Happy New Year Everyone!

In 12 minutes it will be 2007. But before that, a quick Happy Birthday to Auntie Bev and to my friend Jamie in Japan!

Next, a Happy Birthday to Chris's Auntie Wendy and cousin Jennifer too.

And Happy New Year!

So eleven minutes to go and I'm fading fast. I celebrated with the girls last night because Kelly works nightshift tonight. I'll fill in the details on that little shindig tomorrow. But I need some sleep.

So when I wake up in the morning I'll say I feel like I've been sleeping since last year. Ba ha ha ha ha.

Good night everyone and Happy New Year!

My First Kit - Yours FREE!

It's been fairly quiet around here since Christmas. I didn't venture out shopping anywhere on Boxing Day. Except for a couple groceries I needed late in the day.

Yesterday we had Chris's Brother, Dad, Grandpa, and cousin Janet here for supper. I made shake'n'bake chicken legs, twice-baked potatoes, french-style green beans and stuffing. Once everyone's supper settled in, I made some cyuuuuute ice cream sundaes for dessert. I used those waffle bowls, a big dollop of vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, real whipping cream and milk chocolate chips. Mmmmmmmmm. They were real purty! We had a great visit with everyone and there was some more gift exchanging. Spoiled rotten again!

Today Kelly and I took the boys shopping. I had gift cards to spend and Chris gave me a list for the Canadian Tire one. I picked up a new wireless doorbell. Yes! We have a doorbell again! Yay! I also picked up an outdoor thermometer and a nice ice-fishing rod for Chris. Next stop was Wal-Mart. We were in there for a looong time and the boys were so awesome. I picked up a two-piece snowsuit for Cooper, pants for Carter, a bunch of baby food, soap and stuff and a truck for Carter. There was more, but my tired brain can't remember. We dropped off Kelly and did a run thru the drive-thru car wash. The Jeep was filthy. It's still kind of filmy 'cause the car wash is a touchless one, but it got off most of the salt and grime. We came home and Carter was sleeping. Cooper and I played until Daddy came home.

Chris showered and I made spaghetti for supper with ground moose meat and I toasted some garlic breadsticks. I've spent the evening working on the final touches of my first whole digital scrapbooking kit. Here it is, and you can click on the image to download it.

The link has MOVED! Christy has moved the download to the FREEBIE section her store at Butternug Squash Designs so the download link won't expire! Thanks, Christy!

Just click the image to go there!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

It was a day of fun, celebration, giving, receiving, love, and OMGSOMUCHFOOD.

Quick zip to yesterday...quiet day. I vowed not to go shopping anywhere and I kept my vow. It' s nice not to have to go out into the madness that is Christmas Eve shopping. Boys napped in the afternoon. We had leftover taco bake for supper. Jason was out visiting friends more much of the afternoon and evening.

We got ready and went to church. Yes, my husband came to church too. Only because I told a Little White (Christmas) LIE and told him Cindy's honey was going. heehee. We sat with my parents and my sister, and Kelly, Ben & Doug. The service was about to start when I felt the cell phone ring. I decided to answer it, and it was Chris's dad. He was out of town and needed a ride back since he couldn't get his car started. So Chris was off the hook for church and went to rescue his dad. It turned out later that he would have rather been in church! Whoa!

Anyhoo, church was lovely and cozy and then we drove to the cemetary where my Mom and Dad had placed ice candles at my grandparents' graves. You wouldn't believe how many ice candles were there. It's become such the rage to do this. You take a gallon ice cream pail, or a 5-gallon bucket, or some people are creative making various shapes. Fill the bucket with water, and put something in the middle (I'd have to ask, I don't quite know what they use) to keep a hollow space in the middle to house the candle. My mom coloured hers this year. But there were hundreds and hundreds of the things all over the cemetary. It was quite beautiful. Like I wish the Google Earth people took a picture of it 'cause there would have been a lot of lights visible from space!

After the cemetary, we drove by the Schells' house. This family is renowned for their Christmas decorations. They have every inflatable lawn decoration, zillions of Christmas lights and tons of animated and even musical decorations covering their yard. Ice sculptures, etc. Each year they continue to outdo themselves and in more recent years have had to borrow electricity from their neighbours so as not to brownout their power supply! I'll post a picture here when I empty out the camera tomorrow.

I couldn't sleep last night so I did a little creating. I made some address labels for Chris's grandpa and for my mom (forgot to give them to her)...and I made a CD case calendar for Chris's grandpa. He's out of town for Christmas so we'll see him tomorrow and give him his gifts. I stayed up way late and still had a hard time going to sleep when I went to bed after one-thirty. I tried calling Helen in Australia a couple times but it took me a couple tries to get the country codes and city codes correct when dialing her number. Finally I got through around one-thirty. They were just about to sit down to Christmas dinner. Way cool.

I got a little sleep before we all got up around seven-thirty. Chris or Jason picked up their Dad to come over and exchange gifts. It was crazy around here for awhile. The boys got more toys. Chris got me some cool camouflage pants and a t-shirt, a flashlight and some of my favourite perfume scented body lotion. Kelly gave me a gift certificate for an office supply store, "Clean Cotton" room spray and candle jar from Yankee candles, and gift certificates for Tim Hortons. I got an oil burner (is that what they're called?) from the Body Shop...you put the oil in the holder and light a candle under it. With two different scented oils. Nice. Also got some money and socks and stuff.

THEN we went to Pete & Claudine's house for breakfast. Oh my God what a spread. There was a mountain of cream puffs with blueberry sauce oozing down it. I spent a lot of time on that mountain! There were egg soufflés and two kinds of sausages, homemade bacon, fruit salads, belgian waffles with various fruit toppings and whipping cream. And carmel cream cheese and man oh man I can't remember what else. A hyuuuuuuuge pot of hot chocolate on the stove. Ginormous breakfast was had by all. We got more gifts there. I'm going to have to do a massive inventory of all the new awesome stuff in our house so I can blog the rest of the gifts we got.

We went home and Cooper was asleep. I took Chris's dad back to his car and he got it going again. I came home and we got ready again to go to Cindy's house. I started feeling really rough and tired so Cindy took Cooper and I headed upstairs to attempt a nap. Of the forty-five minutes I was sequestered, I think I actually napped for about twenty. Not bad with all the activity going on in the house!

I felt really queasy after I got up and a drink of water helped. Chris had taken Carter outside sliding with all the other kids. Glad I didn't have to pull him up that hill! I felt progressively better and managed to eat another gargantuan meal. Turkey. Big massive turkey. If we had Big Bird for Thanksgiving, then this was his big brother. And he was stuffed as he could be with stuffing. Mashed potatoes. Gravy. Ham. Apparently there were two hams. Vegetables, salads, breads and buns. Meat pies. Desserts. Desserts. OMG. I was stuffed but somehow throughout the evening I had three helpings of dessert.

After supper, being that it was such a long day, some of the relatives went home. We stayed to visit and had a round of Trivial Pursuit. Turns out it was the Canadian Edition, so we hardly knew any of the answers. haha! Still it was fun. Chris & Jason's dad left so we had to squish Chris into the back seat of the Jeep between the car seats and Jason sat up front. I drove since there seemed to be some mass consumption of wine after dinner particularly by the men.

It was a grand day. Much of our family is away for Christmas, but we had a great time with Cindy and her new family. Looks like the start of many new traditions. Sometimes change sucks, but sometimes, change is good. Like today. Merry Christmas Everyone. Thank you God for this wonderful day and for bringing us together with all our wonderful family and friends.

Here Comes Melly Claus

Yesterday, Chris had to work his usual day. I got up with the boys and Jason got up too. We all got ready and went out shopping just before lunchtime. We went to Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart. Every place is a nuthouse. If it weren't for Jason, I wouldn't have gotten everything on my list accomplished if I had to take the kids with me. I also had an eyebrow wax appointment and Jason stayed in the Jeep with the boys so that made it quick and easy.

We came home and both boys were asleep. Carter stayed napping awhile but Cooper didn't stay out. Jason even squeezed in a nap. Chris came home from work and he and Jason went shopping for ::ME:: They came back and Jason went to his friend's house. I did a bit of grocery shopping and came home. Both the boys were asleep when I got back. We had a couple turkey sandwiches then I quarantined myself in my bedroom to wrap presents. Oodles of them. Ugh. I worked for almost a couple hours then I had to quit. Of course just as I was deciding I'd had enough and was ready for a good snooze, Cooper got up.

I fed him some cereal and a bottle of milk and he cuddled up to me and went back to sleep. Jason came home and I put Cooper back to bed and I zonked. Until about six this morning when I heard Cooper squawk. He went back to sleep right away. Everyone got to sleep in after that until about 8:30. Except for Chris, who had to work from eight 'til noon today.

Chris came home and after he showered, I took off for some last-minute shopping. I think I'm done. If not, I'll just give out I.O.Us for Christmas and do the shopping later! So now I have at least another hour of wrapping ahead of me.

For supper I made a soft taco bake...two of them actually. Take the round tortillas and lay them in a round cake pan. cover with browned ground beef with taco seasoning in it and cheese. Make four layers ending with ground beef and I covered it with grated cheese and baked them for about 15 minutes. Served with salsa and/or sour cream. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

So now I'm just lounging for the evening. I figure as soon as Cooper goes to bed I'm a goner too. Merry Christmas-Eve-Eve!!!

I Drove the Future Shop 400

And holy crap that was a big moose.

After a quick (yes, there was hardly a line-up) drive-thru at Timmy's, Carter and I were off to Thunder Bay at exactly ten-thirty. The trip was smooth and uneventful. All the wildlife kept to themselves wherever they live. The highway was bare and dry and the sun was shining. I hadn't put a pull-up on Carter so I asked him every so often if he needed to pee. He finally said he wanted to "pee in the bushes" so I quickly pulled over at the side of the road. I was a bit worried he wouldn't lean into it, and so he would pee on his pants...not sure if it was my neurosis or the cold but he changed his mind. Two minutes or so later we tried again and I even tried to get him to pee in a cup but he wasn't going for it. We were only ten minutes from the next town so we climbed back in again and headed off.

We stopped at a gas station for a quick pee and carried on with our journey. We arrived in Thunder Bay at Jason's place before three; so I figure it was a pretty good trip for me and a three-year-old! Carter seems to be a great little traveler. We brought Kelly's little portable DVD player and Carter had a toy. Both items along with a nap kept him happy for the trip.

We picked up Jason and his stuff and headed to Future Shop. We did a really quick tour around the store and I picked up a couple Christmas presents. Carter was pretty antsy and wanted to either run or touch everything so we kept it brief. We went next door to Staples and just did a quick browse mostly because I'd never been there before.

We did another quick stint at Chapters. I picked up a couple books. The lineup was crzazy but they had quite a few cashiers so it wasn't so bad. Jason was wrangling Carter again and I do believe he had his hands full!

We did a quick take-out at Wendy's...ate in the Jeep then took off. Chris had asked me to bring him the biggest baddest burger from there because we don't have Wendy's at home. So I did. We made one more pitstop for gas then we skipped town. I was there for less than two hours.

The ride home was even quicker and easier than the trip there. No sun in our eyes (just headlights as it was dark within less than an hour of leaving). I started seeing wildlife near the road then we saw the moose. The big-ass-tall moose. He was standing with his butt to the road (whew!) but right next to the road. He looked over his massive shoulder at us. Fortunately I really had my eyes peeled as he was about the fourth animal I saw, and fortunately he didn't move. Also fortunately we were on a passing lane, and I had room to move over just in case.

We got home just after seven-thirty. I was tired but it was a good ride. About 450 miles. Whee! So that was my "Future Shop 450" I guess. Drove 450 miles to go to Future Shop. Obviously the goal of the trip wasn't shopping; it was to pick up Jason and now we have him home for Christmas.

An Arm and a Leg

This morning I packed up the boys to take Cooper for his 12-month immunizations. First I did a drive-by for Chris and Kelly then headed over to my office. Cooper had a double shot. An MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) in the arm and a Prevnar (Pneumococcal) in the leg. What a trooper. He only cried for a second and not even right away when the needles poked him. Just from the pressure of the injection. Then he was fine. A bit clingy to me but he's been that way lately anyway with this cold he and Carter have.

I ran a couple errands with the boys after, then came home and Carter napped. Cooper napped in the Jeep before we came home. I got a call from the doctor's office around quarter after two...to ask if we wanted to come in earlier for Cooper's appointment. Sounded fine with me. So I packed up Cooper again and put him in the Jeep and went back in for Carter. I had to wake him so I plied him with candy to keep him in a good mood. Since he fell asleep before we came home, I had left him in his jacket and hat and plunked him on his bed. All I had to do was slip on his boots and away we went.

We got to the clinic and were whisked in right away to see the doctor. That pretty much NEVER happens! It was a good checkup for Cooper. It was supposed to be a nine-month checkup (which should have been in September) but I found out we weren't placed on the waiting list as I was told we were. Anyhoo, it turned out to be his 12-month appointment and all was well. He looked in all the holes in his head and didn't see anything bad, even with his nasty cold. When he was done with Cooper, he even gave Carter a once-over. He told Carter he was looking in his nose, ears, mouth, etc. for potatoes, or bugs, and whatnot. It was pretty cute. So it was a very positive doctor experience for Carter. He hasn't had a lot of those since he was sick SOOOOOOO much once he had started going to daycare. I'm hoping to keep him good'n'healthy!

We left there and I took the boys downtown to a couple places and picked up a couple more Christmas presents. We came home and I fed the boys supper. Chris came home from work and shortly after I bolted out the door for Bingo. I picked up Mom and away we went. Kelly had gotten called into work so she would just meet us there when she was done.

Well, we didn't win, but of course we had fun. On the way home I had to pick up pull-ups and diapers and I grabbed some snacky foods for Carter for tomorrow when I take him on a big road trip to pick up Chris's brother in Thunder Bay. It will be a brief stopover there before we head back here, but I'm imagining running into Beth somewhere along the way. I'll have to make a Starbuck's run. Maybe that's where I'll find her!

Gee. Now it's midnight and I need to have a shower and put the laundry in the dryer so I have something to wear tomorrow. I haven't done a thing with my hair since I got it done a week ago so I figure it could use a wash by now! Off I go.

The Cheque is in the Mail

Well, no cheques, but my Christmas cards are officially in the mail! I figure with three more days until the mail won't move again until next week, probably about a third of the recipients of the cards will get them before Christmas. I sent seventeen to the U.S, thirty-five to Canada and kept about another twenty-five to hand-deliver. Whew. There was no Christmas letter enclosed; I was lucky to get them mailed at all!

So because of my late night last night, and my early morning today, I'm getting kind of groggy so I'm going to post this and go crash.

Today Kelly was going to watch the boys for me so I could go to Kathy's farewell lunch. Turned out Chris showed up around ten-thirty since it wasn't busy at the shop today so he took a floater. So Kelly came with me to the lunch and then we went shopping for a bit after. I didn't buy a lot of Christmas presents, but I shopped around and got some great ideas. I'm hoping to get it all done Friday night if the hordes of people doing the same thing don't trample me.

I came home and Chris was a little unimpressed that I didn't return as scheduled after lunch. Oopsie. I sure hope that doesn't mean that I'm grounded so that we can go to Bingo tomorrow night! heehee

Chris went to the shop after work hours; one of the guys got a new truck so he went to help him install some gadgets and accessories. He returned home bearing food from McDonald's. I had fed the boys already but they seemed to welcome fries and nuggets. I had a little feed of them too.

Since it's almost Christmas, there are NO new programs on, so I couldn't care less what's on TV. We mostly watch Treehouse anyway, and there have been some cute Christmas specials on here and there too. I spent the evening chatting with Angie and I made her a Christmas card to get printed. I sure hope it turns out. It was nice to chat again; we don't get to do that often enough with life being so busy and all! We talked on the phone last night after we called to wish Mark a Happy Birthday. Talked for fifty-one minutes. Good thing we do most of our talking online or I'd have to get a second job to cover our phone conversations! haha

So that's about it for tonight. Cooper gets his 12-month immunizations tomorrow, as well as a checkup at the doctor. I'll be hauling two boys into the clinic so I hope the wait isn't excruciating. And I sure hope I can make it to Bingo tomorrow night. There's a twenty-thousand-dollar pot calling my name.

Oh by the way I got an email from the eBay seller - they say that eBay automatically generates the dispute console if a payment hasn't been made in thirteen days after a purchase. Well, it WAS twelve days, but anyhoo they say all is well and as soon as they get my money order, they'll process me. Whew!

They're Done

Wow. I stayed up wayyyyyyyyyyyyy late but my Christmas cards are done. I'll be able to mail them tomorrow. Eighty of 'em. I'm just missing an address for one but I should still be able to get it out tomorrow.

It was a good day at work (yesterday...Monday...) I got some organizing done. Today (Tuesday?!) Gosh I need to go to sleep. Today, there is a luncheon for Kathy, the girl who covered my maternity leave. Kelly said she'd watch the boys so I don't have to take them with me.

Supper was meatloaf and potatoes and corn. The boys ate it up. It's one meal in particular I know they'll eat.

I was soooooooooo upset this evening to get an email from eBay to say there was someone disputing me over a purchase I'd made. I sent them a money order last Monday since they don't take PayPal and I'm guessing they didn't get it yet and told eBay that we had mutually cancelled the transaction. B.S! I still want my purchase and I want positive feedback! So I wrote back on the dispute console and hopefully everything will work out okay. I had even scanned the money order and emailed it to them so they'd see that I had it and sent it. Anyhoo, wish me luck with that. It's printer ink, and I need it very soon!

Alright, I'm down to about four hours of possible sleep so I'm outta here.

Happy Birthday, Mark!

Just a little shout-out to Angie's hubby Mark to wish him a very Happy Birthday...
And should I mention he's 45 today? Hmm. I'll probably hear about it.

Couldn't Sleep...

I had done this layout this past week all except for the picture. I loved Karen's Niagara Falls layout so much I did a layout with all the elements and the photo in the exact same places. Since it's a pinky kinda kit I used Angie's daughter...Caroline; the subject of many of my girlie layouts since I have two boys. Click HERE for the layout I scraplifted.

I extracted the rose then used a couple Virtual Photographer filters on the photo. Font used is Mistral. Kit is Miss Mint's "Candy Fairway" with tags and staples from her "For My Father" kit.

I still can't sleep...not sure if it's the anxiety of having to get up in the morning/worrying about sleeping in, or maybe the French Vanilla Cappucino or the Coke I had at supper. Hmmm. Duh.

Sometimes I Just Plain Forget

I'm seldom away from the computer for long. There's no reason for me to NOT blog. I just totally forget sometimes.

On Friday morning, I got myself and the boys dressed and ready to go to Wal-Mart for Cooper's 12-month portraits. I put on their gorgeous new matching outfits and headed over to pick up Kelly. She was coming along to help wrangle the kids. Thank God.

We arrived and had to wait for our appointment. Carter wanted to hop right in there, but I had to get Cooper's picture taken first according to Wal-Mart Portrait Studio Rules. Hmph. In order to choose a portrait, you have to get a picture taken that you like, and once you accept it, that's your portrait package. So if you can one picture, you're risking not getting a better one. But we did okay, although Cooper has a new crinkly-nose smile he's been using for pictures lately.

So once we had a good shot of Cooper, we tried to get Carter in there again. Oy vay. In the one picture where we got Carter to smile and sit oh-so-nicely, Cooper was making the crinkly smile again. Then we got one of Cooper when we tried to put the Santa hat on his head. Kelly would drop the hat on his head and quickly jump out of the frame. Cooper would make a silly face and grab the hat. It made for a cyuuuuute picture. Then when we were about done, we got a gorgeous shot of Carter wearing a Santa hat. All in all, it went well, but I couldn't have done it without Kelly there.

We shopped a little then went to Tim Horton's for the requisite green tea for Kelly and my French Vanilla Cappucino. We stopped back at Wal-Mart since my one-hour photos were done. I finally made my photo Christmas cards and took them there for printing. I was fairly pleased with how they turned out. Now I just have to get them mailed out. Wish me luck getting that done before Christmas! Next stop was to pick up some fresh cranberries for Kelly to string with popcorn for her Christmas tree. I saw it today. She strung FIFTY feet of the stuff and it looks beautiful on her tree. Smells good too. I almost had a nibble.

Yesterday, Chris worked 'til noon. He went out for awhile with Greg to attempt some Christmas shopping, but it was close to the time we were going to Cindy's place. We were to pick up pizzas and come early for their Christmas party. We arrived with four pizzas and had a great visit. The rest of the party-goers started to arrive awhile later and it was a nice evening. I finally got the boys to zonk out pretty much in time to get ready to go home.

This morning I didn't go to church as per usual lately. What a bad little Catholic girl am I. This afternoon I needed to go out to buy milk and soy milk. I ended up attempting a little Christmas shopping. I bought Chris's main gift and now I'm done shopping for him. I found a couple little stocking-stuffers for the boys and some hard-to-find Toffifay chocolates Kelly had been looking for. I did a drive-by for her to deliver the chocolates and the green tea from Timmy's and stopped in for a visit. Then I realized I needed to do something about supper. Instead of copping out and getting fast food, I went grocery shopping.

I came home and we had fish sticks and seasoned curly fries and mixed veggies for supper. Nothing fancy but the kids ate it up. Cooper and Carter are still dealing with their colds. Cooper HATES having his nose wiped sixteen thousand times a day. Carter just loves taking medicine. He went through a phase of hating it but now he'd probably do shooters of cough medicine all day if we'd let him.

Both of them went to sleep at a reasonable hour and I made this scrapbook page of the two of them in their little matching outfits. I took this picture just before we left for Wal-Mart the other day. A brief shining moment of the two of them smiling AND holding hands. Oozing sweetness, even if just for a second. I used Christy Sturm's Velvet Christmas kit and I used Atomic Cupcake's gold action on the phrase, heart and the frames.
I think I'm going to head for bed 'cause I gotta work in the morning! My last workday for the year. heehee. (Angie, no slacker comments! haha)

By the way, I must finally mention that Cooper has really mastered walking this past couple weeks! He walks everywhere. No more crawling. He still plunks down on his bum when he loses his balance, but he's really getting steady on his feet. It still seems funny to see him just stand up and go. Really awesome.

A Small Winfall

Today started out quiet and uneventful but grew busier. Had an electrician stop by to look at our furnace and thermostat; we just might be getting a new furnace. We found out ours is a real relic from 1959. Whoa. Thank God it still works! Had a couple other people stop by. One to bring me money (thank you!) and the other to bring my Mom money and pick up her Epicure order.

While Cooper napped this afternoon and Carter played games on the other computer, I redid my blog header and background. I am LOVING Christy's new "Snowy" kit and made the ornaments myself in Photoshop with the ribbons from her "Elementary" kit and I made the trees out of the papers in the Snowy kit. The brass looking items I made using Atomic Cupcake's old brass action and the ornament tops with the silver action.

I got ready to go to Bingo but when I called Chris he was still away working and didn't think he'd be able to get back nearly in time for me to go. I was all sad and asked Dad if he would watch the boys 'til Chris came home, so we were still ON! Turned out Chris could bring some work back to town with him but Dad brought Mom over and Kelly picked us up. Chris wasn't quite home but we saw him on our way to Tim Horton's to get our fix.

We went to Bingo and I won the second game. It was very significant and symbolic, because the game was the "Eagle". You need to dab all the numbers in the shape of an Eagle. Why is this symbolic/significant? Because when Kelly was at Wal-Mart today, she was in the middle of the parking lot and an Eagle flew over her, squawking. Way cool that was the one I got the Bingo on. Also the name of the place is Eagle too. Great. So there was another winner in the same game I won so the pot was split, but it still offset our Bingo expenses and it was nice to win something after a long bout of not winning. Kelly and I split our winnings when we go. Mom plays on her own, and she won a hundred bucks. Nice going Mom! Just when she said she didn't want to go anymore 'cause she hates to spend the money and not win anything. Ha! Now we have to go again next week! heehee.

I came home and all three of my boys are asleep. Chris woke up briefly for me to tell him about my winning then promptly dozed off again.

So that was the day in a nutshell. Tomorrow Kelly is helping me take the boys to Wal-Mart for Cooper's one-year portraits. I'm hoping to get the boys into their gorgeous new matching outfits and get a couple pictures of the two of them. I hope they're feeling better and not coughing their little faces off in all the pictures.

Speaking of pictures, here is an adorable picture of Carter from when we were decorating the other night. He put on the Santa hat then he put the stockings on his feet. I laughed my head off and just had to get the camera. Also below is a picture of our tree decorated.

What a Bunch of Sickos

Today we went to the babysitter for our first full-day trial-run. Both boys have a gnarly cough; Carter worse than Cooper. I dropped them off just past nine and set off on my busy day! I dropped off some gift certificates and brought some fresh rolls to Chris at work. One of the "other wives" was bringing fresh homemade cabbage rolls so Chris said he'd bring buns.

I did a drive-by for Kelly but she busted me just as I was trying to flee her driveway. We confirmed our lunch plans. I went downtown and bought a new shirt to wear out for lunch with Kelly and my Mom. I met up with Diane's hubby to pick up the Epicure orders that came in. I stopped in at home to freshen up and find my watch and jewelry I'd forgotten to put on in my hustle out the door with the boys. Good thing I did because much to my dismay I ran smack into Aunt Flo. No wonder I've been so darn tired and grouchy!

I picked up Kelly and we went for lunch. My Mom was having lunch with her girlfriends so we joined her group. We had a great lunch. After lunch I dropped off Kelly and went to my hairdresser appointment. It's been SEVEN months since I had a cut and colour. Wow. My hair was shoulder-length and was starting to bug me a bit. As for the colour I wasn't doing too badly since I colour my own hair between visits but I was looking forward to refreshing my highlights. Just over two hours later I was a new woman! My hair is smooth and shiny again. What a relief.

After getting my hair done, I wanted to squeeze in just a bit more "Me" time before picking up the boys. I did a drive-by for my Mom and delivered a couple of the Epicure orders. I picked up the boys who had a pretty good day despite having a cold. Mom had invited us for supper, but I didn't want to go home and get the boys all settled in then redress them to go to Mom & Dad's shortly after. So I stopped by Chris's work again and asked him to bring a couple things from home and meet us there. He could take his vehicle across the lake after he went home for a shower; I'd take the long way with the boys. Good plan.

We had an awesome supper. Roast chicken and potatoes with gravy and corn. Mom made some fresh white chocolate, macadamia nut cookies for dessert. We visited for awhile after supper then headed home.

Carter stayed up pretty late but he had napped twice for the babysitter, which was fine since he's a bit out of whack from having a cold and taking some cough medicine. Cooper was asleep when we got home and stayed that way. Aside from a few coughs I didn't hear from him again for the evening. I finished up another scrapbook layout I'd been working on, and now that Christy's new "Snowy" kit is released, I can post them...

This is Carter a couple Christmases ago when Chris's brother bought him a drum set. It was soooooo cute. Carter was sick that Christmas - with something resembling but not necessarily being Chicken Pox. I used Christy Sturm's new "Snowy" kit from Butternug Squash Designs. I love this new kit. I used the font Thanksgiving, it's a match of the snow-covered alpha included in the kit.

This next one is Carter that same Christmas. I removed a couple of the spots from his face. The picture was a bit blurry so I put a filter on it using Virtual Photographer and I liked the effect and how his little suit matched the kit. I used Christy Sturm's "Velvet Christmas" from Butternug Squash Designs for all the items and finished off the edges with the heavy ink action from Atomic Cupcake.Here is a layout of both my boys for their first Christmases. Carter's was in 2003 when he was 7.5 months old, and Cooper's was just last year when he was just under 3 weeks old. I used Christy Sturm's "Snowy" kit and used one of the papers to cover the Thanksgiving Font I used. The bows are from her "Elementary" kit. I made the ornaments by playing with the bevel/emboss features in Photoshop and drew the ornament hangers then used Atomic Cupcake's silver action to make 'em shiny.

Carter finally decided he wanted to go to sleep so I put him to bed coughing his little head off. I had picked up some cough medicine and eventually it kicked in and he went to sleep. Me too!

The Tree is UP...

Let's see if it stays that way!

I was a tired little sleepy bird today. Oh yeah, and lazy. This afternoon I did manage to complete another computer project, so the day wasn't a total write-off.

By the way, Cooper walks EVERYWHERE. He can cover a whole room without stopping to hold on to anything. It's very cool. When he gets tired or too excited he bails and plunks on his butt. He still does the occasional faceplant too, but catches himself fairly well. I'm still thinkin' he'll be a full-fledged walker by Christmas.

Chris came home and I did a quick Wal-Mart run for some necessities. Regular and soy milk, baby food, bread, other food items I can't remember. It wasn't tons, 'cause it was "only" sixty-six bucks.

I came home and Chris went out for coffee with Greg. I chatted for a second with Kelly on MSN and her tagline said "Tree Decorating Day...Come on Over for Some Sharing". I figured while Chris was gone it was a perfect time to zip downstairs to grab the tree and some decorations. I had hooked up the webcam so Kelly could see her Godson walking all over the living room. He was being sooooooooo cute putting on a Santa hat all by himself. Did I take a picture? Duh. No. But I took some more video of him walking, and since I had the webcam set up, I set it to take a stop-motion video of the boys and me decorating the tree. So I set it for half an hour, and it takes a picture every five seconds, making it a six-minute video. I should have set it for longer, since I didn't catch the whole event, but it's pretty cool to see it in fast-motion. I'll try to put it on YouTube and post it here. (Okay - here it is...click HERE...but only if you have high-speed; this sucker is hyuge!)

Carter was helping put the decorations on the tree, so there's a particularly populated row of branches about three feet from the floor. How cute is that. I fixed a few but there are still a couple clumps. Cooper kept taking off the ones closest to the floor. I'm hoping he has that out of his system and the tree can remain standing for the next couple weeks. I'm getting in the Christmas spirit now. I might even get some Christmas cards out...we'll see. Of course I seem to get projects for everyone else done except for myself. I know, excuses, excuses. I actually designed our Christmas cards in October and never got around to finishing them and printing them.

Both Carter and Cooper have a cold. Carter has a pretty nasty cough and Cooper is coping well except for when I have to do a booger check. Tomorrow we go to the babysitter for a full-day visit. Kelly and I plan to go for lunch, and I have a hair appointment. It's been seven months since I got my hair done. I was thinking of letting it grow more, but I neeeeeeeeed a haircut. And freshening up the colour will be a good lift too.

Blah-Ditty-Blah Blah Blah

Ugh. Almost an entire week without blogging. I'm so sorry to myself for being such a slacker. What a funkity-funk-funk I'm in. It's not like I haven't been on the computer, though it's been like work being on it lately; plenty of projects on the go. I've been feeling discouraged in the digital scrapbooking world lately and it's such a busy time of year no one seems to be around to chat and keep me motivated!

I'll try to recap what's been going on so I don't lose a whole week out of my life! Thursday...went to Bingo with Mom. Friday...

Oy. This isn't working for me. My poor brain. Mom and Dad had Dominic and Noah for the weekend. On Saturday, Dominic got dropped off here after a birthday party and Dad and Noah picked him up. I went shopping in the afternoon for something for Chris and myself to wear to my staff party. I got a cyuuuuuuuute little outfit and got Chris a white t-shirt. We got ready and took the boys to Mom & Dad's. Talk about a houseful of boys! We took off and went to see Uncle Cliff & Auntie Lurdes. Uncle's brother was in town and we had a visit and a couple drinks. The Bailey's went to work on me very quickly! heehee. I felt very warm. We left and went to the bowling alley for the glow-bowling portion of my staff party. It was fun. There are a few new people working at my office since I've been gone, so it was nice to get out and socialize with them and everyone else. We only played two games, and I was lucky to break a hundred in the first one. (This is 5-pin bowling, folks...wayyyyyyyy different from 10-pin, which I have yet to try.) The second game was Bingo-bowling. You'd think that would be right up my alley...(yes, pun intended...I'm coming back, folks, slowly but surely). But it's harder than it sounds. You have to score points based on the Bingo card and it's a team effort. We only needed one more score but two other teams beat us to it so we were done.

The next phase of the party was going to Silvia's house for hors-d'oeuvres. Everyone brought something and it was a veritable delight of snacks and flavours. Everyone mixed and mingled and a great time was had by all. We left about eleven-thirty to pick up the boys. We got to Mom & Dad's and they were both sleeping. I REALLY didn't feel like waking them and dealing with two awake boys at home, so we let sleeping kids lie and each grabbed a couch beside a sleeping kid on the floor.

Cooper was good 'til two-thirty-nine. Ugh. The kid wanted to party. He gets mad when I try to get him to cuddle back to sleep. He was up whining and crying until FIVE! Somewhere in that time I took him to my old room and crawled into bed. Chris did too. He was asleep on the loveseat so he finally got to stretch out. So I might have slept about an hour after that when I got up to pee. I met Carter at the bottom of the stairs. Not sure if he was sleepwalking (hope not!) or just wandering around aimlessly since he woke up and wasn't sure where he was at first. I went to the bathroom and then scooped him up and brought him to bed too. Double bed, two adults, one sprawled-out baby that we did NOT want to wake, and Carter. Carter and I squished like sardines on the side of the bed. I don't think I slept much, if any more at all.

Everyone got up and Mom and Dad were getting ready to go to church with Dominic and Noah. We gathered up all our stuff and headed home. I went to bed at some point and tried to catch up on some sleep. I did. After church and breakfast, Mom and Dad dropped off Dominic and Noah since Cindy was still away and they had a few social engagements for the rest of the day and evening. Deidre and I had decided to take our boys to go see "Happy Feet"; there was a matinée at two o'clock. So I took Carter and Dominic and Noah to the show and left Cooper with Chris. We left extra early and arrived at the theatre at about one-thirty and were the first ones to get seats. Deidre and Connor arrived shortly after and the wait was on for the movie to start. The previews didn't even start until well after two, and the movie didn't start until two-twenty. Carter was just about to fall asleep! I whispered "Candy" in his ear and woke him up. I got him a little candy surprise bag and he definitely stayed up after that.

The movie was cute, but I was expecting it to be funnier. But it kept Carter entertained and all of us seated except for a couple potty and popcorn breaks. About ten minutes before it ended Carter announced he wanted to go home. But he hung in there (movie was longer than I expected too). I took the boys home and Noah advised he was hungry. I did a quick inventory and between Chris and me it was decided we'd have Angie's enchiladas again. I just had to get a brick of cream cheese and some green chilies and we'd be set. It only took me a few minutes to run to the store. So I was getting everything prepared and discovered I had no grated cheese to cover the enchiladas with! Chris didn't seem to have enough patience for me to leave him with the four boys again, and talked me into covering the enchiladas with cheese slices instead of two delicious cups of grated monterey jack. Hmph. It wasn't the same as the first time I made them, but they were still delicious.

Cindy picked up her boys awhile after supper and we visited for a bit. I got my stuff ready to go to work on Monday morning. Luckily it was a "Mom" day and I didn't have to take the boys anywhere again. Since Cooper's been waking for long periods in the night, I decided to banish him to the living room again in the playpen. He slept until about five; not bad, but it was too early for me on a workday!

I dozed off and on a little and ended up getting out of bed at seven-thirty. Mom arrived just before eight and I headed out to Tim Horton's for cappucinos and bagels and coffee and brought stuff home for Mom and Carter and headed for work.

It was another good day; I'm getting back in the swing of things. I didn't realize they'd reconnected my email and I already had 130 messages from the previous Monday I worked. It was also the day for the office building Christmas pot-luck lunch. Gimme a "D", Gimme a "U", Gimme an "H". Whaddaya got? DUH!!! I totally forgot. So I was empty-handed for lunch. What a dork. But Kathy came to my rescue and had brought two items so as long as I made the punch for her, I was off the hook. The lunch was awesome and I was so full I needed to take a nap. Not that that was possible!

I had a good afternoon at work. I came home to relieve Mom, and Dad came to pick her up. Chris came home and we had leftover enchiladas for supper. I actually did two scrapbooking layouts in the evening. It's been ages! I'll post them both tomorrow. Very festive and Christmassy. (yes, Christmassy is a word...I discovered that recently).

Anyhoo, it feels good to catch up and document our lives again so we can look back and see what the heck we were up to one day. Now it's Tuesday and I sent my hubby for his flu shot this morning. I have nothing else (that I know of) on the agenda for today. Cooper woke up both of these past two nights, but I ferberized him and it worked. Very well. I went to bed early last night so I slept probably a total of eight hours, with very little disturbance. Awesome. I think we'll decorate for Christmas tonight if I can find where Chris stuffed all the boxes from last year.

Happy First Birthday, Cooper!

This morning we got up and got ready to go to the babysitter for a half-day trial run. Longest visit yet. I had an appointment for a massage so I basically yanked off their snowsuits and bolted out the door! I had a one-hour massage and it rocked. Next I stopped in at Safeway to find out which cake we'd be getting for Cooper's birthday. Ummmm. There was NO order there for our cake at ALL! The girl who took my order last night put it in the Thursday slot! Good thing I stopped in! So the nice bakery girl found it and determined we'd have a Nemo cake. I went to the dollar store to pick up white and orange balloons and streamers and plates and cups and party hats and loot bags.

Next stop was my eyebrow wax appointment. Talk about a day to spoil me! Then I did more shopping and running around and bumped into Diane who was going for lunch and asked me to come along. I had the buffet at the Chinese restaurant. Mmmmm. By the time lunch was over, it was time to pick up the boys (Already!!??) I brought them home and Chris was home since he wasn't feeling well.

I blew up balloons and hung them up with streamers. I made matching loot bags and cups for each kid that was coming to the party. Supper was quick and easy - hotdogs and Carter ate a whole one and Cooper about half. I went to pick up the cake; it was pretty cute. Chris's Dad stopped by to drop off a few presents for the boys. Clothes for both of them and an aquarium toy for Cooper.

Everyone showed up between six-thirty and seven. My Mom and aunts were at a church dinner so they showed up late, just in time for cake. The cake, a quarter-slab (9x13") was completely devoured. Oops. No leftovers for me! Next time it'll be a half-slab for sure! So we had Deidre & Connor, Tracy, Terry, Taya & Tyson, Auntie Lurdes & Uncle Cliff, Uncle Bob, Cindy and family, and Cooper's Godmother Kelly and her son Ben.

Cooper got some great new toys...bath toys, big plush balls, a DVD, a toy phone and a cute shirt, a cute adoptable dog (you go online to adopt him!), money, an awesome musical Sesame Street musical book (with Grover on it too!) Kelly had to take Ben to hockey so she did a drive-by and came back with an extra-large FVC for me from Timmy's! She knew I needed it! Cooper also got a farm see'n'say, a gorgeous Old Navy outfit, and a couple good thick'n'sturdy books.

Cooper went to sleep at a fairly decent hour, but Carter was up and going strong long after. Holy Cow. My baby is one year old. It was a day full of activity and it's long past midnight but Carter is still going. Must still be "high" on cake and orange pop.

Uber-Lazy Day

I was just plain tired today. And lazy.

If Dad and Cindy hadn't stopped by I wouldn't have even gotten the mail. Dad brought it in, and there was a package for Cooper's birthday. Now that I think of it, I should have waited until he got up from his nap to open it himself, but I took it upon myself to tear into it. Inside was a cyuuuuuuuuute little Old Navy romper that says "Little Monkey" on the front in felt letters. There was also a hat with little monkey ears and a little curly tail on it and matching little mittens. I'll put it all on him for his birthday tomorrow.

I got Chris to pick up Kentucky Fried Chicken for supper on his way home. It was "Toonie Tuesday" today - two pieces of chicken and fries for $2.22. Cooper pigged out on chicken and a couple fries. Carter grazed a little but I had given him and Cooper some beefaroni not long before supper.

After supper I went pick out Cooper's cake (no, I'm not baking it, sorry Coopy) and to Wal-Mart to get a few things for Cooper's birthday party tomorrow. "Veronica Mars" was a rerun tonight. Tomorrow the boys go for a four-hour trial run with the babysitter. While they're there, I get the exquisite treat of going for a one-hour massage. Kelly got me the gift certificate as a present when I had Cooper and I'm finally using it! After the massage I go for my eyebrow appointment, then I have to hustle and get the rest of the stuff for Cooper's birthday, pick up the boys, and clean the house.

Since it's winter, it's a rare occasion that I shave my legs, but going for a massage tomorrow prompted the necessity for it. I try to be as non-gross as possible when someone has to see me practically naked! So I had a nice hot bath and since both boys were asleep I had the tub all to myself for once! Yay me! I might even paint my toenails to distract from my blindingly white legs. We'll see.

I'm Back, Baby!

Well, today was the day. My first day back at work. I barely slept last night, and was awakened by Cooper around five this morning. Ugh. I managed to get him back to sleep but it was only minutes away from Chris's alarm clock going off. So I was not ready to get up yet by the time he went to work. I asked him to phone me at seven. He did. I was already up. I might have napped for about fifteen minutes after Cooper's early morning visit.

I got myself almost completely ready before Carter got up. Mom arrived to babysit just before eight. She was fixing Carter a bagel for breakfast when Cooper made his next appearance. I had all their clothes laid out and got myself dressed and ready to go out the door. Talk about easy. Didn't have to dress them in snowsuits and lug them to the babysitter. It was like I pressed the "EASY" button like in the TV commercials.


So I headed off to go to Tim Horton's for the obligatory French Vanilla Cappucino. But I had absolutely no cash and they don't take Interac there, so I did a super quick ATM stop then headed to Tim's. Surprisingly the drive-thru lineup was a short one. Yay me! I picked up an extra one for Kathy, the girl who did my maternity leave. She'll still be covering my job this month, and we'll work together on the days I work, to "retrain" me! There are a few changes I need to learn so it will be nice to work with her. Bummer she'll be gone when I go back full-time.

So work swam by this morning. Sixteen thousand calls for flu shots. Kathy and I shared the desk and took turns getting everything done. At lunchtime I phoned home and Mom didn't need me for anything so I went downtown shopping. Nothing exciting; just envelopes for home and hand lotion for my desk at work. I grabbed a quick cheeseburger at DQ and a hyuuuuuuuge order of onion rings to munch on my way back to work. The onion rings were plentiful...I took them in to work to share and everyone munched on them throughout the afternoon.

The afternoon went well too, and the whole day went by quite quickly. In some ways it was like I never left; in other ways I felt a little displaced since I don't have my email back on yet and didn't do a whole bunch of computer work. All in all it was a great workday. And the greatness continued...

On my way home I tried to track down Auntie Lurdes to give her an invitation to Cooper's birthday. Chris called me when I was almost home. I guess he had called our house first then my cell to check on how my day went. And he threw in that Cooper is WALKING. Yes, walking, y'all. Mom had told him on the phone. I swear my Mom is magic. Leave my kid with her for ONE day and I come home to see him taking steps. I mean, to me he's not "officially" walking, but he wasn't taking steps without holding on to furniture before today!

So I came home and he was particularly lively, constantly trying to walk. And when I came in the living room, there was the plush chair I bought for his birthday and asked Chris to hide. Ummmm. What is THAT doing in here? I guess Carter found it downstairs when my darling Mom was down there doing my laundry. Yes, she's magic and she's an absolute ANGEL! Anyhoo, Carter seemed to have claimed the fuzzy new chair for his own and brought it and his old one to the living room. I explained it was Cooper's for his birthday. It was pretty funny. I'll probably have to convince Carter for a number of days that it's not HIS. Anyway, Cooper walking = way cool. And heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere is a video!



Then, right after Dad picked Mom up, I got a call from one of the local florists asking if I'd be home to receive a delivery...wow! Chris came home and I asked if he sent me anything. He thought about it but didn't. So my next suspect was Kelly. The flowers arrived and much to my surprise, delight, amazement, glee, they were all the way from Tennessee!!! Angie sent me this beautiful floral arrangement to congratulate me on surviving my first day of work. Is that the sweeeeeeeeeeetest thing EVVVVVVVVVER?!? Thanks so much again Angie (oh and Mark too, since he says it was HIS idea...) Way to top off my awesome day!
I hadn't planned anything for supper besides intending to get takeout somewhere but I really didn't feel like going out or like eating fast food (AGAIN). So I found a container of leftover spaghetti sauce in the freezer and thawed it and warmed it up and whipped up a pot of spaghetti. Again with the easy button!
Carter had a little and Cooper napped while we ate then he finished the rest of Carter's plate. He ate more than Carter did, I'm certain. By the time I finished feeding Cooper and changing two back-to-back poopy diapers on him, Carter was asleep. He hadn't napped today so between that and a late supper, he was out by seven thirty. Yesterday I made these invitations to Cooper's birthday (this Wednesday...duh, about time I sent invitations!) I had a bunch printed at Wal-Mart yesterday, but with the short timeline I just emailed it to everyone and I'll give them a printed one if they wish!

So I had intended to go to bed right after watching "Heroes" at nine o'clock but obviously that didn't happen. I spent much of the evening slowly working on this blog entry - gee I blogged yesterday after five days and only one day later I have so much more to say! Now it's three minutes to midnight and I'm going to bed before I turn into a pumpkin.

Brief weather update - FREAKING cold. Dad started driving across the lake on the weekend. He's in charge of the ice road committee this year and has taken over the arrangements for plowing etc. Apparently there is at least nine inches all over the lake already, and it's been constantly cold so it's only getting thicker by the minute. Won't see me on it with the kids though...

It's Just a Blur

I'll just run the highlight reel...

Wednesday I took the boys to the sitter for another trial run. I ran around like crazy squeezing in as many errands as I could. I was working on a major project this week, and am in the midst of planning a few others.

Thursday I madly worked away printing and cutting. My Mom came over after her lunch outing and helped wrangle the boys so I could keep working feverishly. Dad popped by too and observed the production. He left, but returned shortly with one of those big cutters with the long blade. MY PARENTS ROCK. That made for much easier cutting. I'm so particular about cutting I always do everything with scissors, but with a thousand items to cut, I welcomed the easier method. Thursday evening was a much-needed break, with a trip to Bingo with Mom. Our efforts were unfortunately not fruitful, but as always it was fun.

I stayed up 'til two working then called it a night (morning!) Friday I finished the major project by noon. Whew. We had pizza and breadsticks for supper. Mmmmm. Chris went to the shop to help one of the guys with his truck or something.

Saturday Chris worked 'til noon. After supper Deidre and Connor came over and Chris went to Deidre & Greg's house to play video games with Greg. We hung out here and the kids played pretty well. Carter is a little rowdy but it went well.

Today Chris let me sleep in, bless him! I lazed about as long as possible, skipping church for no good reason. I had planned on baking cookies today but it just didn't happen. I did, however, get to do a good shopping run at Wal-Mart. I took a list with me...I forget all the items, but since when does buying windshield washer fluid and toilet paper cost over two hundred bucks? I found these GORGEOUS matching outfits for my boys for Christmas, a plush chair for Cooper for his birthday, socks and undies for Carter (there are six million pairs of kids' socks in this house, but [1] it's very difficult to find a matching pair, and [2] Carter is getting so big I can barely get his feet in any of them!

I also bought Chris a new toy - sort of an early Christmas present, an electric staple gun/brad nailer. Pretty much just so he could hang the Christmas lights I picked up last week. I sure hope that's not the only time it gets used. We'll see.

So for supper today we had shakey-bakey chicken legs, rice and corn. Cooper did a good job of putting it away, and putting a good lot of it on the floor. Carter nibbled like a chickadee as per usual. I made a plate for Chris for lunch tomorrow.

After supper, I did two loads of laundry, dyed my roots, showered, bathed both boys, gave Chris a haircut, put both boys to bed, printed the photos for a calendar, updated my friend's resume and watched a rerun of Desperate Housewives. Crikey. It's just past midnight but I doubt I'll sleep tonight anyway worrying I'll oversleep and be late for my first day of work or something. I'm going to sign off and go check if the clothes I washed survived the dryer. Hopefully it didn't cook them or shrink them or something, otherwise I don't have a hot clue what I'll be wearing tomorrow.