Mellykat's Blog!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

My Name Is Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Monday, November 26, 2007

Decked Some Halls

Saturday night was my coworker and friend Sandi's 14th Annual Christmas Decorating Party. Smart girl...she invites a bunch of people over to put up all her Christmas decorations (and she has a squillion of them, including her tree!) Then when all the work is done, and not a moment sooner, she fills us with snacks and gives us all presents to take home. Sweet deal. A definite win-win, and a good time was had by all.

For supper I had made a meatloaf and some baby potatoes and corn. I told Carter we were eating Ratatouille for supper. He was quite intrigued, yet barely ate when supper came around.

Chris had a guy stop by to look at his Bronco, and the guy came back and bought it this evening. The driveway looks so empty. I'm sure Chris is really going to miss it! In the meantime he's ready to get the other truck on the road; just needs a safety and to register it.

Yesterday Carter decided to poop ON THE TOILET. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeehawwwwwwwwwww!It's about freaking time. I was getting so tired of (1) fighting with him (2) pleading with him (3) trying not to push him too hard so that he wouldn't avoid it just to be a rebel. Well, my patience paid off. He actually pooped a bit TWICE. He likes the reward option. He tried again a third time but was unproductive. As an added incentive, I told him he's allowed to say the word 'TURD' but only at home when he poops. Yeah, lame but he really giggled when he said it. And as another bonus I told him that if he has a clean, dry pull-up in the morning he gets another reward. Hasn't happened yet but he'll learn that trick soon enough. I think he was proud of himself with how proud of him that I was!

Today was a busy crazy day. I ran errands at each break and all through lunch hour. Our babysitter's son didn't go to school today, so I also needed to pick Carter up from school and take him back to her house and go back to work.

After work I zoomed home with the boys and served them lasagne and cheesy garlic breadsticks for supper. Chris came home and showered and Kelly picked me up for Bingo. The guy came to pick up the truck. We (ever so sadly) didn't win a thing at Bingo. We really had high hopes. But as per usual, we still had a good time.

I have had a cough these past couple days. If it weren't for the Fisherman's Friend cough drops, I'd have to take Buckley's. Buckley's is my next stop if this nagging cough won't go away soon. I'm off to do a sudoku or two and hit the sack.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

I Have A Question

Why oh why do little children get up even earlier on Saturday mornings? I mean, there is no real set bedtime around here since the kids take random-length naps at the babysitter's house and therefore get tired at varying times, but why on a Saturday morning when **I** don't have to get up do they have to be up even earlier and so much more full of energy? Oh, and poop too. A perfectly unpleasant way to start the day...cleaning someone else's butt.

Okay, rant over. I've resigned myself to the fact that I have to put on my best Mommy face now and suck it up and deal. I didn't go to bed too late so I had a decent sleep.

Yesterday was an average day. After work Chris worked on the truck one last time and had great success with the brakes this time and is much relieved. Now he can take it for a safety certificate and get it on the road. Now it would be nice if he could sell the other truck. Anyone want to buy a 1987 Bronco?

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Bingo, Bingo, BINGO!

Oops I lost a day somewhere. Wednesday seems to have vanished from my mind. I grabbed A&W and came home for lunch. I took Carter to school. Picked up the boys...yada yada. A quiet evening at home.

This morning Kelly was my little coffee angel and brought me an FVC. I came home at lunch again and Chris was home. I took Carter to school and ran to Timmy's for a turkey sandwich and ran back to work.

When Kelly got back to the office late in the afternoon, I sort of jokingly suggested going to Bingo. (again...eek). For some reason I felt lucky. Must have been the itchy foot I had. I "talked her into going". I picked up the boys and came home and fed them and got ready to go to Bingo. I picked up Kelly and we were on our way.

We arrived early enough to play the early-bird games, and I won almost right away. Twenty-four bucks. Once the regular games started, I won again. It was a hundred dollar game but there was another winner with me, so we won fifty bucks. Next it was Kelly's turn, and she was the only winner of a hundred bucks. Totally fun. I'll have to pay attention to my feet in case they get itchy again and we'll have to high-tail it to Bingo. haaaaaaaaa. Our total to share was a hundred and seventy-four bucks. Suh-weet. Eighty-seven each. Tons of fun.

I came home and my eyes are really bugging me. I'm trying to do up some birthday invitations but the eyedrops aren't cutting it for me. I think I'll go put my sore eye to bed.

OH and Kelly gave me an early Christmas present. A Michael Bublé t-shirt from the Michael Bublé website. Hilarious. I was thinking of doing that for her for Christmas. I'll be sporting it tomorrow. Here it is: (the name is written in rhinestones)

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Slumberus Interruptus

Oh man. So I finally wound down and tried to do a sudoku puzzle before finally drifting off last night. I made it through one and a half hard puzzles before shutting off the light. Just as I was all snuggled down in my bed, Cooper got up. And was in my face. For the past couple/few weeks I've been going to bed early and for the most part everyone slept through the night. But on the one night in ages that I forced myself to stay awake late, the dude gets up.

Before I went to bed, Carter had coughed almost non-stop, or so it seemed. Before I went to bed, i put a pull-up on him and rubbed aroma cream (sort of a baby version of Vick's) on his feet and chest. After a few minutes I never heard him cough again for the rest of the night.

I scooped Cooper up into my bed but that was just not meant to work out. The dude turns sideways and wriggles all over plus he was coughing too. I put the cream on his chest and soles of his feet too and put him back in his own bed. He didn't want to go back to sleep and asked me for some milk. The kid is speaking in sentences. "Mommy more milk please". Love that. So I got him some milk and put on a movie to distract him back to sleep so I could go bury my face back in my nice squishy pillow.

That worked...until sometime around four-thirty. I don't remember who or what woke me that time; I'm not sure I reached full consciousness, but it was another sleep interruption, nonetheless. With just over an hour before the alarm would sound, I desperately tried to get back to sleep.

I ended up dragging my butt out of bed by six-thirty. I showered and coiffed and primped and preened. I fed the quasi-nocturnal children and we got out of the house with enough time for me to clean off the Jeep, drop them off and make it to work on time. No Timmy's run. I figured I'd make a green tea when I got to the office, when Tina, the sweet little coffee angel that she is, brought me a French vanilla cappuccino. Fabulous. Just what the sleep doctor ordered. Add the sweet, tender, delicious mini-muffins that Kathy brought in for coffee break and I would survive the morning for sure.

By lunchtime, with no plans aside from taking Carter to school, I darted home for a little nap. I think I slept about fifteen minutes before the microwave timer went off, and I took Carter to school. I bolted in to Safeway for a snack, some veggies and dip and went back to work. the afternoon went well too, and I was treated to yet another French vanilla cappuccino. Suh-weet. Everyone was so in tune with my caffeine/sugar needs today, at just the right times.

I picked up the boys after work and we waited for Chris to get off work. We stopped by KFC for their Toonie Tuesday meal deals and headed home to eat chicken and fries and gravy. We were out of pull-ups for Cooper and both kinds of milk, so I did a Wal-Mart run. $113.00. I picked up another "school outfit" for Carter, a couple little Christmas gifts, oh, and razors. I've been looking around the whole house for razors so I could at least do a quick pit shave and found a not-so-sharp one in Chris's bathroom downstairs. Fortunately I escaped serious injury in doing this, so it was a good reminder to buy new ones!

I came home and Chris went outside to work on the truck in the garage. I looked at the clock figuring it had to be around eight o'clock, but it was only six-thirty. All that running around had me a bit messed up. We practiced saying letters and numbers a little tonight; sometimes when I listen closely to Cooper while he's playing I hear him counting. Seriously. "Six, sebben". Too cute.

So, it's ten to ten, and both boys have just spontaneously crashed. I'm not sure if that's related to the cough medicine I gave them about a half an hour ago. I asked the pharmacist's advice at Wal-Mart because of all the hoo-haw about kids and cough medication going around these days. He recommended a Benylin brand and suggested that the aroma cream on the feet is a good bet too, since most cough meds will just prolong a cough.

Anyhoo, they're both passed out, and I'm not far behind. I'm looking forward to a delicious, full-night's (hopefully) sleep. Oh, and I edited the post from last night to add the pictures of my little frog Cooper and our snowman.

Yikes - It's Not Even Monday Anymore

Very full day: (it's after two in the morning so I'm going to shorthand this)

Fast morning at work
Quick lunch with Kelly at Tim Horton's
Took Carter to school
Fairly brief union meeting after work - Chris picked up the boys from the sitter
Ran home to change and get ready for Bingo
Kelly picked me up (and she found my sunglasses! Good to have them back so I can try to lose them again)
Went to Bingo...had many many close calls related to the special numbers that win extra money, but no go.
Actually won a game second to the end. There were four winners sharing a hundred bucks...Kelly and I split our winnings, so it wasn't much, but HEY, I got to yell Bingo!
Came home and was greeted by our ever-so-cute inflatable snowman on the lawn. I actually took a picture but I am way too tired to upload it from the camera; this post will be updated.

I came in and found sleeping boys strewn about the living room, including Cooper who looked like a little frog (took a picture of him too and will post tomorrow)

I worked on thank-you cards for a coworker and made a pretty pretty calendar cover for Kelly.
It's freaking late (or early I guess) so I must get some sleep because I have to get up extra early to wash and iron my hair in the morning.
I'm outta here...

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Santa...Are You Out There?

I'm just sitting on the couch half watching the American Music Awards and half reading blogs and catching up on scrapbooking news, when a deer goes scampering down my street. I quickly stood up and watched it go the length of our block and disappear out of sight. I scanned the rest of the street and the air in case I got to see Santa, but it must have just been a regular deer...

We went to Mom and Dad's house for supper tonight. The roads were bare and dry. But during the course of the three-ish hours that we were there, winter arrived and dumped about two and a half inches of snow on us. The roads on the way home...sucked. I've officially switched to winter driving and it's not as fun to go this slow, but of course it's way safer.

We came home and both boys fell asleep shortly after. The rest of the weekend involved my nursing a very sore neck and shoulder and fighting a rotten headache (I woke in great pain yesterday morning). I have a bit of a cold too so today was my first day getting out of the house since Friday after work. I started feeling much better this afternoon and it was good to get my face on and get out of the house.

Not to mention a stellar supper at Mom and Dad's house. We visited for awhile after supper then trekked out in the snow and came home. I must have really caught up on my sleep this weekend, since it's almost ten and I'm still wide awake. I'm going to try to stay up and work on a couple projects. We'll see how long that lasts...

Friday, November 16, 2007

Mussssssssst Sleeeeeeeep

Oh man. It's not even ten and I'm fighting to stay awake. For some reason, after everyone else is asleep, I'm sitting here half-watching Ratatouille and half trying to make a calendar on the computer and about half of each of those halves is falling asleep.

Today was a good day; I was tired and started out with a nasty headache (thanks to Aunt Flo the rotten little troll). After breakfast and a piping hot French Vanilla Cappuccino and some Tylenol, I started to feel better. I got a call from Loretta telling me that the stationery store downtown had their big clearance sale on. So I took an early coffee break and I bought all the Epson cartridges for my printer that they had. I picked up two three-packs of my coloured ink, one high-capacity black cartridge, and eleven other individual colour cartridges for seventy bucks. Seriously. I can't even get the black and colour cartridges for one round for that price. I saved over three hundred dollars. Now I can print away to my heart's content. I just have to pray that my printer lasts as long as the ink does!

It was a quiet day at the office. No clinics running. Barely any foot traffic coming in and fewer calls than usual. It was a really good catch-up day.

Kelly and I did a quick marathon at lunch. First we ran to Wal-Mart where she and I grabbed a few groceries and I picked up pictures. I grabbed Chris lunch from McDonald's there and we ran it over to him. We stopped to drop her groceries at home then took Carter to school. We still had a few minutes to spare so we ran to Safeway to grab a drink and a snack and headed back to the office. I munched on some veggies and dip and the rest of the afternoon went quickly. (Oh...let's clarify...by "ran" I mean drove...it wasn't *that* kind of marathon!)

I picked up the boys and we came home. I brought a long narrow box home from the office for the boys to play in. That sucker entertained them for a few hours. I was expecting to get maybe five minutes out of it. After they stomped on it too much for it to be a tunnel anymore, Carter was kind of standing in it saying he wanted to be a robot. I cut the box to make two pieces and cut armholes for Carter to stick his arms through. I gave him a marker and he drew on the box while I made another robot for Cooper. I drew a robot on the front of it and he had no interest in wearing it but still played around with it a bit.

Carter was asleep by eight and Cooper followed about an hour later, with Chris zonking on the couch somewhere in between. And that brings me back to being the only one up, fighting to stay awake myself. I'd better get a good night's sleep 'cause these boys get up mighty early and get into stuff if they get up before I do. Scary.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

::Yawn:: Is it Friday Yet?

It's not even ten-thirty yet...normally I would be just getting into the groove to get some computer stuff done. But I'm beat. Last night I was toast by nine-thirty. We had a really quiet evening.

Today was another really quick one at work; we held another flu clinic and with so many people coming and going and the calls still coming in like crazy, it makes for a quick day. Kelly and I had a quick lunch at Subway before taking Carter to school.

I picked up the boys from the sitter and we came home. As soon as Chris got home I ran to Wal-Mart to buy some fifty-three-dollar spaghetti. Yikes. Of course we also needed milk and mittens for the boys and I found a pair of pants for Carter for five bucks. Couldn't pass up on that deal.

I came home and finished thawing the second container of spaghetti sauce that Cindy gave us a couple weeks ago. It was so awesome. I had picked up some garlic cheese sticks too, and they turned out alright. The boys barely ate.

After supper we watched part of Earl and CSI and ER. I'm ticked off with the ER writers so far this season with what they're doing to Abby. The girl can't catch a break!

Speaking of breaks, I need to go take a sleep-break. Mellykat ouuuuuut.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Remembrance

This morning I managed to remember that I had to go back to work. I showered and readied myself and the boys and made it to the sitter on time.

The morning went by like the blink of an eye. Seriously. I had seventeen voicemails to retrieve, which took about five tries since the phone was ringing nonstop. The call volume extra heavy Donna was out at the dentist for about the first hours or so. Plus we had a flu clinic running so we were very busy!

I brought lunch to Chris from Dairy Queen and he managed to squeeze in a minute to dine with me in the Jeep. I remembered to pick up Carter and take him to school. (Yay me!)

The afternoon went almost as quickly as the morning did. I remembered to go pick up the boys and we stopped by Chris's work then came home. I had big plans of making a pork tenderloin; I received my Victorian Epicure order this afternoon so I have a new supply of my favourite Beef & Steak Rub and the Three-Onion Dip Mix. The beef and steak rub makes an amazing marinade and I use the three-onion stuff for so many things, like the scrambled eggs we had for supper yesterday. Yumm.

However, I never ended up cooking anything. Chris was on a hunt for some truck parts and had a brush with fame at Canadian Tire. He bumped right into Lukas Rossi from Rockstar Supernova in the automotive department. He didn't know his name but definitely recognized him from TV. I only watched Rockstar INXS so I'd have had pretty much no clue who the guy was. Anyhoo, by the time Chris got home I had fed the boys snacks and sandwiches. I had some banana loaf for supper and just awhile ago had a bowl of cereal. Weird.

I finished up a couple projects tonight; a Christmas letter for my friend's Dad and some thank you cards for a coworker. Chris's Dad stopped by for a visit. All that and I'm off to bed before midnight with about fifteen minutes to spare, as long as I don't remember something else!

Monday, November 12, 2007

Blog Fodder

Not unlike my friend Angie's blog post today, this post could have one of many titles:

What Happens When Your Kid Wakes Up First
Some Haircut Customers Are More Willing Than Others
The Scrapping Mojo Hits
Just Because the Office Is Closed Doesn't Mean Your Kid Doesn't Have School
How to Freak Out a Telemarketer in One Easy Step

First of all, this is what I woke up to:

He was so darned proud of himself for putting on his Halloween make-up. At least that's the impression I got from what he said. I fed the boys breakfast and we hung out. I managed to occupy them throughout the morning without their requesting to watch Ratatouille again. I mean, it's a cute movie but there's so much other stuff they can do. Y'know, like draw all over themselves. Fortunately it wasn't a Sharpie marker and it came off nicely in the tub later on.

I actually vacuumed the living room including getting out the crevice tool and cleaning between all the couch cushions. There was plenty of popcorn down there, along with a bunch of bits of paper from my various projects and a long-lost sock.

I keep asking the kids lately if they want Mommy to cut their hair. The answer is usually NO but it has to happen sometime. Today Carter was a willing participant. Perhaps it was the bribery; I'm not sure. But he sat so angelically. Cooper is NOT interested in the clippers or in getting his hair cut. He was a little intrigued by the vacuum, though, and kept grabbing the hose and making whooshing noises. Way cute.

I actually got a little scrapping done this morning too. Most of these I had started but put aside and now finally have finished them. The first and fourth are from the NDISB collab kit called Bedtime Stories. The second is from LaWanna Desjardin's Bittersweet Autumn kit, available at Scrapbook-Bytes. The third is from LaWanna's Wine Country kit, with pictures of Jill's son Carter.




I got a call from Carter's school at two o'clock. Wondering why Carter wasn't there. OOOOOOOOPS. Oh my God. I'm not sure which is worse...forgetting to pick him up last week or forgetting to take him to school AT ALL today. I was in day-off-mode and the thought never crossed my mind once that it was still a school day. If only they'd called sooner, I'd have run him up to the school, but there was only an hour left by the time they called. Good thing he wasn't MISSING or something! Let's hope I remember to take him tomorrow. ::Sigh::

I received a call from the Canadian Deaf Sports Association, or something with a similar title if that wasn't it. They called very recently, perhaps a month or two ago, asking for a donation, and I politely declined and said perhaps another time would be more convenient for me. So today, the friendly guy on the phone identified himself as Ron, and I told him I had already recently received a call and that it wasn't a good time for me to make a donation but perhaps in the future...cut to about two hours later...ol' Ron calls again. I recognized the phone number and the same perky voice and I said, "Is this Ron?" LONG PAUSE. Freaked the guy right out. He had no idea we had already spoken. Somehow my name must have made it to the top of the call list again instead of the distant-future-(please) call list. I told him I was going to add that to my list of ways to freak out telemarketers.

Reminds me of a time that an unnamed religious group came to our house when I was little. My mom told them she was not interested, and without incident, they left. A couple hours later Mom was at her friend's house for coffee and the SAME individuals came to her friend's door. Her friend wasn't interested either, so Mom went to the door and said, "I thought I told you I wasn't interested!" Hilarious. Freaked them out I bet!

Anyway, not even a couple hours after Ron's second call, I got another call from the same number. It was a different dude, and I had to explain to him that I'd spoken to his colleague Ron twice earlier and to please put my name on the distant future call list; not the call again later call list. Hope they get it this time!

Chris came home and wasn't feeling well. His sinuses are all wonky. He showered and took some meds and I made some breakfast for supper. Cheesy scrambled eggs and toasty-brown hash browns. Carter and Cooper did a real number on it; I was duly impressed. Just before supper Dad picked up the Ratatouille movie to watch tonight; fortunately Carter only asked for a movie once, and when I explained Grandpa had Ratatouille, he said he wanted to watch Toy Story.

At some point in the day I actually took the time to dye my hair. I blew it dry quickly and will have a shower in the morning and do all the requisite hair ironing then. Right now there are clothes in the dryer so we'll all have something to wear tomorrow.

Now everyone's asleep and I'm starting to get a little sleepy too, and it's just past nine thirty. I'm going to try to finish up a couple projects then I'm off to bed.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Back to My Roots

Well, actually my roots are back.

Today was a particularly lazy day. Chris worked outside on the truck for awhile. Cooper napped briefly (on my arm) and when I eventually tried to get up to go nap too, he woke up.

I had a quick bath (with two bubble stealers) then I narrowly escaped the tub with dry hair and let them cavort for awhile. The boys' splashing and punching each other got to be a bit much so I pulled the plug. Boy, was Carter maaaaaaaaaaaad. He screamed and sulked until he fell asleep on the living room floor, right before we were getting ready to go to Mom and Dad's for supper.

I got him dressed while he slept and even when Chris sat him up to put his coat on he was still sleeping. He eventually woke up and walked out to the Jeep.

We had an awesome awesome supper. Two different roasts (I believe one was beef and the other was venison). Both were delicious, along with the mashed potatoes and gravy and salad and veggies. Mom made blueberry and apple pies, neither of which I had room for.

We played a couple games of Sequence and visited before everyone headed out. Of course I had to be home in time to watch Desperate Housewives. I actually watched Brothers and Sisters too; this one I've watched a bit of off and on and it was an excellent episode. I love how the family all comes together in a crisis just like ours does.

The boys actually behaved quite peacefully while I watched my show, and they watched a few minutes of Ratatouille in their room before they fell asleep. I just remembered again awhile ago that I'm off tomorrow. I had the option of taking the kids to the sitter but I felt a little guilty since I have the day off so we're staying home but Chris has to work.

So I was going to dye my hair before going to bed, but now I have all day to do it tomorrow! (I'm betting I'll be doing it at this time tomorrow night).

Lest We Forget

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Get Busy Blogging or Get Busy Sleeping

Dangit I'm slacking off in the blogging department again. I've thought about blogging all week but the call of my pillow is louder than the call of the blog. I've gone to bed early most of the week. I've worked on a couple cool projects: Wedding invitations, reply cards and envelopes, posters for curling bonspiels and some thank you cards. Which means I haven't done any scrapbooking.

Monday night Mom and Kelly and I went to Bingo. No winnings. Ugh. Tuesday Kelly brought to my desk this EXQUISITE cheesecake pie:


It wasn't even a drive-by; she walked it over. I put a HUGE post-it note on it stating that it was MY cheesecake and DON'T TOUCH. Thankfully everyone heeded my warning and it was completely intact when I brought it home. We had a couple office birthdays this week, so there was no shortage of cake for everyone.

Chris worked on his truck most evenings this week. Since the time change last weekend Carter had a couple REALLY early bedtimes. Early as in six-thirty! I tried so hard to wake him but he was very unconscious. He woke briefly around nine-thirty but went right back to sleep for the night. The only problem with the earlier bedtimes (I got him to stay up 'til at least 8 the rest of the week) is the early rising in the morning. So early that Chris has had to deal with them a bit in the morning. Tee hee. I can hear what's going on but I try to get a little more sleep. Then when Chris leaves I pretty much have to get out of bed because the little turkeys work together to get into stuff.

One morning Carter had moved his recliner over to the entertainment unit and grabbed the candy bowl leftover from Halloween. There were a few wrappers strewn about and they both had a sucker in each hand. Yikes. So I've had some early mornings this week. One day I actually walked the boys to the sitter's house in the stroller. It's not easy pushing seventy pounds' worth of children in that thing anymore. The tires could use some air too. I ended up walking home to pick up the Jeep and driving to Tim Horton's before going to work.

Thursday evening Chris actually spent most of in the house. I made a nice supper of stuffed pork tenderloin, corn and long grain and wild rice. For dessert we finished off the cheesecake pie; I had been hoarding it but we finished it.

Last night Kelly had a Bingo date with a bunch of girls and I ended up joining them. We were having a great time as usual, though apparently our laughter was annoying some of the other Bingo players, who were rudely shushing us and muttering phrases like shut up. If they had nicely asked us to keep it down I totally would have respected that and kept it to a dull roar but since they were rude I was just miffed. It was like we were being admonished for having fun. Hmph. Despite all the fun we didn't win anything, but it was close so many times.

Today was a fun quiet day with the boys. I bought the movie Ratatouille the other night and we watched it a couple times. Cute movie. Chris worked until noon then came home and I took off downtown. I picked up some cardstock to finish off the wedding project for Kelly's niece I was working on. It's all done, and very pretty. I did a run for a FVC on the way home, which took longer to wait in the drive-thru than it did to go to the stationery store.

I came home and Chris went outside to the garage to work on the truck again. He came in by supper time and was totally filthy and he needed to go back out to finish up but he really needed to go to the bathroom. Since he was so dirty he didn't want to 'handle' himself, so he asked for my help. Obviously I don't own a penis, which made the situation hilarious, but I managed to help without making a mess. I know...TOO MUCH INFORMATION...but it was so very funny.


After Chris finished working on the truck and got himself all cleaned up, we had pizza for supper...a Chicken Italiano pizza from Pizza Hut. It was awesome, aside from the green peppers I picked off. We had Caesar salad too. Good stuff.

We had a fun evening; Chris and the boys wrestled and we all watched Ratatouille AGAIN. I was going to give it to Carter for Christmas but I don't think I'll be able to hide it now since it's become so popular around here.

Everyone fell asleep awhile ago, and I was playing around in Photoshop and I made these glass gems. It's been a forever since I made a new freebie, so here we go! There are nine gems, each in a separate PNG file.

Just click the image to start the download and ENJOY!

Labels: ,

Sunday, November 04, 2007

The Incredible Vanishing Weekend!

Friday was a good day. A few of us girls from the office went downtown for lunch. To the same place as Thursday. So I got to fulfill my craving for the taco fries. Yum!

Friday evening was a quiet one. I made ham and perogies for supper and the boys seemed to dig it. They were both asleep at a decent time and so was I. I went to bed by nine-thirty. I must be seriously catching up on some sleep.

Yesterday I tried to stay in bed as long as possible, but the boys got up before I did. I came out to the living room to find both of them with a sucker in each hand and some assorted candy wrappers strewn about. And Carter's little recliner chair had been relocated next to the entertainment stand, where there had been a bowl of candy leftover from Halloween. It's amazing how well they get along and work together when they're up to something sneaky and/or BAD. After their breakfast of champions, I fed them toast and milk. I did a quick little marathon swish and swipe throughout the house and tidied the kitchen since Seija and Ian were coming for supper.

I was going to make a traditional Cedar Point Lodge meal but just before I went grocery shopping I opted to make Angie's Creamy Chicken Enchiladas. Good choice. I quickly phoned Angie before I left for the store to ask her what she usually has with it. She suggested making a corn and black bean salsa which for some reason unbeknownst to me sounded like something I wouldn't like. I didn't rule it out completely though, but when I found the salsa salad kit I went for it. It's one of those premade salad kits and this one comes with a little packet of tortilla chip strips, a little packet of grated cheese, a salsa'n'sour cream dressing packet and one more packet with salsa. I bought two packs. I also did buy some salsa and some tortilla chips to munch on.

I came home and snuck in a little rest. I won't say nap since it wasn't naptime for the boys any longer. I might have lightly dozed a couple times. I got up and started preparing supper. Seija and Ian arrived just as I was putting the final touches on the enchiladas...the grated cheese and the heavy cream. Seija had read about this sinfully good meal on my blog and was curious to try it. When they arrived I advised them to check any lactose or other dairy issues at the door. We visited while the enchiladas baked and I tossed the salad.

When we sat down to eat, Chris grabbed the new jug of salsa that I had picked up. Apparently I can't read sometimes, because I accidentally bought southwestern salsa. I only have ever had regular salsa. When I read the label, it indicated the ingredients were corn and black beans. How ironic. I tried a bit and it was fine. Chris loved it. And my guests liked the meal; everyone was full before we even tore into Seija's delicious key lime pie. A nice, cool and light dessert.

We visited for awhile watching hockey, then opted to put on the movie Transformers. The special effects were fabulous; it made for an ass-kicking thrill ride. My favourite thing of course was when the robots would transform. You can't NOT think that part is cool. After Seija and Ian left I watched a little bit of MAD TV and Saturday Night Live but I was sleepy and crashed shortly after.

This morning I tried so hard to stay in bed. With turning the clocks back an hour because of Daylight Savings Time, the boys were up really early. At nine I got a call from a friend whose house I was supposed to be at to help her with her computer. Ooooooooops. I totally forgot, and felt terribly about it! I quickly dressed and brushed my hair and put on a bit of makeup and ran out the door with Cooper. Chris was going out to work on his truck and he dressed Carter in warm clothes and took him out with him.

I helped with a few software issues and her daughter was awesome helping wrangle Cooper while I was there. We even left to get a couple discs in town and Cooper was fine with her while we were gone. Cooper fell asleep on the way home and I put him in his bed. Carter was asleep on the couch, so I went to try for a nap. Not really because I was tired but because both boys were asleep simultaneously! I dozed for almost an hour before I heard the boys stomping around.

For supper we had awesomely delicious spaghetti, thanks to Cindy who brought us two big barrels of sauce they had leftover. The boys didn't eat an impressive amount, but I did. Two plates' worth.

After supper we watched Mr. Brooks, starring Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore and Dane Cook. It was pretty bizarre but interesting. The boys cooperated when I told them it was a grown-up movie and stayed in their room for the most part. However, they were up to no good for a large part of that time and I had to keep going in to stop them from jumping on the beds and chucking toys all over. At one point they seemingly had a SPITTING contest with their milk. Onto each other. Cooper came out to the living room and his hair was soaked. Gross. I yelled and took away the milk and gave Cooper a swish and swipe. I was mostly ticked that there was milk spat all over the duvet I just took to the laundromat last week. Oh well. That one can fit in our washing machine if necessary.

The movie was still on when Desperate Housewives started, but I didn't stop the movie as I had planned to. I was really curious to see how it would end. I missed about fifteen minutes of Desperate Housewives but I actually survived. I'm trying to stay awake to catch the beginning of it at ten o'clock but I don't think I'm going to make it. I really want to get some scrapping done but I'm going to need to drink some caffeine if I ever plan on staying up past nine these days! And I'd bet my bottom dollar that those boys of mine will be up good'n'early because of the time change!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Halloween Hangover

I. Am. Tired.

I was asleep, yes, asleep, not just in bed...by ten o'clock last night. Cooper woke up coughing in the middle of the night and I didn't sleep great or very much after that. I took the boys to Alana's this morning and went to work. The first flu clinic was today, plus a couple other regularly scheduled clinics within the office so there was plenty of activity around there. Plus I received the supply order I sent in for yesterday and had tons of stuff to put away. It was a great, quick morning.

I met up with Mom and Aunties Lurdes and Maggie for lunch at the Chinese restaurant downtown. When I arrived, Mom and Auntie Lurdes already had their food and I was hungry and torn between ordering one of either of their meals. I opted for the shrimp with mixed vegetables that Auntie Lurdes was eating. Mom had the taco fries. I'm definitely going to have them next time. The shrimp dish was amazing; more shrimp than anywhere in any meal ever. I ate as much as I possibly could then took the leftovers to Chris for lunch and there were still so many shrimp left it was awesome. We all read our fortunes in the cookies and I took them so we can get lottery tickets together. Mom bought my lunch (thanks again, Mommy) and I bolted to take Carter to school.

I got a call from Carter's teacher just after three-thirty saying no one was there to walk him home. Uh...DUH...because I was supposed to go get him on my coffee break, which I didn't take this afternoon. Alana's son had stayed home from school so he wasn't there to walk Carter home. I had said, oh, no problem...I'll just duck out for a minute to get him. Well, I had forgotten about that before I even got to work. Fortunately, Dominic and Noah were there and were able to walk him to Alana's house. Cindy picked them all up on their way and dropped Carter off for me. Lucky me. Alana called tonight to say her son would be staying home again tomorrow to give me enough notice so (1) I would remember, and (2) so I could see if my nephews could walk with him tomorrow. It's all a go so I shouldn't have any embarrassing moments of forgetting to pick up my son again!

We had an easy-peasy supper tonight; fish'n'chips. The boys didn't eat much; therefore there were no Halloween treats to be had. I decided they can take one treat to Alana's house for during the day, and they can have one after supper if they eat a decent meal. Hopefully I will stick to my guns. We'll see.

I watched most of ER and a bit of Earl while I did a couple things on the computer including my new blog header and background. Now it's elevenish and I am in need of more sleep. I can hear Cooper coughing again so I hope he has a good night. Usually whenever I'm finally ready for bed someone else is about to get up and party...