Happy Halloween!

**Edited to add the costume pictures!**

That was fun, but hauling the kids down the streets in the freezing cold, yes, FREEZING... is very tiresome. Then we hauled them in and out of the vehicle to go to the Aunties and the Uncles and the Great Papa and Alana the Babysitter's house. I'm beat. And I didn't eat supper so I'm gorging myself on eensy weensy bags of chips and Swedish berries. Here is a picture of the four of us at Kelly's house:



Carter was dressed as a skeleton. I was a puppy dog (this was very last minute) and Cooper was Clifford the Big Red Dog. And Chris...was dressed as himself. I had a wardrobe malfunctionbefore we left. The costume I was wearing is just a little headpiece with mitten thingies for paws and a tail that velcros on like a belt. Well, it's a kid costume so the belt certainly didn't fit me. So I just tied it around my belt loop on the back of my pants. That was all well and good until I decided to go potty before we hit the trail and I PEED ON MY TAIL. I had to wear my winter coat since it's so damned cold out, so no one would have seen the tail anyway. Now it is traveling through the washing machine. Oy.


Carter and Cooper (it was Cooper's first trick-or-treat outing) seemed to have fun despite the cold. We walked down one side of our street and around the block to the next street. We did about ten houses in total then came home. Then we climbed in the Jeep and went to Auntie Lurdes & Uncle Cliff's, Kelly's, Great Papa's house, Auntie Josie and Uncle Bob's house, Auntie Maggie and Uncle Barry's house (but they weren't home) and our babysitter Alana's house. We stopped to get gas for the Jeep and some milk and bread at the grocery store and we were DONE.

My sweet awesome parents (Mom I'd say that anyway even if you didn't read my blog...) came over and manned the fort while we took the boys out. Cindy and Noah came with us in our neighbourhood. Dominic and Nicole went out with their friends and Jessica stayed here with Mom and Dad to hand out candy to the SEVEN kids that came to our door. SEVEN. I am so sad. I had my little candles making the trail to my door, our two jack-o-lanterns lit on the doorstep and I made those fan-freaking-tastic treat bags. I even ran home from work to make a few more thinking I'd run out.

So I took fifteen to Carter's class, seven to the sitter's house, Mom and Dad gave out seven and they took six home to give to the neighbour kids. Seriously, they'd likely have had as many kids way out there or more than here. Now I have enough left to give one to everyone at work tomorrow.

Amazingly, both boys put themselves to bed after a few treats and I think they're both sleeping; it was close last time I checked. I have more pictures but I forgot my camera card at work since I was using my camera there too. I'll edit this post tomorrow to add them.

Happy Halloween y'all!

Not a Creature Was Stirring, Not Even a Moose

First off, a big Happy Birthday to my friend Marsha!

Saturday was Dad's birthday...Mom and Dad were on their way back from Winnipeg so I invited them for supper. Mom had a doctor appointment (finally) and we now definitely know she has Sarcoidosis. I need to read more about it again; it's been awhile since this was the possible diagnosis so I can't properly describe it. Anyway, there isn't a special magical cure for it, which sucks. But the doctor really wants to put her on Prednizone. Which sucks. Aside from the instant twenty- to forty-pound weight gain, there are other drawbacks and side-effects to the drug. So unfortunately the suffering Mom is currently dealing with seems to be the lesser of two evils at the moment, as long as her blood counts stay stable and her crazy-big spleen doesn't do anything bad.

We had a lovely dinner. Chris's Dad came over too. I made salmon fillets with lemon-dill spices and butter, 'gourmet' baby potatoes and asparagus, with of course, hollandaise sauce. I found a smallish checkerboard cake for dessert. The cake was checkerboard white and chocolate all the way through, including the icing. Cute. I looked for candles and the first two I found were a '2' and a '3'. I figured it was just perfect since Dad just turned 69...I was going to make him blow out the candles three times to get to the total. haha.

Sunday I started getting things ready for my trip to Thunder Bay with Kelly. I had to make sure everything was ready and set out for Chris to take care of and dress and feed the boys in my absence. I got most of my stuff ready too.

On Monday I did a bunch of running around during my lunch hour. I had a full hour since it was a no-school day for Carter. Kelly and I both got off work a bit early and we skipped town. We arrived in Thunder Bay by about nine, and we went straight to Scott's house (Kelly's son). He was so kind to pick us up a bottle of Baja Rosa, our current drink of choice. We had a glass of that and headed to the CASINO! I've been to a couple casinos but we'd never gone to one together yet. We had a blast. Of course, I'm the biggest loser when it comes to slot machines. If only I would have cashed out when I was kicking ass. Twenty bucks lasted me well over an hour and at one point I was up to two hundred and fifty. Yikes. It was toast fairly quickly after that. Bummer. But we had fun.

I had an awesome sleep and only a minute after I woke up Kelly was summoning me. We got ready and headed out shopping before her doctor appointment. We went to the Superstore, Wal-Mart, Michael's (OMG if I were a paper scrapper...though you don't need to be to appreciate how awesome a store this is!) After Kelly's appointment we went to bring some stuff to her nephew and had lunch with two of her nieces and her great-niece. We ate at Kelsey's and I had an awesome Caesar salad and a linguini dish with cajun chicken and alfredo sauce with some finely chopped veggies. Yum.

After lunch we did a little more shopping then it was time to skip town. But not before stopping at Starbucks. I had an AWESOME latté. A bigass (venti) vanilla latté. I added about a dozen teaspoons of sugar (I didn't measure but I dumped piles of sugar into the massive cup). I had been feeling tired but after we hit the road I got a second wind from the awesome coffee. We had an excellent trip home, without seeing a single sign of wildlife. How sweet of all those critters to stay off the road and out of sight, especially since most of our trip was in darkness.

Upon arriving home, I was greeted with a big hug from Carter and mild interest from Cooper. I asked Carter where he thought I had been, and he said Bingo. Too funny. Obviously the concept of time is something that will come later. Imagine being gone to Bingo for over twenty-four hours? Sounds like fun to me.

After the boys went to bed I finished up making the treat bags, complete with cute little bag toppers I made using LaWanna Desjardin's Moonlit Magic kit and a couple elements from Christy Sturm's Spooky McBoo kit. Here are the ones for Carter's class (with no chocolate bars since there are no peanuts allowed in the school); then I made another thirty-five without Carter's name on them. I'm hoping Mom and Dad will still come over to dish out candy for us at our house so we can take our boys trick-or-treating around the neighbourhood while getting to see all the kids dressed up.

I spent ages unnecessarily looking for all the Halloween costumes in the house. There were two specific ones I was looking for; the dog and monkey ones from Ikea that Carter wore when he was about Cooper's age. I tried to take back the skeleton costume I bought for Carter since although it fits him (perfectly), he won't be able to wear anything underneath it, plus, if he has to pee it could be an issue to get it off him in time. So I dug out all the other costumes I could find, plus a bunch of decorations that Chris had misplaced in various locations while trying to put away all our Halloween stuff last year. So after all that searching for the dog and monkey costumes, I took one last look (I had sort of looked there already) in my bedroom closet and found them. Right where I first started looking. Of course.

So I think I'm officially ready for Halloween now. I hope I drag my butt out of bed early enough to dress and costume the boys. It's bound to be a fun day!

And as a final note, a big shout-out to my friend Marsha to say Happy Birthday...hope it has been a great day for you!


Here's an update of our countdown to seeing Michael Bublé!

Happy Birthday Dad!

FRIDAY!

Yeehaw, it's Friday! I had a great day today from beginning to end. I got up in time to have a shower, bathe two boys, feed everyone and get out the door with enough time to drop off the boys and do a run to Tim Horton's for a tea for Kelly and my FVC.

Work was great all day. Busy but good. At lunchtime Kelly and I went to Tim Horton's. I had a turkey sandwich and ANOTHER French Vanilla Cappuccino. We picked up Carter and when I took him in to school, the teacher gave me his school picture. Oh...My...God. I almost cried. It is so gorgeous! And seriously, I'm not just saying that because I'm his mother. See for yourself!?


I had to ask the teacher, "Who the heck got him to smile like that!?" It's just perfect. They didn't offer any proofs, so I had no idea what I'd be getting. I'm in love. I had such a proud Mommy afternoon showing everyone at work.

I picked up the boys and we stopped to visit Chris at the shop. We wanted to barbecue for supper, so as soon as he got home I took Cooper to the grocery store to pick up steaks. I grabbed just a few other things including a huge pumpkin; Cooper was going nuts over the pumpkin bins. He's been absolutely obsessed with it since the moment he saw it. He played with it all night. Here are a couple pictures:





Cindy stopped by with the boys after the school Halloween dance. They were still dressed in their spooky costumes. I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures. I rented the movie Meet the Robinsons today; I took Carter to see it at the theatre months ago. I recall his interest in it; enough interest to keep him in his seat for the entire movie. I put the movie in his Kaboodle wish list. And I see Chris has added some stuff to his Kaboodle list too. What a great way to make lists for us to get stuff for each other for Christmas or birthdays! There's a slideshow for each of us in the right sidebar. Fun stuff!

It's a bit after ten and everyone has been sleeping for at least a half an hour. I'm tempted to go crawl into bed myself...

Leisurely Lunch

Yesterday I went out for lunch with Kelly and Sabrina. We got our lunch started a little later than usual so I put in a call to plead with Chris to take Carter to school. He begrudgingly agreed and I was able to eat a more leisurely lunch as a result. Sweeeeet.

Later in the afternoon Carter's teacher called me to say he had a bad... I was terrified she was going to say "Fall" or "Accident" but she just said he had a bad day. He wasn't listening to instructions and wrecked a couple things he wasn't supposed to. With the help of our babysitter, I'm starting to take note that when he has chocolate milk or possibly red juice something comes undone and his behaviour goes a little awry. I'll be paying much closer attention to that stuff now.

Today was a really quick day at work. Donna is away until Monday and flu shot season has officially started. I got my flu shot today and I have a pretty yellow bandaid on my left arm to show for it. Now I have to work on getting Chris in for his and I still have to decide if I want the boys to get one.

Tonight after supper I called Kelly over to oversee the drafts of the wedding invitations I started for her niece. She said she was already in her pajamas and I said, so what? I put on my flannel jammies too and Kelly came over. We had a drink of Tequila Rose and I printed out all the samples for the wedding invitations. I sure hope Shelly likes them. I'm going to Thunder Bay with Kelly next week so we can bring them to her. I did another scrapbook layout tonight using Theresa Hernandez's Hip Halloween kit from NDISB. It's not just great for Halloween (see the cool Halloween elements below!) - it makes such a great fall kit too!


I didn't watch Earl or ER tonight. Carter and Cooper went to sleep at a decent hour but now it's getting late for me so I'm outta here. Aaaaaaaaaand...tomorrow is FRIDAY! Woohoo!


Here's our little countdown to Bublé!

Cold Rain

Oh it's getting so icky out. It poured rain today...a cold cold rain. There's a big difference between rain in the summer and rain in the fall. I even used my umbrella today instead of just trying to dodge the drops.

Work was another quick day. There is a lot of extra stuff going on with flu season coming up. At lunchtime I brought Chris the rest of the stew from Auntie Maggie.

After work Kelly came with me to the grocery store so I wouldn't have to haul the kids through the rain into the store just to get buns for supper. Thanks again, Kelly! I dropped her off and we came home. I prepared a meatloaf for supper and browned some ground beef to make chili tomorrow. I have it in the crock pot and I'm going to let it simmer all day tomorrow. I've never tried it that way; I'm sure it will be fine. And it will be so awesome to walk in the house after work to supper already cooked!

So we had meatloaf and potatoes and green beans for supper. We even conned Carter into eating about half his beans. Reverse psychology still rocks once in awhile around here. Chris went to the shop tonight to install the hitch on the Jeep. That will come in handy. I haven't done anything on the computer tonight; I promised myself another early bedtime and here it is already after eleven...Mellykat out.

Happiness is Yelling

Bingo! Even when it's a hundred bucks and there are two other winners and Kelly and I split our winnings. It just feels good to win.

Work FLEW by today. Before I knew it, it was lunchtime. I went for lunch with Kelly and her friend Gwen. I rushed to take Carter to school and I was walking out of the school when the bell rang. I'm pretty sure it's a three-minute bell so we got there just in time. He really seems to be enjoying school and is very interested in words and letters. It's fun to watch him write his name or spell things when I tell him the letters.

Kelly picked Mom and me up at my house in her new Trailblazer. Sweet ride. She's like a kid with a new toy. Auntie Maggie called me to offer some beef stew she made and some Butternut Squash soup, which I took to Bingo in a thermos and it was sooooo goooooood! Chris and the boys were sleeping when I got home so I haven't asked how the boys enjoyed their supper.

I'm super tired and I plan on getting more than three hours of sleep tonight. I promise myself. As long as Cooper stays down for the count; we'll see. Last night I did end up staying up to watch the movie Fracture. It was good. Anthony Hopkins plays such a good psycho person and that other guy in the movie whose name I forget (he was in the Notebook) is a good actor too.

Well I'm outta here. A couple things to print before bed and maybe a couple Sudoku puzzles before I crash.

Laundry by the Truckload

Well, by the Jeepload...

I can't believe it's been since Wednesday since I blogged, aside from my revealing post about my lack of leg-shaving. Oy. Well, it was pretty funny.

Friday night we watched "Deathproof". Well, I watched more of it than Chris did, though I missed a bit in the middle. That Quentin Tarantino is one twisted dude. But I usually find most of his stuff wildly entertaining.

Saturday Chris worked until noon. Chris played outside with the boys for awhile and I got a little cleaning done. I vacuumed, cleaned up the kitchen, swished and swiped the bathroom and did a couple loads of laundry but the piles of blankets and towels were quite daunting. Chris opted for pizza for supper even though I actually had the foresight for once to take some chicken out of the freezer. We had more of the unstoppable toppable pizza; it was good as usual but I think I'm done with my craving for it for awhile.

Cooper didn't seem to want to sleep last night so it was a very unrestful one. First of all I stayed up late because I had a French vanilla cappuccino. We were going to watch the movie Fracture but we ended up watching other shows and wrangling boys who were up way past their bedtimes. Oh wait. There is no such thing as bedtime around here. Right.

By the time I finally went to sleep Cooper was ready to rant. The ONLY way to settle him is to bring him to our bed. Does he have us figured out or what! He could be sleeping soundly snoring and I try to carry him to his bed and he goes into mass hysterics when I start to lower him into it. I pick him back up and he starts to calm down. I head for my room and set him on my favourite mushy pillow and he's silent as a lamb. I'll be ready to fight this battle as soon as I decide I don't need any sleep at all. Not anytime soon.

Chris got up with the boys this morning and I desperately tried to get a few more winks. I must have slept more than what seemed like five minutes and despite the lack of sleep I had a great day today. I really needed to wash all the blankets and towels. Carter's bed is wet almost every morning so if I don't stay on top of the laundry it gets out of control. And smelly. Oy.

So we all got ready and headed for the laundromat. Chris stayed in the Jeep with the boys while I went in and loaded up five washing machines. We left for the grocery store. The boys were thrilled to both get to ride in the truck cart...


I used Vicky Stegall's Oops frame and had to frankenstein two pictures together since in one of them Carter was quickly darting his head to the side and the picture looked like he had no eyes. Oh joy. We managed to fill the cart without any escapes...just a couple brief lectures on noise pollution. By the time we finished shopping the washing was done at the laundromat so I went in and loaded up three dryers and we went home to put away the groceries. There's at least enough food in the house to last an entire week now, including snacks for Carter at school and eighteen dollars' worth of milk. Both boys had fallen asleep on the way home so Chris and I put them on the couches; we slipped off their shoes but didn't want to wake them so they slept in their jackets.

I went back to the laundromat and started folding the towels and blankets. There were still a few damp ones that I chucked back in the dryer that were done by the time I was done folding. I had two of those huge clear lawn and garden bags full of fresh, clean towels and blankets. And tonight I had more foresight...this time to get Carter to go pee before bed. We'll see if he wakes up in a dry bed in the morning.

I came home and both boys were still asleep. Score! I managed to squeeze in a much-needed nap, though I could have skipped it since I was still feeling fine. I had a couple more loads of laundry on the go. Clothes and a couple bigger items I didn't want to waste space in the laundromat machines with. Auntie Lurdes stopped by to pick up a couple pictures she wanted me to print. I had just woken up from my nap so I edited the pictures and we took them to Shopper's Drug Mart and had them printed there. Despite waiting for someone else's order to finish, it was still faster and cheaper than printing them at home and they turned out great. Auntie Lurdes brought over a bundle of goodies too...some freshly canned salmon, two loaves of zucchini or maybe banana? bread and a big jar of pickles. Mmmm. Good stuff. Chris looooooooved the salmon the last time. I had made salmon salad sandwiches and he said they were the best. Ever. Now I can make them again.

For supper we had homemade chicken fingers and stuffing and rice and corn. The boys had a few snacks in the afternoon so they barely ate anything but Chris and I enjoyed it. After supper it was a joint effort to clean up the kitchen. One of the things we still needed was dishwasher soap, which I had refused to purchase at the grocery store. So by saving a few bucks by going to Wal-Mart to buy it, I ended up spending another hundred and twenty bucks. ::sigh:: Chris needed socks and undies. Cooper needed pull-ups. And I grabbed a few more grocery items that would have been up to twice the price at the grocery store.

I came home with enough time to put everything away and watch Desperate Housewives, which was hilarious, amid loud distracting outbursts from Carter and Cooper. Now it's a few hours later and both boys are still up, thanks to the power nap this afternoon. I sure hope Cooper sleeps through the night tonight. It's half past eleven and I'm going to try to start watching that movie (Fracture). I give myself about a half hour before I realize I'm toast and I need to go to sleep. Oh but not before I share a couple layouts I did this weekend. I don't have them up in any galleries yet; I'll have to do that tomorrow.

Cooper's cranky face...titled If Looks Could Kill
Credits: Christy Sturm's Delights of Autumn kit at Butternug Squash Designs.

LaWanna Desjardin's Moonlit Magic kit at Scrapbook-Bytes

You Know it's Getting Colder Out When...

Your husband looks at your legs and asks if you're getting ready for winter.

A Walk in the Seventies

I've been scrapping and making stuff. I pulled an all-nighter making some wedding favours for a coworker. It started out with making some pretty table number cards to surprise her, then she liked them enough to ask me to make a table assignment list for the guests. Silly me suggests placecards. Not silly in general, but silly since she had one more workday before leaving for her wedding. They turned out great and she was thrilled. I was toast from three hours of sleep that night but I made it.

Following night I went to bed early...late for Cooper but early for me around nine-thirty or so. He is the worst to sleep with; often reaching over and grabbing my hair, whining he couldn't find his "Num" which is his blanket, or his cup or his pumpkin. Yes, I said pumpkin. A real pumpkin. I picked up some ornamental pumpkins to decorate for Halloween. Cooper really attached himself to one, and he is also obsessed with the inflatable one on our lawn. So my sleep was very interrupted and it came to a point where I exasperatedly got up. Chris was annoyed by my repeated admonishments to Cooper and told me that Cooper is sound asleep when he does this. I thought he would wake up and reach for me but he stays asleep. Good to know.

Anyhoo, it was about twelve-thirty by this point and I got up. I came to the computer and received an email from a friend of a friend whose child's birthday invitations I'd drafted earlier in the evening. I had emailed her a sample and she wrote back accepting it. So I printed twenty of them, along with matching envelopes. I cut them and put magnets on the back of each and went back to bed. But not before I put Cooper in his own bed. All in all I got about seven hours of sleep. Not bad!

Monday we went to Bingo. We meaning Mom and Kelly and me. Despite the lack of winning, we had a good time as always. On the way we stopped at the "Bannock Bus" and I got an Indian Taco and Mom and Kelly got some fries. It's almost as much about eating as playing Bingo.

This morning I got a really awesome email from my cousin Marnie. Kelly and I are dying to go see Michael Bublé when he performs in Winnipeg in January. Mom and Dad are going and Mom said when they booked there were only "nosebleed" seats left. So I emailed Marnie and Sean to borrow their connections to try to get us tickets and man did they come through! Kelly has been in a training workshop all week so each day we've done a drive-by for each other. Hers in the morning and mine at lunchtime. I tried to call her cell to tell her the good news about the concert but it was off since she was in the workshop. So I called the location of the meeting and asked them to get a message to her to call the office. She called shortly after and I told her the great news. She was thrilled. Now I can't wait.

This evening, Kelly and her family had planned to go to the "Vinyl Café" featuring Stuart McLean.But Doug drove back to work last night so she had a spare ticket and took me along. It was very entertaining. Stuart McLean is a talented and humorous storyteller with a greatly-talented group of musicians with him, including as a guest on the tour, Dan Hill. Like one of my all-time favourite singers growing up. Right there! He sang a couple songs that were part of the show and a couple of his own, but then he sang Sometimes When We Touch, one of my all-time favourite songs. We used to have his album back in the day...we're talking the late seventies. I was thrilled. I took a video of the whole song with my camera but it is seriously huge. 400MB huge. Seemingly needless to say I won't be posting it online but I will sure cherish it. I sang along (inside my head so as not to annoy or disgust anyone around me) every single word of it. What a trip down memory lane! He is just as beautiful to listen to today as he was all those years ago, especially live.

Stuart McLean - The Vinyl Café

I've started a couple scrapbook layouts this week but haven't quite finished any. I hope to get a few more things done this weekend. Now I'm going to go to sleep humming that song...thanks again Kelly - that was awesome!

P.S. Hey Seija, Chris wants to know what time the hockey game starts tomorrow night...

Seriously?

I haven't blogged since Tuesday? Well this will be sketchy at best then unless my memory comes back to me.

Okay. It was an average work week. Wednesday evening I had a date with my friend Silvia from work. We went to a concert with a singer from Venezuela named Eliana Cuevas. She and her band are a very talented and entertaining bunch. The musical abilities were impressive and they have a funky sound.

Thursday...a quiet evening at home. I rented Surf's Up but oddly Carter wasn't too interested in it. We skipped Earl to watch it. I ended up watching ER and going to bed by ten.

Friday...what the heck did we do? I seriously don't remember. Must have been another quiet evening? I hate when I don't blog often enough to remember!

Saturday Chris worked until noon. I did a bit of shopping to make salad and dessert. We had dinner at Seija and Ian's place. We brought the boys and it went over very well! The boys loved their dogs and especially the cats. Almost tempting to get one but maybe someday. We had steak and mushrooms/onions, Caesar salad, awesome scalloped potatoes with gruyere cheese, broccoli with awesome homemade cheese sauce, and death by chocolate for dessert. An excellent collaborative meal. We visited for awhile after supper and played a bit of pool. The boys started asking to go home and we headed home by ten. Thanks again, Seija and Ian!

On our way home we had to drop off the movie. It was about six or seven minutes after ten and I figured I'd be charged late fees for it. The movie nazi herself was there and I asked if the movie was late enough to be a late charge. She was on the phone but shook her head no and I was relieved. I said, "Bless you" and went to look for another movie. If the other one was late I would have just left. I rented Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It was pretty good; comparable to the first one. Carter liked the special powers the characters had, but he didn't manage to stay awake to the end.

Today I had a baby shower to go to for a coworker. Her baby is actually four months old but the timing was finally right. We had the party at another coworker's house and everybody brought something to eat. These parties rock, I tell you. I brought death by chocolate (yes, again!) and I fell in love with a garlic hummus dip that someone brought, among many other delicious snacks! We had a good visit to welcome the baby to our work family.

I came home and took a crazy marathon nap. Cooper fell asleep first and I put him in his bed. Carter took a bit of convincing but he came with me for a nap. It was one of those drooly deeply sleepy naps where you wake up in the early evening and wonder if it's morning or night. It was quarter to seven when I woke up. Chris and Cooper had just woken up too. I figured the kids would NEVER go to sleep tonight!

I made grilled cheese sandwiches for the boys for supper. They had a super-sudsy bath and then they went all crazy when I put their jammies on. Like seriously crazy. I figure because it's the one hour of the ENTIRE week where I am obsessed with watching the television without interruption. Yes, I got to watch Desperate Housewives, with some screaming and running children occasionally diverting my attention.

Cooper fell asleep on the couch beside me probably by about ten-thirty or eleven, and I had to restart Carter's movie one more time and he lasted about another five minutes. Not bad. I figured they'd be up later than I am. I haven't done any scrapping in days so I'll hopefully post something soon.

Snoooooooooooooooow!!!

It was cold and rainy this morning. The rain felt so cold I was surprised it wasn't snowing. I got to work and it started snowing. Big hyuuuuuge flakes of cold wet snow. Yucky. I am so not ready for winter yet.

Today was a busy day. Kelly and I grabbed a quick lunch at Tim Horton's and took Carter to school. After work we came home. Chris stopped at home briefly at work and picked up the Jeep to take it to the shop to clean it inside and out. He didn't get home until about 9:30 so he must have done a really good job of it!

I made chicken nuggets for the boys for supper. They were a big hit. Since it was a late supper since I figured Chris would be home, the boys went to sleep shortly after supper. I became obsessed with online Scrabble; I have a couple games on the go on Facebook but there is also an option to play on your own. And you can play against a "robot". This "robot" is a psycho, letter-blocking maniac that makes words that make NO sense. I beat it a few times but for the most part I'm getting totally hosed.

I didn't even realize how late it was getting as I sort of watched House and played Scrabble at the same time. Now I am outta here; I gotta get up in a few hours and do my hair and stuff.

Here are a couple new pages I worked on yesterday and the day before using mostly Helena Jole's products from NDISB. She is very talented and her design work is incredible...

Cooked. AND Baked!

Today was a quiet one. It's been raining and is doomed to continue to do so until at least Wednesday. Ick.

I did only a little tiny bit of cleaning today...just a drop in the bucket. Chris took Carter out to Cindy's place to hang out. Cooper took a bath and had a blast having the tub all to himself. I guess he sort of helped with the cleaning since he dumped much of the bathtub contents on the bathroom floor.


By mid-afternoon he was (finally) ready to take a nap. I was determined to get a nap with just one kid at home! I got up around five when Chris and Carter came back. I started getting stuff ready to make supper. I had alfredo pasta with chicken in mind. I also have been really wanting to make my soft gingersnap cookies but I realized I had no shortening.

So while supper was on the go, I went to run to the store, BEFORE I realized that today is actually Thanksgiving. Oops. Thank God for Shopper's Drug Mart! I picked up some whole wheat rotini, shortening, a couple boxes of baking soda, and searched for garlic bread to no avail. But I remembered there were still some hotdog buns left in the fridge.

I came home and got the rest of supper ready, including some very scorched garlic bread hotdog buns. Oops. Guess I wasn't paying attention when the timer on the microwave beeped for me. We survived just fine without the garlic bread and the boys ate a little bit of supper. Carter has been out of sorts lately because he's on a poop strike again. Not only will he not poop on the toilet, he now is refusing to poop. AT ALL. Oy.

While Carter sat in exile on the toilet, I prepared the cookie dough and let it chill for awhile and watched a bit of TV. Chris went out for coffee with Greg. I helped Carter clean his butt after, though I don't think he actually pooped. ::Sigh:: I quartered the cookie dough and formed it in rolls and put it back in the fridge. Except for one roll. I made about 20 cookies and at this very moment there might be one and a half cookies left. Delish.

And the long weekend is drawing to a close and I likely have nothing for any of us to wear tomorrow. At some point I actually started doing some laundry but I'm not sure where I left off. I'll take a quick peek and if it's too scary I'll just wing it in the morning.

So Freaking Stuffed

I'm still leaning back and groaning from Thanksgiving dinner this evening. I ate everything in sight. Well, almost. I had to skip a few pies in order to wolf down the other stuff I loaded my plate with.

We had a fantastic array of food. We're talking feast here, folks. There was turkey (of course) mashed potatoes and gravy (of course) ham, meatballs, an awesome Portuguese fish/potato dish, oriental salad, coleslaw, stuffing, mashed turnips, purple cabbage with apple (a seemingly odd concoction I thought frightening but was very delicious!). There were at least three different pies for dessert, rosettes, and a multi-level creamy pastry dish topped with blueberry sauce. But the pièce de résistance was the blueberry perogies. Deeeeee-lish.

The boys had some fun running around outside before supper but nobody did any running after supper. We came home just in time to catch Desperate Housewives. Both boys fell asleep on or near me while I was watching it and they stayed asleep so we carried them to bed after the show was over. Cooper was on my arm and Carter was at the foot of the couch so I couldn't get up without Chris helping me for fear of waking them.

I've been chatting with Jill and I suddenly remembered the Double-Stuf Oreos I bought earlier today. And despite the mountain of food I ate earlier, I managed to eat five of them before I was fully refilled. Oy. Silly me.

And here's a brand new development...I just signed on as a CT member for NDISB. I'm already there ALL the time, so it was a "natural" transition for me. I look forward to it; they're an awesome bunch over there!

And now as it seems, the tryptophan is taking over my body and I must sleep.

Two Feet Off The Ground

Today I had a fun day with the boys. It was a rainy one but a good one. They actually played like they liked each other today. It was pretty sweet! Chris worked until noon then went out with his work buddies.

The boys and I played hide and seek among other silly fun games. Cooper is starting to spout small sentences and the kid can jump with both feet off the ground. This has come from much practice sneaking in my room and jumping on MY bed. I have to keep my bedroom door shut for fear of my kids bouncing onto their heads on the floor or into the wall. Yikes.

Chris wasn't home at suppertime so I ordered an "unstoppable-toppable" pizza from Pizza Hut. I chucked the boys in the Jeep and we went to pick it up. They loved it. Pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives, tomatoes, purple onions, and chicken. Yes, it seems an odd assortment but the kids ate it up. Except for the onions. I picked them off too 'cause the pieces were too big. Otherwise it was a perfect pizza. There was just one piece left by the time Chris came home.

Mom and Dad stopped in after their dinner out for Mom's birthday. We had a little visit; too bad I hadn't rented any movies or we could have made a night of it.

The boys stayed up pretty late since we had such an awesome nap this afternoon. But they're both snuggled in (or maybe under...Carter was hiding again awhile ago) their beds and hopefully for the whole night. I'm off to do a couple sudoku puzzles now before I go to sleep.

Happy Birthday Mom and Kevin!

Wednesday evening Seija and I got together to go see Deidre. We brought some cool Spiderman stuff for big brother Connor and we got to snuggle with baby Rowan. It was great to do some much-needed catching up too.

On Thursday Chris played outside with the boys for awhile while I made a hyuuuge meatloaf. The boys ate a ton (well, way more than usual). We ate late and totally missed watching Earl. The boys have started going to sleep a little earlier lately and have both been asleep around 8:30. I can't wait for daylight savings time so they'll go another hour earlier than usual! I stayed up and watched ER and caught the later version of Earl.

Today is my Mom's and my cousin Kevin's birthday. We had a wonderful lunch with Auntie Lurdes and Auntie Josie and Kelly. Kelly left with me early since I had to take Carter to school and we worked in the same building today. Since it was Mom's birthday, we planned a Bingo trip because it's a free admission for the birthday girl. I won fifty bucks but none of us won after that. Of course we had fun anyway. Kelly brought Mom a pint of Haagen-Dasz ice cream and stuck a birthday candle in it. We exited the bingo palace into a wild thunderstorm. Much of the trip home was illuminated like daylight. The thunder is awesome too. I probably shouldn't have the computer on but I'm taking my turn playing Scrabble on Facebook then I'm going to bed.

Oh No! Not the Eggnog!

OMG I just got back from Wal-Mart a little while ago and they already have eggnog on the shelves. That is crrrrrrrrraaaaazy! Less than three months 'til Christmas. Thanksgiving and Halloween aren't even here yet and the next thing we know it will be Christmas.

Now, let's see...time is flying by as usual. Carter seems to be enjoying school. The other day, my blog post title was "You Be the Jishin". Carter was pretending to do magic tricks and making Cooper "disappear" under his blanket. Then apparently it was my turn and that was what he said. Too cute.

The weekend was pretty low-key because I felt like crap with a cold. Our friends Deidre & Greg had their baby on Friday evening and I didn't even get to go to the hospital to visit because of my cold. Seija and I are going to visit tomorrow evening. Can't wait to see him! His name is Rowan Edward McQuade. Big strong name. I love it.

Since I've been sleeping more and scrapping less, I decided to let go of one of my creative teams to see if that would relieve some of the pressure and let someone else join the team who will promote Nina more actively than I have been. I haven't been reading any blogs or doing very much scrapping at all lately. Since Carter started school this month and the days getting shorter and shorter I've gotten so tired so early each evening. I'm hoping for a miraculous energy boost. Maybe when daylight savings time comes and the boys will be going to bed 'one hour earlier', I might get to spend some more time for me and get more stuff done.

I did, however get a new page done with those autumn pictures I took of the boys playing outside in the leaves with Chris. I used LaWanna Desjardin's new "Autumn Mix" kit available at Scrapbook-Bytes. I love the gorgeous, rich colours and neat elements in the kit. I'll be using it again for all the fun fall pictures I hope to take if it ever stops being cold and rainy out. Ick.