Bye Bye Betty

Well, it is done...Betty my beloved Buick was sold for parts and taken away. Sigh, I've never sold nor traded in before and she's been in the family for over a decade, poor old girl. But now at least I can park Vanessa in her spot ;)

In other news Alex had a glowing parent teacher review, which was a relief as the last one had me almost in tears! He still needs to work on blurting out answers (he's one smart cookie and just wants to help kids that don't know) but his Math skills are way beyond what's expected of his grade level and he's already reading at the level they need to be in June. All that one on one work over the holidays paid off and he's less frustrated with printing, which means he's much happier the rest of the time :)

As for stitching Proof! is on the shelf waiting for some Kreiniks, sigh...I was just to Moncton where I could have picked them up but thought I had them...but had the non vintage colours and I really don't think the red is the right hue without it being vintage. I also picked up the 'stitch'em collection' from Hobb Knobb designs from www.downsunshinelane.com for the craft room. I can't wait to see her.

We've had some lovely weather lately (somewhat explaining my lack of posting), I even got to wash Vanessa last evening and do our first bbq of the season :) I also did some spring cleaning around the yard and gathered up some of the dead stalks from last years plants and broken branches, I love being outside again!

I Saw The Sign

Yay, after fretting last night about how on earth I was going to get Betty (my beloved old buick which is sans reverse gear) out of my driveway as the recommended junk yard wouldn't take her...I saw a sign. The road out to my place is 4 lane and there I was waiting at the lights when a tow truck pulled up. Now normally having a big vehicle drivers tick me off until I saw a "We'll buy your clunker" written across the back, yay!! So they're coming over tomorrow to take her away. Now I don't need to park so far from the door ;)

In stitchy news I have a happy dance to report, Girlfriends Forever (click here for chart) is complete yay!!

Now onto Proof!, I'm kicking myself as I was JUST in Moncton at the LNS and didn't realize I was out of 2 Kreiniks, zut alors!

In monkey business, the monkey is sick, sigh... Thankfully not the stomach bug of doom again, just a nasty head cold that had him running a slight fever and had him going to bed early....without prodding. So here's fingers crossed that he feels better soon!

Stitchy Night

Yay, last night was a stitchy night. A long time before Friends That Count Angela, Eleni and I used to get together, then life got hectic, houses built, kids born and our monthly girlie night went on pause. Last night it was revived :) Alex was very excited to have some company at the house and had to show off his whoopie cushion ;) I got to see Eleni's Funshine bear and Angela's Love is Patient, I love seeing everyone else's projects :)

This week just gets crazier. The junk yard doesn't want to take my car so now I'm left scrambling to get it out of the driveway (I don't know why everything on it's new besides the transmission). The school asked for our preference on a parent teacher apt and then made one up out of thin air that goes head on with another commitment on the schedule >:( I sent a note today requesting an earlier apt. Speaking of school I found out why Alex is having such difficulties breaking from a girl that he's polar opposites with, a mother that believes that with work any two people can get along. The school hasn't let her know about any of the problems (or the fact that her daughter has been sent to the principal's office as well). So here's Matt and I pushing him to find new friends and another pushing them to be friends and work on it...no wonder the poor 5 year olds are confused!!

Today I'm hoping to finish Girlfriends Forever, there's only a couple little spots left to do (30 stitches maybe). yay!

Where'd The Weekend Go??

We had such a good weekend. Mom visited with us Friday and then on Saturday we went on a much deserved girlie trip to Moncton to look for wedding decorations. Lets just say we were shoppers on a mission! A mission so intense we didn't really stop to eat until supper at 5:30. I'm so glad we didn't have any plans with anyone else. We headed to Because You Count in the trip and that turned out to cost some $$. My goodness, one sweetheart tree ornament material wise was more than a Mirabilia pattern!! But I'd already bought half the supplies already and it will look mighty pretty on the tree so the paillettes and sterling silver charm (which cost less than the paillettes) made their way home, I just had to pass on a Diane Arthur's pattern for now.

Sunday we headed over to Gram's to attempt to find a cross stitch I'd done for Christmas in 2003, a little Precious Moments chimney sweep. I'd actually forgotten I'd stitched it and was feeling bad that I hadn't stitched her something nicer until I saw it on my cyberstitchers gallery. We couldn't find it though :( After a farewell lunch at McDonald's mom headed home and we headed back to the house. I did the zig zagging on the throw, fringed it and had a good talk with Cathey :) We also had some really good maple chicken for supper. I was pretty pooped from shopping so I vegged to Cold Case and stitching and taped DH.

And without further ado, my finishes and progress (well one piece will be on cyberstitchers until mid may after all the giftable occasions are done, so if your expecting a gift you'll have to work to ruin the surprise)

Happy Dance

Yay! The DMC hogging afghan is done!! Now I just need to go to the local sewing shop and pick up a thread appropriate to zig zag the edges in and fray it. Where it was an early morning finish while waiting for Alex's alarm to do go off I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it just yet.

I'm feeling a bit better today, it's mostly in my head (and not mentally ;)) now, not enough to justify another sick day for certain. It was tempting to crawl back under the covers. Today is a really low key day, no gym (maybe some pilates or yoga at home tonight) and Alex and I are probably going to head to the coop after work to pick up a new spring jacket for him as their Columbia's are in stock, yay!! (plus I forgot to pick up Cheerios when I was there Tuesday and 1.97 a box is too good a deal to pass up ;))

Sick Day

Well, I guess I did get the bug the boys had :( I think it was a bit aggrevated by all of the cleaning we did on the weekend too and all the dust. So I took a rare sick day as I was stuffy and the rest of me wasn't feeling that great either. Although this did mean some much needed sleep and a little stitching on the afghan ;) I'll be so glad to have that DMC hogging project done!

Last night we went and looked at flowers for the wedding, picked up some great deals at the coop and then mom and I headed to Frank's Fish And Chips, yum. The next three house were spent cleaning out two desks at Gram's, the house just doesn't look the same anymore :(

For supper tonight I was going to make a beef and broccoli dish but I was out the thai sauce I needed so I made Spinach and Cheese Ravioli and Maple Tomato Tortenade with some My Yammy Spice and some steamed broccoli, yum++ Tonight I'll be taking it easy and frogging some flowers on the afghan and maybe finishing it up :) Here's hoping!

Just Another Manic Monday

What a night! After having Alex's cookies sent home (stuffed under his homework and lunch, thankfully they're pretty robust moist cookies that don't crumble) with no reason why, nutritional redflag/ wrong day I don't know as there wasn't a note I was pretty steamed. I put them in the freezer after all that work and will call the school today. Alex did have a very successful homework night, he's really getting the hang of printing and actually looks for times to practice (this coming from the kid who not even 4 months ago broke into tears of frustration when asked to even hold a pencil). Homework that used to take 30-45 minutes is now done in 10 or less. yay! After that I went to make supper and while making the sauce for our salmon (4 ww points, somewhere between 170-180 calories) I found out that the superstore had the wrong cans above the sticker price and had tuna instead of shrimp, it's a good thing the sauce doesn't rely on the shrimp, it's just a bonus for us seafood lovers :) Matt came home sick and I think Alex had a touch of whatever he had as well, but when he went out to pick up some medicine he did come home with some movies. I really enjoyed Walk The Line and we have Lord of War for another night or two to fit in.

I did get some stitching in last night thankfully, I made some real progress on the afghan. I need to run to Singer on break to pick up the remaining threads. I can't wait to have that project done and out of the way.

In other news I had a call on my answering machine stating I'd won 2nd place in the 'Win Your Fantasy Cake' at Sarah's Sweet Delights, I have my choice of a champagne flute/serving set or a gift card. Where the ballot that probably won was from my purchase of my champagne flutes I'll be going for the gift card. There's so many other things there that I'd like ;) I had to listen to the message again as the first pass of hearing part of it over talking kid made me think it was one of those telemarketing wins because I never win anything! I also found a seamstress to alter my dress, yay!!

Salmon in Lemon Shrimp Sauce:
2 lbs salmon fillets
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tsp reduced calorie margarine
2 Tbsp flour
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup shrimp (I used canned or chop mine if it's just matt and I)

Bake salmon fillets at 350 for 20 minutes, at about 10 minutes in add the white wine to the pan (the recipe says to put it in in the beginning but I find it burns off too quickly). Melt butter in a small sauce pot, add flour. Gradually add chicken broth, lemon juice and remaining spices. When salmon is cooked add the pan juices and shrimp to the sauce. Goes great with a side of sautéed or steamed baby spinach.

Getting Back on the Fly Lady Track

Gee, another weekend another stitchy weekend lost :( Well it wasn't completely lost, I did start Proof! by Dragon Dreams while taking a two hour off of cleaning to watch some Stargate with Matt. The cleaning over at Gram's has caught on at home and we were so motivated that we started tearing up our bedroom and computer room late Saturday. Matt finally started going through all of the boxes that his parents sent up and turfed quite a bit of his old clothes :) I worked cleaning out my bedside table and the pile of stuff that kept growing beside my bed (seemed to be the place to move stuff when we had company). I went out and dug out the boxes at the bottom of the garbage (the new sanitation guys suck, everything has to be bagged or they leave it in the dumpster). By the time we were 'done' cleaning our dumpster was full++.

In exercise news I finally got back to classes on Friday, training threw off my normal gym schedule so I couldn't get there at lunch. My triceps were soo sore Saturday but I was back Sunday afternoon for more toning. Definitely couldn't slack off after having beer and Irish Cream cake in the house for the holiday!! After hearing what a big success the applesauce meatballs were at Faith Ann's we made those last night, and they were a success with my boys :) I also had to make cookies last night for Alex's cookie day fundraiser, I'm just hoping that his don't get flagged as unhealthy. I sub'd out the oil for applesauce and used 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips instead of a cup of regular sized, plus it had pumpkin. After learning how to cook healthy I know looks can be deceiving, so I'm hoping that the 'nutrition experts' at the school are actually knowledgable to accept that there's a big grey area of good nutrition. There's less fat in mine than the average 'healthy looking' oatmeal cookie, all the healthy goodness of pumpkin and we don't even need to go in comparing the miniscule amount of chocolate chips to the large amount of raisins in one of the 'healthy' recommendations. I get a good laugh when the wellness commitee sends out their 'Smoothie Day' promotions, Booster Juice may add vitamin supplements but when you look at the calorie counts, oye! If I were going to have a calorie splurge I'd rather take a supplement and a can of real pepsi (and still be 100-200 calories ahead). Now to step off the 'nutritional grey area' soap box. :)

Now don't think we forgot about Alex all weekend ;) We actually tackled his closet this weekend as well. Ideally we'd purchase one of the toy bin shelves for him but until the wedding's over the current system of containers will have to do. We did however go and sort all the toys, GI Joe's here, Star Wars there and Sunday when he did go to play the mess was minimal as he wasn't going through 10 containers to find the pieces for one theme of toy. Matt had him cleaning his room before for speed but really it wasn't that speedy if he had to clean up even more toys per session because he couldn't find anything, I brought that up and the two of them are going to make more of an effort.

And in closing, some new 'Alex-isms' & signs that he's really a big boy now:
On receiving 20 minutes on the timer to go play some nintendo ROMS on my old P120: "Thanks dad, you're cool"
On sneezing just before eating his meatball that had a bit of rice on it, which he doesn't like: "See dad, I'm allergic to rice"

Stitchy Night

Yay, last night was stitchy night. Faith Ann and I went early to get some good seats :) There were some very pretty projects completed, Angela made a shoe bag, Karoline had a tonne of finishes and we got to see the Fiddlestitch Cottage Christmas ornament, I love it! Speaking of Fiddlestitchcottage Tracy had her latest pattern in and I of course HAD to get one for the stitching room

I forgot to bring in my candlewrap as it actually got put away while I was looking for my ring.

In other news I had an interesting discovery yesterday. I went to clean up some bottles that had been disposed of in our woods and clean up the garbage that the unsanitary sanitary department left loose and in my ditch (I wish they'd pay more attention to how they dump garbage into the truck) and picked up a particularly dirty bottle which turned out to be a makeshift bong! Good friggin grief. I put it right back down and called the RCMP immediately as goodness only knows what happens when your prints are on that crap. Matt called neighborhood watch while I was out and then we're going to pay 'mother who needs to crack down on her 16 year old son' a visit to show her our discovery. We live in a nice neighborhood, tow the line and keep it that way!

Now it's time to walk up to Sobey's and get some groceries, yay!!

Lost and Found

Yay, I can blog again. I was soo preoccupied yesterday. To start off Matt worked from home Monday as his car pool buddy had the day off as he became an official Canadian citizen (congrats Sarma) and extending his time 'on call'. I went to bed at 10 and heard him trip on something on his way in later, waking me from a deep sleep...then the stupid pager went off (where's my pager pay??)...now for the last 28 years this would simply have been annoying but now that there's a big ring on my finger (especially one that's loose) as I have been known to get up and get a drink or go to the bathroom without any recollection. So just imagine the panic when I woke up to no ring on my finger or by my bedside table!! I tore my side of the room apart as best I could (it's a bit of a disaster at the moment...haven't had any flylady time lately) and couldn't find it by the time I had to go to work, sigh...After about 15 minutes of searching (and hoping to goodness I hadn't had it slip off in the bathroom in the middle of the night) I saw a little sparkle and it's back on the finger, phew...so if I didn't e-mail anyone yesterday that's why, very preoccupied!!

Yesterday at lunch though I met mom and went to the newly renovated Burrito Loco, yum++, it looks so neat in there. It's so hard to believe it was once a converted Hertz rental! Mom and Jazz came over for supper, some yummy curried chicken and linguini :)

Tonight is stitchy night :) I can't wait. I have two projects on the go, one afghan and the other is a kit that Cathey did up for my shower basket (Janlynn's Girlfriends Forever). Now to decide which to stitch :)

Back To The Grind

Poor Alex, march break is all over. I think he enjoyed it a little too much as he had to be put down for a nap by Sunday afternoon he was sooo crabby. Sunday was great, we went swimming with Matt's parents, then headed over to clean off a deep freeze of my brother's that I sold for him while he was away. After that both dad and Matt's father were sized for their tuxes, one less thing to do :)

I went home and found out where the annoying ants were getting into our bedroom and blocked that off, then I went and poured what ant killer we had left out on the nest (ants in March?? Definitely not the norm). After cleaning that up and going a bit DH Lynnette on poor Matt (episode with the rat anyone??) I chopped up some veggies for Looney Spoons Starvin Guy Chicken Pie, chopped up the chicken I'd put in the slow cooker that morning , set out the good silver and my new wine glasses and laid down. After a brief nap I put supper in and waited for mom and dad to arrive. We had a nice supper with some very delicious green apple wine from the Ryan's...now if only I'd had enough energy to make some chocolate waffle fingers for dessert...another time I guess.

After Alex was in bed and our company had gone home I pulled out the afghan and a little chardonney, and stitched. I decided my post Da Vinci code book would be Framed In Lace, started a chapter of that and headed to bed (I'm soo exciting)

Today is shaping up to be a pretty lax day, due to training I can't get to the gym at lunch so instead I'm going to Scoop and Save with mom to look at wedding stuff. Then tonight mom and Jazz are coming over for the Teriyaki Chicken Vegetable Toss on Spaghettini, yum.

I Got Punk'd

Well, I didn't think I'd ever be surprised before but Eleni pulled off a surprise shower today ;) Matt's dad called Friday before he got home and asked if I was ready for my big day...and then asked if Matt had mentioned taking me to Moncton. I thought that was odd but didn't mention anything to Matt as if he was planning a surprise I didn't want to let him know it was spoiled. He did bring something like that up after his father called again but said he wanted to go to Market , something nice for the family to do without spending alot of money so we went. Then we headed up to the mall and I wondered why my non shopping future hubby was willingly going through walmart to look at stuff to register for. We then went out for a drive to find a new 'affordable' development on the southside (239000-275000$ which may sound cheap in some areas of the country, not in Atlantic Canada) which was taking us near Oromocto...and if we were that close to oromocto I was hoping to get to Frenchies but my shopping luck was running out and Matt turned towards Lincoln. He suggested dropping by Eleni's which I was all for, but feeling guilty as the kids were probably napping and I know what my little guy can do to the house and it always seems to be before an impromptu guest shows up! Meanwhile the whole trip I kept noticing a purple camry around and was joking that his parent's were stalking us...which he found slightly amusing until the time I spotted a car at the convenience store near Eleni's....Anyway, we showed up and as I was walking up the stairs I could hear people and I'm thinking great...we've woke up the kids and she already had company...then I noticed it was MY friends and mom and Matt's mom were near the railing, I must have had the dumbest expression on my face. The shower was fun++ and I really appreciate all the thought Eleni put into hosting and my friends for coming :)

Tonight I'm wearing down from the excitement, and just finished the Da Vinci Code too boot. We had dinner with mom and dad and now I'm stuffed and ready for stitching and bed ;)

Eye Spy

A whole lotta dove's eyes...

Now it's in the wash and then it'll be ready to have the burgundy silk satin hearts stitched in, words two hearts one love stitched in as well and the charm attached, yay!

Nothing too much on the agenda tonight, maybe some reading (getting close to finishing The Da Vinci Code) and maybe working on Lisa's afghan. Newbody was awesome tonight and I really worked up a good sweat. I'd screwed around with my oven this morning trying to see if I could figure out the dials to autostart it and ended up disabling it so poor Matt couldn't put the maple pork (Marla's Maple Pork-Crazy Plates) before I got home so I had time to make My Yammy Spice except with half the spices so Alex would eat it tonight, what a yummy meal, the sweet potatoes were awesome with the maple sauce!!

Tomorrow I have my first conference call to attend, yay!!! Then it's groceries at lunch and a night off of the gym. What ever will I do?? ;)

Cutwork

Yay! I moved on to the cutwork phase of the candle wrap and reaquainted myself with the Dove's Eye last night

So, a dozen or so more dove's eyes and then I can wash it and stitch the satin hearts and wording on it, yippee (the hearts are a burgundy silk and I need to wash it before it goes on, just in case it would like to run).

Sigh, I didn't get to read a single page of the Da Vinci Code last night :( Making my dove's eyes look right and doing it with an eight perle was something else, in the past I've used 12 and find the 8 bulky. For supper we had the Chicken Burritos out of Life's on Fire and we loved them. Matt was also very receptive to the Loafstyles meatloaf, yay!!!

Tonight I'm hoping to finish the guest list and start on the invitations...after a Newbody class that is :)

Flying Under the Radar

Yay, we flew under the assessment services radar this year!! I was reading Eleni's blog about how her assessment went up but ours only went up 700$, much better than the 4000$ the first year we were in the house. And no, I don't live in a shack, nor in the sticks, just a very popular underrated bedroom community just outside city limits...and the edge of city limits that actually has places we go to frequently ;) Considering the amount of flyers I get from real estate agents trying to buy/sell in our neighborhood I'm by no means insulted by the assessed value ;) DS gets very upset when he sees these come in, he never wants to move and thinks these people are mean trying to sell our house, we've had to explain a number of times that someone had to sell the house for us to get it. Things work out in the end.

In stitching news I have the buttonhole stitch all done on the candle wrap and have half the algerian eyes done. I find hardanger so relaxing. I also started a wedding gift for Lisa, LK's Two Shall Be One on a Canterbury Cross Afghan. The Da Vinci code has been such an interesting piece of fiction it's been cutting into my stitching time!

Tonight we're making some Loafstyles of the Rich and Famous (turkey meatloaf) and some Miami Spice (baked sweet potato fries). Getting closer to the weight goal makes motivation to cook healthy so much easier :)

My Grammie Always Said...

Somedays you need eyes in your a** ;) Today after a one way webcam chat with my parents (we don't have on yet, it's still out of stock) we decided to video tape with my digital camera Alex and I making some cookies for them. Well...let me tell you, watching it was interesting. Especially the segment where I put the flour and sugar back under the cupboard. The camera was propped up so it caught Alex taking, not one, not two, nor three, nor four but five swipes of cookie dough while I wasn't looking!!

Today I also took at trip over to Gram's garage to take a pic of my brother's deep freeze which he's trying to sell. That was different, not being able to just walk in and chat :( I then headed to the bottle depot and then walmart to look at stuff to register for for the wedding. We started a registry at Sears but they haven't had as much stuff there that I want/need. With all that said, I still managed to find some time to stitch ;) I'm almost done the buttonhole stitch and should finish it up before bed.

In other news I weighed in after Body Pump Friday and was down 2 more lbs, bringing the grand post engagement total to 25 :) Now just 10 to go til goal no. 1!

Hasta La Vista February

My goodness what a month February was! With Gram passing away early in the month I was hoping that the end of the month would start to quiet down, hah! Then we lost (although definitely not as big a deal) our beloved ‘Betty’ a 94 Buick Regal, well she does go in forward, reverse is just shot but essential. As I was driving her back from the garage I saw the signs about ‘Shrove Tuesday’ and pretty much lost it. I didn’t realize it was so soon. This was something very special to me, Alex and I used to go with my Gram to her church supper. To top all of that off we found out Monday that there will be a full inquest done which reversed most of the ‘healing’ of the last 2 weeks. Then this morning we found out at work that one of the gentlemen in our group had a mild heart attack (being in IT this just isn’t something I’ve even considered dealing with, we all seem so young). Needless to say it was nice to see February go away!!!!!+++++

Last night we went over to Gram’s house to have spinach basil lasagna that Gram’s tenant makes, it’s sooo good. Alex got a full tour of the house, he saw the basement, the ‘bomb shelter’ and the number off nooks and crannies that would make awesome hiding places for present! Matt picked him up and I helped mom get together another bag of stuff to toss last night and headed home.

This morning I took my ‘new to me’ vehicle named ‘VANessa’, only appropriate for a minivan over to have a squeaky belt looked at and just have an overall assessment of the frame and mechanics done. I might hit the gym at lunch instead of going to Newbody just so I can get some stitching in tonight after I unload the van with the stuff I brought over from the house. Most of the items are a Christmas Village (or the original village that started it off in our family) which has a lot of fond memories, another is my Great Grandmother’s silverware which takes my breath away.
Now to get psyched to stitch ;)