Happy Blogaversary!

I realized this week that last Saturday was my one-year blogaversary...so here's a freebie present for YOU!

Mellykat's "This'n'That" has a full upper- and lower-case alpha with full punctuation and number set. Also included are a grungy envelope (in two pieces), grungy tape and a magnifying glass.

Click on the image below to start the download. Please read the enclosed terms of use in the zip file and enjoy!



New link: http://www.mediafire.com/?dm92jy2y5s0
or click HERE

Phone-a-Palooza!

Yesterday SUCKED. I barely had any sleep and I had a poopy day at work. I was sad and tired and I spent the day obsessively and madly searching for something very important at the office that still hasn't shown up. I was ready to go to bed before supper but we barbecued some awesome moose sausage we got at Cindy's the other night when we visited. We had mixed rice and some raw veggies with dip to go with supper. Good stuff.

After supper I just wanted to sleep but the boys were not ready for bed in the least. I finally got Cooper down for the count and Carter wanted to sleep on the couch by his Dad so I left him there and went to bed. Cooper's teeth must be bothering him or something because he got up a few times. By three o'clock-ish, I gave him some Tylenol and settled him back down. I took him to bed and luckily he fell asleep. What a bed-hog that kid is! So it was a good thing I at least started sleeping earlier than usual or I'd have been toast today.

Today was a much better day at the office. I got a couple early birthday cards, and Seija took me out for lunch (Thanks again Seija for the lovely lunch and the even-lovelier birthday card!) The afternoon rocked too, since at coffee break there was cake for my birthday! Kim made a "tomato soup cake" with cream cheese icing and red sprinkles with little Canadian flags standing on top. And it was gooooooood.

After lunch I stopped at home to get Chris to bring me back to work so he could keep the Jeep and pick up the boys. After work I started walking toward the babysitter's house and met up with Chris and the boys on the way.

Mom and Dad popped by after supper and I finally managed to get a hold of Kendra. What a wonderful relief to talk to her. She sounded really good today and has already started treatment. Her energy level has gone up with a few blood transfusions that have improved her blood levels and she had surgery to insert a catheter in her chest to receive chemo treatments. I asked plenty of questions and understand what is happening now. And I continue to pray for her.

Shortly after I talked to Kendra I decided to check in on Angie. We've barely touched base this week via a couple brief emails and blog comments so I called her up. First I talked to Mark for a few minutes and then he passed me over to Angie. She sounds great too! Now all she has to do is get that laptop in gear and start scrapping! (hint hint! heehee)

After talking on the phone to Angie for just over a half an hour, I was chatting with Jill on Hello about how much I'd been on the phone. She said she has free long distance to Mexico and Canada so I typed in my phone number. I glanced over at Chris and said "I think the phone is gonna ring!" And it did, and it was Jill! That was pretty hilarious. The boys were being little monkeys so it was hard to have a normal conversation, but it was so very cool that she called.

I suddenly remembered we were completely out of milk so I took Carter on a little date with me to Wal-Mart. I picked up milk and shampoo and toothpaste and I came so close to buying him one of those cool 3-wheel scooters. We played with the cool toys in the toy department and picked up some water shoes for him. We went to the video store and I rented a couple movies and we came home.

We started watching "The Ant Bully" then Seija and Ian called to ask Chris to rescue them. They were 25 miles from here and had locked their vehicle with both their dogs and their keys and Seija's purse with the other keys in it. (Sounds like something *I* would have done!!!) They asked Chris to go to their house to get the spare vehicle keys and they'd meet on the road in their friend's vehicle to pick them up.

This is where it gets humorous. Chris got in the garage no problem but really didn't want to break a window or anything to get in the house. It seemed like it was taking him forever and I tried phoning a few times but their place is kind of in an in-between cell phone service area! I finally reached him and said that I had talked to Seija and she said to just go ahead and break a window. It was pretty funny because he was all nervous and paranoid that someone would see him trying to break into the house and every time a car would drive by he was thinking police! He actually made it in without breaking any glass and retrieved the keys. They met up half way and Chris came home. Whew!

By the time Chris came home we were already watching "The Ant Bully" for the second time and Carter had fallen asleep beside me. Cooper had zonked out shortly after Chris left. We put the kids to bed and put on the movie "Shooter" with Mark Wahlberg. What an awesome movie! I was working on making new stuff in Photoshop but I actually could barely pay any attention to the computer because the movie was really good! Excellent action, no-nonsense kick-ass movie. Loved it. A definite must-see unless you hate awesome action movies...or violence. Plenty of shooting, hence the title.

Now it's quarter to two. Chris just went to bed awhile ago...he has to work in the morning but just for half a day then our vacation begins. And he's going fishing. I forgot he mentioned that part.

So, I haven't gotten any new scrapbook pages done but I made this really cool metal-edged alpha that I'll be posting here as a freebie soon. Totally inspired by Jill by the way! Here is a little preview. And I'm going to turn off my alarm clock, go to sleep and hope that the boys feel like sleeping in!


Oh...just one more thing...I was checking my email for the 293746293578th time before bed and I found a sweet cute birthday e-card from Helen...very cyuuuute! Thanks Helen! Hope you're having a fantastic weekend!

Fifteen Feet From The Cup

No, I didn't go golfing today, and if I had, I'd be plenty farther than fifteen feet from the cup. I'm talkin' about the Stanley Cup. Chris Pronger brought it home today and a few of us darted out of the office to have a peek of that shiny gleaming symbol as it drove by (fastest parade I've ever seen...likely 20 miles per hour!) Here is a picture.

My babysitter and her family are ginormous hockey fans and she took all the kids she was babysitting down to the arena for the festivities. After work I picked up the boys at the arena. We came home and when Chris got home we got ready to go to Cindy's for Jessica's birthday cake. We had a great visit.

We came home and the boys fell asleep shortly after. As I started scanning pictures for one of my friends at work, I checked my email and received an email from my friend Kendra's husband Les with earth-shattering news that Kendra has just been diagnosed with AML. Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Oh God Please help her. She's been through so much these past couple years and I just want her to get better. I wish I could find a way to get there. My heart is aching. Please help me pray for my friend. I called and talked to Les but I didn't think I was ready to talk to Kendra. I sucked it up and tried to call her but there was a nurse in with her. I tried a zillion more times but it was starting to get late so I imagine she had the phone off for the night. I will try again tomorrow. In the meantime, I pray.

My Friend Kendra

Between last night and tonight I've scanned 127 pictures and there is another pack of them to go. But it was a breeze since I was working on some thank you cards for another coworker and blogging at the same time and printing two other small projects. Multitasking rocks. And I told myself I'd go to bed by 1:00. I have 15 minutes left. I just don't know if I'll be able to sleep.

I was hoping to touch base with Angie today but everything else happened! I've been thinking about you all day, girl! And a special shout-out to Beth for our one-year "anniversary". I realized after-the-fact that Saturday was my "blogaversary"...I've been blogging for a whole year already!?!? I owe thanks to Angie and Beth and Helen and my few other regular readers/commenters that encouraged me to keep it up. Good night blogosphere. I'm so very weary.

Mother Nature Must Have Her Period

We are getting SLAMMED with stormy weather. It seems like every couple days we have a new, more wicked storm. In Manitoba they had massive tornadoes. In a town only an hour away from here they had a possible tornado, and they're in a state of emergency due to a "micro-burst". I don't recall this much storm activity in such a short period of time. I wonder what we did to piss off Mother Nature?

Yesterday I pressed snooze as long as possible and dragged my sorry-that-the-weekend-was-over-ass out of bed. Work went fine. Mondays always fly. Chris barbecued hotdogs for supper and I worked on a couple projects in the evening after the boys went to bed. We had another wicked wicked storm around 1:30. I was still up and enjoyed watching the torrential-ness of it.

This morning I got up and ready and got the boys ready. It was so stormy again and the wind was whipping the rain around. I would have had plenty of time but I thought I could wait out the storm a few minutes and when it eased up I'd make a run for it with the kids. Nope. It got worse. I got the brilliant idea to put on my shower cap to run out to the garage. Even if I could have managed an umbrella with carrying Cooper, the diaper bag, my hair dryer and my purse, the umbrella would have either blown inside out or flown me away like Mary Poppins!

Today was another good and quick day. Maybe it just seemed that way because I had TWO French Vanilla Cappuccinos this morning! After work I picked up the boys and we came home. We had random leftovers for supper and Kelly stopped by with her NEW PUPPY! His name is Radley and he is a gorgeous little sweetie! Here he is:

He is so soft and cuddly and cyuuuuuuute!

Here are a couple layouts I've been working on recently. I'll just stick the images in and insert the gallery and credit links tomorrow because my eyeballs are getting fried! We had a fun chat at BSD tonight and my eyes are very tired now. Not to mention I didn't sleep a whole lot last night.



My friend Angie had her hernia surgery today, and pulled through like a champ! She even took a minute between popping pills (kidding, Angie) to say hi to our scrapbooking group. Sweet. So glad to hear everything went well. Thanks to Mark for sending out the email to tell us all was well. I just wish I could go see her in person to give her a hand while she gets better!

Bright, Sun-Shiny Day!

Friday was gorgeous. Saturday was gorgeous. We had a couple gnarly thunderstorms in between but it was a beautiful weekend.

Today - topped them all. Fairly early this morning Chris had Carter outside playing in the pool. Not warm water. Oy. Cooper of course wanted in on the action. I sent him out with Chris while I got ready and I went outside to slather the boys in sunscreen. It was already HOT out. They cavorted and splashed for quite awhile. I had hoped to take them to a park today but when we brought them in it was close to lunch and naptime so by the time Cooper's (and my) naps were over, it was nearly time to get ready to go to my parents' house for supper.

We stopped at the grocery store so I could get my missing ingredients to bring my taco salad and we headed out. Chris went in his truck so he could pull his boat to Mom and Dad's and park it there for the summer. The boys played in the lake and it was soooooo cool (and a little scary) to see how brave they are in the water. Have to watch them like a hawk! I took a few pictures.

Carter hip-wading

Cooper testing the waters.

The boys doing their own thing...love the expressions on their faces!

In attendance were my sister and her family, my parents, us, Uncle Cliff & Auntie Lurdes, and Uncle Bob & Auntie Josie. The food was plennnnnnnnntiful. Dad deep-fried the french fries and then the mountain of fish in beer batter. There were salads GALORE. Potato salad, macaroni salad, taco salad, broccoli salad. Fruit tray, cake, the list went ON! And it was so incredibly gorgeous we all sat outside the whole time.

I had brought a few changes of clothing for the boys anticipating their frequent trips to dip in the lake. I love it when I'm prepared like that. They had a great time! Me too. It was an awesome weekend. Back to work tomorrow...one more week 'til vacation!

The Weekend is Here

Actually the weekend started for me yesterday. My babysitter needed the day off for her son's graduation so I took the day off to hang with my boys. Chris and I made plans to go out tonight - first for dinner; sort of a late anniversary celebration for us, and second to a 25th anniversary party. So yesterday we had Jocelyn (our first-ever evening babysitter other than family so far) come over to meet the boys before coming to babysit them tonight. That went well.

After I dropped her off at home I stopped by the office with the boys. I wasn't missing out on much; apparently it was a quiet Friday at the office with much of the staff off. I stopped at DQ to get the boys ice cream and brought a cone to Chris. I saw my parents drive by so I followed them home so I could raid my Mom's closet to find something nice to wear tonight.

I took the boys home and we had a great barbecue for supper when Chris came home. Burgers and coleslaw and chips. Today the boys (two days in a row) let me sleep in until after eight. That rocked. We got up and had breakfast and played quite nicely until Chris came home. I coloured my hair and showered and picked up some snacks for the boys and the sitter for tonight.

I picked up the babysitter at five and stopped at McDonald's for happy meals. I dropped her off at my house and gave her a barrage of information while I got dressed and ready to go out for dinner. We got away just fine while the boys were eating and we went for dinner with Cindy & Bob. I had a faaaaaantastic pepper steak with a baked potato and veggies. We had scallops au gratin for an appetizer and silly me ordered a caesar salad too. It wasn't a small side salad, so I only ate half of it for fear I'd be too full to eat my whole supper.

I ate every item on my plate and it was goooooooooood. I had a Caesar to drink before dinner and switched to Coke since I was driving. After dinner we went downstairs to the anniversary party. It was a great event. I can't believe I was TEN when I went to their wedding twenty-five years ago! There was a lot of our family and extended family there and it was great to see everyone.

We called it a night pretty early since it was our first time with the new babysitter. I came home to bring her home and both boys were sleeping. Obviously she did a great job! I took her home and did a quick Timmy's run. Mom and Dad and my aunts and uncles were there. I brought home the coffees and cappuccinos for Cindy and Chris and Bob and me. They visited for a bit then went home. I'll post a couple pictures tomorrow. I'm outta here!

Sleepy Sleepington

That's me. Last night after our chat at BSD I was still chatting with Angie and I literally tipped over on the couch and fell asleep. Tonight when I started writing this it was barely past nine and I could have done the same thing then. If the kids weren't still up that is.

I just put Cooper down and Carter wanted to fall asleep on the couch. Chris is snoozing on the other couch and I figured I'd better blog or I'd get too far behind. And I've been so tired lately I won't remember anything!

Tuesday and today were fairly uneventful aside from the usual routine. Today I picked up Kelly at lunchtime and we went to Subway for lunch and brought lunch to Chris. The office has been very busy this week so the time is flying.

I've managed to get a bit of scrapping done...here is a new layout of Christy from her visit to Canada (with a small maple leaf thrown in for good measure) using her new kit "Color-Blinded" from Butternug Squash Designs. It's bright. It's beautiful. It's available now. Go get it!

Click the image to enlarge and click HERE for full credits.

Here is a page of the boys I did last week and almost forgot about! I used Ninascraps' "Symbiosis" kit available at NDISB and OScraps. Journaling reads: "Usually when these kids are anywhere near each other, one of them ends up hurt of crying. So this was a rare, special moment and Carter actually asked me to go get the camera to take their picture!" You can click the image to enlarge it and click HERE for the credits.

Chock-Full of Shellfish

I think in my rage-induced haze the other day, I forgot to mention a major bright spot - our friends asked if we eat lobster. Affirmative! He asked how many; I figured two would feed Chris and me and both boys easily. I had made a few bookmarks for their son's birthday loot bags and my sister picked up the lobsters and delivered them to us and picked up the bookmarks and delivered them for me. And oh my GOD they gave us FOUR lobsters.

The lobsters were flown in from Nova Scotia the day before and had been cooked in seawater. All I had to do was heat them in boiling water and they'd be good to go. And they so were. Chris went fishing in the afternoon AFTER he came home from work and AFTER he spread all the black dirt. Now we just need some grass seed and it should be back to normal fairly quickly.

Ain't it purty?

Much to my dismay, Chris didn't get back from fishing until around eight-thirty. I was dying for these lobsters. I had already fed the kids supper way earlier. But I waited. And it was worth the wait. But I had to run to the grocery store for garlic butter and some salad stuff. Though I'm sure I could have made a meal solely with the lobster.

Because I am a twit and sold my big stock pot in our last garage sale since I hardly used it, I had to heat the lobsters separately in pots of boiling water on the stove. That turned out alright so I had time to cook the vegetables and prepare the salads.

Carter seemed interested in the whole lobster procedure and seeing the whole critters in pots on the stove. But he wasn't too thrilled about eating them. Cooper had a bit. I gorged on them. But I didn't have any nut/lobster crackers so it was a real workout getting the shells cracked. I felt like a real beast whacking the shells with my meat tenderizer hammer. But it was goooooooood. We ate about 3.25 of the four lobsters and I put the rest in the fridge.

What a gorgeous feast!

The whole house smelled pretty fishy but I did not care. That rocked. Since we had such a late supper the boys went to sleep very shortly after. I worked on a couple projects and zonked on the couch.

Sunday morning I am sorry to say I didn't even attempt to go to church. And I totally forgot it was Father's Day. I didn't have cards for anyone. What a heel. Oh well. At least I got Chris the same thing he got me for Mother's Day. Which if it weren't for what the boys made me at the babysitter would have been absolutely nothing. ::Sigh::

For lunch I wanted to have a lobster roll with the leftovers. And lo and behold...somehow I had a recollection that I had a brand new nut/lobster cracker still in the package, in one of my cupboards. I easily located it and it even had four little metal picks in the package for prying at the shells. Oops. That would have come in handy for our lobsterfest. Oh well. It still was more convenient for opening the leftover lobster and making my sandwich. And it was goooooood.

The weather turned quite fierce in the evening. The torrential downpour was amazing. I sure wish I could send some of this rain to Angie. Crikey it poured. There were highways washed out and some of our pretty black dirt got washed out on the sloped part of the lawn. It's actually not too bad though. There was one particular crack of thunder that sounded pretty close. It really got Carter's attention! Cooper slept through the whole storm. Carter went to bed late but still slept through it once he finally turned in. I actually fell asleep with him on the floor in his room watching his movie. Chris woke me up around one o'clock and the storm was phenomenal. The lightning was far away, but there was a constant distant rumble of thunder. The lightning was so frequent it was like daylight at some points. I crawled into bed and went right to sleep.

This morning started out great. Chris made sure I was up before he left for work - this is the only thing that gets my butt in gear. I get him to drag me out of bed and start getting ready. It works. I need the help. The boys got up and I got them fed and dressed and out the door. I made it to work with ten minutes to spare. I think that's a record since I've been on this new schedule. Give or take a few minutes on the record time.

Mondays are always busy at the office, therefore the day FLIES by. Tina brought me a FVC, and Kelly called me and asked if I wanted a drive-by. So I had TWO French Vanilla Cappuccinos this morning. What a rockin' way to start the day. And Kelly asked if I wanted to go out for lunch. Rock on. We went to our favourite lunch spot and had a wonderful lunch. Then she stole my bill from me and bought me lunch. She said it was an anniversary present. Sweet! Chris and I haven't even celebrated our anniversary together yet, but Kelly and I have! Hilarious.

The afternoon breezed by just as quickly as the morning, and at coffee break we had a cake party for one of the gals who had a birthday today. Awesome. Carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Soon after it was four o'clock already and I was done. By the time I picked up the boys, it was BEAUTIFUL outside! I was hoping we'd get to play outside after supper.

Chris came home from work and mowed the back yard, while Carter played outside and I took Cooper to the grocery store to get the fixin's for making taco salad. (Great idea, Kelly!) I bought those cool taco bowls (had to get the little ones since they were out of the big ones) and some grated cheese, tomatoes, green onions and lettuce. By the time Cooper and I got home it started pouring rain. Fortunately Chris was finished with the back yard at least. We all came in the house and I made these darling little taco salad bowls.

Now that was a good way to keep the boys at the supper table! Cooper really dug into his and tasted a few of the veggies and ate almost all the ground beef. Carter needed some major encouraging and even some airplane/train help but I'll do what it takes to get these kids to eat!

We had a fun evening. Cooper pooped on the potty again (yes, this falls under the category of fun, because it's way funner to dump out a potty than to use 398475394 wipes on his butt). The boys had a very bubbly bath and even sort of swam in there together. Pretty funny stuff. Chris took turns wrestling with the boys and I took this ever-so-hilarious video of Cooper laughing his guts out when Chris was tickling him. What an awesome sound. The video might not show up for awhile; I have to get it loaded up on YouTube and I'm guessing it's a ginormous file. I have a couple more projects to work on and I'm off to bed.

Okay, the video? Is huge. Don't click it unless you have the time and high-speed internet or Cooper will be a teenager by the time you see it!

My Very Own Personal Psychotic Episode

Friday started out as quite a lovely one. I got the boys up, ready, fed and dressed. I made it to work early. Kelly brought me a French vanilla cappucino and my day started rocking. Mom called close to lunchtime to say she was having lunch with her sisters and I should join them.

I had to run home at lunch to print something. This is where I got all psycho. The dude with the backhoe that had removed the tree came back. He had said he would to bring some "black dirt" to fill the hole where the tree was. Well his pants are on fire... he brought some icky lumpy heavy clay and filled in a square patch.

But that wasn't the worst part. He drove on the lawn again with the backhoe and the ruts are now twice as deep. And muddy.

I was pissssssssssssssssssssssed offfffffffffffffffffffff. I don't usually get mad about anything but call it hormones or the moon phases or whatever but I felt angry. I hate feeling like that. I called our friend that wanted the tree and tried not to sound bitchy but I described what the dude did. He said he'd take care of it and that the guy would be back to fix it.

I feel so badly that he is dealing with this just for an apple tree that the dude almost destroyed when he got it to his house. Oy. So what was the best part of our lawn is toast. Just so we thought we could be nice and give someone our tree that we didn't really want anymore but didn't want to destroy.

So, I left all pissy and fuming and went to have lunch with my Mom, two of my aunts and my sister, who called me in the midst of my rant and met up with us there. I had a lovely and very therapeutic lunch. The rest of the afternoon at work was fine and I picked up the boys after work. We came home and Chris arrived awhile later. I went to get Happy Meals for the boys and Chris and came back to get ready to go to Bingo with Kelly. She came back to the office this afternoon and we made an impromptu date.

Sadly, we didn't win anything but some lucky bastard won over $15,000.00 for ONE LINE. That should have been us, but good for the dude. I came home and both kids were asleep. Nice! As a last ditch attempt to win something, I checked our lottery numbers and went to bed.

This morning the boys were kind enough to let me sleep until about seven-thirty. Not bad; I had a good night's sleep. I got them breakfast and had a shower and the boys actually have been playing nicely for the most part. Here is a picture of the boys - Carter was sort of reading a story to Cooper and Cooper sat on Carter's lap. Carter asked me to get the camera and take a picture! So I ran for the camera and took about ten pictures of total sweetness.

I heard something outside and looked out to see a dump truck dumping a pile of black dirt (yes, actual black dirt) near the street on our lawn. And leave. So I'm guessing we have some landscaping to do... ::sigh:: ("We" meaning Chris...)

Now I need to go iron my hair because it's all frizzy and witchy. Putting on my face will help in the overall appearance of me. I'll be back later to share some cool fun things I made in Photoshop this morning.

Somebody Please Get Me a Laptop

A big-ass one with tons of RAM and a ginormous hard drive with a combo DVD burner. And it wouldn't hurt to have the latest version of Adobe Photoshop (Creative Suite 3). After all, my birthday is coming up...(dream on Melly).

Anyhoo, I actually took my computer to work today. My non-laptop, desktop model. Since I have Photoshop on my home computer and don't have it at the office, and I needed to do some work projects that I haven't had the time or the inclination to stay up overly late to try to accomplish, I took it with me.

I did what I needed to and it was quite convenient. Though a laptop would be a little easier to transport!

After work I was exhausted. Seems odd since I've gone to bed early a couple nights in a row. You'd think I should be caught up on my sleep. Nope. Chris kept Carter outside to play for awhile and I was falling asleep on the couch. Chris came in and got Cooper too and I snoozed a little until Chris knocked on the window.

He wanted me to look outside at Cooper, who was sitting IN a mud puddle quite happily splashing away. Unfortunately the moment was over before I could get my camera. Chris asked me to run a bath for the boys and he brought them in. I peeled off their soaking clothes and they both climbed in the tub full of bubbles.

After they were dry and dressed in their jammies I finally started making supper. I hadn't taken anything out of the freezer earlier but when I got home I started defrosting some chicken breasts and I was gonna whip something up.

I ended up seasoning and cooking the chicken breasts on the stove. I quickly nuked some potatoes and cauliflower and broccoli and made some hollandaise sauce. Supper would have been so ordinary without the hollandaise. Yum.

After supper I put my computer back together and tidied up all the wires and tied up all the excess cord lengths with twist ties. It's much tidier. THEN my printer bit the biscuit. I was printing the stuff I was working on at the office, and the photos seemed to look like they were almost colourless. I did all the printer maintenance and stuff and it seemed like black ink was coming out of all the cartridges. I freaked. I cleaned the print heads, did 392845235 alignments and it's almost normal but it seems after all the cleaning cycles I did that I'm out of blue ink. Hopefully all will be well when I get a new cartridge.

I haven't done any scrapping tonight and I have a couple new projects to tackle. I just feel so tired I'm not sure if I'm gonna make it tonight. I'll see how far I get.

My Fifteen Minutes

I've still spent a lot of time thinking about our wonderful visit with the Sturm family. Christy stopped in my office, surprising the heck out of me; though I hoped she might pop in to say goodbye one last time in person. Luckily she breezed through the border crossing and made it home safe and sound.

I had stayed up really late that night but last night I went to bed "early" at about 10:30. Everyone was kind enough to sleep through the night and I had an easier time getting up this morning. Work has been good this week and at home I've been working on a few new scrapbooking pages for the new creative teams I'm on.

A friend of ours listed a classified ad looking for an apple tree recently. We told him he could take ours (we have one left) as long as he filled in the hole from digging it up. A guy showed up with a backhoe and it was pretty slick the way he hauled out the tree. The hole wasn't so bad but there are some deep, ugly ruts where the best part of our lawn used to be. He said he'd come back to fill the hole with black dirt; I hope he fills in the ruts too. Apparently the transplant didn't go over too well; I hope the tree survives and they get to enjoy it.

After work today I came home and was reading a few of my favourite blogs when I found one of MY layouts featured on Miss Mint's blog! This is very exciting for me; it is one of my all-time favourite pages I've done and it was cool to have it recognized by her. You can see her blog at Peppermint Creative. Way cool.

Here are the new pages I've done using LaWanna Desjardin's kits. I already love being on her creative team. It's a quiet evening at the Groves house tonight - it's raining so we won't be doing any playing outside.

"Retro Funk" kit by LaWanna Desjardin

"Spring Fling" kit by Lawanna Desjardin

"Sons and Fathers" kit by Lawanna Desjardin

They're Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere!

Ok. The squealing is subsided but we're sitting here constantly grinning. I met them over at the hotel...here's Christy as soon as she opened the door. I could hear her giggling because she could see the red beam of my camera right through the peephole!

I think she was kinda happy to see me!
(I had the exact expression on my face!)

Steve and the boys at the hotel room.
(Maggie was in the biffy)

Together at last!
(We really squished each other with that first hug!)

Stopped at a drive-thru on the way to my house...
Is she just the cutest or what!?

Our five children playing together.
It started out quiet then got really fun!

My favourite picture -
Christy was talking to Angie on the phone so it was
like she was here too. (Sorta!)

So wow. What an awesome visit. Chris and Steve (well all of us) chatted like we were old friends that knew each other forever. My boys played with theirs and Maggie is so OMG mature that she is too grown up to play with the little kids but she is so patient with them. What a little lady!

We visited until almost 10:30 and all the kids were showing signs of wear. So they packed up their crew and headed back to the hotel. That was not allowed to be the end of our visit according to me at least, so I suggested I pick up Christy after a little while and we go to Tim Horton's!

I managed by some miracle to get Cooper to sleep and I slinked out to pick up my date! heehee. As we were on our way to Timmy's, Christy shouted "DEER!" I only had time to slam on the brakes and we JUST missed the deer. I've never seen a deer in that particular area before so it was quite alarming. I'm so glad she warned me or I'd not have seen it in time to stop. Whew!

We made it to Timmy's in one piece and we ordered through drive-thru so we could drive around and chat. We brought Steve a French Vanilla Cappuccino (my favourite - I sure hope he liked it!) and Christy got an ice cap with a hazelnut flavour shot. Mmmm. I picked up a coffee for Chris; he'll likely nuke it in the morning and take it to work with him. We drove around and I showed Christy all the points of interest in my little microcosm. Timmy's, where I take the kids to the sitter, my office, Chris's work, and it was too dark to see much but I did a tour while we chatted.

After about an hour we headed back to the hotel but still sat in the Jeep yakking for about another half an hour. They have a big day of traveling tomorrow and of course I have to work, so after a few more squeezy hugs we said goodbye (for now!) That was an awesome awesome visit. We HAVE TO do that again. The whole BSD lot of us. That would rock. Now I have one teensy project to do before I go to bed so I'm outta here.

Thank you Christy and Steve and Maggie and Steven and Squishy Henry for coming to see us - we sure had a great time with you!

The Sturms Hit Town...

They have arrived...!!! I almost missed Christy's call since we left the phone outside when the kids were playing outside. We were going to go see them at the Best Western but I'm hoping they'll wanna come here so the kids can play etc...STAY TUNED!

Where in the World is Christy Sturm?

Well apparently Christy was in Duluth yesterday meaning I think about a five or six-hour drive to get to me... I'm hoping the van troubles aren't causing problems and that I'll be hearing from her any second now!

Shrek in the Jeep

Friday night we took the boys to the drive-in movie to see Shrek III. My parents went too and we parked beside them. Mom took Carter to the playground and I was surprised to see him go for a ride in the spinning teacup. He climbed around on all the playground equipment then she brought him back.

She took Cooper over too and he was checking things out. Before the show, we went up to the concession stand to get the drive-in-movie-necessities. Popcorn, drinks, candy, cotton candy, burgers and assorted deep-fried goodies like mozza sticks and shrimp and fries and hotdogs with cheese and bacon. Yep, we don't just go to watch the movie. We go for the grub!

The movie was cute and the boys were very well behaved. Carter went car-hopping to see Grandma & Grandpa a couple times. We came home and the boys crashed. We did too.

On Saturday Chris worked 'til noon. Chris played outside with Carter for awhile then I got my butt in gear finally so we could go to Dominic's baseball tournament. Of course the minute I opened the door to go outside it started pouring rain. Fortunately it didn't last and we went to enjoy his game. There were a few more showers but nothing too major. His team won and was followed by Jessica's game. But since Dominic's team won the semi-finals, they held the final game right away. It started to rain again and we were going back and forth between the two games. Then it started to really pour so we packed it in and left. The boys fell asleep in the Jeep so we drove around a little to make sure they'd be really asleep when we got home. We stopped at the grocery store to get some hotdogs for supper. God we eat hotdogs a lot!

After supper Chris and I watched the movie "Déjà -Vu" with Denzel Washington. I'm so glad we decided to watch it...it had to go back to the video store by ten but it wasn't over until almost eleven. We'll see if they charge us extra next time. Probably. Anyhoo, the movie was EXCELLENT. We loved the way they tied up ALL the loose ends. It was very very clever. I'd have no problem watching it again; we both enjoyed it.

This morning Chris got up with Carter and let me stay in bed. Cooper stirred and cried a few times but he stayed asleep and so did I until almost ten o'clock! Woohoo! I dragged my butt out of bed. I finished up the birthday invitations I made for Jessica...here they are (with the information changed...) I asked her what kind of theme/decoration she wanted on them and she said a cow...I found this little cutie on Google Image Search.



Jessica went nuts for them and was very excited. I tried to find a cool cow print for the background on the envelopes but I couldn't find one I liked so I made one.



Chris and Carter played outside and once I got Cooper fed and dressed Chris took him outside too. I got ready and dressed and we packed up the boys and went to the Fort with Cindy and the kids. We had an awesome lunch and the boys ran around and played for quite awhile. Carter tried his hand at mini golf. What he lacks in technique he makes up for by having great fun and he actually did quite well!



On the way home both kids fell asleep. I was hoping with all my hope that they'd stay sleeping when we got home so I could nap too but that didn't go as planned. I started doing a little bit of tidying up since Christy is supposed to come visit tomorrow! The house is far from clean but at least my kitchen sink is shiny! heehee. We have no plans as of yet but I'm pretty certain things will start out with rib-crushing hugs and squealy voices that only the neighbourhood dogs will be able to hear!

Chris and I both didn't feel like having supper since the subs we had were hyuge. So we just fed the boys sandwiches and hung out for the evening. Cooper was a little fussy tonight and kept waking up. I eventually gave him some gripe water and he settled almost immediately. I stayed up way later than I planned to, but I'm ready to face the day tomorrow. I just hope I can drag my butt out of bed on time.

Happy TENTH Anniversary!

Wow. Want to make ten years pass quickly? Get married and/or have children. Today is our 10th wedding anniversary. Carter is four, and yesterday Cooper turned 1.5. Wow.

Tuesday night was another rough one for Cooper. He had me up for over an hour again. I think the ice cream gave him a belly ache or something. Either that or those molars moving in have been giving him some serious troubles. So yesterday morning I had a hell of a time getting myself moving. Chris woke me up in the tent. I moved to my bed where my clock radio was on. I pressed snooze and crawled into bed for "just five more minutes".

Ooooooooops. I must have hit the off button instead of the snooze button, because I slept until ten to eight. Yikes. I frantically started to get ready. I was dead on my feet. I almost decided to take the kids to the sitter and call in to work to say I wasn't coming so I could spend the day in bed. I told myself to suck it up and I whipped together everything for the boys, got them and myself dressed and ran out the door. I didn't even have my make-up on; I brought my make-up bag with me so I could just get to work faster.

I zoomed and dropped off the boys and ran to work. Quite ironically, I was there fifteen minutes late, which was close to the time I had spent checking on the fridges on Tuesday evening. And since I'm on summer hours, there wasn't anyone waiting for me yet, though much of the staff had arrived before me. Ugh.

The day went surprisingly well; I was tired but I made it. Right after work I picked up the boys and headed to Mom & Dad's house. Mom was taking me to a ladies' church dinner and I needed something to wear. I borrowed a dress and some cute platform sandals and a necklace. I whipped back home and made supper for the boys and left to meet Mom at the church. First there was a mass and then the dinner. It was a lovely date with my Mom. After the dinner there were apparently skits performed, but I had left since we were completely out of milk and pull-ups. I figured in the two hours I was gone Chris was probably losing it.

It has been pouring rain here for a couple days and I got soaked running to the bank machine and the grocery store. I finally got home and Cooper was running around in "big boy gotchies". It was so comical. Apparently he'd used the last pull-up on a big poop then Chris had to put underwear on him and he'd gone through three pairs. I just had to laugh. I gave both boys milk and got them to bed at a decent hour. I finished up some birth announcements for Kelly's niece and went to bed.

Everyone slept through the night. How blissful. I managed to get up at a decent time and get everyone ready to go this morning. I took the boys to the sitter and had minutes to spare when I got to work. Excellent.

It was a wonderful day, and I was surprisingly greeted with an email from LaWanna Desjardin congratulating me on making her Creative Team. I am very excited! Mom stopped by to bring a card for our anniversary, with a generous gift so we can go out on a date out for dinner. Chris's Dad popped in with a card too and gift cards for groceries and gas. Niiiiiiiice. I brought Chris lunch from Subway. I stopped in at home and found a Happy Anniversary banner and balloon tied to a rock in front of our garage from Chris's Dad. That was sweet.

This afternoon, Cindy stopped in at the office too to bring cards her boys made and a couple raffle tickets for a ten thousand dollar draw that's coming up. Sweeeeeeeet.

I picked up the boys after work and it was still POURING rain. There was a dandy thunder storm most of the afternoon. By the time I ran downtown for some envelopes and back and forth to the Jeep, the boys and I were soaked by the time we got home.

When Chris got home from work I tried to salvage my drowned-rat-hair and did a quick Wal-Mart run for hair dye. I went to the grocery store to try to find something for supper. I bought a little of everything and when I got home Chris opted for hot dogs. Our romantic anniversary dinner consisted of hot dogs. Rock on. Chris went to the video store to grab a couple movies. He got "The Messengers" and "DéjàVu".

Chris went in the boys' room and took out the tent and air mattress and put in the TV we got from my aunt & uncle when they got their new TV last week. It's the same size as the one in our living room so we didn't do all the relocating of switching the two, though I think I want to 'cause theirs is much nicer than ours. Anyhoo, it looks much bigger in the boys' room without the tent in there. It was fun while it lasted, but it was a pain to clean out the tent so much when Carter's pull-up would leak at night. Ugh.

We started watching "The Messengers" and it was sort of freaky but kinda dumb. I think the reason it got to me a little was there was a little baby about Cooper's size and he could see all the creepy dead things that were happening in the freaky house. I didn't detect much of a plot and didn't continue to watch it after Chris fell asleep. Cooper had fallen asleep at (on!) my feet and woke up so I cuddled him awhile and put him to bed.

Then I decided finally to shower and wash my hair so I could dye it. It's probably just that I was watching the freaky movie, but things were falling off the shower walls while I was in there. Like my scrubby-poof thingy and the suction hook that holds it up. And the kids' suction toys were falling too. Freaked me a little. And I kept thinking I heard footsteps. Then when I rinsed the soap from my eyes I opened them and suddenly there was Carter, startling the crap out of me. Next I had to blow-dry my hair since the colour takes better for me on clean, dry hair. I applied the colour and Cooper got back up. He kept me company while the colour set and he watched me rinse it out. He was a little feverish so I gave him some Motrin and cuddled him while he fell asleep again. Now I'm too tired to do anything with my hair so I should look like Medusa in the morning. I'll keep you posted.

Here is a layout I did using Nina's "Life is Beautiful" kit with a couple elements from LaWanna Desjardin. When I post it to my galleries I'll put the link to the credits here.

Dairy King

Tonight we had a nice supper...I made yummy mashed potatoes with cheese, bacon and chive seasoning and plenty of milk and butter. Very creamy. I cooked up some veggies too, and asked Chris to pick up a barbecued chicken on his way home from work. I made some wild mushroom gravy too and it was good. The boys ate quite a bit.

Shortly after supper I got a call from one of our program managers. He couldn't reach anyone on the call list to go in to the office to reset the fridge alarm and check on the vaccines. I darted over to the office and checked things out.

Just before I took off in a hurry, we were getting ready to take the boys to the park. I was only gone about fifteen to twenty minutes and when I got home we all piled in the Jeep and went to the park. The boys had a blast. Carter has gotten to be a great climber with no fear. Cooper is following in his brother's footsteps but he's not ready for the big stuff.

We decided to go for ice cream and left the park, with Carter literally kicking and screaming. By the time we reached Dairy Queen he was settled and ready for ice cream. I took a zillion pictures at the park; many of them will be in scrapbook pages soon, including this one of Cooper enjoying his ice cream cone. I think this was his first Dairy Queen cone...but I'm pretty sure my Mom's tried feeding one to him at her house before!

We came home and the boys went to sleep. I finished a couple projects I've been working on and went to bed.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!

OMG Christy will be HERE on Monday! We're just trying to nail down some plans but we'll play it by ear for whatever time they'll be arriving. I can't believe it; I'm so excited!

Today was okay - I'm adapting to the new schedule but I really need to get my butt out of bed a little sooner so I'm not rushing so much. At least the boys' bedtimes are slowly inching earlier. It was pretty cool out today so we didn't play outside at all.

For supper I made a hyuuuge omelet for Chris and the boys with toast. Breakfast for supper again. I didn't eat any since we had a birthday cake coffee break at the office today plus I had some popcorn late in the afternoon so I wasn't overly hungry.

After supper I worked on a collage project for one of the girls at work and now I'm too tired to do anything else creative so since everyone else is sleeping I'm gonna go crash too!

Pool Day

Ahhhhh. It's finally starting to resemble summer out there. Two days in a row! Today was a far less lazy day than yesterday was; no I didn't take the boys out for a walk yesterday, and no, I didn't go to church today.

I stayed in bed as long as I could this morning. Chris got up with the boys. It sounded like he was getting a little impatient and since I couldn't sleep anymore anyway, I got up. I had a long hot shower. Late in the morning, Chris took Carter for coffee and kept him outside to play after. Cooper went for a nap around lunchtime. I attempted to nap too, though I didn't really need it. Just as I was finally thinking I might doze off, Carter started banging on the door. He was asking for sunscreen and a hat. I slathered him with sunscreen and gave him his hat.

The knocking on the door prematurely woke Cooper from his nap. Dang. I gave him a bath and he had a blast playing by himself without having to share the tub. While he played I dried and ironed my hair. I have a hair appointment this coming Saturday but I might just postpone it since I've been having good hair days lately.

I put on my face and got dressed and took Cooper outside. He played with Chris and Carter for a bit then I took him for a walk to Kelly's house. She and Sabrina were setting up the pool. She has one of those big round pools with the inflatable edge that lifts and floats as you fill it. They had it all set up and Kelly turned on the water. Sabrina had brought one of her scrapbooks and OMG she is an amazing "paper" scrapper. Just like I've always wanted to be. It's still tempting to try after seeing her beautiful book, but in the meantime I'll stick to doing it on the computer.

After Sabrina left Kelly and I walked Cooper down to the grocery store. I picked up milk and bread and Kelly grabbed a few things. Cooper and I walked her back home and came home. Carter was napping on the floor in the living room (not a good spot with a feisty Cooper around!) The nap was shortlived but the boys played a bit before supper. Carter had a bandaid on each knee; Chris said he had a wipeout on the cement in the breezeway while we were gone. I prepared a batter to fry the fresh walleye in that Chris caught yesterday. I prepared potatoes and asparagus and started cooking. The fish was deeeeeeeelicious with the batter despite my fear that it wouldn't be.

After supper I went outside to see if I could find our kiddie pool. It was kind of stuffed between the garage and the fence and I figured it was going to be a write-off. But surprisingly it was just a little muddy on the bottom and needed a bit of cleaning on the inside. I went in and got Cooper and went out to clean the pool. Chris brought Carter out too and we played outside for quite awhile. The pool filled way more quickly than Kelly's...I talked to her a couple hours ago and it was about half full. Oy. Anyhoo, Carter got in and out of the pool a couple times. That water was very cold!

I made water balloons and the boys had fun playing with them. I told them they could bring them in the tub if they came in the house. That worked again; what a great trick! The boys had a long bath and I managed to scrub all the dirt off them. Carter's knees still looked a bit tender when the bandaids started to come off in the tub.

After bathtime I put some ointment and new bandaids on Carter and dressed the boys in their jammies. It wasn't much longer before the boys were both asleep. I had gotten the thumbs-up from Kelly's niece to start printing the baby announcements I designed for her. I printed some but was dying to show Kelly so I half jogged, half walked over to her place to show her. She loved it so I was set to print more. I quarter-jogged and three-quarters-walked back home and printed about a dozen announcements before I ran out of magenta ink. Unfortunately I don't have a replacement but I unearthed a spare yellow cartridge while I was searching.

Now my legs kind of feel like Jell-O but I feel good that I got out and did a few things today. This beautiful weather is very motivating. I love it! I need to get to bed but not before I post this picture. Those eyes. Melt. Me.

Beautiful, Sunny, Warm

Yesterday was a faaaaaaaaantastic day!

Our morning routine went well and I dropped the boys off at the sitter. I started to get everything ready for the day and did some paperwork. After about an hour my boss called to see if I'd meet up with him and take a computer to one of our other offices. Yay! Road trip!

i drove out to meet him and picked up the computer then drove back to town and stopped at Tim Horton's before going on the next leg of my journey. After about an hour's drive (oops it was supposed to take about fifteen more minutes than that) I arrived just as the girls were finishing their office meeting. They take turns bringing in a lunch and they fed me sandwiches (I ate mustard - astonishing!) and a gorgeous salad with mandarin oranges and almond slices with a poppy seed dressing. They also served slices of cheese and pickles and homemade cookies for dessert. Mmmm. That was a nice surprise!

I set up the computer and did a few software upgrades around the office. I left shortly after 2:30 so I'd have time to make it back to the office and to pick up the boys. What a great day. I wouldn't necessarily want to travel every day like that but once in awhile is nice. Especially on such a gorgeous day. No kids yelling in the back seat, no "backseat" drivers... Chris... ahem... just a nice drive with my eighties tunes cranked.

I got back to the office and dropped off some mail I brought back. I finished up a few more things then it was four o'clock and I was outta there! I picked up the boys and took a spin over to see Chris. On the way home Carter made a happy meal request so I stopped at McDonald's. I got them each a happy meal. We went home and Chris came home shortly after.

I got ready to go to Bingo. Before I left I went to get something for Chris at McDonald's too. When I got home Kelly picked me up right away and we were off to Bingo. No, we didn't win. And no, I don't want to talk about it! We still had fun of course but would have preferred winning.

She dropped me off and I was tired. The kids were asleep and Chris was awake for some reason. Probably waited up in hopes I came home and showered him with thousands of dollars. I wish. We put the boys to bed and went to sleep.

This morning Chris went to work as usual and Cooper was the next one up at seven-thirty. Carter was right behind him and I made the boys breakfast. We're just sitting around playing but it's a beautiful day out. Chris is going fishing this afternoon and I'd like to take the boys to the park or out for a walk since it's so nice out.