Oh Crap It's Tuesday Already

And I haven't blogged since Saturday!

Let's recap. It's been a good few days.

Sunday morning I bailed on church to do some baking. I was afraid I might not pull it all off for my Mom's dinner party so I got an early start. I made "Death by Chocolate" and "Cherry Cheesecake Squares". They turned out just divine if I do say so myself, even though I never tried either. Here are a couple pics of the glorious desserts:

I was really tuned in to baking mode, so I also whipped up a small batch of "candy cane brittle"...melted white chocolate with bits of crushed candy cane folded in and sprinkled on top with red sugar sprinkled on for colour. Let it set and...yum!

We invited Deidre & Greg for supper so that meant I had to go get some food in the house! I left all my boys at home and went out shopping. My first stop was at Warehouse One. I decided I needed something new to wear. I extremely rarely do this. I bought a nice pair of deep brownish-green cords and a pretty floral top. Next stop was the beer store. Please note that I find beer repellent in every possible way; I was being a nice wifey and picking it up for Chris. Plus when you buy a new outfit, the beer is a good distraction! heehee

Next stop was Canadian Tire. I picked up some LED Christmas lights and a couple laundry baskets and ziploc containers. Dollar store - a couple little Christmas gadgets and a big glowstick for Carter just for kicks. Safeway was the final stop. I picked up all the ingredients for supper plus a couple other necessary food items, and stuff for dessert too.

I came home and started preparing supper. I decided to be brave and try a new recipe. I used Angie's "Creamy Chicken Enchilada" recipe. You can visit her blog for it; I guarantee it's worth the trip over there to get it. I also bought a salsa salad kit; came complete with mini tortilla chip strips, a little packet of grated cheese, and two dressings: A creamy salsa-ish ranch and some salsa. I tossed it together and it was good! Everyone LOOOOOOOOOOVED the enchiladas. I was so thrilled I couldn't wait to tell Angie that I had used her recipe. I was so darned pleased with myself and how they turned out that I was pretty much giddy.

For dessert I made everyone hyuuuuuge ice cream sundaes with chocolate chips, skor toffee bits, banana slices (could live without that but it was okay), chocolate syrup and whip cream on top. Wow. As if we weren't already full enough from supper! We visited awhile then Deidre & Greg (and Connor!) left. I watched Desperate Housewives...OMG so good! and was pretty tired.

Monday...Kelly & Doug's 25th Wedding Anniversary - Congratulations! Unfortunately Doug works far far away and wasn't here for it, so Carter, Cooper and I took her out for a lunch date. After lunch we stopped at Canadian Tire and a couple other places. I picked up an 8-foot luminated inflatable snowman and some more stuff for Christmas baking. Hopefully I'll go all "Martha" on the weekend again and do some more stuff. We dropped off Kelly, I brought Chris a late lunch at work, and brought the boys home. They were both asleep so I quickly assembled Mr. Snowman and carried the boys in the house. Carter loved the snowman; I felt like a hero. Talk about a win-win!

Supper was leftover/snack stuff. We watched "Heroes" and I started in on a hyuuuuuuge project. I went to bed pretty late; partly due to working on the computer, and partly due to my kids taking turns staying up late/waking up to party.

This morning I worked on the computer quite a bit again, and Kelly informed me that she was baking a kajillion cookies and for us to come and get some. We did a quick Tim Horton's run and brought a coffee to Chris then went over for some awesome peanut butter cookies, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Good stuff! We visited with Kelly for a bit then came home. Chris came home from work awhile later and we got ready to go to Mom & Dad's house for supper. Cindy and the family were there too. It was awesome as per usual. We came home and I had missed watching "Veronica Mars". Luckily it was on again at eleven. And I'm so glad I stayed up to watch it. It was very intense! I really wish I'd watched the series from the beginning. I missed two whole seasons. But now I'm hooked anyway.

Now it's exactly 1:00 and I need to get some sleep so I can tackle my projects again tomorrow. Whew. That was alot to catch up on but I'm done. Peace out, peeps!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas...

Despite the fact that we have NO snow!

Today I wanted to go Christmas shopping in the worst way. Our AdBag with the sales flyers showed up and tempted me bigtime. I want to buy new Christmas decorations; we need some outdoor lights and some sort of decorations. Chris's Grandpa "Papa" came over to visit this afternoon. Supper was leftovers from last night.

I got ready to go to Sandi's 13th Annual Christmas Decorating Party. Chris stayed home with the boys and I took off. Sandi had a schedule all set for us; we were to start "working" promptly at seven o'clock. We were done decorating in record time, and were greatly rewarded with snacks and presents. I had a blast - it's always fun to be a part of Sandi's decorating team! And despite our lack of snow (though so far I'm not missing it!) I'm getting in the Christmas spirit.

I came home around ten, and Cooper was asleep on the floor. I handed Carter the gift bag from Sandi and I was the biggest hero in town. Inside there was a cyuuuuute little Santa figurine and he carried around until he went to bed. Actually, I don't see it at the moment - maybe he took it to bed with him! Sorry Sandi, but I didn't tell him it was from you - I was enjoying the gratitude too much! heehee. There was also a lapel pin in the bag, but I took it out and had already put it on my winter coat.

We started watching the movie "Accepted" and of course Cooper got up to party for awhile. Carter went to bed then Cooper eventually went back to sleep and I put him in his crib. I'm up wayyyyyyy too late again, but I wanted to do a couple scrapbooking pages. Here is one using Christy's new "Thanks Happy Giving" kit:



Here's a layout using the group picture I took using my camera's automatic timer. I used Atomic Cupcake stuff - mostly the "Sweet Holiday" kit and a couple other items from the "To Have and Hold" kit and the chalked edge action. Now it's super duper late and I'm gonna try to squeeze in a few zees before someone wakes me up!

Here Comes Santa Claus

I fully intended to blog each day that I didn't...

Wednesday morning I took the boys to Alana's for another babysitting trial run. I had some errands to run like taking care of my paperwork for taking my vacation time and returning to work. I picked up the other computer from the shop. It had ninety-five bucks' worth of viruses on it, and took two weeks to get all cleaned out. Good thing I have a secondary computer or I'd still have the shakes from missing that one.

I did a drive-by for Chris, and for Kelly at work. I made a hair appointment. I haven't been to the hairdresser since the beginning of June! My hair is getting long and I'm going to get my highlights redone.

I picked up the boys after about two hours and brought them home. Nobody napped. Chris came home from work and I was too excited about going to Bingo to cook supper. I always eat supper at Bingo, so I did a quick McDonald's run when Chris got home from work. But I ate anyway before we went.

Kelly called me on her way home from work and I walked to her house to meet up with her. We picked up Mom at the corner of her road and went to Bingo. No, sadly we were unsuccessful in the Bingo yelling department. It was close, but we had fun anyway.

Cooper was up in the night for about an hour. He hasn't been sleeping through the night anymore. I think I'm going to try the playpen in the living room again. It might be that it's warmer in the living room. Whatever it is, if he sleeps through the night I'll do whatever it takes to help him with it!

Thursday was a quiet one. One of those stay-in-the-house-and-not-even-go-outside-to-the-mailbox days. Chris came home from working a bit late after a big day on the road. He picked up pizza - had the kind with the stuffed crust. Wow is that ever filling! I worked on a few computer projects and watched "ER". I stayed up very very late and of course just as I was almost finished working Cooper got up. Crikey.

I was tired. And he was so lively. I gave him a bottle. Nope. He was wide awake. Freaked out if I tried to put him to bed. I kept he lights off to try to convince him it was still the middle of the night (it really was; it was three by this time) I fed him cereal, gave him Tylenol thinking he was getting new teeth keeping him awake, sang songs - nothing was helping him get sleepy again. Finally I gave in and nursed him a little and he eventually but not for quite awhile went back to sleep. So I got to go to bed around five I think!

I didn't rest very well and I could still hear Cooper once in a while make a little squawk. He slept a little more then we got up around eight thirty I think. I have no idea how long Carter was up before me. That scares me. He had the TV on his treehouse channel and was playing games online on the computer and he got his mitts on the leftover pizza. Breakfast of champions, I say!

Considering my lack of sleep, I felt pretty darned good. I had an awesome hot shower and washed my hair. I fed the boys breakfast and did my hair and face. I got the boys dressed and ready and we went out. I brought the leftover pizza to Chris at work. I delivered some Christmas letters I did for one of my friends at work. I took the boys grocery shopping. They have those shopping carts that are like a little truck in the front, so Carter was happy. Cooper had fallen asleep in the Jeep on the way but he was awake for the shopping. I picked up steaks and stuff for supper tonight. I had invited Mom & Dad to come for supper before the Santa Claus parade.

I came home and did a quick tidy-up. I vacuumed and emptied and filled the dishwasher. Supper didn't need a whole lot of preparation. I washed the potatoes and the mushrooms were already sliced. The asparagus was ready since it was frozen and I bought a Caesar salad kit. Chris came home from work just before Mom & Dad arrived at five-thirty. Since Carter hadn't napped all day, he fell asleep right before Chris came home.

We had an awesome supper and about in the middle of it everyone started to show up here for the parade. We finished supper and everyone arrived and we all headed over to the main drag to watch the parade. We managed to wake Carter just in time to go. There is NO snow on the ground and I didn't even have mitts on because I had the camera out. It was cool but not super cold out. I had bundled the boys up and they rode in the double stroller. I took a few pictures of the parade which I will blog soon - I uploaded them on the other computer so I'll post this then come back and blog the pictures.

Everyone came back here after the parade for drinks and homemade hot chocolate with marshmallows and a few snacks. My little house was packed and it was great! Everyone left around nine o'clock. It was a great evening. And we'll do it all over again in a couple weeks when Cooper turns one year old! Cooper just fell asleep a little while ago. Carter is still going strong. It's just after ten and I think I'm going to try to squeeze in a nap before Cooper decides to get up and party. Here are the pics; Photo #2 - (My cousin Mike & Monique's son Oliver in the dragon boat!)

Up & At'Em!

Cooper was up once in the night but not for too long. I heard him one or two more times, but we didn't get up until after eight-thirty!

I got ready and got the boys washed up and dressed and we picked up Kelly to go out for coffee/breakfast. We went to Tim Horton's for bagels and my ever-favourite French Vanilla Cappucino. We stopped by Chris's shop to bring him a coffee and a bagel too. He was about to get off work early. He was in dire need of a shave; (I've been to Wal-Mart about four times since he ran out and never thought of picking some up). So Kelly came with me and watched the boys in the Jeep so I could run in to the store. We dropped her off and came home.

Chris went to help one of his coworkers with loading his snowmobile or something, then he came home. I never realized how scruffy he was! He played outside with Carter for awhile since it was such a nice day out. Purolator showed up with our new phone. Yes, another new phone! This one is a dual-handset cordless phone that we got from AirMiles. Chris shaved and showered and Carter went down for a nap. Of course Cooper didn't, as he had snoozed a little in our travels. So Chris let me go take a nap. I requested half an hour, but he let me sleep for over an hour. Sweeeeeeeet. I hadn't even heard the phone ring twice while I was asleep.

I got up and went to the grocery store to pick up some groceries to make supper. I gave Chris the option of chicken or meatloaf. He picked meatloaf, which was great because I already knew both boys would eat it after they enjoyed it last week. Normally I hardly ever make it, but if my kids eat when I make it, it's going to be more frequent. While I started cooking supper, Chris went to the shop to help one of the guys install his stereo in his car. I ate supper with the boys then Chris came home and had supper too. Then he went to visit his Dad.

I watched most of Veronica Mars, but had a couple phone calls and my Dad stopped by. Plus Cooper kept taking off on me going to his and Carter's bedroom. It isn't on any of my channels again tonight but I hope to catch a rerun this weekend or something.

Here's a shot of the new phone. It's still charging so I haven't even been able to play with it yet. I'll hook it up tomorrow morning once it's fully-charged. Anyhoo, it's only just after ten thirty right now but I'm pooped and I'm going to sleep. Tomorrow we're going for another visit with the babysitter and I can pick up the other computer from the shop.

First Day Back to Work

Well, it's officially official. My maternity leave is over. I called to end my employment insurance claim today. I'm back to work.

But, I'm on vacation. Yes, I know that sounds crazy. My first day actually in the office is December 4th. Wow it's been an amazing, fast year. I can't believe my baby will be one year old two weeks from Wednesday.

So I spent the day struggling to squeeze in a nap amid cleaning spurts. Tonight Diane and I had a sampler party for Victorian Epicure Selections. Her daughter-in-law is a consultant, though she lives far away. So Diane brought all her stuff over and made a bunch of dips and mixes and we had a few ladies over to try the stuff. I made the beef & steak marinade last night and marinated a steak that Diane brought over. This afternoon I marinated some chicken in the Souvlaki seasoning mix. It was a fun and very tasty social gathering! And it was a great reason to give the house a good cleaning! I even did a couple windows!

This coming Friday is our Santa Claus parade. It goes by almost right in front of our house, so our house is the gathering place before and after the parade. When our house was my grandparents' house, it was the gathering place then too. So I've kept up the after-parade tradition of having everyone over. I make hot chocolate and put out a bunch of munchies. I just can't believe it's this Friday!

And, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Kelly and my Mom and I are going to Bingo this week. But right now, I'm tired after a long day "back at work". heehee Imagine how tired I'll be when I actually have to pack up two kids, drop them off at the sitter, and go to the office all day! I'm looking forward to a change in pace and I think it will be good for the boys too. Then poof, it will be Christmas. Time is a-flyin'.

One more thing I need to document. (This blog also serves as a baby record!) I switched Cooper to soy milk last night. He's been having such a hard time poopin' lately, that I'm hoping this makes a difference. We'll see tomorrow, I bet!

Sunny Sunday

Today was a beautiful day. We still (again) have very little snow and it was sunny and gorgeous today. We might even end up with some above-freezing temperatures this week, if the weatherman's pants aren't on fire.

So last night sounded like I was headed for bed early. But Angie signed on and I finally got to touch base with her again. I ended up watching TV and talking to her for a couple hours. Of course Cooper was up for much of that time, but I eventually settled him again and he slept until about 6:30 this morning. I talked him into going back to sleep briefly, then everyone was up and I got ready to go to church.

Cooper came with me and was a sweet, cute little prince in church. My parents were there and surprisingly my sister was too! After church we all went out for breakfast with Auntie Lurdes, Uncle Cliff and Guy & Marie. Cooper fell asleep the second I got him in his car seat and started moving.

We came home and I put him in his bed. Chris went downstairs to play video games. Carter ended up following him, but Cooper was up shortly after that. Chris and I started watching "The DaVinci Code". He went out for coffee in the middle of it, but I debriefed him when he got back. I managed to get both boys napping and got almost to the end of the movie before Carter got up.

I need to go grocery shopping bigtime and hadn't taken anything out for supper. So I did a quick little drive-thru run for supper. But on the way, I picked up some soy milk for Cooper. He's been having a hard time dealing with number two, so I'm hoping this will help him. He doesn't seem to notice a difference and drank it up just as quickly as regular milk or breastmilk.

I got to watch "Desperate Housewives", and was engrossed in it as usual. Cooper was starting to wind down by this time and I had to cuddle him quite a bit and walk around with him for awhile. Carter was being quite the little monkey jumping on his bed and generally doing the opposite of what we asked him to do. He needs to be entertained. When he's bored he goes a little nutso! He wound down too after I moved his bed (and almost took away his mattress!) I have some cleaning up to do around here. Tomorrow night my friend Diane and I are having a sampler party for her daughter-in-law's "Victorian Epicure Selections" business. It's yummy good stuff. Dip mixes, no-salt spices, cooking utensils and pans, chocolate, tea, coffee - tons of stuff.

So off I go to marinate some meat for the gals to sample the awesome (my favourite product) beef & steak marinade. Should be delish. Then I think I'm going to hit the hay. I'll need my energy to tackle the dustbunnies and try to stay sane while chasing the boys and trying to clean the house simultaneously tomorrow!

Last Weekend

Cooper pretty much slept through the night (in his crib in his room). I heard him up once but he went back to sleep right away. Wake up time was pretty early this morning, before six, but I gave him a bottle and eventually got him to go back to sleep for awhile.

We all got up and faced the day. Cooper seems to really like music and books. I could never get Carter to sit still enough long enough to read him a story; he always tore the books up first chance he got. Cooper tries to destroy them too so I try to stick with the board books.

Chris came home from work and went shopping for new workboots. (Thank you, Janet!) An early Christmas/birthday present that was much-needed. Mom came over and I left both boys with Chris and went to the Lutheran Church's tea and craft/bake sale. Auntie Lurdes and Auntie Josie were there too. We had a nice little luncheon with them. Mom and I went to Wal-Mart after so I could pick up a pair of shoes for work. Mom ended up buying them for me (Thank you, Mom!)

I came home and Cooper had briefly napped but Carter hadn't. Chris went for coffee with Greg (and brought me an FVC...yum!) I took Carter with me for a short date...to pick up a movie and Chinese food for supper. I ended up renting two movies, "Cars" and "Little Man". Mom and Dad stopped by and also dropped off "The DaVinci Code" for us to watch.

So we had our Chinese food and started watching "Cars". Cooper dozed off very early so I'm curious to see what unGodly hour he'll decide to get up at. Carter fell asleep about halfway through the movie, with Chris crashing about five minutes after him. It was a cute movie; I'm the only one who made it through the whole thing. But you can be sure Carter will play it over and over and over until the very minute it has to be returned to the video store. He loves to watch something new.

Now it's just after eight-thirty and I'm tossing around the idea of going to sleep too! I'm planning on going to church in the morning. So let's see...put on another movie, or go to sleep. I'll sign off and weigh my options. I guess I could do both...put on a movie and fall asleep like the others did!

Out and About

Bad blogger. Bad bad blogger. Now I'm racking my brain trying to remember what the heck I did yesterday and today. It's going to be sketchy. This is what happens when I don't get to talk to Angie because I don't get to recap current events and forget them by the time blogging time rolls around!

So yesterday...Cindy got her new Suburban. Oy vay it's big, black and beautiful. I haven't seen it "in person" yet but it looks pretty fancy shmancy from the window! She dropped off the kids late in the afternoon yesterday so she could go to the dealership to pick it up and do the paperwork. So Carter and Cooper got to visit with their cousins for awhile.

Chris came home from work and we had leftover chicken and some soup that Cindy dropped off in the morning. Good stuff. I had to do a Wal-Mart run for milk so I took off shortly after supper. Silly me, I left about ten minutes before "Earl" was to start so I totally missed it. I was a good little shopper and got out of there spending about forty-three bucks, mostly sticking to the necessities except for the chocolate bars and Doritos. I came home and Chris and Greg went out for coffee. I called Vicky to wish her a Happy Birthday, but I had to leave her a voicemail. I chatted with Deidre on the phone for awhile then Chris came home and we watched "ER". Carter and Cooper went to sleep at a decent time. I was thinking about going to bed when the phone rang. Vicky called me back so we chatted for awhile. We should probably stick to chatting online because we can't seem to run out of things to talk about! It was cool to talk to her on the phone though!

I was in bed by about eleven thirty. Everyone slept through the night. Yay! So I got up this morning all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. We had breakfast and I had a long hot shower all to myself. I put on my face and did my hair. I got us all dressed and ready and we got out of the house. No appointments or anything, I just wanted out!

We brought Chris lunch at work and he sat with us in the Jeep to eat lunch. I had a flamethrower burger and onion rings. Mmmmmmm. It's been awhile. After lunch we drove out to visit Mom. Dad was working. Mom wasn't feeling well so we didn't stay too long. We drove back and brought Chris a coffee at work. Carter fell asleep on the way home from visiting Mom but by the time I drove around a bit he woke up.

Chris came home from work and we had a leftovers supper again. We watched "Mission Impossible 3". I'm glad that Tom Cruise is a good enough actor that I forget what a weirdo I think he is in real life. It was a pretty good action movie. I got both boys to go to sleep around nine o'clock. Earlier in the evening, I set Cooper's crib up with all his cushy blankies in it; I'm doing an experiment to see if he will sleep through the night in the crib like he has been in the playpen lately. I'll keep you posted. Now it's almost eleven and I'm going to bed. At this rate I'll be going to bed at nine o'clock by the time I go back to work! (Nah, I doubt it).

Happy Birthday Vicky Shaw!

Happy Birthday Dan, Edison, Paige & Sasha!

I hate it when I don't blog every day...

Anyhoo, a big ol' Happy Birthday to Chris's Dad Dan, Angie's son Edison, my cousin's daughter Paige, and my dearly departed mother-in-law's dog Sasha, who now lives with Chris's Auntie Wendy. Whew! That's a lot of birthday for one day!

Tuesday was fairly uneventful. Monday night was the first night in a few days where Cooper did NOT sleep through the night. I was up with him from about three until four-thirtyish. So Tuesday was a sleepy day and no nap for me. Supper was meatloaf and rice and veggies. Cooper and Carter both pigged out on the meatloaf. I was suitably impressed. I watched Veronica Mars and we had a mini-chat with a few of the girls from BSD. That's always a hoot.

This morning I got us all breakfasted and ready to go for a visit with our babysitter. She asked me to bring them by for a couple hours for another trial run. So I brought them over at nine and took off running errands. Brought Chris a coffee and bagel at work. Picked up my sunglasses (yay! Got my "big-girl" sunglasses back!), paid my dentist bill, went for my eyebrow waxing appointment. (This was the second time in a row that the boys just happened to be at the babysitter when I had an appointment...fabulous coincidence!) Picked up some printer ink. Stopped in at the office.

As I was picking up the boys, my Dad called (first call on my cool new phone! Whee!) He asked if I wanted to meet him at McDonald's for lunch. Ummmmm. Yeah!!! So I dressed the boys and headed over. We had lunch and Dad had picked up a MOUNTAIN of garbage from our garage - it almost filled the box of his truck. Crikey!

After lunch we came home. Nobody napped. Cooper had napped at the babysitter and Carter was high on caffeine from the pop I allowed him to have at lunch. Silly Mommy. Chris came home from work and there was no supper to be found. I need to go grocery shopping bigtime. So I ran to Safeway after Chris had his shower and picked up a roasted chicken and some buns and veggies. Talk about an easy supper.

Both boys were finally sleeping by about nine o'clock. We watched a bit of the new show with the very yummy Mr. Taye Diggs "Daybreak". Looks like it's going to be a good show. Finally something to watch on Wednesdays for the times I don't go to Bingo (which I think will be many). Cooper woke up screaming at ten. I tried cuddling, nursing, orajel-ing. Nothing worked. A few big noisy toots later and he seemed to feel better and fell asleep cuddling on my shoulder. Surprisingly he stayed down when I put him back to bed. Poor guy.

Had a little chat with Angie and my sister tonight. Good to do a little catching up whenever possible. No new layouts today...hopefully I'll find the time tomorrow to work on some stuff for me.

Angie's Alpha

I made this alpha a while back for Angie...she used it in a layout a couple days ago and I figured I'd share it with "the world"...

Here it is; just click on the image to download the alpha.
Please note: All the letters and numbers are on one PNG file.
Terms of use: Use it as you wish, but please credit the source.

Enjoy!

A Way Cool New Toy

Let's see here. Last post was Saturday...

Another full night of sleep. How delicious. Didn't even try to stay up to watch SNL. Sunday morning, I got up with plenty of time to get Cooper and myself ready to go to church. Carter wasn't interested in going so he stayed home with Daddy. Cooper was a sweet little honey in church. A few little noises, but mostly saying "UP" whenever he wanted to switch from being held by Mom or Dad or me. Cyuuuuuute.

After church, we went for breakfast with Mom and Dad, Uncle Cliff & Auntie Lurdes, Uncle Bob & Auntie Josie, and Guy & Marie. Cooper was asleep by the time we got to the restaurant, so I put my coat down on the floor and left him in his cushy snowsuit and he slept through breakfast. Took him home and he slept still for a little while.

Mom invited us for supper for shepherd's pie with the leftovers from the awesome moose roast dinner. Chris wasn't feeling up to it (he was already on day two of not smoking...wowie!) I must mention he was pretty cantankerous, but I was very proud of him. His last cigarette was at Mom & Dad's on Friday night.

So since Carter was still napping, I took Cooper and went to Mom & Dad's for supper. I have an amusing anecdote to toss in here...I've mentioned before how my Mom has an affinity obsession for Haagen-Dasz Coffee ice cream...well she asked me to pick some up on my way out there, along with some fresh buns. Anyhoo, cut to a few days ago. Dad had picked up a couple containers of the stuff for her, and brought one out to her and she ate it. Next morning she finds another one in the freezer. For some reason, this is a guilty pleasure for her to eat this stuff though she has no reason to feel guilty about it. Soooooooo, she eats the ice cream and refills the container with water and puts it back in the freezer so Dad won't know that she found the extra stash he'd hidden for her. What a nut!

So supper was fantastic as per usual. We went downstairs to watch TV. Mom ate her ice cream that I delivered, and gave Cooper a bath. I brought his jammies so he'd be ready for bed when we got home. I decided to stay and watch Desperate Housewives. Figured there'd be fewer interruptions out there than at home. It was good as usual. I brought Cooper home and he went to sleep. I did some computing (but obviously no blogging) and headed for bed by midnight I think. I might have slept for the last hour that I was up.

Today I woke up feeling refreshed after yet another full night's sleep. Ol' Aunt Flo swung by on the weekend but other than that I felt good today. Mom stopped in this morning before and after her lunch out with Dad with the retired teachers' group. Then she went to her massage appointment. I was supposed to go to the dentist today but I cancelled 'cause I couldn't pawn the boys off on anyone. Boo hoo. Guess I have to wait to get my face drilled out. I had a few errands I wanted to run, so I packaged up the boys and headed out.

I didn't get much of what I wanted to accomplished. We stopped at Chris's work to say hi, then I went to see Auntie Lurdes at work 'cause I finally remembered on the weekend that I left my "big girl sunglasses" there the last time I was there. It had been at least two weeks since I had lost them so she let one of the office girls take them home with the stipulation that if the owner came forward she' have to bring 'em back. So yay for me that Auntie Lurdes got the girl to bring them back. Hopefully she'll bring them to work with her tomorrow. I couldn't afford to lose yet another pair of expensive sunglasses. If I didn't get 'em back I'd have had to wear my old scratchy scratchy ones. I've been taking such good care of this pair. Well, until recently anyway.

While I was at her office, I detoured to the cell phone office and picked me up a cool new camera phone. Free, baby, free. My cell phone contract had ended in September, so I re-contracted and got an awesome LG phone. They activated it quickly and I was all set. When I left there the time was close to what I figured would be the time Mom would be done her massage. So I drove by the massage place and within ten minutes out came Mom. I showed her the phone and she wanted to go get hers too. We had planned to go together to get the new phones. So she came with me and we went back to get her one. How fun.

I dropped her back off at her car then stopped by Chris's work again to show him the new toy. By then both boys were asleep (finally - late nap...eek!) so I really didn't want to go home yet. I drove around a little, went to McDonald's drive-thru to get a Coke, drove home and sat in the driveway contemplating the risk of waking the boys if I brought them in the house. I played with the phone a little sitting in the driveway and programmed a couple numbers in it. I took a picture of Carter with it earlier and used it as the display picture for when our home phone number calls the cell. I figured I'd do a little more driving around just so the boys would have about a one-hour nap. I tried to time it perfectly to arrive home at the same time as Chris so he could help carry the kids in, but he made it home before I did. The boys had slept about an hour, which is long enough for a nap that late in the day. I brought them in. Chris showered and I cooked supper. We had a beef/noodle/veggie stir-fry. It was pretty good. Cooper ate some carrots and pea pods and I fed him a jar of squash. Carter ate an impressive amount.

I did a very quick Wal-Mart run right after supper. Just diapers, windshield fluid x 2, baby cookies and baby food jars of fruit for Cooper. I escaped the place spending about twenty-six bucks! Go Me! I paused in the parking lot to fill up the windshield fluid in the Jeep then did a quick Tim Horton's run. I haven't had a French vanilla cappucino in days. I went home and we watched Heroes. In mid-show, I realized we were very nearly out of milk. It would have been nice to notice that BEFORE I went to Wal-Mart but oh well. I did a quick Safeway run just for milk.

I came home and watched the rest of Heroes and started programming phone numbers into the new phone. Chris was playing with Cooper. Cooper pulls himself up and walks around the furniture. Yikes. He says "Up" and "Thank You" and "Uh-Oh" and the occasional other sounds that resemble a word that he copies from us. So very cute. I finally got the chance to catch up with Angie since we hadn't spoken since Thursday night. That's highly unusual. So we did our catch-up and we were both good little bloggers this evening. She even did a gorgeous scrapbook layout tonight; one of my favourites of hers. Now it's getting pretty late and since Cooper and my other two boys are sleeping, I'm going to bed too. Eighty-five numbers programmed in the phone so far. I was too lazy to put in any email addresses. I don't have text messaging anyway. Good night!

The Magic Playpen

Wow. I slept about seven and a half hours last night. This is good practice for when I go back to work. Soon. Yikes. I actually got up slightly before Cooper this morning, like about four seconds. I came out to the living room to find him just standing up in the playpen smiling at me. Sweeeeeeet.

Here as I mentioned, is a cyuuute little video of Cooper playing "peek-a-boo"...with a laugh track courtesy of my Mom & Dad and Chris and me...and Chris's foot is the one in the picture...





So this morning I made toast for the boys and gave Cooper his cereal. I did a bunch more sorting of clothes and a few loads of laundry today. Chris was off work so it was much easier with some help in the kid wrangling department.

For lunch I made hotdogs and chicken noodle soup for the boys. Cooper ate half a wiener...I was amazed! I cut it lengthwise twice, then into little morsels that he ate like candy. He ate a few spoonsful of soup too. Then he was done. Cooper seems to be done eating when he starts spitting food. It's happened a few times anyway. Chris's brother Jason & his girlfriend Claire came to visit this afternoon.

For supper I made spaghetti with homemade sauce again. But oops, instead of buying diced tomatoes like usual, I realized the last time I shopped I bought crushed tomatoes. So instead of adding nice chunks of tomato to the sauce, it was like adding more tomato sauce to the sauce. Oh well, it turned out fine. I made some garlic toast too. I let Cooper go at the spaghetti on his own. He devoured as much as he could grab and stuff in his mouth. Here are a few "Canon" moments (don't have a Kodak camera anymore...)








After supper we watched movies on TV and hung out. Chris went to bed at nine-thirty which was just after Cooper did. Carter went to bed at or just before the same time. Now it's my turn. SNL is just starting but I'm toast. Gonna try to take Carter to church in the morning and leave Cooper at home with Daddy this time. We'll see.

Another Lucky Seven!

No, sadly this is not a Bingo reference, though the lucky seven game is the one for the big big bucks! I don't know when I'll go to Bingo again. But what it does refer to is another beautiful night of seven hours of sleep. Ahhhhhhhhh. Sweet slumber.

The thing is, Cooper's been sleeping in the playpen - in the living room. All night. Do you think I'm going to change anything? Negatory! Let sleeping babes lie, I say!

Okay, so Wednesday SUCKED because I barely got any sleep. I think I got a total of two hours of sleep on Tuesday night. I was tired and I was beeeeyotchy on Wednesday. But for some strange reason, I managed to start the monumental task of moving a large shelf unit from the basement to the boys' closet. I have a few of those cube-icals fabric drawers. This shelf unit will fit twelve of them and I have five already, so I just need seven more. Anyhoo, I emptied all the crap off the shelves and toted this big honkin' wooden shelf thingy up the stairs and into the bedroom. Then do you think I could find a single screwdriver to take the legs off the darn thing?

It took me forever, but I found **MY** toolkit out in the garage. I swear I have to hide it or I never know where it is. So I finally took the legs off the shelf unit and moved it into the closet. Perfect fit. I felt like a genius. Haha. So the closet bar with the kids clothes on it clears the top shelf. Awesome. I sorted some of the mountain of kids' clothes too. I have a hyuge bin that Cooper has outgrown. A box that Carter has outgrown that I need to keep for Cooper. And in the stuff Cooper has outgrown, I still need to sort into my stuff, Tracy's and Deidre's that I borrowed. Oy. It's an uphill battle. There is still a ginormous pile of stuff that fits both kids right now that I need to put away in the nice little Martha Stewart closet before it ends up in one of the aforementioned boxes. Not to mention, the oodles and oodles of clean laundry in the basement that I have yet to sort and bring up to go through this whole process AGAIN. Oh and of course probably five loads of clothes and bedding that need to be washed. Yikes.

So anyway, supper on Wednesday was an easy one again. Fish & chips. Cooper gobbled up the fish sticks and fries and green beans like a pro. Carter ate his usual little bit. Wednesday night Cooper fell asleep so I set him down in the playpen. I had a bunch of junk in his crib from the rearranging that I had done anyway, so it worked well. I chatted with Angie and Helen for awhile then called it quits about eleven-thirty. Chris was asleep on the couch, so I went to bed. I woke up thinking it was the middle of the night. It was twenty after six! Whoa - I slept for seven hours straight! Whee! Meanwhile, I went out to the living room thinking Chris had overslept on the couch, but he was long gone to work. He had actually gone to bed too but surprisingly I didn't wake up or hear a thing!

Needless to say, Thursday was a much happier day for me and subsequently the boys. Cooper had a blast colouring, we read some books. I didn't accomplish anything anywhere near what I did on Wednesday, even with more sleep. Hmmm. Thursday supper was pork tenderloin that I cut into medallions as usual, and French-style green beans and long grain & wild rice. Cooper is obviously a carnivore like his big brother. Actually, more of an omnivore, he seems to eat everything. Carter's not into the green stuff too much, or any colour of vegetable for that matter.

Chris went out for guys' poker night. I watched "Earl" and chatted with Angie. I got Cooper to go to sleep in the playpen again. Woohoo! Carter wanted to watch his movie in his room so I hooked him up. I started watching "ER" and tried to join in the chat at DigiscrapDivas. Everything was going well until Cooper woke up. Crap. So I tried nursing him back to sleep just so I could keep doing everything **I** wanted to do. Selfish Mommy. Anyway, I eventually got him back to sleep in the playpen, finished the chat crop, chatted with Angie and we both finished a layout for the crop challenge and posted it by the eleven o'clock deadline. Whew! But I was beat. Angie signed off in a hurry saying there was an emergency. Freaked me right out. Turns out Caroline was gone off on a horrible coughing bout and Angie needed to take her to the hospital. And just so I wouldn't be too freaked, she got Mark to phone me to tell me. Is that sweet or what? It was much easier to go to sleep knowing what happened and that it was being taken care of. I'm still awaiting an update, so I pray everything's okay!

After that, I fell asleep on the couch. Another seven hours - sleep really rocks! Even though I slept in the living room, I didn't hear Chris's truck start up just past six o'clock this morning to go to work. This means I'm getting really yummy deep sleep. Cooper and Carter pretty much woke up at the same time; Carter may have even woken up Cooper, but it was fine with me. I made us all breakfast and we faced the day. I didn't do anymore sorting or rearranging, but it was a fun day, anyway. Carter enjoyed playing with play-dough for quite awhile and I made him some interesting characters. Cooper really wanted to get his hands on it too but we all know it would have gone directly in his mouth. Maybe next year for him. There was even some simultaneous napping late in the afternoon. Yay!

Chris came home and we got ready to go to Mom & Dad's house for supper. Cindy & family were going too. We had a faaaaaaaaantastic moose roast, mashed potatoes and gravy with peppercorns, peas and other mixed veggies, salad, and a really awesome cake Mom made and topped with ice cream and whipped cream. Best ice cream cake ever! We stayed and visited awhile, even after Cindy and the gang left.

Cooper was adorable playing peekaboo, and Carter was computer whizzing. Then Cooper, the little monkey started to climb the stairs, trying to follow Mom and Carter. Scary! I was right there with him and he climbed up two steps. Crikey I have to keep such a close eye on this kid or he'll take off on me for sure! I'll post a little video of Cooper playing peekaboo one of these days. It's so cute.

We came home and Cooper was asleep probably the second we pulled out of Mom & Dad's driveway. Surprisingly, he didn't wake up when I took off his snowsuit. Carter was ready to doze off so Chris put him to bed. Cooper's in the playpen again, so I'm hoping for a full night's sleep again. I hope I'm not just wishful thinking!

Here is the layout I did for the crop challenge:

Lucky Seven!

A Real Shot in the Arm

Crap. Going back to my last post on Saturday...

Okay. So believe it or not I had not such a bad night on Saturday night and managed to get up in time to get ready for church on Sunday. I took Cooper with me; Carter opted to stay home with Daddy as usual. I think the music bugs him now that I think about it; he seems fairly sensitive to sounds and music.

Anyhoo, it was nice to get out of the house and go to church after about a month of not getting my butt out of bed to go. Cooper was pretty good. Just a couple little squawks as he is liking the sound of his own voice these days. He's also loving climbing to stand, and is starting to work his way along the couch or whatever he's holding on to. Yikes! The little turkey's gonna be walking soon.

Another very blogworthy event was Sunday supper. Chris was hungry before I decided to start cooking. I was going to make fettucine alfredo with panfried mushrooms, but Chris started scrambling eggs with salsa (OMG that was delish) and bacon and hashbrowns. Breakfast for supper is awesome, especially when I don't cook it - super especially when my husband does! Woohoo! "Desperate Housewives" kicked ass on Sunday night. Wow. I'm so involved in the lives of these fictional characters. Call me crazy.

Monday...hmmm. I think it was a fairly low-key, no-make-up-or-hairdo-or-leave-the-house-except-for-getting-the-mail-from-the-mailbox kind of day. Chris came home from work and helped me get supper started. He cooked the rest of the bacon from his Sunday "dinner" and put the water for the pasta on to boil. That was a good head start for me and I panfried the mushrooms in butter and heated the store-bought sauce. (Cheater!) I added the mushrooms to the sauce then figured the bacon would be a nice addition to it too. Yes, it was. Supper was served!

We watched "Heroes" on TV and that was the height of activity for the evening. I was working on fixing the other computer because I seem to have killed it and can't fix it myself. Cooper was up from about two until four-thirty this morning. There was no getting him to go back to bed until then. Finally I put him back in his crib and crawled into bed. Unbelievably, he was up by about seven. I figured he needed more sleep almost as much as I did, so I let him complain for a few minutes and he went back to sleep. Whew. Carter crawled in with me and was so darned fidgety I didn't get much more rest but it was nice to stay in bed until after eight o'clock.

This afternoon, I went for my flu shot. It's mandatory for staff at my office to get it done, so since I'm returning to work soon, I got it done on the staff immunization day so they'd let me go back to work next month! So it looks like I'm returning to work on November 20th, but taking some vacation time. I need to work at least a half a day in this calendar year to be eligible for my vacation time, so I'll be working a few Mondays. Those are the days my Mom has opted to babysit for us, so it will get everyone oriented to the new upcoming changes. I'm feeling a déjà-vu; I think I've mentioned this stuff before.

I dropped my computer off at the computer hospital after my flu shot appointment; I'm just a wannabe geek; I had to take it to the pros 'cause I couldn't make it better by myself. I bow down to those who are geekier than I am.

Dad stopped in after we got home. Carter was napping but Cooper was up and cruisin' around. After Dad left, Cooper actually went for a nap too. I kind of closed my eyes a little. Chris came home and both boys were still sleeping so I took off for the grocery store. There was virtually no real food in the house!

I came home and offered options for supper, and Chris chose hotdogs. Fine with me! Carter the chickadee ate about a half of his. I sure hope his appetite increases one of these days so I don't worry about him. Though I do recall I was pretty much the same and I adore food now!

After supper I chatted a little with Kelly; we both can't make it to Bingo tomorrow evening so maybe next week. Then I watched "Veronica Mars" and am now finally blogging. I need to put the rest of the DVD backup that I made from the other computer - yes, at least I was smart enough to back all my stuff up before I screwed it up. It took TWELVE (12!) DVDs to back up my digital pictures and all my scrapbooking kits, layouts and stuff. So it's just as time consuming to transfer them from the DVDs to this computer as it was to make the DVD backup. So I'm hoping to get it all on here and work on some new scrapbooking layouts. To add to the delay, Carter is still up because he took a very long nap today and he must be suffering from computer withdrawal because he keeps coming up to this computer and trying to log on, though I'm the only user on this computer. And sorry, but it's going to stay that way! I'll try to post some new stuff tomorrow.

One Puter Down...Switching Over.

Bear with me; I'll post tonight!

Jackpot on Snot Machine Number Two!

Crikey. Both my kids have a cold. Carter has a dry cough/runny nose and Cooper has a non-stop river of mucous pouring forth from his nose. (You're so welcome for the graphic description.)

So both of them have been coping okay but can get so grouchy! And of course staying up for hours at a time in the middle of the night makes for a grumpy day for me too.

For some reason it feels like Sunday today. I was looking forward to watching "Desperate Housewives" and when we were at my parents' for supper I mentioned it and Mom reminded me tomorrow is Sunday and gave me an ever-so-sweet reminder that it would be nice if we made an appearance at church. Yes, it's been at least four weeks.

So Friday was fairly uneventful. Chris came home from work and I ordered pizza for supper. I opted to pick it up since it's way faster than waiting for a delivery since they're usually so busy. I got all the way there and parked the Jeep and came to the biting realization that my wallet and I were not traveling together. So I drove home to pick it up. I had called Chris to make sure it was handy and he had it sitting on the inside step waiting for me. I just grabbed it and ran. Then when I got back there I had to wait just to pick up the pizzas. Anyhoo, they were good and Cooper liked them too. It was a quiet evening until Cooper got up and screeched like a howler monkey for about two hours straight.Finally I was fairly sure he was sleeping soundly again and transported him back to his crib. So now after all that, somebody explain to me why both my kids still got up at seven o'clock this morning?

I had a bath with Cooper this morning and washed my hair, intending to colour it but I was tiiiiiired. Later this morning I was just starting a yummylicious nap since I managed to get Cooper down and Carter was lying down too. Carter climbed in with me and woke me up. Then Dad stopped by. Both boys stayed asleep but when Cindy came by Cooper woke up. Chris came home from work and I still resembled Medusa since I had kept the towel on my head after I washed my hair. There was no more napping to be had by anyone.

I finally started colouring my hair in the afternoon. Chris wrangled Cooper while Carter was still napping. I did a quick blow-dry and Carter had somehow pooped his pants (no pullup...dang it!) I gave him a quick bath and got both boys dressed and ready to go to Mom & Dad's for supper. We had faaaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic spaghetti with a kickass homemade sauce with moose sausage. It rocked. We visited for awhile after supper then came home. (Beth if you're here, you may find it noteworthy that we saw THREE moose and a deer on the way home...thankfully all of the critters stayed off the road!) Cooper was asleep when I brought him in the house, so I put him in his crib, snowsuit and all! (Here is a picture of him taken last week in his new Tigger snowsuit) It's a bit big but it should last the whole winter.

Of course he's gotten up twice since then and I just put him down again with some baby vicks stuff rubbed on his chest. I don't think he's gone back to sleep yet; I'm anticipating a call from him any second again. So, wish me luck in getting up for church in the morning. I think it will take a divine intervention just to get me to the divine intervention!

Oh and I did do a new scrapbook layout - this is for a sketch challenge at DigiscrapDivas. I used Bree's sketch template and Lawanna Desjardin's Earthly Blessings kit.


Well, I don't hear anything over the baby monitor so I might just make a run for my pillow and blankie. Oh sure, I type that sentence then I hear Cooper. Could be a loooooooong night!

We've Got a Climber!

Today was a pretty good day. I'm so tired but Mom was here this morning before and after her hair appointment/lunch date and helped me accomplish a few things I needed to do, like lowering the crib mattress and moving a desk from the boys' room to the basement. Now I just need to go through 2987346289356 articles of clothing to determine what fits whom and discard or store the rest.

I asked Chris to stop at the store to pick up something for me to cook for supper. I got him to pick up bacon-wrapped turkey breasts and spiced potato wedges. I cooked them up and nuked some green beans and supper was all set.

"Earl" and "ER" were new tonight, though I didn't see much of "ER" since I went to a scrapbooking chat at Digiscrapdivas for the first time. There was a template crop and I did this layout for it. I used that kit that I named "Paisley Harvest" by Lawanna Desjardin. The pictures are of me and Angie's daughter Caroline wearing our "Buddy Walk" t-shirts. I still get a kick out of seeing that kid with her own face on her shirt!



Journaling says: This is a picture of me wearing a Buddy Walk t-shirt that my friend Angie’s sent to me in the mail with her daughter Caroline on it. I got such a kick out of seeing Caroline in a t-shirt with her own picture on it! I’d love to be there to meet her in person!

So Cooper is getting to be a real little mover and shaker. He officially started climbing up and standing. Everywhere. Yikes. Now I have to double-check all the babyproofing all over the house. His new mobility was what prompted lowering the crib mattress.

That's about it for today. It's about quarter past eleven and I'm going to (try) to go to sleep. I keep having thoughts of all the Halloween candy in the house and it's hard to keep from going after it for an almost-midnight snack!

Happy Halloween!

Okay, I started this post yesterday, and it was dated yesterday, but as I look over this once more before publishing it, I decided that I'd just change the date to today's and include the Halloween greeting and some Halloween pictures. Blogger gave me one hell of a hard time to insert these pictures; I should just go back to using Photobucket; I still might. Anyhoo, without further ado, here is my catch-up blog post!

Oy Vay. More catching up to do. Okay. So Sunday evening we went to Deidre & Greg's for supper. Lasagne, Caesar salad & garlic bread. Mmmmmm. Cooper tried and loved the lasagne. Carter and Connor were too busy playing and didn't do a lot of eating. They had a blast.

Deidre and I went through her clothes that Connor has outgrown and I borrowed a bunch of stuff for Cooper. We came home after visiting for awhile and I got to watch "Desperate Housewives". Woohoo! Lynette is finally kicking ass and taking names!

Monday was not overly blogworthy. Seriously. The day was a tiring blur as far as I can remember and Tuesday not much different. I seriously can't believe it's Wednesday today. Yesterday I contacted my boss and it looks like I'm technically returning to work the last week of November. I'll be on vacation though through the month of December and returning full-time in January. I am, however, required to work at least a half a day in this calendar year to be entitled to this year's vacation time, so I decided to work Mondays in December. My mom has already planned to babysit for me on Mondays, so this will get everyone's feet wet. Mine at the office, Mom's with the kids (though this will not be an issue - I swear she is magic with my kids) and the kids with having me gone all day - they'll probably be relieved to get rid of me.

Today I took the boys for another trial run with the babysitter; this time for two hours. I dropped them off and stopped in at the office. I got to see most of my coworkers and warned them let them know I would be returning soon.

The weather is still super crappy out. Very slippery conditions on the roads. I decided to skip Bingo tonight (boohoo) not because of the weather, but I figured I'd be better financially suited to skip a week. So Chris capitalized on the cancellation of my girls' night out and went to a boys' night out to play poker at his buddy's place. Hmph.

No new scrapbooking pages, but I gave my blog a little facelift again with a new header. Here are the pics of the boys all decked out for Halloween last night. Cyuuuuuuuuuute!