Yippee. Antibiotics.

This morning I finally decided to go to the doctor. I went to the hospital at about nine o'clock and surprisingly I was out of there in just under an hour with two prescriptions. One for Amoxicillin for my sinus infection and one just in case the antibiotics give me a yeast infection. Oh joy. Having a non-stop headache and pain radiating in my upper jaw prompted my visit to the doctor.

This afternoon I went to Wal-Mart to pick up soy milk and juice for the kids. Oh and some of those Pillsbury ready-to-bake cookies. Hopefully I'll be able to taste them. While I was in line at my favourite checkout, a lady in front of me in line looked toward me and did a double-take. She had just glanced over at the magazine rack and Julia Roberts was on the cover. When she looked at me she told me she thought she was seeing Julia Roberts. HAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAA. I about died. I expressed my love for the lady, particularly because on the one day where I am almost dead from this cold and not wearing a drop of make-up, she likens me to a beautiful movie star. Hilarious! I almost paid her bill for her. Great way to make my day. She must be blind.

Next stop was the grocery store for apples and oranges and kids' Tylenol. I also found matching t-shirts for the boys for two bucks so I grabbed those too. Here they are sporting their new shirts playing Don't Break The Ice for the squillionth time. Yes, I set up those little ice cubes for them every time. All thirty-two of them!


Well, I'm off to find something for my little brood for supper. If my head doesn't explode I'll write more later.

Byproduct of the Day

Well, yesterday it was urine and vomit. Today, poop. Somewhere along the way I gave up the fight again and if Carter wakes up before I do, he poops in his pull-up that I put on him at night to avoid washing bedding pretty much every morning.

Well, since we're off for the holidays this week, I'm ready to fight again. He has no trouble pooping on the toilet, and if he feels like showing off just to get a reward, he will. Little turkey.

We had a pretty fun day today and my sweet Mommy came over for a few hours to wrangle them so I could go into the office to do month-end. It took me about an hour then I did the bank deposit and picked up a parcel at the post office. I dropped off the stuff at the office and went to fill the Jeep. Thanks to a gift card from Chris's Dad for Christmas, and still having a quarter-tank left, it only cost me twenty-three bucks to fill it. Sweet. Then Chris called me and I brought him some lunch. He asked me to go pick up a part for his truck that he ordered so I did that on the way home too. It's impossible to get anything done quickly in this town. What I thought I could get done in an hour turned into three hours. Hope the boys didn't wear you out too much, Mom! (Thanks again!)

So far the boys have been pretty good but check with me in a couple days to see if I'm ready to 'eat my young' by then. When Chris came home from work I got ready to go to Bingo with Kelly. I actually planned ahead for supper (this morning!) and put some meatballs and potatoes in mushroom soup in the crock pot. I'm not really one for experimenting, but apparently Chris loved it and the boys ate some too. I am completely void of tasting abilities today (STILL) so I was worried it would be awful. Whew!

Unfortunately we didn't win a dang thing tonight. Zip. Nada. Bummer. But hey we got to catch up on much of our Christmas happenings and that is always fun to catch up. I showed Kelly this video of Carter singing O Canada and she laughed so hard and told me I have to post it. So as I mentioned last week, without further ado, I leave you with Carter singing O'Canada. We need to work on the word pronunciation a tad bit and he gets a little goofy toward the end and kind of quits, but it really is super-cute!

It's Just Around the Corner...

Amid the madness of the household (I'm still off and home with the boys)...I made these 2008 calendar grids. They might just come in handy for your desktop calendars or maybe in a layout.

Each file is transparent and in .png format (without the white backing), with and without the months on them (in case you want to use a different font).

Click the image and they're all yours!

Edited to add: Click HERE if the download doesn't work by clicking the image.


Christmas came and went. Santa came and deposited a big pile of presents in the living room. Chris's brother Jason and their Dad came over at eight on Christmas morning to open presents with us. I took this stop-motion video of the gift opening. Pretty chaotic! After breakfast, I made a big breakfast of cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast. The boys were pretty thrilled with all their loot. Cooper first opened a little tiny toy truck from Uncle Jason and was perfectly happy with playing with it. I had to talk him into opening more presents. I've made a mental note to ask Santa not to bring so much stuff next year!

The kids played with their new toys and everyone napped. We got up and ready to go to my Mom and Dad's house for supper. Mom had her usual massive table that seated the whole fam-damily. We're talking about thirty people sitting at the table. The feast was impressive as per usual, and everyone had to sit back and bloat for awhile before dessert.

A bunch of us (My Mom, Aunts Josie and Lurdes, cousin Kelly and her Aunt Pat) played Taboo and that was hilarious. One of Cindy's girls wasn't feeling well; their family seems to be passing around a 24-hour gastrointestinal bug. I'm just praying it doesn't get us too. Which still causes me to wonder what made Carter throw up today. It was a fairly early evening and we came home. The kids seem to be going to bed later and later these days but it's a bit of a bonus to sleep in a little since I don't have to get up and go anywhere.

Yesterday I did some Boxing Day shopping at Wal-Mart. I looked at all the special deals they had going on and was very tempted to load up on stuff when I realized it was all stuff we don't really need. So it ended up being a grocery run, much of it was half-price. Mom invited us to come over for leftovers so after the boys' naps we headed over (across the lake again - what a great shortcut!) Auntie Lurdes and Uncle Cliff were there too and we stuffed ourselves and visited for awhile. The boys cavorted for a long time after we got home.

This morning I woke up feeling like crrrrrrrrrapppppp. My head was so congested I had a terrible sinus headache. My nose was a disgusting encrusted mess. Just when I think this cold is easing up, it's like I wake up with a brand new one. I'm really sick of being sick. Five weeks is way too long. I've never had a cold like this before. Today was the kind of day I get tempted to go to the doctor. Even if they're just going to tell me I have a cold and to go drink plenty of fluids blah blah blah. I just want it to go away!

I tried to do a little tidying today but with two crazy boys running around (and peeing on the couch and puking on my duvet and colouring pretty much everything with markers except for the paper I gave them) it wasn't easy. I took some Tylenol Sinus which started to help after about an hour. I was forced to do laundry due to Carter's spontaneous barfing episode...I had taken the two duvets off my bed and put them aside in the boys' room so I could tidy up my room. And that's where Carter decided to spew forth his cinnamon toast. Ugh. I sure hope I found all of it. It prompted me to do a couple loads of laundry, which I guess turned out to be a good thing.

Chris isn't home from work yet; he stayed to install the stereo that Santa gave him for his truck. The boys ate a few spoonfuls of soup that Mom made. I made a meal of it and enjoyed it again. Since the boys didn't nap this afternoon, they got a little sleepy at supper time. I bribed with candy to keep them awake. So I'm pretty sure bedtime won't be too long now. Or so I hope.

And To All A Good Night

The matching pajama photo shoot...wasn't a smashing success...until I made some necessary adjustments with PhotoShop...I took at least ten various pictures. This was the first and when I uploaded them to have a look, I had none with Carter smiling. So I went after him for one more shot; Cooper had long since fled the scene. So I took the cheesy grin off Carter's last picture and plastered it on this one...

So we went to church tonight...yes, all four of us. We left here at seven so we could get seats. We walked in at the very same instant my parents did at the opposite entrance. We had plenty of space to sit. Cindy and Dominic joined us later. So the first hour the boys were wonderful and sweet waiting for mass to begin. Then they were done. And the mass began. It wasn't too bad but Cooper kept saying, ''Go home, Mommy''.

The kids had the opportunity to go up to the front of the church to see baby Jesus in the nativity scene. Carter would have done great if he didn't have Cooper to drag with him. At first it was so sweet watching Carter the big brother holding little brother Cooper's hand. Cooper lost enthusiasm and just wanted to get back to me. Then Cooper kept saying Jesus throughout the rest of the mass, among his comments about wanting to go home. All in all they were both very good. I brought books and snacks to try to keep them occupied.

After church we took a ride to see some Christmas lights. There is a family who is famous for their massive display of lights and every imaginable illuminated lawn decoration, including two puppet theatre boxes and all the inflatables, an igloo, and zillions of lights. We drove past but not through (due to the sheer traffic volume) the cemetery to see all the ice candles people put out for their loved ones. It was very difficult to get the effect of all the candles since the headlights of all the cars camouflaged any other lights that were there. It seems to me there were many more last year, however it could have just been the timing with all the after-church traffic.

We came home and the boys were allowed to open one present; their matching Spiderman pajamas (thus the photo shoot). Me and my wanting to start a new tradition! I had barely remembered to wrap them; I did it in the ten seconds before leaving the house for church! And it was so worth it. I'm totally going to do this every year!

Merry Christmas to all...(and read the title again)

Shoulda Coulda Woulda

Well, if I'd gotten around to sending out Christmas cards this year, this is basically what they would have looked like, but with a new picture. This is last year's Christmas picture, with this year's card. ::Sigh:: I guess I have been too busy doing all sorts of other projects to focus on doing my own! So if you will, please just pretend you have received this in the mail!

A few nights ago, Kelly and I did a quasi-late-night shopping trip to Wal-Mart. We left around quarter to eleven and by the time we were done shopping and waiting in line at the check-out for over half an hour, we were outta there by quarter to one. Chris had called me just as we were next in line to tell me Cooper had just power-puked (fortunately on the kitchen floor) so I felt compelled to rush home, although both Kelly and I were dying for a sandwich and treat from Tim Horton's. Oh well. He seemed fine when I got home but was awake for quite awhile after.

I had Friday off and spent the day running many errands and finishing up a calendar project for a coworker that I do each year. Did some last minute gift shopping and delivery for Carter's teacher and our babysitter. I took Carter to school and did a bit more stuff before having to pick up the boys from the sitter for the last time before 2008.

The weekend was spent doing some more last-minute shopping (thank God I didn't venture out to any stores today!) and we did a bit of visiting. Last night we went to Auntie Lurdes and Uncle Cliff's place for some Christmas cheer. I did a whole pile of wrapping last night and still have some small stuff to wrap...

My cold is still lingering. The cough is downgraded to occasional, but still makes me sound like an old phlegm-y smoker. Ick. I'm currently breathing through both nostrils, though it's likely a temporary relief. We'll see if I can shake this thing once and for all!

Not Working the Rest of the Year

Today was a good one. I got the three of us ready and got myself to work with time to spare. Kelly did a drive-by before she left town for work. The morning went fairly quickly then a few of us went out for lunch. We had a great lunch and I took Carter to school.

After a seemingly very long and busy afternoon, I picked up the kids. Carter apparently had a much better day at school. There were some cute little projects he's been working on in his backpack, and no notes from the teacher today. Yay!

I brought the boys home and Carter is asleep on the couch. Apparently Santa Claus visited the boys at the babysitter's house! How exciting! Chris stayed late at work today to work on his truck so for now it's just the boys and me. And Cooper is being a real little monkey! I have to go chase him...more later!

Lost and (Thank God) Found

My dear sweet son Carter has been visiting the principal's office a couple times lately...including today and yesterday. He has this thing where he's hitting his classmates (much like he does with his brother at home, I'm gathering.) He's impulsive when he does this and other things and the teacher has been trying to find a way to punish him that gets through to him. Time-outs = not effective. Principal's office = getting more effective! At first she thought sending him might be of consequence to him. The second or third visit had more impact.

Plus he's 'grounded' at home as a result; the word 'grounded' has great impact. That and the threat of Santa skipping our house altogether if things don't shape up!

Yesterday after supper I went to the store to get Carter some new pajamas for pajama day at school (which is tomorrow). I grabbed a pair for Cooper too so he wouldn't feel left out and he'll wear them to the babysitter's house. I also picked up some ichiban noodles for my oriental salad to bring to Christmas dinner. When I reached the till I realized I couldn't locate my wallet. Thankfully I had enough cash and was on my way. I madly started searching every little pocket of my purse (the wallet is small and so is the purse). Couldn't find it. I phoned home and Chris started searching for it. I was trying to retrace my steps but my memory was hazy on the last time I'd used it.

I got home and searched and made a couple phone calls. I figured I must have left it in Kelly's vehicle on Bingo night. I determined the last time I had it I was with her. So I tried calling her at home. Nope. Not home. I tried calling her cell. Nope. I was freaked out thinking I'd lost it at Bingo or something and was dying since I couldn't reach her, particularly frustrating since I almost always know where she is! Obsess much? Yes, I was. Kelly called me at nine-thirty when she received my message. She had been at her son's school concert and looked in her vehicle for me immediately and FOUND my wallet. Whew! I was so thankful and excited I drove over immediately to pick it up. I still needed to do the shopping I was intending to do at Wal-Mart. Milk, bread, etc. and even a couple more Christmas presents. I'm getting there slowly.

I came home and was very tired, likely from the stress of thinking I'd lost my wallet. Kelly said it looked like it wanted to fall out of the pouch on her door where she found it. Lucky me! And thanks again Kelly! Whew!

Small Fortune

Teeny. Tiny. But she said Bingo! Kelly and I went to Bingo tonight. It took us seemingly forever to get there; apparently there was a downed power line across the highway and traffic was stopped and quite backed up. It held us back about twenty minutes but we still made it. Kelly won a hundred dollar game with three other winners. Of course the twenty-thousand dollar pot would have been a little funner, but hey, she got to say Bingo!

Today was a bit less of a rat race than yesterday. No Christmas concerts, no running around pretending to have baked or prepared any dainties. Just an average work day. I brought lunch to Chris but he was out of the shop on a service call. I took Carter to school.

After work I picked up the boys and Chris's brother. I did a quick McDonald's run to feed all those Groves boys and Kelly and I left for Bingo shortly after.

I've stayed up way past my bedtime but I got a little bit of stuff done. With a little luck, I might even get some Christmas cards mailed just before Christmas! Oy.

Christmas is Heeeeeeeeeeeeere!

Today was a banner day. I managed to get up and shower and get ready, including everything for the boys. I opened Carter's backpack (forgot to open it after school on Friday...oops) and found a reminder note that his Christmas concert was today. No problem. I remembered and was all set; I even had a new shirt and socks for Carter to wear. But what was news to me was that I was to bring a plate of dainties. Yikes.

During coffee break I ran to the grocery store to grab some dainties. The lovely people at IGA make up trays of them. I picked up a tray of them and ran back to the office. I put the most homemade looking ones onto a different plate and covered it with tin foil. Hee. At least I made it look like I tried!

Carter's concert was hilarious, awesome, and oh so sweet. I have very little in the way of photos since there were only a few spotlights on the kids. I took video each of the five times his class performed, which isn't great quality, but I captured a little of Carter and I love it! Here is a picture of the class on the stage:

And a picture of my cute little reindeer after the show:

The little turkey...once he spotted me in about the fourth video, he stopped performing. He just kept staring at me and making faces. Silly boy. All in all it was great. I stayed for a few minutes after for dainties and headed back to work.

Shortly after I returned to work, my Christmas package arrived from Future Shop! Woohoo! My external hard drive is heeeeeeere! Merry Christmas to Me! Don't even think that I kept it in the package so it could get wrapped and go under the tree. That didn't happen. I originally intended so, but once I saw it I had to open the package. And once I got it out of that horrible hard plastic wrapper, I couldn't get it back in there. I tried. And scuffed the pleather storage cover in the process. Just a little while ago I finished backing up all my pictures from the kids' births to now, along with all my digital scrapbooking and other projects. Very exciting. And it's tiny enough to fit in my purse! All 160 gigabytes of it. Yay!

For some strange reason, my kids are BOTH still up and acting VERY goofy. Their Uncle Jason stopped by to drop off a parcel for me to send out tomorrow and they're really showing off for him. I just uploaded all the Christmas concert stuff; if I compress one of the videos enough I might be able to post one here. The shortest one (about two minutes) is about 180MB. Hyuge!

Well, I need to go be a referee for the crazy children and try to get them to bed. I have some scrapping to do tonight and it's not getting itself done! I just hope the kids fall asleep before I do!

My Own Personal Plague

Well I'm well into week four of this rotten cold. The cough migrated into a head cold, which was actually a welcome change, though the cough started to yield some hideous stuff. Then yesterday morning the cough subsided into a sore throat. It still sucks to be sick but change is good.

Friday after work the carpet cleaners arrived at the office. I picked up the boys from the sitter and went back to the office. Chris picked up Cooper after work and I stayed at the office with Carter while the carpets were being cleaned. Carter had some fun playing with the toys and games the speech pathologists use for their clients. I made a note to tell Santa about a couple of them. Ants in the Pants was my favourite.

Yesterday afternoon we got Stephanie to come over to babysit so we could start our Christmas shopping. Together. Imagine that! We figured a couple hours would give us a good running start at it. First we went to Canadian Tire. Chris received a gift card for Christmas from work. He bought a cordless drill he's been wanting, and since it was on sale we were able to use the gift card for a couple other items. One was a jiffy rink, so Chris can build a skating rink (roughly the size of our living room) in the back yard for the kids. Unfortunately, our garden hose didn't get properly winterized (stored indoors) and is currently frozen to the bottom of the boat outside. ::sigh::

Our next stop for shopping was the zoo. The Wal-Mart Zoo. Lordy. We walked in and the nice greeter lady usually has a string of carts lined up as soon as you come in the door. We got the last one. I told Chris I would find him and I doubled back to the photo centre. I found a cheap digital camera I contemplated getting for Carter, but if I get him one I want to get him a 'real' one and they're a bit more expensive. Perhaps for his birthday.

I headed for the automotive department and promptly located my husband. I grabbed two jugs of windshield washer fluid and headed down the aisle toward Chris. I looked in the cart, and he had already grabbed two jugs of windshield washer fluid. Great minds think alike, I guess! We tried to work our way down the list of people we are buying for, and while we're not finished by any means, we did get a good start. The 'fun' part was the checkout. I looked for my favourite cashier and found her. Then Chris decided he wanted to look for a garden hose. In the frigid middle of winter. But he didn't feel like walking across to the opposite corner of the store. So he volunteered me to do that. I went back to the houseware department and asked if they still had such stock in this weather, and they suggested I check the plants department. I found a bunch of leftover sprinklers and even a hose! Y'know, the kind of hose with all the HOLES IN IT for watering grass. Back to the drawing board.

I went back to the checkout to find that Chris had moved forward about four feet. Things moved fairly quickly after that and we were outta there. We did a quick drive-by for Kelly and Doug and came home. Both boys were asleep. We left all the stuff outside figuring the boys would be nosy. The babysitter was picked up. Chris's brother arrived in town the other day and Chris picked him up for a visit. I ordered pizza and Caesar salad and cinnaparts for supper. While we ate my parents stopped by to visit on their way between dinner out and a concert. We had a fun visit and the boys were thrilled when Grandpa gave them swing rides in this storage bin (that they've been playing in since the Christmas decorations were taken out of it).

Picture them in a few years on a roller coaster doing this. Yikes.

The 'Rents

After Mom and Dad left Carter was already winding down. He wanted to go to sleep in our bed, so I went with him. But of course Cooper (still going strong) didn't want to be left out. I let him in and he just jumped and fidgeted around. I took Cooper out and tried to otherwise occupy him.He was nowhere near ready to sleep. I temporarily occupied him with the alien cartoon at the beginning of the Ratatouille DVD. Carter was out shortly after. I cuddled Cooper for a bit and got him some milk and he eventually zonked out too. I did a couple Sudoku puzzles and crashed.

This morning Chris got up with the boys. I felt CRAPPY. My throat was sore and I was craving much more sleep. I dozed on and off for a while until Chris needed to get ready to go out. He's going snowmobiling with a few of his peeps from work. Fools. Don't they know it's cold out? I'm sure they won't notice. In the meantime I'm in our cozy little house with the boys. We're playing with stickers and with playdough. Good times. By the way, can we please borrow someone's garden hose?

Oh...one more thing to note...Carter has been singing O Canada non-stop lately. I'll try to catch it on video because it's sooooooooo cute.

Ugh

Okay.
Last Thursday - Cooper's actual birthday
Friday -
Saturday -
Sunday - Didn't leave the house all weekend. Still sick.
Monday - Cooper's Birthday Party
Tuesday - All set to decorate the tree (finally) - brought it up from the basement and Carter was asleep on the couch.
Wednesday - Bingo - 2 wins!
Thursday - Baaaaaaaaaaaad day at work. Decorating the tree tonight!

Pictures from party and decorating to follow. This post will have to do for now. I'm toast.

We've Been Elfed!!

Click Here!
Too funny. Kelly sent me this awhile back then I saw it on Angie's blog tonight and finally dug out some pictures to try it too. I keep on watching it over and over!

Happy 2nd Birthday Cooper!

Wednesday...was a write-off. I started feeling worse on Tuesday afternoon. After coughing non-stop for a week and a half, my cold started moving north into my head. Ugh. Donna gave me some Sinutab which helped a bit but I still felt all stuffed up and wonky. Chris stayed late at work to work on something on his truck and when he came home I was already flaked out on the couch and went straight to bed before eight.

I stayed home from work yesterday and slept almost the entire morning, except for when the phone rang. But I was able to zonk out again. My cough has loosened up quite a bit; though I won't go into a lot of detail of what that entails. (Ewww.) I had some toast for lunch and went back to bed. Chris called to check up on me a couple times and the last time I stayed up and decided to finally watch one of the movies I rented on Monday. I rented Shrek the Third and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. I watched Chuck and Larry. It was better than I expected and I did laugh out loud a few times. All the usual Adam Sandler cohorts were in the movie which was amusing as usual. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the movie put more of a positive spin on the gay community than a mockery of it. As for Shrek the Third, it's been in the DVD player every other minute of every day since it came home with me from the video store. A diversion from Ratatouille, at least.

I became mobile enough to make a yummy, hearth-warming supper. I still can't figure out why, but meatloaf is so popular in this house. Last time I made meatloaf I made two and froze one (yay me!) so I just boiled some potatoes and got Chris to mash them while I added cheese, butter and milk. I made a peppercorn gravy and nuked some kernel corn.

Carter has been going to sleep very early lately, especially when I can keep him from napping when we get home from the sitter's house. If only Cooper would do the same. I gather he takes a groovy nap, so he's still going strong until about nine each night. I went to bed early again and had a decent night's sleep.

This morning the boys got up with Chris, and to my delight he got some of the morning ritual underway; getting rid of the pee-filled pull-ups and getting them their first drinks of milk of the day. All that while I dreamily pressed snooze until I could snooze no more. Fortunately I still haven't had to do anything with my hair since I had it cut last week (though I figure I'll need to wash it tomorrow), so I got ready fairly quickly. I bathed and fed the boys their current favourite breakfast of cinnamon toast and we headed out shortly after.

At lunchtime I ran to Wal-Mart to pick up a few more things for Cooper's birthday. I totally forgot to get pull-ups and by the time I was at the till and looked at my list it was too late. The sweet cashier (my favourite one) told me to go get them but I really had to get moving to get Carter to school on time. That, and I still wanted to bring some cupcakes to the sitter's house for all the kids to celebrate Cooper's birthday. I made it. Whew. It was another quick, busy day at the office, and at the end of the day, Donna had to tell me it was time to go!

I picked up the boys and we came home. As soon as Chris came home I ran to the dollar store to pick up the wrapping paper I forgot to get earlier, to Safeway for the pull-ups I forgot to get earlier, and to the restaurant to pick up the pizza and breadsticks I ordered for supper.

I came home and was greeted cheerfully by the boys who were ready to chow down on pizza. They both picked the toppings off their pizza (and both boys love black olives!) and ate a couple breadsticks. I picked up some ginger ale so they could have some 'pop'. After we ate I quickly wrapped Cooper's present...a cute Little Tikes trike. He went crazy for it and never let go of it for a couple hours. I had also picked up a helium balloon set (comes with a tank, thirty balloons and ribbon). Now that was fun too! And no, I didn't inhale ANY helium. I inflated four balloons and I'm saving the rest of the tank for Monday when we have family over for cake.

Carter passed out about forty-five minutes ago, but Cooper is going STRONG. He must have had a killer nap today! Here is a small video clip of Cooper from when Chris was assembling his trike. We asked him to say "It's My Birthday" and he did. And it's damn cute. Also including a couple pictures below. He currently has a few battle wounds from tangling with the girls at the babysitter's house. He hits them, they scratch him. Yikes. He could do a Polysporin commercial these days.

See? Adorable. And here are the pictures:

Cooper copying big brother Carter
Making faces through the balloons

Carter's balloon-face

Cooper up-close and personal (and a bit squished)

Cooper's new ride (didn't get off this thing for at least two hours!)

A fun expression - I tried for a smile about fifty times!

Giggling and smiling (because I bribed him)

The dorky mom joining in on the balloon fun.

Showing off the candy he was bribed with. And still smiling.

A Good Time Was Had By All

Oh good. Only two days since I blogged...

Saturday evening was my office Christmas party. First was the bowling portion of the evening; we had about twenty turn up for bowling. It was great. One of my coworkers dropped her daughter off to babysit and Chris and I went out for our second date of the year. Seriously, we need to do this more often, but part of it is paying a sitter again when we've already paid for a sitter all week. Nonetheless, we need to get out more. Together.

Bowling was a hoot; despite the great fun there was some serious underlying (well not so serious) competition going on. The first game was just a regular one then we played a game of Bingo bowling. The overhead screen for each team shows a Bingo card and you have to bowl the items on the card and get them all. Guess whose team won the Bingo bowling? Yep, and I was soooooo extra proud! hee

The next phase of the party was the hors d'oeuvre portion of the evening. We convened at one coworker's house and everyone brought an hors d'oeuvre. And those who wished to participate brought a gift for the steal-a-gift exchange. Another wildly entertaining activity! Everyone who brings a gift takes a number. Number one goes and picks a wrapped gift. Person number two gets the option of stealing number one's already-opened gift, or choosing one of the other wrapped gifts. It gets more interesting as the game goes on, since there is more to choose from. Some rules have to be enforced or the stealing would go on all night on some items. So, no gift can be stolen more than three times, and you can't just go steal your gift back from someone who just took it. However, if you have another gift stolen from you, you can go back and steal a gift that was previously stolen from you. I ended up with a cookbook (I always pick a low number and don't get much choice; Chris typically got a much higher number and got just what he wanted). Chris's choice was a poker set in a metal case, which was one of the items we brought. Hilarious. Somehow I knew he'd end up with it. We had a great time, as did everyone else. I'm already thinking up new ideas for next year's party!

The babysitter's parents picked her up and apparently all went well with the boys. They were sound asleep when we got home. I had a headache all day but didn't take anything so I could enjoy the festivities, but when I got home I still didn't feel well. With all the nasty hacking coughing I've been doing (and still am...ugh) I just started to feel worse. So, I took some Tylenol 3 and like magic my headache disappeared, and I didn't cough for a full ten hours! And it was way less disgusting than taking Buckley's or Nyquil.

Sunday afternoon Chris took Carter outside with him. He finally had the chance to shovel the driveway, and with the grader going past a couple times and with our driving in and out over the past snowy week, the bank at the road was very hard-packed. But he shoveled the whole thing down to bare pavement again. I'm so glad the grader didn't go past again while he was out there; it could have gotten ugly. The snow has finally subsided and the driveway is still clear. Fait accompli. For now.

Today was a busy day at work. Since I was off on Friday, I finished up all my month-end reports and duties today. During a break I picked up the boys' computer from the shop. It had gone all wonky the other day. If I had known it was the display drivers I might have been brave enough to attempt fixing it myself. They did a bunch of anti-virus and anti-spyware cleaning too, which it needed anyway.

After work, Kelly came with me to pick up the boys so I could run into the store to get some milk and bread. I dropped her off and raced home to get supper ready quickly before I went to Bingo. Cindy had dropped off some leftover crablegs, potatoes and some ribs for us this morning at my office, so I just needed to do some reheating. I ate a little super-quick before leaving to pick up Kelly for Bingo.

Yes, I did get to holler Bingo. It was a hundred-dollar game, but much to my dismay six other people had yelled along with me. So Kelly and I got to share a whopping fourteen dollars. But hey, winning is winning. We had great fun as usual.

Yesterday when I posted the layout of Cooper I didn't post any title or comments, thinking that later in the evening I'd be blogging in some details. Anyway, that was a picture of him taken about a week ago and I'm just in awe that it seems like yesterday when Carter wore that very snowsuit. My boys are getting so big!

Just this morning I was loading Carter's backpack/packsack/knapsack (you choose) and I found his student ID card in there! He's in Junior Kindergarten and he has an ID card. It is the cutest thing ever. I hadn't noticed in there on Friday. It has his school picture on it and everything. So so so cute. Also, Carter's first-ever report card arrived today. I was so excited! There were comments and such from the teacher, a list of his four main friends, his name written by him, and a picture he drew on the computer of himself playing in the sunshine. Way way way too cute. I'll have to scan it and do a scrapbook page of it.

And now it's getting very late so I'm off to bed. But by the way, ever since I got my hair cut on Friday, I've barely even needed to touch it. Just a little brush and spray and I'm on my way again. I'm so glad I have my easy hair back. Just get up and go. Hopefully I'll be able to get up and go in six hours when I need to be getting ready for work!

There Went Santa Claus

Ugh. I've been coughing and hacking all week. No other cold symptoms; just the icky cough. Plenty of early bedtimes and no excursions. Thursday night I could barely stay awake long enough to watch My Name is Earl. And it's so fortunate that I went to bed that early, since Cooper's first middle-of-the-night visit was at one. I tried to get him back to bed, but every half hour or so my attempts were foiled again. Then Carter joined the party at some point. I tried to be nice and patient but all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed. I might have by about five.

Yesterday rocked though, aside from all the expense... I had a day off. I took the kids to the sitter and started running errands. First I did a run to Tim Horton's and delivered a French vanilla cappuccino to one of the girls at the office across the hall from mine. Sometimes we take each others' mail to the box at the end of the day, and on Thursday she took a veritable mountain of mail that I had. Much appreciated. I also picked up a FVC for myself and a green tea for Kelly, as she was to be working across the hall too. But when she wasn't there yet, I called her at home and she sounded terrible. She had a horrible migraine. I dropped the tea off at her house and set it just inside the door and quietly told her that her tea was there.

Next I went to the bank then to the hairdresser. I got a great haircut; my hair is much shorter, but all one length again. The layers weren't working for me; I had to wash my hair way too often because it would get all straggly. It now feels great. Plus I got up this morning and it could pass without even brushing it. Excellent.

I went to pay a bill at the city office, since they separated sewer and water from the telephone bill. They don't have it set up as a payee for online banking yet, so I had the bill from October and November to pay. I went into the office to find my lovely Auntie Lurdes waiting to take my money :) I had expected to pay a hundred and forty bucks, but she informed me the December bills were about to be mailed out and my new balance was two hundred eleven. Yikes. Well, now I don't have a bill for December at least!

I picked up a new sweater for Chris to wear to my staff party tonight and a new pair of black pants for me...another hundred bucks. I took out money to pay the babysitter, another two-fifty. Oh and I popped into the liquor store to get some Bailey's and Tequila Rose to the tune of seventy bucks. Crikey I guess I should have just done a Wal-Mart run; this time it would have been cheaper! I did do a quick Wal-Mart stop for socks and pull-ups, but those were surprisingly the only two items I purchased there.

I had a lovely lunch with Ashley and her sister. The special was an open-faced buffalo chicken sandwich on garlic toast. Mmmm. Spicy! After lunch I took in the computer (the boys' computer - likely the video card or drivers...we'll see how much that will cost) and picked up groceries for our after-parade party to the tune of a hundred bucks. I came home and put groceries away and started cleaning up. I dusted and tidied the top of the entertainment stand. I vacuumed and tidied the kitchen and put a pretty Christmas tablecloth on the table. I picked up some serving bowls and trays in the dollar section of the grocery store for chips and stuff.

By this time the safety check was done on Chris's truck and he wanted me to go do the insurance and registering. I put on my Santa hat (yes on my brand new doo) and headed out. With the sales tax on the truck and the new plate stickers, there went another hundred and three bucks. While I stopped at the insurance place, the liquor store was right next door so I also picked up a bottle of rum.

I delivered all the paperwork to Chris and came home for a bit more party preparation. Then it was (already!) time to pick up the boys. We came home and they were excited to be having a party and going to see Santa Claus. During one of my stops at home I put a shepherd's pie in the oven so it was ready by the time I came home with the boys. I told them we were having Ratatouille again. Carter ate a bit; Cooper, not so much.

Everyone started arriving just before six, and the parade started at six-thirty. We all bundled up and walked to the corner to watch. Oh and nowhere yet in this post have I mentioned that the temperature was MINUS TWENTY-TWO, with a windchill factor of MINUS THIRTY-THREE. Dang cold. We survived the parade and came back to the house for hot chocolate and munchies. We had a great visit and everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit. Next week we'll do it all over again for Cooper's birthday. Not sure which day yet; probably Friday.

I went to bed not long after everyone left and the dishwasher was loaded. Cooper made a couple appearances but I managed to bribe him back to bed with cookies and milk. Somehow I managed to stay in bed until quarter after eight this morning, but not without a few attempts from the boys to get me up earlier. The little crazies are having a fun morning, darting about wearing Santa hats. I'll post some pictures later of them in the Santa hats and of the parade last night.