Month End

Last night I told Chris to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" this morning, but he didn't and I pressed snooze way too many times. I dragged my snoozy ass out of bed and had a quick bath, put on my face, got dressed, got the boys up and dressed and hauled them out the door with their breakfast in hand. Good thing my fast-forward function was working.

I made it to work with two minutes to spare and my day started and never stopped. Today was month-end and I always have plenty of reports to do and I had five separate deposits to make. Not to mention all the usual interruptions but it was an awesome busy busy busy FAST day.

We had a mini-impromptu lunch today. Three of us went out for lunch and we all had chicken fingers and fries. I haven't had that in awhile. We all headed back to the office for the rest of the roller coaster afternoon.

I picked up the boys after work and came home. Chris was gone far far away into the bush to work on some skidder tires and didn't get home until around eight. Talk about a long day...he went in just after six this morning.

I had both boys in bed and sleeping by just after nine o'clock. Wow! This modified schedule is working wonders! Carter actually didn't nap today and fell asleep at about a quarter after seven. He woke up a couple times and was either having a bad dream or something was bugging him. The second time I got him some warm milk and he was out again within 5 minutes. I hope everyone sleeps through the night. (Please!!!)

I downloaded another of Nina's kits and did this layout. The kit is called "Life is Beautiful". Last week when Carter and I were out on our walk this is one of the pictures I took of him. He was so sweet to pose for me in front of this big beautiful blossoming tree. You can click on the image to enlarge it and click HERE for credits.

Tomorrow is Friiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Shore Lunch

Well with a decent amount of sleep last night I managed to get out of bed this morning without pressing snooze for too long. Chris was apparently up just after four since he had to go on a long-distance service call and had to leave by five. So he wasn't here to wake me. I'm going to ask him to make sure I wake up before he leaves then I'm more likely to get up and get going.

I was surprisingly organized this morning though, and we got away fine. Carter is playing this very cute but very patience-testing game when I'm trying to get him dressed all the time now. He pretends his feet are running away when I'm trying to put his socks or gotchies or pants on. I humour him and tell him "I caught it!" and he eventually cooperates.

Both boys slept until nearly the time we had to leave so they took their peanut butter sandwiches and their milk to go.

I had to run two errands for work today...one to put some stuff in our off-site storage and the other to pick up a couple supplies at Wal-Mart. The storage place is kind of tucked away in behind some of the businesses on the highway and you have to drive way around and in behind some back streets to get to it. I've always been intrigued knowing that this industrial area seemed connected by a backroad-type of trail that led not-so-directly to Tim Horton's...any idea where I'm going with this? I went for it. I put the Jeep in 4x4 mode and drove down the muddy rocky trail. It was AWESOME! And just in case you didn't know...mud is WAY slipperier than snow! I felt so proud of myself when I arrived at Timmy's coming out of nowhere from the back 40 with mud all over the Jeep and parked and trotted myself in the store. What a dork. Anyway, next stop was Wal-Mart and then I headed back to the office, feeling exhilarated! I'm so easily amused. (And Bob, I still haven't remembered to buy any juice!!!)

Work went well. The days are ticking by so quickly. Especially when I go to leave...I feel so strange leaving a half an hour earlier; I know I've put in my full day, but I feel like I'm abandoning everyone! I just need to make a few adjustments to this new routine and hopefully I'll have supper on the go by the time Chris gets home.

When he got home all I had done was thawed some walleye for supper. I pan-fried it and Chris washed and cooked potatoes and some cream-style corn. It was just like a shore lunch on a great day of fishing! Except for the poopy weather. We definitely ate inside. Carter and Cooper really seem to like eating fish. It's funny when Carter calls it "chicken". Cooper is starting to feed himself better. I think all four of those molars that are starting to arrive are already coming in handy for his chewing. The top two have erupted but the bottom two are just big bulgy spots in his gums still and thankfully none of them is currently bothering him.

Chris seemed surprisingly amused and not annoyed as I imagined he'd be with my little off-road excursion and mud collection on the Jeep. Regardless of the entertainment value I gleaned from it, he couldn't stand seeing it that dirty. Even when he purposely goes off-roading in his truck, the mud never lasts long; he's always off to give the truck a bath. So, Chris took Carter to the shop to wash the Jeep. Now it's all spiffy so I'd better keep to the streets!

Shortly after they got home I got Cooper tucked away in bed. Carter didn't want to go to bed, but I gave him a time limit on the computer and took him "camping" shortly after 9:30. The bedtime is starting to become routine finally and I'll keep shaving minutes off the time until he's in bed at a decent bedtime for kids. Speaking of bedtime, I'd better head off myself. I actually accomplished a project that I've been stressing over and now it's done so I should rest more easily tonight. And now that it's done I can work on some more scrapping pages!

Summer Hours

What? It's Tuesday already? And May is just about toast? Crikey.

Yesterday was a typically busy Monday at the office. I picked up the boys and came home. As I was cooking spaghetti for supper, I did a VERY quick Wal-Mart and video store run. I'm sure if there were a Guiness time record for doing those two errands, I'd be in the book.

Despite all the shopping I did on the weekend I had forgotten to pick up baby butt wipes and chocolate syrup. So I made a beeline in Wal-Mart for those two items and only those two items and got the heck outta there. Next stop was the video store. I returned the two movies from the weekend and picked up another called "Memory".

We hung out and watched TV after supper then when I tried to get the boys to sleep so we could watch the movie, I ended up falling asleep in the tent quite likely before Carter did. Cooper had cuddled up to me and fallen asleep shortly before. So Chris attempted to watch the movie but also fell asleep. **Note to self: Don't rent movies on a "school" night or else rent them for a whole week.**

I was peacefully snoozing away and had moved to my own bed when at approximately two o'clock I could hear Cooper crying. I tried to let him go back to sleep on his own but his cry was persistent so I had to check him out. He was fine, but WIDE awake. I actually managed to cuddle him back to sleep within about twenty minutes and went back to bed.

Exactly to the minute, one hour later, Cooper was up again. This time it took wayyyyyyy longer for him to settle back down. About 4:30 I could hear the freaking birds starting to chirp. Birds really are lovely creatures, but I'm not supposed to be up as early as they are. Shortly after I noticed the world waking up, so did Carter. Crikey! He wandered over to the other couch and just fell asleep. Whew. Just one kid to get back to bed still. Eventually Cooper fell asleep and I was able to have one final "nap" before Chris woke me up in the tent with Cooper to tell me it was six freaking o'clock already.

At some point in the night I had realized it was ALL MY FAULT that Cooper was up. Around suppertime, I went to give the boys some juice but we were out. Chris had made some fairly weak iced tea so I gave the boys a little each. BIG MISTAKE. Carter was no problem - he likely got a caffeine buzz when he first drank it, but Cooper is like my sister...seems caffeine bothers him about eight hours after ingestion. So, under NO circumstances are my boys to have caffeine. Ever. Silly me for not remembering that little important piece of information about my kids.

I made myself get up and get ready since I'm working a half-hour earlier now for the summer. Both boys were of course sleeping after all that middle-of-the-night partying. I managed to have a shower, dry and iron my hair, get my "gameface" on, get dressed, lay out clothes for the boys and prepare their breakfast, all before they got up. I fed them and dressed them and we actually made it out of the house with no major issues, and I got to work on time for my first day of "summer hours".

The morning went just as quickly as usual, and it it nice to prepare everything at work a half hour before most people get there. At lunch I brought Chris some leftover spaghetti and I came home for a brief nap. I went back to work and the afternoon was fine. Despite my lack of sleep I was having a fantastic day. After work I picked up the boys and came home. I had no imagination of what to make for supper...it seems like there is no food in the house even after all that shopping on the weekend. Seems as though I purchased more household supplies than food.

But after Chris came home I got creative and cooked up some pre-cooked grilled chicken breast strips (the brand-name is "Jane's"...very good product). They would make a great chicken Caesar salad or wrap or even a stir-fry and it's a pretty good value. I cooked some Stove-Top stuffing and some veggies and dinner was served. Easy peasy. And the boys ate it up. There is a bit more chicken left too I can make the boys some sandwiches with tomorrow.

This evening I finished my first layout for Nina's CT using her "Friends" kit available at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking and O-Scraps. I also used her "Frame It" frame pack available at both stores as well. You can click on the image to enlarge it and click HERE see the credits.


It's only 10:45 but I'm fried and six o'clock will be here before I know it! Hopefully Carter (yes the little turkey is still up) will want to hurry up and go camp out so I don't go to sleep before he does again.

Newsy Newsington

That's me...a lot of news from a regular-sized weekend.

Saturday morning Chris went fishing. He was back by two with a gorgeous limit of fish. Beautiful big fillets of walleye. We didn't end up having them for supper. It was one of those days where we had breakfast for supper. I made yummy very cheesey scrambled eggs with chives and bacon, and Chris had found a package of mysterious sausages in the freezer that his Dad had brought over at some point. So I put them on a baking pan and cooked them crispy and brown in the oven.

I love breakfast for supper! We were out of milk so later in the evening I did a grocery run. I also picked up movies. We watched "Jackass 2" - OMG those guys are crazier and more disgusting than ever! And I picked up "Pan's Labyrinth". But after we had a chat at BSD my poor tired eyes couldn't focus on the subtitles! Bummer there were subtitles - means I can't be on the computer and watch it at the same time! It looks like a magical movie but I'm not sure if I'll try watching it again tonight either.

This morning I believe Carter was up first.I'm wondering what he was up to since when I got up he told me to go back to bed. I'm figuring he was scheming to get into something since what woke me was the sound of his dragging one of the dining room chairs across the floor. Chris tossed around the idea of going fishing again but it was bloody cold out. And windy.

Chris fed the boys some lunch and I made my exit to do some real grocery shopping. It was one of those times where we ran out of laundry soap, dishwasher soap, kleenex, hand soap, dryer sheets, you know, all the freaking expensive stuff...all at once. With very little edible stuff in the cart I exited Wal-Mart with a cart and a receipt worth $113.

I still needed some food items and since we don't have a Super-Duper-Big-Ass Wal-Mart, I went to the grocery store across the road. I wanted to make walleye wraps for supper and just needed to pick up mushrooms and turkey bacon. I also needed a green and red pepper, which I forgot therefore I did without. Anyhoo, they were OUT of mushrooms. I still picked up a few more things including a silly gadget...a Sesame Street ice cube tray. Of course I bought it 'cause there was Grover's little face on it. Now we can have Grover ice cubes. Crazy. Carter thought that was pretty cool though.

So I exited that grocery store forty dollars later and headed to the last grocery store. I found mushrooms and picked up some assorted vegetables and dip to munch on as a snack. Next exit cost me just over twenty dollars. I hate adding up those three receipts. Oy.

I came home and Carter had JUST fallen asleep. Cooper surprisingly passed out a little while later but silly me did not capitalize on naptime by napping myself...

The sun started to peek out as I prepared supper. The preparation of walleye wraps is time consuming but the result is so worth the effort. I cut a package of turkey bacon in half and wrap a chunk of walleye in one of the strips of bacon and put it on a wooden skewer that I actually had the presence of mind to soak in water in advance. I alternate the chunks of fish/bacon with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes and onion...as I mentioned I forgot the peppers so the wraps were delicious, yet not as colourful as usual. Even the boys seemed to like them.

After supper Chris discovered a bird family living on top of a fence post behind one of our lilac bushes and we all went outside to have a look. A cute little family of robins has taken up residence there and the mommy and daddy were quite perturbed that we were intruding. I snuck in and took this picture:


It had gotten much much nicer out, The temperature had gone up over ten degrees since this afternoon. So we played outside for a little while. Cooper loves to run around. RUN. Very cute. I took a bunch of pics of the boys but I'm saving them to make scrapbook pages...because...I'm on a new creative team! I'm very thrilled that I'm on Nina's creative team at Ninascraps! She does beautiful work and I have talked to her a little lately and love her stuff. And now I'm on her team. So I'll have to keep up with the picture taking so I have enough pictures to scrap for two designers! Not to mention I definitely need an external hard drive to store all the graphics of two designers! Birthday...just around the corner...must have external hard drive...500GB would rock. It's on my list. So is a laptop but I'm more likely going to end up with the hard drive.

We came in from playing outside and I made vanilla pudding for dessert. Talk about an easy way to be a hero with the kids. Just whisk for two minutes (with Carter's help of course) and a popular treat is ready to rock.

Cooper and Carter both fell asleep within the past hour. There is nothing good on TV...Chris was watching NASCAR but fell asleep and now there are infomercials on the channel he was watching. I might just try to watch that movie again. Gotta keep my eyes peeled for those subtitles...wish me luck staying awake.

You Are My Cloud Cover, My Only Cloud Cover

Dang it's been cold out this week. It's above freezing, though barely. I cannot wait 'til summer. I would love to at least see the sun shine to give the illusion of warmth out there.

On Thursday six of us from the office did another impromptu luncheon. Diane and I already had plans and a few of the gals joined us. We had a lovely lunch.

Kelly and I went to Bingo AGAIN on Thursday night. I tried to justify it saying that since i had won (a little) two weeks in a row it was like it was free. Unfortunately the winning streak seems limited to Wednesdays for me. We'll see what happens next week.

This morning was choreographed very well. I got up in time to have a shower and get mostly ready before I woke up the boys. I woke them up earlier than usual in an attempt to fix this terrible sleep schedule going on around here. I fed them breakfast and they both had a bath. I got all ready and got them dressed and we were out the door with PLENTY of time to make a Timmy's run and head to the babysitter's house and make it to work first and get the best parking spot! (Whew holy run-on sentence Batman!)

Work went well. It was my day to cover the lunch hour and instead of taking the later lunch I went early instead. I went to Wal-Mart to look around. I haven't been there in ages! I bought a small bottle of Cool Water perfume, a gorgeous pair of shoes for THREE dollars (they are so pretty and matched what I was wearing today so when I got back to work I wore them). I also got a pair of running shoes and a new watch. My previous watch has been dead for over four months but I kept wearing it anyway since it was more like a bracelet to me. Instead of replacing the battery on the old one (it was a ten-dollar watch), I bought another ten-dollar watch! It was all about me. No diapers or wipes or toilet paper...just stuff for me.

I went back to work and put on my new shoes. Since I had the early lunch hour, it made for a longer afternoon but it was quiet in the office and I got quite a bit accomplished. I picked up the boys and Carter was SCREAMING...yes...literally screaming for McDonald's. I made him settle and ask nicely and I went to get the two of them a Happy Meal. I figured I'd make something for Chris and myself to eat for supper or order a pizza or something. But by the time he came home, he finished cutting the grass and took the boys outside to play for awhile.

After he came in and showered, he went to pick us up some McDonald's too. Waiting for pizza was not an option - we were both hungry and I need to do some serious grocery shopping. Tonight we held a chat at Butternug Squash Designs with the gals from NDISB. It wasn't quite as crazy as last week but it was very fun. Everyone was too tired!

We just finished the chat a little while ago (at 1:00) and I'm off to bed now. Chris is off tomorrow but he's going fishing again. I hope it gets nicer outside!

Oh one more thing...I finished this layout using Christy's new "Covenant" kit at Butternug Squash Designs. It's not up in my gallery yet but I wanted to post it here before I forget.

Big Freakin' Heffalumps!!!

Tuesday...difficult to get things going in the morning after a long weekend. Ugh. No major issues but I definitely do not have a handle on the bedtime/morning issue in our house. However, we got out of the house with no major problems and work was fine. We had fresh fresh walleye from Chris's most recent fishing excursion. I got him to pick up some homestyle fries on the way home and we had them with the fish and I quickly nuked some veggies. Yummm.

Chris's Dad bought us tickets to take the kids to the circus. Very sweet. I wasn't sure if I wanted to attempt taking them but it went unbelievably well! The kids sat still for the most part and the show was very entertaining! I was so impressed with Carter's toleration of the noise level in there. We couldn't have taken him last year - he used to be so sensitive to noise he would have screamed to go home. But in the past couple months he's changed so much including this nice new development of liking loudness (i.e. I can turn up the stereo in the Jeep, the vacuum doesn't send him away screaming anymore). Now if I could just get him to DO the vacuuming...

So by not having to purchase the admission tickets we saved forty bucks. But that didn't keep us from spending another forty on circus merchandise. Yikes.

Flashing LED light sword for Carter - $9.00
Flashing LED necklace for Cooper - $6.00

Cooper freaked soooooooooo bad when he saw Carter's sword and wasn't impressed with the necklace so off I went with Cooper to pick out his own sword. He opted for a cool colour changing torchy thing with fibre optic threads coming out of the end of it. And it kept him VERY happy for a long time. Ecstatic actually. It was so cute.

So to recap:

Flashing LED light sword for Carter - $9.00
Flashing LED necklace for Cooper - $6.00
Flashing LED torchy thing for Cooper - $9.00
Cup of pop and a teensy puff of cotton candy - $6.00
Elephant ride for Carter - $10.00
Enjoying a very fun family night out...PRICELESS!

Below are a couple pictures from the circus. The lighting was crappy because they turn off the arena lights and use spotlights, one of which was pointing right at my camera whenever I tried to get a good picture. But I waited until Mr. Elephant put his head in front of the spotlight and I got at least one good one.

I took a couple videos too - of the tigers and various cool human tricks and of Carter on the elephant, but I don't know who the other kids were on the elephant so I won't be posting it online.




This morning the kids had a circus hangover. It took them a long time to wind down after the circus and a long time for me to wake them up in the morning. No major problems; I just couldn't get breakfast into them before heading out the door so they had toast to go. I brought lunch to Chris at work and had a good day at the office.

I came home from work with the boys and whipped up a yummy chicken stir-fry. I had to leave for Bingo but instead of pigging out at Bingo I decided to bring supper with me. Good move. That stir-fry rocked! Bingo was awesome. I won twice again...enough to almost break both Kelly and me even again. Wheeee!

It's getting wayyyyyyyy late again...gotta go snooze for a few hours before that nasty clock radio starts trying to wake me up.

Long Weekend...Sucked

Yeah, I'm gonna be a whiner...you got a problem with that?

As most long weekends, the weather SUCKED. Chris went fishing Saturday, Sunday, and today. I loooooooove my boys but it sucked that it was so cold out (it snowed on Saturday, poured rain today was freaking freezing the rest of the time) we didn't go out to play at all. There were very few sunny periods. Stay with me, there are a few bright spots to the weekend...I'm just not done ranting.

Last night we went to Mom & Dad's for supper. (bright spot). We had a delicious meal of roast chicken, the creamiest, butteriest mashed potatoes with gravy, an eclectically awesome assortment of vegetables, a salad and fresh buns. Mmmmmmmmm. We watched the season finale of Desperate Housewives. No major shockers - I seriously could write this stuff. I predicted all the twists and turns they tried to throw at us. Bummer it's done for the season. Now I'll probably have to do laundry on Sunday nights or God forbid cook a meal or clean the house.

Today sucked all the way up to supper time. Chris had returned from fishing late in the afternoon and I proclaimed that I wasn't cooking. I was in a funkity funk. Chris took Carter for a ride and brought us take-out from McDonald's. He "cooked", he got to decide what we ate.

Awhile after supper I decided to finally brush my hair and put on my face and get out of the house. (here comes another bright spot and another whine). I asked Carter to come with me for a walk. He said he wanted to walk, but of course I brought the stroller. By the time we got to the end of the driveway he wanted a ride. I brought my mp3 player and listened to some upbeat tunes. It was pretty nice out - I took my jacket off and tied it around my waist.

A couple times I "sprinted" for a couple blocks. Then I wheezed for at least six more blocks. It felt good though. We took the short way and took the elevator up to the overpass that crosses the railway tracks and the highway. Carter enjoyed looking down at the traffic going below us. I set down the mp3 player on top of the stroller to hold Carter's hand as we walked along the window ledge. He ran down the incline toward the other elevator and I ran to catch up with him. It was between this point and 400 metres later that I noticed I had lost the mp3 player. I searched the stroller and everything. Carter and I ran part of that way, and I'm guessing the mp3 player bounced off and fell to the ground somewhere.

So, thinking I noticed it in time, we immediately turned around and I tried to run back quickly to find it. We met a couple people on bikes and I obviously looked like I was looking for something and out loud I exclaimed to Carter that I hoped we were going to find it. We got back to the elevator and there were a couple other people coming out who said they hadn't found it. Hmmm. Well someone must have. My guess is the bicyclers, though I wasn't looking back to see how many other people had been in our tracks. I was sad.

Instead of going the rest of my planned route, we just retraced our steps back to where I'd taken off the earphones and then headed home. I had promised to take Carter for a treat so I parked the stroller and took him for a ride in the Jeep. I was spent. Oy. We went to 7-11 for a Slurpee and cruised around. We went down to the government dock and Carter posed on the big rocks and on the dock for me. We had a great time. Next stop was the yacht club since Carter noticed the sailboats from far away and wanted to check them out.

I figured since Carter hadn't napped that he'd be ready to zonk, so I did a couple more loops around town and sure enough he fell asleep. I drove home and realized the barbecue was still inside the garage along with the kids' picnic table and some lawn chairs. I ended up rearranging practically the whole garage, parked the Jeep and took Carter inside. Here are a few pictures from our travels:




I brought him in and put him to bed. One down, one to go. I had expected Cooper to be asleep but he was staring out the window at me when I walked in. And he didn't go to bed until 11:30. Obviously he had slept while I was gone and got his second wind. Bigtime. Carter got up a few minutes after that. I exited stage left and went to the basement. I started sorting some of the clothes in the kids' room and that was barely a drop in the bucket. I went to the basement and did a bunch of laundry and folded and folded and sorted and sorted. Now there are still piles, but they are very organized by colour for putting in the wash, or folded in very tidy piles for putting away. All the clean towels are put away in the cupboard.

After making the first attack on the basement, (there is still much much much to do) I came back upstairs and sorted more kids' clothes. Clothes that belong to my girlfriends kids I put into separate bags. I put all Cooper's stuff that fits him now and will fit him soon into one bin, stuff that fits Carter now into another. I actually put stuff into dresser drawers too. One drawer is for socks and undies and another is for jammies. Wow. Imagine me trying to find stuff now that it's in drawers!

If I could just do a fraction of what I did tonight a couple times a week, I'd be in total control of this household. I'll have to work on that. Amid all the cabin fever this weekend, I finished a couple layouts. Here they are. Credits: "Lilac Garden" and "Craft Jar" kits from Miss Mint at Peppermint Creative.



One more thing...I've been "tagged" by Theresa...(yay, how fun is that!) but I'm gonna tackle that tomorrow.

Long Weekend...Coming Up!

Today was awesome. I managed to drop off the boys without incident and make it to work on time with time to spare after doing a Timmy's run.

Work went well for the morning and I called hubby at work to see if he wanted me to bring him lunch. Just after I spoke with him, one of the girls at work wanted to go out for lunch. I was all over it. We planned an impromptu office lunch and I booked a reservation for six of us. THEN I remembered I promised to deliver lunch to hubby and his boss. One of the girls sent me away a few minutes early to feed the hubby so I could still participate in our said impromptu office lunch.

Lunch rocked. The afternoon ticked away...not as quickly as I might have liked considering it's a 3-day weekend (Bless your soul, Queen Victoria), but it ticked away nonetheless. I had a few office equipment issues but i managed to fix everything. Yay.

I picked up the boys and Carter wanted chicken for supper. From McDonald's. They have a major Shrek promotion going on and I'd like to collect the Happy Meal toys and the cool glassware they have so I decided to do a "Ronny's" run. We picnicked outside again. Chris and I had Big Macs and the boys had McNugget happy meals. Chris and Carter stayed outside to wash the Jeep and I took Cooper in. He was maaaaaaaaaaad again. The kid wants to be a big boy like his brother Carter.

After Chris and Carter came in I realized we needed milk. Crap. So I did a grocery run. I had put on the movie, "Music and Lyrics" but didn't get very far. I paused it. Since it's a long weekend (thanks again, Queen Victoria), the stores are all NUTS. One, because there are fishing tourists here stocking up for their opening-week visits to God's county. And two...because many of the stores will be closed on Monday. God forbid you don't get to shop for one freaking day. Anyway, I picked up a few (yes only a few) essentials and treats and made my way through the throngs to get home.

I remembered that Theresa from NDISB was holding a charity chat at DST so I tuned in about 20 minutes late but still had a blast with all the gals there that I've met at NDISB. During the chat someone mentioned the program "Hello" and I had just downloaded it the other day. Both Theresa and Jill use it and Jill sent me my first Hello message. It's a wayyyyyyyyy cool way to share messages and pictures. I have just got to talk Angie into using it.

Anyway, it's wayyyyyyyyy past my bedtime so I'm outta here.

I'm Such a Winner

Okay, so it's Friday and I haven't blogged since Tuesday. Kind of loser-y of me. Because I don't remember every detail between then and now so it might be a bit sketchy! But, on Wednesday, Kelly and I went to Bingo and I won. Twice. Yay! I got my Bingo mojo back, baby! Kelly and I each got $61.50 out of the deal. Nice to get some back once in awhile.

Thursday...hmmm. It felt like it should have been Friday. Normal day at work - weather was decent so Chris finished mowing the grass and I played outside with the boys for awhile. I hadn't taken anything out of the freezer for supper (in ages I might add...eek) so I phoned and ordered a pizza. We had a late supper and all devoured the pizza.

I tried a little experiment to see if I could alter bedtime. We shut off all the screens (TV and computers) and tried to get the kids to sleep. I almost had Cooper out but as soon as he heard Carter and Chris come in the room it was suddenly playtime again. So it took just over an hour to get Cooper down and a little longer for Carter. I watched the season finale of ER. A few big surprises. Shocking, actually. A little disappointed with the plot twists. And now I have to wait 'til September for the results of the cliffhanger they left us with.

So today is Friday. The boys will be up any minute so I'd better get myself in gear. Hopefully I'll write more tonight.

Running Out of Daylight

The days are flying by so quickly...I feel like I barely walk in the door with the boys after work and it's time for bed!

Today was another good, fast-paced day at the office. I cruised around with the boys a bit after work and we got home at the same time as Chris. He wanted to barbecue hamburgers (hey, who am I to argue with a man that wants to cook me supper again?) So Chris kept Carter and I took Cooper to Wal-Mart. I grabbed some beef sirloin burgers and a few other grocery items (only spent forty-two bucks so there must be wayyyyyyyy more stuff I need!) I came home and brought Cooper in and got everything ready for Chris to barbecue. Chris had started to mow the grass (yes, it's getting nice enough out and with the rain we've had these past couple days everything has just sprouted greenness all over the place!)

Cooper was maaaaaaaaaaaaad. I can only guess it's because he wanted to stay out and play with Carter and Daddy. Chris barbecued the burgers and brought everything inside. We had supper and both boys almost ate a half a burger each and they're fairly thick burgers. Chris had promised Carter that if he ate all his supper we could go to the park. I was so looking forward to the four of us going to the park. We finished supper and got the boys dressed in warmer clothes, shoes, sweaters, etc. THE VERY SECOND we went outside it started to POUR RAIN. Okay, fine. Plan B. We went to visit Auntie Lurdes and Uncle Cliff instead! We had a wonderful visit as always and I collected a few of their family pictures from their computer so I can make a Memory Maker bracelet for Auntie Lurdes - kind of a belated birthday present I've been meaning to get pictures for.

I came across this picture of Mallary and had to have it to make a page with Christy's new "Strappleberry Lime" kit at Butternug Squash Designs. The colour of her bathing suit and the scrunchy in her hair were perfect and it's such a perfect picture of her.

Cooper fell asleep shortly after we got home. He stayed asleep while I changed him and put him to bed. Sweet. Carter snuggled up on the couch beside me and zonked shortly after. I'm tired and I dozed off for awhile but I got my second wind and finished up the Mallary page.

I also wanted to post this page I did a few days ago using this picture of Carter and Dominic and Noah. They're all sporting matching jackets that Cindy bought all three of them for their birthdays. All three of them were born in May. Dominic and Carter were almost birthday twins...just one day (and 7 years) apart.

I bought this kit, "Brownie Mud Pie" by Angela Sharrow. I'd had my eye on it since I got the sampler pack way back not long after I started this hobby and I finally bought the whole kit on National Scrapbooking Day. I made my own polaroid frame and used Panos' bend effect on it. I used Atomic Cupcake's Iron action on the title.

I'm off to bed now - just have to carry Carter off to his bed and then I'm a goner. By the way, I have no movie reviews because I didn't even watch one of the ones I mentioned last night. Hopefully I'll get to watch them soon.

You Call That Mother's Day?

Well I did get to stay in bed a little longer, but the boys were making so much racket I didn't get any extra sleep! And if my boys hadn't made those awesome cards they made at the babysitter, I'd have nothing to show for Mother's Day! (Aside from the love and devotion of my boys and my husband of course!) At some point I'll scan the cards and post them here 'cause they are soooooo cute.

So I had an incredibly lazy weekend in general. At some point Sunday afternoon I finally flat-ironed my hair. I'm so lucky I don't often have to do that more than once a week. Talk about a low-maintenance hairstyle. So bye-bye grey for another few weeks too.

I took Cooper to the grocery store yesterday. One of my neighbours was there and he said, "Isn't it a rule that you don't have to shop on Mother's Day?". I said, "Are you kidding me? I'm escaping right now! I have no problem with shopping on Mother's Day or any other day if it gets me out of the house!" And Cooper was a good little helper with no fuss, so it went just fine. I brought happy meals home for the boys and we had a McDonald's picnic outside since it was so nice out.

I made a yummy taco salad for supper (I know I said the recipe was to follow last week but I actually already typed it once to share it with the girls at work and I deleted it from this computer - oops!) I'll email it home to myself so I can blog it. I watched my only show that I seriously obsess over watching...Desperate Housewives. Carter stayed up pretty late again. I swear the kid doesn't require much sleep at night. Either that or he's taking one hell of a nap during the day!

Today was a very busy Monday, but it started out great. I had time to do a Timmy's run, our summer student started today, and Nicki found me this purse I'd been wanting to get since another of our coworkers got one a few weeks ago. She had to travel 200 miles to find it but she picked it up for me! So I told Chris he bought it for me for Mother's Day. Considering I didn't even get a card from him, he didn't seem to have a problem with that!

Kelly stopped by the office this morning and we made plans to go out for lunch. We had our new usual chicken Caesar wrap. It was awesome. I went back to work for a busy afternoon and before I knew it, it was time to go pick up the boys.

I was planning on making stir-fry for supper, but Chris oddly enough felt like barbecuing hot dogs. Like we haven't had enough meals of synthetic mystery meat since ending up with all those leftovers after Carter's birthday! We also had taco salad and the boys actually ate a bit of everything.

Kelly rented a pile of movies but didn't get the chance to watch them so she lent them to us. I went over to pick them up and had tea and cake with her and Ben. The movies are "Painted Veil", "Because I Said So", "Music & Lyrics", and "Catch & Release". I haven't seen any of them so I'll try to do a mini movie marathon and watch a couple tonight and a couple tomorrow night.

And, I had 29 comments on my freebie from the other day, and the winner of the $5 gift certificate for Butternug Squash Designs is Fortlady (Karen)! How fun! Now I'm off to see how many minutes of a movie I can watch before I fall asleep on the couch!

Happy 40-Something Birthday, Angie!

I didn't want to mush this birthday wish for Angie in with the post about poop...

So raise your glass and toast to my awesome friend Angie on her birthday!

Y'all should pop by her blog to wish her a very happy one!

Big Hugs Angie!

Love Melly :)

Holy Crap!

Cooper pooped on the potty today! Just seventeen months old and he did it! He started making the "I gotta poop" face so I acted quickly and undiapered him and put him on the potty. It took awhile but he eventually had a ginormous poop! Sorry for all the gruesome details but emptying a potty is way more pleasant than using 28375682345 wipes and wrapping up a poopy diaper!

Today I have had a headache all day. My sinuses have been all wonky but I don't feel like I have a cold. Please don't let it be allergies...I've almost never been allergic to anything; I only broke into hives once after playing with those yellow and black fuzzy caterpillars when I was really little. I just took some Tylenol a few minutes ago so hopefully it will work it's magic quickly.

After my Grandma passed away last year, when Cooper was just two months old, I went to her house with my Dad. Most of her things had been sorted and much of the family had chosen some keepsakes. I hadn't, since over the years Grandma gave me some things that I treasure even more since they were gifts from her. But as I looked in her sewing box, I found this beautiful bracelet:

Grandpa used to have a rock tumbler so I'm betting that he and Grandma made this bracelet. I wear it from time to time but I'm so careful not to let my boys near it and I fear losing it. Soooooooo I scanned it ages ago and was going to try to base a kit around it but instead I recoloured it a few times for variety and thought I'd offer it up as a freebie. You can click on the package below to start the download.

Here's the bonus...I will enter the blog comments (here) or forum comments (from my post where you received the link to come here) between now and Monday night in a draw for a five dollar gift certificate at Butternug Squash Designs. Please be sure to leave a link back to your blog or your email address so I can contact you to send you the gift certificate!


I finally dyed my hair this evening so tomorrow I'll just have to iron it. Cooper went to sleep just a few minutes ago but Carter is still going strong playing games on the other computer. Chris is nearly snoring on the other couch. My headache seems to be lifting. I might even be able to stay up late enough to watch Mad TV and/or Saturday Night Live tonight!

The Spur of the Moment

Ok so other than posting my freebie yesterday I don't remember what the heck I did. All I know is we had hotdogs again for supper and we will be for quite some time since we have so many left over from Dad's party and Carter's birthday!

This afternoon I saw Kelly and I had this urge to make an impromptu Bingo date. I called Chris and he didn't mind my going so the date was ON. I called my Mom and she wanted to go too. So I picked up the boys, fed them, got ready, Chris came home and Kelly picked me up. We met up with Mom at the corner of her road and the highway and went on our way.

We set up our cards and had our snacks and Kelly and I decided to go play a couple early bird games before the regular Bingo started. I won immediately. Forty bucks. Not much but hey, it's nice to get some back once in awhile! We hoped it would set the tone for the rest of the evening, and it turned out Mom won a pot too...but hers was split four ways. She still ended up with more than Kelly and I did after we split! We had a blast as usual.

When I got home Cooper was asleep but Carter was still up...fortunately not for too long. He's now asleep on the living room floor. I chatted for awhile in Christy's awesome new chatroom with Angie and Vicky - that is always a hoot too. I have to make a birthday banner for a friend of mine for her son's birthday on Saturday but I've been slacking so I'd better get it done before I go to bed!

Tomorrow is Friday. Yay!

P.S. I had 480 visits to my blog today...it is so very cool to see people from all over the world come here. To my blog. I know it's not to see "me"...it's for the freebie, but it's still very exciting!

Free Flower Stickers

I had fun making these flower stickers and since it's been a forever since I made anything, here you go! I actually hand-drew a bunch of stuff that really sucked except for one little petal that I replicated around to make a flower.

You can click on the image to start the download...I'm trying a new upload server so we'll see how this one goes!

Enjoy!

P.S. I would absolutely looooooooooove to see someone use these in a layout - please send me a link to it if you do - that would rock!

Thing One and Thing Two

Wow what a full full day.

My headache started creeping back this morning and by this afternoon I took some Tylenol. It didn't touch the headache. Oy. During my lunchbreak I ran around like a crazy woman trying to get stuff ready to have the family over for hotdogs and cake.

If I were a planner, (and if I hadn't had a headhache on and off for five days) I might have come up with something a little more organized and invited over all our friends too. I'm hoping to do something with them on the weekend.

After work I picked up the boys and brought them home. Chris had gotten home early and I took off right away to pick up the cake. I ordered a Nemo cake sans Nemo and friends, just for the undersea look of the icing. Carter had wanted a shark cake so I had found some various sharks and undersea creatures at the dollar stores to garnish the cake with. That turned out great and Carter was quite suitably impressed.

Mom and Dad and all the aunts and uncles came for hotdogs supplied by Dad and the cake, which for some reason I haven't had any of yet. Perhaps a midnight snack is in my future. I guess I was kinda busy. Cooper really got into the cake - that was pretty hilarious. Carter got some really cool toys and some clothes, and he wanted to go outside to try out his new rocket launcher from Uncle Bob and Auntie Josie and kick-rocket from Kelly. Way cool toys. Chris ended up playing outside with Carter and Kelly helped wrangle Cooper while I multi-tasked visiting with everyone and serving cake. Everyone watched American Idol while I bustled around. I was starting to feel much better, I'm suspecting the relief came from the caffeine in the Coke I drank. I was caffeine free the past couple days and I'm quite certain that was part of the reason for my headache.

The party started to disband and everyone went in separate directions. I had made a whole sink full of water balloons earlier anticipating Cindy coming with the kids but they had baseball that ran late so they didn't make it. I brought out the water balloons and Carter had a blast. He and Chris and Chris's friend Nick were whipping them all over the place and Carter was ecstatic. Stuff like that makes me feel like a cool Mom. Then I gave one to Cooper while he was swinging. He had been holding a baseball but was quite thrilled to have the fun squishy water balloon. Until he bit it. Oops. Not such a cool Mom. Duh.

Kelly managed to con the kids into coming in the house by telling them they could play with their water balloons in the tub. Yay! That worked perfectly. And they were filthy. They were dirty before I even picked them up from the sitter since they played outside today, but by this time they were REALLY dirty! They had a hoot in the tub with the water balloons. Kelly left and I had to con the boys out of the tub. I swear those kids would stay in there long after the water cooled off if I let them!

I actually got to chat with Angie briefly, amid chasing my kids all over the house. They just went to sleep just before eleven. Must have been all jacked up on cake and pop. But hey, it was a special day. And because my headache is gone, I can say it was worth it for them to stay up 'cause they had a ton of fun. I picked up some glow in the dark stars to put on Carter & Cooper's ceiling above the tent. There's nothing like gazing up through the top of your tent at the stars!

Before Angie signed off she wished me luck getting Thing One and Thing Two to bed, which struck me as quite hilarious and accurate considering the kids were still up and in non-stop action mode, so I thought it so appropriate a title for this post. Finally they're both asleep so I think I'm headed that way too.

Happy 4th Birthday, Carter!

Carter's "Birth" Day 2003-05-08

Carter's First Birthday 2004-05-08
Big Bird Cake Made by Nana Irene

Carter's Second Birthday 2005-05-08
Bob the Builder Cake

Carter's Third Birthday - 2006-05-08
Shrek Cake

Carter's Fourth Birthday 2007-05-08
Shark Cake

Where Did It Go???

The weekend, that is...wow that was a fast one!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DOMINIC!!!

Friday after work Chris kept the boys outside to play for awhile and one of his friends from work popped by. I suggested barbecuing steak and was offered no resistance. I ran to the grocery store to pick up steaks and mushrooms and cobs of corn. It was already going to be a late supper so I didn't take any extra time to marinate the steaks. I just rubbed them with the Beef & Steak rub from Victorian Epicure. I prepared the corn and sliced the mushrooms and started pan-frying them with onions and butter. I nuked the potatoes because it was the fastest way, while Chris barbecued the steaks.

Chris's friend left shortly after supper and I ran to the video store to get a movie. We watched "A Night at the Museum" while I was on a chat at BSD. The chat was great and so was the movie. Carter was entranced with the movie. It's great for the whole family. I definitely recommend it. I started getting a nasty headache but went to bed to try to get rid of it.

Saturday Dad held a barbecue at his place for members of the ice road committee. After Chris came home from work we went out for a few hotdogs and a visit. I brought the movie for Mom & Dad to watch, so Chris went inside to watch it since he fell asleep after the first five minutes the night before. I still had a headache but I hate taking anything so I just managed to get by without anything, though I'm sure I'd have felt much better if I had.

It was pretty windy but Carter played outside with the kids that came to visit. Cooper was asleep when we got there but didn't nap for more than about a half an hour. We left after a few hours. Saturday evening was a quiet one. I received a payment to my Paypal account for completing an online survey, so since it was National Scrapbook Day (and Derek's Birthday on Cinco de Mayo!) I bought some new scrapbooking kits. Shopping = fun.

Late Sunday morning, Chris took Cooper for a muddy ride in his truck. Chris's friend got his truck stuck in the mud in the boonies and Chris went along to help get him out. In the meantime, I had to get ready to go to a baby shower. I went to pick up stuff to make a taco salad, which I haven't made in ages (recipe to follow). I picked up all the stuff and came home to prepare it. Cooper was ready for a nap. I browned the ground beef and put it in the fridge to cool. That's when I realized I didn't have any taco seasoning packets. Crap. I had FOUR fajita packets, but no taco. Cooper had just fallen asleep in his high chair amid eating a banana, but I had to scoop him up and head to the store again. Fortunately my headache had eased up and I was feeling much better.

We came home a second time and I was hoping to squeeze another nap out of Cooper, but no chance. I finished preparing the taco salad and Cooper and I headed to the baby shower, since Chris and Carter weren't back yet. The shower was lovely. It's always nice to see coworkers away from the office and get to talk about real life stuff.

After the shower Cooper and I came home. Chris and Carter were already home. We had leftover taco salad for supper. Cooper dug into it pretty well before he started flinging the plate around. I got to watch "Desperate Housewives" without too much interruption (yes, the boys were still up!) and it was gripping as per usual.

Today is Dominic's Birthday. I cannot for the life of me believe that that kid is ELEVEN years old. Wow. After supper we went over for cake and ice cream. Well, ice cream cake actually! We had a good visit - it was a beautiful evening and the kids played outside. We came home and I whipped up some invitations for Dominic's birthday party with his friends this coming weekend.

I put the final touches on this layout of Carter that I'd been working on for what seemed like forever. I had three separate drafts and finally decided on this one. You can click on it to enlarge the image and you can click here for the credits. I'm outta here. I gotta go to sleep!

Hiatus

My blog (and Angie) have been screaming at me to do an update...here goes...I made brief notes so this will likely be a lengthy post.

Friday was fine. After work I took the boys to Mom & Dad's so I could raid Mom's closet for an outfit to wear on Saturday night. At home we watched "The Pursuit of Happyness". Not overly quick-moving, but very good. Need some perspective? Watch it.

Saturday was an absolute banner day. Chris went to work as usual. I took Cooper over to visit Kelly while I took Carter for his first haircut appointment at the hairdresser. In the past I've cut his hair myself but he had such a mop on top I thought it would be nice to get it cut into a nice little boy haircut. And it is. And he was sooooooo good. Too bad you can't see the blue hair gel on the spikes...way cool.



After Carter's appointment, he and I cruised around a little to show off his new haircut to Daddy and to Cindy - she was watching Dominic at baseball practice so we stopped by there.

Chris came home from work and we got the boys ready and our bags packed to travel to my staff appreciation dinner. We met up with Kelly and Doug as soon as we got to the hotel. We checked in and got the boys all dressed and spiffy. I borrowed a great outfit from my Mom. Dressy enough but not a dress - and very comfy. I don't have a picture.

We went downstairs and dropped off the boys at the kids' area that was prearranged for the evening. They had games and toys for kids of all ages; it looked like such a great setup.

We went to the banquet hall for the dinner. Everything was lovely. I got to meet many people I'd never met before but there were so many people there that there are still many I've yet to meet!

We sat with Kelly and Doug and wouldn't you know it, our table was the second last to go up for the dinner. My Dad says it's genetic to get picked last for any dinner. HOWEVER, there was still plenty of excellent food and dessert when we got our turn. The prime rib was AMAZING. There were assorted salads which I skipped to save space on the plate for the main course. There was chicken and roasted potatoes, delicious assorted vegetables...whodathunk I'd looooove squash so much? There was an exquisite array of desserts too.

After dinner there were speeches and awards. I was nominated for a "Client Service Award". That was a very pleasant surprise. There were no "winners"; all the nominees went into a draw and one was chosen from each category to win a draw prize. Next up was a HI-LARIOUS comedian named Dean Jenkinson. He was fantastic. Very very quick-witted and musically talented too. It was a great show.

The whole evening was a smashing success. They thought of every possible detail and everyone, absolutely everyone had a great time. It's been the main discussion topic around the water cooler all week and many of us are already looking forward to next year's event!

We started to head back fairly early on Sunday morning. Chris got a call just as we were leaving town to see if he wanted to go fishing. The lake he was planning to go to was only two kilometres off the highway on our way back, so I basically dropped him off in the middle of nowhere. (No, not before his fishing buddy showed up!!) I drove the rest of the way back and met up with Mom & Dad and the gang after church having breakfast. We had already done our Timmy's run on our way back to town, so we just had a brief visit and came home. Mom invited us for supper, so when Chris got back to town I packed up the boys and we picked him up and headed out.

Mom made an awesome roast beef, mashed potatoes with gravy, veggies, fresh buns and salad. Mmmmm. It was great. We came home just in time for me to watch Desperate Housewives.

It's been a busy week at work; Monday was month-end. Three of our staff got new computers that I set up and imported all the stuff from their old computers and got them all back up and running on the network again. Tuesday I watched Idol - had quite a few early-to-bed evenings. I'm just getting over my cold that I've had about a week, so the sleep has been doing wonders for me.

Last night we went to watch Dominic play baseball. It's so cool to watch him because he's such a natural athlete like Nick was. I just had this feeling like Nick was right there. And very proud of his son. Here are a couple pictures of him in action.


So we skipped Bingo this week...boo hoo. Hopefully we'll go again next week. Tonight Kelly and I took the boys for a walk. It will take awhile before I have the stamina to do our usual long walks, but we went along the riverfront and looped back around to the park so the boys could play. Here are a couple pictures of them in action!




Kelly walked us the rest of the way home and we played outside a little longer. We came in and I made hot chocolate for the boys. Cooper got very fussy and was inconsolable. I think he's getting his eye teeth. Oy. Poor guy. He just screamed and screamed. I gave him some Tylenol earlier so it was time that I could give him some Advil. It still took forever for him to settle, and he eventually fell asleep on my arm. I watched Earl and ER. I put him to bed and finished off this layout that I did using one of the new pictures of Cooper.

You can click on the image for credits and click HERE to enlarge it.

Okay, I'm calling it a night. Angie...are you happy now? (puppy)