Keeping Up With The Groveses

Right Place, Right Time

2011-09-24T21:34:00.007-05:00

Well, Fall is here but today was a beautiful, warm day. Yesterday too...Chris has barbecued two days in a row. I've still been fighting a cold the past few days. Mom brought some delicious chicken soup yesterday and I enjoyed it for supper today.

On my way home from work yesterday, I stopped in to see Chris at work. He went to pick up the kids while I went to get a few groceries. I went to M&M and got some bacon-wrapped filet mignon, and to the grocery store for some veggies. On my way home, I just happened to catch the tail end of an announcement on the radio about a radio contest...had to be caller number four. As I drove (my bad!) I dialed the radio station, still listening to find out the contest details. Sure enough, I was caller number four, which qualified me to be in a draw for a fifty dollar gift certificate at a local clothing store. The announcer kept me on the phone to get contact info, and advised me the draw was going to be in just a few minutes.

I got home and put away the groceries. Just as I sat down, my phone rang and it was the radio station. I won the draw and can pick up my gift certificate next week. Talk about right place/right time! :)

Today I had some fun creating some birthday invitations for a coworker. In order to post it, I changed the info. Here is a demo of the invitation; I got the idea here and created my own. The lid is attached to an insert that lifts out of a slot in the card part to show the invitation. Fun!

A couple evenings ago I sold the boys' bunk beds. They're the kind with shelves and drawers built in, and they take up a lot of space in an already small room. I've arranged to buy a couple captain's/mate's beds for them. Maybe with the drawers built in those, I might actually put some of the boys' clothes in them. Doubt it, but maybe it will help with the lack of space in the room at least.

It's been a fairly quiet weekend so far. Chris is out watching UFC at a friend's house. I had some fun building a fort for the boys and it was really quiet for a little while when they were watching a movie in there. Now they're both asleep and I'm about ready to turn in too.

Time Shift

2011-09-21T00:13:00.000-05:00

I really don't know where time goes. Just when I thought I might become a regular blogger again, another week passes.

Last week I didn't mention the boys started Judo again. Twice a week. Chris and I take turns taking them. It starts earlier now, and is a shorter session to accommodate the younger kids like ours and the more advanced judoists later. I haven't taken any pictures yet; maybe if the kids each get a new gi then the pictures will look different from last season!

I didn't end up posting new pictures, but managed to change my blog header from a winter scene to a summer one; just in time for the season to change to fall and winter again. ::sigh::

Today was my turn for Judo, but I only took Carter. Awhile after I returned to work from my lunch break, I got a call from the school that Cooper had hit another kid. I thought the lady meant he punched someone, but she rephrased and told me he bonked heads with another kid and had a goose egg on his head. She said at first he was fine and all talkative but then he got quiet and wasn't feeling well. I went to pick him up right away and brought him back to work with me to keep an eye on him. I'd planned to finish what I was working on and take him home, but he was surprisingly easy to entertain with my iPad (briefly). A coworker gave him a little project to do; cutting out some therapy materials for the speech pathologists. He even paper clipped them together and handed them in separately. Cute.

I took him for coffee break too and he got to have a cuddle with Kelly for a few minutes. Obviously he seemed fine by this time but whenever I had mentioned bringing him back to school, he professed that he wasn't feeling THAT well! I managed to stay at work for the rest of the afternoon. I brought Cooper home and Chris picked Carter up. We had a quick supper before I took off in the pouring rain to bring Carter to judo.

I've been working on a few projects lately; some wedding items for a coworker I did as a gift:

Since last winter, we've been without cable TV. I switched us over to Netflix back in Februaryish. I don't miss cable TV at all, though our Netflix is LOUSY compared to the U.S. And it's not a U.S. thing, it's a Canada thing. Apparently our CRTC or whatever governing body licenses television and movie viewing around here doesn't allow all the programming. So much of it is old or "B" movies but still, it's commercial-free and only eight bucks a month, and the kids don't seem to watch as much TV. I kept us on cable internet though, thank goodness, and we can watch pretty much any TV shows we're missing out on on the computer, though that's rare. The kids seem to be loving watching old Pink Panther cartoon episodes, which I find amusing.

Well, that's about it for me; hope to be back soon! :)

What the What?

2011-09-14T21:19:00.000-05:00

Despite my absence over the past LONG while, I've really missed blogging. Facebook seems to have completely taken over any documenting of our happenings and pictures; which is easy, fast, and most convenient, but still kind of a bummer.

So let's see...the kids are in school again, which started on August 30th. I have this thing where I think school should start in September, but the boys have settled in okay. Carter is now in grade three, and Cooper is in grade one. I'll sort through some pictures if I'm really serious about getting into the blogging circuit again.

Three days ago, September 11th, we were at the beach with some friends. The weather was hot, the water was refreshing. Then Mother Nature dropped the temperature like it was a hot potato. It snowed today. Ewwwww. So much for easing us into cooler weather.

Chris and I still work in the same places. It was a busy, hot summer, with many trips to the beach and to visit friends and family at camp. The pinnacle of the summer was my 40th birthday on Canada Day, July 1st. My family, friends, and a few coworkers threw a surprise birthday party for me. It was fantastic. Aside from the grand surprise, I received an amazing Cheryl Parenteau cake, and a long-coveted iPad I'd been hemming and hawing over buying.

Over the past year or so, I've had some eye troubles. It started with a goopy eye infection. One day when I was rubbing my eye, I felt a sharp pain. Ever since, I've had a leaky eye, since the tear duct to carry tears away from the eye seems to be blocked. It took an optometrist, two nurse practitioners, and finally the winner, the opthalmologist to figure it out. I'm supposed to be booked for surgery this October. Hopefully that will happen; it will be nice to not have a leaking eye all the time. Sometimes it's just a drop, other times a stream of tears runs down my face. I look forward to getting it fixed.

Well, that was a cheap catch-up post, so I'll go review some pictures and maybe add in a little slideshow to this post.

A Fun-Filled Weekend

2011-03-07T21:39:00.002-06:00

I already can't recall Friday; seems too long ago. But I had a great Saturday; a really lazy one with the boys. Late in the afternoon I finally got my rear in gear and covered up the 'grey highlights' in my hair. I bathed and showered and got ready to meet up with the girls for girls' night at Kelly's house.

I picked up Yvette and we dropped off our stuff at Kelly's then she came with me to drop off my Jeep. We walked to Kelly's and that's when the fun began. It was a packed house, with Kelly, me, Yvette, Carmelle, Serena, Dianne, Allison, Melissa, and newcomer Brittni. Instead of playing SingStar like we usually do, we've taken a liking to dance games on the Wii. The past couple girls' nights we've played 'The Michael Jackson Experience' which we love, but this time, Melissa brought 'Just Dance 2'. FUN!

We had a tonne of food, (which for my non-metric friends is about 204 pounds more than a ton!) and had plenty of lovely blue drinks. My favourite of late is called a 'Blue Lagoon'. Here is the recipe:

In a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice...
1 ounce vodka (I used black cherry vodka)
1 ounce blue curaçao
Fill with lemonade.
Shake and pour!

I add cocktail cherries and a pretty-coloured umbrella just to pretend I'm somewhere tropical. Looks like Windex, tastes like Heaven.

It was a fun (and late) night. I walked home sometime around two. Sunday morning I was a little sleepy but felt pretty good. I had a Bingo date with Kelly and Yvette planned for the afternoon. Kelly's birthday is coming up but she'll be away for it, so I brought her little goody bag of birthday stuff to Bingo. We had a blast of course, though the winning left a little to be desired. I was still happy to yell Bingo even though it was twenty-seven dollars in the early bird game.

I got home and was greeted to something delicious-smelling when I walked in. Chris had concocted a pasta dish and made garlic bread. Yummy! I was pretty tired by this time, but we had plans to go to Cindy and Bob's for a surprise birthday party put on by his son Zach. Zach spent about ten hours on Bob's birthday cake, which was a very large pair of boob cakes, complete with nipple piercings. Very funny, and he's gotten very talented with fondant. We had a great visit and we were stuffed from the delicious cake.

Today was a pretty quiet day at the office. Days like today are great for getting paperwork done. It's going to be a busy week this week. Judo, church meetings, medical appointments...

Tomorrow Carter's class is going on their ski trip that was postponed from a few weeks ago. I hope the weather cooperates so he can have a great day. I doubt I'll get my hands on any pictures since I won't be there, but I'll see if I can get some from one of the other parents.

How Did I Do It?

2011-03-05T11:31:00.003-06:00

Am I busier now? The kids are bigger and aside from their already-teenage attitudes, they're easier to care for. Our only extracurricular activity is Judo and it's only twice a week. Why can't I blog every day?

On Tuesday I took both boys to school, but received a call from Carter's teacher just after ten-thirty, saying he wasn't feeling well. I told them I'd be there in twenty minutes. I waited until everyone took coffee breaks, then as I was about to leave, I realized I didn't have a vehicle because I had taken the Jeep in for an oil change. I had already arranged for Carter to hang out with my Dad for the afternoon, so I had to add in the detail of Chris picking up Carter and bringing him to my office for Dad to pick him up. That worked out well. I guess things were starting to work themselves out gastrointestinally for Carter, but not well enough yet. He had a quiet afternoon with his Grandpa.

I took Cooper to Judo while Carter stayed home with his Dad. It's getting really enjoyable watching the kids at Judo because they're really learning the skills. From the counting and names of the moves in Japanese to knowing on command how to do them, it's really neat.

That night Carter was still complaining his tummy hurt, so Chris arranged to stay home with him for the day on Wednesday. I was starting to have some nagging doubt that Carter was really feeling that badly, but I didn't want to doubt him in case something was really wrong. Things started to percolate for him much better by Wednesday, and he returned to his perky little self. I think he was peppering conversations with comments of still having a tummyache but I specifically told him Wednesday was his last day at home.

On Thursdays for the next couple months Carter has meetings/classes at the church for his upcoming First Communion. Unfortunately it coincides with our Judo schedule, but it's a necessary sequence of meetings and he won't miss the Judo wind-up.

In general the workweek flew by. Friday was a good day, including lunching out with an old friend from high school, a coworker and her friend, and a surprise visit from my parents at Masala. The buffet was delicious as usual and I was full enough to not want to eat supper. After work Chris puttered around outside working on his 4-wheeler. Carter and Cooper had both shoveled the driveway in the morning before school (!) so it saved Chris a bunch of work!

Once Chris came in I went to pick up KFC. Carter was desperately professing his starvingness by this time and had put in the request. After they ate we watched movies for awhile before the boys fell asleep. Chris went to work this morning as usual and I took the boys for a donut and got myself another (free) coffee. Also on my agenda for the day is to get rid of these grey highlights...Chris might take the boys to the sno-cross races today. Nice day for it! :)

He's So Full of It

2011-02-28T21:27:00.008-06:00

Today was an eventful one. Carter had a tummy ache since Saturday and I was getting pretty worried. I was hoping it was just constipation but didn't want to take any chances of his appendix rupturing or something. So this morning he still wasn't himself and hadn't produced his usual output so we dropped Cooper off at school and I brought Carter to work with me. My plan was to call the clinic when it opened and if I could get a walk-in appointment, I'd take him to Mom and Dad's if they were around until the appointment. If I couldn't get one, I'd just take him to the ER. So after waiting for the place to open, then trying for about 10-15 minutes of non-stop redialing, I decided to take him up.

We got in quickly to the triage nurse, then were taken to a room where Carter got to lie down with a toasty warm, just-out-of-the-oven blanket. We waited awhile then the doctor came in and knew Carter wasn't feeling well. He checked his belly and ordered an x-ray. Carter lit up like a Christmas tree, he was so excited. Shortly after, he had to take off his pants to put on a gown and was transported by wheelchair to the x-ray room. He was thrilled to be maneuvered on the x-ray table, then I had to leave the room so she could take the pictures.

He was offered a sticker, and opted for the "I had an x-ray today" one. He was driven back to the room where we awaited the verdict from the doctor. The doctor came in and said, "Well, you're full of poop." He prescribed a gentle laxative and a fleet enema. We went to the pharmacy but opted for just the laxative. I brought him to hang out with his grandparents for the afternoon (we're so lucky to have them so handy :) I gave him a dose and we were treated to salmon salad sandwiches for lunch. Carter nibbled a little on one; he'd been eating like a bird all weekend.

On my way back to work I stopped at Tim Horton's for a coffee. This morning one of my coworkers was behind me the first time I went through, so I paid for her coffee. This time I was rewarded with what I like to call coffee karma, and the person ahead of me bought my coffee. Sweet!

The month of February has flown by as if it were just a week. I made these Valentine cards for the boys to take to school. I also was oddly ambitious enough to design and print out personalized lollipop covers to match the cards for each classmate and teacher. Unfortunately the morning before Valentine's Day I woke up with a wry neck and didn't feel up to cutting them all out. Instead I whipped up personalized envelopes.

For Carter's I added extra work to the project by doing green for the boys and pink for the girls. Leave it to me to complicate things as much as possible!

For friends and family, I did these ones, and kept one of each to stick on our fridge. ♥

Last week I went to Winnipeg with Kelly and Ben for Ben's orthodontic appointment. He went to get his braces off. It's been a long time since we made one of these trips. We went to the mall, where the dentist office is. We arrived early despite the insane city traffic, and had breakfast at the food court, where barely anything was even open yet. I guess the mall opens at ten. The nerve of them for not opening sooner since we were in town. haha. Kelly and I wandered the mall while Ben was at his appointment. I was more looking forward to a Costco spree. Ben found us and we made our way to Costco. I bought a bunch of my favourite things...apparently I have quite a penchant for large Zip-Loc freezer bags, and lo and behold they were even on sale, so I bought a three-pack of forty bags. That ought to last me awhile!

After we had eaten a big breakfast, we regretted it almost instantly thinking we wouldn't have any room for a feast at Red Lobster. Fortunately all the walking and shopping took up enough time and energy that we managed to squeeze it in before leaving the city. It was the start of Lobsterfest (YUM!) so I had some sort of feast with two lobster tails and some shrimp alfredo pasta. I was torn over two different meal orders since one included the garlic shrimp. The lovely waitress advised I could add it to the lobster meal, so of course I did. We gorged on the salty, cheesy biscuits, Caesar salad, and of course the lobster feast. Kelly treated me to this amazing lunch for being her navigator. Each time we came out of a store, and from the restaurant, we were pleasantly surprised to find her vehicle was still there every time. Kelly wasn't worried about her vehicle being stolen this time; she simply knows what to do now when it happens. Having OnStar is a plus too; apparently if she'd had it when it was stolen before, they could have located it in about three minutes. Fortunately we didn't have to deal with any of that. Yay!

So after a productive day we headed back home, only being gone about fifteen hours in total, with over half of it driving time. In other happy news, the weather must be getting a little milder because the back window wiper on my Jeep started working like a charm again today. I guess it just does not like cold weather! It's nice to see out the back window again! :)

Well, now, poor Carter gets constipated and I get the verbal diarrhea. Feels good to blog it all out again! I hope to keep up with it; this is way better than a one-line status update on Facebook or a 128-character Tweet!

Winter Fun

2011-02-05T19:32:00.005-06:00

Today we went to a birthday party for a daughter of Chris's friend and coworker. Yours truly actually donned all my winter gear INCLUDING skates! The boys enjoyed skating and quickly went from shuffling along to gliding. They had a few slips and falls but I'm happy to report I managed to stay vertical. Here are a few pictures of the party:

We came home and watched a bit of TV then the boys (all three) crashed. That was a fun day. :)

Happy New Everything

2011-02-03T23:16:00.004-06:00

Lordy Lordy it's been a long time. I got so remiss in my blogging duties that I got scared to attempt it, with so much to catch up on. Let's see...it was SUMMER the last time I blogged. Right now we're smack in the middle of winter, but thanks to Groundhogs Wyarton Willie and his Punxatawney counterpart, we're supposed to get an early spring.

Many things are the same and many have changed. Of course the boys have changed the most. Carter is in grade two and Cooper is in senior kindergarten. Cooper started full-time in the fall. We enrolled the boys in Judo in the fall, and we still enjoy taking them twice a week. Chris and I take turns bringing them and enjoy a couple hours of solitude when it's our turn to stay home.

Life continues to be busy with work and wanting to find more time to spend with family and friends. We enjoyed a great Christmas with all the family that was nearby. I got spoiled and have been enjoying my new winter boots and mitts, making this an enjoyable winter since my feet are warm and dry.

The thing I miss most about blogging is keeping track of our lives. It's so hard to remember any details from summer to now since there are so many. I haven't even compiled all our pictures from 2010 yet; maybe that will help me piece things together. Well, I hope to be back to this soon; maybe a new blog header will help inspire me to stay tuned.

Weird Comments

2010-08-05T01:48:00.002-05:00

I'm getting weird comments almost daily, I suspect from spammers but I cannot tell because it's in an Asian language. Maybe if I could at least read them I wouldn't keep deleting them!

Yeah, that's about all I've got. I have so many fun stories from our two week vacation we just returned to work from but I'm not caught up on my sleep or laundry or pretty much anything!

What Are You Doing Here?

2010-06-29T00:08:00.006-05:00

Didn't you give up on me a long time ago? It's been a month and ten days since I last blogged. Jeepers. So much has happened this past month! And school's out for summer!

We did a bunch of barbecuing last month when the weather was a little better. It's gotten regularly cool and rainy lately. We attempted a campout at our friends' yard when we went to their daughter's birthday party. We had a great barbecue and were planning an evening outside but the rain took over shortly after supper. The kids cavorted like crazies out in the rain until they were soaked then I took them in the camper for pajamas and ended up falling asleep with them. Chris stayed out with the guys and the insane lot of them took off on four-wheelers in the wee hours and driving rain. Chris's quad looks like it ran over a muddy swamp creature! I should have taken pictures.

A few days after my last blog entry, we went to the air show. The kids likely didn't enjoy it as much as I did; I was so looking forward to seeing the Snowbirds. I haven't seen an air show in about thirty years. (BTW I'm not thrilled that I can say anything about thirty years ago!) Here are a couple pictures and a quick clip of our day.

Carter had a school project to work on where he had to choose someone in the community. His original choice was police officer, but since we have a friend that is a paramedic, we opted to use him! Here is a collage of the pictures and the project.

To be continued...

That's Hot!

2010-05-19T22:52:00.005-05:00

It's been an amazingly gorgeous week. Sometimes at this time of year the ice isn't even off the lake yet. I'm loving it. Tonight Chris went boating with his friends and I cleaned out the kiddie pool for the boys. As it was filling, I used my mop bucket to carry hot water out to the pool to try to take the chill out of the water. That didn't work, but that didn't stop the boys from having a blast! I took a few pictures and played a bit with my camera as I watched them cavort all over. They started shivering when the sun ducked behind the house and garage.

I brought them in for a warm bath and fresh pajamas and a bedtime snack and movie. We all cuddled on the couch and watched Ratatouille.

One of my Facebook friends mentioned how my boys look like twins. I don't really usually see any major similarity between them, but since I had a shot of both of them in a similar pose/lighting, I did this morph and noticed they do look a little alike; their eyes are definitely the main area of similarity. :)

I zonked out on the couch with them for a bit. Chris came home and went straight to bed. I seemed to recall a time when I used to blog daily (and occasionally more than once a day) so I decided to post some pictures of our evening. Hopefully this weather holds up and I'll keep things going!

My Very Own Timewarp

2010-05-13T23:30:00.003-05:00

Wow it's been a long time. The last time I wrote, it was after midnight, Chris's Grandpa was still in the hospital. He passed away only hours later. That same day, my Dad's Uncle Evan passed away too. The funeral for Papa was the following Monday to allow for family to make special arrangements to travel. Unfortunately Dad's visit wasn't in time to see his Uncle. Dad still made the trip in hopes of being there for some type of service that didn't happen. We'll be having a service up here in the summer.

Since then time has been flying as usual. We're having a couple issues with Carter at school with some silly behaviour stuff. I think he's trying to be the class clown or something. I'm not sure. I'm actually going to be meeting with the teacher tomorrow. He's such a good kid, and so smart so I really want to be able to help figure out what's up. My gut is that Cooper is so demanding of our attention that maybe Carter doesn't get enough of it at home so he's looking for it at school?

Carter had his SEVENTH birthday last weekend. My big boy! The next day we had a Mother's Day dinner with all the family Mom could muster out at a great rib restaurant. I've never been one to enjoy or ever order ribs, but I ate everything on my plate. Good stuff. After dinner we went to Cindy and Bob's to have birthday cake for Dominic (OMGHEISFOURTEEN) and Carter. Other than that we haven't really celebrated Carter's birthday. We'll be having his 'friend party' this weekend since it was the only time we could make the arrangements we wanted.

I guess I've still been cheating on my blog with Facebook. It's so easy to just drop a status message here and there to keep track of what I'm up to but I really miss blogging. However, I did just take a brief pause from typing just now to update my header to get the snow off my page! Maybe now the weather will finally warm up.

Somewhere along the way Easter came and went. Kelly and I took the boys to the sheep farm to visit all the animals. Serena and her family and Carmelle came too. Carter lost another tooth a few weeks ago. I'll never think of all the things I should be documenting! Dad finished his last round of chemo last week. Good thing 'cause he's getting pretty skinny! Food has lost all appeal for him except for a few varieties of soup. I can't wait for him to get his appetite back and enjoy himself again. It's been a rough road for the past 9 or so months of treatment after the surgery.

Not much is new with me. I'm still keeping up with my printing hobby making cards and stuff. My latest toy is a new Kodak printer and I can print WIRELESSLY. How fun! Very convenient. Well, this has been quite random. I've been feeling really blessed by family and friends lately; more than usual. Taking the time to appreciate little things. Hopefully I'll get back here again soon!

It Was a Dark and Sunny Morning

2010-03-23T01:16:00.007-05:00

Yeah that doesn't make any sense. But last Saturday I had just risen from bed...I was yawning and stretching and trying to come alive (à la Dolly 9-5). It was a gorgeous bright morning and I had just updated my Facebook status to say I wondered what the boys and I would do for the day. That's the moment I got a call from Chris's Grandpa (Papa). He sounded very winded and mentioned something about his blood sugar and asked me to get him an ambulance. I told him I'd take care of it right away. I managed to keep my head on straight, though in hindsight, I'd have kept him on the phone and called 911 on my cell.

While I was calling 911 I used my tense mommy voice and told the boys we had an emergency and to get their boots on. They did. I sure wish I could have heard my own voice so I could replicate that tone to get them to listen to me sometimes. Things seemed to be in slow motion as I contacted 911. It took me three tries to get ahold of Chris at work too. Then we left and arrived at Papa's house at the same time as the ambulance did; the police were already there. I told the boys to stand aside on the deck outside and that I was going in the house. Papa looked pretty rough but was able to speak.

Chris arrived somewhere in these moments too. I think he took the boys to the hospital so I could run ahead with the ambulance and get Papa checked in. There was a great resident in the ER who responded well and communicated effectively to determine Papa's medical status. He was a bit confused about the timing of his first ill feelings, but he just thought that he was feeling side effects from a medication he had started three days earlier. The meds were only to last another day or so, so up until this point he was just hanging in there despite lack of sleep, vomiting and diarrhea. I guess it finally got to be too much by the time he called me.

Papa gave me his house keys to go get his glasses, teeth(!) among other items so he'd be able to eat lunch. I packed an overnight bag with everything I could find, gave his teeth a good scrub and went back to the hospital. After a bunch of tests, they determined he was having a heart attack. A doozy, which took a few days to peak. He also had pneumonia and congestive heart failure. His kidneys were not functioning either. Things were pretty scary, though he was in good spirits in spite of his breathlessness and pain. He was able to communicate the whole time. His condition wasn't improving as the day wore on and the ER doctor was trying to get him flown out for treatment elsewhere since they were unable to treat him further. This was a long process but the doctor found him a spot in Thunder Bay with a doctor who agreed to treat him there. There were apparently treatments and equipment they had that of course surpassed whatever he could have done for him here.

Around lunchtime I got the idea to call Kelly to see if she could watch Cooper. He didn't want to go near Papa though he did at least say hi. Carter was right up there with me holding Papa's hand. Kelly fortunately had no plans and agreed wholeheartedly to watch the boys for us so Chris went there to drop them off. (Carter didn't want to miss out on the fun.) The afternoon was pretty rough for Papa. It was getting to the point where his breathing was so laboured that they were going to need to put in a breathing tube. He was able to make the conscious decision to have it (He was lucid and talking all day and told the doctor to just give him the tube and he'd put it in himself!)

The rest of the wait was for the Ornge (not a typo) team to arrive to fly him out. What an amazing team, paired with our local paramedics and the doctors and nurses that prepared him. Once they needed to sedate him and intubate him, we were out of the room for awhile and after that he wasn't able to talk to us anymore but that didn't stop me from trying to tell him what was going on and that we would meet him in Thunder Bay.

After ten hours at the hospital and many calls and texts to relatives, Papa was on his way. The doctor was very sternly and earnestly telling us she thought he was dying, (Quote: "I think he's dying.") but never faltered in her or anyone's attempts to help him. She was quite certain he might not survive the trip. We left the hospital and ran home to pack our things. We picked up the boys and headed for Thunder Bay. Mom and Dad tried to convince us to leave the boys with them but we were already going through the motions to leave town. We arrived around midnight and met up with Chris's brother Jason and his girlfriend Claire. We got to go in and see Papa and he had changed so much.

He'd had a cardiac arrest upon arrival and they had to shock him to revive him. He had swollen up like a medicine ball since all the fluids they were giving him weren't leaving his system due to his failing kidneys. We were terrified. We stayed a few hours losing another hour to daylight savings in addition to the time zone change during the trip. Chris's cousin Samantha drove in with her family too and there was more family on the way from as far as Calgary (Chris's Auntie Wendy) We stayed with Jason & Claire which was a Godsend. Up until this point we were unable to reach Chris's Dad who was out of town at the time to tell him his father-in-law was so ill and had to be flown out. We caught up with him Sunday morning. Chris's Auntie Bev in Hamilton was beside herself that she was unable to be there. She'd have hopped on the first plane she could have but she's on oxygen and it's a big ordeal to (1) fly and (2) make special arrangements with the oxygen equipment. I sure wish we could have seen her. In the event that things take a downward turn she'll likely have to travel by train. I'm surprised she didn't hail a taxi!

The next few days were spent with family taking turns to go in and spend time with Papa who was not conscious the whole time. Two of his daughters and all of his grandchildren and a few of his great-grandchildren were there to see him. He had a few improvements though while we were there. By Wednesday we decided to head home. It was hard on the boys to have to sit in the ICU waiting room the whole time we spent at the hospital. Kids under twelve aren't allowed in the ICU. We did take them for a few fun activities during our stay though including a wild rumpus at Wiggles and Giggles (Kind of like a big McDonald's Play Place, which we also went to while we were there.)

We got back home in time to drop off Chris to shower and change, drop off Chris's Dad (who had taken the bus the day before), pick up milk, bring the boys to Mom and Dad's, race back to the bank and home to pick up Chris for our surprise date I'd planned a couple months earlier. I really didn't expect we'd still be able to go. We met up with Kelly and two of her sisters and brother-in-law at the restaurant. We waited quite awhile for our food but managed to eat and run to make it to see Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Café. I had gone with Kelly and her crew a couple years ago when she gave me her hubby's ticket when he couldn't attend, otherwise I wouldn't have been familiar with the show. I thought Chris might enjoy it. It was a nice way to unwind after the stressful trip.

Since we got back we've been getting updates from Chris brother. I'm thankful Papa was sent there so he has someone with him since most of the family left. Auntie Donna is still there too, which is a blessing. Papa was so swollen when we left that his skin was starting to split and ooze fluid. Eventually they stopped sedating him but he wasn't waking. Once they started dialysis, he regained consciousness and started opening his eyes and moving around a little but he still had the breathing tube. They will be taking it out and replacing it with a tracheotomy (or -ostomy, I don't know the correct word.) Either way it will be good to get that tube out of his throat. He can communicate with head nods now and we so wish we could still just pop in and check on him all the time now that he's had such great progress. Looks like he still has a long road ahead but we're still praying he comes through this. I'm so glad he called me that morning. Why is it that men are so stubborn about getting help when they're sick.

Another case in point is Dad's uncle in California, who apparently has just been diagnosed with lung cancer. He's in his eighties too, and Dad's arranging to head there for a visit next week once he has his ten-day chemo break. I wish Mom was going too but hey, men are stubborn, right?

This past weekend was Chris's annual fishing cabin trip. The weather was amazing while we were in Thunder Bay. St. Patrick's Day was a record breaker for Thunder Bay, shattering the high temperature record from 1968! The weekend weather was considerably cooler. I'm glad for the timing of the fishing trip; Chris has been an emotional bundle of nerves and needed to unwind.

I keep praying for things to improve and feel blessed with all the prayers people have been sending our way; I really believe it's made a difference.

Speaking of blessings, during our stay there, I managed to check email eventually and had an email from Angie saying Beth needed our prayers and was to have surgery (in the very same hospital we were practically living at!) to repair her liver that had been damaged from the insertion of a feeding tube in her tummy. Beth has undergone chemo for a tumor in her throat and in preparation of the addition of radiation therapy they inserted the feeding tube in her belly in anticipation that with all the treatments she may have a hard time swallowing. Turns out her liver (supposedly) wasn't damaged but she did have major problems and pain and was going to have to have the tube removed and redone. The next day I asked at the patient directory people if I could find her and they just wrote her room number on a paper and handed it to me. I thought I'd have to be family or something. Turns out we'd been walking past her ward the whole time we were there to get to the ICU. (Also turns out that the ICU waiting room is directly across from the ward Dad was in in September so it was very easy for me to navigate around to find things.)

I stopped at the nursing station in Beth's ward to ask if I could visit her. No questions asked I walked down the hall to her room to find all her beautiful posse of girls there. Beth saw me and though the nurse was tending to her, she wanted me to stay. Her daughter Jenni came right over to me and gave me the biggest, squeeziest hug! I needed to get back to Papa's room since there was going to be a meeting with the doctor, so I promised I'd be back. I got to have three lovely visits with Beth in the next day or so. I look forward to her getting all better and having Angie come up for a visit...

Here are a couple snapshots of our trip:

McDonald's Play Place...a huge hit :)

Four Groves Men

Wiggles & Giggles...note the SHEER JOY in their little faces!

Goofing around at Uncle J's place.

Cooper practically glued himself to his Uncle/Godfather :)

Stuart McLean Concert with the lovely trio, ''The Good Lovelies''

Soggy Socks

2010-03-11T23:59:00.000-06:00

Wow things are really melting around here; I didn't realize how much grass was actually showing until I came home from work today. The weather has been very springy. I'm fully expecting to see some more snow this month, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the bare streets and glimpses of grass.

Yesterday when I picked the kids up from school, Carter couldn't possibly wear his boots. Right there in the hallway of the school I picked up his boot and POURED water out of it. His socks were bunched up in a soggy little wad on top of the coat rack shelf. I actually carried him out to the Jeep. Cooper's were pretty wet too but he was able to wear them home. When we got home I went on a great quest in the basement for rubber boots. I found some for Carter but Cooper has outgrown his last pair. I had planned on picking him up some new ones this weekend.

I skipped my walk yesterday since Chris was going fishing after work at the ice shack. Carter wanted oatmeal for supper. I also made chicken noodle soup that Cooper was seemingly enthused about. I don't think he even touched it; he ended up having sandwiches. Chris was home early. We attempted to watch a movie, Old Dogs, but we both fell asleep. I woke up a few times throughout the night courtesy of Cooper. This morning I managed to screw up my alarm somehow and slept in just late enough to not have enough time to shower and wash my hair. Thankfully I salvaged it for one more day. I had plenty of time to get the boys washed up and ready and got them off to school.

After work I was going to walk right away but I got a call from Chris's Dad. He wanted to get together for dinner. I picked him up and Chris picked up the kids. Carter came in and the rest of the Groves males stayed outside while I cooked. I had found a package of boneless chicken breasts and thighs and baked them with seasoned bread crumbs. I cooked asparagus with hollandaise sauce, long grain and wild rice, and made coleslaw with ranch dressing. Then I left for my walk with Cindy. My iPod wasn't charged up so I plugged my headphones into my cell phone and that worked just fine, though I missed using the stopwatch on the iPod to track my laps and time.

I came home and Chris's Dad wanted to buy Cooper some rubber boots so I went to get some. I found a pair very similar to Carter's for only nine bucks, and picked up some liners for Carter's boots too. I was pleased to find that after at least FOUR MONTHS, Wal-Mart finally had Cooper's vanilla soy milk back in stock. I check for it every single time I go there (at least once or twice a week) and they haven't had it since late summer I'm pretty sure. It's definitely been a few months. I picked up a couple cartons just because they had it.

I came home and Chris took his Dad home. I finally ate a bit of supper and started working on a calendar for a coworker. Both boys fell asleep fairly early. It's nearly one now and Cooper is asleep on the other couch. He just talked in his sleep a second ago and said, ''I just got a fish.'' Must be dreaming about his first catch from last weekend! Carter is zonked on the carpet. Now I need to go tuck them into their beds and go to bed too. No new pictures since my last post; hopefully some fun outdoor activities this weekend...

Fever and Family Fishing Fun

2010-03-09T23:18:00.004-06:00

Wow. There went another weekend. Carter still wasn't feeling well on Friday so I stayed home with him. It was ''crazy hair day'' at school so I did Cooper's hair in a coloured ''fauxhawk'' and took him to school. Carter had a fever clear through to Saturday. Saturday afternoon I had a lunch date with Leeanne. We had our usual East Indian buffet date (we looooooooooove the masala!)

On Saturday evening we went to Cindy and Bob's to celebrate his birthday. Cindy ordered a cake from Cheryl, the ARTIST I got Cooper's birthday cake from. The cake was an incredible replica of a walleye complete with seriously realistic fins, teeth and scales. Quite simply amazing. To make her cakes even more incredible, every detail is always edible. I'll have to get some pictures of it to post here. We had a great visit and brought the boys home. They were both sleeping by the time we got home. It was supposed to be girls' night but I didn't figure I was going to go since we had the family gathering.

I went over to say hi to the girls and ended up staying a few hours. As usual we had a blast. Chris had planned to go fishing on Sunday with his Dad so I didn't stay too late; had to make sure I felt like getting up with the boys in the morning!

I woke up a few times before Chris left but didn't fully awaken until Cooper got me up at twenty after eight. Not realizing the time, I asked Cooper if he wanted to go to church. He said yes. Then I looked at the clock and told him I didn't think we'd make it. He was so sad he wasn't going to get to go see Grandma and Grandpa at church that I leapt to my feet and got us all ready, including waffles for breakfast for both boys.

We made it to church on time, much to the surprise of (1) the priest and (2,3) my parents. The boys were pretty good there though of course they start to get fidgety toward the end. After church we met up with the aunts and uncles for breakfast. The boys ate breakfast again(!) and we had a good visit. Mom and Dad treated us to a lovely breakfast.

It was such an AMAZINGLY beautiful day that I asked the boys if they wanted to go visit Daddy at the ice shack. They didn't want to at first but I showed them on Google that we could take a special route to get there. We drove to a place where friends of my parents live and parked the Jeep. We were close enough to the ice shack to see it easily and walk to it without dying. I pulled the boys in the sleigh. They loved sliding down the bank. Eventually as we walked out to the shack one of the guys saw us and Chris walked to meet us, pleasantly surprised to see us. :)

I was ROASTING hot by the time I pulled the boys that far and had to peel off a few layers until I was just in my ski pants and t-shirt! We were just planning to have a short visit when I texted Serena to see what she and her gang were up to. She lives not far from where Chris parks his truck to drive the four-wheeler out to the shack. She and her hubby and boys all came over to the shack. I had also texted Dad and he came out with Uncle Cliff and they fished for awhile too. It was an amazing afternoon. There were many highlights including Cooper catching his first fish all by himself. Below is a slideshow with a few shots of our afternoon, including a really close fly-by from a helicopter.

When Dad arrived I had called Mom to tell her he arrived and she invited us for supper. Once we packed it all in, I drove home to get the boys some dry clothes. Their snow suits and boots were positively soaked. We headed for Mom and Dad's and Chris arrived shortly after. We had an awesome steak dinner. The boys were going ape by this time, presumably overtired from all the sunshine, fresh air and activity. We brought the little monkeys home and they finally wound down.

So far this week is a busy one. We finally have all the stuff we need to file our taxes so we'll be doing that this week. I'm happy to see the snow has been melting, even though it's leaving such an ugly mess all over the streets. I'm really looking forward to summer. Last night I rented Where the Wild Things Are. We didn't get very far into it before we ALL fell asleep. I managed to wake up but didn't continue watching it since I had missed at least a half an hour of it. I did a couple print projects and went to bed.

I went walking after work today again. I did my 5K in 36 minutes and felt really good after. I came home and cooked up some ''sachettini''. I thought it was tortellini when I bought it but it was little ''satchets'' of pasta with chicken and bacon inside. I made an alfredo sauce for it and had picked up my favourite salad kit too; it's called Pacifica and has an awesome mix of greens with a packet of soy nuts and sunflower seeds and a poppyseed vinaigrette dressing. Yum. We managed to watch the movie tonight then the boys zonked out. Now I can't believe it's already midnight. Here's that slideshow; enjoy! :)

The Tooth Fairy!

2010-03-04T18:07:00.004-06:00

Wow it still blows my mind how a week can get away from me. Thursday evening I walked with Cindy and spent time working on projects and watching Olympics. I was looking forward to the figure skating and it was great.

Friday evening Cindy and family came over for a visit. I told Carter to show his loose tooth to his Uncle Bob, thinking Bob would talk him into just pulling it out. As soon as Carter even went to show him, he pulled it out! Uncle Bob gave Carter five bucks. Of course the tooth fairy came that night and gave him another five bucks. I told him all this won't be repeated every time he loses a tooth. (He has another loose one.) I promised we could go buy something with his tooth fairy money.
Saturday afternoon I headed out with the boys to Wal-Mart. First we had lunch in McDonald's. Carter was really tired by the time we went but both boys were so sweet and polite I thought we took a detour through the Twilight Zone. I mean, my kids have really good manners. I've drilled it into them. But the way they treat each other at home is atrocious. I was expecting their bickering to continue when we went out. But it didn't. They were delightful. After lunch we headed for the toy department. There was a massive bin of massive stuffed animals right at the beginning of the department. Cooper instantly wanted one and they were only ten bucks. (I remember wanting a big stuffed mouse when I was little and it was bloody expensive!) We took a turn down the Lego-ish aisle and Carter wanted a Ben-10 robot thing. Both boys had their toys chosen in under a minute. I had a couple other things to pick up then we were outta there. Sweet.

Sunday I had a Bingo date with Kelly and a couple girls from her office. The big pot was just over $52,000. Unfortunately we left it there. It still hasn't gone and is now projected to be about $55,000 by Sunday. Even though we didn't win it I half wished someone did by now so I'm not so tempted to keep going after it! When I got home Cooper was up and not feeling well. He had an awful cough and was very congested.

Monday morning Cooper still wasn't feeling well so Chris took Carter to school and I stayed home with Cooper. He had me up a few times in the night so I was tired too. I figured it would be a good, restful day. WRONG. Wow Cooper is fairly demanding on a regular basis but he was downright high maintenance. Oh and grouchy too. It was a rough day.

Tuesday was fine. A regular day. I felt kind of rough and never ended up going walking. Yesterday all of us went to the dentist for check-ups. The boys were amazing. The hygienists called in the boys first. If we were thinking we'd have gone one grown-up with one kid and take turns. We lucked out since the kids were soooooooooo good there. The first one asked who wanted to go first and Carter volunteered. Cooper was called in next. We were asking who should go in with him when I told him to just go. He went in all by himself (the hygienists are both cute, by the way). I peeked in just to watch for a second and they both did great. Carter needs to keep working on that wiggly tooth, since his two bottom front adult teeth are already well on their way in. They also told us he has molars erupting. Both boys are much more enthusiastic about tooth brushing now. After Chris and I had our turns (the boys were so patient and well-behaved in the waiting room...still loving that) I took the boys to school and headed for work. Kelly and I had lunch (Chinese Buffet...yum) with her friend Gwen. After work I came home to change and went for a walk right away. Chris picked up the boys. I came home and went to pick up Chris's Dad for dinner. We had a roasted chicken (no, I wasn't the roaster of said chicken) with baby potatoes and peaches'n'cream corn and salad.

Today was going well; it was nearly lunchtime already when I got a call from the school saying Carter wasn't feeling well and was having a bit of a meltdown because he couldn't blow his nose. Both kids can't stand being stuffed up. Last night I fell asleep early and woke up to find Carter was up. I thought it was five o'clock in the morning, thinking Carter was just up really early. Turns out I had left the microwave timer on set for five minutes to time a time-out for Cooper last night and never used it. I was so sleepy I had kept drifting off but when I looked at the clock again it was three-thirty. I'm not sure if Carter slept after that. When Chris got up this morning, there was Carter up and playing on the computer.

I picked him up at school and brought him home for the afternoon. I bundled him up with a nice fluffy duvet on the couch and we had salmon salad sandwiches for lunch. I told him he had to get some rest. We started watching Chicken Little and he fell asleep partway into it. I decided to attempt a nap too. That was awesome until the phone rang. I ignored it the first time but when it rang again I of course jumped to the conclusion that it could be an emergency so I dragged my sleepy head out of bed and was already getting a text. It was Chris. He was planning to go fishing after work.

I got him to pick up Cooper before he left for fishing, so I wouldn't have to take Carter out anywhere. Cooper wanted waffles for supper and Carter enjoyed his chicken noodle soup. I told him it would help with his sinuses and he was amazed and said it helped ''melt'' everything in his nose. Chris came home and both boys are still up but doing well. I hope everyone is feeling well enough to go to school tomorrow.

I Have a Fever

2010-02-24T21:09:00.005-06:00

Olympic fever, that is! For someone who is not interested in watching sports of any kind, I've sure been paying a lot of attention to the Olympics. And mostly it's been hockey. It sure gets the heart pumping! I shouted so loudly when Canada scored the other night, I scared Carter!

I've still been trying to get out walking as much as possible. I can go indoor walking Monday through Thursday and try to go each day. Last week I went three times and this week I've gone twice so far. Last night I walked with Cindy and my legs felt like lead weights. Today in comparison I felt like a gazelle, completing one lap in under three minutes (mostly running). I'm not seeing any physical changes since starting this unexpected regimen, but it does feel pretty good. And I don't wheeze (much) when I pick up the pace.

The weekend was pretty great. I had a short week last week. Before Christmas I had booked a hair appointment for Friday after work. When I received a gift certificate for a manicure, pedicure and facial for Christmas, I decided to make it a spa day. In the morning I went for a manicure and a glorious facial.

Since I've been so tired lately, I had an important project that I had put off too long, and had to finish it right after my treatments. It was Cooper's first 100th day of school. I had intended to make him a t-shirt much like Carter's. Cooper requested 100 pictures of Bolt on a t-shirt. I had prepared the graphic, but nothing else. That morning before I took the boys to school, I printed out the pictures.

I came home from the spa just before lunch. I cut 100 of those little suckers (for some ridiculous reason I printed circular pictures; squares would have been much quicker). About a half an hour of cutting, I went looking for my 'pop-dots' but couldn't find any, realizing I'd likely used them all on Carter's shirt. I wasted about a half an hour hunting down pop dots at two dollar stores and finally Wal-Mart. I ran home and stuck all the dots on the pictures and mounted them to the shirt.

I bolted to the school to deliver it to Cooper. I got there about a half an hour after school started but I pulled it off and was glad. Cooper got all goofy when I brought him the shirt. I managed to get a picture before I skulked back out of the classroom.

Saturday afternoon we had a visit from one of Cooper's daycare teachers. He's working on his ECE course and he chose Cooper to study and arranged to observe him in his own environment. That took up most of our afternoon but the boys were both fairly well-behaved.

Saturday evening was designated as girls' night. A few of us went over to Carmelle's place. Serena and I both had new SingStar discs to try out. We had plenty of yummy appetizers and a few cocktails. I got home shortly after two in the morning!

Surprisingly, I was up first thing Sunday morning (well, not surprisingly since Cooper was my alarm clock again.) However the surprising part was that I stayed up and we had planned to go ice fishing with Cindy's family and Serena's family. I picked up the Jeep at Carmelle's and gassed it up and we got ready. We all arrived out on the lake at lunchtime. We spent a wonderful afternoon out on the lake. In hindsight (and as a result of a guilt-ridden email from my parents) we should have called Mom and Dad to come hang out with us. The weather was amazing and the kids all had a great time. Of course the grown-ups did too :)

It's been a fairly uneventful week. Aside from work I've only gone out to walk. Today I finished my ten laps in just over thirty-seven minutes, my best time yet. There was one lap I almost ran the whole time, and in under three minutes. Whenever I spy an empty hallway I start to run a little. Occasionally it feels good enough that I keep going. My feet aren't too bad today either. Hopefully I'll get to walk tomorrow evening with Cindy again.

That's Brisk, Baby!

2010-02-17T20:42:00.004-06:00

Oops I just realized awhile ago that I forgot I had a blog again yesterday. Today after work I came home to change quickly so I could go walking. I did ten laps in almost exactly forty minutes. This equals about five kilometres and for me is VERY brisk walking. Whenever I spot an empty hallway I pick up the pace so my laps range from 3.5 minutes to 4.5 minutes.

I came home and as I was walking in the driveway, Chris arrived with the boys. He had plans to go for a ride with his guy friends so I quickly went to pick up happy meals for the boys and him. I got back and he got ready to go. I snapped these pictures of the boys playing outside. I don't like guns and we don't have any toy guns, but that doesn't stop these two from using their imaginations:

So yesterday...the main thing that stands out in my mind was almost getting t-boned by another vehicle on my way to work. I was on a through street with the right of way and there was a lady at a stop sign that decided she didn't want to be stopped any longer, I guess. I kept going, thankfully, since if I braked she would have hit me for sure. It was a lucky miss; I was glad my guardian angel was sitting on my shoulder!

Last night Chris's Dad came over for dinner. I picked up the kids right away after work and Chris picked up his Dad. I already had dinner on the go by the time they got home. We had chicken legs (à la Shake'n'Bake), mashed potatoes, mixed veggies and salad. Right after supper I left to go walking. Cindy was there and we did seven laps together. She had already done two. I did another three to make my usual goal of ten.

We watched American Idol last night and tonight; they're finally down to the top twenty-four and the live shows start next week. Aside from the wacky auditions, this is where it gets good. I also spent a bit too much time last night trying to hit the top of the Bejeweled high score list. Surprisingly I did it. I tried to stay awake to watch Craig Ferguson but I couldn't make it the whole way.

Right now my feet are a little tender and my legs are a bit ticked off with me but I'm still really enjoying the walking. I'm looking forward to the weekend already, which starts a day early for me since I'm off Friday. I already had a hair appointment booked after work, and decided to turn it into a spa day for myself. In the morning I'm having a manicure and a facial. Can't wait. I love that tomorrow is my Friday too. :)

Family Day

2010-02-15T20:27:00.002-06:00

Today was ''Family Day''. It's a newfangled semi-statutory holiday around these parts. Most things were closed, including Wal-Mart and the grocery stores and many other businesses including Chris's workplace. Mine, on the other hand, was open. There were six of us there today. It was a great day to get caught up on things since there were very few phone calls and very little foot traffic coming in.

Since Chris was staying home with the boys (oh yeah, no school either), I had an easy getaway this morning. I had plenty of time to go get a coffee and brought one home to Chris before I headed to work. The morning was flying by when Chris and the boys stopped in to bring me...a coffee! I came home for lunch at one and had lunch and a visit with the boys. I walked in the door and OMGCOOPERWASVACUUMING! Cooper seems to love the vacuum; I foresee this coming in really handy once he gets a little taller. ::wringing hands hatching evil plan to con children into helping with housework:: He was quite peeved when we asked him to shut it off and he was ordering me to go back to work. I actually set the microwave timer and sneaked into my room for a quick catnap. Twenty minutes later I was headed back to work.

The afternoon zoomed much like the morning did; by the end of the day I felt like I had just arrived. It's amazing how much work one can get done without phones ringing or people coming in! I came home after work and Chris left right away to go fishing for a couple hours. The boys and I munched on leftover pizza for supper and watched Zathura for the quadrillionth time. Mom and Dad stopped in for a quick visit on their way home from Cindy and Bob's house.

Chris came home and now we're just having a quiet evening watching TV. Both boys are sleeping. Dare I attempt to do a scrapbook page?

Floral Delivery!

2010-02-14T23:24:00.006-06:00

I neglected to mention something very important when I blogged on Friday. I received this beautiful rose at work from none other than Mr. Michael Bublé. I hope you can see the tag says, ''Love M.B.'' When the floral delivery lady showed up at my office, I said, ''Well I know that's not for me.'' Then she said my name and I said, ''Hey that IS ME!'' I was very excited. I opened the little envelope to find the card and realized immediately it was from my pretend celebrity boyfriend Michael Bublé.

I tried to call Kelly but had to leave her a breathless message with the excitement of the floral delivery. Of course I knew it was she who sent it...she came over to my office when she got my message and pretended she hadn't sent it. We had a few good laughs over it anyway and I bragged to all my coworkers that Michael Bublé sent it to me. :)

Yesterday my friend Leeanne came to town and we had our standing lunchdate after her hair appointment. We went for the East Indian buffet with Brittni and her darling son Henry. We all savoured the deliciousness of the food and had a great visit. After lunch Leeanne and I did some jeans shopping. I found a pair I liked but ended up buying a pair of brown pants on sale instead. I picked up a pair of jeans for Chris though, along with getting a great deal on some socks and underwear for him too. It was a ''buy one get TWO free'' deal. So for ten bucks I got what they would have normally charged thirty for. Not bad. He was a happy camper. I also got a bracelet and necklace in the deal.

Before she dropped me off I did a Starbucks run. Chris had taken the boys ice fishing and Chris had texted me to ask if I'd bring a helmet down to the lake. I found them right away. Chris needed the helmet for the boys to go for a ride on a mini snowmobile one of his friends had brought for his daughter to play on. Morgan gave Cooper a ride and it was so adorable. Oh and the snowmobile? Bright pink. Adorable. I took a picture on my cell phone...(it's kinda lousy but it's all I had with me.)

I came home and was very sleepy. I finished my latté and snoozed until the boys came home and even a little beyond that. We had sandwiches for supper (I was still full from lunch) and had a quiet evening at home. Cooper was asleep by seven (gotta love that fresh air!) and Carter was up for about another hour or two after. We watched the movie Fireproof. Fantastic movie. Every couple should watch it. After the movie I was a bit too sleepy to blog so I vowed to myself I'd catch up today.

Today we had planned to have our 'family day' since I work tomorrow on the actual day. Chris and I exchanged our Valentine goodies this morning then we got ready to go sliding. The temperature wasn't bad today but it was pretty windy. I decked myself out in all my winter gear, including an old pair of boots Chris found for me in the basement (I so seldom wear boots). I even wore a toque. My hair was kinda toast anyway. We went to the park to go sliding and then I realized I didn't have my camera. I took a picture and a video on my cell phone then decided it was worth the trek home to get the real camera. I came back and took these pictures and slid down the hill a few times. I was surprisingly toasty warm. The only thing that felt cold in that chilly wind was my forehead a little. Not bad.

After we walked home from the park we took the boys to Tim Horton's for hot chocolate (and donuts). Carter's tongue was dark purple from all the sprinkles on his donut so I took his picture and in it his tongue looks like it just has a purple spot on it. Cooper had to get in on the fun too of course. :)

We came home and hung out and had lunch. The boys were napping when we got home after cruising around a bit. I decided to capitalize on their downtime and have a little nap too. I had plans to go out to Bingo tonight with Kelly and Phyllis though, and definitely needed to shower to rid myself of my ''hat head'' from wearing that itchy, snug toque all morning.

Kelly and Phyllis picked me up at about four-thirty. We did a quick pitstop at Tim Horton's and headed out. We left extra early since one of the special jackpots was about $42,000. Good thing we left so early because there was hardly anywhere to park when we arrived and the line-up to purchase cards snaked all the way around the bingo hall. We stood in line for about an hour. It was also a good thing that we darted up to the non-smoking section to save seats before going to buy our Bingo cards. We got to our seats and set up our cards and it was about the usual time we would have been doing so.

Well, as much as I'd like to say one of us won $42,000 and we each came home $14,000 richer, we didn't. But of course we still had fun. Our Bingo trips have become very few and far between and we had a great time.

Well, that took me over an hour to edit pictures and get all caught up. I'd better hit the hay 'cause I'm the only one that has to work tomorrow.

Let The Games Begin!

2010-02-12T23:53:00.003-06:00

Well I'm no sports fan; not even when it comes to the Olympics. But recent events such as seeing the torch go through our town and realizing all the pomp and circumstance that goes along with it is pretty fantastic...and our Olympic door decorating contest (and winning it) have put me in the spirit a little. Plus there are some locals involved in the organizing events, including a local girl dancing in the opening ceremony.

I tuned in since the boys had fallen asleep. I just was curious to see who was going to light the cauldron; with my bet on Gretzky. Go Wayne! Then once I saw the intricacies of the technology and graphics and sheer volume of people that went into it, I was enthralled and watched for the three hours straight. It was pretty amazing. Made me really proud to be a Canadian! The floor/stage was a graphic masterpiece and the choreography of dance and music and technology was amazing.

Today was a slow one. It was very quiet at the office since there were quite a few people off today. Fridays are usually good catch-up days since they're fairly quiet. A few of us went out for lunch today. The afternoon was much like the morning. Chris and I exchanged a few texts late in the afternoon to decide what to have for dinner. We opted for steak and the plan was for him to pick up the kids and for me to go grab the food. In the meantime his Dad called so I picked him up first before going to the grocery store. I picked up some gorgeous tenderloin steaks, potatoes, mushrooms, and asparagus. We came home and Chris played outside with the boys for awhile while I got a couple things ready.

I made twice-baked potatoes, pan-fried mushrooms, steamed asparagus, Chris barbecued the steaks and I made a salad. Dinner was delicious; I loooooooove barbecuing in the middle of winter!

After dinner Chris took his Dad home and the boys fell asleep watching a movie. Chris fell asleep early too. I got to watch and thoroughly enjoy the opening ceremonies. During and after the ceremonies I had exchanged text messages and Facebook messages with a few of my faraway friends and when it was all over Julia called me. She told me about this insane website called SelleckWaterfallSandwich. I don't know how it started but every post is a picture (some animated) of Tom Selleck, a waterfall and a sandwich. While Jules and I were talking I made her her very own JuliaWaterfallSandwich photo.

Well that's about it for me; I'm sure there's more but I'm too sleepy. But hey, at least I managed to post again! :)

Six Clicks

2010-02-11T23:53:00.002-06:00

This morning was a hairwashing day so I needed to get up early. Good thing I have my trusty alarm clock (aka Cooper). He never fails waking me about a half an hour BEFORE my alarm is set. Today it was a good thing though. I got up at quarter after six and hit the shower. I managed to get all ready and the boys fed and dressed and had time to spare. We left earlier than usual and I did a coffee run before dropping the boys off at school. It was cold enough for indoor recess, so I got the boys settled in and got to work early enough to get a parking spot with a plug in.

The past couple weeks we've held a door decorating contest at our office in honour of the upcoming Olympics this weekend. The decorating deadline was today. Since my 'office' is the reception area, I don't have a door. I had planned on decorating the copier room door or a coworker's door that didn't plan to participate but I ended up teaming up with Amber, who has a door! I had chosen Canada as my country to decorate and in talking to my decorating partner got the idea to build an inukshuk out of Coke cans, since they're red and white. We also printed out a bunch of pictures and covered the door in cotton batting to resemble snow. Anyhoo, they had two people from the other two agencies in the building come in to do the judging. Guess who won? GO CANADA! Here are all the pictures from the contest:

So that made it a fun day. Kelly and I had a quick bite to eat at Subway today. The afternoon went well. After work I ran to the grocery store to grab something for dinner. I picked up the boys and we came home. Chris was home by then and Carter wanted to play outside. Cooper just wanted to have snacks. He had oranges and yogurt while I started cooking. I cubed up and browned some chicken breasts and prepared quesadillas. Chicken and cheese for the boys and added jalapenos for Chris and me. Chris was still outside working on his four-wheeler. The boys loved the quesadillas (so did I).

Chris came in so that I could leave for my walk. I was just finishing my second lap when I saw Cindy. She's often there for the kids' volleyball practice. After my second lap she joined me then we walked ten laps together, even though she didn't have her walking shoes. I came home and Chris went out to finish working on his four-wheeler. The boys went to sleep fairly early so I started working on their Valentine cards. I stuffed all the envelopes and made matching labels for each. I also made cards from both boys for the day care teachers.

I managed to stay up late enough to watch Craig Ferguson again but I'd better be getting to bed! By the way I'm so proud of me for blogging again. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow. Yay for Friday! :)

Uphill Both Ways

2010-02-10T21:34:00.004-06:00

Today was a pretty good day. Work was long but okay. At lunch I was super tired. I brought a coffee to Chris at work but he wasn't there. He had run home for a bit. I came home and he was about to leave. I came in the house and set the timer on the microwave for twenty-five minutes and curled up on the couch. I closed my eyes for what felt like two seconds and the timer beeped. Wow that was a fast catnap!

I went back to work feeling a little bit refreshed (particularly after I drank my coffee). After work Chris had planned to go fishing with some of the guys from work. I got the idea awhile back to come home after work and walk to pick up the boys so I thought I'd give it a go today. I came home and put ski pants and an extra sweater on and set off to pick up the boys, pulling along an empty sled.

I arrived boiling hot. I really didn't need all those layers. It was beautiful out. The boys climbed aboard the sleigh and I pulled them home. Those little turkeys are getting HEAVY! The trip home was likely longer than the trip there; I forgot to check my iPod for the time on the stopwatch. The walk home was largely downhill, (though at times it felt like it was uphill!) which was a bonus except for the couple times where the sleigh caught up to me and lurched into my achilles tendons, akin to getting a shopping cart in the back of the ankles when shopping with the hubby. Then there was crossing streets where there was bare pavement. That definitely added to the workout!

We came home and I cooked dinner (sort of). My friend Diane had brought me a tray of ribs to cook up. All I had to do was put them in the oven for awhile and I cooked some rice and veggies. The boys looooooooved it. After dinner we went to visit the boys' great grandpa (Great Papa). He was having a hard time with his TV remote and I helped him fix it last time. Once I showed him last time he knew how to fix it but it wasn't working this time. But by the time we arrived he had it figured out. We stuck around and had a nice little visit anyway.

We came home and I cut out all the boys' valentine cards and stuffed them in envelopes. Both boys were asleep shortly after seven-thirty. Bonus! I did a little more printing and managed to get over here to document my day. Now maybe I'll do some browsing through my pictures and scrapbooking graphics. Baby steps!

Plug it In, Unplug it Out

2010-02-09T22:12:00.007-06:00

Wow it's me again. Just wow!

Here is a picture of Carter in his 100th day shirt. Surprisingly when I retrieved it from his backpack after dinner to grab this photo opportunity, all 100 robots were still stuck on it!

This morning started out a little rocky for me. I managed to get the boys up and out on time, but when I went to back out of the garage I THEN realized Chris had plugged in the Jeep. Luckily I stopped before the cord reached the breaking point. ::sigh:: I took the boys to school and brought Carter's shirt to his classroom and got Cooper settled in. I would have loooooooved a coffee this morning but I had just enough time to make it to work on time. I had a busy morning but things were going well until I got a call from Cooper's day care teacher to advise me he didn't have any ski pants to go play outside. Crap. Here's where the beauty of a small town comes in handy. I quickly drove home and picked up the ski pants. Judging from where they were near the kitchen doorway, I quite likely had to step OVER them when we originally left. ::sigh:: I dropped off the ski pants and had some quick hugs from Cooper and headed back to work. The rest of the morning went okay.

Kelly and I went for some soup at Tim Horton's and I had my dose of coffee too. The afternoon at work was busy too. I asked Chris to pick up the kids so I could go for a walk again after work. It's nice to do the indoor walking since the sidewalks are so uneven, snowy and slippery. I managed to do ten laps which equals about five kilometres. (That's about three miles for my south of the border friends... :)

I walked home then left right away to pick up Chris's Dad for supper. As I was backing out of the driveway, I heard Chris whistle so I stopped. Unbeknownst to me he had plugged in the Jeep when he got home and here I was driving away with the cord again, lucky to not have reached the cord's breaking point once again. Usually he plugs it in in the morning and lets me know so this wasn't such a good surprise. ::sigh::

I picked up Chris's Dad and he brought some ground beef he had thawing and we stopped to pick up some salad and veggies. After all that I managed to get supper on the table just before seven o'clock. I made a meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, kernel corn and salad. The boys liked the meal and ate enough that they didn't ask for a peanut butter sandwich this evening. :)

I printed Valentine cards for the boys tonight and I'm hoping to get the names of their classmates so I can do envelopes tomorrow. The kids fell asleep just after eight so I was able to get much more accomplished! Usually when I stay up working on projects I just leave the TV on whatever channel Chris was watching before he fell asleep on the couch and end up being tortured by some news program or infomercial. The past couple nights though, I've retrieved the remote from his sleepiness and tuned in to Craig Ferguson. I've always liked that guy and with that accent I could listen to him all day. Plus he's hilarious. So now I want to tune in again but after my long day I'm not sure if I'm going to make it...

100th Day of School - 2010 Edition!

2010-02-09T00:27:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow is Carter's 100th day of school. There are plenty of things going on this week, including his first-ever trip to the ski hill today. He had a fannnnnnnnntastic time skiing and snowboarding. I wish I could have been there to see him. Each time he told someone about it (Chris and me and Grandma and Grandpa), he carefully demonstrated the correct way to grasp the tow rope. Now I really want to take him out skiing one of these days. I haven't skied for about ::cough:: twenty ::cough:: years.

Back to the 100th day of school thing, this year I asked Carter what he wanted to bring or wear for it. In JK he wore the shirt with 100 pictures of himself. In SK we stuck 100 googly eyeballs on a shirt. This year he requested 100 Roblox robots. Roblox is a game he is completely obsessed with (though currently grounded from). It took me a few hours but I have 100 of those little suckers cut out and stuck on the shirt. The image is actually his character he designed in the game. Here is the finished product: (And yes of course I'll take pictures tomorrow when he's wearing it!)

I can't wait to show it to him in the morning. He was already telling me how awesome I am when I was printing and cutting. Cooper's 100th day of school is being celebrated on the 19th; presumably since he had a later start due to the Kindergarten gentle entry. I'm sure he'll want something similar to this; perhaps pictures of him like we did the first time with Carter.

On Friday both boys' classes are celebrating Valentine's Day. I have Valentine cards prepared for both of them; I just need to print them. It feels good to do something creative for me; I'm used to working on projects for other people so it's nice to have a break to do something for myself.

Well, that felt good to blog again; I really do want to keep this up; I've missed it so much and have a much easier time keeping track of what we're up to and remembering where we've been when I actually take the time to write it down!

Happy New Year!

2010-02-07T17:22:00.003-06:00

Yeah, okay, I'm over a month late. It's been nearly two months since I've blogged and I really miss it. It's just too easy to skip through things and do a quick Facebook update or just tune in to the internet with the iPod instead of opening up the laptop to blog. For starters here is 2009 in pictures, including a few new pictures since my last post.

Christmas came and went quickly as usual. I was off for a couple weeks to use up some vacation time. That gave me plenty of time to get ready for Christmas. (But of course I wasn't.) We had a few friends over on New Year's Eve and had a blast, kids included.

Since then I've been feeling a little blah...the mid-winter kind of blah, I suppose. I've had some great times with new and old friends and have recently teamed up with a few girlfriends for the occasional girls' night.

Dad is doing well with his chemo with only a couple delays and the addition of some new treatments. Mom is being quite the nurse giving him daily injections.

The boys are doing well at school. Carter is becoming quite the reader and Cooper loves to count and is great at writing his name. Carter's latest craze is playing an online game called Roblox.

I haven't done any scrapbooking lately or blogging (obviously) for reasons I'm not fully aware of. I have the time and I have the energy but I seem to have a lack of interest for some reason. I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things. I'm hoping my new attempts at getting some exercise and getting healthier will also inspire me to get creative again.

This week the boys are celebrating the 100th day of school so I'm hoping to come up with some fresh ideas for them. I'll be sure to post pictures! Seriously. I will.

Deck the Halls 2009

2009-12-12T00:32:00.007-06:00

Looooooooong time no blog. Story of my life this year. Boooooooo. It's been an insanely busy month. Chris and I went to Winnipeg the first weekend for his staff party. It was held at Celebrations Dinner Theatre, and was a HOOT. We had a great time. It was the first time since we've had children that we've actually left them behind and traveled somewhere. For about twenty-seven hours. Thanks to Mom and Dad who made it possible.

Dad's been doing great with his chemo. It's a bummer they can't go south this winter since Dad will be tied up with bi-weekly appointments, but that won't stop them from some weekend getaways here and there.

Cooper's birthday was on the 6th. That was the day we were coming back from Winnipeg. On Tuesday, the 8th, we had his birthday party. I made the invitation list based on the first six names of classmates Cooper gave me, intending to have the party at our house. I ordered THEEEEE MOST AMAZING cake. There is a local girl who could seriously win major awards for her cake artistry. Please note that everything was edible...even the map. She's fabulous. Not only a gorgeous cake but delicious too! Here are a couple pictures from the party:

I've managed to do a little Christmas shopping over the past couple weeks. Next exciting events of the month were the boys' Christmas concerts this week. I have a couple pictures and video from each, but I don't of course have permission from all the parents for posting so there are just pics of my boys. The videos are pretty cute too. Oh and this first picture was a weak attempt at a fun artsy picture for Christmas cards...

First was Cooper's concert on Wednesday:

Next day was Carter's...my handsome boy in his new sweater from Grandma :)

Last but certainly not least, I embarked on our fourth annual traditional Christmas tree decorating time-lapse video. Videos from previous years are available for viewing here.

Yesterday I went for my (approximately) quarterly hair appointment. I got my hair trimmed and had my highlights refreshed. By the way, I'm done work for the rest of the year. Yesterday was my last day. Today was very enjoyable. I took the boys to school then went for my eyebrow appointment. I did some computer work this morning then had a great lunch with Cindy and Leeanne. After lunch Leeanne and I did a little shopping then came here for some of Kelly's fabulous carrot cake. Chris's Dad made dinner and brought it over for us and we had a good visit. All in all a pretty good day!

Sweet December

2009-12-01T23:12:00.005-06:00

Well, we nearly had a snowless November. It snowed yesterday and I'm guessing it's here to stay. There were fender-benders all over the place. It's insane how people don't realize they need to switch to winter driving once the snow arrives!

Last week was a short workweek for me. I needed to use up a couple vacation days before the end of the year. On Thursday I was home alone for the day and did some much-needed rearranging and tidying in the kitchen. Friday was not as fruitful; I spent a large, annoying chunk of it trying to find printer ink to finish printing invitations for Cooper's birthday and a few other projects I've been wanting to tackle. I'd been checking Wal-Mart regularly and they apparently won't be stocking ink anymore for the printer that IJUSTBOUGHTFROMTHEMTWOMONTHSAGO!!! I had a hissy fit and made plenty of phone calls. Much to my amazement (and subsequently delight), I received an email back from Kodak only a couple hours after I contacted them. The ink is also available at Canadian Tire and Staples and a couple other places. Surprisingly, our Canadian Tire had some and I also placed an order from Staples. I should be all inked up for the next while.

On Saturday night, I had a PartyLite candle party with a few friends and my Mom and Aunts. I made some great munchies and we had fun snacking and playing games and shopping for candles. Sunday was a pretty lazy day spent around the house.

Last night our nephew Dominic stayed over since he had an early morning bus to catch to a school sporting event. I had a date with the girls to go see Twilight: New Moon. I'm not into the whole Twilight book series but I did find this movie more enjoyable than the first one. I also enjoyed the movie snacks nearly as much as the movie.

Today we all got our seasonal flu shots. Chris picked up the boys to bring them in and this time Cooper was NOT a willing customer. I was soooooooo bummed when he was flat out refusing. He's always gone very willingly and completely unafraid. Obviously it's too soon after the H1N1 shots we got last month and he remembers having a sore arm. We did manage to make him get it and despite the fight he was settled quickly.

We came home and Chris had stopped at the dollar store to get the boys a little something for their heroic (ahem) efforts in getting their flu shots. They played together for quite awhile without incident with the army toys Carter had picked out. Cooper opted for an egg that is currently submersed in water pending the hatching of a snake. We had a snacky supper with hors d'oeuvres from M&M. I put the finishing touches on Cooper's birthday invitations and got a few other things printed. All my boys fell asleep while I printed and cut everything out. I managed to squeeze in a decent Bejeweled score (2nd place) and it's still early in my books. I haven't taken any pictures lately; maybe I'll try bribing my family into a Christmas picture so I can attempt getting some Christmas cards done before the Easter Bunny arrives...

Oh...and the title of this post? December is sweet because I counted the days I work this month...the sum? ELEVEN. Sweeeeeeet.

Sweet November

2009-11-23T21:02:00.004-06:00

Much to my amazement and delight, we've had an almost completely snow-free (and therefore Sweet) November. There is still no snow on the ground though apparently it's on its way to us this week. I can wait. Really. If it stayed like this 'til Christmas, gave us a little fluffy flurry then warmed up, I'd be fine with that!

As usual, time has escaped me. It's been an insanely busy month at the office with the onslaught of H1N1 clinics. Clinics are wrapping up just in time for us to switch to the seasonal flu immunization so I'm expecting an equally busy December. Sure makes the days go by quickly!

Last week Dad started his chemo treatments. The tumor was removed intact but the doctor wanted to ensure there was no residual cancer so Dad will have bi-weekly four-day treatments for the next six months. He tolerated his first treatment swimmingly, much like he did with his recovery from surgery. I'm looking forward to next spring when he's sprung from treatments and the installation of his PICC.

I had a bit of fun with a couple of my girlfriends this past weekend. On Friday night Kelly and I went to a quarter auction with Phyllis. We all won prizes and were in good spirits (from drinking spirits!) and had a blast. Mom, Dad, Auntie Lurdes and Uncle Cliff showed up after their dinner date and in the few minutes they were there, Mom won a prize too. After the auction we took a quick stroll at the shops downtown for their 'midnight madness.' We didn't get too far since it was already getting close to midnight. We topped off the evening with a nightcap at the bar (where I ignored the fact that I was quite likely old enough to be a mother to all the young'n's there!)

On Saturday I went to a festival luncheon with Kelly and Sheila. We met up with Diane and Silvia and a couple of their friends. The proceeds go to a local charity and our table's hostess set up our table beautifully. The place was quite enchanting with the variety of pretty table decorations. We had a lovely lunch then I went to my second date of the day. Unfortunately I hadn't realized this was the weekend for the luncheon that I had bought a ticket for, and I had also committed to having lunch with my friend Leeanne who was in town. I still met up with Leeanne, however late but we still had a good visit and I hung out with her while she had lunch since I had already had mine. We did a quick Wal-Mart and M&M Meat Shop run before I dropped her back off at her vehicle and headed home.

I rented a few movies on Saturday night: Transformers 2, Imagine That, and Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. First we watched Transformers. I think I was the only one who stayed awake to the end. We watched the other two movies on Sunday. I baked a chicken/veggie/Stove Top casserole for supper on Sunday.

In lieu of keeping up with my blog, I've been finding myself quite addicted to Bejeweled on Facebook. I actually even broke down and purchased the Bejeweled app. for my iPod. Yikes. My main online presence consists of updating my Facebook status and rearranging sparkly jewels in hopes of reaching the top of the scoring ladder. Sad, but true.

I do have a few new pictures to post...oh and these go back to Halloween...I vaguely recall mentioning or thinking about mentioning posting these pics! (I realize the pictures look kind of screwy and are not fitting the column but I'm not sure what the problem is yet...)

Carter with crazy-after-bath hair! :)

My three boys at the school's familyHalloween dance

Carter as Iron Man

Cooper being a wallflower, hanging with Auntie Cindy

Iron Man and the Vampire :)

Iron Man and his Dog-Ma

Cooper and Auntie Cindy dancing

Liked this cool robot costume complete with working lights

My freaky vampire man :)

Carter was having big laughs watching ''America's Funniest Home Videos''. I actually took a video of his laughing at the show.

Cooper with the drawing he and Daddy worked on together.

Pardon the 'see-food'

Coooooooooool dude. (Complete with faux-hawk, cool shades and remnants of breakfast on face.)

Carter sometimes lets me gel his hair.

Kelly & Phyllis at the quarter auction.

Our table at the luncheon.

Me, Kelly, Sheila

My sweet friend Diane and me.

My dear friend Silvia :) (The one who usually likes to hide on the other side of the camera!)

Mom and her lunching ladies at the festival luncheon

It's a Different Flu Season

2009-11-08T19:20:00.004-06:00

Last week was another NUTTY one at the office. Nuts as in soooooo busy. In all my eleven years I have never been this busy and on the phone so non-stop. With the beginning of the H1N1 immunization clinics, the phones have been wild. I actually have a headset now and I truly believe it has saved my neck! Don't get me wrong; I LOVE being this busy but my regular work gets left in the dust. I even got to make a couple trips to a couple of our other offices to deliver vaccines these past couple weeks. Those were much-loved trips away from the madness! I just tune into the iPod and drive. :)

The weather went for a crap again and it snowed like crazy last week; of course that was on one of my travel days. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my Jeep? I guess I haven't mentioned ANYTHING lately. I'll still try to work on that. It's been a beautiful weekend and all our snow melted again.

All three of my boys had their immunizations on Wednesday. Earlier in the day Mom and Dad had called to see if I could meet them for lunch. I managed to get there and order with plenty of time to have an enjoyable lunch with them. Chris picked the boys up from school and brought them in for their shots. After work I did a quick run to McDonald's for supper. By the time I got home Cooper was already asleep. I ate quickly and took Carter with me to the blood donor clinic. When the nurse was poking my finger to check my hemoglobin, Carter told me he wasn't feeling well. The nurses assumed he was squeamish from seeing my finger getting poked. They grabbed a stretcher and he lied down. They put a cold cloth on his head and he told them he was fine. I assured them he isn't squeamish; he has no problem seeing blood. I advised he had his shot just a couple hours before. We carried on through the procession and he felt a little icky again. One of the nurses put a garbage can in front of him just in case. He was fine.

After I was done we hung out at the refreshment area for a bit. Carter had a donut while I sipped a sweet drink. We came home and I suddenly felt nauseous. I held back the urge to vomit. Carter fell asleep after we did some homework, but woke up feeling sick again. This time he needed to throw up. We made it to the bathroom but he reeeeeeeeally didn't want to throw up. Finally he relaxed and let it out. I gave him some gripe water afterward hoping to settle his stomach. Poor guy. Oh poor me too...it took every ounce of strength for me to not throw up right along with him. Whew!

I camped out with the boys to keep an eye on them and I felt horrible the rest of the evening. I slept for short periods of time feeling waves of nausea, but trying to avoid an emesis emission. By three in the morning I couldn't hold it back. I thought I was never going to stop. Lunch included. Ew. But I did feel much better and went back to bed.

Thursday I managed to get up and ready and to work. I had an okay morning though I did feel a little tired. I had a lunch date that I kept though I didn't eat much, which is highly unlike me, especially when we go for the Indian buffet. After lunch my fatigue caught up with me. I went back to work for a bit then decided to pull the pin and go home. I headed straight for bed and fell asleep. Unfortunately I didn't realize how many times the phone rings when I'm not at home. I had two telemarketers and two other people who called me to find out why I was at home. I did however enjoy the rest I had. Chris picked up the boys after work.

Friday was a much better day. I ran errands at lunch and picked up the boys after work. Saturday Carter had a birthday party to go to. I dropped Cooper off at Mom and Dad's and took Carter to the party. After work Chris picked up Cooper, who just slept the whole time he was there. After the party I picked up my friend Leeanne who was in town to have work done on her car. We dropped Carter off at home and discovered Cooper was a little warm. Chris gave him some medicine while Leeanne and I went for lunch. We had lunch at the Indian restaurant. This time my appetite had improved a bit. After lunch we did a Wal-Mart run. We saw Dominic and Noah and from a distance my sister Cindy. Then we saw Dad, who invited us over for supper.

I dropped off Leeanne and came home for awhile before we went to Mom and Dad's house. Cooper was still not himself and has been feverish since. Chris and I were goofing around with our new cell phones since we found a great site to download ringtones. We came home and I camped out with Cooper to keep an eye on him. Usually we go to Mom and Dad's on Sundays, so it was nice to be reminded that we had one more day of weekend left.

Today was a reeeeally lazy day. Chris and I did some housework (admittedly he did more than I did). He went out to get us coffee too. In the afternoon Chris took Carter for a ride to his friend's place to help him with some errands. Cooper and I played for awhile and started watching a movie but ended up sleeping most of the afternoon.

Chris and Carter came home and I started getting supper ready. Carter has been taking an interest in helping out with supper lately so I let him don some gloves and do the shaking and baking of the pork chops while I got the rice ready. As we were sitting down to eat Carter exclaimed that he wanted stuffing. Thanks to good ol' Stove Top, his wish was my command within just a couple minutes.

Cooper ate half a pork chop and a little rice. Carter ate a mound of stuffing and was being a real rebel against the very pork chops he helped to prepare. It feels like we're living with a teenager with him already! After supper Carter and I sat down to start some homework and he passed out. Cooper fell asleep shortly after. I managed to watch Desperate Housewives without any interruptions. I actually started this post over four hours ago so I'm off to bed now too. I'm hoping to post more pictures so I hope I can get to doing this again real soon!

Ain't That a Shame

2009-11-02T22:04:00.003-06:00

Well this time I let a month go by. We can chalk it up to a few things, including laziness, busy-ness (I guess technically that's business), and a side dish of stressfulness. I've managed to get ahold of a few things and have actually even enjoyed a little scrapbooking this past week.

We seem to be settled into the school routine fairly well. Dad is doing great since his surgery. He says they took out all the bad stuff, so everything that's left is good. :) Great words that took the edge off my worry.

We had a pretty good (snowy though!) Halloween this past weekend. Everything else has been day-to-day stuff that I used to thrive on blogging about. I'd really like to get back to that. The more I don't blog the more I don't have a clue what happens to all the empty spaces in between posts!

I'm going to let a few pictures do the rest of the talking:

Events of this slideshow include a mid-September swim at Mom and Dad's, enjoying the summery September weather, Mom's 65th Birthday, Fire Safety Night, a breakfast out after church, our first snow, and playing in the leaves after the first snow melted.

I Blinked

2009-09-27T21:21:00.002-05:00

...and another week has gone by. This was a pretty busy one. Monday night I started getting ready for my trip to Thunder Bay with Cindy. I prepackaged four days' worth of clothing for the boys in zip-loc bags and caught up on a bit of laundry.

Tuesday after work Cindy and I left for Thunder Bay. We met up with Mom and Dad at their hotel. The next morning we all went over to the hospital for Dad's surgery. It was a couple hours of waiting until they took him in, a few hours of surgery, a couple hours of recovery and we finally got to see him again. We were at the hospital about twelve hours that day.

Dad was pretty perky despite the big surgery and was making us laugh because he was even more silly than his usual jokey self. Thursday morning we went back and Dad was doing well. We spent much of the day there again before leaving to come home.

Friday was an odd day at work because of my two days off in the middle of the week. It felt like Monday. We had a quiet evening at home. Saturday Chris worked until noon and had brought home a small go-kart for the kids to play with. He played outside with the boys for hours and went all over with Cooper in the go-kart. We ordered pizza for supper (online!) and watched TV.

Today I had a horrible headache that actually started yesterday. I took some Tylenol but all I wanted to do was lie down. I spent half the day in bed. Good thing my friend Diane called me to remind me we were going out. I spent a big part of the afternoon working on a DVD slideshow for my upcoming work conference. I had it all finished and burned to DVD already but I was reminded I was missing some pictures. Now I have it all set to music with cool transitions between the pictures and I'm really happy with it. I hope nobody decides I need to make changes. It's just not that simple!

Cindy and I have been in touch with Mom each day since we left and Dad has graduated off liquids. She said he had cream of broccoli soup today. I bet it felt like a gourmet meal after all the ice chips he ate for a few days! Well, it's another busy week ahead; I need to go check on the laundry demons in the basement.

Summer in September!

2009-09-21T21:58:00.004-05:00

Wow. There went another week that got away from me! We've had such an amazing month of weather we've spent a lot of time outside.

Let's see. Looks like I last blogged on Tuesday night last week after that awesome waterfit class. Looks like I won't be able to go this week but I do plan to go again.

Wednesday morning I was so tired. I did a quick run to Starbucks. When I went in all the tills were down so they were giving out free coffee! I gave Kelly a 'Happy Chai-Day' and grabbed myself my current favourite caramel macchiato. I've been tempted to give up the commercially-brewed coffee beverages but it's been a slow process!

On Thursday, I made Greek pizza for supper. A coworker had brought in her leftovers the day before and it looked delicious so she gave me her recipe. I found some pre-baked pizza crusts at the grocery store. I brushed the crusts with olive oil and sprinkled them with Greek seasoning. I cubed and browned some chicken breasts in olive oil, sautéed mushrooms with onions, sautéed spinach with minced garlic (and might I say how FAST spinach disappears!) I kept putting handfuls of spinach in the pan and watching it reduce to nearly nothing. I arranged everything on two pizza crusts and topped them with crumbled feta and mozzarella cheese. I browned them a little in the oven and we dug in. Cooper ate a whole piece (minus the spinach and onions that he deemed as 'slime'). Carter wasn't quite as enthusiastic about eating it as Cooper was but he did eat about half a piece.

On Friday morning, I was having a morning where I was out of both sleep and extra time. When I walked in the building at work, Kelly was on her way in too and had a macchiato for me. Score! She was very high on my popularity list that day for sure! :) On Friday night I was invited to a kind of a 'girls' night'. Basically just a visit with a few girls at one of their houses. We all brought hors-d'oeuvres and munched on them along with having a few drinks. I walked home around one o'clock in the morning. A good time was had by all!

Saturday Chris worked until noon. I went to pick up my dishes and stuff from Carmelle's house and brought her and Serena much-needed Starbucks! I came home and Chris left to go four-wheeling with his work buddies. I didn't anticipate his coming home until pretty late. I planned to take the kids to Mom and Dad's house for a visit, but Cooper fell asleep. After his nap it was still so beautiful outside we went anyway. I ran a couple errands and packed up the kids' bikes and went to Mom and Dad's. The kids enjoyed riding their bikes on the long, hilly driveway. I brought extra clothing so they could play in the lake too. They splashed around for quite awhile before we took them in for a warm bath. I noticed Cooper had a little bloodsucker on his foot so I told him he had a 'sticky worm' on him and I took it off, not wanting him to be afraid. He wasn't. Then Carter piped up and asked if it was a bloodsucker. I said yes, it was! No fear. Good.

We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home and I got yet another new printer. I really wear these things out! I also picked up a couple cheap movies while we were there, including ''Hoodwinked'' and ''The Devil Wears Prada''. Two movies we've never seen before, and each was only four bucks...cheaper than it would have been to rent them! We came home and started watching ''Hoodwinked''. I hadn't expected it to be good, but the kids and I all liked it. Chris surprised me and came home before ten. He was pretty tired from working and riding all day and went to bed immediately.

Sunday was a busy day. I successfully took both boys to church, which surprised both me and the priest! I hadn't gone for many weeks but have gone two weeks in a row now and want to keep it up again. After church we went out for breakfast. The boys were good in church and out at breakfast. It was a gorgeous day again and after breakfast we picked up Chris to go get his truck at his friend's house.

I took the boys home and Chris went visiting before he came home. He came home just in time for me to leave to go to the AIDS Walk for Life. I picked up Kelly and we went. It was a fantastic day for a walk and about seventeen hundred dollars was raised for the small local committee to raise awareness in our area. I raised a hundred fifty-five dollars, mostly online. It's much easier to ask for money hiding behind a computer screen than asking in person! After the walk there was a little luncheon and some draw prizes.

I dropped off Kelly and she offered to come to the park with the boys and me if they were game. They were. We drove over to Kelly's and walked to the park. (Cooper rode his bike.) We had both boys riding their bikes with no training wheels, but I think Cooper had a few wipeouts so Chris put his back on. Carter has adjusted very well; we should have taken his off ages ago. Though I did copy my Dad's idea from when I was little...we took off one at a time so it was nearly a seamless transition. After supper we watched The Devil Wears Prada while the kids watched Hoodwinked again. I stayed up pretty late working on a print project. Around one o'clock this morning I realized I likely had nothing to wear to work today. I threw in a load of laundry and finished up a couple details on the birthday invitations I made then went to bed.

I got up this morning and absolutely had to wash my hair. I haven't had to do a thing with it since Wednesday. I washed and ironed my hair while drying clothes in the dryer. Chris packed the boys' lunch and snacks and went to work. I got them fed and dressed. What seems like it's going to be a new breakfast trend around here is coloured sugar. I couldn't find my container of sugar so I used the coloured stuff I have for making cookies. Carter had it in his oatmeal with cinnamon, and Cooper had it on his cinnamon toast. Weird, but it got them to eat their breakfast!

Today was a busy Monday as usual. I brought lunch to Chris and we had lunch together before I went back to work. After work I picked up the boys and came home. I left them playing outside with Chris while I ran to the grocery store to get something for supper. I found some cheap steaks and picked up potatoes and corn and sliced mushrooms. I came home and prepared everything while Chris barbecued the steaks. We had a great supper and can always count on the boys eating well whenever we have steak.

After supper we hung out and the boys had a quiet evening and went to sleep fairly early. We watched a few series premieres including House, Castle, and Heroes. I made a birthday card for Kelly to give her brother and it's just past midnight so I'm going to go to bed 'early' tonight.

A Few First Days

2009-09-16T00:30:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was Cooper's 'real' first day of school. Carter's first day of school fell on the 1st of the month. That was Cooper's first day at the new day care. Cooper's next 'first' day was the third, when we went to meet the teacher. Cooper's next first was the ninth, where there was a handful of his classmates attending. And yesterday brought us to the first day of the rest of his junior kindergarten life. So far things have been going well. I've seen a bit of a change in Cooper (well, in Carter too.) Cooper seems to be mellowing a little and whatever nasty phase he was going through is seemingly subsiding. Carter, unfortunately on the other hand, has gotten into a little trouble at school with swearing. What? This kid has never done that. He's the compliant one! Today he actually used the F# and had to go to the principal's office. I had no coverage at the office so Chris went over to investigate. (He's grounded for a week, by the way.)

Cooper, who had been taking a foray into swearing and general meanness these past few months, has settled into his new routine well. Though today he did call me a nasty name when I was trying to herd him in for supper. ::sigh::

So aside from all the swearing issues (Oh and by the way again, I have been known to spout off a few myself, but I always acknowledge them and apologize. The kids? Not so much.) things have been settling well into our routines.

Let's see. The rest of our little camping trip went well. One evening last week we had a very intoxicated man wander into our yard. I was inside with the kids and Chris was out by the firepit with the neighbours. The guy came flailing down the lane and spouting something about being a vampire and an alien or something. Our neighbour spoke to the guy at which point he stopped walking and started to vomit blood. They called 911 and the ambulance and a few police cars showed up. All this was happening while I was in the house with the kids and I knew about none of it. After it was all over Chris (finally) came in to ask if I saw the whole thing. What? No!!! Come and get me when weird stuff happens in our neighbourhood!

At the end of the Labour Day weekend the weather was still fantastic and we actually took the boys to the beach! (Pictures included in slideshow) Last Tuesday Mom and Dad had us over for supper. We hadn't really had a good visit since our little family reunion last month. We had fantastic spaghetti and Mom used her Grandma magic to get the boys to eat all of theirs. On Tuesday we had fresh, pan-fried walleye with homemade French fries. On Thursday I went to a farmer's market to pick up some yellow squash for supper. We had grilled chicken that night with it. Yum!

Last Friday I went downtown with Kelly and Sharon. Kelly needed to find a new bathing suit since her...ahem...'girls' made their way out of her former swimsuit at her aquafit class. We didn't find anything at the first store so we went on to another (one I LOATHE...because even the sales prices are atrocious.) I was busying myself looking at the sale rack of bathing suits when I actually found one I liked. I went to try it on and actually liked it on! I mean, even enough to show Kelly and Sharon. I was pretty excited and looked at it for the price tag. I noticed there was no sale tag so I asked the clerk if this item was a sale item or not. Apparently only some of the items on the rack were on sale, seemingly every single other one but the one I wanted. I put it back on the rack and never ventured far from it. I was bummed, not wanting to pay full price. It's been two or three years since I bought a new swimsuit; the last one I bought for sixteen dollars at the end of summer. So I bit the bullet and took it up to the cashier, making a couple hinty comments about it not being on sale. I really hoped she would say, oh let me just give you twenty percent off. Nope. Bummer! So I am the proud owner of a swim suit I don't hate, at a price that I do.

On Sunday, I got up and made a split-second decision to go to church. My hair was salvageable and Cooper was game to go. We made it in perfect time and sat with Mom and Auntie Lurdes. After breakfast we met up with Dad and Mom and a few of their friends. The remainder of the weekend is becoming hazy at best since I've been such a ''wayward blogger'' as Angie put it.

The weather has remained fantastic this week again, so Chris capitalized on it and went sea-dooing with some coworkers last night. I let the boys ride their bikes down to the riverfront so we could watch. That was an exercise in frustration and exhaustion. The boys didn't listen well about the rules of STOPPING or LISTENING. Luckily we made it there alive. They kept going way ahead of me (I was walking). We watched Chris and the guys for awhile. Carter didn't seem to want to ride his bike anymore so Chris took it in his friend's truck. Cooper was really eager to ride his bike to the park while Carter and I walked. The boys played at the park for awhile then we made our way home, stopping to take pictures on all the rocks along the way. The boys were being pretty photogenerous and these pictures are also included in the slideshow.

Today was an insanely busy day at work (and at school as this blog post comes full circle to Carter's visit to the principal.) Kelly asked me to join her and her friends at waterfit (or aquafit) or whatever it's called. I was intrigued and said I would go along. I do, after all, have a nice new swimsuit to wear now! I had lunch with Chris. After work I picked up the boys and we all got home at the same time as Chris. I took Cooper to get a few school snacks and some hot dogs for a quick supper since I was going out.

I walked to the fitness centre to meet up with Kelly and the girls. I absolutely LOVED the class and will definitely go again. Kelly and I walked home together. Two sleeping boys were strewn about the living room so I dug out the laptop to do some catching up. Whew! I feel like everything is so disjointed when I blog after so long, but it feels good to get things flowing again. I used to be able to spew paragraphs about what seemed like the most mundane days, but I can't seem to muster anything lately. Hopefully I can stay on the upswing and keep it up to document the goings-on of the boys at least.

Tooooooooooo Tired...

2009-09-09T22:12:00.002-05:00

I have much to post including the remainder of our backyard campout, a day to the beach, (in September!) Cooper's first day of school (again), strange visitors in the backyard, first fair play code at school, supper at Mom & Dad's...details to follow! Oh yeah, and a few pictures too :)

The Great Backyard

2009-09-06T08:36:00.002-05:00

Days Three and Four (Thursday and Friday) were great. I seem to be settling into the new routine nicely! The boys are faring pretty well too!

We've spent the last two nights camping out in the backyard. Chris set up the camper last weekend but we never used it. So on Friday night we borrowed a fire pit at the last minute from Chris's friend. We enjoyed hotdogs on the fire and s'mores. I kinda cheated on the s'mores...I bought the cookies with the chocolate already on them and we just put the roasted marshmallows in between. It might not be as chocolatey as using a chocolate bar, but it's far less messy and easier for the kids to assemble and keep together!

We sat around our little campfire and the boys got tired and went in the camper to sleep. Chris's friend Nick and his girlfriend came over and we sat outside visiting until almost one o'clock, which amazed me since it only felt like maybe ten!

Yesterday Chris worked until noon. I had a headache (possibly from a couple drinks the night before but not definitely) so I was laying low and was out of Tylenol. Mom and Dad stopped by on their way home from Thunder Bay and Mom gave me some. I went to lie down for awhile, though Cooper was being a little monkey and not letting me rest. I locked myself in my room and after Cooper bashed on the door for awhile, he gave up and went to have a nap with Chris. I finally got to rest and slept off my headache. When I woke up I opened the bedroom door. Cooper crawled up on the bed in the semi-dark room and ever-so-randomly said, ''I love your eyes.'' I asked him what he loved about them and he told me, ''When you blink them they look beautiful.'' I just about died from the sweetness. Sometimes he comes up with the best stuff!

I got up and ready and went to Wal-Mart to pick up some more camping snacks. This time we had barbecued hamburgers. I also picked up pretzels and some Smartfood popcorn, along with some special candy treats. We had only a bit of firewood on Friday night so we were out of firewood. Seconds after I posted a request on Facebook for firewood, Cindy showed up with a box of it. Hilarious. She hadn't seen my post but we had talked on the phone. A few minutes later we got a call from a Facebook friend saying Chris could pick up some more. Chris and Carter went to get it. We now have enough for at least one more campout!

The boys stayed up a bit later than the first night. We all snuggled up on lawn chairs and did a bit of stargazing. Carter went in the camper on his own and went to sleep but Cooper wanted me to lie down with him. Chris came in the camper and when he went to lie down with Carter, Cooper wanted to cuddle with Daddy too. He climbed up on our bed and weaseled his way between the sleeping Carter and Daddy. I was on the table bed and fell asleep almost instantly. Chris called out to me when both boys were sleeping and we moved them to the other bed and had a peaceful night.

This morning Chris left early to go fishing. The boys were up pretty early too and we came in the house for breakfast and a movie. We've been watching Underdog pretty much non-stop since I rented it the other night. I also rented Duplicity but we haven't had the chance to watch it yet. Hopefully Chris will come home with a good feed of fish and we can continue our camp-out weekend with a fish fry.

Day Three - It's Bliss!

2009-09-03T20:32:00.000-05:00

Day Two of Continuing Awesomeness

2009-09-02T22:12:00.004-05:00

This morning I pressed the snooze button about seventeen times too many. Chris got me up at almost seven-thirty. I dragged my sleepiness out of bed and started to get ready. The boys got up and had breakfast and Chris helped get them ready and dressed. I had a terrible hair crisis this morning. Usually I put my hair in a ponytail in the morning and my hair is the last thing I do. When I took out the ponytail for the requisite freshening up with the hair dryer, all hair broke loose. I'm not sure what was happening, but I ended up resorting to wearing my hair in a ponytail for the day. Ew. It was not a good hair day.

I got the boys to school with enough time to spy on Carter for a bit. I went straight to work and instead of having any commercially brewed coffee, I opted to make a mug of green tea. It's been ages since I did that. I want to switch to that as a habit again! When we got in the Jeep this morning the kids commented it was stinky in there. I didn't think much of it until I went to get them out of the Jeep at school and discovered much to my horror and dismay that there was a sippy cup with a slow leak upside-down on the back seat in between the kids' booster seats. EW. During my lunch hour I came home for a bite to eat and donned my rubber gloves to tackle the stink. I scrubbed the seat with Windex and Mr. Clean. Then it smelled like puke and cleaning products in there. EW still. I ran a couple errands downtown before returning to work, including a brief soujourn at Starbucks. Oops. I didn't mean to have that caramel macchiato. Really.

The afternoon went by quickly and the next thing I knew I was picking up the boys. The Jeep smelled fine by this time but I still sprayed some foaming hand sanitizer on the seat hoping to freshen it up some more in there. Once it dries it should be fine. Diane had called me earlier to let me know they had boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale at Safeway so I stopped to see Chris at work and he took Carter home. Cooper wanted to go with Daddy too but I talked him into coming with me by tempting him with riding in the 'truck' grocery cart. I picked up a few value packs of chicken along with some potatoes and fruit and we were on our way home.

I got Chris to barbecue a few chicken breasts I had marinated in salad dressing. I baked the potatoes and steamed some corn on the cob. We also had an awesome bag salad that came with dressing and nuts and dried cranberries. Delish. It was an awesome supper. Cooper started acting like a little turkey at the supper table and I started to clue in that he must be getting tired. Once he had a bath and got in his jammies he mellowed out. Carter had a bath next and I was thrilled and amazed when Cooper was asleep just after eight. Carter stayed up awhile longer. He really wanted me to print him a golden ticket like in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie. I made one in PhotoShop ages ago for him but the printed copies I gave him were long since destroyed. I printed him a new one and he fell asleep holding it.

Tomorrow is Cooper's first day of school. I've been telling him that even though he goes to the school for the whole day, that was his day care and now he'll be going to school. I can't wait to see him check out his classroom for the first time. I'll be taking more pictures of his first day. We seem to have a few 'first days' but it's all in the way they stagger the entry to school for the little ones. I'll be sure to put in a report of how that goes!

Day One of All Future Awesomeness

2009-09-01T23:48:00.004-05:00

Yesterday my friend Diane and I went to Winnipeg to visit a friend in the hospital. The weather has been beautiful so far this week (gee...nice that summer is just starting in time for FALL. < /sarcasm>) and we had a great drive there. We visited at the hospital for about three hours and had a great visit. After our visit we left to go get manicures and pedicures then did a Costco run. We left the city by about seven-thirty and arrived home before eleven. Everyone was asleep. I didn't stay up much later, though I should have to prepare a little better for today.

This morning I got up after seven and started getting ready. I packed Carter's lunch and laid out the boys' new clothes. Cooper thought they were going to the sitter, but I reminded him about his new day care and of school starting soon. Today was the first day of full-time school for Carter, and Cooper's first day at his new day care. First we dropped off Cooper in his day care room and then I took Carter to his classroom. The teacher greeted Carter, knowing his name and introducing herself. He said, ''I knew that. My mom telled me.'' Then she told him that she went to school with me. Then I got a little misty. Wow. A whole generation later and a classmate of mine is teaching my son.

The morning absolutely FLEW by since it was insanely busy at work. Partly because I had a little catching up to do from yesterday, but it was still a bit crazy anyway. I did a bit of a drive-by at lunch to check in on the boys and all was well. The transition has been far easier than I anticipated. The conveniences of this arrangement keep unfolding. Today when I went to pick up the kids, I learned that because of the time I get off work, both boys will be in the same place when I arrive. Bonus!

We came home and Cooper wanted to play outside. When Chris got home I went to do a quick run to Wal-Mart to pick up more shoes for the kids. I didn't really have any decent, easy shoes for Carter for his indoor shoes at school, so I picked up a pair for him, along with a decent supply of juice boxes and a few other supplies. I went to the grocery store after, and found a bunch of marked down clothing. I picked up a few more shirts and a pair of jeans for Cooper, along with some more shoes for him. He needs a pair of indoor shoes for school and a pair for the day care. We're all hooked up in the shoe department now. I also found a new backpack for Carter and a food thermos in case I send him with soup or something.

I stopped at one more grocery store for a couple more things including a roasted chicken. After all that shopping there was no way I'd have time to pull off cooking supper before bedtime! After supper Chris and I treated the kids to some furniture relocation in their room. We moved the bottom bunk back under the top bunk and set up one of our camping tents in the other part of the room. I hatched an evil plot to tire out the kids...I ''let'' them pump up the air mattress themselves. They inflated a whole queen-size air mattress. I gave them both a bath and read a story with Carter. We took turns reading lines in the story. Cooper was semi-interested and darted in and out. After the story I told the boys it was bedtime. Carter zipped out to the living room a couple times but ended up falling asleep on the couch. Cooper fell asleep in the tent. I was thrilled they were both sleeping before nine. It can only get earlier, and I look forward to it!

Well, that's about it for this glorious day...what's that you say? Did I take a picture of the boys on their first day? Well, of course I did!

No Fair!

2009-08-29T21:29:00.003-05:00

Well I rather artfully dodged the fair this weekend. I do actually enjoy taking the kids there; they love the rides and I love all the snacks and exhibits and taking the kids to see the animals and stuff. Usually the weather sucks for this particular weekend every year but this year magically was a cool yet lovely sunny one. I'm suspicious that the weather was kind since I opted to not go there. Since we had our big trip this summer I kind of wanted to avoid the fair since nothing there is as cool as our trip was, and I didn't feel like shelling out even the sixty bucks just to get us in the door and get a wristband on the kids for the rides. My friend Tracy figures her family blew about a hundred and fifty dollars there and I could see us easily nearing that if we went.

In other money saving news, I cut all three boys' hair today. It started with Cooper's getting ahold of my craft scissors I left out on the table when I went to lie down with a headache. BIG mistake. He took a large chunk off the top front of his hair. We didn't notice right away; Chris saw a few tufts of hair in the garbage that prompted us to immediately investigate! He did this not long ago, but that was at the sitter's house; this time it was all mommy's fault. Ooooooops. After awhile, I offered to cut his hair to fix it up and he was actually a very willing customer. I got out the clippers and cut his hair the way I used to before I started taking the kids to the barber. It looks much better. He always looks a little tougher and more grown up when his hair is cut short. Carter wanted in on the haircutting action so I trimmed his hair too. I just used the clippers all around the sides and back and left it a little longer on top. Nice school haircuts, just not how I planned them happening! Another little financial bright spot today happened when I went to do some banking...I opened up the gas bill and it was a credit! I love it when that happens! :)

After Chris got home from work he went to a pedicure appointment I set up for him. His feet were hurtin' units again; his workboots pummel his heels into solid masses of callus. He came home greatly relieved and decided to move the camper to the back yard so we could camp out tonight. The boys were excited to see the camper and spent awhile outside playing. I felt like crap all day; my headache is finally now starting to subside. I did manage to get myself together and go shopping. I went to trade in the propane tank for the barbecue and filled up the Jeep at the gas station. I ran to Wal-Mart to grab burgers and stuff for supper. So the money I didn't spend at the fair? The gas station and Wal-Mart got. I figure it was better spent this way though.

I came home from shopping and Chris grilled the burgers and some zucchini slices. Cooper had one again; this still surprises me. After supper Cooper started to get a little rangy. I recalled he hadn't had a nap today so I wasn't surprised. I cleaned up the supper stuff and cut Chris's hair. Shortly after, Chris fell asleep on the couch. Carter was next and Cooper wanted to watch Coraline. I just happened to have my iPod in hand, and the movie happens to be on there. He fell asleep about five minutes into the movie. So much for our little camping excursion...unless I wake Chris up to see if he still wants to head out to the back yard with two sleeping kids!

In the meantime, I'm going to work on a couple projects and perhaps attempt a little bit of scrapping. I doubt I'm that motivated, but I'll give it a shot. :)

Oh and I might as well leave you with a picture of the two new haircuts... :)

The Forgetful Blogger

2009-08-29T11:17:00.002-05:00

Well, it's fall fair weekend and so far we've avoided going. Yesterday I made the huge mistake of taking Cooper with me to go get the boys happy meals for supper. He spotted the fair immediately and kept talking about going. When we got home he played outside while Chris changed the brakes on his truck. I feared he would start spouting off about the fair again when he came in but I managed to redirect him by offering him a bath. After his bath I told him we could pull the blinds and turn off the lights and watch a movie with popcorn. That worked too.

I actually have gotten to the point where I often forget I have a blog. I'm not sure if I'm too tired or too lazy or just not interested in our daily goings-on, but I really want to keep it going. It's been a quiet week. This was our last full week with our babysitter; our last day with her is Monday. Carter starts school full-time next week and Cooper will go to his new day care and start the 'gentle entry' process into junior kindergarten.

It looks like I need a new printer again. I've had some big projects lately and the printer is printing badly. I have done all the maintenance processes repeatedly but I only get half of one good page before it starts showing lines across the page. Bummer. Good thing I just buy the cheap ones. I hope Wal-Mart will have a good deal for me again.

The weather is surprisingly beautiful on this fall fair weekend, presumably because I planned to avoid going to it. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be good too, and hopefully I'll remember to come here and post about it!

Let's Get This Party Started!

2009-08-25T23:01:00.002-05:00

Oh look who's here...the long-lost blogger! I don't know what happened. There's been plenty happening to blog, perhaps too much for me to gather my thoughts about.

There are some big changes coming up for the kids and me. A couple weeks ago I got a call from the school day care to tell me they had space for Carter in the after school program but not for Cooper. Crap. Cooper is the cause of the logistical problems for me. I had planned to take Carter to school (since he will be full days now!) and Cooper to the sitter in the morning. Then at lunchtime (as I've done with Carter for the past two years) take Cooper to school. After school in the past I had someone to walk Carter back to the sitter. But even if I had that same arrangement, Cooper is only THREE and I don't want him walking no matter what. Not to mention our dreadful -40 degree weather in winter or his strongwilledness (yeah it's a word now) that could cause trouble on such a walk.

I asked what I needed to do to get Cooper in the program and was told I needed to put him in for the full day. I think my previous hangup about this was paying for a full day even though he would be in school. However, I was pleased to learn that even with Cooper in the daycare for the morning and both kids in the after school program, that my child care expenses would be decreasing by fourteen dollars a day. That, with the convenience of delivering two children to the same location on every busy morning and not having to take Cooper to school on my lunch hour, made it a no-brainer. I will take great delight in dropping both boys off at the same location in the mornings as I've done for so long, and reclaiming my lunch hour. Plus I won't feel compelled to race over to pick them up the second the clock reaches the end of my workday...I will have the option to run to the store or whatever at no extra cost or worry about inconvenience. I'm a little fearful of all the big changes and of giving up our sitter but I'm hoping all the positive things will make it an easy transition.

Today was actually Cooper's tour of the day care facility at the school. I think he's going to love it because I already had a heck of a time getting him to leave with me and go back to the babysitter so I could go back to work! School starts next week so we'll see how things go.

Last week I took Carter to see the movie Ice Age 3. We both loved it. I love those mom and son dates and we should do that more often.

Work has been busy and the days have flown by. I can't believe it's been a month already since we were on vacation. The weather hasn't cooperated enough for us to do any camping on the weekends, but we get outside when we can. Chris went on a camping trip this past weekend with his buddies; it was a beautiful weekend. On Friday evening Cindy and I took the kids out to Blue Lake to see our cousin Amanda and her family that were camping there. Her two kids are each about a year younger than each of mine and they played together awesomely. We had a great visit.

On Saturday I did a little housework then we went to the park with my coworker Kaitlin. There's a new climber at one of the parks and they have a fun sprinkler there too. We took the boys to Subway after and I found an ingenious way to keep the boys from getting too crazy there. I told them there were cameras watching and there was a man in the back room watching us on a TV and he would kick us out if we got too out of hand. It worked for the most part though the kids were getting a little tired and whiny.

When we got home Cooper launched into one of his cranky tantrums but I managed to keep him at bay and he fell asleep shortly after. :) After supper Cooper wanted to turn off all the lights and close the blinds and watch a movie. He calls it our movie feeter (theatre). We cuddled up and watched Coraline for the umpteenth time. I let the boys sleep with me both nights. Of course now they think they can do that all the time. (Tonight both of them were bathed, pajama'd and sleeping by nine o'clock. That has to be a record lately.)

On Sunday Chris came home just before noon as he promised. I was invited to a spa party that Cindy and I planned to go to together. It started at six so I picked Cindy up and we were on our way. The products at the party are called Arbonne. It's Swiss stuff and it's really nice. I actually ordered a couple things. My skin felt delightful after putting all the masks and lotions and creams on throughout the evening. It was a great evening with some nice ladies.

I took a zillion pictures on our trip but haven't scrapped a single one yet. When we returned from our holiday I found out a friend of mine was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer. My thoughts have been with him and his family since and I have been having a hard time focusing on anything fun and creative lately. Please help me pray for him and his family.

I'm really hoping to get back into a creative flow once the kids get in a routine at school. We'll see. Now I know this post doesn't make up for weeks of absence but if I remember anymore good stuff I'll be sure to post it. I need to get back into the blogging groove to so I can document our lives. It doesn't make time go by any slower but at least it helps me keep track of what we're up to! :)

I Know...

2009-08-18T13:35:00.001-05:00

It WAS a Spa...AND a Massage!

2009-07-31T00:04:00.005-05:00

On Saturday Marsha treated me to a beautiful, amazing spa. First we had a steam then we dried off and each went to our respective massage tables. We were first treated to a foot massage. Our feet were filed and lotioned and pampered for some time before they were brushed with wax or something and wrapped in plastic. Onto the full body massage. OMGCANYOUSAYAWESOME? By the time she went back to unwrap my feet I couldn't help myself from saying out loud that I had completely forgotten I had feet! I didn't have the presence of mind to take pictures of the place until we were leaving but even the entrance was beautiful! :) Thanks Marshy!

Saturday was our last night in Kamloops and Sunday morning we left Kamloops. The drive through mountains was gorgeous. Stopped a few times for the kids to stretch. Still had some meltdowns. Stopped at Takakkaw falls. Very cool experience driving around and UP the mountain. Switchback was amazing. Falls even more amazing. Cooper started melting down after falls visit. Canmore tantrum was still going on. We were going to stop for the night but Roberta talked us into driving the last hour to Calgary to stay over again (Thank God). I had to sit in the back to keep the boys down to a dull roar. Arrived in Calgary and wanted to flop and drop.

Monday - Graeme's 5th birthday. Went to IKEA. Bought some kitcheny gadgets but was not impressed with the kids' impatience. Did the whole store in under an hour which SUCKED. Ran to Future Shop to get Graeme a bday present. In there for only a minute or two, which was awesome. While I was inside Chris was scoping out a little tent area out in the parking lot where a (cute) girl was doing windshield stone chip repairs. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed back over to see her. She fixed our stone chip. Freaked me out when she started drilling the windshield. I'd hoped it would make the stone chip disappear but it's still there. At least it's repaired and isn't supposed to spread now.

Headed back to Roberta's to hang out for the afternoon and for Graeme's birthday supper. Got some adorable pictures and video of his opening presents. Had an awesome supper of homemade grilled chicken burgers with avocados, tomatoes and chipotle pepper mayo (yum) and piles of beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables. Hey Mom...I actually put avocado on mine and loved it! Hey Auntie Lurdes...Roberta gets me to eat new stuff just like when I was little at your house! I found a thin slice of tomato and even put that on it too. Delish. Kevin was there and Derek's sister and brother-in-law were there for a visit too.

Tuesday morning we headed out after a visit to the gas station/Tim Horton's. Made it to Regina but I had to sit in the back to keep us all sane again. Stayed at the Travelodge there. Nice enough place and could even see the Jeep (still full of all our crap) from the hotel room. Ordered pizza and a movie. Twelve bucks for that sucker and it cut off about halfway through. ''The Wrestler'' came on instead. Weird. I called the front desk to ensure we wouldn't be charged for either one. Apparently there was a glitch at the movie company the hotel deals with. So we started watching the Wrestler for free but we fell asleep.

Left Regina and headed home. Rough ride with the boys. They'd really had enough of the car ride. Very few stops. Brandon for gas and snacks and Portage La Prairie for a stretch break at the park near the spillway. Headed home and straight to Wal-Mart for milk and food. Came home and unloaded the Jeep. Boys are still on BC time and stayed up really late.

Today we hung out and I'm slowly unpacking. Went to get Chris a new GSM ''smart phone'' today. He officially has texting and everything. Too bad the phone is so damn fancy it's not very user-friendly and is a little frustrating. Though Chris can get email on it which is cool and use Facebook but I really need to find out if these features are an additional cost. I'm holding off ont he upgrade until the phone company has all the glitches worked out.

Totally synched the iPod and am loving it. Went to Mom and Dad's for supper. Yum. Hung out and visited then came home. Boys fell asleep on the way home which rocked. Stopped at the video store to rent Coraline. Carter woke up to watch it. It did get kind of freaky once we caught up to the point where it was cut off at the hotel. I missed much of it since I was computing and iPodding at the same time. (Yeah, I'm a dork.) Cooper surprisingly stayed down for the count. I'm enjoying listening to the iPod since I finally have all my music on it and am having fun playing with all the free apps I downloaded.

Dinosaurs, Gondolas, and the Enchanted Forest

2009-07-25T00:29:00.002-05:00

...to name a few attractions we've visited. Last I mentioned we were headed for Drumheller. It was about an hour and a half's drive away; a little extra with the construction that seems to be omnipresent. We arrived in Drumheller and our first order of business was to visit the world's largest dinosaur. He was pretty massive! Then we found out we could climb up inside it, which added to the coolness factor! At three bucks a head to go up, (but Cooper was free) we started climbing the stairs. Then more stairs. And more stairs then just three more flights. Whew! We made it! We stood in the big-ass dino's mouth and took pictures. Cool stuff! We ventured down and started to head toward the Royal Tyrrel Museum. The place was huge and we started venturing through. It was pretty amazing and there was so much to learn, although that was not an easy feat with two young boys along for the tour. Cooper was very timid around the dinosaur displays which surprised me. Carter on the other hand, was enjoying it though was a little grouchy about having to wait to pass through the exhibits and so on. I took pictures as we zipped through. As with most tourist traps, the exit is through the gift shop. We picked up a remote control dinosaur for Cooper and a semi truck hauling a bunch of dinos for Carter. We stopped for snacks and headed back to Calgary for our last night there. The kids said their goodbyes before bed since we were aiming for an early start.

On Wednesday morning we headed out for the mountains. We were awe-inspired almost instantly and I was growing increasingly excited as the mountains got bigger and bigger as we got closer. Our first stop was Banff. The sign said the next two exits were Banff. Chris skipped the first one just for no reason other than there was another, but with the usual construction issues the second one was closed, with no noticeable warning. We had to drive about five clicks to the Lake Louise turnoff and go back to Banff. We made it into Banff just fine and headed for the gondola ride. I was a tad concerned the boys might not like it but it was a very very worthwhile stop. Eighty-six bucks later (and worth every penny) we were airborne. Looking at the boys and how much they loved it reminded me that Chris and I were at the same place ten years ago, and longer ago when I was Carter's age my family came to BC too, so I got all verklempt for a minute. The boys loved every minute of it and didn't want to get off. About a mile later we got off and of course had to walk through yet another gift shop. We climbed to the observation deck and I took a handful more pictures. Down we went and stopped for some ridiculously-priced refreshments. We headed back to the gondola and ventured back down to earth.

Our next stop was to be in Yoho Park where we hoped to see Takakkaw Falls. (Or Takalakataka as I first thought it was called heeheehee :) Somehow we missed the turnoff as there wasn't much signage. We just kept going but really needed a stop. We randomly chose Finn Creek; a lovely rest area with crystal clear river cascading into the larger, lovely clear green river. We played there for quite awhile and waded through the chilly water. Nice place.

Next stop was Revelstoke just for a random mental health break. We decided after Day One that we wouldn't torture ourselves or the kids with too much consecutive driving. We did a bit of a walkabout and got back on the highway; with just a short jaunt to the Enchanted Forest (about halfway between Revelstoke and Sicamous). The kids were instantly enchanted. We no sooner went through the gates than the boys were ready to move. There were castles and treeforts and little houses for all the fairy tale characters you could think of. Cooper again was too timid to really explore but Carter explored every nook and cranny of the three little pigs' houses and many many others. I took probably a hundred pictures just there. It was another worthwhile stop for the kids, though they were getting antsy and wanting to run ahead at every turn. The scenery there alone was beautiful with the ceiling cedar forest. Beauty!

We managed to get the kids back in the Jeep for the last leg of the trip to Kamloops. It was a bit dicey around Sorrento where we had to pull over for one of those breaks again. Once we got everyone all chilled out again it wasn't too bad for the rest of the journey. It was sooooooooooo awesome to pull up and see Marsha in the driveway. We didn't get to meet Heath right away since he was already in bed. Marsha and Ryan fed us a lovely dinner and we visited outside in the warm evening breeze. Ahhhhhhhh.

Yesterday Ryan had to work and we took the kids to a kiddie pool just a few blocks away. The kids played there for awhile and had a great time. Heath? Is an adorable, sweet, happy little baby; a total pleasure to have around. And though Marsha and I only see each other every few years now, it was quickly like we'd never been apart. Marsha and Chris took Carter and Heath back home but Cooper wasn't done at the pool. I stayed with him awhile longer but he started wanting to wander. He didn't really want to leave but I started to carry him home and he liked it. He quickly got too heavy so I carried him like a monkey for awhile. Still heavy so I put him up on my shoulders for the rest of the walk. I was hot and my legs were Jell-O by the time we got back. We had a quiet afternoon. We had pizza for supper and we started watching Zathura with the kids. Marsha had never seen it before. Chris and Ryan had gone to sleep earlier and I intermittently dozed throughout the movie. With the time zone changes (we've gained two hours now) we're a little messed up on bedtimes and such. Cooper was up pretty late.

Today we had a visit from Ryan's Mom. It was so sweet of her to arrive with gifts for the boys; the monster trucks and her kindness endeared them to her quickly. :) We had a visit then started to get ready to go to Shuswap Lake. We went to the Scotch Creek recreation area. First we visited the beach then went to an amusement spot where we had lunch and Marsha and I took Carter and Cooper on the bumper boats. Those were fun. I sat Cooper between my legs and let him do most of the driving and the water shooting! Carter liked it too but was happy to squirt water at people but upset when he got squirted back. Poor Marsha. Once the ride was over the kids wanted to play in the arcade. There was also a cool mini-golf course, but with the heat and the length of the course it was out of the question. More than half of the arcade games were out of order and Carter was getting progressively grouchier. On the way out Cooper rode one of those little merry-go-rounds and Carter rode on a duck and a three-wheeler.

We managed to get away and head back. Cooper fell asleep almost instantly. Carter eventually wound down and apologized for his whininess in the amusement park. We had a (thankfully) uneventful drive back. We relaxed for the afternoon then had an awesome supper. Ryan grilled salmon and we had a fantastic salad, peas and some sushi. I wasn't brave enough to try any of the raw items but I really enjoyed the California rolls and the Dynamite rolls. Good stuff. I'd love to know how to make it.

After supper Marsha got Heath settled down for the night and we all watched Monsters Incooperated. No, that's not exactly a typo; it's what Cooper still calls it and I still get a kick out of it. After the movie we all headed for bed. Chris is enjoying the iPod as much or more than I am and I managed to get connected with the mini-laptop again to do some catching up here. I don't have my camera handy so pictures will follow later. I'm off to dreamland myself now; Marsha has a suuuuuper secret treat just for us girls tomorrow. I hope it rhymes with pa or passage. hahaha.

A Rough Start

2009-07-21T00:10:00.003-05:00

Well, we got away perfectly and as planned on Saturday morning. By the time we wanted to stop for a bite, I realized I forgot all the sandwich meat in the crisper of the fridge. I also began to recall several other items I had forgotten to bring but that we could live without. Our first stop was at Oak Bluff on the Perimeter Highway outside of Winnipeg. We gassed up and I bought some lunchmeat to go with the buns that I actually did remember.

We carried on our travels and made several stops. I took a few notes and started making notes about our gas mileage and amounts. We made it to Regina by dinner time, which impressed us greatly. We are very thankful to have the GPS Mom and Dad lent us; it has really helped and is at times quite handy as well as entertaining. Since we arrived in Regina far earlier than we expected to, we decided to continue driving. We made Swift Current our next target, arriving before nine o'clock. We couldn't find the Days Inn (it didn't show up on the GPS) so we just stopped at a Best Western. The kind ladies at the desk warned us that all of the hotels in town that they would recommend were full. They did have smoking rooms available but even the hoarse, smoker's voice lady said they were awful and even she, a smoker wouldn't stay in them.

We were starting to get a little concerned (and punchy) about the time and our fatigue from traveling all day. We pressed on for a town called Gull Lake, which was a hole in the wall town and we didn't even bother taking the exit. Next was Maple Creek which was somewhat similar. It was getting dark out and the clouds of bugs we were driving through were horrendous! Again we pressed on and actually made it to Medicine Hat. We headed for the Days Inn and the nice ladies there told us they were FULL. Another customer was there and said she had already checked a handful of nearby hotels that were also full. I was just about ready to go nap in a Wal-Mart parking lot when the ladies called the Imperial Hotel for us. It was nearby and we found it easily and they had room.

Luckily the boys were asleep (we only had a couple meltdowns during that whole ordeal of traveling for so long). We checked in and went to the room and crashed, planning to let the kids have a dip in the pool in the morning since we had already covered so much ground the first day.

Morning came and we had to kill some time before the pool opened. I shaved and showered and did all my requisite hair drying and ironing while Chris did a Tim Horton's run with Carter across the street. It was finally pool time and Chris and I decided instead of having wet life jackets all over our stuff in the Jeep we would just let the kids dip in the hot tub. That was fine and dandy until Cooper went off the ledge in the hot tub. He couldn't reach bottom and the time he bobbed the second time, Chris had leapt into the pool and grabbed him. Cooper was fine Thank God and once I determined so, he just wanted to go back in again. Chris and his cell phone, Jeep remote, cigarettes etc. (who cares about those) were soaked. I did let Cooper back in the water but I held his hand and it was soooooooo not fun after that. Much to the kids' chagrin we tore them away from the pool since we were so stressed out. We threw Chris's clothes in the hotel laundromat and while I was using my hairdryer to try to dry out the cell phone, Chris used the hotel hairdryer on the wall to start drying the contents of his wallet that I forgot to previously mention in his possessions. Next thing we knew the power was out; we had blown a breaker with both hairdryers going. ::sigh:: I called down to the front desk and they had us back up and running in a few minutes.

The tone of the day was definitely set. We were however happy to have a shorter trip to reach our destination. We were approaching Calgary when the boys had another meltdown. I was trying to ignore them but they started to fight physically so Carter whacked Cooper and Cooper started to bite Carter. Chris pulled over to the side of the highway but there was a lot of traffic so he pulled onto a side road. I hauled Cooper up front with me to remove him from the fisticuffs. Chris took Carter outside. Once we restored peace we all got settled back in the Jeep with a snack and continued out our way. When we pulled out onto the highway there was another vehicle pulling onto it from the other side. As we got up to highway speed, the other vehicle pulled back and away from us but then came after us. The lady was motioning to the back passenger door window of their truck, which was smashed completely and they were motioning for us to pull over. They didn't know if they got hit by a rock or if we threw something at them or even shot at them, with the explosion of the window. We had just gotten our own stone chip just a couple hours before, but this just sucked. They wanted our insurance information and I didn't know if they could do that but I called 911 and said it wasn't an emergency but I had a police question. The lady told me it's not a reportable incident but if we figured we would get any kind of a hard time from the people we should exchange information and advise our insurance agent. Sheeeeeeesh! Fortunately for them they were locals. So far the day wasn't going well!

We finally reached Roberta & Derek's house. All four kids were excited to get together and play. I just wanted to curl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb by this point but was so relieved to be at our destination where we could settle down for a couple days and breathe!!! Kevin was here too. He took me to Future Shop to buy my iPod!!! However, I couldn't use it right away since it wanted to synch with my computer that much to my dismay now I didn't bring with me.

Kevin, knowing my disappointment, went home to get his laptop so I could get my iPod started. Yay! I didn't know if that would work out but I got it all registered and ready to rock. Fun stuff. Cool toy. Then I went to buy my first app at the app. store and it asked me for Kevin's password. CRAP. This evening he took me to the Apple store to see if they could help or tell me what to do. Apparently my iPod is now associated with Kevin's computer. When you have an iPod, one iPod can be connected to one computer. Crap again. Oh well. It is still useable though I can't synch it until I get home. In the meantime I can still play with it and go online. When I get home I can use my laptop to fix 'er up. Yay again :)

Roberta made us a delectable dinner last night with chicken kebabs and grilled vegetables. The kids didn't eat great but played pretty nicely. We had a lovely evening visiting and I cuddled up with the four kids to watch a movie. My guys fell asleep and we tucked them in for the night. I wasn't able to get this mini-laptop of Mom and Dad's working until just tonight, hence this lengthy post.

Today we had a lunch date with Chris's Auntie Wendy in Cochrane. We navigated over there just fine and had a wonderful visit with her and her daughter Crystal and baby Houston and Crystal's niece Aubrey. Lunch was divine and Wendy's sweetness just brings out the best in everyone, including our boys who didn't need to be reminded to use their manners :) After Chris's Mom passed away just over five years ago, Chris's Dad sent her dog, Sasha, to live with Wendy. When we arrived and I saw Sasha, I was overcome with emotion and memories and started to cry. I thought there would be some impact with seeing her but I didn't expect to be overwhelmed. Sweet moment. Sasha, now 13 is a bit of a senior citizen but she is still the same little lady we remembered!

After lunch and a great visit, we ventured back to Roberta's place as we had a date with Kevin to go to the oh-so-seriously-massive Bass Pro Shop. Seriously? It's oh-so-massive. It was amazing. The boys were quite entertained by all the animal mounts and merchandise. The decor alone was incredible and sheer volume and size of the place was astounding. We spent a bit of time there then headed back to Roberta's again for supper. Tonight we had scrumptious tacos and spicy rice. Delish. After supper was when Kevin took me to the Apple store, which is a nice, clean pretty store with all their neat displays and stuff. It was pretty busy in there but I got my questions answered.

We zipped around the mall, barely stopping to look at anything until we got to Old Navy where I picked up a few t-shirts for Chris, knowing how much he would love to have something new. He did. We got back to Roberta & Derek's and visited out on the deck until the boys fell asleep watching a movie after a warm bath. Tomorrow we are venturing to Drumheller to see the dinosaurs with the boys, another big highlight of our trip. We can't wait to check it out. I'm going to try to post some pictures using this mini-laptop but I can't make any guarantees. However pictures will follow at some point!

BLAH

2009-07-09T23:55:00.008-05:00

Things have been ticking along as quickly as always, ticking very quickly when it comes to my blogging so as per usual of late this will be an odd, sporadic post. Last week I had a few lunch dates. My cousin Jason was in town and we got to have a few visits with him. Chris's brother Jason and Claire also came to town and we were happy to see them a few times on the weekend.

The day after I last blogged I took the boys to the Teddy Bear Picnic. It was a beautiful day, a little windier than I'd like but it definitely kept us cool enough. Chris was gone fishing but I managed okay with two excited little boys. They did a variety of activities and had some fun. Pictures will follow at the end of this post.

Somewhere in these almost two weeks I took the boys for a kayak ride with Kelly. I was terrified of dumping my camera in the river so I didn't take any documenting pictures. Next time I will, even if it's just on-shore pictures.

Mom and Dad were going to come visit one evening but changed their minds. Mom had wanted to come to town for an ice-capp from Timmy's. After I dropped off cousin Jason and Chris's Dad, I did a quick Timmy's run to get her one. I drove out to Mom and Dad's and left it on the doorstep, rang the doorbell and leapt into the Jeep and drove away. By the time Dad opened the door I wasn't quite out of their driveway so I was busted. Mom would have known where it came from anyway, but it was a fun drive-by, nonetheless. :)

The weather has been odd; the night I did that drive-by, there was an F2 tornado that touched down about an hour and a half away from here, which is oh-so-very-rare around here. I did notice some interesting cloud formations in my own travels and even stopped to take pictures along the way, only to find out about the extreme weather not so far away just a couple hours later. I also saw two turtles on my drive. One on my way out and one in a completely different area on the way back. Oh and a deer too. It was an interesting drive!

On the weekend I had lunch with an out-of-town coworker and her friend. We had an awesome lunch at the Indian/Greek restaurant again. I came home with a ''food baby'' and the taste and smell of garlic lingered on me for long afterward. I love eating there.

This week has been kind of a rotten one. The kids seem to have caught a (thankfully mild) case of hand, foot and mouth disease. I never fully clued in until the kids were having a hard time eating dinner (yeah Angie, I said dinner...tell your friend Thomas!) on Monday night. The sitter had mentioned the week before that a couple of the kids had it but their moms kept them home so I didn't think much of it. They both had some little sores in their mouths. I wanted to confirm what it was so we all hiked up to the hospital to get checked out. Once we were under the bright fluorescent hospital lighting we were able to see a few little pimply marks on their hands and feet, but thankfully they are very few and very far between. I did a Google Image Search to find out about it and there are some hideous pictures of the sores that are common with the ailment. Thank God our kids don't have it bad like that! We were in and out of there in around two hours, with the doctor basically telling us that yes, it was what we thought it was, and that we could go look it up on the internet to find out about it. His first words were (and I quote) ''Well, there's frig-all we can do about it.''

So I've kept the boys home yesterday and today and it's been brutal. The weather sucks plus we couldn't really go to the park anyway for fear of being contagious to other kids there. So we've been cooped up and Cooper has really been testing my limits more than ever. I've been stressed about the kids' being sick, about missing work on my last week before I have some time off and with their behaviour so I've been feeling down.

Yesterday I had a hair appointment. I went for a cut and colour and it always feels good to get a new haircut. She added in a few highlights too just for variety, though I could use a few more in the front where they would be more visible. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a much better day and I can have a boost in enthusiasm again.

Here are a some random pictures since the last time I blogged:

(This one is for Christy...the yellow dude's name is Gary lol)

Yeah, I Know...

2009-07-04T18:35:00.005-05:00

It's been a freaking forever since I blogged aside from this morning, and here I am doing it again. But we have had a fun day today. After Chris came home from work we took the boys mini-golfing. Cooper lasted exactly one half round and was terribly interested in the playground. Carter almost survived the whole course. His enthusiasm started to wane around the twelfth hole. I on the other hand was still feeling terribly competitive...therefore Chris and I tried to continue a real game. Not once, not twice, but THREE times, Cooper stopped my ball as I tried to play through. Boooooooooo.

Once we were done playing our quasi-game, we headed for the playground. A couple weeks ago I found a fun ''colour accent'' setting on my camera that lets you choose a colour accent and makes the rest of the picture black and white. Today I chose blue since the boys were wearing matching blue outfits and I really liked the effect.

After we left the mini golf course, we headed for Dairy Queen. Carter wanted a Blizzard instead of the usual ice cream cone. Cooper just said ''chocolate'' (that's my boy!) so I got him a baby cone dipped in chocolate. Chris had a tin roof brownie blizzard and I had my favourite-of-late hot fudge sundae with Reese Peanut Butter Cups on top. Carter did a really good job on the Blizzard and Cooper surprisingly ate his entire cone...without any serious mess!

After ice cream it was still kind of nice out, though starting to cloud up. We headed for one of the schools to play on the playground and we all had some fun. Tonight we're going to see Night at the Museum 2. Cooper is taking a late nap so he'll easily last for the whole movie, but I'm anticipating Carter will be zonking out shortly after it gets started since he is rebelling against napping at the moment. So now I'll leave the rest of this post to the pictures... :)

What Can I Say?

2009-07-04T09:15:00.006-05:00

It's summer. And even though I'm on the computer quite a bit, I've mostly been doing Facebook updates and playing that stupid game Farkle and just really haven't felt the enthusiasm for blogging. Or scrapbooking. How very sad. We've had some fantastic weather and some not so fantastic weather. We had about five depressing days in a row of rain but now it's nice again.

My birthday came and went. We followed our tradition of quite a few years now of going to the pancake breakfast at the Legion with my Mom and Dad. Chris's Dad joined us this time. By the time we got home this old girl was ready for a nap. (snicker) Chris took Cooper fishing and I hung out with Carter. Kelly called to see if I wanted to go for a walk. Cindy stopped by first to bring me my birthday present. My hilarious sister bought me reading glasses. As I mentioned in a post a couple months ago, (which by the frequency of my blogging lately it's still on this page...oh look at me digressing like my friend Angie...) I am at the stage where reading glasses are an option. Inside the card she wrote, ''Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.'' Although instead of the word bullet, there was an actual bullet. Hilarious. Also in the package was a puzzle I have yet to figure out.

Mom and Dad gave me money toward my obsession of late; I've decided I want to have an iPod touch. My delightful coworkers pitched in to get me a couple Future Shop gift cards (and a couple of those sweethearts got me flowers too!) The day before my birthday I got home and there was a delivery guy pulling in the driveway behind me. He had a gift bag with three helium-filled mylar balloons attached. It was from Kelly. Inside were four packages of Reese Peanut Butter Cups, a gift card for Future Shop and a gift card for Starbucks. I was very excited that I was well on my way to getting my iPod.

At suppertime I went to get McDonald's for the boys since I was headed to Bingo with Mom. I found out earlier in the day there was a Bingo and since it meant free admission on my birthday, I wanted to go. I also wanted to go the fireworks but it was doubtful with the timing. That and the kids are usually sound asleep by that time. Unfortunately despite the fun we had, we didn't win Bingo. I had a couple good close calls. Not only did I get a free card for admission but Mom and I had heard that if you wear something Canada-ish, you get a free card so I had a few Canada tattoos on and Mom wore a Canada flag sash and we got another freebie for that. On the way home we could see flashes in the sky off in the distance. At first I figured it was a storm, but we realized we could see the reflection of the fireworks off in the distance. On the way home after dropping off Mom, I could see a few really high ones. But by the time I got to town it was pretty much finished.

For some silly reason, I didn't take Thursday off work. With Canada Day/My Birthday on a Wednesday this year it didn't make for a long weekend. I had already booked off Friday and really should have included Thursday. This weekend we plan on taking the kids mini-golfing and to see Night at the Museum 2 at the drive-in.

Now I fully realize this has been a lame attempt at a catch-up so I'll use these pictures as filler... pictures of our nature walks, trips to the park, face painting on Canada Day (there are no pictures of the birthday girl on her birthday; it was a pretty low-key day) and of Cindy's puppy(ies). I took Carter to see Cindy and Bob's new puppy yesterday. His name is Gunner and he is a soft little adorable guy. By the time we got home, there was already another puppy living with them. Her name is Joon. Supposedly they got two puppies so they can keep each other company. Yeah, good one. Six kids and two parents and a puppy needs company. Hilarious! The two are definitely adorable, and it really is cute to see the two siblings together. Now on to the pictures...have a super duper day! :)

Lovin' Summer!

2009-06-23T23:50:00.003-05:00

...or Summer Lovin' as the song goes. Either way, it's been a fantastic weather week! And now that it's summer we had an overcast day yesterday and a thunderstorm today. However, it was still seasonably wonderfully hot and this evening the kids got to play outside.

I know I've got some more serious catching up to do. Good news is I'm over my addiction to playing Pathwords on Facebook. Bad news is I started playing Farkle. I started racking my brain last night to come up with a synopsis of the past week. This goes back to a week ago Sunday...we went to Mom and Dad's house for supper with a bunch of relatives. My cousin Kevin was in town and Mom and Dad had a fish fry. Yum. Chris was away for his fishing weekend with the coworkers still, and returned home while we were eating supper. He didn't come out and join us so I brought a plate home to him.

Monday is a bit of a mystery to me and Tuesday isn't much clearer except I recall going for an eyebrow wax over the lunch hour. I took the kids to the park quite a bit and have been enjoying myself making some grown-up acquaintances.

On Wednesday Tracy and I got together for lunch at the East Indian restaurant. I loooooove their buffet and am always thrilled to find someone else who enjoys it so I have the chance to have it.

On Thursday evening I talked Kelly into staying up past her bedtime to go see a movie with me. We went to see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Matthew McConaughey was in it, along with Jennifer Garner, two usually good selling points for me in the movies. The movie was cute, though predictable, and Kelly and I ''wrote'' large portions of it. It was enjoyable. It was also enjoyable that after the movie it was still light out for our walk home. I loooooooooooove that summer is here!

On Friday I had the day off. I took the kids to the sitter and just for fun went and took a test drive of a Ford Flex. There's no way at this point that we're buying a new vehicle but I've always wanted to go for a test drive and I'd been checking out this vehicle at the vehicle show awhile back. The features are fantastic, but more than a handful of people envision it as a hearse. Here is a picture of me while I had it, and another picture of the deer I saw on the way home from visiting Mom and Dad with it. I think the deer was pretending to be invisible since it just stood there the whole time.

After I returned the Flex, I had some serious guilt issues about abandoning my Jeep at the dealership. I really didn't want her to think I was going to ditch her. I went home and handwashed the Jeep and cleaned all the windows inside and out. By the time I took Carter to school, it had started to pour rain. Majorly. I took him to school and came back home. I hung out at home for a couple hours and decided to go out and touch up the Jeep. I ended up re-washing the whole thing. I used my new Sham-Wow that Mom gave me :) and dried it. I also used Armor-All and shined up the dash and inside of the doors and the rest of the interior.

The weather cooperated until yesterday and it stayed fairly clean. Friday evening Chris wanted to take the boys fishing. We all drove to the rocks but Carter wasn't interested in fishing. Cooper was though and he had a great time. Carter and I took a walk down the beach and through the nature trail to the park. The heat and the walk tired him out and we both got a couple nasty bug bites. This however didn't dampen the fun of going to the park. He was a little tired for the walk back so I gave him a piggy back ride for part of the way, until Carter said, Mommy, why are you making that sound? (The wheezing sound...)We ventured back to Chris and Cooper and they were done fishing by then.

On Saturday Chris took the day off and it was a BEAUTIFUL one! We took the boys to a nearby provincial park and had a picnic. We sat at a picnic table on the lakeshore and had an early lunch. I had picked up one of those frisbee thingies that turns into a ball when you throw it, so the kids had some fun playing with it and we took a little hike through the nature trails. Our kids love going on adventures!

Mom and Dad phoned while we were on our adventure, and they drove out to visit us. They snacked with us and the boys had fun running around some more, especially at the playground with Grandma!

We got home early in the afternoon and Chris started to cut the grass. Cooper napped and I went outside to get some sun. I didn't last long and came inside. Chris got a call from his friend to go out sea-dooing. He had a blast!

While I was at home with the boys my friend Diane stopped by. Cooper was still napping and I was outside with Carter while he played in the sprinkler. She had her granddaughter with her, who needed to use the bathroom! I told her we'd be going to the park once Cooper woke up from his nap. I was thrilled to see them arrive not long after we got to the park. Cooper and Chloe hit it off adorably. Carter was the life of the party and again enjoyed the company of one of his classmates.

On Sunday (Happy Father's Day) I did a Wal-Mart run early in the day and picked up a new pool. I have NO idea what happened to last year's inflatable whale pool. Carter came along and he opted for the inflatable zebra pool. Cute. The boys were just shivering from the cold water so I hauled probably forty gallons of hot water to take the edge off it. It worked, since the two of them lounged in the water after that, instead of zipping in and out of the pool. I also made about a hundred water balloons that afternoon and there are still a few coloured latex remnants on the back yard. I picked up steaks and Chris barbecued them. We also had baked potatoes and corn and fried mushrooms. Yum!

This workweek is already FLYING by. It's been very busy and therefore very quick. Dad took Carter to school today, which afforded me a whole hour for lunch. How convenient, since I was invited to lunch by a couple girls from work. I had the special, which was a FANTASTIC Greek chicken sandwich on pita bread, with Greek mayo, feta cheese, red pappers and red onions. Deeeeeeelish! Oh, with fries and gravy AND a Caesar salad, since I couldn't decide on salad or fries!

The rest of the workday flew too and before I knew it I was already picking up the boys. It was a little soggy out still from the thunderstorm earlier, so we skipped going to the park today. Carter wanted to have Toonie Tuesdays for supper. Either he's gotten a full grasp of all the days of the week or it was a good coincidence. Either way, we talked Chris into picking up the food on his way home from work.

After supper Chris played outside with the boys for awhile. They decided to go for a walk to the nearest park and asked me to join them. But I was already in pajamas since it's FREEZING in here with the air conditioner going non-stop. Eventually I re-dressed so I could go join them but they were already back. The boys wanted to ride their bikes so we walked along with them down the street and around the block. Carter still gets discouraged with the one remaining training wheel. I figured he was getting a little tired anyway. Chris was ready to come inside so I brought Carter in too. Cooper wasn't done riding his bike so we took off down the street, aiming for Kelly's place. Once we arrived he didn't want to go in the driveway and kept on riding. I shouted out a hello to Kelly in case she could hear me. Cooper and I headed home and came in the house. He was very pleased with his bike ride. Both boys went to sleep without incident. I played umpteen rounds of Farkle and decided it was time to hit the blog. Mission accomplished!

Buckle Up...It's Going to be a Long Ride.

2009-06-14T00:52:00.006-05:00

I reeeeeeeeally should have blogged last night. Beth came to town and we had a wonderful visit. Beth is one of my ''virtual'' friends. The only way we could have had a better visit is if Angie were here too! :) Before Beth hit town, I was starting to madly shop and prepare for today. I needed to make an oriental salad for a party for Mom, along with a ''Death by Chocolate'' dessert. I toasted all the almonds and noodles last night. Cindy stopped by to visit for awhile whilst she waited for one of the kids to get off work.

Beth called and after some deliberation (and searching) for a restaurant to feed the four of her fifty-five children she brought to town, we met up at the Italian restaurant. Chris was prepping for a camping trip, plus he was tired, so I brought both boys with me. They were surprisingly well-behaved, though it could have been due to tiredness!

We ate and visited and yes, definitely took pictures. Yes, Carter was so tired he cuddled up on my lap and fell asleep. I put him down across a couple chairs so we could take some group pictures :) After our visit we came home. The boys fell asleep and I went to bed at a decent hour.

This morning Cooper was unfortunately up early, toooooooo early. Chris left for work and I somehow got Cooper to go back to sleep. Must be my favourite pillow. I managed to stay in bed until almost nine o'clock, snoozing off and on. Carter got up at some point and the little darling entertained himself until I was ready to fully face the day.

Dad was coming to pick up the salad stuff I had prepared. When he arrived he had some time to kill to pick up the bakery order at the grocery store, so I boiled up two dozen eggs that Mom asked me to pick up last night. I boiled and cooled and peeled all the eggs and put them back in the egg cartons. I packed up all the stuff in a cooler bag and Dad went on his way.

I started baking the chocolate cake for the dessert after I cooked a pound of bacon to garnish the twice-baked potatoes I was bringing to Seija and Ian's place for the barbecue. I took a blazing hot shower while the cake was baking and washed my hair. I've been hating my hair lately and have been tempted to hack it off. This happens every so often when I really need to wash and style it. Then I try something a little different and like it again. So right now I'm okay with it again.

Chris came home from work and departed shortly after for his camping/fishing weekend with his coworkers. They were headed for Dogtooth lake where one of the honchos of his workplace has a cabin.

After the cake cooled I prepared the ''Death by Chocolate''. In the process I spilled most of a package of Skor bits. Fortunately they mostly spilled into the Cool Whip container and the bowl of chocolate mousse I had on the counter. A handful spilled onto the counter and an unfortunate amount fell to the floor. Sadly I swept them up and threw them out. I had a couple more bags in the fridge, thankfully, but didn't end up needing them. I put the dessert in the fridge.

I had started to cook the potatoes earlier and finished them with a few more minutes in the microwave. I halved them and scooped them out. I mixed the scooped out potatoes with butter, milk, cheese, onion and bits of the bacon I had cooked earlier. I mixed it all with the mixer until they were smooth and scooped the mixture back into the hollowed potato halves, topping them with more grated cheese and the remainder of the bacon. Mmmmmm.

I had promised the boys I would take them to the park. I was actually hoping to take them for a picnic at the park but I ran out of time. We delivered the dessert to Mom and Dad's house. The boys didn't even want to get out of the Jeep; they wanted me to be as quick as possible so we could squeeze in a good time at the park. Our next stop was the park. The boys had a blast as usual, and for some reason they like to take their shoes and socks off there. Here are a few pictures from our park excursion. One of Carter's classmates was there, and she whisked Carter away behind the climbing wall because she ''had a secret'' to tell him. She kept telling all the other kids to go away, including Cooper. I have no idea what the secret was, but the two of them were adorable.

We didn't have much time to spend at the park, but knowing they were going to have kids to play with at Seija and Ian's house, it wasn't like pulling teeth to get them to leave. We did a super quick Wal-Mart stop since I didn't have any socks and I am still not sure if Carter started out with socks at the park or if he took them off and left them there. I do recall seeing a pair of socks on the ground at the park that looked like some we have, but I didn't want to grab them in case they belonged to some other kid that was there!

We arrived at Seija and Ian's a few minutes later, just a moment after Deidre and Greg arrived. The kids played wonderfully outside in the sunshine, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Seija was well-prepared to have four boys over in addition to her little girl. The boys were amused playing with big bouncy balls and with bubble wands. Good thinking!

We went in for supper and had a veritable FEAST! Seija and Ian fed us steaks. I brought the twice-baked potatoes. Deidre and Greg brought an amazing strawberry summer salad and a fantastic dessert. Seija and Ian also served fresh, steamed cauliflower and fried mushrooms. Mmmmm. The kids played outside a little after supper then we rounded them up for dessert. I was impressed that my boys weren't as rough as usual and listened reasonably well. :)
Since neither of the boys napped today, they wanted to come home. I had told them if we got home when it was still light out that we could go to the park by our house. Of course they remembered that detail. I drove around to the rocky hill at the entrance to the park. The boys loved hiking up the hill and enjoyed playing on the playground equipment for a bit. Then they wanted to go on a ''field trip'' as Deidre's son Connor had mentioned earlier when they were all playing outside. We walked down various trails throughout the park and I showed them where I used to go sliding when I was a kid.

We went back to the Jeep and came home. The boys wanted to watch ''Alvin and the Chipmunks''. I obliged and then proceeded to go on a crazy cleaning frenzy. I was dying to sweep and mop the kitchen floor and got carried away after that. I emptied and filled the dishwasher, making a special trip out to the Jeep to bring in SIX sippy cups from the past week or so that had varying levels amounts and varying degrees of decomposing milk in them. I was thrilled to find that two of them contained water. They definitely didn't smell the greatest but at least there were no chunks!

I washed the bowls and pans from all the cooking and baking I did today. I put all the toys in the living room in the boys' room, which seemed to be overrun with toys. I vacuumed the living room. By this time Cooper was zonking out on the couch. He opened his eyes briefly when I started the vacuum but he promptly went back to sleep. Carter, on the other hand, was still going strong. After the movie was over he wanted to watch it again. Mom gave me a ''ShamWow'' today. I remembered it and tested out its absorbency. I took frequent breaks to do Facebook updates. Once while I was at the computer, Carter walked up to me with the ShamWow in hand, asking if this was the cloth from the TV. I thought at first he was asking if it was the cloth I used to clean the TV. But he recognized it from the commercial! He started wiping things with it and I was very happy he wanted to help!

I went in the boys' room and put away all the toys. Thrilled that I found the carpet, I vacuumed it too! I went after the bathroom next and sprayed everything down. I swished and swiped the toilet but left the rest for tomorrow. I plan to continue this frenzy then. I was happy to find a brand new bottle of Mr. Clean, along with the oven cleaner. I sprayed the inside of the oven door since I remembered I couldn't even see inside the oven to see if the cake was rising today. (Gasp.)

A few minutes past midnight, Carter was still up and wanted me to take a picture with the webcam. I never use it; I had to plug it in and dust it off. We took a few silly pictures. The rest are on the other computer where I was at the time, and they are posted on Facebook just for a giggle. This was my favourite.

I was boiling hot from all the crazy jetting around. I drank a ton of water and took numerous breaks to play Pathwords or just update Facebook, sharing a few laughs with Angie and others. I finally decided it was getting late enough I should start shutdown. I grabbed the laptop and I've been blogging ever since!!! Now it's quarter after two and I'm off to do a few sudoku puzzles and hopefully fall asleep! That French Vanilla cappuccino I picked up on the way home really gave me a boost!

Almost the Weekend

2009-06-11T23:10:00.002-05:00

It's been a quick week, but Friday is definitely welcome!

I actually enjoyed basking in a tiny bit of sunshine today. After work I picked up the boys. It poured rain then was sunny then poured rain then was sunny. Somewhere in there I sat out in a lawnchair while the boys played outside.

Chris came home and cut the grass. I took Carter for a ride to Wal-Mart to pick up something for supper. I bought a couple rising crust pizzas and some round pizza pans since I didn't have any of those. They were on sale for four bucks each. The pizzas were only five bucks each so for under twenty bucks we had two pizzas complete with pans for less than what I would have spent ordering in pizza. Yay me.

Carter's class went on a field trip to a farm today. I wish I knew more in advance it was happening; I'd have loved to go along.

We have a couple items on the agenda for this weekend. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

Just for Fun

2009-06-10T01:30:00.003-05:00

On our way home today (and between rain showers) I took the boys to check out this tugboat by the river. It's been there forever and I recently got the idea to take the boys. I got a few choice pictures. Somehow it's already Tuesday; Monday almost completely escaped me. But Kelly took me for lunch yesterday (thanks again Kelly!)

Today I called the cable company to reduce our cable channels for the summer. Last summer I called to do the same thing and they enrolled me in their ''summer retention program''. At that time they lowered my bill but actually didn't remove any channels! Apparently it was a one-time deal; they've already cut our channels. We'll miss a few like Discovery and TLC and Showtime but hopefully if the weather gets decent enough, we won't even remember we have a TV.

That's about it...I'll leave the rest to the pictures :) Note the crappy dark clouds.

Happy 12th Anniversary Chris!

2009-06-07T23:36:00.004-05:00

Today is our twelfth wedding anniversary. Wow those years have gone by quickly; particularly since we had the boys. This morning I took the boys to church. Since Mom and Dad had evening plans, they wanted to take us out for breakfast after church instead of having us over for supper. I got Chris to drop us off at church so he could pick us up for breakfast.

Church was good and so were the boys. We had a visiting priest today. He's been at a church in our area recently, but was originally from Nigeria, with a fantastic accent. Just as he was about to do his sermon, there was a bit of a commotion. A young woman had fallen in the aisle. Fortunately there were three wonderful nurses nearby that came to her assistance. I grabbed my cell phone to call 911. For being such a small town it didn't seem too easy to get an ambulance on its way. It was pretty quick though; they were there within about seven or eight minutes. Apparently she's had this happen before and she had a family member with her. Scary. When the deacon and priest continued after she was taken by the paramedics, they prayed for her. I sure hope she's okay.

Meanwhile, I had asked Chris to pick us up at about five minutes before mass would ordinarily end, but with the delay we got out almost a half hour later. The one time I get Chris to pick us up...

We went for breakfast with Mom and Dad and the aunts and uncles. Carter had bacon and an egg and toast. Really, he's becoming a good little eater! Cooper had opted for a cinnamon bun and did a really good number on it! Thanks again to Mom and Dad for a great breakfast!

We cruised around for a bit after breakfast then Chris reminded me we had a birthday party to go to. Crap! I got him to drop me off at Wal-Mart and I ran in to get a gift. We went home and I wrapped up the present. There wasn't much time before Carter and I needed to leave. Chris took off with Cooper to run some errands.

I took Carter to the party. He had a good time. It was another bowling party. Here are a couple shots of him bowling.

After the party it was decent enough out for the kids to play outside. Carter is doing better with one training wheel. Once in awhile he forgets and starts to topple over. I decided to take the kids for a bike ride (while I walked). We went to a running track to practice. Carter did a full round without a problem. Cooper would keep stopping then had a hard time getting going again. Both boys hadnt' napped so they didn't have the patience for this excursion. We got back home and I expected them both to nap but they didn't. I talked them into going in for a bit to play with the new barrel-o-slime I picked up after the birthday party. They both took off outside again.

I started to get supper ready. I made a meatloaf and yummy cheesy mashed potatoes, gravy and corn. Cooper had fallen asleep after a meltdown just before I started cooking. He slept through supper. Carter was still up but not in full force. He nibbled on supper then fell asleep not long after we were done. Cooper woke up briefly once or twice. I'm fully expecting him to get up and party when I'm ready to go to bed and it's almost midnight now.

Sleepy Sleeperson

2009-06-06T09:36:00.003-05:00

I've had a hard time staying up lately. I have projects I want to be working on and I actually start dozing off with the laptop on my lap. Here are the pictures from Family Safety Night the other night. We had a lot of fun and the boys are still talking about it.

Thursday evening Chris barbecued hamburgers. Again I put all the toppings on a plate. Both boys build themselves a burger akin to the size of a Big Mac. I had to get the camera. They then both proceeded to complain that their burgers were falling apart. I guess so, with all those toppings!!!

We barbecued again yesterday. After work we stopped by Chris's work and Carter went home with him. Cooper and I went to fill up the Jeep. We got home and the boys wanted to ride their bikes. The other day I took off one of Carter's training wheels. He was really ticked off but he just needs a little practice to balance. Both boys just expect to stay balanced on the bike when they stop because of the training wheels. Chris had put the training wheel back on but I asked him to take it off again. It's a good way to learn and it worked for me when I was learning!

Carter was mad so I consoled him by taking him to the grocery store with me. I picked up some cheesy sausages and buns for supper. Chris loves to barbecue so far be it from me to keep him from it! (Read: Of course this means I don't have to cook!) I just do the preparation and the side dishes while he cooks the main course. :)

I'm not sure what our plans are for the weekend yet; it does look like the sun is shining but that doesn't always mean it's warm out there!

Falling Asleep at the Wheel

2009-06-03T23:24:00.001-05:00

Well, in this case it's the keyboard. We went to Family Safety Night tonight. I took pictures. They're awesome. I'm about to pass out from sheer exhaustion so I'll have to post them tomorrow... :)

Going Green

2009-06-02T22:21:00.002-05:00

The weather is trying hard to get nice. Last time I checked it hit ten degrees out there. I've been noticing things are getting a little greener. Chris spread some grass seed on the weekend then we got a ton of rain so we're hoping for good results.

The kids would love to play outside but Mommy would have to freeze her butt off to supervise. So I con the kids into coming in. I'd recently been thinking about bringing out the bouncer again. When we got it last yearish, the kids loved it. It fits perfectly in our dining area. Unfortunately Cooper got ahold of a pen and poked a hole in it. I patched it then took it down and put it away. We haven't had it out since.

Chris actually had been thinking about it too, since he dug it out and inflated it this evening. The kids went crazy over it and did plenty of bouncing. No, I haven't taken pictures yet. After we came home today I was completely spent. I reclined on the couch and dozed intermittently until after seven. I talked on the phone for awhile then started to perk up again.

Today was another fast day at the office. We had a handful of staff away at meetings and it made for a quiet day. The rest of the week will likely be much of the same. I think I might have an early night tonight. If I can muster the energy I might scrap a page or two before I hit the hay. Hopefully I'll have something to post tomorrow.

Carnivores-R-Us

2009-06-02T00:01:00.004-05:00

Today was a pretty quick Monday. When it felt like coffee time this morning, it was lunchtime. I spent part of the morning doing one of my favourite things; the month-end supply order. At lunchtime I grabbed some fries and had a quick bite with Chris. I took Carter to school. On the way back to work I came home to take some chicken out of the freezer for supper.

The afternoon went fairly quickly too. I got a call from Carter's school. I knew right away that I needed to go pick him up. We've made a new arrangement for getting him back to the sitter and our new helper kinda forgot! I picked Carter up and brought him back to my office for the last hour of my day. We went to pick up Cooper and dropped off Carter with Chris and I took Cooper with me to Wal-Mart. Chris wanted me to pick up some new shoes for the boys. I managed to squeeze in a new pair of sandals for myself; mine are sooooooooooo wrecked and I wanted to get some new ones IN CASE WE GET A SUMMER THIS YEAR!!! I also grabbed a pair of sandals for Chris. He has these old, gross sandals that I detest and each year they crawl out of the woodwork (seemingly on their own). I always threaten to chuck them but I think Chris hides them on me. If I get my hands on them I'll make sure there are scissors in my hands. Fortunately Chris likes the new sandals.

I came home and started supper. I marinated some chicken breasts in Italian dressing. Chris barbecued them while I baked potatoes and cooked some peaches'n'cream corn. The boys ate very well; I'm seeing a big improvement in how much they eat, provided there is a suitably seasoned piece of meat for them to eat. Cooper devoured a big pile of corn too. The two of them shared at least one whole chicken breast.

Not long after supper, Cooper was asking to eat some cereal. Since I grocery-shopped the other day, the boys have hit the cereal habit hard. Cooper calls Froot Loops ''Fruit Lips'' and I laugh every time. Carter likes the Vector cereal. So do I but at least three times in a row that I have been to the store I have neglected to pick up any regular milk. I'm not a milk lover to start with, so there's no way I'm putting soy milk on my cereal.

We had a relatively quiet evening, with both boys going to sleep at a decent hour. Then there's me; up after midnight again. I'd better get myself to bed earlier than I did last night. Perhaps I'll forfeit any games of Pathwords and head straight for the Sudoku tonight... :)

Waiting for Spring...

2009-06-01T00:45:00.005-05:00

It's been a very cool week. Cool as in COLD. All weekend we stayed inside. Booooooooo. On Friday we picked up a bike for Cooper. Chris found a super cute secondhand bike that looks like a dirt bike. We were looking to get him a big kid bike but didn't want to spend a lot. This is perfect...

Love at first sight

Happily ever after

On Friday evening Cindy and I went to a funeral visitation. When I got home I was surprised to find that Chris and the boys had gone inside...but not overly surprised that the new bike came in the house too. Cooper never took his hands off that thing all weekend. He tried to sleep with the bike too. It was adorable. A few times he got me to cover him with a blanket, but of course I had to include the bike. He gave it a name, but I'll have to get him to refresh my memory of what it is!

On Thursday Dad came over and installed our new toilet. It's one of those dual-flush jobbies and will save us plenty on water compared to the old one. The old one is that sort of harvest-gold-canary-yellow colour from way back in the day. I was musing that I'll need to clean this sparkly white one far more often since things will be more noticeable on it. It's always nice to buy something new. (Thanks again, Dad!)

Now to go back earlier in the week...last Sunday was a b-e-a-utiful day. We got our stuff together and had an early start. We took the boys to the park. Not the usual park we go to, but the one at the beach. It's fantastic! They have two humongous play areas including swings. We walked down the beach and down a path along the shore. I took about a hundred pictures (I feel another slideshow coming on...)

I went to a quarter auction at our church in the afternoon. Mom was volunteering at it and I went with my friend Diane. I actually won a prize. I got home in the nick of time to cook supper. I had invited Chris's Dad and Grandpa and they had already arrived before I got home. (Oops!) I made chicken legs and asparagus with hollandaise sauce and rice. Chris's Dad brought a yummy strawberry mango torte. We had a great visit.

Of course it's been so long since I've blogged that I am having a hard time recollecting all the events of the past week. We watched the movie Taken with Liam Neeson. EXCELLENT movie. Plenty of action and some serious vigilantism. It was a bad week for bedwetting. One night I didn't even realize Cooper had crawled into our bed and peed in his sleep. On my duvet and sheets. He had already peed his bed that night before I even went to bed. So yesterday I did a whole pile of laundry to clean all the bedding. I got the bright idea to hang it all on the clothesline since it looked like a beautiful sunny day. It was beautiful, but oh so cold. I still hung out all the duvets and comforters on the line and they were so fresh when I brought them in.

On Tuesday Dad offered to take Carter to school, which gave me the opportunity to join a former coworker and some others for lunch. We had Chris's Dad over for supper that day; this time it was pork tenderloin medallions, rice, French-style green beans and coleslaw. At some early in the week, Cooper cut a chunk of his hair off; right at the front of course. It was just behind his hairline. Not too bad, but definitely noticeable. It was kind of a jagged chunk, and wasn't really fixable. We were kind of letting his hair grow into a shaggy doo. This changed things. It would have been way too short to buzz it down to the shortest pieces he cut, so I took him to the barber for a trim. It's actually a nice haircut and will make growing it back in easier. Hopefully it's a lesson learned; we'll see.

Well, since I'm so sketchy on the rest of the details (no thanks to my addiction to playing Pathwords on Facebook...I never even think about blogging or scrapbooking in the evenings anymore. OY!) I'm going to sign off and show the rest of the details in pictures. :)

Oh this just in...as I blurted all that out I remembered a few more details of this weekend. Yesterday I did a pile of grocery shopping. I was pretty proud of myself for making lists for all the stores from the advertising flyers. When I got home Chris was going to barbecue our hamburgers on the little camping barbecue again, but instead I went to Kelly's house to pick up the barbecue she had available for us to borrow. Ours needed parts and we thought it wouldn't be worth fixing. Plus we didn't want to fork out big bucks for a new one.

Anyway, Chris had trouble with the regulator or something and finally went to get parts for ours. I was thrilled to have our barbecue back and so was he! We had big fantastic sirloin burgers. I made coleslaw and sliced onion, tomato, and pickles, and put it all on a plate with cheese slices and lettuce. Carter built himself a big, tall burger! Oddly my children eat onions. Of all the vegetables out there! And suddenly Carter started eating pickles. He's never been much of a fan. Weird!

I also just remembered that I went to a baby shower today. Had a great time and a great visit with the girls :) Here are the pictures from the park last weekend. Sorry for such a mixed up blog post!

The Day it Got Warm in Ontario

2009-05-24T00:55:00.003-05:00

I had a bit of a shitty work week. Good and busy, but I had my issues. All is well and it's the weekend! Yesterday we just hung out at home. Chris rented a movie, Paul Blart, Mall Cop. We never ended up watching it so we watched it tonight. Totally corny of course, with Kevin James as a writer and starring in it, and Adam Sandler as a producer. The boys fell asleep pretty early. Next we watched Quantum of Solace. Dad came over today to lend us his movie rentals.

Chris worked until noon today then took advantage of the free dump day and got rid of our bits of rotten fence that he ripped out. We're going to put up a new fence soon so he's getting rid of the old one. He and his Dad made a few trips and he took Cooper for a ride for the last one. I dragged my butt around the house for most of the day. I finally got my butt in gear and took Carter out for a ride. I went downtown to buy new jeans for Chris and myself. It's awesome to find a pair of jeans that fits. It took about six or seven tries but I found a perfect pair.

For supper we had McDonald's; Carter and I picked it up on the way home. After we watched the Mall Cop movie, I went on the computer and bumped into Jill online. We have hardly even chatted in ages, and decided to get 'together' online and do some scrapbooking. Good way to get me back in the swing of that again too. I did this page:

We chatted until after one and now I'm just about done for the night. I sure hope we start to make it a habit again! I'm hoping for some nice weather tomorrow. Might take the boys to church. If it's nice out we'll do a trip to a park somewhere.

Sunergy!

2009-05-21T22:31:00.002-05:00

Well it's still cool but it was a beautiful day! After work I actually hung out with the boys for awhile. Someone's garbage bag across the street had been ripped open by birds or something this morning and with the wind we had garbage all over our yard and on the street when I got home.

Chris had picked up all the stuff in the yard then I grabbed a garbage bag AND GLOVES and picked it up off the street. I went across the street to bring back the neighbour's garbage. I hope they don't mind, but it was theirs to start with!

The boys had a great time playing outside. I tidied up the Jeep and Chris started to take apart some more of our rotten old fence. We're going to be putting up a new fence this summer (I'm hoping there might be a Dad-for-hire that might be reading this!!!) And if said Dad feels like putting in a new toilet we'd hire for that too! :)

Work was good today. Since we have a summer student helping out, I was able to do a long-awaited organizing project. Now if only I could stay on task when I attempt stuff like that at home!

I took Carter to Subway to get him and Cooper a sub for supper. Chris and I were both still full from lunch. I fed the kids and they still wanted to play outside. I did a Wal-Mart run for some groceries. I came home and shortly after Cindy stopped by with a couple of the kids for a quick visit before she had to pick up Zack from work.

I folded some more laundry while the boys had fun playing with the laser pointers I picked up at the dollar store. Talk about cheap entertainment. Cooper broke his in the first ten seconds and I had to MacGyver it back together with the broken button taped onto it on the outside. The threads are so flimsy that they kept falling apart. I'm sure they'd be okay with proper, regular use but give my kids something delicate and they'll break it for sure. When the kids were getting ready for bed, Cooper knocked his on the edge of the bathroom sink and one of the batteries went down the drain. Crap. I tried to use my MacGyver skills to retrieve it but it didn't work out.

Both boys brushed their teeth (thanks to the lovely dental gals at my office who gave Carter a 'brushing log' at his school to track his toothbrushing.) I've been getting both boys to brush their teeth twice a day and they get to put either a sun or moon sticker on the chart. It's working! Now they're both snug in their beds. Somehow I OMGMISSEDTHETWOHOURFINALEOFDESPERATEHOUSEWIVES. I have no idea how I could have forgotten it. I guess we just were having way too much fun on Sunday visiting family! :) I found out I can actually watch it on CTV so I'm going to give that a try tonight.

Happy Anniversary Savages!

2009-05-21T00:04:00.002-05:00

Well well well...lookie me. I've found my way to the blog two days in a row. Really, these days all the days seem so similar. We're still waiting for spring/summer, which sucks.

Today was another timewarp day at work. I took Carter to school and picked him up today since his walker wasn't available. I had an eye appointment late this afternoon. Looks like my distance vision is still perfect but I'm needing to adjust my reading distance... (READ: I could use some reading glasses any time now). She suggested that if it starts to bug me if I start straining too much that I can just go get the glasses. I'll think about it. I'll stop by her office again and look at frames. I'm curious to know if it would make enough difference to provide relief. We'll see.

We went to Mom and Dad's for supper and had a delicious stew. (Thanks again!) After supper we visited for a bit then came back to town to go pick up a lottery ticket. Some lucky son of a gun won forty-nine million dollars tonight. Apparently the winner bought the ticket in Edmonton, which means we didn't win it!

Both boys went to sleep without any hassle tonight. We watched the Idol finale and once again the second place winner is a far more talented singer as far as I'm concerned. I seriously think the votes mean nothing and the producers just handpick their winner at will. I brought up a few baskets of laundry from the basement and started folding. There were about a dozen towels, a pile of clothes for each kid, a pile each for Chris and me, plus blankets and cloths etc. I made it through the towels and kids' clothes and took a break. Yeah right. I haven't gone back to it. Now I'm off to bed so I'm sure it will still be waiting for me tomorrow!

Hi! Remember Me? I Didn't Think So!

2009-05-19T23:24:00.008-05:00

Oh Lordy this is gonna be a workout. I'm going to try to start by going back to Carter's birthday and try to fill in the blanks to catch up. Much of it will be documented in pictures...except for the parts where all three of my boys got a tummy bug and spent a few days in the bathroom!

I spent much of last week planning for Carter's birthday party, which was held a week after his actual birthday in order for the bowling alley to be available. We opted for an evening glow bowling party. I did these invitations:

For some time Carter had indicated he wanted a robot cake for his birthday. So in keeping with the theme I did the invitations and planned on making him a cake. There's a gal in a nearby town who does PHENOMENAL cakes and I bow down to her cake prowess. She uses fondant and makes incredibly fancy cakes that are more than worthy of an appearance on Ace of Cakes. Plus, my creative scrapping friend Amy had recently posted on her blog how she had made a fondant cake. It turned out gorgeous. Her first try was incredible. I was so inspired.

That afternoon, I had to pick up Cooper early from the sitter's house since he started vomiting. He had thrown up twice there already so she called me. He seemed okay for the moment so I drove over to tell Chris what was going on. If only I'd gone straight home...the poor kid barfed in the Jeep all down the front of his jacket and his car seat. Ugh. I pulled over to make sure he was okay but told him to hang in there and I made the mad dash home. I carefully extricated him from the vehicle and planted him in the bathroom for an immediate bath. I put all his clothes in the wash right away, and put him in the tub right away. Chris, bless his heart. cleaned up the car seat when he got home. He got sick a couple more times but since the last time he was sick, he somehow learned how to run to the bathroom and puke in the toilet. Bonus!

I followed Amy's instructions on how to make the fondant. She was sweet enough to email them to me and I (so I thought) followed them to the letter. I was so gooey and stuck to myself trying to knead the melted marshmallows into the icing sugar that I almost started to cry. Good thing Chris gave me some encouragement or I'd have dumped the lot of it. If you ever make this stuff, for one, sift the icing sugar. Two - when it says grease everything with the shortening, grease it well...don't be shy about it! I actually phoned Amy across the country to make sure I had everything right before I got started.

I managed to get myself unstuck and re-greased everything and kneaded it some more. Unfortunately the only gel colour I had in the house was red, and there wasn't enough left to make it really red. I ended up with a lovely bright pink blob of fondant on my first try. I was feeling pretty elated at this point.

I did a couple more batches the next night. Since I couldn't get my hands on any black gel colour in this town, with Carter's suggestion and blessing I opted to make a light blue robot instead of grey. I made a batch of blue fondant, then a white one. I divided the white one to make separate colours for the accents on the robot. I was pumped. Each batch of fondant was more bright and smooth than the last. I was so ready.

I was going to bake the cakes that night too, but Puker Number Two (Carter) sprang into double-ended spewing action. On. The. Living. Room. Carpet. Yikes. Poor kid. He hates barfing (who doesn't) and I started to give him a bath. He sharted and I had to start the bath over again. Chris hates first of all the kids' being sick, and second of all the vomit itself. He gets all antsy and agitated and I wish he'd just take off until I had everything contained. I moved the couch and scrubbed the carpet. Thankfully I was done with the fondant process for the evening. Carter, as opposed to Cooper, will just stand in one spot and spew. He gets very upset at having to stand at the toilet. So each time I knew he was going to throw up I positioned him in front of it. At one point he actually stood in the middle of the kitchen floor and proceeded to barf. Oh...that one was after Chris had given him a drink of orange juice after the first puking episode. Oy vey. Into the tub again. Both ends going. Sheesh.

That night I ended up staying up with him all night, until at least 4:30. He barely slept before that, and each time he awoke he needed to get sick again. It was a rough night. Good thing/bad thing I was off the next day...good thing so I could keep him home with me but bad thing was it was his birthday party day.

By lunchtime on Friday he was starting to perk up. I gave him the option of going to school, which would afford me some extra time to work on his cake, which I baked that morning. I took him to school and came home to continue working on the cake. I managed somehow to slice the cake into layers so I could put icing in between. I made delicious butter cream frosting. That ended up being about the best part of the cake. I rolled out the light blue fondant and sculpted it onto the 'body' of the robot. Not bad so far. Then I used a half a round cake for the head and was cutting pieces for the bottom. I was attempting to make something that resembled the robot on the birthday invitations. Once I realized how difficult a process this was, and that it was not pretty, I conceded defeat. The round and small square cakes I made for the additional robot parts rose higher than the 'body cake'. The fondant went on fairly decently, however there were little lumps of icing sugar showing here and there. (SIFT!!!) Before I went any further, I stopped. I still have all those lovely other colours of fondant in the fridge staring at me each time I open it. It's been long enough since my epic cake failure that I might get the courage to do something with it. We'll see.

I spent the next hour or so on a quest for a cake. In the meantime, Carter's school had called. He still wasn't feeling well and had fallen asleep. I picked him up. Some of the partygoers were concerned there wouldn't be a party but there was no way I was canceling!!! Carter had a long rest for the rest of the afternoon. I picked up two cakes for the party. I was going to try to cut a robot out of fondant to lay on top of one of the cakes, but that didn't work either. I ended up printing the robot from the invitations and standing it up in the cake.

By the time it was time to leave, I gave Carter some Tylenol and we headed out. We dropped Cooper off at Kelly's house for a visit, along with a loot bag, which was very well-received. We went to the bowling alley and the partygoers all arrived except two. One who heard Carter was sick and whose daughter is immune-compromised and didn't want to take any chances, and one who heard the party was cancelled. I don't know who told her that but judging how it looked when I carried Carter out of the classroom, I can see how they would think that. It was a nice small group. It's so hard to decide who gets invited to these things, with twenty kids in the class. We opted to invite a few who had invited Carter to their parties, and drew names for the remainder for a total of ten kids. So with Carter there were seven kids there.

All was well for a bit. Carter wasn't up to eating...not even the yummy cake! He opened presents and started to lose steam. By the time we started bowling Chris had already taken him to the bathroom a couple times. Dang. He almost made it through the whole bowling game and would have little spurts of energy. The kids seemed to have a blast. Of course with only the black lighting, my pictures are pretty much crap but here they are anyway! I don't have permission to show all the kids so here are a couple of Carter. I took a couple with the flash that turned out a little better, but the cool glowing effect isn't there. Both ways didn't turn out well...

The weather that day and the next was crappy. On Sunday, however, we got all our butts out of bed and went out. We took the boys to the park, where I took over a hundred pictures. I feel a slideshow coming on... It was also Auntie Lurdes & Uncle Cliff's fortieth wedding anniversary on Sunday. Mom called me the night before to invite us to come out after supper for dessert, but that she needed a cake. Need a cake, you say? I HAVE A CAKE!!! A perfect cake that my clairvoyant tendencies told me to get as a backup cake for Carter when I wanted to put the robot on it. I never ended up doing anything with it and we ate the other cake for his party. I printed a greeting to put on top of the cake and it was lovely. Here are the pictures from the day...it was a great one!

Since Sunday (long weekend) Chris got sick. He was pukey and poopy all day yesterday. Thank God he felt better this morning andd went to work. The weather sucked yesterday anyway so we wouldn't have been able to go out and have the same fun we did on Sunday. Chris was feeling really low. I ordered takeout from Pizza Hut for supper. The pasta was great and I tried out their buffalo wings. Not bad, but not good enough for the price. I went to bed early last night and slept through until Cooper got me up at four-thirty this morning. I managed to squeeze in a bit more sleep after that and got up to face the day. The day RACED by. I had lunch with Kelly and her friend Sabrina and brought a snack to Chris...thanks to Dad who offered to take Carter to school today for me! :)

Well, all that lovely minutiae has been my life this past week and a half. Time to wake up and go about your day! :)

Happy Birthday Carter!

2009-05-08T11:43:00.006-05:00

My boy is officially six today! As of five thirty-eight this evening. He got a phone call from Grandma first thing this morning, and Grandma and Grandpa are taking him for lunch and then to school.

I have some errand running to do including delivering birthday invitations to his classroom at lunchtime.

More later!

We had a family party for Carter. I picked up a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Carter was happy with the new hat he got, along with the gifts of money which have gone into his bank account. The most entertainment seemed to come from the collection of water guns from Auntie Lurdes & Uncle Cliff...THANKS ALOT...I need a special mop just for these things! :)

Here are a few pictures from the day.

The cake:

The birthday boy:

The candles and the party:

The birthday boy and the cake:

TuesdayWednesdayThursday

2009-05-08T01:17:00.002-05:00

Wow the days really run together when I don't blog every day!

Yesterday was a banner day. We took Cooper to school for the first time last night. There was a 'Welcome to Kindergarten' workshop at the school. It was held in Carter's classroom, the senior kindergarten room. We left Carter with Kelly so the event could be all about Cooper.

Earlier, Kelly and I took the boys to the blood donor clinic. I was rejected again, due to an iron count that is too low for their standards. That Mother Nature sure is a PITA!!! Kelly and I always seem to take turns being able to donate. The timing still worked out well. Chris went home to shave and shower and met up with us at the clinic. The boys had more than their fair share of goodies and Chris had arrived just before Kelly was done with her donation. We sat and had a snack with Kelly then we took off with Cooper and left Carter with her.

Cooper seemed to like the idea of the classroom in general, particularly because of all the toys. He didn't really want to follow along with the stations we visited but it must have been very overwhelming for him. The place was packed with families. It will be exciting to see how he interacts when it's really time to start going to school. No, I didn't take any pictures; it was really quite chaotic in there!

Well, we've been finally getting some spring weather, but today was a cool one, including a threat of snow which thankfully hasn't happened. I worked on some birthday invitations for Carter's birthday, which is tomorrow but we're having the party on a later date. I'll be sure to take pictures of the birthday boy.

Chris's Dad joined us for supper and picked up A&W food. Unfortunately someone there doesn't know how to read, since I wrote down the order for the kids and me for Chris and his Dad to take with them. My burger wasn't plain and with my absolute loathing of condiments such as ketchup, relish and mustard, my burger still remains intact. I grudgingly ate my onion rings and a few of the kids' fries. I had started cleaning the bathroom when they arrived, and continued cleaning after supper including sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor, a task that was long overdue. I also migrated a big bin of toys back to the basement. Little by little they work their way back upstairs and the kids' room ends up overrun. It looks fairly decent in there right now with the work I did on the weekend to clean out the closet.

Well, it's already tomorrow, so here's a little Happy Birthday wish to my boy! Happy SIXTH birthday, Carter!!!

April, the Timewarp

2009-05-04T22:20:00.002-05:00

Wow. That was a fast month. On the weekend I rented the movie Bride Wars. It was okay. Average chick flick. On Saturday I took Carter to a birthday party. Mom and Dad came over to hang with Cooper until Chris came home from work. The bowling party was fun. Carter had a good time.

After the party we came home. For supper I grabbed McDonald's for the boys before I went out with Cindy, Kelly and Mom. We went to another quarter auction and met up with a few more girls there. We had fun, and all won prizes, even Mom won a special door prize. (chuckle chuckle)

On Sunday Chris had planned to go out four-wheeling. I opted not to attempt taking two kids to church so the boys and I hung out at home for most of the day. I needed to go to the grocery store to pick up stuff to make an oriental salad to take to Cindy's house for supper. After the grocery store we did a Tim Horton's run and drove down to the lake to check out the ice. Or lack thereof.

On the way home the boys commented on the park and I pulled over so they could play for awhile. They had a blast. Yes, I have pictures but haven't uploaded them to the computer yet. I will. We came home and I got the stuff ready for the salad. Carter crashed on the couch until we left. Chris got home and didn't have much time to nap.

We went to Cindy and Bob's for supper and Zack's and Bob's Mom's birthdays. We had a veritable FEAST as usual. Massive amounts of ham were consumed and much remained. There were salads and homemade baked beans. But the desserts were the kicker. Homemade fudge with Skor bits, at least four sugar pies (becoming my favourite) and carrot cakes. There was a 'spare' cake that I brought home to take to the office today.

We came home absolutely stuffed, and just in time to watch Desperate Housewives. The boys took turns zonking out; they had played pretty hard with all the kids at Cindy's house both inside the house and outside.

Today the morning FLEW by at work. At lunch Kelly and I walked downtown for chips then walked to pick up Carter and walk him to school and back to work. It was a beautiful day today. After work I picked up the boys. Carter's hair has been turning into quite the little mop so I took him downtown for a haircut. I just wanted it trimmed a bit so it wasn't so shaggy. I'll be sure to take a picture of him tomorrow since I spazzed and didn't grab the camera when I was thinking of it today.

When we got home the boys played outside and I took a walk to the grocery store for hamburger buns. I stopped at the video store to pick up the movie Hotel for Dogs for the kids to watch. I came home and we rounded up the kids. Chris barbecued the hamburgers and I made coleslaw, which the kids had quite a bit of. I was both pleased and amazed! Little did they know it's all-vegetable!

The boys showed little interest in the movie because they were preoccupied with wanting to play Guitar Hero with Chris. Chris played for awhile and even with the loud volume, Cooper fell asleep. Apparently he didn't nap today so that made for an early evening for him. Carter started fading too and crashed on the couch. Chris was left on tour all alone and shut it down in time to see the end of Dancing With the Stars and Castle. He fell asleep too and now I'm just left watching House by myself. I'm not even sure if I'll make it to the top of the hour.

Pages for April

2009-05-01T00:25:00.002-05:00

I did these two scrap pages at least two or three weeks ago for my April CT duties. The month has flown by so fast that I realized I needed to post them if they were going to be for April!

On the way home today, it was snowing these bizarre globs of snow. One of my Facebook friends said her Mom called them pancakes. Really, it was like pancakes were falling from the sky. I think it all melted but if it's still able to snow out there, I'm not calling this weather spring. Since I'm posting this after midnight, it's officially May now, and I will not tolerate any further winter weather. It's sunshine from here on in.

Something to Blog About - Edited!

2009-04-29T02:24:00.005-05:00

I have plenty to blog about. I have adorable children that say the darndest things. I love my job and my family. I usually wait until everyone is asleep then I sneak over and blog. At all hours of the night. But obviously not this past week. I've been crashing fairly early lately. I doubt I'll be able to recapture all the events since last Thursday. I'll try.

Friday morning I was sitting at my desk as usual when I glanced at the clock to notice it was coffee time. Another glance toward a nice yellow post-it note with a reminder written with a Sharpie marker...Oil Change 8:30. CRAP. Chris had mentioned it to me before he left for work. I'm the one that made the appointment. I. just. plain. forgot.

I called the garage to ask if I could still bring the Jeep in. They said it was no problem. The timing was perfect for me since it was coffee break anyway. I dropped off the Jeep then walked down to Chris's work to get his truck. It was a PD day (no school) so that meant I had a full lunch hour. Cindy invited me for lunch with her and Bob and her friend Laura, since Cindy also didn't have school.

We had a great lunch, with plenty of time to spare not having to take off and run Carter to school. I'd had a caramel macchiatto in the morning with a Starbucks gift card I was given, so that along with the big lunch and large iced tea kept me going for the whole day.

It's still been fairly cool out. I've switched the boys to their spring jackets and all they want to do is play outside. I rented a few movies on the weekend. The Day the Earth Stood Still, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and The Ant Bully. I went to a retirement party for a coworker on Saturday afternoon. The timing of the party overlapped with Chris's work, so Dad came over to hang with the boys until Chris came home. The party was lovely, with a great lunch.

Chris's Dad brought over KFC for supper. We watched the sci-fi movie. Not bad, I guess. I lent it to Mom and Dad, and Dad said it was a remake, which I was unaware of. The story was apparently similar but with more up-to-date special effects of course. It was alright.

Sunday I took Cooper to church. After church we went for breakfast with Mom and Dad at A&W. Auntie Lurdes and Uncle Cliff showed up there and joined us. I picked up Chris's Dad for supper and made spaghetti with cheesy garlic bread and Caesar salad. Good stuff.

Monday I was planning on making meatloaf for supper, but I got a call from Mom to invite us over for supper. I was even home at lunchtime thinking about preparing the meatloaf ahead but instead relaxed. Good thing since I didn't have to bother! We had spaghetti at Mom and Dad's. Cooper? ATE A TON. Two days in a row. Apparently he's loving spaghetti. Carter did a pretty good job too, but Cooper was voracious. Really. I took some hilarious videos of him devouring his food. Like an animal. We'll work on those manners later; in the meantime I'm thrilled he's eating!

Today I had a meeting after work. During the whole meeting I was printing letters and envelopes. As I was stuffing the very last envelope, the meeting ended. I was trying to finish the project so a coworker could deliver it to one of our other offices. She planned on leaving in the morning before office hours, so I figured I was going to take the whole works home and finish it up and take it to her house this evening. So I was glad Chris could pick up the boys and kind of glad for the meeting. Oh...and most of all? Glad the coworker is a workaholic and was still there at the office when I was done! Fait accompli! :)

I got home and of course the boys were playing outside. I started preparing the meatloaf for supper and called Chris's Dad to see if he still wanted to join us for a late supper. He did, so I picked him up. He hung out with the boys outside and I called them in when supper was almost ready. Chris had a quick shower then we had supper. I made shoestring fries (didn't have enough potatoes to mash!) and kernel corn and gravy. The boys were begging for ice cream, which we did not have. Apparently the neighbour kid was over playing and was eating a popsicle, which made the boys covet the cold treat. We conned the kids into eating all their supper so we could have ice cream. Carter wanted a popsicle like the kid next door, and Cooper was adamant that he wanted chocolate ice cream. Instead of spending a fortune at Dairy Queen for everyone's individual tastes, I did a Safeway run for a box of popsicles and a box of chocolate ice cream. Everyone was happy.

We visited for awhile then Chris drove his Dad home. I started printing some birth announcements I made as a gift for a coworker. That took me quite some time, and I ran out of colour ink. Unfortunately it was quarter after eleven by this time and Wal-Mart was long since closed. Bummer. I decided to watch a movie after I cut out all the announcements. I borrowed Nights in Rodanthe from a coworker. It sat on my desk today and everyone kept asking if I'd seen it and telling me how good it was. So, starting around twelve-thirty I watched it. It was fairly mellow. I was loving it of course because of Richard Gere. Then the waterworks started. I was a big wad of snot and tears by the end. Watching a chick flick after midnight with PMS means I'm going to end up crying. I decided to blog after the movie, then Chris woke up from his 'other bed' on the couch where he usually zonks out! It's now nearly THREE and I need to go to sleep. I'll try to shrink and post a video of Cooper's spaghetti escapades but not until at least tomorrow.

Dad reminded me that when we were leaving their place the other night, Carter was half asleep cuddled up with my Mom. Dad made some comment about keeping Carter and Cooper replied, ''No, you can't have him. He's our kid.'' I doubt Carter would have ever done the opposite. He'd have just walked out the door without him. Kinda sweet how Cooper claimed his big brother. Here are a couple pictures of Cooper at A&W the other day; I haven't done anything with the spaghetti video yet.

Game - Your First Ever Scrap Page

2009-04-26T23:21:00.005-05:00

Helen tagged me to play this fun blog game...show your first ever scrap page. When I first started scrapping I was already into extracting pictures...something I still like to do. These were a few of the first freebies I started out with; I probably still have these graphics! The first one I did in Adobe Photo Deluxe Home Edition; by the second I got started in PhotoShop. There may have been others close to the same time but I found these first.

I had just started scrapping in March 2006 by accident, really. I was online looking for some free backgrounds to use for making some birthday invitations when I came across a scrapbooking site. It all snowballed from there!!!

Here are the rules:
1. Show us your first scrapbook page (eekkk!!)
2. Write a couple of lines about the scrap - associated with your feelings, your thoughts and when you did it.
3. Pass the game on to 5 person and leave a comment on their blog....I'm passing it on to:
Angie, Theresa, Jill, Amy, Lori

Patient Patients!

2009-04-23T22:29:00.005-05:00

Today both boys went to the dentist for the first time. Well, not technically the first time for Cooper since he hurt his tooth a couple months ago and we popped in for a quick check-up, but their first real visit. It's UNBELIEVABLE how AWESOME they were. I let Carter go on his own and just popped in to take a couple pictures. Cooper in the meantime had to have a poop so that was no biggie and passed the time for him so as not to stress him out about having his teeth checked.

Carter came in when Cooper got in the chair. He was adorably giving his little brother encouragement. The dental hygienist was showing Cooper her instruments and with each one came his comment that he didn't want it. I left the room to let her continue without his wanting to bail and come to me. He was absolutely fine. Pictures? Yep...

Well, they were both amazing (and very patient) patients. AND? No cavities! Which is also amazing because the boys aren't all about oral hygiene these days. I'm sure this trip to the dentist will have encouraged them to brush more and better.

So I realize it's been a number of days since I blogged. The week has been a bit of a blur. On Tuesday I went to the hairdresser after work. I got my hair done with some subtle highlights and a bit of a trim. It always feels sooooooooo soft when I get it done. The boys have been enjoying playing outside lately, though it's been cool all week until today. Kelly and I went for a walk and took Carter in the stroller. He doesn't really want to ride; he'd of course prefer to ride his bike or walk but I really want to keep up the momentum when we go walking. We did about a forty-five minute walk.

Cindy and Noah came to visit us this evening while Dominic went to a school dance. We've both been pretty crazy busy (she is more than I am, being that she has six kids and all!) I've been working on a few projects; some birth announcements, anniversary invitations and birthday invitations. The projects all seem to roll in at once, which keeps me on my toes. Well, it looks like I might just hit the pillow before midnight tonight...as soon as that video uploads I'm outta here!

I'm Walkin', Yes Indeed!

2009-04-19T23:59:00.002-05:00

Yikes. The days are really getting away from me. Friday was a good day at work. One of those oddly quiet ones that are great for getting things done. Kelly and I took a walk at lunch. We grabbed a bite to eat and dropped off lunch for her hubby. We walked as we ate our lunch and picked up Carter. We walked him to school and went back to work. A few minutes late, but not bad considering all the walking!

Saturday I went to a baby shower for a coworker. She is due in June but her last day of work is coming up soon and since she doesn't live here we needed to find a time to get together. Carter had a birthday glow bowling birthday party to go to. So far I've been the parent that takes the kid to the birthday parties. I asked Chris to go this time. While the two of them were out, I promised Cooper I'd take him for a walk in the stroller. We took a walk and stopped in at McDonald's. Cooper had a happy meal and I tried a chicken snack wrap. Too much mayo for me and just an itty bitty chunk of chicken. Kinda gross. I mostly just ate Cooper's fries. We continued on our way and as we were walking past Pizza Hut, I heard a knock on the window. I looked over to see my parents in there. Cooper and I popped in for a quick visit. After their supper they planned to bring over some Cinnaparts. I encouraged them to stick to that plan(!) and Cooper and I left. We stopped at the video store to grab a movie. I grabbed a kids' movie and Seven Pounds.

About a minute after Cooper and I got home, Mom and Dad arrived. I got the movie ready to go but we had some catching up to do. Then Chris and Carter arrived home from the birthday party. Apparently it went well, and Carter had fun bowling.

We watched the movie. It was a little long, and somewhat vague as the story went along. I'm not sure if it was just me since I had a few distractions from the kids. But what I didn't know about the movie is that it was a mystery. A good one. With a real impact at the end. I won't say anything else.

Today was cold and a little snowy. It's really cooled off again this weekend. Today I didn't accomplish much until later in the day. Chris barbecued some hamburgers. Our barbecue is actually dead, but I hadn't realized Chris had brought out our camping barbecue. He grilled up the burgers (yum). After we ate I decided to go for a walk again. Cooper was up for it and enjoyed the ride in the stroller. It was cold walking against the wind, but I had Cooper bundled up and the exercise kept me warm.

We got home just a little before the start of the new episode of Desperate Housewives. The kids went absolutely squirrelly. Like, cuckoo enough for me to think that there was an undertone playing that told them to be as insane as possible while Mommy watched her favourite show. I managed to get through it, though in parts I was actually standing directly in front of the TV so I wouldn't miss anything!

Cooper fell asleep on me a couple hours ago. I put him to sleep on my bed while I tidied up the boys' room. I hoisted Carter up on the top bunk where he so seldom sleeps. Usually the boys fall asleep on the floor in front of their TV, and usually I don't want to wake them so I leave them there. I much prefer when they're snug in their beds. I made Cooper's bed and got him settled in. Next was tackling the huge pile of clothing in their room. I folded and sorted everything into categories...Carter's, Cooper's, clothes each will grow into, clothes each has grown out of, pajamas, socks, undies, summer stuff, and stuff to bring to the sitter's house as spares. Now I'm still wide awake and watching a very hot episode of Brothers and Sisters, thanks to all the iced tea I drank earlier. Hopefully I'll be off to bed soon!

Four Forty-Four

2009-04-16T21:27:00.005-05:00

Wow what a great day!

This morning Kelly and Ben picked me up super early for our quick trip to Winnipeg. Ben had an orthodontist appointment at nine. We did a quick Timmy's run then hit the highway. I glanced at the clock as we were leaving town and it was 4:44.

Just outside Winnipeg at 'Deacon's Corner' there had been an awful crash about 7 hours earlier. The wreckage was huge, and apparently the highway had just recently reopened. Here is a little peek at the wreckage; it seemed to go on forever. I meant to take pictures but the camera was on video so it actually shows the whole thing. Yikes.

When we went to the gas station, we were amazed to find out nobody was seriously hurt. One transport rear-ended another, that was full of hazardous material. Fortunately none of it spilled in the crash or the resulting explosion! There was a fire and the occupants escaped before the fuel tanks exploded. Wow.

We ventured over to Polo Park for Ben's appointment with only a moment to spare. His braces were slated to take about an hour and a half so Kelly and I wandered around the mall to kill time. Not such a bad way to kill time; I haven't been to that mall in AGES. We stopped for a bite to eat at Arby's. It really felt like lunchtime to us since we had gotten up so early, though it was only about ten o'clock.

We went back for Ben and our timing was again perfect. We left the mall and headed over to Regent where we popped in to Future Shop quickly to get the laptop case I've been hemming and hawing over buying for a long time. I had a gift card so it was like a freebie. Next we went to our new favourite place, the nail shop across the street. It was like they were waiting for us and they took us both in right away. Kelly? Opted for a manicure ANDOMGAPEDICURE! I was so proud of her for trying it. She tried to occupy herself by looking at the pretty nail designs she had to choose from, while using the power from every fibre of her being to keep from kicking the nice lady in the head for touching her feet. Once she was finished, Kelly was very pleased with the result, despite the process.

I also had a pedicure, and for the first time ever, got some solar nails. (not exactly sure still of the difference between these and the gel nails or the acrylics...) The process was very cool, though a tad painful on one sensitive fingernail. The guy (yeah, guy!) that did my nails was very quick and very precise. It was really neat how the liquid and the powder instantly turn into the magic gel. In what seemed like no time at all, we had these lovely lovely fingers and toes. I didn't take a picture of Kelly's feet in case she would kick me in the face (haha) but if you see the pretty flower design on ther fingernails, it's the same as the design on her toenails. Very pretty.

Once we were all buffed and polished and dried, we picked up Ben across the street and headed to Costco. We were just making our rounds when we lost Ben. Well, we didn't lose him; but he was done. He was in a lot of pain and very tired. We quickly grabbed a couple more items and headed out for Dairy Queen for some much-needed ice cream oral therapy! At Costco I picked up some yoga pants, some baby outfits for gifts, underwear for Chris, and some bodywash for Chris and me.

We headed out of the city and to our amazement there was not a shred of evidence of that accident at the scene, aside from some darkened streaks on the asphalt. We went to the same gas station to gas up and I picked up some more stuff. A habs t-shirt for Chris, a cute teddy bear backpack for Cooper, and a couple of those invisible ink pen books for Carter. We headed out once again and I glanced down at the clock to find it was once again 4:44.

The road was bare and dry, and we had plenty of daylight to last us the whole trip. It was a great day (though not likely so much for Ben as it was for Kelly and me! - Sorry Ben!) Kelly dropped me off and I did my gift presenting to Chris and Cooper since Carter was unwakable on the couch. I'm sure he'll love those invisible ink books; I still remember those from when I was a kid. Fun stuff. Cooper just fell asleep with his little backpack on. He just got me to help him put his little toy dog in there. Adorable.

It's not quite ten o'clock yet, though it feels more like it's about two in the morning, after about three hours of sleep last night. Hopefully I'll get a couple more hours of sleep in tonight. But hey, tomorrow is Friday already, so it should be a great day anyway! Just one more thing...I'm surprised at being able to type with these nails on; I had my doubts!

Nocturinal

2009-04-15T22:47:00.004-05:00

Definition...nocturnal with a side dish of urine. The nighttime bed wetting has almost dwindled away to nothing, but I still have issues with Cooper if he has too much to drink before bed. Fighting this battle is a tough one. Do I give him that little bit more milk to stop his tired whining? Or do I fight him until he's asleep? The other thing I try is before I go to bed I stand his little sleeping self in front of the toilet and request for him to pee. It's worked a couple times but usually just ticks him off. The battle is still on.

We had a faaaaaaaaantastic Easter weekend! The Easter bunny actually came on Friday night. Saturday morning Carter came whispering to me in my room that he was here. Carter's first clue had been a pile of eggs in their bedroom doorway. He was very excited but being sweetly quiet about it. It was after all, not even seven o'clock yet. We couldn't let Cooper miss out on the fun so I woke him up. He was very groggy but also excited. There were trails of eggs across the living room carpet to two buckets of Easter goodness. There was a big 'dinosaur' chocolate that growls when you open the box, and egg colouring kits and some little sponge dartguns. Carter was absolutely ingenious in collecting his trail of eggs. He bulldozed them with his arms and quickly chucked them in the bucket. There were eggs everywhere. For about the first seven minutes I took a video, until my camera card was full. After they collected all the loot I took a few pictures.

Next we all got ready to go to the sheep farm. Chris had washed the Jeep. We headed out to be there for about ten o'clock, when Cindy and one of her girls was set to work there for the school fundraiser. When we arrived it was already getting busy. There were guys directing traffic and they led us to a muddy field, through a mudhole, since we were in the Jeep. There were all sorts of 4x4 type vehicles already in there. They seemed to be reserving the regular parking areas (the ones that were also close to everything) for the regular vehicles. No biggie...we were wearing boots. The kids had a grrrrrrreat time! They were moderately interested in the animals...from sheep to donkeys to goats to llamas and alpacas. In the back fields were elk or something. The kids had the most fun jumping on the hay bails they had set up. At first Cooper was very tentative and getting me to carry him across the haybails. Then he realized he could make it across himself and was leaping all over. Carter was climbing to the top of the piles and also having a great time.

Pictures, you say? Of course!

Chris's Grandpa came over to visit and I got that great picture of him with the two boys. I printed a handful of pictures for him to take home, including that one. Chris's brother was in town and came over to visit, also bringing their Dad over. As it got closer to suppertime, he sprung for pizza and pasta from Pizza Hut. Jason and I went to pick it up and we all pigged out. We watched movies and the kids went all cuckoo playing and running around, since they were on a fixed diet of Easter candy.

Mom was going to church that night, but Dad opted to just chauffeur her, since it was going to be a longer mass, with Cindy's niece having confirmation that night. Because Mom went to mass that night she didn't plan on going on Easter Sunday. I ended up bailing and not going at all. Baaaaaaaaaad. I spent a large portion of the day cooking bacon, onions, and a hundred perogies to bring to Mom and Dad's for Easter dinner. I was really multitasking...and was trying to iron my hair in between boiling and frying batches of perogies. By the time I was done all that there was just enough time to go pick up some sour cream that had completely escaped my mind when I had done my shopping. We headed out and picked up Chris's Dad and went to Mom and Dad's. I should have taken pictures there too, but didn't. There was a huge bunch of us all and the kids had a blast playing with all their cousins outside. Yes, outside! The weather has been a little more seasonally-appropriate these past few days.

Supper was massive as usual. There was a bit of visiting after supper, with Cindy showing everyone her gorgeous wedding pictures on her laptop. Uncle Barry brought his laptop too, and of course so did I. I gave him a hand with his. We rounded up the kids and headed home with plenty of leftovers. We ate leftovers for two days. Work has been insanely busy, and it's a weird workweek for me. Last week I worked four days then was off for four. This week I worked two and I'm off for one then I work one and I'm off for two. This is making for a very quick month of April!

Well, I've glossed over plenty of detail...partly to spare my three regular visitors and partly out of sheer exhaustion. I have an extremely early morning ahead of me and I really need to do my hair. Ugh.

Four Days

2009-04-10T00:20:00.004-05:00

That's right. I'm off for four days. There are plans of Easter egg hunts, a visit to the sheep farm, celebrating the occasion properly at church on Sunday and gorging on a humongous Easter dinner with the whole fam-damily.

The past couple days I've still had a sore jaw. My teeth are feeling more comfortable but dang they really beat up my mouth. Work has been very busy and has flown by this week, even more so than usual.

I rented a few movies tonight: Tale of Despereaux, Yes Man, and Bedtime Stories. When we got home I put on the Despereaux movie for the boys but they didn't pay it a whole lot of attention. Chris worked outside for awhile after he got home from an after hours service call. I put on the movie Yes Man (Jim Carrey). Cooper cuddled up to me and fell asleep. Carter was already zonked. Chris? Started snoring shortly after the opening credits. I liked the movie, but I was getting annoyed until he started saying Yes. Then it got good, and stayed good. We watched Bedtime Stories at the theatre awhile back, but will be watching it again before I have to return it to the video store.

Now I'm still up watching late night TV. I caught the end of Leno, then Jimmy Fallon was a re-run. Booooooooo. So I tuned into Craig Ferguson (love him) and Robin Williams is on. The two of them are nuts, but hilarious. Well, that's all I've got for tonight. Hopefully some scrapping news by the weekend. :)

A Kick in the Teeth

2009-04-07T22:04:00.002-05:00

Yesterday when I was out running work errands I received a call at work to remind me of my dentist appointment today. I knew it was coming up this month and I’ve been dreading it since it’s the first time I’ve had to have any dental work in probably at least ten years. Ugh.

They’ve been wanting to replace a filling that’s already been replaced once. I was apprehensive the past couple times they’ve mentioned it when I’d been in for cleanings and x-rays, but on the last visit they actually showed me the spot of concern on the x-ray and I was okay with letting them mess with it.

I went to work first thing, then left for the appointment. They took me in right away and started out with the two freezing needles. I was reminded there was also a little cavity on a bottom tooth and I opted to get both done today so I wouldn’t have to do this again!

The assistant then came after me with a ‘rubber dam’. I’ve never had one of these before so I didn’t know what the heck it was. She had one hell of a time trying to clamp the thing on my back tooth and she was squishing my gums into the clamp too, of course on a part that wasn’t included in the frozen area. That wasn’t nearly as bad as her trying to floss the rubber thingie in between my teeth to isolate the tooth he needed to work on. She seemed to be putting all her weight into it and the floss wouldn’t budge through. My teeth are very close together and I have a hard enough time getting the easy glide floss in between, letalone this rubber thingie.

She finally got it in place just in time for him to come back and start drilling. He worked on the replacement filling first, and I was fine since the freezing took well. He seemed to drill forever and there were many interruptions that called him out of the room. Once that filling was done the two of them started trying to get the rubber dam on my bottom tooth. Nope. That back tooth on the bottom is even lower than the top one so they just couldn’t do it. Somewhere around this time they discovered I lost a filling between my last appointment in January and today. Right beside the one they needed to fix the cavity in. So it turned out I got a ‘’bonus’’ filling. Yay me! Turns out he’s really good at doing fillings so aside from the pain and discomfort, my teeth seem to fit together perfectly.

My gums have been sensitive all the rest of the day and the inside of my mouth was a bit scratched up. My jaw was aching from being jacked open for so long. By the time I got out of there it was nearly lunchtime, so I went to treat myself to ice cream. I stopped in to see Chris then at DQ to grab a hot fudge sundae (complete with chunks of Reese peanut butter cups). I went home and had my ‘brunch’ then took Carter to school. When I got back to the office I made an amusing attempt to put on some lipstick. Because I couldn’t feel the whole left side of my face, I almost continued across it with the lipstick.

The afternoon went by okay. My face started to regain feeling awhile after I got back to the office. Talking on the phone was only awkward for about a half an hour. After work I picked up the kids and did the mail run. Cindy had gone home with all the kids except one; one of her girls hadn’t returned yet from an out-of-town basketball trip so I picked her up when the bus came in. Instead of having Cindy make a special trip in for her, I drove her home. Carter had a snooze during the trip but Cooper enjoyed the ride.

When we got home Chris and his Dad were already here with supper. They picked up KFC. Cooper did a great job devouring his chicken. Carter was still a bit snoozy and ate his later. After supper we watched Slumdog Millionaire so Chris and his Dad could both watch it. They liked it too and I picked up on a couple minor details I missed last night. Chris took his Dad home after the movie and the boys took turns playing on the computer for awhile before I sent them to bed. I’m pretty certain they’re not sleeping yet.

I think I’m off to bed early tonight. Perhaps a few sudoku puzzles before I crash. I’m looking forward to Easter for a few reasons, but partly because of two short workweeks in a row, separated by a four-day weekend. :)

And the Oscar Goes To...

2009-04-06T23:59:00.002-05:00

Slumdog Millionaire!!! OMGWHATANAMAZINGMOVIE. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Just as suspenseful as any thriller and I cried with relief at the end. Wow. Lots of Wow. I can't remember how many awards this movie got but it deserved every one.

This morning was a pretty good one. Chris helped wrangle the boys into their clothes, which always helps. I fed them breakfast after he left for work and we got out of the house with time to spare for getting to work. I got a call on my way to the office to request some ice melter for the entranceway to the office. First I tried Wal-Mart. Evidently they believe winter ended a couple weeks ago as they haven't replenished their stock, nor will they. Next stop was Canadian Tire. I saved myself the trouble of looking and asked at customer service. Same deal. Sheesh. There's still plenty of ice to be melted out there, folks and who's to say we won't end up with more??!!

I tried one more store and they had it right in their entranceway. I grabbed a pail and paid and went along my way to work. They were just starting to wonder if I was going to show up since the manager who called me got busy and forgot to tell anyone I was on an errand! The morning flew by as all Monday mornings do. At lunch I stopped to grab a couple eggrolls for Chris and me to snack on. I stopped in to see him for a minute then was off to take Carter to school.

After work I picked up the kids and we came home. I stayed outside with them so they could play on their bikes in the driveway for awhile. (Yeah, it turned out to be a pretty nice day or I'd have made Chris stay out with them!) Carter kept getting hung up on the icy and snowy patches still left on the driveway and he would just sit there spinning his wheels and his legs would be pedaling away. It appeared amusing, though he was frustrated. He's getting better on the bike though, and we need to raise the seat a bit since he's grown so much since last summer!

We came in and I was planning on nuking leftover spaghetti when Cindy called. She was coming to town to drop off the movie, Slumdog Millionaire for us to watch since the rental was good for one more night. That, and she had some fantastic leftovers to share with us. Still-hot spaghetti sauce from her supper tonight, and some chicken and fantastic potatoes and veggies from yesterday. I put the whole chicken dish in the oven while we visited for a bit and we thoroughly enjoyed it. (Thanks again, Cindy AND BOB!!!)

I must rewind a little to mention that Chris is quickly becoming addicted to playing Guitar Hero. I was sitting there laughing at his struggling to hit about seventeen notes at once when I walked over and started pushing the coloured buttons while he strummed the notes. Hilarious! There is no way I could ever actually play this game properly, but since it was a familiar song I had a slight clue and managed to eke out the right coloured buttons for the most part. At that moment Cindy came into a living room full of laughter.

We watched our Monday evening lineup of Dancing With the Stars and Castle, with an episode of Corner Gas thrown in the middle for a few laughs. Chris zonked out about halfway through Castle, so he was nowhere near awake enough to watch Slumdog with me. I thoroughly enjoyed it on my own. The movie finished just before midnight and now I'm half blogging and half tuned into Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. I'm planning on doing some scrapbook pages by at least the weekend since we got our new creative team assignments. Can't wait.

A Donkey Kick

2009-04-05T21:50:00.004-05:00

Thank you Angie for the kick in the donkey to get me blogging again. It did cross my mind a few times this past week to get blogging again. The weather got even suckier last week than the week before.

I was hoping for some great spring weather to welcome Mom and Dad back from their warm sojourn in California, but to no avail. It was a cold windy day on Tuesday when Kelly and I took off to Winnipeg to pick them up at the airport. By the time we got there it was lunchtimeish. We took a peek in Future Shop then realized we were in the neighbourhood of a nail salon that my friend Diane always goes to. I made a call to confirm I had the right place, and we ventured across Regent to get to it.

The stars must have all been aligned that day, because the nail salon shared a parking lot with Burger King. We went for a Whopper then headed over to the nail salon. They had a super special on a manicure and pedicure, which was what I went for. Kelly opted for just the manicure, fearing that she might kick the girl in the head if she touched her feet. A small part of me wanted to see if that would have happened, and I'm guessing it really would have.

They have those fancy schmancy massage chairs for the pedicures and a very efficient team to get the job done. The lady even beautifully freehand-painted a pretty little flower with leaves on each of my big toenails, complete with a little rhinestone. I felt like I had new feet and didn't want to put my boots back on. Except by this time, the weather had started to take a turn for the worse and the snowfall in the snowfall warning was rearing its ugly head.

Oh by the way, we went up in the Jeep, and had borrowed a club from a coworker. It gave us a slight sense of security, though we were always cautiously optimistic that the vehicle would still be there when we got outside. We're pretty jaded, thinking that everyone we saw lingering in the parking lot for more than a second was a car thief.

We made a stop at Costco for a brief run-through and headed for the airport. I don't think I've ever driven in to the airport before, and there is plenty of construction currently happening. That, mixed with the crappy weather made us want to park in front of the terminal, which is a big no-no. I asked for directions to the nearest parking lot and followed the directions to a parking lot I couldn't get into. I was starting to panic about the time and made another loop around and took a different turn, parking on the upper level of the Sheraton parking lot, just a few short feet to the door and and indoor walkway to the terminal.

We checked the arrivals and everything was going to be late; Mom and Dad's flight? By a whole seven minutes. When we sat down, I asked Kelly what time it was and it was exactly 4:55; their original arrival time. We waited around for a bit, watching all the tanned tourists arriving in their straw hats and sandals, with forlorn looks on their faces until they were greeted by their people. Mom and Dad emerged and after a flurry of hugs and welcomes we headed out into the cold. I brought winter coats for them but drove the Jeep right to the door so they wouldn't be too shocked.

We gassed up and grabbed more Burger King food, (including a TRIPLE WHOPPER for Chris to enjoy later). We headed out in the light snow. The highway was decent while it was doubled, and got progressively worse as we headed back to our little neck of the woods. It had been snowing here most of the day, though we completely missed it on our drive up. So it got a little crappier as we went along. We made it back safe and sound and after stopping for a newspaper and to drop off Kelly we went to Mom and Dad's, where the driveway was nearly whited out completely compared to that morning.

I went to back in the driveway like I always do, and have done a squillion times, but with the drifted snow I couldn't see that I was going askew. Dad of course alerted me to my misalignment and when I went to try again I made it worse. Crap. Stuck. I've finally come to realize that part-time four-wheel drive kinda SUCKS. So in trying to ease Mom and Dad back into the cold again after their warm month away, I totally screwed it up. Dad of course did most of the digging as I helped with his cement shovel since it was about all the heavy iced snow I could dig and lift. Alas we were in the clear and I made my way home. The snow was so heavy by this time I already couldn't see my tracks from the way there.

The rest of the week was pretty much a blur; it's hard to believe the pajama party was only a week ago. Since I was away on the last day of the month, I did month-end on the two days following it, with all the other things I needed to work on and catch up on.

We had a pretty quiet weekend, but I actually planned ahead to take the boys to church today for Palm Sunday. Yeah, both of them. It's been (1) awhile since I went to church and (2) since I took a kid with me and (3) since I took both of them. They wore matching striped shirts and vests and looked adorable of course. I even put some gel in their hair. So handsome! We picked up Kelly and made it to the church on time for the blessing of the palms in the vestibule and procession into the church. The kids survived the slightly longer than usual mass (including the reading of the Passion) and I dropped Cooper off at home before we went for breakfast with the gang of Aunts and Uncles and Cindy's in-laws. Usually I give Carter some of my breakfast and Mom and Dad share their French toast with him. Today he opted for a cinnamon bun and when it arrived, he asked where his eggs were! So we all chipped in to round out his breakfast and he did a great job of eating it. The cinnamon bun was nearly untouched so we brought it home.

After breakfast Kelly and I dropped Carter off at home and went grocery shopping. First we did Wal-Mart where I filled a cart with groceries and a few items to help out the Easter Bunny next weekend. Hard to believe that the groceries and the Easter items were nearly equal. Yikes. Next we hit the grocery store for the fresh items that our Wal-Mart doesn't carry and then we headed home. I put all the groceries away and Chris started playing Guitar Hero for the first time. We were given Guitar Hero II for the PS2 and before I knew it Chris was out on tour. The kids of course wanted to try it but I don't think of it as a kids' game. That and I seriously lack the coordination, motor skills and rhythm required to play it so I steered clear of it.

I played games with the boys and before we knew it, it was suppertime. I browned some ground beef to start making spaghetti sauce. I put in the diced tomatoes and reached for the tomato sauce THAT WASN'T THERE. I remembered that when we were at Wal-Mart, the tomato sauce wasn't conveniently next to the diced tomatoes and never did find it, forgetting all about it. So, I literally put the sauce on the back burner and ran back to Wal-Mart. I scoured the aisles looking for the sauce and when I was about to give up, I found one can on a top shelf way above where they keep the pre-made spaghetti sauce. I stood on the bottom shelf and craned myself to reach the three remaining cans and high-tailed it out of there.

I came home and resumed my cooking while Chris continued to play obscure guitar riffs. Fortunately the spaghetti sauce turned out just fine and we had supper. I was somewhat surprised I didn't burn the garlic bread after everything else turned out alright.

After we cleaned up the supper dishes and realized that Desperate Housewives is still showing reruns for a couple more weeks, I asked Chris if he wanted to watch Mamma Mia, Kelly's copy that I still need to return from last week's party. He made it about two thirds of the way through (before he fell asleep). I really enjoyed it again and sat here smiling on my own right to the end, with Cooper snuggled up with me and Carter zonked on the floor on my duvet by my feet. Finally I headed over here for this windy blog update and just replayed the movie for some background sound. I might just watch it again! Looking forward to two shortened workweeks with Easter on its way next weekend...

Pajama Party!!!

2009-03-28T13:04:00.002-05:00

Last night was my first annual potluck pajama party. I had invited nearly fifty people, with friends and coworkers. The turnout was about twenty-four and we all managed to fit in our little living room. Everyone brought an hors-d'oeuvre-type snack or a dessert. There was food EVERYWHERE. Oh, and booze too! :)

It was a wonderful evening, with partygoers arriving and departing throughout the evening. One even called at twelve-thirty and she still came over! By three the party population was down to four of us. One was my neighbour who walked home and Kelly's husband picked her up and gave a ride to the other remaining guest. I definitely want to do this again!

I made lootbags for everyone containing a little pack of Kleenex, a pad of post-it notes, a matching pen, a few Lifesavers and a mini air freshener spray, all in a pink bag with a nametag for each. I had hung balloons in two shades of pink, covered the tables in pink tablecloths and had pink cups, napkins and plates to match. After everyone left I was so tired and there was so much to clean up. Tons of leftover food, drink bottles and cups, napkins. Oy. I put away a bit of the food that would spoil and I went to lie down. And I CRASHED. I woke up at about seven-thirty with a gnarly headache. Dang rum coolers! Oh yeah, and the shots of liqueur too. I do believe a good time was had by all.

I filled a garbage bag with all the napkins and bottles and some of the leftover food and went back to bed. There was still much to do, and there still is, but it was all worth it. Today is Kelly's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KELLY!!!) and we have a date for Bingo tonight! Hopefully I'll be back on later with news of a big win.

Helen's Dream!

2009-03-27T01:23:00.003-05:00

I did it! I zonked out with Cooper for awhile but managed to get up and scrap something! ''Cooper Exploring'' was inspired by a new kit by SabDesbois at NDISB called ''Helen's Dream'', a kit named after my favourite Aussie. Journaling reads,''Cooper exploring at Kinsmen Park 2007-05-03'' Font used is Hannibal Lecter.

Okay, now I think I'm going to bed! :)

That Groundhog is Full of It

2009-03-26T21:53:00.004-05:00

You call this SPRING? As I fully expected, after all the crappy rain we had this week, which devoured the ice road and many snowbanks, leaving gross brown piles of snow lying about, baring some grass and turning streets into rivers, (longest sentence in the history of the world), we get a freaking BLIZZARD. Winter is back, and in full force. Spring? NOT.

Well, aside from the weather rant, my week did get progressively better after my painful Monday. My elbow never got any darker than a light blue streak. Absolutely no sympathy factor when one doesn't bruise easily. After a few days it will be a lovely light green colour. Anyway, my arm seems fine movement-wise; just still painful to the touch.

Each day this week has been similar to the last. Go to work, come home, want to collapse but need to feed family. Eat supper. Want to collapse. Work on projects, then collapse! It was Cindy's birthday yesterday. Since her family's return from Mexico on the weekend, I threw together a quick 8x8 scrapbook album of their wedding pictures. I tracked her down at lunchtime at the Chinese restaurant, bringing along a coworker for a quick lunch. Cindy loved the album. Mission accomplished!

Lunch was a mad dash as usual. A quick bite and bolting off to take Carter to school. I also squeezed in a quick trip to the gas station and a trip home to get my medicine I had forgotten to take. Kelly and I ran some errands after work. One to the liquor store to pick up our refreshments for the upcoming pajama party. We also made a dash for Wal-Mart where I found some 'chicken chips' that I figured the kids would go for. The movie Bolt was out on DVD so I grabbed that to make the kids' day. (Oh and it sure did!) For supper I quickly whipped up some linguine with alfredo sauce and served it with the chicken chips. They are thin breaded chicken strips that look about the size of French fries. The kids dug them.

We've had Chris's Dad over for supper a couple times. Once on Tuesday, where I was all set to have hamburgers cooked on the barbecue, since it was unearthed from all the snow (at the time, though it's probably invisible once again!) I ran to the store for hamburger buns and in the short time I was gone, Chris called to inform me that the barbecue is toast. Looks like we need a new burner. Well the heat shield is pretty much gone too so it looks like we need a whole new barbecue. Chris still wanted to have hamburgers, but I was hellbent on having barbecued ones so I was back to the drawing board. Chris's Dad suggested having chicken take-out, and since it was Tuesday, I suggested 'Toonie Tuesday' from KFC. All five of us could have eaten for under twenty bucks, but somehow the two of them came back with forty-five bucks' worth of chicken, fries, gravy, corn and two kinds of salad. Crazy!

Tonight by the time I picked up Chris's Dad and came home to get supper on it was after six. I stuffed a pork tenderloin with StoveTop stuffing, cooked carrots and made mashed potatoes. Even the kids ate more than I expected. I had made them wrap sandwiches just in case, which they ate about half of in addition to supper. I did a little laundry and tidying while everyone visited and watched TV. Both boys had a bath and I got them into pajamas without any effort. Sweet. Now if I could just get Cooper to sleep. I'm going to go cuddle him to sleep and hopefull come back to do some scrapping!