School's Out For Summer!!!

Subtitle: A Special Post for The NDISB Ogre.

Okay, so it's been a busy almost week since I last blogged. Saturday night we did end up camping out in the back yard. We didn't head out until eight o'clock, but the kids were still pretty squirrelly. We attempted to watch a movie on the portable DVD player but oddly the sound cut out. So of course I had the laptop handy and we watched a movie on it. We managed to get the kids to sleep at a decent hour and they slept like a log through the whole night. It still poured rain a few times but it was a nice night.

Sunday night we rented a couple movies that we didn't end up fully watching. Semi-Pro with Will Ferrell (why do I keep renting these movies where he's a big weird ego freak? I do like Will Ferrell, but movies such as this and that Anchorman one leave something to be desired.) The other movie was Dan In Real Life with Steve Carell, which we just never got to, so I'm not too sure if I'd have liked it. I loathe Steve Carell in The Office (Angie, don't smack me) but I have liked the movies I've seen him in so far.

Monday night we attempted to barbecue. I found a great deal on some rib-eye steaks and smack-dab in the middle of grilling them, we ran out of propane. I did a quick run to the gas station to exchange the tank and we were back in barbecue-business in a flash. We had baked potatoes and pan-fried mushrooms and veggies. Yum.

Tuesday night was our last soccer night. Cindy came to watch Carter play and Carter actually did a bit of playing! I took quite a few pictures while we were there but this one was my favourite:

At the end of the practice and game, each team member received a medal. Carter was pretty excited. Saturday is actually the last day, but they gave out the medals early in case people couldn't make it for the last game. On the way home we went to rent the movie The Spiderwick Chronicles. With ogres and mystical creatures and beasts in it. Carter loved it. Cooper paid a bit of attention to it, and I was pleased that neither of the two boys was afraid of the creepy characters. Carter would probably love the Harry Potter series. I might get the books from Cindy and start reading it with him. It is so fun to read with Carter. His reading is coming along so well and he's really good at sounding out words that he isn't familiar with. Fun times!!!

Wednesday was Carter's last day of school. Because of the change in my lunch schedule there have been many times lately where I haven't been able to bring him, but I made doubly sure I could bring him on his last day! I had planned on getting a gift for Carter's teacher, likely a Tim Horton's gift card, but I decided on something more personal. On Sunday, I made myself one of those scrapbooking travel mugs, with the insert that you can personalize and slide inside the liner of the mug.

I was so excited about how it turned out that I made one for Carter's teacher using pictures from the PowerPoint slideshow she handed out. I had a great picture of her and Carter that I placed in the middle and I put pictures of the whole class on the rest of it, with some pretty graphics. I had also picked up for myself a cool binding machine at the clearance sale of one of our office supply stores. For five bucks I got the machine and a whole pile of the coiled edges that go with it. I was so excited about it I figured Carter's teacher would love one, given the cool scrapbooks she made for each student this year. She loved the mug and the machine. I sure hope we get her again when Cooper goes to school (gulp...next year!) I also made these cute cards for Carter to give to his classmates in case they wanted to get together for a playdate throughout the summer months:

Wednesday night I went to Bingo with Mom and Kelly. Ever-so-sadly, we didn't win but it had been awhile since we all went so it was good to get out. That, and my laptop bag was in the Jeep and I didn't dare leave it in there (based on past experience!) so I took it in with me and I discovered there was a full-strength wireless signal! I checked if Chris was online so I could say Hi but he must have still been outside playing with the boys. During intermission we went online to look at some pictures of Kelly's niece's babies. I'll try to remember to leave my laptop at home next time but it was neat to be connected to the world even out in the boonies!

Today was a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic day at work. My boss was coming to town and emailed me yesterday to ask if I was available today for my performance appraisal. Instantly I was all nervous thinking it would be something to dread. But he's very easy to talk to, and it went fantastically. I was thrilled that he had been asking several of my coworkers to give feedback about my work and my attitude and there was a pleasing consensus. He highlighted my computer skills and is planning on some specific server training for me so that they can use me more for my IT skills. Very exciting. I have been feeling tension around the office lately, but we discussed a few issues and again I was pleased to learn that my positive attitude has been noticed and that I've been recognized for contributing to a positive work atmosphere. Suh-weet.

After work, we all came home and Chris and I (without killing each other) put away the tent trailer. It's fairly easy as long as you do the steps in the right order. I'm officially excited we have it, and I look forward to doing some real camping this summer. We went to visit Uncle Cliff and Auntie Lurdes and while we were there we took a few pictures of my new ride...(this is the part for the Ogre! :)

My favourite part of the detailing is the Mellykat on the door trim. Oh and the 400+ horsepower this baby sports!

Editor's note: My Uncle's brother is in town, and this is his car. But I do feel it was a good fit and I wiped all the drool off it once I was done with it! ;) P.S. I love PhotoShop! heeheehee (Sorry E!)

A Special Post for Theresa

(and Angie!)

Last week I posted about having a Caesar to drink when we had dinner out with Mom and Dad for our anniversary. I received a comment from Theresa questioning whether this was some type of puréed salad (gross!), or some sort of drink. Well, it's a yummy drink similar to a Bloody Mary, and I've been meaning to come back to write a post to clear it up for my south of the border friends. (Angie has been through this process already the last time I blogged about it!)

Anyhoo, I'm guessing Theresa was picturing something like this: (ew)

But this is what I'm talkin' 'bout:



Anyway, just for you Theresa...and the ''Bloody Caesar'' was invented in Baja, California if what I read on the net was correct! :)

Metacarpal Mishaps and Graduation Week!

It's Saturday! And that means Soccer Day! It was a beautiful morning. One I'd like to have lingered in bed longer but it was much better spent going to soccer. I had a heck of a time finding Carter's soccer jersey (of all the days to misplace it - team pictures today!)

I eventually found it and gave it a quick handwash in the sink. I laid it out on a towel and folded the towel over and stepped all over it. Next I threw it in the dryer with a couple towels to finish it up. This all happened just moments before Carter had to go to soccer.

Since I wasn't ready yet, I suggested to Chris that he bring Carter to soccer and I would follow with Cooper after in the stroller. Very nice day for a walk and I found the greatest shortcuts to the soccer fields so we were there within about twenty minutes. They took individual and team pictures for everyone. Carter played a little more enthusiastically today and took far fewer 'breaks' than usual. He even made a couple saves when he played goalie. Cool! Here is a picture of him in net making a save.

As we were leaving, I was pushing Cooper in the stroller toward the parking lot and he started SCREAMING. I looked down and Chris noted that Cooper's finger was pinched in the hinge of the stroller where it collapses. We got his finger out and it had an indentation in it. Ouch. Poor guy. I consoled him and by the time we got back to the Jeep he was fine. I figured it would turn his fingernail purple and be in rough shape but there's not a mark on it now.

After soccer we went to Tim Horton's. The kids had some sort of strawberry blossom donut and we shared a box of Timbits. I have been laying off the French vanilla cappuccino but I had one today. Yum. We went across to Wal-Mart so I could pick up toothpaste. Since when is toothpaste eighty-four dollars? Since I bought four tubes and added a bunch of shampoo and conditioner and milk and toothbrushes!

We cruised around a little then came home. We played around a bit then I told the kids they could watch a movie in the camper (oh by the way we now have a camper...an eight-foot tent trailer; it's cute!) So the kids were goofing off as usual and Cooper slammed the door. ON.CARTER'S.THUMB. Oy vey another hand injury. Carter's thumb had every indentation from the doorframe and weatherstripping on his thumb. There is a dark purple bruise right on his knuckle. Good thing kids' bones aren't as hard as adults, and I pray it's not broken. I brought him in the house and first ran his thumb under cold water, which he HATED. Next I took him in the living room and calmed him down. I encouraged him to show me if his thumb was still working. He can straighten and bend it, which I figure is a good sign.

He wanted to lie down in our room so I brought an ice pack and rested his thumb on it. While I was looking for the Children's Tylenol, I found a Lifesavers storybook in the cupboard. Nice timing. I consoled him with candy and amid his sniffles he dozed off. I still have his thumb resting on the icepack and I'm sitting beside him blogging on the new laptop. If he still has trouble later I'll take him up to the hospital, but I'm hoping it will be okay.

So as for the remainder of the week that I didn't blog, it was kind of a blah week at work. The one evening I actually felt like blogging was Thursday, but our internet was down. I've had to change my lunch schedule so I'm often taking a one o'clock lunch instead of my usual twelve so it's been a bit of an adjustment, particularly because Carter is still in school and I usually take him to school on my lunch hour. Chris has been a big help this week.

Thursday was an extra cool day. Carter had his junior kindergarten graduation. OMGTHATWASTHECYUUUUUTESTTHINGEVER. I had picked up a pair of black dress pants and nice shoes, a white dress shirt and a zipper tie. I'd never seen one before; those things rock! I didn't try anything on him; I just brought it all in the Wal-Mart bag to the sitter's house and asked her to help dress him before we picked him up. Chris took him to school and went home to shower. I got off for lunch and ran to the store to grab some dainties to bring (as if I baked!) I picked up Chris and we headed for the school. Cindy joined us, which was cool because I remember taking Carter to Noah's graduation just five short years ago.

The kids sang songs and recited poems and individually went up to receive their diplomas. The teacher (OMGTHEMOSTAWESOMETEACHEREVER) really went out of her way on the mortar boards and gowns with blue sashes for the boys and pink for the girls. At the end of their last poem, they all tossed their hats into the air. And yes, I do have more pictures! (And no, I am NOT pregnant; just not sucking it in enough in a white shirt that drapes over all my...uh...curves.)




Carter's teacher interviewed each kid asking a series of questions. When she was calling each child up to receive his/her diploma, she recited the interview.

1. What is your favourite thing to do at home? Make cookies.
2. How old will you be in twenty years? Fifty-one.
3. What will you be when you grow up? Spiderman.
4. Where will you live? In Oxdrift with my Mom.
5. What will you do in your free time? Get goodies from other houses.

Way too cute. The teacher did a PowerPoint presentation with activities and pictures of all the kids throughout the school year. I was ready to whip out my thumb drive and grab it from her laptop, but at the little reception after the graduation, there was a table at the back of the gym with a portfolio for each kid, with a CD of the presentation. Inside the CD case is a laminated list of the questions she asked, along with the CD in a jewel case. The portfolio is a bound scrapbook with a page for each month showing pictures of Carter, artwork (all pieces laminated) that he has done throughout the school year...this book is an AMAZING keepsake. A real labour of love that this wonderful teacher did for all of her students. Over thirty of them between her morning and afternoon classes! I sure hope that we get her as a teacher for Cooper next year! (Yes, my baby is going to school a year from September!!!)

Well, if we could depend on the weather long enough we might just decide to go camping. But with the torrential downpour this afternoon and the booming thunder, I'm guessing we're sticking close to home. Perhaps we'll camp out in the back yard tonight! Popcorn and movies and playing cards in the great outdoors sounds like fun to me! (Not to mention I'm picking up someone's wireless signal and I can always bring along the laptop! heehee.

Stand Back. This Thing is Loaded.

Ahhhhhhhh. Blogging from the laptop. The new laptop is now loaded like the previous one was. And now I'm clutching on to it for dear life. I just loaded the last of my scrapbooking stuff on it tonight. Copying all that stuff onto the external hard drive then moving it to the laptop takes a long time. After the last laptop vanished I tidied up the hard drive on the desktop computer and got rid of about twenty gigs of stuff and organized things a bit better.

So now I already have about a hundred gigs of pictures and scrapbooking on the new laptop. And it feels goooooooood. The new laptop is actually a bit thinner and lighter than the first one. It's pretty much completely different, but in good ways.

Well, it's the middle of June and we're having a heck of a time getting above single-digit temperatures. Sad. The weather had better improve by the time we take our holiday time next month!

The rest of the weekend was quiet (and lazy on my part). I watched The Bucket List on Sunday and Chris finished watching Jumper since he had fallen asleep on Saturday night while we were watching it.

Tonight I made burritos for supper. I tried a variety of presentations for the boys. I thought they'd like the wraps, but they only nibbled. I hollowed out buns and filled them with the ground beef and cheese for them. A couple more bites. At least Chris and I enjoyed them. I put the leftover taco beef in a ziploc bag and put it in the freezer for next time or maybe for a taco salad.

Carter fell asleep by eight. I wish Cooper would go to bed that early. He was up until at least ten then he got up awhile later to finish the poop he had started earlier. I only caught him for part of it earlier in the evening and sat him on the toilet. I'm looking forward to summer when we'll play outside all the time and I can put him in big-boy gotchies to train him for peeing on the potty too. The pooping part we have no problem with as long as we catch him before he starts.

Well enough of my idle rambling. Hopefully I'll have some new pictures or scrapbooking to post soon. I used my Peppermint Creative gift certificate that I won and purchased a few new kits.

Not Much to Report

Stuffed

Tonight we had a beautiful dinner out with my parents to celebrate our anniversary. This was our rescheduled date from last week. Ashley came over to watch the kids for us (thanks again, Ashley!) and thanks Mom and Dad for an amazing dinner (I'm still SO FULL!)

First I had the scallops gratinée for an appetizer, along with a Caesar to drink. I had the pepper steak with a baked potato and veggies. Then the dessert girl came along and somehow tempted me (well it wasn't that difficult) with a chocolate coffee cheesecake. I had full intention of taking a couple little bites and expected Chris would finish it. It was more like the other way around. And it was gooooooooooooood.

After dinner we stopped to rent a couple movies. We came home and sprung Ashley and Mom and Dad came to watch a movie with us too. We planned on watching The Bucket List but we ended up watching Jumper. A cool sci-fli flick with Hayden Christiansen and Samuel Jackson about these people who are able to teleport themselves anywhere at will. Pretty neat movie.

I'm wayyyyyyyyy too tired to stay up and watch The Bucket List. Carter is asleep beside me on the couch and Chris is zonked on the other couch. My Mom, the baby whisperer, cuddled Cooper to sleep in a couple minutes and after I put him to bed Carter was her next sleepy customer. I feel like I should go for a ten-mile walk after the humongous meal I ate, but sleep is seeming like the more likely option. So I'm outta here! Thanks again Mom and Dad - that was so awesome!

I'll Never Remember it All...

So here's a synopsis.

Sunday: I took both kids to church (brave girl!) and out for breakfast after with Mom and Dad.

Monday: Uncle Bob came over after I came home from work to look at our dryer. Apparently it's not supposed to take 2+ hours to dry a load of clothes! (Which we knew but hadn't arranged for him to come over until this week!) We need a part for it so he'll come back later in the week to fix it all up.

Tuesday: After work I came home and the cell phone cover I ordered for Kelly on eBay had arrived so she walked over to pick it up. (Soccer was cancelled due to all the rain we've been having; the fields are flooded.) The kids were begging to go to the park and it had warmed up a little so Kelly was all set to take off with the kids and take them to the park. I felt awful letting her do that alone so we walked the kids to the park while Chris TOILED over my flower bed alongside my driveway. He used the garden claw and uprooted all the GRASS (not just a few measly weeds) and hopefully kept all my flower bulbs and already-existing plants intact. If not, I'll go get some more because he did a fabulous job of making it look like a flower bed again!

The kids L.O.V.E.D. the park of course, but duh-me forgot my camera. Cooper was a climbing maniac once he got used to the equipment and Carter is quite the daredevil too. Kelly took a couple pictures with her camera on her phone. We talked them into coming home and Carter was bushed by the time we got here. He didn't last very long and zonked out soon after.

Today Kelly's son had a follow-up dental appointment in Winnipeg so I was the navigator once again. I'm her real-life GPS and have really learned my way around over the years. We went to the insurance impound lot to see if we could visit her vehicle. The people there were nice and directed us to a section of one of the MANY lots there of vehicles there for various reasons, many many many stolen ones. The guy suggested that if there were any items remaining in the vehicle that didn't belong to Kelly (or her son or me) that we should leave them in there and let them know so the police could fingerprint them (huh? you mean they didn't do that already?) He also warned us there could be items such as crack pipes and stuff in there. Ewwwwwwwwwww! We were horrified.

So we went to see it and it was REMARKABLY UNBELIEVABLY not smashed up. Thank God. They did, however, punch out the door lock to get in, and smashed the steering column to hot-wire it. We don't have a clue if it is still mechanically sound but once it gets sent in for repair I guess she'll find out.

They took EVERYTHING out of the vehicle. My bag of stuff was totally gone, anything electronic that they could haul out was gone. They emptied the glove box and console compartment. The back of the vehicle where the groceries were was empty except for her ice scraper. But on the floor of the back of the vehicle where most spare tires are kept there is a compartment they either missed or ignored and in it was the nice mag-lite flashlight I gave Kelly for Christmas and her first aid kit.

After a few glances under the passenger seat where I sat (I looked hoping to find some trace of my belongings) I found a little pewter angel that Kelly's sister had given her. We figure the angel kept the vehicle from being harmed more than it was! :)

Generally it was fairly cleaner than we expected, though the jerk(s?) smoked in the vehicle and flicked their ashes in the cupholders. There was only one thing that was in there that wasn't from our stuff; it was a plastic lid from presumably a container of nachos from a convenience store. We mentioned it to the dude at the gate in case the creeps left their cruddy fingerprints on it. Hope they catch the slimeballs.

Here are the pictures of the main damage done to the vehicle.



We went to Ben's appointment, had a lovely lunch at Red Lobster, purchased a few things at Costco and headed back home. The next step is for Kelly's insurance adjuster to contact her to arrange for repairs I think. Kelly's next trip to the city should hopefully be the trip to pick up her vehicle.

PRAISEGODTHEYFOUNDIT!!!

Happy 11th Anniversary Honey!

Yesterday poured rain like crazy. Major crazy. My hair was done in by the time I picked up the kids. It should have lasted a few more days. I was still, however, relieved that it was finally Friday.

Chris stayed after work to rotate the tires on his truck. I came home with the kids and we played inside until Chris came home. We had munchies for supper (onion rings, buffalo wings and mozza sticks).

Today the weather cleared but was seriously windy. Carter's soccer coach called this morning to say soccer was canceled due to flooding at the soccer field, which was...YAY! I lazed around as much as possible and the kids did their best to drive me crazy. Instead of coming home after work, Chris went straight out to Cindy's place to help build a fence around the garden.

We were going to go out for supper for our anniversary with Mom and Dad and Cindy and Bob but Dad wasn't feeling well so we postponed until next week. Ashley was going to come over and babysit but when we talked on the phone and I canceled with her, she asked if I wanted to go for a walk. I had to shower and iron my hair (and shave my legs so I could wear capris!) so she met up with us here at two o'clock.

It was gorgeous out, despite the strong wind. It actually felt great because it was a warm wind. We ventured down the street with Cooper in the stroller and Carter walking. Ashley showed me two new walking paths I'd never been on before, and we walked nearly an hour and a half, including a few stops along the river path. I took a few pictures. It really was a beautiful day.


By the time we were on our way back from the walk, the boys had fallen asleep in the stroller. I parked them on the doorstep in the stroller and went in to grab a change of clothes for the kids and for Chris, a few drinks for the kids and we headed out to pick up Mom since Dad was already at Cindy's house.

We arrived and the guys were all done building the fence. Massive garden; hyuuuuuuuge freaking fence! We had barbecued hamburgers and salad and potato wedges for supper, and sugar pie (two pieces for me!) for dessert.

After supper everyone lounged around while the kids ran all over the back yard flying kites.

Everyone came in the house and we just relaxed and visited for awhile. We came home and the kids fell asleep shortly after. We watched the movie Hot Rod. Very silly but a few funny parts. One of those hour-and-a-half Saturday Night Live skits like Superstar or Night at the Roxbury. I'm kind of tired but it's so quiet around here with everyone asleep I'm tempted to do some more scrapping.

Part way through the movie I turned on my computer. Since I've been gone the whole day I had missed a message from Kelly that THEY FOUND HER VEHICLE IN WINNIPEG! Unfortunately she has NO other details other than it was found ABOUT A WEEK AGO and it's at Autopac. Hopefully it's not too damaged. It will be interesting to see if anything was left behind in it or not; obviously all the valuable stuff will have disappeared. All she knows is she needs to bring license plates with her since hers were replaced with Manitoba plates. It's at least a relief to know it has been found.

O.M.G.W.I.I.N.F.Y?

Oh My God Why Is It Not Friday Yet?
(Looking forward to a simple T.G.I.F.)

It's felt like a long week. I'll blog more later but for now I'll post a scrapbook layout I did last night.


Later in the day when I'm more awake I'll finish this post. ::Yawn::

Okay, I'm actually finally more awake than I was this morning, and it's twenty-five after ten at night. And the only reason I'm conscious is the drink of Coke I had this evening.

Work was fine but BUSY. The phones rang non-stop, which made for a quick day. I had the late lunch hour again, so my Dad was kind enough to take Carter to school for me so neither Chris nor I had to make any special arrangements to leave work. (Thanks again, Dad! ... and for the paper and stuff too!)

After work I picked up the kids and Carter was tired and therefore VERY GRUMPY. He's really been acting up on the way home from school with the sitter's kid that walks him home, so I told him he was grounded. Grounded from his bike and the computer. He was pretty sad (AND WHINY) but I stuck to my guns and he really seemed sorry about it. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I took him with me to Wal-Mart and he was so bummed when I wouldn't even take him to LOOK at the toys. I could tell he was so tired. We came home and I cuddled him to sleep and hoisted him to the top bunk. Then it was Cooper's turn to cuddle and he fell asleep while I talked to Kelly on the phone.

I put the laundry in the dryer and came to blog since I got a little comment from Angie looking for the remainder of this blogpost. :) Sometime since last night when I posted the scrapbook layout of Cooper, it was posted on Miss Mint's blog (yay me!)as a demo for extractions (pictures popping out of the frame). You can click the picture to enlarge it and see the credits.

I need to stay up for awhile since the dryer doesn't shut itself off...it apparently needs to have all the lint sucked out of its innards and that is why the timer no longer works. I hope that's all that's wrong with it. Maybe I'll scrap something. We'll see.

Gastric Gymnastics

I'm no athlete but my guts were doing some serious acrobatics today. Holy s**t. Seriously. Around ten this morning I got all icky-feeling and started making some somewhat urgent trips to the washroom. After a few rounds it was time for me to go for lunch. I had the late lunch hour today and I came home to lie down for awhile.

I called work to say my tummy hadn't settled down and I spent the afternoon in and out of bed and the bathroom. Yuck. Kelly called this afternoon and she was experiencing the very same symptoms I was all day. We hadn't eaten anything in common so we must have come across the same tummy bug somewhere along the way. Chris was working away from the shop today so I still had to pick up the kids. I came home and Chris wasn't too far behind. He played outside with the kids for a bit and I came back in the house to lie down again. Carter joined me and he fell into a deep sleep, including a few loud snores. Eventually Chris and Cooper came in and I had asked Chris to get something for himself and the kids to eat. He opted for pizza so I ordered it for delivery.

I actually ate a couple pieces and some cinnaparts. I sure hope it doesn't come back to haunt me. I put Cooper to bed and I was falling asleep with him. So I'm off to bed. With Carter's late nap he'll probably be up until the wee hours and be a little zombie in the morning. He can hang out with Chris in the living room...he seems to have zonked out on the couch already. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day all around!

So Much to Say - So Little Oomph

Blah Blech Hmph. No we haven't heard anything from the police, and the scene of wandering out to that empty parking spot is never a moment from our minds.

I had to make an insurance claim for my stuff, and I have to order a replacement laptop so that they will pay me for the first one. Great. So I'm out the price of not one laptop but two, before they pay for the first one. I'm sort of happy I'll have one again, but I couldn't get the same model since technology changes so quickly that I'll be a bit whiny about it if it doesn't look the same. Fortunately I got almost the same computer and the wonderful sales guy gave me the identical price of the first one. As for the other stuff I have to receive paperwork from the insurance company and make a list of the other lost items.

The weekend was pretty decent! The weather is starting to act spring-like. On Saturday evening we went out for supper with Chris's Dad and his lady friend. The boys were pretty good at the restaurant, and the usually-shy-with-new-people Cooper was ALL OVER her. It was very cute how he flirted with her and she got him to eat all his supper! Bizarro. We had a lovely visit and dinner and then we went to DQ for ice cream. Carter and I walked home and Cooper went with Chris.

On Sundae (oops I'm thinking about ice cream again)...on Sunday, Chris went fishing with a couple guys from work. I was all about lying around feeling icky and lazy (hindsight tells me it was Aunt Flo rearing her ugly head but I hadn't realized it was already June!) Chris came home in the afternoon and occupied Cooper outside while he was cleaning fish. Yes, he brought home some fish! Mom called at quarter to five to see if we wanted to come out for steaks. I'm so glad she called. I instantly snapped out of my funk and we got ready and headed out. Dad barbecued some beauty steaks and we had tossed salad and I brought some coleslaw. We also had baked potatoes and garlic bread and pan-fried mushrooms. I gorged myself, particularly since I'd scarcely eaten all day. The boys ate a bit and had a good time playing outside on the deck on the trikes Mom and Dad keep there for them.

After supper Auntie Lurdes and Uncle Cliff came out to visit. Auntie Lurdes was having the same kind of day I was so we commiserated a little and had a great visit. We brought the boys home and everyone went to bed early. Over the weekend I did some grocery shopping and replenished my make-up kit since that was one of the items that disappeared last week. I bought all the same stuff and ended up with a cool new mascara. Mom hooked me up with a makeup bag since I have one somewhere in the house but only God knows where it is at this moment.

Today was a busy busy workday. I finished up month-end and fielded 982345987 calls for things I couldn't help people with since the appropriate staff aren't in this week. I received a call from the insurance dude who is going to send me paperwork. We had fresh, never-frozen pan-fried walleye for supper, lightly-breaded with kernel corn and fried potatoes with seasoning salt and onion. Yum. Carter ate a bit of fish and Cooper ate a bit of nothing. Good thing I recall Carter going through a liquid-diet phase or I'd be really worried. Carter is still growing like a weed with Cooper quickly following his footsteps so all seems well.

After supper, Cooper and I went for a walk with Kelly and her puppy Radley. We walked past a couple car dealerships, but her heart really isn't into looking for a new vehicle yet. Especially since there is still a chance that hers will turn up before the two-week waiting period. We're so curious to know what happened to her vehicle and if it does turn up what kind of shape it will be in. She was told a worse story today by a lady she knows that I feel compelled to share...

So the people have their vehicle stolen from a parking lot much like Kelly's situation. The next day, the vehicle is returned to the exact spot it was taken from, completely unharmed! In the vehicle are two concert tickets for a concert event that hadn't happened yet. The people thought of it as an act of good faith since the people had stolen the vehicle and for whatever reason returned it. So, they go to the concert and return home only to find their house EMPTY. Oh my God. What a horrible set-up. Note to self: Even if people return your stolen vehicle, it doesn't mean their intentions are any better than when they took it in the first place! So we officially found out it could be worse. Oy vey.

I cuddled up with Cooper until he fell asleep. Carter climbed up to his bunk and I tucked him in. I'm about ready to crash too. (I haven't even begun to catch up on blog reading except I noticed my picture on Miss Mint's blog preview in my blog viewer...looks like I won a $10 gift certificate for a picture I submitted. Fun!) I sure hope I can find something to wear tomorrow 'cause I have a mountain of laundry that is taunting me all the way from the basement. Tomorrrrrrow, tomorrrrrrrrrrooooowwwwww I'll wash ya tomorrrrrrrowwww. You're only a day aaaaaaaawayyyyyyyyyyyy. (and I'm outta here!)