Happy Leap Day!

And Thank God It's Friday!

Well, the boys are still feeling a bit icky; I have given them medicine a couple more times yesterday and this morning. But the clinic called, and we actually have an appointment with our family doctor this morning! The appointment is actually for Cooper because of his worsening reactions to dairy, but I'm certainly hoping he'll check him out for whatever is going on with these fevers! I don't want to push it but I think I'll bring Carter along too in case he could do a throat swab or something. We'll see.

Yesterday was a good day at the office. A couple of us had a nice lunch out before I had to run and take Carter to school. After work I went to Mom and Dad's to bring Mom her glasses she left in Kelly's truck on Bingo night. I came home and Chris beat us home. He was shoveling a bit of snow and ice out of the garage so I couldn't pull in the Jeep. I asked him if he could pull it inside after. (I'm going somewhere with this). I fed the boys and Chris had a couple coworkers over in the evening for a visit. Carter fell asleep watching Ratatouille and Cooper fell asleep across my lap.

I can't remember what time I went to bed but it was early compared to my usual. I should have blogged last night. There was nothing good on TV; they'd better hurry up and write some new stuff after that writer's strike before I call and cancel my cable subscription (except of course for the internet part!)

I got up this morning and everything is covered with a brand new blanket (two inches or so) of snow. Including the Jeep. Chris never got around to putting it back in the garage (and he was outside several times throughout the evening!!!) I left him a note at five this morning on the whiteboard asking him if he could drive the Jeep in the garage. That's when Cooper got up; his usual time for his first morning visit. Thankfully both boys went back to sleep.

Chris got up and ready for work and brushed off both vehicles and put the Jeep in the garage for me. (Thank you!) I've basically just lightly dozed since then. I lost count of how many times I pressed the snooze button. It should be a good busy day since it's month-end. Well, I'm feeling good and I'm ready to face the day. It is Friday, afterall!

Won't You Take Me to...ShantyTown!

After work I picked up the boys and ran home to change. I took the boys to Mom and Dad's and Chris followed after he went home for a shower after work. We had an awesome roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, French-style green beans, salad and fresh buns. The boys nibbled a little; they were still feverish off and on all day. The sitter gave Carter (Hotty Hottinhead) some more Tylenol near the end of the day.

On my way to Mom and Dad's I talked to Kelly and she was game to join us for Bingo. She was just on her way back from a work trip. Chris drove us to the highway and Kelly picked us up and took us to Bingo. As always we had fun, but Mom won a Bingo, which was a bonus. However, being the gracious person she is, she had to share it with three other winners. She paid her way there with it, nonetheless.

Kelly dropped us off at the corner again and Dad picked us up. Chris had taken the boys home a couple hours earlier, and since he needed the car seats in the Jeep, he left me his truck. Which I have never even sat in before, not even as a passenger. I ran in for a potty break then went out to the truck. Dad had started it for me and I jumped in and left. I have no problem driving a standard vehicle, though it is very rare. I learned on standard. But with that and being in a vehicle I'd never driven before, I was a bit apprehensive.

I managed to find the headlights and had absolutely no trouble shifting the gears with the 8-Ball gear shifter. I drove across the lake and up the ramp on the other side, not stalling or faltering even once. Kelly was waiting for me on the other side to make sure I made it. (Thanks Kelly!) I was pumped to have green lights all the way, and pulled in the driveway feeling like I accomplished something. Silly me. Kinda like riding a bike, I guess.

I came in and all three boys were asleep in the living room. Carter is hotter than an oven and Cooper just woke up but I put him in his bed. If these fevers don't settle by tomorrow we're headed for the doctor for some tests.

Well, that's about it for me today, but not until I share a picture of all the ice shacks on the ice road. Yes, I actually took a picture today AND I'm posting it! I gotta wash my hair in the morning so that means I have to get up a bit earlier. I'm outta here!

Shantytown!

For my southern friends, this is a picture of the lake. You can see the main road where the cars drive, along with all the snowmobile trails, and plenty of ice shacks making it look like a little shantytown or perhaps a scene from 'Grumpy Old Men'. There are at least four feet of ice to drive on. Mom and Dad's place isn't far from the other side of the ice road.

You Give Me Fever

Well, not ME, but both boys have been feverish since yesterday afternoon. (See I'm trying to emulate Angie's song-bloggingness.) I made yummy homemade chicken fingers for supper and roasted potatoes and corn. They ate a bit. I ate a lot; the usual story.

The night before (Monday), Chris went fishing after work and I zoomed the boys out to Mom & Dad's so I could go to a work meeting. The meeting was surprisingly less than an hour and I managed to get back to Mom and Dad's and have supper before they were all done. I stopped to say Hi to Chris on the way back from Mom and Dad's (he was fishing in an ice shack on the ice road; pictures to follow if I take any today on my way there).

Carter had fallen asleep after supper and Cooper was sleepy by the time we got home. I guess they were already feeling a bit out of sorts with whatever bug they now have. So we three were sleeping by the time Chris got back from fishing.

This morning they were both still feverish but in high spirits. Chris had given Carter some Motrin when he got up and I gave Cooper some Tylenol before we left for the sitter. We were completely out of soy milk by this morning and I did a quick Wal-Mart run on the way to pick some up. You know you get to Wal-Mart early when the employees are still doing their Wal-Mart happy dance! I quickly grabbed milk and some juice and bolted outta there and took the boys to the sitter. I took Kirk (sitter's son) to school and made it to work with time to spare to plug in the Jeep and beat the Purolator guy there.

Last night we watched THEEE SINGLE MOST DISTURBING MOVIE I have ever (partly) seen. It's called The Girl Next Door. Set in the late 1950s; a terrible based-on-a-true-story movie that was about a young girl getting tortured by her hideously horrible aunt. I kept saying I couldn't watch anymore. I thought it might get better but it got worse. I finally left the room; feeling ILL. Chris shut it off and I told him I needed to watch something funny immediately or I wouldn't be able to sleep. I'd have been able to handle any horrible ridiculous slasher movie over this one; perhaps because this was based on something real. Anyway, I don't know what happens at the end; but it couldn't possibly have a happy ending. I felt awful after watching The Accused with Jodie Foster years ago, but this one was wayyyyyyyyy worse.

Anyhoo, we're having supper with Mom and Dad tonight then Mom and I are going to Bingo. Perhaps I'll post more later; but...ummm...I'm totally a failure in the photo-a-day process. Ugh. I'll try to take one later today!

I Melt With You!

Plenty to remember, since I've been too lazy and/or sleepy to blog these days.

Thursday was Carter's 100th day of school. His shirt was, in my opinion, the coolest. But there was one boy wearing a fishing hat with 100 lures on it. That was very original and pretty cool too. I was super tired Thursday night; too tired to dye my hair, which was getting noticeably grayer.

So, somehow on Friday morning, I managed to get up before six and dye my hair, check my email, have a bath, shave my legs, have a shower, dry and iron my hair, put on my face, get the boys bathed, fed and dressed, picked up a coworker and got to work with a few minutes to spare.

It was a good day at the office; a pretty busy one for a Friday. When Chris got home I started making quesadillas for supper. I tried to make one for the boys with very little cheese so it wouldn't bother Cooper. I had talked to Mom and she called after supper to ask if we were still planning to go out for a visit. I'm not really sure if she really wanted to see us, or it was her ulterior motive (and ice cream craving) speaking...(kidding, Mom). We packed up the boys and headed to Safeway to pick up Mom's Haagen-Dazs ice cream. We picked up four movies at the video store and headed out.

First we watched Martian Child, (starring both John and Joan Cusack), which came recommended by my friend Beth. It was a sweet movie. Next we watched No Reservations with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhardt. He was yummy in this movie, and with his hair the way it was, he was a bit Jon-Bon-Jovi-ish. A sweet, romantic movie. By this time it was nearly midnight, so we packed up our sleepy boys and headed home, since Chris had to work Saturday morning.

After Chris got home from work on Saturday, we bundled up the boys to play outside. It was finally nice enough out for the boys to go out and play! Things even started to melt a bit! I got ready to go out to a baby shower for a coworker. We all contributed to an office group gift, but I also made her a pretend gift certificate for baby announcements that I'll make for her. We all had a lovely visit and many delicious snacks.

I came home and the boys snacked on the leftovers I brought home. We started watching The Nanny Diaries, but we weren't in the mood for it and switched to The Game Plan. Carter fell asleep first, and I went to cuddle Cooper to sleep. We'd run out of soy milk and I was too tired to go out to the store, so I gave Cooper a bit of juice. He eventually went to sleep and I dozed off and on during the process.

This morning I had a crappy headache. The boys had each gotten me up a couple times in the night, and Chris graciously let me enjoy a bit more time trying to get back to sleep. I got up and dressed and put on my running shoes. I was planning for a fly-lady day. Chris did a Tim Horton's run before he left to go fishing. I shone the kitchen sink for starters, emptied and filled the dishwasher, FOUND the kitchen counter, (!!!) cleaned off the top of the TV stand (this was a project and a half!), and a few other minor projects, all the while chatting off and on with Jill. Jill gave me a gift certificate to buy these: (and I actually started a scrapbook page using them!) Thanks again Jill!
Chris came home from fishing and I did a run to McDonald's for a few burgers and fries. We sort of watched the Oscars and both boys fell asleep surprisingly early. So not surprisingly, Carter was up again just awhile ago. Now it's nearly eleven and he's up watching TV eating some cheese strings. We had a pretty fun day and now the weekend is just about done.

And just think...daylight savings time starts in just two weeks! The days are getting longer and spring will be here soon! Something to look forward to! Oh yeah and I changed my blog header again since St. Patty's Day is coming soon. Somewhere along the way I'll be digging out my Easter blog header too; since St. Patty's and Good Friday are only four days apart this year!

Carter's 100th Day of School

For Carter's 100th day of school tomorrow, each student is to bring a shirt or hat decorated with 100 things on it to wear to class. So being the geek that I am, I opted for a quasi-scrapbooking project. I had taken a picture of Carter at school today, and all afternoon I tossed around ideas for what to choose for his 100 things. Paperclips? Stickers? Nah. How about a hundred pictures of himself!!!

Here is the picture I took of him: (I looooooove it!)

Below are the pictures of the project in the making. I put two-sided-sticky-pop-dots on the backs of the pictures and Carter started sticking them on the shirt. It was getting really close to his bedtime but he kept helping put them on the shirt, or at least helping clean up the little backings from the pop dot stickers. He used the little Shark vacuum I got Chris for Christmas. Once all the dots were on we did a test fitting and didn't lose a single picture.

So I'll bring the shirt to his class tomorrow and put it on him there. Then if the pictures fall off after that it's okay. They also each have to bring 100 of something to eat, such as marshmallows or chocolate chips or something to make a "100-Day Trail Mix". Fortunately I had a bag of chocolate chips in the freezer and I donned my vinyl gloves and counted out a hundred. By this time Carter was done counting. But it is SOOOOOO cool to see my little dude count all the way to a hundred! Oh, and by the way, one hundred chocolate chips in a snack-size Ziploc bag I could eat in about two bites. I was tempted to bring at least six more bags but I'll adhere to the original plan.

Here are the pictures of the project in the making and the test fitting:
It was a fun project; it will be fun to see Carter wear his shirt into the classroom tomorrow. They're supposed to be having a sliding party this week but the weather is still so dang cold. They've already postponed it once. We'll see.

Well, I'm about toast too, so I'm going to wrap this up and head for bed. Oh yeah...we sort of watched the lunar eclipse tonight. Fortunately we could watch the whole thing from our bedroom window. Cooper was really keeping tabs on its progress.

Seriously Blogworthy Food

It was hard to get up and out of bed this morning after the long weekend. But I managed to get two kids dressed and fed and ready and to the sitter...and myself to work.

It was a CRAZY busy day. Mondays are usually my busiest day at the office, but the Tuesdays after a long weekend? Nutty. I managed to dart in to the coffee room to grab a yummy piece of chocolate pudding (birthday) cake for a coworker's birthday and ate it at my desk. YUM.

Next thing I knew it was lunchtime. Kelly was working at the office across the way from mine and we got together with her friend Shawna for Chinese buffet for lunch. That was good stuff too. I had two plates, since they were out of fried rice and mixed vegetables on my first trip.

I took Carter to school and ran a couple quick work errands before I went back to work. Busy-ness ensued once again and it made for a lightning-fast afternoon. I picked up the boys and came home. Cindy had dropped off some leftovers from her supper yesterday for us to have for supper.

When Chris got home I took Carter to the grocery store so I could pick up salad stuff and garlic bread to go with the Linguine Pescatore. Eighty bucks later I also had stuff to make quesadillas tomorrow and some healthy school snacks for Carter and some pull-ups and other foody things.

I came home and reheated the pasta and baked the garlic bread. OMGTHISSTUFFWASSOFREAKINGGOOD! We ate every little noodle and shrimp and drop of sauce that was in the (large) ziploc container. The boys ate mostly bread but I managed to get them to eat a couple noodles and shrimp. Carter was transfixed with buying a pineapple at the grocery store so I sliced it up and we all ate the whole thing for dessert. It was sweet and delicious (I'd never bought a whole pineapple before; I picked a real gooder!) My tongue was killing me. The acidity gave me instant little bumps on my tongue but I still kept eating. The sting subsided quickly; any discomfort from it was very worthwhile. It was delicious!

After supper we all played a hilarious game of hide and seek. I always try to contort myself (I am NOT very flexible but I do try my best to compact my body into a small, unusual space so the kids (and Chris) have a hard time finding me.) One was my closet, which has a dresser IN it; I squeezed in beside the dresser and crouched down as far as I could, covering myself with a pillow. My next spot was under the kids' little picnic table in the dining room. (The table they were sitting at in the Knock-Knock video I posted the other day). I was a bit wedged in and stuck but again, it was worth it for the entertainment value and chuckle I got from the kids and Chris. Carter's reaction was to climb ON the table, causing me a little extra discomfort, and I had to enlist Chris's help to get out. Fun stuff. Plenty of laughs.

The boys started to wind down and we were watching TV. I put Shark Tale on in their room and Carter is still up but Cooper surprisingly went to sleep just before nine. I watched the last few minutes of American Idol. I have hardly watched ANYTHING on TV lately. Just movies or kids' shows or kids' movies. We're starting to rethink our cable subscription and might decrease our channel packages. We basically just need the basic networks, along with TLC and Treehouse. That would pretty much cover our TV-watching needs.

Well, I'm off to watch a bit of TV since everyone else is asleep and I have the remote!

This Week's Gonna Fly

Well, that was our first 'Family Day' statutory holiday. We had a quiet family day at home. The highlight of the weekend for the boys was the punch-balloons I bought. No, I didn't take any pictures but I ought to. They've had a blast with them. I don't know how how many times I had to retie the elastic on those things. And the static electricity those things create is something else. Any time Cooper gets anywhere near one his hair just stands on end. And speaking of hair, since I absolutely shed like a dog, these balloons seem to be picking up my hair everywhere. Once in awhile I have to de-hair them.

I did a couple loads of laundry today and had an awesome hot shower. It will be nice not to have to do my hair in the morning. This evening Kelly and I went to Bingo and I actually won! I swear, every time I use a new dabber I win. Now, it was an early bird game worth thirty-four bucks, but still I got to say Bingo. I guess next time I should save the new dabber for the jackpot game!

I came home and there were sleeping boys strewn all over. Carter in his recliner, Cooper on one couch and Chris on the other. I put Cooper in his bed and I'm typing with Chris's legs across my lap (very uncomfortable and non-ergonomic!) Now I'm off to bed too; perhaps a sudoku puzzle or two before I zonk out. Oh and since it's Tuesday tomorrow this week's gonna fly by. Next thing I know it will be the weekend again!

Knock-Knock

In lieu of a photo for the day, I'm opting for this video of my two goofy boys. Here they are eating pizza and telling knock-knock jokes. Well, not exactly. They don't quite get the concept of a joke and that it's supposed to be funny and have a point...but it's hilarious to them nonetheless, and as a result it makes me laugh. A lot.

Pocket Full of Posies

I've been goofing around with these for a couple days with Atomic Cupcake actions.

Click the image for a close-up. Download links are below.

Download Link #1

Long Weekend!

The boys did great with the sitter yesterday; I had no worries. At lunchtime Kelly and I went downtown. She had an eyebrow appointment so I dropped her off there and went to fill up the Jeep with gas.

I went back to pick her up and I found this cute changepurse that matches my purse that I got in Winnipeg when we went to see Michael Bublé.

We went to a kitchen-y gift shop that is closing its doors to see if we could get any good deals. We didn't find anything. Our next stop was Subway for a quick bite and I picked up subs for Stephanie (our sitter) and the boys.

We zipped back to the office and it was a very quiet afternoon, much like the morning was. A good day for catching up on stuff. After work I came home and got the boys ready to go to my parents' house for supper. We met up with Stephanie's mom and dropped her off and headed to Mom & Dad's. Chris was bringing a part for Mom's snowmobile so he showed up in his truck.

We had an awesome supper. Mom made a delicious meatloaf, theeeeee best scalloped potatoes, veggies, salad, fresh bread and pecan pie for dessert. After supper we decided to watch a movie. I rented three movies: Snow Dogs, Good Luck Chuck, and Gone Baby, Gone. I figured we'd watch Gone Baby Gone, but Chris wanted to watch Good Luck Chuck. NOTTHEKINDOFMOVIEYOUWANTTOWATCHWITHYOURPARENTS. Plenty of gratuitous nudity and sex. Some funny parts. Happy ending.

Both kids were asleep by the time we were ready to go. Chris went out to start the Jeep for me and I fell asleep for a couple minutes too. It was tempting to just stay there but Chris had to work this morning. We packed up the kids and headed home.

This morning I had a rotten headache. I managed to entertain the boys with colouring, playdough and movies. Chris came home and I was napping with Cooper. He had a pedicure appointment (his heels get sooooooooo awfully cracked from being in his workboots for sixty hours a week) then he took Carter fishing. When they got back, I put my face on and did my hair and got dressed to go out to pick up some snacks. Cindy and family were coming over.

They arrived seconds after I returned from Wal-Mart (and Tim Horton's). I picked up a few gallons of milk, chips and dip and a few other snacky foods. We put on the movie, Gone Baby, Gone. I had many distractions from the boys, and as usual, I missed much of the movie. My headache started to dissipate (probably was from caffeine withdrawal). Carter fell asleep pretty early and Cooper zonked after they all left.

And as I was typing that last sentence, Cooper just woke up, started to cry and started to throw up. I grabbed him immediately after the first wave, which was just clear liquid. We made it onto the kitchen linoleum for the second wave, which had more substance to it. Ew. Third wave was aimed at the toilet and mostly contained by the toilet. I gave him a bath and a drink of water and Chris and I cleaned up all the puke. I put him in clean jammies and he's snoozing by my feet on a cozy blanket on the floor. I'm gonna go tuck him into his bed and do a couple sudoku puzzles before I zonk too.

Oh but before I go...finally a photo for the day...

Happy Valentine's Day!

If I have your email address, you likely just received this:
Tonight I went on a cleaning rampage. Tomorrow our sitter has the day off to go to a hockey tournament so I hired a coworker's daughter to come here to watch the boys for the day.

I picked up Happy Meals for the boys and came home after work. I've been wanting to bring a TV stand up from the basement to put in the boys' room. Their TV was on a little end table. I took the 27" TV off the stand downstairs, and the VCR and mini-stereo. I dragged the TV stand across the basement, up the stairs and into the boys' room. I dusted it off and moved it to the corner in front of the TV. I lifted the boys' TV to put it in and it DIDN'T FIT. Well, not before I took the trim off the top of it. I heaved the TV into it and screwed the trim back on. I hooked up the VCR/DVD and Playstation and moved the whole unit into the corner. What a workout! My back was killing me, but not much worse than it was already hurting today. Chris wondered how the heck I got that thing all the way up the stairs. Furniture moving is always easier when he's NOT here. It's just a fact of life. (He stayed at work to fix something on his truck and was happy to not be here for my organizing frenzy.)

I cleaned out the boys' closet; there is a big bookshelf that takes up almost the whole thing in there and the boys had made a disastrous mess of all the books and photos and everything in there. It was hideous and I was ignoring it for way too long. I organized all the books and threw out some of the broken ones. I cleaned out from under the boys' beds and went through the sock drawer and chucked about a zillion socks that were too small for Cooper. I kept a few pairs for posterity. They are so tiny; I just can't believe my two boys wore those itty-bitty things!

Mom and Dad stopped by after their dinner out and visited for awhile. Carter was already zonked out but Cooper was still up for a visit. I edited some pictures for Mom and started printing some hockey cards I made for a coworker's kids. They turned out really cool; with the parents' permission I'll post them here tomorrow.

I did a bunch of laundry, including the boys' winter jackets and Carter's backpack, which UNFORTUNATELY came home with not one, but TWO demolished drinking boxes inside. The juice soaked all the Valentine cards Carter received at school, along with his colouring pages and Valentine craft he did at school, a pair of mitts and the school newsletters. I opened up all the Valentines and let them air dry. I don't know if I squished his backpack somehow or if it got stepped on in Carter's travels between school and the sitter's house. Not sure. But what a mess!

It's a couple minutes before eleven and I still have some energy. I'm going to attempt another load or two of laundry before I go to bed. Oh. And no...I didn't take any pictures today. I'll try to get my butt in gear with the photo a day thing again!

The winter jackets came out of the wash beautifully. I did a bunch more laundry, also including one of my duvets. I emptied the dishwasher, filled it and ran it, and shined my kitchen sink.

Valentine Hearts

I made these Valentine Hearts about a month before Valentine's Day and finally got around to finishing them up and packaging them. There are six hearts in one zip file.

Click on the image to enlarge:


I have two download links in case the first one doesn't work.

Download Link #1

and if that doesn't work, try this one:

Download Link #2

Canadian Winter At Its Finest

Ooooooooooh it's been coooooooooooold!
Last night we watched The Brave One starring Jodie Foster. I liked it. Intense. Thought-provoking. That woman can act her ass off.

Today I felt awful but it was par for the course with Ol' Aunt Flo in town. Thankfully my headache dissipated by lunchtime. I grabbed lunch for Chris and myself from Taco Time. I tried the deluxe mexi-fries and mmm-mmmm they were good. (Mom, they're like the taco fries at the deli).

The afternoon seemed to drag on but I made it. I picked up the boys and met up with Chris at home. He took a sleepy Carter in the house and I took Cooper to Wal-Mart. I wanted to make spaghetti for supper but we didn't have any pasta. I picked up some whole wheat rotini and spaghetti along with a hundred bucks' worth of stuff. Gotta love that hundred-dollar-store.

I came home and whipped up some tasty spaghetti sauce. Chris opted for the rotini and it was good. The boys ate a little but were more interested in the granola bar I gave them for dessert. Carter zonked early but Cooper is still up.

I took a couple pictures of the boys this morning. Carter was being Mr. Attitude for the first few then after I got some cute ones of Cooper and showed them to Cooper, Carter changed his tune and posed with a smile. Here's Coopy:

Credits: Mellykit! This is the first time I've used my own kit.
His shirt was a great match for it!

Oh. And I finally finished up Carter's Valentine card for school on Thursday.
Here it is:

The Jill Frame

A while back, Jill and I were chatting on Hello, and she wanted a frame like the one around the search bar on the Yahoo kids site. So I made her one. I emailed the copyright folks at Yahoo to ask if I could use my frame since it was inspired by theirs, but I haven't heard anything back. So, I'm giving it here as a scrapbooking freebie. So here, I give you "The Jill Frame"; Shown here as a plain PNG and also with Cooper's cute little face on it! Just click either image to start the download in both PNG and PSD formats. Oh...and click HERE to enlarge

Download Link

Well, I completely fell off my photo a day wagon this past week. I've been feeling so down and tired. But really, the service for Kendra was so uplifting, along with wonderful news from Angie the other day; I now feel a slight sense of renewal. I do hope to continue with the photo project. And I have a TON of scrapping to do; I kept the memory boards with all the pictures of Kendra on them. I'm going to scan all the pictures, put them on CD for Kendra's family and make some scrapbook pages for them. It's a project I really look forward to.

Now I'm just sitting here watching the Grammys and awaiting the nominations for Michael Bublé and chatting with Jill and Kelly. I'm hoping to be able to stay awake for the last twenty minutes of it. There are three sleeping boys strewn across the couches and they're making me sleepy too!

A Fond Farewell

Today was Kendra's memorial service. I'm sooooooooooo glad that her family agreed to have one for her back home since so many people couldn't travel to the funeral in Saskatchewan. It was a lovely, sweet service, wonderfully arranged by the great people over at Timbers church. Kendra's family was amazing and awesome. I managed to read my eulogy-story-thingy, however I was falling apart fast until Kendra's sister came up and held the microphone for me. I pulled it together and finished off my stories. I had cried so many times already throughout the afternoon that the tears came so easily.

The letters and stories about Kendra together with the prayer and songs were very moving and uplifting. I feel as though a big weight has been lifted from me. I'm so glad to have been a part of Kendra's life and the celebration of it.

Damn The Torpedoes!

Oh where, oh where has my little blog gone...oh where oh where could I beeeeeeeee?

Last week vanished. Quickly. The weekend? Quiet. I think I missed a couple days' worth of pictures. I'm in the process of helping plan a memorial for my friend Kendra. Last night between frequent naps, I printed some memorial cards (re-drafted from the ones used for the funeral to reflect the memorial service information). By four in the morning, I finally went to bed, but wasn't able to sleep right away since I actually felt like I had slept through the night.

About three quarters of the way through printing, my printer started to tell me that "Parts inside your printer are near the end of their service life. See your printer documentation." EPPPPPSONNNNN!!!!! Oddly, I still managed to squeeze out the rest of the cards and it's still working, though I know it's on its last leg. I called the computer store to ask about servicing my printer and Mr. Snooty McSmartypants told me it wasn't worth it and it would likely cost between a hundred and a hundred-eighty bucks. Not a chance. So I went to pick up a new one today, and of course it takes all different print cartridges than the one I had. I even checked on eBay to see if I could replace my printer with another like it.

This evening I drove around town delivering the memorial cards to various businesses. Cooper was still up when I left (Carter zonks between seven and eight these days and I'm looking forward to a time that Cooper sleeps that much too!) and Cooper was still up when I got back almost an hour later.

I had done a Google search regarding the error message I got from my printer, and I got a few self-help tips for resetting it. I managed to do it and I cleared the error message and reset all the counters in it, but do you think I could disassemble that sucker to clean the waste ink pads? NO! It's hermetically sealed and I can't even find all the screws to take it apart. I tried for about a half an hour and finally quit. The only problem is that if I keep using it, the ink pads will overflow inside the printer. I have one more option for it I can do if I modify the waste ink tube to flow out into a container on the back of the printer. I'll give it a shot but not now. I'll be sure to mention it to Snooty McComputerguy, but I highly doubt he'll be impressed.

Work has been really busy. Last week was month-end. (already!) and I'm already finding myself planning things for the end of February. I don't really mind if the winter months go by quickly, but I sure hope things slow down a bit once spring finally hits! Oh and we have a new statutory holiday that we get off work for...it's called Family Day on February 18th. Sweet.

Oh. And the title for today's post? Inspired by Cooper this morning when he spontaneously pooped in the tub. Ew. Before his bath he said "Poop on toilet". Of course I put him on the toilet but he was distracted by the bubbly bath water and promptly quit trying. Thus he was ready to go by the time his bath was done. Oh joy.

Now a quick shout-out to my dear friend Angie who's getting poked and prodded tomorrow. I'm praying all goes well. I tried to phone to say hi and OMG does her Mom ever sound like her on the phone! (Can't wait to hear from you A!)

Many Thoughts to Gather

And a few pictures too...

 

These are a few pictures from the past few days.
I'm hoping to get a real blog post done tonight. :)