Scrappy Excitement

I'm so excited, I signed up for my first scrapbooking tools decor class at Compupro. I like the idea of being able to use my tools for stuff around the house as well. Here's a peek at what we'll be doing (I can't wait to make the stamped holiday jeans for Alex...now to find a non brand name pair that doesn't have trucks all over them at the superstore that I won't feel guilty about seasoning up ;))

A Nice Visit

I can't believe it's been so long since I got home, I've been a tad on the homesick side for over a month now, first it was soaring gas prices, then thanksgiving, halloween, retreat, bazarre...weekends really seem to be at a premium, so it was really nice when mom came over for a visit last night. While we were awaiting her arrival I made an Irish Cream Cake (omitting the nuts and quartering the glaze). It was sooo good, and now I also have some bailey's in the fridge to try out that commercial with the flaming marshmallow!! I love roasted marshmallows and I can only imagine how good it would taste to dunk a flaming one of those in a small glass of Baileys. Mom came with a new book for Alex, which almost made him miss the bus this morning as he was trying his darndest to read it. We had bought him a book at the book fair that between the site words he's learned in school and the occasional picture words in the book he can actually pretty much read on his own (proud mommy here!). Alex did read the story to mom, maybe to make up for his flying saucer almost connecting with her noggin ;)

Mom left shortly after Alex went to bed and I started the task of organizing the Christmas gifts that need to go home. The big gift for Alex went in the car last night but the rest are in two garbage bags and three shopping bags (stocking stuffers included and items that need to be set up before the big morning ;)). I don't know what I'm more excited for, the chance to go home or Christmas!! After doing all that and unloading the dishwasher to put another load in and tidy up the kitchen I stitched a band and a half on my sampler and headed to bed.

In other news I'm a great aunt...well not quite but as close as I'll get for awhile with my brother arriving home to find two new degus in the cage! Guess they weren't both male as the store keeper had said ;)

It's a Wrap!

Oh my goodness, I was on a wrapping spree last night. I wrapped ALL of Matt's gifts last night, made some executive decisions on things to be wrapped for Alex and what wouldn't be and left out for Santa's display, wrapped my grandmother's gift, Patrick's gift and a little something for someone else ;) I was so excited when I got to the door and there was the last parcel of gifts that I was waiting for! I think there are two DVD's to wrap and then it's just hap hazard wrapping of stocking stuffers. I also started organizing the stocking stuffers into individual bags. My closet is finally looking like a closet again!

In other news my basement is now as fresh as a flower again. Yay! Now to clean up the rest of the house and buy a storage tub at lunch today for all of Alex's outdoor stuff that he's outgrown. We went to bed early last night as I was pretty tired. I did finish the row I was working on on the band sampler and then it was lights out for me.

Tonight I'm seriously hoping to get the indoor lights put up before Matt gets home, one less thing to do and maybe cut out some tags with my sizzix machine. Then after Alex goes to bed it'll be stitching and watching Bones (and maybe wrapping those last DVD's). I can't believe I'll have my Christmas wrapping done before the first of December, yippee!

Wild and Wacky Weekend

Oh my, can I have another weekend to recover from this one?? I arrived home Friday to end up multitasking loading the baked goods into the Corolla and making supper so we could be out the door at 6:30 (oh this also involved scraping the car). We arrived at the school with all of the goodies and I was amazed at how many women knew my son's name, I'm hoping that it's just because with his red hair he's easy to pick out in the crowd and not that he's been in trouble ;) After dropping off all of our goods we headed to Sarah's Sweet Delights and tested wedding cakes. I couldn't convince Matt on the maple buttercream filling but I do like our choices, a kahlua fudge cake with plain buttercream for the open house and an irish cream cake with wildberry butter cream for the anniversary piece (although I don't think we'll be able to resist it for a year!)

Saturday I woke up at my normal work time for some odd reason so I went out and worked on the band sampler until Alex got up, then I snuggled with him for a bit and after that put out the remainder of the outdoor lights. I can't for the likes of me figure out how we hooked them up last year with only the two cords so right now I only have lights on the deck, the deer and spiral tree will have to wait until I can get to the store. I didn't get a chance to put up the interior lights yet in the windows, I think I'll do that tonight.

After all the lighting was up we woke up Matt and got ready for the bazarre. Alex had sooo much fun and won quite a few prizes, I picked up some more books at the book fair and I got a quick look around the craft, playdough, second treasures and bakesale tables and then it was time for me to work the basket table (each class does up a theme basket that are raffled off). I sold tickets to one of our CBC television personalities and they sold out on my shift so I got to mingle abit more.

Finally in the afternoon I got to steam our carpets downstairs and pulled the affected area of the one in the guest room up and javexed it down. That was fun. After that we bundled up and headed to the parade. Matt took alot longer to get up from his nap so we ended up in parade traffic :( We were heading over to my grandmother's (just past the parade route on main st) to park so we took the ring road, only to find a HUGE detour that took us way out to the Lake and all in back of the mall, and eventually to the nursing home. I was a bit panicked so we parked in the church parking lot instead and rushed to brookside drive. Of course all of this was in vain as we were still 15-20 minutes early ;) Alex LOVED the parade, he was dancing and singing and wishing every single person a merry christmas. After the parade we did stop by my grandmother's to drop off her wreath and visited for a bit.

Sunday we awoke to a beautiful dusting of snow, although that meant scraping the car before church. I can't believe it's advent already. There were two little boys being baptized during the service so it ran a bit later than usual. The Sunday school now joins us for communion and after the service I think Alex had more people come to shake his hand than the minister (his hair seems to attract alot of attention). I had planned on going to a class at the gym but was too tired and took a nap. For supper Matt took us out to celebrate my offer to the Diplomat, we hadn't been there in years!! It was so nice to go out for a fancy dinner :) After Alex went to bed I wrapped up some more gifts and then stitched during Desperate Housewives (I so loved the part where Brie pulled out the shotgun in her best dress ;)). Now back to the grind...

Totally Baked!

Well, no stitching to report for last night, just a tonne of baking completed. So, for tomorrow's bake sale I get to drop off tonight, 4 loaves of cinnamon swirl bread, 3 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, 2 dozen browned butter frosted brownies (aka butter finger bars), 2 dozen 'Worth Hoarding" Chocolate bars from the 2004 JCS and a dozen low fat chocolate cupcakes (1 box devil's food cake, 1 can diet coke and 2 egg whites), topped with marshmallow fluff (surprisingly low points value) and the awesome snowflake sprinkles Faith Ann gave me :) The house smelled sooo good last night, besides all of the cooking smells all of the Garden Creek Christmas wreaths arrived, it was soooo nice!

This morning the roads were a mess and I got stuck in a traffic line behind a ding bat going 30 under and slamming on their brakes every 3 minutes to check the roads. Do people not realize that just because they're doing it on some point of the road it doesn't mean the chain of traffic behind them can as they're all on different segments of road and ice, especially on hills... Here's my vote on mandatory driver retesting ;) It's not as if the city doesn't have a public transportation system, even if it's flawed for these rare occasions...sigh...

Tonight I'll be vegging with my stitching, that is of course AFTER I drop off the bake sale goods AND go wedding cake testing at 7 :) Tomorrow is super family day, with the bazarre at 11 and the parade at 5, then maybe some celebratory Boston Pizza as the minor flooding dampened (no pun intended) plans on Tuesday :) I'm also hoping to get the rest of the outdoor lights up today/tomorrow and start on the indoor ones. Our wreaths are up so the house is finally starting to look festive :)

A Visit With Santa 2005

Presenting Santa's Favorite Red Headed Elf ;)

Let The Insanity Continue!!

Last night, after picking up Alex's Santa picks and some of the sale items at the coop we headed home with our prize lobster rolls (the coop only has them during the membership appreciation sale) and some nice new Oshkosh pants for Alex's Christmas Concert (16$). After supper while Matt bathed Alex I vacuumed up another dish pan of water out of the carpet, now I'm just waiting for an available appointment from the steamer people! After Alex was in bed I made another two loaves of cinnamon bread dough, a batch of cupcakes which Matt begged and pleaded to have just one and a pan of my butter finger squares. Now tonight I just need to frost the squares and cupcakes, put the base for the other squares in the oven along with the loaves of cinnamon swirl bread and maybe make a batch or two of cookies (it's amazing how much more you can whip up with a little prep, a kitchenaid, breadmaker and a dishwasher ;))

In stitchy news I finished one row of the band sampler. I'm really looking forward to some stitchy time this weekend now that all of the christmas shopping is done. Although I'm going to have to start going to body pump on weekends instead of on Wednesday's at lunch. The normal instructor is on leave and the two backup instructor's that were lined up have injuries or christmas commitments, sigh...

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Q : Do you always sign your projects? If not, why? If so, do you use your first name, initials or what?

A : Nope, can't say I do. Although occasionally I do put my name on the back of the frame. To begin with I never did find a small letter font that I liked that went with any of the patterns I did so in the beginning that's why I never signed my projects. Later, I discovered the secret pleasure of having our work on display and hearing people's honest comments about it and then getting to say "you know, I stitched that". At retreat I try to put my items out when no one is looking so I can get some honest feedback and I really enjoy going to the FREX and hearing strangers talk about my work, I'd rather enjoy the feedback now when I'm alive than tap into the heirloom stuff, but that's just me ;)

The Lord Giveth, the Lord Taketh Away...

Yesterday it poured in Fredericton, I drove through water that I didn't realize was so deep that it was really dangerous and that the road should have been closed...I didn't even think about what I might come home to, maybe I was just too excited/nervous about the job offer with the province. Alex went down to play on his computer and I noticed a little water around our overflow vent, sigh, so I started vacuuming. This lead itself to Matt coming home late as he was looking for celebratory flowers and arriving to a hysterical me as the water just started gushing and all I could think of was saving the christmas gifts (which are all high and dry) and the books that I hadn't gotten around to putting on the headboard of one of the beds as it is still in need of paint but trying invane to keep up with the water flow with a mini shop vac! Thankfully Matt was cool, calm and collected about this and grabbed some dustpans and some garbage cans and actually scooped up the water! Our basement hall carpet wasn't finished so I rolled that up as quickly as possible so now we just need to have guest room one steamed and my craft closet, sigh...

I was so sore last night and feeling pretty gross from the gym and water control workout and I didn't dare shower until 10 when the water level in the overflow drain had gone down about a foot. It was a good thing Bones was up to its awesome antics ('you're a professor, shouldn't you be using your mutant powers or something?' Agent Booth's response to Dr Brennan asking for a gun permit) so that took my mind off the basement for a bit. I even got half of one of the more labour intensive rows done in my band sampler to try to keep up with my one band a night goal.

Today is parent teacher so I hope Alex has improved some since we started working with him. Then tonight I'll be baking (which I'd hoped to do last night) and then stitching through Smallville and taping Lost. Now to get in queue to have my carpet steamed by the pros!

Omigosh!

Well, a long time ago I had meeting...and to make a long story short...they've now offered me a position!! I'm so excited/nervous it isn't even funny. Next year is going to be such a huge change between the wedding and now the job. Who says life is dull?? ;)

Giggles Happy Dance

Yay, a Giggles happy dance...now if I only had a digital camera, the pic will have to wait on my roll of film getting close to completion (plus my anal retentive self would like to do a small fix to the 'w').

Last night was fairly peaceful. When we arrived home Matt had left for the after hours clinic so Alex and I did his homework and then I made a double batch of bread dough and the base for some squares for the bakesale Saturday and threw those in the freezer. Alex was very excited that we were having the maple pork for supper to which I had a mini 'yay, he gets excited over real food finally' moment.

Matt returned home just before Alex's bedtime, with a good chunk of dad's Clive Cussler book read from the long wait at the clinic. After Alex was tucked in and I showered I sat down with Matt and Giggles and caught last week's Lost. I was finding it really annoying as the transition between days felt like a deleted scenes reel on a DVD but the end was pretty intense. I can't wait until Wednesday, Lost should be awesome and there is supposed to be a 'smack down' in the fortress of solitude between Clark and Spike 'er Brainiac/Prof Fine on Smallville.

Nothing too much on the schedule for tonight, I've gotta do some more prep work for the baking challenge at school and then Bones is on at 9. I'm going to sort through my current project box and rid it of any floss colours that are not needed in The Wedding and then it's back to stitching that project ;) Oh if only I could clone myself and send the clone to work, that or win the lotto :)

On The Verge

Oh it's so hard to come in to work when I'm *this* close to a stitching happy dance! If I only could have stayed up an additional hour last night Giggles would be complete now! Beading is done and now it's just doing back stitching around the letters "S" and "N" and backstitching a couple tufts of snow and his pompom. Thankfully the beading is all done and I didn't run out of Kreinik as I thought I would.

A Weekend In Review

Sigh...where do the weekends go? We had a fairly busy weekend++

After work on Friday we came home and got Matt and went to Sarah's Sweet Delights to set down the ground work for our cake, next week we go for the taste testing to see what flavors we're putting on our anniversary layer and what's going on the gift openning layer (the lord beaverbrook has dessert included in the meal price so we're only serving the cake the next day). After we wrapped up there (and trying one of her delicious eggnog white chocolate truffles) we headed up to the Fredericton Mall to attempt to Wake Up Santa. Alex LOVED the magician's show (thanks Faith Ann for letting us know about it), although by the end of the night I think our eardrums were going to shatter from all the little kiddies eeks and shreeks at the magician. It was so cute listening to them singing christmas carols to try to wake up santa (he was REALLY in bed). Instead of waiting in the insane line we went and had supper and then came back for Alex's trip to Santa which consisted of "Hi, I'm Alex and I love Star Wars", only waiting about 5 minutes.

Saturday morning I took Alex to the kids crafts session at Kents where he painted a christmas decoration. Then we headed over to Green Village to check out the christmas decorations (I could so move in there), went to see my grandmother who wasn't home (while we were on that side of the river) and then headed into the dollarstore which had the folders that Karoline had at stitching night, they're too neat!! A duotang with 10 plastic page protectors that you can slide your current project in and out of (much more helpful when working on an SB). When we returned home I worked on Giggles and then took a much deserved nap. That evening we went to Williams for some fish and chips and then I worked some more on Giggles' beading. Oh...and I made three batches of playdough for Alex's school's Christmas Bazarre!

Today was also quite busy. At 12 I headed to Zellers to take advantage of the 10% off coupon Faith Ann had dropped of (thanks again) Friday and I'm now FINISHED my Christmas shopping (including stocking stuffers). YAY!!!!! When I got home and hid the stuff I then cleaned out the coat closet and sorted hats and mittens into some nice new canvas baskets I'd picked up while christmas shopping. Then I went out and put up the new hooks for my christmas lights and put the lights up on one side of the front deck (hoping Matt won't notice if I do them gradually). Now it's off to making supper and hoping I can finish off Giggles tonight, lots of tv involved so it's definitley doable :)

Did I Celebrate 19lbs?

I know I've been down that much for a couple weeks but didn't want to make an official post until AFTER retreat, seeing as I wouldn't have much control over my meals for 4 days ;) But after my Newbody class today it was official!! I'm so close to being in another tenth place number :) It was kind of fun being at retreat 25lbs lighter than the last one (I'd lost the other 6 between last april-july).

Stealth Mode

Yeah, my car now runs in stealth mode ;) Yeah, I know it was loud when I took it in (or I wouldn't have taken it in ;)) but now it's quieter than when it arrived in Fredericton in the first place! I don't know what else they did to Betty (I name my vehicles) but she's also alot more responsive so I really need to start watching my spedometer. I remember many moons ago when Betty first joined the family in 96 that this was a 'problem' however in the last couple of years it hasn't been....now if only someone could turn back the clock that effectively on me for 200 bucks ;) Now whenever I pick people up they won't hear me coming...

Last night Alex and I went to look at fabric for the bridesmaid dresses for Lisa's wedding which was fun. We picked up some candycane ice cream on the way home along with some pizza toppings. After Alex went to bed and I showered and made my Silkweaver's order for a piece of Golden Harvest linen for my Ottawa Sampler, I plunked my butt down to bead and watched Joey, my taped episode of House and CSI for the first time all season (curls into ball and goes into Night Stalker withdrawl). Beading is coming along quite nicely on Giggles and I'm hoping to finish him up by mid-day tomorrow.

Today or tomorrow I'm hoping to finalize the wedding cake and then put out the exterior christmas lights. There's just so much to do ;) I think the boys will be tenting downstairs tonight which will be fun for Alex. Oh is it 5 yet???

Welcome Logan!

Yay, Shannon's had her not so little (9 lbs 1 oz) boy last evening. I was sooo excited to see the pictures of him this morning. It amazes me how technology can make it feel like my friends in Ottawa are just next door!

Stitchy night was great! There was lots of oooh'ing and aaaah'ing over Faith Ann's new framed pieces, they both look so pretty. I needed it last night too, after grocery shopping and fretting over the fact that the car was going in the shop (she didn't sound too good) in the morning it was nice to sit back and stitch to the point of beading. I did get a little distracted and checked out the Usborne catalogue that Faye had brought in and of course ordered some really nice books for Alex for Christmas. We also got into a discussion about the new provincial nutrition policy which is going into effect, which has crossed a line in my opinion and of course Alex's school made the CBC about it. I'm not so sure anymore that Alex's pumpkin chocolate chip muffin came home the other week because he didn't have time (1/4 cups of chocolate chips in the entire batter isn't going to completely negate the cup of pumpkin, half cup of carrots, 1/2 cup of wheat germ, honey instead of sugar, low fat eggs instead of egg and applesauce instead of oil, sheesh) and kind of makes me angry considering I had to hear from an ashamed child that he had been sent to the office twice and only then did I find out he needed help with his fine motor skills. It was the one and only time I ever sent a baked good to school and I firmly believe it to be better for him than his low sodium/low fat ham on whole wheat sandwich. sigh... Anyway off of my soap box...

Today's trip to the garage wasn't as expensive as I was thinking, phew... Just the water pump and AC pump going and seeing as I haven't used the AC since 2001 due to a leak (it is a '94) they bypassed it for me, I'm soo anxious to hear it purr again. Now for a nice walk over to the northside of the city after work to pick her up.

Eleni and Jackson were in today and I finally got to Williams (hence the need for walking to pick up the car). My land he's grown and looks like the picture of health! I got to give her the Alfred Angelo brochure with the bridesmaid gowns in it, another wedding thing done ;)

Tonight I'm not sure what I'll be up to, I'd like to stitch and do the beading but with things being so crazy I may do something with Matt if he's not busy. Now that my Nightstalker has been cancelled I have some tvless time to either compute or read my HP book :)

It's Stitchy Night

Yay, just what I need, some retreat debriefing, I'm really looking forward to a stitchy night with the girls! ;) Last night after making some pumpkin muffins, making two batches of marinade (one for tonights chicken kabobs and another to put in the freezer), doing a load of laundry, homework, bathing Alex and finishing up a warlock quest, I finally got to plunk my butt down and stitch while watching Bones. Oh how I love Angel...I mean David Boreanaz ;) I really like the show's dialog, it's got the same kind of witty/pop culture references/dead panning/sarcasm that I adored in Buffy and Angel, mix that with an anthropological/scientific concept and I'm hooked. Considering how engrossed I was in the show I did get quite a bit done, I should be beading about an hour into tonights stitching session :)

Last night I lugged the remainder of the christmas gifts in while the boys were too busy to notice (besides the parcel I'm awaiting from amazon which has Alex's Laugh With Chirp book and one of my brother's presents, oh and a little something for Matt). I'm actually really excited about the Matt component of that parcel, without going into detail as goodness knows when he reads this it's come highly recommended and I managed to get it for 10$ off the regular price. Now to continue wrapping. I also developed a stitching strategy for a band sampler that I'd like done for christmas which has me pretty excited without slowing down my Wedding progress too much ;)

Can Retreat Actually Be Over??

Oh we had a wonderful weekend at retreat!! We started with a shopping trip in Moncton where I found some presents for Alex at Old Navy and the Disney store (6.99 adult and children's shirts yippee). Our first stop however was at Barbara Ann's Cottage, it was sad to see it so empty. Then we headed to BYC and picked up more stash, I picked up some new fabric, the latest Lizzie Kate santa(*2) and tiny tidings, some NN perle cotton, mill hill beads and my candle wrap pattern. :) We were disappointed to see Atlantic Fabrics had gone out of business, good thing I got my membership money's worth out of my Sizzix purchase. Michael's was sooo pretty with all of it's Christmas decor, I really hope the rumor is true and that there's one coming to town this spring. After all this, and a stop at the Roots outlet store we headed to Montana's and I had the best apple butter bbq rib tips ever!! It was fun to meet up with Lisa and Dawn her other bridesmaid. We then lugged all of our purchases to Cathey's grandmother's who graciously took us in for the evening. I never thought I'd be the first one to sleep at half past ten, but of course we did some power shopping.

Friday morning I was up at 6:30 and read in the dining room until Cathey got up around 7:30 or so. We did make it to Wildwood by 10 to 10 so we were doing pretty good. It was great to see everyone again although we were by ourselves (fredericton group wise) until about noon. For supper we headed to Pizza Delight (friday 's supper was only available to those that had paid for thursday night too) and Lucy, Angela and I shared an amazing Santa Fe chicken skillet pizza on a garlic sesame crust, yum. When we returned to camp I finished up Dry Turkey and assembled my Joy Needleroll.

Saturday was a relaxed day, we checked out the local craft fair and I got two cute tole painted ornaments at a steal. We also headed to Frenchy's where I found Alex a Children's Place shirt and a pair of Calvin Klein jeans for 4 $ total ;) We also stopped at the dollar store where I found Alex a whoopie cushion for his stocking. Saturday I was good and got the imprint of the angel done for Giggles between then and time to leave on Sunday.

Saturday night we got a bit foolish ;) During snack we decided to see if the whoopie cushion worked so I snuck down to our circle and placed it under Tracy's cushion as she had a nice hard chair for it to sound off against. When she sat down during door prizes the expression on her face was priceless but we couldn't hear it. Apparently it had made a little "wvooot" sound and she was looking around to see where it came from, when she brought it back over we were laughing so hard we were in tears and just then Lucy's name was called so we put it on her chair and she was laughing so hard she plopped down on it and it let out a big one. I then lent it to the quebec group while we were checking out an inflatible duck on a toilet that Cathey and I were accused of putting there. Gee just because we got out a whoopie cushion and had our top 5 things to do at retreat shirts on doesn't mean we were up to that nonsense ;) When we returned from our duck hunt the cushion was on my seat so I picked it up and noticed Cathey talking about the duck as we got settled back in so I made a split second toss which landed perfectly on her seat. I haven't laughed that hard in ages :)

Sunday it was sad to see people packing up (oh and I bought more stuff at the BYC mini store, bad me, but the little Zweigart elves were there from the back of this years JCS) but I still stitched away. I was so happy to receive Tracy's ornament in the exchange. We packed up after lunch and headed home. We got stuck behind a fire truck who wouldn't let anyone pass for half an hour, when we finally got to the accident I would say a moose had been involved as the car was totalled and the roof crushed :( Alex was very excited to see me arrive home and that just topped off the perfect weekend !!

My Bags Are Packed...

I'm ready to go. I'll be waiting here outside my door...I can't wait for Cathey to pick me up (ok, I can't sing or ad lib songs). I'm so excited for retreat it isn't even funny, I REALLY need a couple days away without the *poof* 'what do you want?', sometimes I really feel like the genie in Aladdin. What's worse is Matt has been on his air exchanger rants, to top off wanting to move the wedding as three guests *might* be invited to another wedding the same weekend as ours. Good grief. I get really frustrated as his sinus problems are stemming from something that needs to be fixed medically (and free in Canada) but would rather shell out money to help it. I'll be soo glad to veg in Moncton tonight!!

Last night I got all of my stuff together for retreat and it's sitting in the kitchen. I almost forgot my light but I'm sure Cathey would have reminded me. It was so hard trying to decide what to pack for projects, you hate to lug too much stuff but it's nice to have a back up project should you need to frog as that's not what retreat is about ;) I packed up my new jammie pants which I'm sooo excited about (comfortably wearing a size smaller rocks). Also yesterday I did my weigh in and I'm officially down 19lbs since the engagement but 25 since the last retreat so I packed some of my nicer clothes for a 'look at me now' moment. I'd still like to take off at least another 15 but I'm much happier at this weight, I have my face back!!

Yippee in three hours we'll be hitting the road!!!!!!!

One More Sleep Til Retreat

I don't think I've ever needed retreat more!! Between wedding date craziness, poor Alex getting sent for quiet time at school and trying to remember my french it's been one crazy month already. I definitely need the stitching break before the holiday season!!

Last night while waiting for the minister to arrive (which the church office failed to notify us that he'd had surgery) I actually ornamentified while watching Bones. It was my first attempt at gluing an ornament and I must say I was very pleased! I also put a hanger on my retreat exchange ornament and put them both in the tote.

Tonight I'm heading out for groceries, making the filling for a tortiere for the boys while I'm away and then packing, lots of fun that's all going to be!! Oh well, just one more sleep...

A Little Bit of Everything Looks Like A Whole Lotta Nothing

Last night I had great intentions of finishing Dry Turkey, not so. Matt did finish the vacuuming which meant I did get the kitchen and bathroom floor scrubbed and I did get the mirrors cleaned in the bathroom and did another load of laundry so I was all set to stitch after tucking Alex in. He had a time out handed out by Matt just before bed so I hopped in bed to give him a little tlc and to say our prayers together. After our standard Now I Lay me Prayer I did my own little one to thank God for Alex and when I was done Alex bursted into tears and said he'd been to the principal's office that day and on Halloween. The poor little guy was soo ashamed. So I stayed in his room alot later than expected explaining that he needs to learn to control his mouth just like he needed to learn control for potty training, that tomorrow is a new day and that it was very good that he was honest about it and that we still loved him very much. I calmed him down and stayed in bed until he was sound asleep.

I didn't feel like stitching much after that so I emptied out the tote for retreat and started packing. I logged into the computer for a little bit and then headed to bed, reading half a chapter out of the Order of the Phoenix and then turning out the light. Alex seemed in much better spirits this morning and I kept reminding him that today was a new day and after a whole lotta hugs he was ready to go to school. I was going to meet up with a friend for lunch today but she had to cancel and where I don't have my book on me I don't feel like running on the elliptical so I think I'll go home and do some serious retreat packing. I can't believe its only two more sleeps away!!

A Shoppy Weekend

Wow, I never thought I'd see that title. Years ago when we were poor and living in an apartment I seemed to do a heck of alot more shopping ;) This Saturday was the annual 20% off sale at the mall so I dropped in for a peek after taking the bottles in, visiting with one of the nicest wedding cake vendors around, picking up my frame and stopping by market. By the end of my little excursion Alex had two new pairs of Jeans from the Children's Place, I'd bought a Christmas gift for friend Shannon (from my brief Acadia stay) and her bundle of joy they're expecting any day now, a cute little christmas themed Christmas object to go with my brother's gift and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles playset which walmart had for 39.99 instead of the 59.99-69.99 Sears wanted for it. Yippee!

Sunday I worked more on the Dry Turkey by Raise The Roof that I thought I'd finish (but more shopping ensued), tonight though... We took Alex to Chicken Little and then I picked up my pants that I was kicking myself for not buying when they were 20% off at laSenza and got to show Matt what I wanted for Christmas in there (and YAY, I'm down a size in there). I definitely needed new pj pants for retreat, my pink ones keep falling off or are hanging way too low for public viewing ;) Matt took us to A&W for supper, which I just don't crave anymore so it was no biggie.

When we got home we started tidying up, which lead to an incident with the vacuum. Matt usually cleans an area then vacuums it, well Saturday he tidied the living room so I assumed that would be his first area of attack when he started the machine up...fast forward to Sunday where the machine still hasn't been going and Alex needs a bath. I got Matt to vacuum the hair and fuzzies in the bathroom before splashing kid was inserted and for some reason instead of heading to the logical area, being the living room, he headed to the hall. Not too long later I could hear a very ticked off Matt from the basement. Apparently he'd stuck the head of the vacuum into our room before it was tidied and he'd managed to catch the end of a spool of perle cotton and overheated the motor! I felt only slightly to blame as he knows he should tidy up before actually running the vacuum into a room (especially with Alex now playing with action figures and their itty bitty parts) but I bit my tongue and kept on tidying up. ;) He eventually turned back to a nice shade of human.

Tonight I need to ornamentify (which I'd planned on doing this weekend before shopping ensued), finish Dry Turkey and get packing for retreat. I can't believe it's only 3 more sleeps away!!! :)

2005 Dragon Dreams Christmyth Happy Dance

Well, here's my Satyr finally although the scan sucks...I so need a digital camera!! This makes his poor eyes look huge! But I'm happy dancing none the less...not only for that but the 4% raise I received today to...just in time for retreat shopping!!

Back to School

Today I got to go to school twice, once as the bus must have broken down as it drove up the road, turned into the subdivision and disappeared for 25+ minutes, how much longer I don't know as I put Alex in the car and drove him to school as I was late for work. Then I got to return to the school at 9 to read to Alex's class :) I almost burst into tears as he lead me to the rocking chair, he looked too proud. We read The Spooky Old Tree (which is my old book) and What Makes a Rainbow, Alex's other favorite book. The girls in his class REALLY like the WMaR book as it has ribbons that pull through with each colour and eventually makes a rainbow.

Last night I did get some stitching in, although I went to bed fairly early (I can't seem to stay up to 10 with this time change). I finished the cross stitching on my DD Satyr, now to backstitch it when I get home. Cathey's convinced me to stitch Raise The Roof's Dry Turkey so I guess I'll be bad and not work on the wedding ALL weekend. I also need to do some ornamentifying before reatreat. This time next week I'll be counting down the minutes until we head for Moncton/Bouctouche!! Yippee!!

I've been sorted

be sorted @ nimbo.net

Finally, A Stitching Night!!

Well, finally after a little break I got some stitching in, though it was not nearly as productive as it could have been (ie: half the colours had decided to go into hiding) but I did get the 2005 Christmyth Satyr started while watching Smallville and Supernatural. Yay that means one less hour (Smallville was an original broadcast) of taped shows that I'm behind on :) I even managed to get a chapter of The Order of the Phoenix read last night yay!!

It was so nice going grocery shopping kid free last night, I was in and out of there in a flash and home and unloaded the car before Matt arrived home with Alex. I'm hoping to get to do that more often!! Mind you the one thing I didn't think about was swapping out the booster seat where I don't have to drop Alex off at Tracy's in the morning, I'll now have to make a detour on my morning trip to work to drop it off.

I was so ticked off shortly after supper when I listened to the messages on the phone, 1 friggin days notice for Home and School, I plan on speaking with the principle today or tomorrow about this. It's not as if they didn't know the last meeting time at the last meeting >:( Matt doesn't get home until the time the meeting starts normally on thursday and one day doesn't give nearly enough time to juggle his driving schedule, and I'm sure I'm not the only parent in this boat (or one similar). Pretty much all evening appointments for optometrists and dentists are also on Thursday so if people knew in advance not to book said date instead of being forced to choose between being involved in the school or facing another month or two long wait for an appointment, grrr...

This morning I got up a bit earlier than my alarm thanks to Matt turning on the light to find his keys so I made some pumpkin spice muffins for lunch. This particular recipe has alot of amazingly healthy items hidden in it (wheat germ, carrot) and today I tried sub-ing out the butter for applesauce and not a single difference in taste or texture (and they were already from the healthy cookbook, making them even better is a bonus). I just didn't feel like maple pork for lunch, which is odd because Alex ate most of mine. He even asked for my pork over his french fries, wow! I don't know if it's school or what but he now says 'trying new things is good', now that doesn't extend to the vegetable world but he's definitely now interested in lean cuts of meat, yay!!

Presenting My Trick or Treater! :)

Onto The Order Of the Phoenix!

Yay, I finally finished The Goblet of Fire last night!! Finding time to do my own reading has been so much harder since we had Alex that's for sure! I passed up my Tuesday night shows, headed straight for my jammies and tucked myself into my health sheets and started reading. Of course having my 40 minutes on the elliptical end with a character dying didn't spur this on or anything ;)

I was zonked when I got home, we got stuck in a huge traffic jam (which Matt had heard about but didn't bother to talk about as it didn't effect his schedule, I would have taken the Mazzerole Settlement detour) and came home to homework, blah! I really didn't feel like cooking but managed to pull together a very easy recipe for chicken parmesan off of the Kraft site while helping Alex with printing. This recipe essentially bakes the chicken in a can of primo tomato sauce with a couple tablespoons of parmesan stirred in, and later lightly topping the chicken with some mozzerella. Because there's a tonne of sauce I usually cook spaghetti noodles and serve the chicken and sauce on top and just serve it spaghetti style to Alex. Well...last night he took me up on the offer to try my chicken and lets just say I had about half my chicken breast! Tonight has maple port on the menu, I can't wait!

No stitching to report from last night, I was busy reading. I may try to stitch up Jennifer's latest Christmyth tonight to add to the collection. I'm actually semi looking forward to doing groceries after work too, A) to avoid the 5 pm traffic with construction and B) I've asked Matt where Wednesday is his work at home day to pick up Alex from daycare for a couple of weeks so I don't have to bring him grocery shopping, yay!

Happy Haunting

Wow....it's finally over! I'm one tired momma this morning that's for sure. We started off the night at about 5:30, Alex was a bit too excited and was running and not being very careful, which lead to me barking and I HATE doing that. After about 8 houses I heard a big crash, when the door was openning the kids shuffled and Alex fell between a small open section between someone's deck and house. He ended up with only a scratch and was ok, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as he slowed down and was alot more aware of his surroundings after that. Trick or treating went much smoother after that.

At about 7 we parted ways with Tracy and her girls and Laura and her daughter and headed for a quick detour to Faith Ann's. I parked down on the road so Alex could get some real use out of his flashlight instead of randomly pointing it at objects. We were about 10 steps away from the door when he said "Mommy, this is one of your cross stitching friends isn't it" (ie: mommy, I know you want to talk stitching but keep it short as it's my trick or treating night). We'd brought treats for her little guy as Matt was late getting home and missed them on their trick or treating run. Alex was over the moon about his Zwak punch, and asked for it for breakfast this morning (good thing I'd put it in the fridge last night). On our way back to the car Alex made a b-line for the playhouse which he thought was a halloween haunted house ;)

We finally got home and Matt had been creative with our jack's, putting the two smaller ones around the walkway. He'd arrived home late so he'd missed the kids, I never thought I'd see the day when I received less kids than my parents who were up 700% at 7 kids! We put our cauldron of candy out beside our witch and headed out to do part of our street. We even got to meet the new people on the block who are our age, yay! Alex got to pick one candy before bed, brushed his teeth and passed out and I wasn't too far behind him, briefly reading some Potter before drifting away to sleep (darn time change). Poor Matt wanted to watch a spooky movie but I was beat and tired...this weekend perhaps.