Anorexia Kills...

Snowmen...

Here you see our happy, robust snowman hanging out with the boys.


His self-esteem wavering, he goes on a crash diet of pure sunshine.


By late evening, he is an emaciated shell of a snowman. Sad. Very sad.
But yay for the sunshine!

Today was a good one. Month-end at the office; plenty to do. And by the end of the day I vowed to clear my desk. It's not bad. Everything is at least neatly placed.

Kelly and I went to Bingo tonight. I had plenty of disappointing close calls, and finally in the jackpot game I got down to one number VERY quickly. Someone won the jackpot, but the second chance was still up for grabs. At least twenty numbers after I got down to one number, they finally called mine. Whew! A very very sweet victory. And a sweet two hundred and fifty bucks for Kelly and me to share! I have a few projects on the go, but I need sleep. I'm hoping to finish everything by the weekend and get some scrapbooking done!

Depressing But Totally Worth It!

(Happy Birthday Deidre and Caroline!)

This picture...was taken TODAY. The second-last day of April. I have been venting and bitching and moaning about all this freaking snow that we got on the weekend. That is, until I came home from the grocery store and saw Chris building this snowman with the boys. I ran in the house to get the snowman kit that Cindy gave us a couple months ago. This...was the most perfect snow for this snowman, with the perfect accessories! (the kit comes complete with a hat and carrot nose and buttons and a scarf.) So...the snow? Depressing at first. But this? Made it totally worth it. I promise I won't whine about the snow anymore. (Unless we get more.)

So, as I briefly mentioned on Sunday, I went to church. Mom had said she was going to try going. So I figured...if she can go, I have no reason to not go. Carter agreed to come with me and he was OMGSUCHAPERFECTLITTLEANGEL there. Seriously. He even went up to the altar TWICE. Once to get the children's pamplet from the priest, then to recite the Lord's prayer. Way too cute.

After church we went out for breakfast with Mom and Dad and a couple other couples. Carter did a great job there too. We had a lovely breakfast (thanks again, Mom & Dad) and we came home. Chris went to the shop to work on his truck in the afternoon and I hung out (indoors because I was still whining about the snow). Sunday night I watched the requisite episode of Desperate Housewives and the boys actually weren't crazy jungle creatures. I missed a few parts but I'm hoping to catch the rerun in case I missed anything good. I didn't record it this time.

Monday Chris stayed after work to work on his truck again. I had a meeting after work so I picked up the boys and brought them to my office. OMGTHEYSATINTHEHALLWAYANDPLAYEDSONICELY that I couldn't believe they were mine. Actually of course I could, but I really had to keep asking if they were still there, because they were so quiet! It was a brief meeting and I took the boys home and we had pizza for supper. Oh...and cinnastix...delicious...y'know, with that icing that I could SWIM in. Yum.

Today was a pretty busy one, but as a result it went by quickly. Dad invited me for lunch since Mom was having lunch out with her friends and he was the chauffeur (but not allowed to dine with the ladies). So we had a wonderful lunch in the same restaurant as Mom and her girls. It was Mom's first lunch out with them since long before her surgery. It's so wonderful to see her getting out. She's starting to learn how to put her makeup on again! heehee. (And you did a wonderful job, Mom!)

After work, I dropped the boys off with Chris at home so I could go grab something to barbecue for supper and hopefully find a part we need for the barbecue. I didn't get the right part for the barbecue, but I got some FANTASTIC t-bone steaks. I don't usually buy those but they were great. After the sweet little snowman-building excursion, I went inside to prepare the rest of supper while Chris grilled the steaks. Here's my hubby out grillin'...(he hadn't even had a chance to change out of his work clothes and boots!)


So we had steak, (which the boys devoured), baked potatoes, coleslaw, green beans and fresh buns that I didn't even take out of the package because there was too much else to eat! Before supper was even over Chris was already planting the idea of ice cream in the boys' heads. I really could have done without it, but we headed to Dairy Queen and I didn't seem to have any trouble packing in a hot fudge sundae with Reese peanut butter cups on top. Still WAY better than a Blizzard.

Before I grocery shopped I stopped at the video store and picked up a couple movies. One was Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (for the kiddies) and 27 Dresses. When we got home I put the kids' movie on in their room and put on the chick flick. It was sweet and romantic. I loved it. I liked Katherine Heigl in it enough that I could probably see past Sandra Oh's presence and start watching Grey's Anatomy. We'll see.

Well, that about wraps up Tuesday. There was a beautiful red sunset this evening (that I was too busy filling my face with ice cream and fudge to photograph)...so hopefully that means it's going to be a nice day tomorrow and melt all this snow. The snowman can stay if he wants to but the rest of it has to go.

(Mom & Dad...you can pick up the movie at my office; I have it for 2 nights...love you!)

I Went to Church!

Who Hit the 'Rewind Button'?

Subtitle: Those Poor Robins!

Wow. Looking out the window I can't help but feel so sad! It feels like we've been rudely shoved back into January. Ick. After Chris came home from work, (and couldn't drive in the driveway because of the three-foot snowdrifts!) he spent a couple hours out with the snowblower. He did the driveway and a couple of the neighbours walkways/driveways.

I did manage about four loads of laundry and everything is at least sorted now. My biggest basement project will be to go through all the bags of clothing that are here and there (well now they're all moved to one spot). I need to go through every article of clothing and decide (1) if it's ours or if it was lent to us, (2) if it's too small for Carter but can be kept for Cooper, (3) if it's too small for Cooper and (i) is name brand or nice enough to be sold, or (ii) can be given or thrown away. It's a very daunting task. The task after that is to go through all the toys that have been squirreled away in the basement spare room (that's not really fit for a spare room). I need to go through and sort all of them to have a garage sale. But hey, since it's winter again I have a great reason to procrastinate the latter and wait until spring gets here for real.

Carter's birthday is coming up in a couple weeks and I picked up a few things on eBay for it. I found a really cool eStore with some neat pirate stuff. I'm still planning for a pirate party, though Carter seems to pick a different theme each time we discuss it! Again, because of the weather, I'm going to put off his party for at least a weekend past his birthday to allow for the snow to go away again.

Last night was a hockey-watching night. Chris's Canadiens lost this one; though there is some time to redeem themselves since it was just game two of seven and the series is now tied. Well, I'm going back to the basement to continue with the never-ending laundry saga. Mom said she's going to try to go to church today, so I think I'd better go and join her too!

Unsprung

Well, although there were only trace amounts of snow left, I don't think I had my optimism fully armed thinking Spring was here. Last night we got that foot of snow they (who are they anyway) promised us, and it's still snowing! I just want to snuggle up in my big fluffy duvet and sleep until it's all gone again. I was thoroughly enjoying not having to bundle up the boys in touques, mitts, boots, etc. Their spring jackets will be hanging on the hooks under the winter ones until this passes. I'm giving this ridiculous weather four days to get lost. May is NOT supposed to contain snow. Okay, fine. Rant over. But if i can't get out of the driveway today, I'll be on it again!

I have no idea what we'll do today. Beth is supposed to be coming to Dryden this weekend, but I don't know when she was scheduled to drive. Hopefully before the snow hit 'cause the highway could not possibly be a pretty sight!

I'm actually going to go in the basement and tackle the laundry pile. It basically looks like a cave down there all made of clothing. ::Sigh:: Wish me luck...and if I don't make it back to blog tonight, send out the search party for me. Let them know I'm buried under there!

Family Fun on a Snowy Snowy Night

We've been gearing our activities more lately toward family ones. The movie last week, playing outside, and tonight we went swimming at the public pool, despite the rotten weather forecast. It is COLD again, folks, and we're supposed to get 25-30 centimetres of snow. For you standard-measuring folk, that's up to a foot of the freaking white stuff! And to think it was nearly ALL GONE as of this afternoon. ::Sigh::

Wow was that fun at the pool! Cooper? Is a natural-born swimmer. We put water wings on both kids and Cooper at first clung to me. Then I started floating him around a little and in no time flat he was bobbing along on his own. He'd flip to his tummy, then to his back and stick his feet way up in the air. He stuck his face in the water, and bobbed under the surface a couple times when he would push off my leg and get a bit of a jump. Didn't faze him a bit! He even was jumping off the edge of the pool into the water! Carter, on the other hand, still hates getting water in his face and gets nervous when he can't touch the bottom of the pool. He still had fun, but Cooper blew me away since it was his first time at the pool, aside from Kelly's pool and we didn't even try to let him swim when he was that little. I hope Carter will get over his fear; we're just trying to let him get used to it on his own.

We came home and everyone is toast. I'm sure they'll all sleep well. Or so I hope! I really wish I brought the camera with me because I could have taken some amazing video of Cooper. I'm sure there will be a next time; Chris suggested we go every Friday!

I Blogged Last Night, I Swear

Crap. My internet connection SUCKED last night. Bad. I was blogging along and thought it posted but I got nuthin'.

Nothing overly eventful but now I seemed to have reset my router and it's working better. Too bad I didn't think of it then 'cause I lost a couple paragraphs.

Guess I'll have to write more tonight!

I did finish this page last night though, from Carter's and my trip to Winnipeg...credits later.

Back-Up!!! (Edited!)

Today was a weird one. The morning started out great, and early. I needed to go to work a half an hour early to let in a coworker from one of our other offices. So I got up and got everything ready for the kids before they even woke up. I readied myself and had everything in the Jeep. The kids got up and I gave Cooper a quick little shower and Carter dressed himself. I got them both fed and out the door quite smoothly.

I left the house with a few minutes to spare and Allyson called me to say she was still about fifteen minutes away. I figured I might as well do my Tim Horton's run, and there was absolutely NO lineup in the drive-thru. That, my friends from near and far, is UNHEARD OF. So I was in and out of there still with a few minutes to spare. I got to the office at the exact moment Allyson did. Sweet! I let her in and gave her the keys she needed. I took the kids to the sitter and went to Kelly's house. I tried to call her cell phone to let her know I was there to pick her up but there was no answer. Eventually (after a few minutes) she noticed my Jeep in her driveway and a couple minutes later we were off to work.

The morning went by in a flash. Then it was lunchtime. Carter didn't have school today which meant I had a full lunch hour to myself, since Kelly was going home for lunch, and Chris took a lunch to work with him. A few minutes into the lunch hour, I noticed one of the local radio stations was out. I had decided to go visit Mom and Dad during the lunch hour and drove out to their place. I had a bowl of soup and visited for a bit, then drove back to town. I heard on the radio that there was a power outage, and that about five thousand hydro customers were affected. I stopped by Chris's shop and they were without power. I really hoped it was the same at my office, since we'd probably have to close. Sure enough, all was dark when I walked in, and many people were on cell phones making arrangements to cancel client visits. I still helped a couple people that walked in to bring water samples and weigh babies and such, then everyone started to disband. I wrapped up a couple more things and went around shutting off lightswitches and a few power bars then I left. I had to go to the Purolator depot to ship the water samples, then I was headed to visit Chris again when he phoned me. He was at home already. I came home and he was here with a couple coworkers planning a four-wheeling trip.

I came in to grab Juno to lend to a coworker, but I found it wasn't in the case...it was still in the DVD player, so I couldn't eject it with the power still off! I decided to go for a ride and I called my friend to let her know I couldn't bring her the movie yet. Just then the power came back on. I came back home and tried to power up my computer. It didn't work. Eeeeeeeeeeeek! The other computer worked, but I haven't backed anything up to it in ages from this computer. Eeeeeeeek! The monitor light was on, the fan was working, but it wasn't booting up. Crap. In my haste and panic, I unplugged it and brought it to the computer place. The geeks had all gone home due to the power outage, but one of the sales reps gave me a spot to test my computer with all the hookups. It worked. WHEW! Just then I realized this has happened at some point before. I didn't remember to reset the power bars connected to my computer. So it let enough power through just to operate the fan of the computer but not to fully boot it up. I ran home and got it up and running. I finished up a project and delivered it before going to pick up the boys.

We came home and Chris came home at supper time. Cindy had dropped off some AWESOME leftovers for us. She made a chicken lasagne-type-thing with asparagus and hollandaise sauce. YUM. We ate every last bit. After supper we went for a visit with my Mom and Dad. Chris hadn't seen Mom since before she went to the hospital the first time over a month ago! We had a short visit and came back to town in time to make it to Dairy Queen. Chris apparently had a Blizzard craving. The boys had cones and I had one of those delicious hot fudge sundaes with the peanut butter cups on it again. This cannot become a habit...this cannot become a habit...

We came home and I started doing a back-up of my computer. It took awhile, (I'm up over 100GB of stuff I need to keep nowadays) but now it's done and I feel relieved! Everyone is asleep and now I feel like I'll be able to sleep knowing all my stuff is safe. I didn't do anything on the computer at all while the back-up was running, so I've got nothing new to show you. Maybe tomorrow! :)

Okay, during one of my supposed last stops at NDISB I noticed the April title challenge...the title to use is American Beauty. It didn't take me long to decide who my favourite American beauty is...so I did this layout of Angie's daughter Caroline:

Credits:

Miss Mint - Peppermint Creative:
Jingle Bell Rock - Tag
Elementary Grammar - Staple
Party Pants - Background paper, frame and buttons
Playground Pop - Diamond edge
Twinkle Toes - Ricrac

Christy Sturm - Butternug Squash Designs/NDISB:
Berry Mint Chip - Fucshia Ribbon
Strappleberry Lime - Wavy Ribbon

Cherries from Google Image Search
Fonts: Porcelain and Birch

Fantastic Family Day! (and Weekend!)

I waited too long to do this; now I have some thinking and remembering to do! Chris worked until noon on Saturday. Saturday was gloriously beauteous! Horton Hears a Who was playing for the matinée at the theatre so I'd planned to at least take Carter, and if Chris was up for it, we'd all go. I'd also hoped for a little family excursion to Wal-Mart for some much-needed grocery shopping. But Cooper fell asleep at a bit of an inopportune time, so I asked Chris if he'd take Carter for a haircut. It took a few tries but he finally found a place that would take a walk-in without an appointment.

It turned out great and I ended up waking Cooper so we could all go to the movie. Everything was perfect. Kids were staying in their seats, popcorn was being eaten nicely. Cotton candy was being consumed in large quantity (by me). I had to get a second bag so that I didn't have to share too much. I got the kids little grab-bags of candy to try to help keep them in their seats.

The movie was cute, and all was wonderful. Until...Cooper...got bored. We had a contingency plan in place for this and Chris took him out. I thought he'd just take him for a little walk around and come back to the seats but they went out to the Jeep and waited for Carter and me to come out. Carter liked the movie; he already wants to see it again. It was cute. I was asking my coworkers if they had the book so we could read it before the movie; Erna was kind enough to check her Dr. Seuss stash and when she found she didn't have it, she borrowed it from the library for us. How sweet was that? We read it a couple times so we had a good grasp of the storyline. It was very well-done. I'm sure we'll watch it 2978459238475 more times once it comes out on DVD.

After the movie, we ventured to Wal-Mart. Really, we needed a ton of stuff and spent a mint there. Three hundred bucks later we still had to go to M&M Meat Shop for a couple more things. Oh and since Wal-Mart doesn't have a fresh meat department, I still needed to make a trip to a regular grocery store. Anyhoo, we came home from all that shopping and Carter was zonked out. We took him in the house and Chris played outside with Cooper for awhile, until he called me to watch something. Cooper was playing with the new tee-ball set Chris had picked up at Wal-Mart. It was soooooooooo cyuuuuuuuute. That's where the picture came from for the baseball card below. I also caught some of it on video, but it's a hyuuuge video since I forgot to put in on the compact setting, so I doubt I'll post it. But it was funny that every time Cooper went to retrieve the ball after he hit it off the tee, he said he was playing soccer. Then we'd say, "Cooper, it's baseball." And he'd say, "Yeah, baseball."

Chris barbecued the bacon-wrapped chicken breasts we got at M&M and I realized we had no potatoes, so I opted for rice and some peaches'n'cream corn. The boys ate a little, then we mentioned going out for ice cream and supper was pretty much done. We headed out to Dairy Queen (following a dose of Lacteeze pills for Cooper) and the boys had baby cones. Chris was stuffed from supper but managed a medium cone, and I opted for a hot fudge sundae with Reese Peanut Butter Cups on it. OMGTHATWASSOGOOD. Better than a blizzard for some reason. I must remember to order that every time!

We came home and started to watch the movie, August Rush. Cindy had lent it to us since it wasn't due for one more day, and we all seem to enjoy sharing movies to get the most value out of renting them. For me though, there is a tiny bit of satisfaction knowing it would probably also really piss off the movie nazi! Anyhoo, it was a nice movie and even Chris was a little moved at the ending.

Carter was up REALLY late since he had such a late afternoon nap. I was making these baseball/soccer cards pretty late and he was still up. I was tired and needed to go to bed so I talked him into watching a movie in his room before bed. He did actually fall asleep before I did.

Today wasn't as beautiful out as it was yesterday, but at least there was no precipitation. It was a sweater day as opposed to a t-shirt day. Which is still WONDERFUL. I'm loving not having to bundle the kids in a gazillion articles of clothing to go out of the house! Chris took Carter out for awhile just before lunchtime. I stayed home with Cooper and just lazed about for awhile. Eventually he took a nap and I was eager to pass out by that time. We had a long, yummy nap and I hadn't even heard Chris and Carter return.

I got myself ready later in the afternoon and took Cooper for a ride in the stroller to return Cindy's movie. While I was there I rented the movie Juno. We walked back home and I took him in the Jeep to get MORE groceries and things I hadn't thought of yesterday. We shouldn't need anything from the store for over a week now; except for potatoes because they escaped my mind again.

We came home and had an odd mishmash for supper. Everyone had something different. Leftovers, Chef Boy-ar-dee, chips and salsa dip, peanut butter sandwiches. I had picked up a few value-packs of chicken breasts and divvied them up into freezer bags, actually remembering to keep a few out of the freezer for tomorrow's supper.

Then it was time for Desperate Housewives to come on. The boys were, as usual, very rambunctious because it was time for the ONLY SHOW I CARE TO WATCH ON TV FOR THE WHOLE WEEK. Which is basically fine, since I recorded it with our DVD recorder. That thing rocks! I finally used it for the first time to record last week's episode. Love it! That, and I noticed they play a rerun of it later in the week that I've never come across before.

After the kids settled down, we started watching Juno. Chris eventually dozed off. I really enjoyed it. Many many laughs...clever, witty and sarcastic dialogue that hit my funny bone. Then tears. I never used to cry watching movies. My hormones have been cuckoo ever since I've become a Mom. Great ending. Makes me want to be a surrogate Mom more than ever. Yeah, I'm serious. Too bad my family and my husband think I'm crazy when I say that. Chris would never go for it. Anyway, I really liked the movie.

Now I can't believe it's after midnight. I'll leave you with these gorgeous pictures of the boys, adorned into baseball/soccer cards. (Carter starts soccer in a couple weeks so I don't have pictures of that yet...in the meantime I found a great use for the picture of him at McDonald's play place from our trip to Winnipeg!) I used Dani Mogstad's MVP kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs for both of them.

I printed a few of these and stuck magnets of the back...

so family, please let me know if you want one for your fridge! :)

Fantastic Family Day!

Story to follow!

Cha-ching...Cha-ching!!!

Whew. We did it! We both won! It was getting late in the evening. We were starting to wonder if we'd win anything. We did. First I won the ''Pick 8'' game. We picked our own numbers and I won a hundred and fifteen bucks. Wheeeee! The next game was the Bonanza. Kelly won. (So did somebody else.) She won four hundred seventy-three bucks. Total? Five hundred ninety-eight dollars. Split? Two hundred ninety-four bucks. WOOHOO! It's about time. GOOD TIMES.

I came home and showered my sleeping husband with money. He didn't wake up. I did it again. I bunched it up and dropped it on him all at once. Nothin'. I tried to wake him. Nope. Zonked. I guess I'll tell him the good news in the morning!

It was a pretty good day from the start, too. The boys were fairly cooperative this morning. Kelly brought the beverages this morning from Tim Horton's. A few of us had lunch out and I took Carter to school.

After work I picked up the kids and got them happy meals for supper. Chris came home and stayed outside with them and they had kind of a tailgate party with their supper. I left to pick up Kelly and we did a Timmy's run before Bingo. All in all a pretty good day. I have a couple projects I'm going to try to work on before I zonk out myself.

Happy

Birthday

Auntie

Lurdes!

Well Colour Me Happy!

Happy Birthday Auntie Maggie!

Spring? Here.
Taxes? Done.
Visa? Paid.
Hair? Done.

Around here the colours of spring aren't too pretty. Dirty leftover snow left in sandy, salty piles here and there. Doggy doo-doo makes mushy little landmines all over the place. It's icky but at the same time wonderful! Almost all the snow is gone. We're wearing lighter jackets and the kids are stark raving mad over mud puddles. I've washed their coats twice this week. My next Wal-Mart list contains new rubber boots and splash pants.

It's tax time once again, and this year we took our taxes to an accountant. My sister usually does them for us (I am excellent with numbers but put a tax form in front of me and my skin crawls instantly) but she wanted us to make sure we get all the tax credits we're eligible for. So about a month ago I took our taxes to Mr. Accountant. Mr. Accountant is VERY nice and later that afternoon called me regarding some papers I forgot to bring in for Chris's tax return. He was already inputting our stuff!? I faxed the papers the next morning and didn't hear anything back from him. Hmmm. I figured this was going to be such a quick procedure. I waited a few days and called to speak with him. He was busy or with a client. I waited another week or so. Same thing. Okay, this dude is BUSY! But GOOOOOOOOOOD. Very good! Finally these few weeks later, I opened the mailbox to find a letter from good ol' Revenue Canada. And inside that usually dreaded piece of government correspondence was a tax assessment stating that I owe eighty-one dollars. I JUMPED FOR JOY!!! Because, last year I owed big bucks. And this year's return nearly covered the bill from last year that I had barely begun to pay. Woohoo! So, eighty-one bucks is a thing of beauty at this moment. Now I'm hoping Chris's ends up being a return too, and not a bill. Either way, it can't be as bad as mine was last year!

It's been a weird week at work; Monday flew. Tuesday dragged. Today kind of did too. But now I realize tomorrow is Thursday and that makes it seem like the week is moving along just fine. I've talked to Mom a little bit and it's been a rough week but she's coming along. Little did I know that technically she should have been hospitalized for at least two more weeks than she was. However, since she is so vulnerable to infection now without her spleen, a hospital is not the best place to be. So the doctor said if she could stand it, she could go home, limit the visitors, get plenty of rest and all should be well. Now that I know this, I'll try not to bug her too much or bring any germies near her.

Tonight we watched "Into the Wild". Wow. I really liked it. It was long and artsy-fartsy, but very well-done and not boring. I won't say what happens but I found it very interesting and the bottom line is, happiness...is only good if it's shared. So true! Makes me so thankful to have the family and friends that I have to share life and happiness with!

Well, that's a wrap. I was actually intending to go to bed early tonight but that didn't pan out. I tried it last night but somebody got me up every hour until about three. All three of them. Varying reasons. Snores, milk requests, etc. Oy. I might as well stay up until three and get a few decent hours of sleep all at once! So for now I'll go do one or two (or a dozen) sudoku puzzles and see if it seems quiet enough to try to get some shuteye!

Here She Is...Miss Lazy Blogger!

Let's see...it was a relatively quiet weekend. Chris got in a couple more fishing trips before the end of (ice) fishing season. All the ice shacks are off the lake and the ice road has been closed for just over a week.

Mom is coming along well; I stayed away for a couple days after she got home since I didn't want to haul both kids out there and wear her out too much too quickly. But I took just Cooper out for a visit on Sunday afternoon. Uncle Cliff, Auntie Lurdes, Uncle Bob, Auntie Josie, and Cindy were all there too. It was a full house!

I brought the new little DVD player for Mom since she can't do the stairs to go down to watch TV. I brought the movie Enchanted for her and Dad to watch. After we all visited, Mom had a bit of a cough and when she coughed she got a wicked headache in the back of her head. It freaked her out and the pain was so intense Dad took her up to the ER. I met up with them and they checked her out and figured perhaps she was a bit dehydrated or something. They gave her some meds for pain and some IV fluids and kept an eye on her for a few hours. She went home and had an okay day today, but she still has the headache. Hopefully each day will just get better and better.

I did another scrapbook layout over the weekend, using pictures of Carter and Cooper from last month when I let them fingerpaint. You can click the image to see it enlarged.

Credits:
Christy Sturm - Butternug Squash Designs/NDISB:
Background paper - Art of a Child
Leather Photo Corners - Junk Drawer Blues
Zigzag Stitch - Color Blinded
Crumpled Notepaper - Where's My List? Element pack

Miss Mint - Peppermint Creative:
Paint splatters (recoloured) - Playground Pop & Treehouse Park
Cardboard edge - Craft Jar

ScarletHeels - White Crumpled Paper Alpha
Gunhild - Bent photo frame
Fonts: Little Pot and Abadi Condensed Light

Today after work I (finally) went to the hairdresser. It's so great to go (I only go two or three times a year) and get a fresh cut and colour. When I dye my hair myself, I just do a quick root touch up and I neglect the back of my head. The hairdresser always finds a whole pile of grey back there when she does it for me! I opted to get highlights again, so there's a whole new me now for spring time. Speaking of springtime, almost all our snow is gone, aside from the icky brown snowbanks that seemingly take forever to melt. With all the sand and salt that public works puts on the streets in the winter, it makes for a very messy spring. Ick. So now that all the snow is almost gone, I went to Dairy Queen on the way home from the hairdresser to pick up a couple Blizzards! I had my tried-and-true favourite, a Reese Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard, and I got Chris some sort of Chocolate Explosion or something like that. I only ate about half of mine; I ordered a big one anticipating having to share with the kids but they only wanted to eat the extra chocolate chunks on the top!

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I enrolled Carter in soccer and that should be starting up in the next month or so. I'm really excited about it, particularly since he was puttering around the living room with a soccer ball last night and seems to already have an idea of what he's supposed to do.

So far I'm doing well with my fundraising for the Heart & Stroke Foundation's Big Bike Ride but I'm still looking for pledges. You can click HERE to go to my online pledge page if you haven't already checked it out or click the Big Bike logo in the left sidebar of my blog. Thanks to everyone who has already pledged me; I'm hoping to reach my goal amount soon!

Enchanted

Well, yesterday Mom flew home (and yes, are her arms tired!)

She stayed overnight in the hospital just to make sure she could get some follow-up with our local docs, and I was so excited to have her back in town I ran up to see her on my afternoon coffee break. Then I went up later with Cooper when I was headed to Wal-Mart for a couple groceries. I went back once more to bring her a couple things from Wal-Mart.

Today after work I picked up the boys and went up to see her. I trucked them all the way down the halls after their liberal self-doses of hand sanitizer, and her door was closed. I gently knocked on the door and slowly opened it to peek in. Both beds were made (I'm sure you could have bounced quarters off them). I figured Mom must have gone home.

I went into one of the family rooms with a phone and called Mom and Dad's house. Sure enough, she was home! Apparently I missed the memo. hahaha. I was so pleased to hear she was home that I didn't mind finding out the hard way!

I brought the boys home and Chris hung out outside with them so I could go pick up some hotdog buns. Chris barbecued some hotdogs and the boys did a pretty good job putting them away.

After supper Chris and I were both tired but SURPRISINGLY we suited up the boys and we all went for a walk! We walked to the video store and rented ''Enchanted''. Cute, sweet, magical Disney movie. After the movie the boys finally went to sleep. I stayed up and finished up a scrapbook layout using Theresa's new kit ''Sunshine on Wildflowers'' available at NDISB. (Click to enlarge)

Credits: Theresa Hernandez' ''Sunshine on Wildflowers'' kit
available at NDISB for everything except the ribbon, also
by Theresa from the NDISB collab kit ''Bountiful Harvest''.
Journaling: ''This was Carter’s first time out on the grass, just over
a year old. I love his look of wonder as he explored his surroundings.''

Now my eyes are fried and I need to get to bed. And it's already Friday tomorrow! Two days off at the beginning of the week is a grrrrrrreat idea for making the rest of the week go by quickly!

She's Baaaaaaaaaaaack!

The St. Boniface 450

(Just for Angie...the lesser-known, non-NASCAR race HAHAHAHAAAA)

Today I took another day off (I was home yesterday with the boys since the sitter needed to take a day off) so that I could go see Mom. After talking to her on Sunday I really really needed to get there! I can't believe it's been over a week since we left there and since the surgery. She looked sooooooo much better!

Okay, rewind a little (got excited about seeing Mom)...I decided to take Carter with me along for the ride. That way, I didn't have to worry about picking up both boys at a specific time. Chris could pick up one kid in his truck so since Carter is the easier of the two, I brought him. He...is an excellent traveler. I realized somewhere along the way that my cell phone was about to die....and...I had forgotten my charger at home. Crap. I had left it in my suitcase from the previous trip to Winnipeg and didn't bring my suitcase since this was to be a day trip.

We stopped at Tim Horton's in the next town and at the cell phone place. I begrudgingly spent the thirty-four (insert curse word here) dollars to purchase a brand new one; I had quasi-jokingly asked the guy if I could 'borrow' it. 'Cause really - I used it for about an hour and a half and may never need it again. Anyhoo, we also stopped by to visit a coworker at the office there then we were on our way again. With all the stops to this point, Carter didn't need to pee yet.

We were cruising along and I decided to stop for gas, but I was going about 120ish when a cop drove past. I let my foot off the gas and I saw the cruiser's brake lights. Crap. The timing was impeccable, since I was also just reaching the driveway of the gas station, where there were TWO MORE police cars. Police car number one must have radioed to the other two, since it looked like I was being closely scrutinized when I pulled into the gas station. Whew! Close call!

Carter still didn't need the washroom; I was duly impressed. The kid travels like his mother. Good bladder! I had picked up a mini DVD player for the ride but by this time Carter was already done with it. I hope it gets more use in the future. I brought about eight movies for him to choose from but he was more interested in the scenery. Which was cool.

We arrived in Winnipeg just after noon and parked the Jeep at the hotel we had stayed at the last time we went. Carter and I walked the few blocks to the hospital and just the very second we were about to get in the elevator, Cindy called (on my freshly-charged cell phone). We chatted for a second and I told her if she wanted to say hi to Mom, to call me again in a few minutes.

We got up to Mom's floor (Carter LOOOOOOOOOOOVED the elevator; this was one of the highlights of his day) and Mom was just walking back into her room. She turned and saw us and got all teary (happy tears!) and we went into her room. I was a little verklempt too and we exchanged hugs. I recorded a little video of Cooper saying hi to her and showed her. She had her staples taken out today, so she was feeling a little tender, along with the still-present pain from the surgery. She has been up and walking quite a bit, but has suffered with some swelling in her legs that seems to come and go. Today she looked fantastic to me, since we had left the morning after the surgery. She's a new woman compared to then! She still has some serious healing to do, and is on blood thinners and pain meds still. There is some talk about transferring her back here; I can't wait for that! I hate not being able to check in on her every day. But driving for eight hours is something that I couldn't do every day, that's for sure!

Carter was sooooooo good all the way there and during our visit (and the walks from the Jeep to the hospital and back) that I really wanted to reward him with something fun before we left the city. I would have LOVED to take him to the Museum of Man and Nature IF I HAD A HOT CLUE WHERE IT WAS!!! I finagled my way around to where I thought it was and wasted a whole bunch of time. Mom had suggested a McDonald's Play Place, and if I'd taken her suggestion in the first place instead of trying to find the museum, he could have had a much longer play time. So right about the time I gave up on the museum, it was like God dropped a McDonald's with a play place right in front of the Jeep. Hallelujah!

I took Carter in and (by the way, we don't have a Play Place at our McDonald's and Carter has never been to one)...he was a little apprehensive with all the climbing at first so I climbed in with him the first time and we went down the slide together. After that he instantly went pro. I lost count of how many times he went into each and every tunnel. Each time he got to the bottom of the slide he'd built up quite a static charge and his hair was on end. Then he would touch one of the rivets on the way out of the slide and the shock would snap his hair back down into place. He got quite a kick out of it. I took pictures, including this amazing shot of him. You can seriously tell when this kid is genuinely happy; there is truly not a more REAL smile anywhere in the world!

We grabbed a happy meal for the ride home (Carter only wanted the toy!) and we hit the road. We stopped once more for gas before heading out...oh and then finally a pee break at a Pizza Hut next to the gas station we stopped at. Then it was positively smooth sailing after that. It was a beautiful day for a drive...a 450-mile drive! Give or take a few kilometres! I'm so happy we went to see Mom; it was a perfect day! Now if I could just get Carter to wind down and go to sleep; he's still wide awake!

I grabbed us all a bite to eat just before arriving home. By this time I really needed to pee so I launched Carter out of the Jeep, grabbed the food and ran in the house to the potty. I went back out for all the rest of our stuff and came in to snack with the boys. Cooper was pretty rambunctious but snuggled up to me eventually and went to sleep. Carter was full of stories from the trip for Daddy, and was anxious to get on the computer and play his games. I didn't mention in my last post how much more experienced he has gotten on the computer. He knows where to go online to all the game sites, and knows to stay away from the shooting games and surprisingly stays away from all the advertisements. I think that's where he's getting much of his reading skills too - plenty of word recognition from all the games he plays! His favourites are the dirtbike and monster truck racing games. Now I should start teaching him how to type! heehee. Just so he can hurry up and be a geek like his Mom. :)

Let's Hear it For the Boys!

Well since it's been a FOREVER since I blogged...I miss my Mommy terribly and hadn't seen or talked to her since last Monday. Until she did call finally today and I chatted with her for a minute. Sounds like she is on her way to recovering, but is suffering a few side effects that will pass. She sounds a little blue and I'm thinking of taking a quick day trip in the next couple days to hopefully brighten her day (and mine!) One question I remembered to ask was about her blood levels, and they have taken a big jump UP! I can't wait to see her and give her a big squeezy hug!

Plenty happened last week that is all totally not on the top of my mind right now. I've mostly been brooding about not being able to check in on Mom all the time. Work was fine. I got all the month-end stuff done and got the supply order (my favourite part of month-end...geek!)

I wanted this post to be a bit about Carter and Cooper. To tell a little of what they're up to lately. Carter is becoming quite the wordsmith and can read many words. He's getting a little less shy with singing songs too, and is learning quite a few nursery rhymes. Cooper is his own kind of wordsmith...he can seriously say ANYTHING. And in full, very coherent sentences...even multi-syllable words! So I'm trying to watch my mouth around him because he's a little parrot! And he remembers things from day to day...up to days later! My boys are really growing up! So damn smart.

I've done a little scrapping lately; here are a couple new layouts:

Easter Fun
Credits: LaWanna Desjardin's Oopsy Daisy Kit, Child's Play Alpha,
Piping Up Florals, Page Curl Template, Journaling Bits Notepaper.
(I made the grass. lol)

Carter's First Day of School
Credits: Christy Sturm's Elementary Kit and Template #29.
Available at Butternug Squash Designs or NDISB.

Here is Cooper enjoying an orange *his* way!

Credits:
Paper Bag Frame by Helena Jole (NDISB)
Alpha from Rebel One Kit (Peppermint Creative)
Stapled Tag from Foxy Lady kit (Peppermint Creative) - darkened a bit
Stars overlay from Flergs newsletter freebie
Background papers (blended) from Amanda Stevens'
Celebrate 2008 kit and Theresa Hernandez' Halloween Eerie kit

So tomorrow Carter has another swim birthday party to attend. This time I'm going to shave my legs and join him in the pool. I hope everyone wears sunglasses so they won't be blinded by my pasty white skin.

Edited to add:
I must mention some very blog-worthy food...we had Chris's Dad and Grandpa over for supper today. Chris actually brought home some fish from his fishing trip yesterday, so we had fresh pan-fried walleye, homemade (deep-fried of course) French-fries, fresh coleslaw, peaches'n'cream corn, and a veggie/pasta mix. Totally delish! I cut up some fresh strawberries for dessert and served them with some yummy cream cheese fruit dip (that I didn't make). We had a good visit. Dad stopped by later (he had a previous dinner invitation or I'm sure he'd have joined us too!) Carter and Cooper really chowed down; I guess Chris has to bring fish home more often! :)

Up and Around

When we arrived at the hospital on Monday morning, we could already see an improvement in Mom. She was feeling VERY rough and in a lot of pain, but I could already tell how well she'd pulled off the surgery. She still had the funky inflatable stockings on (to promote circulation in her legs and deter clotting). I asked if, despite the pain she was obviously in, if she felt any different. She said she felt smaller. Well I guess so! That sucker was at least ten pounds! Her pain pump wasn't working properly so by the time we were ready to go they were replacing it.

Dr. Yaffe actually emailed me a couple pictures of it this evening. Incredible. I won't be sharing them here, and no, my digi-scrapping friends, I won't be scrapping them. But they are truly amazing! It amazed me to see what's been in there making Mom feel so bad for so long, and to know that it's not in there to hurt her anymore. Thank God.

Dad emailed today to say Mom was up and around a little bit walking. When I called this evening, she had even wandered all the way down the hall and back. What a woman! I wish I could still be there, but she really is getting Grade 'A' care there so I hope they keep her until she's really well enough to return.

Today was a very busy day at work. I had to do all my month-end stuff that I wasn't there to do yesterday. I picked up Kelly and took her out for lunch since it was her birthday on Friday. I gave her a shirt and the movie Sweeney Todd, featuring her husband, Johnny Depp. She and I were both away on her birthday; she was in CUBA sunning her buns with her family and I was in chilly-willy Winnipeg with mine! I took Carter to school, dropped off Kelly and went back to work. The whole day FLEW by, and we had an all-staff teleconference near the end of the afternoon.

I picked up the boys after work and brought a set of keys to Chris since he had locked himself out of his truck. I didn't mock him in any way, since I used to have frequent-idiot points with the locksmith some years ago. ;)

We came home and Carter was asleep. Chris had picked up his Dad who wanted to bring over some ground beef for supper. I made two meatloaves, twice-baked potatoes with cheese and bacon bits, and veggies. The boys ate some, and most oddly, Cooper seems to like broccoli. Weird!

After visiting for awhile after supper, I dropped off Chris's Dad and took Cooper with me to Wal-Mart for pull-ups, milk, soy milk, bread, hot dogs and buns and a few other things that weren't on the list. The total? $101.01. Of course it had to break the hundred-dollar mark. We came home and started watching "Alvin & the Chipmunks" that I had just purchased (One fifth of the bill at Wal-Mart!) Cooper fell asleep fairly quickly; Carter is already watching it a second time. He napped not-so-briefly just before suppertime, so he's still up and going strong.

I might go to bed and do a few sudoku puzzles. Speaking of which, with all the time we spent at the hospital over the weekend (nearly every waking moment), I probably did somewhere around seventy-five sudoku puzzles! I picked up a couple sudoku books at Chapters, so it kept me occupied. Cindy and Dad put a good dint in the books too, and I left one for him.