn't work I'll post new links.
Enjoy!
Click HERE to start the download.

Credits: I used Atomic Cupcake's smooth pewter action on the wire and the jewel, heavy ink
action on the background of this preview picture. The rest I did myself in Photoshop 7.

It's Not Like I've Been Too BUSY To Blog...

Okay. It's Sunday. Let's recap everything since Wednesday. I actually did a draft blog post and made notes each day so I'd remember what to write when I actually felt motivated enough to blog.

Thursday morning...Mom was doing her volunteer work at the hospital Oncology unit. She stopped by to visit then she had a lunch date. She came back after lunch to babysit so I could go out and run errands.

Chris came home and left again right away to go to the shop and clean his truck. We had pizza pops for supper. Ooooh how fancy. Ha. "Earl" and "ER" were reruns so that was a bummer. Carter for some reason decided to forego his nap so he went to bed just after seven. I knew I was in for trouble because of it. I figured he'd get up and party around eleven, but he slept through the night still.

Sure enough, Friday morning they were both up at five thirty. Up to stay up. Crikey. Eventually I got them both to go to sleep and I had a little bit more shut-eye then I was ready to officially face the day. Deidre popped by to borrow a Halloween costume for Connor to go to a party, and Uncle Cliff stopped in to bring over their playpen for us to borrow for Cooper. (Thank you!) The babysitter wants to use it for Cooper's naptime when we start going there.

It was the day to visit the babysitter again, and this time leave the kids there for an hour. She's an awesome babysitter; I can already tell. She thinks of everything. I dropped them off after lunch and went to my eyebrow appointment.

I had to deposit a cheque in the bank, so I quickly parked kitty-corner from the bank in a non-parking spot. I figured I'd just run in to use the ATM and run back out. The very millisecond I shut the door I realized I didn't have my remote to unlock the door. Or my cell phone. Just a cheque and my bank card. Shit. So I still went in to the bank to do my banking business, and borrowed a phone to call Chris at work to come and do a drive-by to unlock the doors. He was there quite quickly and mocked me a little as he drove by and used his remote to unlock the door. As I reached to open the door, he locked it again. This has happened before. Only once or twice since we got a vehicle with the remote for the doors, but many many many a time before that. I used to do it so often, that I carried two sets of keys with me and I still would lock myself out. I gave keys to all my family members in case of locking myself out. That was before the cell phone days, so it's gotten a little easier. Plus I'm not as much of a dork anymore, believe it or not. I used to do it so often that I figured I should get "frequent-idiot" points from the locksmith and get a freebie after a few times. Anyhoo, luckily he came to my rescue quickly and I didn't add a parking ticket to my moron list of things to do for the day.

I wasn't sure if the babysitter would charge me for the trial period, so I got the idea to go to Safeway and pick her up a case of Kraft Dinner. I figured she must serve it at least once a week. So I brought it over and both boys were fine when I arrived and all went well. Carter was building a train track and didn't want to leave. Sure enough, she wasn't going to charge me so I gave her the KD.

Because of the delay due to locking myself out of the Jeep downtown, I didn't have time to run to Wal-Mart. So I braved taking both boys there. I had to pick up a snowsuit for Cooper. They don't have a great selection, and it's the only place to buy kids' snowsuits in this town. They did have a cute "Tigger" one that I picked up. I'm not sure if I like it yet; it seems to get in his face at the top of the double-zipper.

Both boys fell asleep in the Jeep on the way home and I didn't want to wake them so I drove around for awhile. I stopped to visit Chris at work and brought him a coffee. We finally went home and Tracy called me just as we were arriving at home. I sat in the driveway and talked to her for about twenty minutes. I brought the boys in the house and Carter stayed sleeping but Cooper wanted to party.

Chris came home from work and we had moose sausage and baked potatoes and veggies for supper. We watched the premiere of "Las Vegas" then the movie "The Break-Up" with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughan. It was okay. Maybe a little better than okay but mildly annoying. The cast made it as good as it could be. This time Carter went to bed very late.

Saturday morning Chris got up at his usual early time for work, but instead of work he was going hunting with Neil and Nick, two of his work buddies. He was gone all day and part of the evening. Unfortunately they didn't get a deer, but Chris said he's never walked that far in his life. That's probably true. I can't get him to walk anywhere with me!

We had a few visitors throughout the day; Dad, Cindy and all the kids, and Mom. All at different times. Chris came home around seven. Supper was a mishmash of stuff I found in the fridge. Chicken salad sandwiches, chips'n'salsa. Nothing major. Chris was very tired from all that fresh air and walking, and fell asleep pretty early on the couch. I was tired too, and after doing a couple scrapbooking pages, I fell asleep on the couch watching Saturday Night Live.

This morning, (TIME CHANGE!) even after putting the clock back an hour, there wasn't enough time to do something with my hair and get ready for church. Yesterday I had a shower and intended to colour my hair, but ended up not doing anything with it and it dried on its own very fuglily. (new word!) So I still look like a grody hag and with Cooper napping I don't dare redo my hair and risk waking him with the hair dryer. Chris and Carter are downstairs playing a new playstation game that Chris borrowed from Greg. We're going to Deidre & Greg's house for supper today; I'm going to scrounge around for something to bring or make or bake for dessert.

Whew. Caught up again. I just can't go that long without blogging or at least making notes so I can catch up. I'll actually try to blog again this evening so I stay on track. I'll post some more scrapbook pages later too. Y'all have a great Sunday!

I Got Mail!

Yesterday, I was hoping to not leave the house but I got a call to go out and help run some errands. Dad came over and watched the boys for me. Carter was asleep but Cooper was wide awake. Deidre dropped off Connor as she had an afternoon appointment and I wasn't back yet, so Dad was "Super Grandpa" and watched an extra kid!

I came home and relieved Dad. Chris came home from work and Deidre came back. I made pork medallions, long grain and wild rice and peaches'n'cream corn. I still had some cookie dough left so we had fresh soft ginger snap cookies for dessert. We visited awhile then Deidre and Connor left. He was a little under the weather so Deidre decided to keep him out of daycare today and I offered to take him. He and Carter played so well, considering they hadn't seen each other since Carter's birthday in May!

So she dropped him off this morning and they had a blast. One was Spiderman and the other was Buzz Lightyear. It's so cute now that they're old enough to have conversations. Just hilarious. Last night Chris brought up Carter's little picnic table and they both sat there not eating their supper last night. They were having too much fun. They did, however, sit and share a toasted bagel and some applesauce this morning, and they each ate a whole chicken sandwich and a little chicken noodle soup at lunch. Deidre came to pick him up shortly after noon; Connor didn't want to go. It was so sweet! She stayed and visited while they ate their lunch and then they disappeared to watch "The Incredibles" in Carter's room, where I managed to get Cooper down for a nap. They were whooping and hollering and giggling and jumping in there and miraculously Cooper stayed sleeping! Which is bizarre, since I tiptoe in there to check on the boys at night and the slightest little creak in the floor stirs him. He must have been tired from trying to keep up with the big boys.

Last night, Cooper stood unassisted for about EIGHT SECONDS! He was leaning against my legs where I sat on the couch. He would lean forward away from me and stand for a couple seconds at a time, not even realizing what he was doing. Chris and I counted and the longest stand was eight whole seconds. Yikes. This kid's gonna be mobile in a big way. And soon! I took a few shots of him doing it again today but he was mostly leaning on the couch. Okay...Is he gorgeous or what!? I know I'm his mom, but really. he's beautiful...and he looks so grown up standing up there like a big boy!




I managed to squeeze in a short nap while Cooper was asleep. Carter was on the computer and didn't want to nap but I put my head down for a bit and Carter came to lie down with me. I managed to snooze for at least a half hour; maybe forty-five minutes. Yum. I got up and ready and put on my face and got dressed. Chris came home from work and I ran to the bank machine downtown. I came home and Kelly picked me up for Bingo. We went to Tim Horton's for beverages, picked up some lotto tickets and we were on our way. I'm so sorry to report that we had no winnings. It was close, again. Angie, please let Mark know that we both chose B3 in the pick-your-own-numbers game, but unfortunately it didn't come up.

So, the other highlight of the day was the mail. I looked out the window after nap time this afternoon and there was a big yellow package sticking out of my mailbox. I was thinking, "did I order something on eBay???" Nope. It was better than that! Angie sent me my very own Buddy Walk t-shirt with Caroline's picture on it. I'll get Chris to take a picture of me wearing it tomorrow. It's so awesome. She also sent me a sweet note and all the newspaper articles with Caroline's stories about being in the Times Square Buddy Walk video and from her local interviews. So sweeeeeeeeeeeeet! Thank you so much Angie! You really made my day. I wish you were home when I phoned but I'll catch up with you tomorrow!

I came home and I swear Cooper stays half awake to make sure I come back. I cuddled him and nursed him a little. (This ritual seems to be fewer and farther between...I'm going to miss it.) He went back to sleep and I put him in his crib. I sneakily slipped a pull-up on Carter so I don't have extra laundry tomorrow. Good thinking on my part.

So that's two days' worth of stuff. I actually did a scrapbook layout of Cooper; here it is. And I have a whole bunch of new-to-me kits from Christy that I just got today so I'll be cranking out some more new stuff this week!
Credits: Miss Mint's "Honeydew Lemon" kit from Peppermint Creative. I made the alpha using Atomic Cupcake's stained wood action Font is Elegance.

Snowbow

Today was a pretty good day for a Monday!

This morning my Mom left for Duluth for a trip with her girlfriends. Dad came over for a couple hours to help me and watch the boys so I could go out and run errands. I came home with lunch from Dairy Queen. Me and my Flamethrowers and onion rings, I tell ya!

Cooper napped for maybe twenty minutes while I was gone. That was the only nap to be had by anyone in this house today. What is up with that? Carter was also up late this evening so he'll probably be zonked bigtime all night and later than usual in the morning. We'll see how Cooper sleeps tonight. He's curled up on a pillow beside me on the floor.

This afternoon when I was chatting with Angie, it was snowing and sunny. Is there such thing as a rainbow for snow? A 'snowbow'? I couldn't see one; maybe I was in it. No pots of gold laying around in my yard. Maybe the pot of gold will be at Bingo on Wednesday...heehee.

We had quite a few rounds of peekaboo tonight; I tried hard to catch him saying it, but to no avail. I guess he'll only say it for Chris. I'll have to hide with the camera and get Chris to try making him say it again.

I did these two scrapbooking layouts last night of Angie's kids from pictures I scarfed from her blog. That's about it for today...more tomorrow. Deidre and Connor are coming for supper tomorrow.

Credits:

Edison layout: Atomic Cupcake's paper, overlay, "fall" charm, rub-on action and smoother pewter action.
Caroline layout: Christy Sturm's "Fiery Fall" kit except for the nail...from the Lowe's web site!

Peekaboo!

Where the heck did the weekend go? Let's see...Friday. Hmmm. Ran errands. Kelly abandoned me to go to Thunder Bay, so we didn't go to Bingo again. Waaaaah!! Hopefully Wednesday will be a date. Chris had a couple friends over and I did some shopping at Wal-Mart and Safeway. We had a late late supper of pizza from Safeway. Those Milena pizzas are pretty good.

Saturday...Chris worked until noon then he went out to his friend's house to help him cut and package a moose. So it was me & the boys for the afternoon. I FINALLY had all the ingredients to make my favourite soft ginger snap cookies thanks to Chris for picking up some shortening on the way home. Bake much? Nope...didn't even have any good flour until I shopped the other night. Chris came home and we pigged out on cookies and watched "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"...cute-goofy-quirky little sci-fi movie. I was so tired I couldn't even stay up to watch Saturday Night Live. So I crashed early.

Cooper decided to get up and party just after four-thirty this morning until about six. Luckily he went back to sleep and I slept in until almost 8:30. Chris was awesome and got up with both boys and let me stay in bed; I already had slept past the get-ready-for-church-on-time deadline so it was nice to just try to catch a few extra winks. Mom & Dad stopped by after they went out for breakfast after church. Then one of Chris's friends came over with his son and Chris took Carter outside and they played for awhile, and Auntie Lurdes & Uncle Cliff popped in on their way grocery shopping. I printed a couple pictures of Mallary for her to take to work to show off her gorgeous grandkids.

I made cookies again (made a double-batch of dough yesterday) and that's pretty much all I ate until supper time. Cindy needed us to pick up Noah from a birthday party so Chris picked him up from Pizza Hut at five o'clock and brought him here. I made spaghetti again and I've never been a big fan of spaghetti sauce, but with the fantastic mooseburger and not using a storebought sauce as a base, I've been loving it. Who'da thunk I'd like something I totally make from scratch with no recipe and just winging it?!

After supper we just hung out and played with the boys and watched TV. I remembered to watch Desperate Housewives and we watched a rerun episode of Heroes to try to figure out the storylines since we didn't see it from the beginning of the season.

A few days ago, I was reading a forum thread at DigiscrapDivas where one of the designers showed a preview of her new kit and needed a name for it so she held a contest. I entered a name for the kit and won! The kit is called "Paisley Harvest" courtesy of yours truly, and for the prize, I won the kit. So here is a layout I did with Lawanna Desjardin's kit...she sent me a note to ask if she could use it as a sample layout in her store too. Cool! Can't wait to see that!



Well, that's the weekend in a nutshell. And by the way, Cooper now says, "Peekaboo". When Chris got him to say it, I was in the kitchen and I heard it so clearly I thought Carter said it. Cyuuuuuuute! That will be the next thing I try to catch on video. Stay tuuuuuuned!

The New Babysitter and Hamburngers

Wednesday morning we got up and got our butts in gear to go visit the new babysitter for nine o'clock. I think it only took us seconds to actually drive there. How cool. She has remodeled the complete upper floor of her house to accommodate her day care services. The room is very spacious and bright, with 287364895265 toys and crafts etc. There is a bathroom that Carter will be able to easily access and use any time. We had a good little visit and both boys seemed to like it there. Next week we're going to do about a one-hour trial and I'll leave the boys with her to assimilate them. There was only one other little girl there, a couple months older than Cooper. The schedule of other children varies by weekday, so it will be a variety.

After our visit there, we stopped in to see Chris at work and I showed him pictures of the day care. I went to buy us all lunch and brought some to Chris then went home. Cooper was asleep so I ate my lunch in the Jeep then brought the boys in the house. Mom and Dad invited us for supper, so once Chris got home from work, we loaded up and drove there. Dad started barbecuing hamburgers. Mom made a salad and some fries. As we were sitting visiting before supper, Mom casually reminded Dad to check on the burgers, which I hadn't realized was quite some time after he had put them on the grill. This prompted an "Oh Shit!" from Dad who jumped to the grill outside to find several little burnt offerings. It was hilarious. I told Dad I just had to blog his ham'burn'gers...

Cut to plan B...Dad had a few more burgers and Mom took out a package of cheese smokies. Everything was delicious in round two. We visited for awhile after supper and Mom put Cooper up at the piano for his first time (I think)...anyway, he sat there for quite awhile and Carter came and did a duet with him. Very cute.

We had a good visit then came home. Thursday morning Chris had a dentist appointment; two actually, since he was scheduled for a cleaning last month but postponed it to go at the same time as his filling appointment. He was gone for over two hours and came home very numb (and a little whiny). I stopped in at the office and brought Cooper for his first fluoride varnish.

I went home and we all kind of napped a little, then I had more errands to run. Chris came too, and we brought the boys...Cooper was already asleep, and Carter fell asleep enroute. Having a driver is so convenient that I can't wait until I'm rich! Don't get me wrong, I love driving. But when you have two kids to load and unload and reload, it's much easier to leave them in the car with someone to run in to places you need to go, especially for short stops!

We grabbed a late lunch from Dairy Queen. I had the requisite Flamethrower burger an onion rings. Chris had a chiliburger and onion rings, and Carter had a chicken strip kid's meal. We came home and had a picnic. Carter even shared a couple fries with his little brother. There was no such thing as supper with a big, late lunch like that. I fed Cooper his usual jar food and Carter was still munching on his chicken basket.

I got to watch 'Earl' and 'ER' and since I got both boys to bed, I crashed just after ten-thirty! Cooper had me up a couple times, but I still got more sleep than usual. Cooper's final wakeup call this morning was at seven-thirty. Now it's quarter past eight and Carter just got up too. I'm off to have a fun Friday with my boys! More on that later...

At Least You Don't Have to Shovel Rain

Today was rainy all day. It looked so yucky outside that I didn't even go out for the mail! At least all the snow is gone. We played games and had fun. Cooper scoots around (still on his belly mostly) and this past week has mastered sitting up from a belly position. So cute.

Supper was a leftover event. I did some scrapbooking today and this evening. And I actually baked something. I've been dying to bake my favourite soft ginger snap cookies, but when I took out the flour last night it seemed stale to me. (Bake much?) So I chucked out the flour and since I didn't go anywhere today, I didn't pick any up. So I baked something that didn't require flour. Oatmeal squares. (My Dad's favourite treat). Sorry Dad, we ate 'em all!

Tomorrow morning we have to get up early and get ready to go meet the new babysitter for when I go back to work (in about a month!!! Yikes!) I really look forward to meeting her and having the boys at one place together.

Credits:
• Caroline Layout - Christy Sturm's Conservatory: The Blues kit
• Godson Layout - Christy Sturm's Live Juicy kit (I made the tag)
• Mellykat Layout - Christy Sturm's Black Orchid paper pack. I made the elements and ribbons and the alpha out of her papers, and the metal elements with Atomic Cupcake's pewter action. The cardboard behind the text card is also from Atomic Cupcake.

Making Use of the Snow

Today was a tiring one. Everyone took turns waking me last night. I rearranged some stuff in my kitchen today, and eliminated a cupboard that took up a lot of space and covered up the cool air intake for the furnace and I've been wanting to move it for quite some time.

Fortunately before I tried to kill myself by moving it downstairs by myself, my Dad popped in and helped me take it to the basement. It looks a little more open in the dining area now. And now Chris and I are both dying to paint - it would really brighten it up in there.

Just as I got both boys to nap this afternoon, and my head was just nestled into my favourite pillow, (I think I might have even been drooling already)...there was a heavy, loud, LONG knock at the door. I groggily answered the door to a pleasant-looking, nicely dressed man who handed me a religious pamphlet he wanted me to read. Good thing I wasn't fully awake because I've always wanted to ask these door-to-door folks a couple questions. My problem is, (and please note I am certainly NOT against anyone for their religious beliefs, I just don't understand other religions.) I never understood why in school why some students would leave the room while the national anthem was playing, because it contains the word, "God". I have this pamphlet sitting on my lap and it's got the word "God" all over it. Just wish I could understand.

Anyhoo, supper today was AWESOME. We had some fresh spicy moose sausage and rice and French-style green beans. Cooper loved the beans and finished off a jar of baby food. Carter had a little of everything. I divided the sausages and cooked some in the oven in tomato soup, and pan-fried the remainder basted in barbecue sauce. It was all goooooood.

We watched TV and hung out for the evening, and I did a scrapbooking layout to use one of our October snow pictures...

Here's another layout using Christy Sturm's "Fun in Flannel" kit at Butternug Squash Designs. Can't get enough of the rich fun colours! That, and with the massive dump of snow we got I had to use it!

Ooooooooooooooh. AND, in honour of Henry's upcoming 3rd birthday, Christy is having a sale! 30% off everything in the store. Check it out!

Christmas Freebie!

Here are a few little goodies for adding to Christmas scrapbooking layouts, Christmas cards, recipes or just about anything!

2 Candy Canes
1 Snowman
1 Snowflake
1 Sleigh
1 Ornament
1 Star
1 Holly Leaf with Berries
1 Stocking
1 Christmas tree
1 Gingerbread Man

Each item is saved as a separate PNG file. Just click the image to link to the download and enjoy!

Credits: Atomic Cupcake's Old Brass Action

He's a Goner!

First of all, here is the latest development on Flaky the SnowBoy...he lost his head over a little sunshine...Crikey - I haven't blogged since Friday. I'm a little foggy on some of the details but here's a recap of the weekend. Let's see, where did I leave off? I managed to line up a new babysitter for when I go back to work! It was a fantastic twist of fate. We're going to visit her on Wednesday morning. She has an excellent reputation and lives about three blocks from both my home and my office! Yay! I've started to advise Carter that we'll be visiting her soon and that she'll be his new babysitter and that he has to use his nicest manners!

Chris came home from work and I ran out to get fast food for supper. I came home and we all ate and I left to pick up Kelly for Bingo. We stopped to buy some lotto tickets together, then headed out. When we got there, there was a sign on the door saying BINGO WAS CANCELLED. Friday was such a rockin' good day aside from that. We sadly drove back to town (saw FIVE deer on the way) and a bird almost hit the windshield. Yikes. We couldn't just go straight home so we went to the lottery centre and bought some Nevada (break-open) tickets just to satisfy our gaming hunger. Sad. So sad. We browsed around in the dollar store too then we went home. So sad. I think Chris was a little relieved to be "off the hook" for full-on parenting duty for the whole evening.

Now Saturday is a bit foggy...Chris picked up some fresh ground moose and moose sausage from friends of the family. He played outside with Carter for awhile and I had a short nap with Cooper. Cindy dropped off the boys for awhile so she could go to her massage appointment. I started making spaghetti sauce. Usually, I use a premade sauce as a base, such as Prego or Ragu or Bravo, but after I browned the moosemeat "meef" as I affectionately call it...I realized I didn't have any. I did have a large can of diced tomatoes which I usually add, and a can of tomato sauce. So I doctored it all up with spices and added a can of mushrooms, and it was cookin'!

Dominic and Noah were still here when supper was ready so I fed them and Chris and Carter. Cindy picked up the boys. We had a quiet evening. Chris went out for coffee and I had a chat with both Angie in Tennessee and Helen in Australia at the same time. How cool is the internet?! I was super tired and didn't even stay up to watch Saturday Night Live. Angie said it was going to be a rerun anyway.

It was a rough night. Carter was sleeping with Chris when I went to bed. He snores, he roams, he talks...I had a difficult time sleeping on the very edge of the bed. He also has an affinity for MY favourite pillow, so that's not cool. Cooper also was up a few times. I was a real zombie this morning. I fed Cooper breakfast and went back to bed, leaving Chris up with both the boys. I didn't sleep overly well or much, but it was good to rest a little longer. I had a hot bath (sans boys...yay!)

In the afternoon, Chris took Carter for a ride since I was planning to take Cooper shopping. Cooper went to sleep, so I made a dash for my favourite pillow too. I slept for about twenty minutes I think. Cooper slept about an hour. I nursed him a little - this is becoming fewer and farther between every day. He fell asleep again. Chris and Carter came home and I started to get ready to head out. I woke up Cooper when I set him in the car seat. We went to Wal-Mart and I actually escaped there spending around fifty bucks!

I still had to go get a few more food items, so I went to IGA and spent another thirty or so bucks. I saw Uncle Cliff at IGA and he said something about a new truck...huh? A new truck? So Cooper and I stopped in to see his new set of wheels on the way home. Niiiiiiiice. A gorgeous silver club-cab truck, more heavy-duty than the last truck, to pull their camper. Had a quick visit with him and Auntie Lurdes then came home to cook supper and put away the groceries.

I wanted to finish off the leftover "moosketti" so I made Chris and Carter a killer omelette and toast. I remembered to watch "Desperate Housewives" the first time it was on this evening...I have been forgetting about it and having to stay up extra late to catch up for the past few weeks. Now all three of my boys are sleeping. I'm getting tired, but this is the best time of day to do whatever I want so I might just do some scrapbooking. Here is a layout I did for my awesome friend Helen in Australia who sent me a postcard the other day! Credits: Christy's "Delicate Blossoms" kit at Butternug Squash Designs. I also did a layout for Angie of her beautiful daughter Caroline but she's going to post it on her blog so you can go there to check it out!

Yep, Them're Snowbanks, Y'all

Snow Day! Step outside and hear the constant beeping of snow removal vehicles near and off in the distance. We already have snowbanks.

This morning Kelly and I were chatting on MSN and decided to go out for coffee. I showered, did my hair and face, fed Cooper, dressed both boys and we were finally ready. In record time, I might add. She had to take her truck in for new tires, so we met at the tire shop and she came with us in the Jeep. We went to Tim Horton's for cappucinos and sandwiches, tea and chili. I brought Chris a bagel and a coffee in order to butter him up to see if I could get away with going to Bingo tonight. Yay! We're going! And hopefully this crappiest of crappy weather will deter the other Bingoers (new word?) and we'll have more chances to win...whee!

After we dropped off Kelly, Cooper was asleep in his car seat so I left him right in the Jeep. I opened the window so I could check on him, and Carter and I built a snowman! Yes, that's right folks, a snowman. Well, technically a snowboy...since the temperature isn't ideal for making the snow sticky enough. I couldn't roll a snowball around to make it bigger, Carter and I had to pack it by hand with handfuls of snow. But it worked. He has a toque (that's a knit hat, for my friends south of the border), mittens, sticks for arms, a tire valve stem for a nose, and pennies for eyes and a smile. I had to get creative; I didn't have a corncob pipe and a button/carrot for his nose and I didn't have two pieces of coal for his eyes. So he's no Frosty; I've declared his name to be Flaky.

Cindy dropped off her boys this afternoon on her way to an appointment. There's not much going on at school with the school buses cancelled (I think) so they wouldn't be missing much so Cindy just brought them over. They're playing outside with Carter right now. I bet Carter takes a rockin' nap this afternoon when he comes in!

Here are some pictures...methinks this stuff is here to stay...(ugh)


Carter was begging to go outside again, so that last picture was the second snow episode. He's still out there playing with his cousins.

Freaking Snow

Oh My God. It is freaking cold out.

So yesterday we didn't leave the house. Carter wants to go play out in the snow. And I don't. Angie wants me to go make her a snow angel. Ummm. We'll see.

Yesterday for supper we had some awesome spicy deer sausage again with rice and veggies. We watched the movie "Click" with Adam Sandler...not how I expected the movie to be, but it was pretty good! I've been working for a couple days on a scrapbooking layout but I still haven't put the finishing touches on it.

I did however, do these two layouts...

Credits: "Dude" layout - Christy Sturm's Hey Champ! kit (recoloured) and calendar page from her "Where's My List" element pack. "Gweneth" layout - Christy's brand new "Scarborough Fair" kit. Only a few items are shown here of this fantastic kit. Check it out.

This morning Mom came to babysit so I could go out and run some errands. I came home and she went out for lunch then came back again and I did a bit more running around. She left and both boys were sleeping. Briefly, anyway.

Chris came home and it was a leftover type of supper. I had made some yummy homemade tortiglioni pasta with a creamy cheese sauce for Carter for lunch and he wanted more for supper. I had hotdogs and Chris had the last of the turkey in sandwiches and some veggies with dip. (Cooper had a lovely jar of chicken, rice and vegetables).

Chris was super tired from driving in this disgustingly horrible weather to Ignace for his usual Thursday run. That and everyone is rushing in to put their winter tires on because of said disgustingly horrible weather. I watched "Earl" and "ER" tonight virtually interruption-free since everyone went to bed fairly early. Cooper had a bout of gas that took awhile to get over. I gave him some gripe water and massaged his belly then nursed him back to sleep.

I have stayed up wayyyyyyyy too late again. I chatted with Angie and that was fun to catch up since it's been awhile since we actually had a conversation that wasn't interrupted by errands or kids or pooping kids. Of course I got nothing else accomplished during our conversation, but again, it was fun. Now I'm done all my stuff I wanted to get done so I'm going to get my blankie and pillow and curl up with Cooper on the floor. A couple nights ago I tried to move him from the living room floor to his bed and it was a bad move on my part since he was up for over an hour after that. So now, I will again let sleeping babies lie. And go lie down myself. Ciao!

Oh. One more little thing. I got an email from Martha Stewart today...with these AWESOME ideas for Christmas cards. They're called "All-In-One" cards, that fold to make their own envelope. Of course I had to try it and I made my own template and used Atomic Cupcake's "Sweet Holiday" kit to do the paper and ribbon and stuff and I used the gingerbread man from the kit to make a sticker to hold it closed. How Funnnnnnn. I'm showing them here only because I don't think I could make a zillion of these that I need for Christmas cards this year. I already have our photo Christmas cards designed. Just have to find the time to print them!

I Caught Him!

Finally caught Cooper saying "thank you"...here is the video!

This Just In...

Second blogpost of the day due to this unsavoury weather development...We've got about two inches of wet, heavy snow going on here...photographic evidence following this weather report. Crikey - I told you I was dreaming of a white Halloween last month!

(Snow on the apple tree)

(Snow on the barbecue)

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Overdosing on Tryptophan!

Yesterday Chris had the day off. We had a pretty lazy day. Supper was at Mom's house again for round two of the seemingly-hydroponically-grown turkey. We had most of the items from Sunday again and it was gooooooood again. Auntie Lurdes and Uncle Cliff went too.

We visited for awhile after supper then Auntie & Uncle went home. We stayed and watched TV for a couple hours; we were too stuffed to move anyway. We watched "Heroes". I had never seen it before; it's a pretty good show. I like how they link all the storylines together.

We came home and Cooper was asleep in the car seat again so we brought him in the house in it and he woke up a short time after. He fell asleep again on the living room floor. I swear that's where he does his best sleeping. Maybe our carpet is made by Sealy. teehee. So instead of waking a sleeping baby, I left him all snugly with his blankies on the floor and grabbed my blanket and pillow and joined him. This time I slept on the couch and was much more comfortable. He slept until five o'clock this morning! Wow! He slept from 9-5! Then I nursed him a little and he fell asleep again! Bonus! I put him in his crib and crawled into bed.

Chris's alarm went off at six...ugh. I usually can sleep through it, which worries me for when I have to go back to work! But I managed to get a little more sleep in before Cooper woke up for the day at seven. We got up and I fed him breakfast and we played. He's really starting to use words. I think he'll speak before he'll walk! If you give him something, he says, "Thank You". I swear. I'm going to try to get it on video. Wish me luck.

Carter didn't get up until about eight-thirty. He's a good little sleeper nowadays. I'm anticipating praying for a sleepful night for him since he skipped his nap today! I started to get ready and put on my face, get dressed and do my hair. I got Cooper bathed too, and got him and Carter dressed. I had an eyebrow appointment set for eleven o'clock so we left the house before ten and stopped by my office. We did a quick Tim Horton's run for bagels and FVCs for Carter, Serena and me, and a coffee for Chris. We went to my appointment and Cooper was asleep. Carter was very good there. We went to drop off the coffee for Chris then went downtown to pick up some envelopes. Carter didn't want to go home, so I drove down to the Government dock and took this picture of him up on this ginormous rock:


We came home and played and Dad brought over some homemade turkey soup (go figure!) that Mom made and it was awesome. Kelly came over for awhile to visit and we're planning to go to Bingo tomorrow night. Chris came home from work and we had turkey sandwiches and turkey soup for supper. Mmmmmmmm. Good stuff.

I had to go to the grocery store since we were out of baby cereal (and ice cream apparently). It was already dark out, and cold, and raining heavily. By the time I got back from the store, it was SNOWING. Big honkin' flakes of snow. And it's still snowing. We're supposed to get six to eight inches of the stuff. Yikes. Everything is coated in whiteness outside. I'm sure it won't last long, but the very thought of it sends chills down my spine for various reasons. 1) It's COLD. 2) Winter is JUST around the corner; my least favourite season. 3) That means I go back to work SOON.

Which reminds me I need to arrange for a babysitter really soon too! AND I FORGOT TO MENTION... the other day (Saturday) when I ran to the store for the tortillas for the fajitas...I had the radio on Q104 and they said caller four would qualify for the draw for two tickets to see James Blunt in Winnipeg, with a suite, a dinner out, the concert and 104 spending bucks. Yours truly was lucky caller number four! So on October 20th, they do the draw. Unfortunately, the concert is on Halloween. In Winnipeg. A province away...on my baby's FIRST Halloween. Hmmm. Maybe if I win I can just 'scalp' the concert tickets and use the other items on a later date!

Anyhoo, I finally got both my boys to bed, and Carter is wearing a pull-up, which I put on him after he fell asleep (my latest trick to avoid urinated bedding EVERY day). Cooper was fussing in my arms and I could tell he was tired. I set him on a blanket on the floor and he rolled over and went to sleep in under a minute.

Now I'm going to do some scrapbooking. Christy has a new kit coming out tomorrow called Scarborough Fair (thus the new blinkie in the sidebar that I made yesterday) so I'll post a new layout tomorrow sometime. I have one done and I already have some ideas for another!

Sorry Sesame Street Fans!

(Cooper's 2nd tooth made its first appearance at Thanksgiving dinner...right central incisor.)

I'm not kidding. That was the biggest turkey I've ever seen. That sucker was THIRTY pounds. There were 24 there for supper and we barely put a dent in it. I thought about this cartoon all day.

Cooper woke up in the morning and I managed to get him to go back to sleep around seven. I figured another half hour of sleep and I'd be ready to face the day. Oops. We all woke up at about five minutes to nine, so there was no church for me (again!).

Chris went out for coffee with his brother and brought me an FVC and a bagel that I shared with Carter. We hung out and relaxed until I had to get stuff ready to go to Mom & Dad's. I got it in my head that I wanted to make placecards for everyone's place settings. So I prepared a template and printed them all out and cut them out. I made little chipboard turkeys in Photoshop and cut them all out individually. I stuck the little turkeys on the tent cards with a foam pop dot. I am such a nerd. I wanted so badly to finish them I tried to recruit Chris to cut out the turkeys, but he opted to stick the pop dots on the turkeys while I finished cutting them out.

By then it was really time to get my rear in gear. Chris was a big help by bathing Cooper. First time in all his ten months! I prepared the perogies (five dozen) with fried onions and bacon. I toasted the almonds and noodles for the oriental salad and made the dressing. Chris got Carter ready and loaded up the Jeep and Cooper was asleep on the living room floor. I scooped him up along with the last of the luggage and we headed out.

When we got to Mom & Dad's, Mom was a little stressed that the humongous bird wasn't going to be cooked in time for supper. She started cooking it at ten o'clock in the morning! Turned out the cooking thermometer didn't work and everything was fine. The turkey was sooooooooooooo big, Mom used her hugest roasting pan and of course couldn't put the lid on it; she had to use foil wrap. I'm tellin' you, if I don't see Big Bird on Sesame Street next time, I'd believe we ate him for sure!

Everyone brought something. My aunts, Cindy and her family and Pete's family and their parents. There was of course the behemoth bird, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, oriental salad, tossed salad, perogies, buns, broccoli salad, ribs, meatballs, and then there was dessert. Two kinds of fudge, cookies, pies and a mile-high blueberry cheesecake. OMG it was goooooooooood. It was almost an hour after supper before I tackled dessert. Glad I didn't skip it.

We came home just before nine o'clock. Cooper was asleep in his car seat so I brought him in the house in it and let him sleep. Carter was tired too. He's been a little under the weather and was tired out from playing with all the kids.

It was a very cold, blustery day, but it was a great one. I'm so thankful for all my family and all that food on this Thanksgiving day.

Sunny Warm Saturday

Yesterday was a fairly routine one. After Chris came home from work, his brother (from Thunder Bay) came to visit. When I talked to him on the phone earlier, I said I'd make something for supper. I had taken a big package of chicken out of the freezer and planned on doing something with it. By the time he arrived, there was no supper in sight. Oy. So we ordered Chinese food from Ho-Ho's and it was gooooooood. Especially since I bailed on cooking! Not long after supper I was suffering from sheer exhaustion. Carter had gone into our room to hide and strip all the blankets off our bed; a nasty little trick he likes to pull. So I bunched up all the blankets and threw them on him and of course he giggled his head off. Then he said it was my turn to hide. It was cozy and warm (I was freezing and tired) and I fell asleep! Carter had shut my bedroom door so I had it relatively peaceful and quiet for about forty-five minutes until Chris (noisily) opened the door and jarred me back into consciousness! He and his brother were going out for awhile and since Carter was still up of course I had to be on kid duty! Cooper was kind enough to sleep for me, and Carter and I played for awhile then cuddled up on the couch, hopefully to sleep, but no. Chris came home and he and Carter fell asleep side by side on the living room floor, so I left them there and went to bed.

This morning my final awakening was at seven o'clock. A little early for my liking, but hey my liking doesn't seem to count! I got at least four consecutive hours of sleep throughout the night, so it wasn't too bad.

Not long after we got up, Carter got the fantastic idea of going for coffee and donuts. Translation = A small French vanilla cappucino (hereinafter referred to as FVC) and a toasted bagel for him. An extra large FVC for me and a bagel for me too, and a large double-double and a bagel for Chris (all from Tim Horton's of course).

But before that I had to put on my face, dress two kids and feed Cooper. We headed out right around nine o'clock, maybe even a little before; I'm not too sure. First stop was Chris's shop, because he had taken Carter's booster seat out of the Jeep for me when I drove the gals to Bingo the other night. I buckled him in with just the seatbelt in the back seat and put the booster seat up front until we got to the shop. Then I white-knuckled it to the shop and Chris put in the booster seat and I was much more happy and we safely traveled to Timmy's for the breakfast goodies.

We brought Chris his breaky and I decided to drop in to visit my parents. (This involves a ten-mile drive - a beeeyooteeeful one at that, with all the gorgeous colours of fall along the way.) We did a sneak attack and they were very surprised to find Carter ringing the doorbell. We finished our snacks then I helped my Mom (Fatima...wink, wink Beth!) get a couple little things ready for Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow night. There will be twenty-four diners there for the festivities; all at one table - my Mom's specialty! And this is by no means a record...and not all the whole fam-damily will be there.

I folded some napkins into fans and Mom had covered the tables with pretty cream-coloured tablecloths and adorned them with ornamental gourds and mini-pumpkins. How very Martha of us! The napkins were a deep brown print, and sort of resembled turkey tails; how fitting! I wanted to go out and get some coloured leaves to scatter on the tables - I still think I'll do that tomorrow. I polished all the cutlery and did Mom's hair for a party they were going to this afternoon (and another this evening - those party animals!)

I was just getting the boys ready to come home when they both decided it was naptime. Again, we got up a little earlier this morning; therefore naptime was earlier too. Mom and Dad had some leftover mussels from supper yesterday, and wanted to feed them to me for lunch. At first I said no thanks; I just wanted to get the boys going, but hey, who wants to wake sleeping children when you can have lunch made for you??? So I just wanted a taste, and they were so FANTASTIC Mom served me up a whole big bowl of them and we and Dad had a little feast. The red sauce tasted a little like minestrone soup but even better and the mussels were great.

Dad carried Carter out to the Jeep and I carried Cooper and they both slept the rest of the way home. Next item on the agenda was the marathon Wal-Mart run. I left Carter with Chris, who was home from work by this time. Cooper and I headed to Wal-Mart for the big cartful. Unfortunately I left my list at Mom & Dad's house so I had to wing it. I definitely needed diapers, pull-ups, wipes, baby food, baby cookies, drain cleaner and bathroom cleaner. Somehow, three pumpkins, four baby outfits, a pair of pants for Carter, Bounce sheets, a DVD player (only $24.97!) and various Christmas presents made their way into the cart for a grand total of around two hundred forty-eight bucks. Yikes. That was without the groceries I needed.

I took all the loot home and put it all away and dropped off Cooper to run to the grocery store to get the stuff for making the oriental salad and perogies to take to Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow. I bolted to Extra Foods (I pretty much have a love/hate thing for that place but the prices kick Safeway's ass.) I bought coleslaw, slivered almonds, bacon, rice, fajita seasoning and a bag of apples and headed for the till. In an extra effort to be expedient, I only brought in my bank card and had it in my pocket along with a ten dollar bill (which of course wouldn't touch the total but I still had in my pocket.) Anyhoo, girlie starts ringing through my order and I can't find my bank card. Crap. First I asked if the girl could announce on the PA that I dropped my card and could someone return it to her till, or customer service. But no, for some reason, it's another service that they don't seem to offer at this place. A nice young grocery guy in the aisle had helped me find the real bacon bits. I scoured every aisle I had been in, and same grocery guy saw me madly looking about. On the second time I met him in the aisle on my mad dash for the card, he asked me if he could help find something. I said my bank card, and he was the one to find it and had brought it to the customer service till. I wonder if he also found the ten bucks. If he did, I guess that was his reward for returning the card? Karma?

Finally I went home and got all the groceries put away. Then it was pretty much time to get supper ready. I had taken the aforementioned big package of chicken out of the freezer yesterday and needed to cook it. I cut four breasts into strips to make fajitas, then boiled the other four so I could freeze them again. Just as I was about to cook the strips for the fajitas, I did a tortilla check...expiry was March 2006 on both packages. Crap. They seemed fine but I was kinda concerned and chucked them. I asked Carter if he wanted to go for a quick Jeep ride with me and we went to Safeway. I picked up the tortillas and some breadcrumbs because they were on the same shelf and I remembered I needed them. Carter was an awesome little helper and we rushed home so I could continue making supper. I added red and green pepper and white onion to the cooking chicken and prepared a salad with lettuce, carrots, and radishes. (HAHA - it was a bag salad!) We ate supper and Chris's brother Jason came to visit again. He played with the kids and Carter was all revved up. Eventually Cooper went to sleep and Carter did a quick crash'n'burn on the floor since he had a short nap today. After Jason left, I had an awesome hot bath and did some much needed leg-shaving! It's very rare that I don't have two kids climbing into the tub whenever I start to run a bath so I didn't get out until I was good'n'pruny!

I headed for the blog since I had so much catching up to do. There should be a prize for reading this post all the way to the end. Sorry, no prize, but you can see my new scrapbook page I did with Christy's new kit, "Fun in Flannel". This is a picture of Chris and Carter when we took Carter sliding for the first time a couple years ago. I had to "Frankenstein" Carter's head from another picture since he and Chris weren't both looking in any of the pics I took. Also, to make the photo match the kit, I changed the colours of his snowmobile suit to match! God I love Photoshop! Now I can't believe it's after midnight, and SNL is over so I'm going to go to bed! Good night!

Happy Birthday Mom and Kevin!

Today is my Mom's 62nd birthday. I swear you wouldn't believe me if you saw her. It's also my cousin Kevin's birthday. Happy Birthday to them both!

I went to Bingo with Mom and Kelly tonight and brought Mom her Haagen-Dazs. She definitely had the spoon with her this time. We were all sooooooo close to winning but no luck this time. Oh well. There's always next week.

Here is the layout I did with Christy's awesome new kit called "Fun in Flannel" by Christy Sturm at Butternug Squash Designs



I found the mug on Google and embossed it. Everything else is from the kit. I turned one of the ribbons into a scarf. It's a great new kit!

Since I went to Bingo, I missed "My Name is Earl" and "ER" so I'm staying up wayyyyyyyy past my bedtime to watch "ER" and post my scrapbook page. Right after ER I'm going to bed!

More Developmental Milestones

I spent much of the day saying "Thank God". For my new printer. What a relief to have the dependability of my Epson back again. I'll probably have it dead within a few months, but at least I'm not smacking my head against the wall trying to get the HP to do what I want it to.

I printed Christmas cards today and thank you cards with no issues. I had lots of ink from my previous Epson that thankfully I could use on this new one. So I got a lot accomplished.

Cooper looooooooooooves Campbell's chicken noodle soup. I have got to get more of that stuff. He snarfed it up very quickly! Carter too of course.

A relatively non-descript day except that Cooper can just about sit up from a tummy position. He really gets around doing the belly crawl. Travels all over the house. I have to put the baby gate in front of the stairs now. He also has an amazing eye for detail and picks up any little piece of lint, hair or food particles on the floor and attempts to eat them. I'm forever digging stuff out of his mouth when I see him chewing on something. And I think there's another little tooth in there ready to poke its way through!

I did a new scrapbook page tonight using Christy's new kit - just have to find out if she's ready for us to start posting the new kit yet, then I'll have it up here. Tomorrow is my Mom's birthday. We're going to Bingo. Since it's her birthday, she'll get a freebie card. Should be a hoot.

My Johari Window

Here's Mine: Mellykat's Johari Window

I got the link from Christy's blog and I wanted to try it too.

Wooooooohooooooooo! I Got Me an Epson Again!

OMG I am soooooooo happy!

I just got my hands on an Epson printer that takes the cartridges from my last Epson printer that passed away a few months ago.

My HP printer, though BRAND new, is not the printer for me and I will be selling it. It works great and print quality really is excellent, but for what I need it for, it's just not practical.

So I'm very pumped. AND the Epson is an all-in-one, meaning I don't have to worry about cramming my other scanner into my computer workstation. I posted an ad on the classified ads on our local radio station's web site. I looked through the ads and found one of the printer models I was looking for! I called and picked it up immediately and came home and set it up and it works great! Wheeeeee!

Must.......Sleeeeeeeeeeep.

"Your Blogging Type is Kind and Harmonious"

You're an approachable blogger who tends to have many online friends. People new to your blogging circle know they can count on you for support. You tend to mediate fighting and drama. You set a cooperative tone. You have a great eye for design - and your blog tends to be the best looking on the block!

What's Your Blogging Personality?

That was the result of a short and sweet little quiz I took from a link on JBurkhart's blog. She's a new member over at Butternug Squash Designs so I went over there to have a look.

Today was a pretty decent Monday. Sleep deprivation sucks but I sort of dozed a little when Cooper slept and Carter was on the computer. Cooper ate Kraft Dinner for the first time today. He's a little vacuum cleaner! He likes "people" food...now I'm worried I might be giving him too much too soon so I'll still stick with the jar stuff until he's a little bigger.

Mom and Dad popped in this afternoon for a bit. Chris came home and Carter went outside to play with him before supper. After supper we watched the movie "The Wild". It was very "Madagascar-ish" but it was alright. We had to watch it on the computer since the PS2 wouldn't read it.

I posted a few layouts that I've done over the past week or so. Here they are. I gotta go to bed 'cause everyone else is sleeping and there's no telling when someone will get up screaming and jar me out of a blissful sleep!




Okay, hold up...just one more thing. I helped my friend Helen in Australia with her new blog header so go have a look! Wish I could have been there in person - summer's just starting down under!

Happy Birthday Jason!

First of all, Happy Birthday to Jason!

This morning I wasn't up for church. Literally, I wasn't up! I was up early with Cooper and managed to get him to go to sleep again. Chris took Carter for a ride to go get coffee & breakfast and I had a glorious early morning nap until about quarter to ten!

I was awakened to an extra-large French vanilla cappucino and a toasted bagel. Yum! Oh and of course Cooper too. He was up too. So Chris and I then made an awesome team effort and did some housekeeping. I moved all the furniture out of the way so he could vacuum, we took the coffee table to the basement for a time when Cooper won't be bonking himself on it from underneath or by pulling himself up when he learns to walk. I emptied and filled the dishwasher and scrubbed the kitchen sink with SOS and shined it up with Windex. Mom had stopped by during the little cleaning frenzy so she was a great help with the boys.

Cindy called to invite us for supper. I answered the phone to hear, "Roasted chicken, stuffing..." and before she could finish, I said, "You had me at 'Hello'." I was sooooooooooo perturbed last night trying to work on a couple print projects then running out of ink very quickly on my ridiculously awful printer...so I ran out this afternoon to get some more ink. Then we got ready and packed up the boys and headed to Cindy's for supper.

To finish her sentence, we had roasted chicken, carrots and turnips, salad with fantastic poppyseed dressing, stuffing, and twice-baked potatoes. Not to mention, an awesome dessert with a graham crumb crust, creamy filling and gelatin-type topping with mandarin oranges set in it. OMG so good. I was fulllllllll. Dora was there too and brought her yummy Italian cookies that I so adore and since they were still warm, I had to have. I spent the rest of the visit moaning about how good supper was and how full I was.

Cooper's been pretty fussy and he's perfected the new scream he's been working on. Carter has been awesome (not very nice to his little brother yet but we're working on that)...Carter uses the toilet and if he needs help, lets me know before he has to go. Just have to work on the pooping on the toilet part. At least he tells me he needs a pullup when he needs to go.

So I printed up a couple drafts tonight on my crapola printer (have I mentioned lately how much I STILL hate my new printer?) Yes? Broken record? Ok. I'm done my rant. I got to watch Desperate Housewives amid screams from Cooper when he had the nerve to wake up during my favourite show. Kidding. Poor kid. Not sure if it's all the teething or if he had a bellyache, but I gave him some medicine. He seems to be hating to take anything now, after the fever marathon, so that's an extra chore to get him to open his mouth for medicine. He wouldn't even open up for any gripe water. God forbid he gets as many fevers and stuff that Carter had...'cause he'd be in for a lot more medicine in that case.

I'm off to bed now I think. I don't feel like fighting with the printer this evening anymore and I'd better have a snooze in case Cooper makes another appearance before morning.