Merry Christmas From The Elves

Merry Christmas from the cutest elves on the block!

The Stockings Were Hung...

Hooray, I'm done 'necessary' sewing for the year ;)

Walking in a Warp Speed Winter Wonderland

No matter how organized you are it seems the holidays puts things on warp speed regardless. Thankfully dinner has been premade and in the freezer, we're at cookie overflow and the only time the mixer comes out is when I'm stressed and in need of a diversion (cookies never 'fail', you don't have to frog them, they don't jam up and have bobbin issues on the last part of sewing, perfect)

Santa has thankfully been preserved for this year. Three days after the church incident there were presents under the tree that I'd wrapped for some other people and Alex thought Santa had been by while he's been asleep, phew! In just one week we'll be getting ready to head up to Mom and dad's where I can finally relax and just do some crafty stuff with Alex ;)

Stitching has taken a small hit in the last week, I'm plugging away at Knotted Pine's santa from this years JCS slowly but surely but we've had school concerts to go to, inlaw company on the weekend, stockings to sew, cookie exchanges to bake for, parcels and cards to mail and parties to look forward to. Thankfully it's stitchy night tonight :) I can park my worries and veg.

Alex's school concert was wonderful. He looked so GQ up there in his Old Navy plaid button down and CP cords :) Apparently this is probably the last year I'll get to buy him cool clothes for it as he wants to be in the boys choir and they wear plain white shirts, black bowties, an NB plaid scarf and black pants. I suppose I could buy him a funky argyle sweater for when he sings with his class though ;) The concert had the usual frustrations, I showed up 40 minutes before it started to get a decent seat, and they dwindled pretty darn quickly, the SAHM mother's came in early and 'reserved' seats for their lazy a** husbands who waltz out of work 5 minutes before the show to their perfect seats while people that actually make an effort are forced to stand. I mean they had 300 programs printed for the first show and they were gone 20 minutes before the concert. Then there's the morons who rush the center and stand there so no one behind them can see. I had to army crawl and sit on the floor so I could see and get a video of Alex's performance. Matt couldn't make it and when I was telling him about it his opinion was very true, to the point but I don't know how it would ever fly. They need to do something about the 'extra's'. I think banning them is a bit absurd, I mean Alex would love it if my parents could come once in awhile but you see people bringing an 8 person entourage of uncles, aunts, grandparents and it quickly becomes out of control and parents can't even see their own kids. The situation either needs to be addressed or they need to look at having an additional show besides the two that they already do. Oye.

Catch the Spirit

Yes...I'm alive ;)

This past week has been busy++. Alex was off of school for 3 days due to parent teacher meetings and professional development so I had a nice 5 day weekend with lots of mommy son time. We did some crafts (Alex's first use of a glue gun), played some games, baked alot of cookies and continued to decorate for the holidays. We ventured out to an old fashioned christmas tree decorating party at the local independant bookstore and froze our butts off waiting for the parade on Saturday. At the end of our little vacation Alex and I lugged all of the tree decorations upstairs and made up quite a few appetizers to have a family tree decorating party.

The rest of the week went by in a blur. There were stockings to prep for sewing (Alex is getting very anxious for his to be sewn), guests to prepare for and an awesome dinner party/stitch night to look forward to. I had a wonderful time at Faith Ann's, Cathey's account of the evening sums it all up in her blog ;)

Saturday we headed to Alex's Christmas bazarre at the school and were joined by mom and dad there later in the morning. What a great time! Apparently it's quite popular as even the Premier (equivalent to a governor for my friends south of the border) was there for awhile. Alex was really excited, it was the first year he won at the cake walk. Matt was even more excited where it was a black forest cake ;) Saturday afternoon mom and I headed to the coop to do a little shopping and then we had a nice family dinner with Swiss Chalet. We were all kind of zonked so the Jesse Stone tv movie hit the spot.

Sunday we headed off to church where it was the first Sunday in advent. Sunday school was interesting, about 5 minutes before the kids were scheduled to come back one girl came back in wailing, poor dear. When Alex returned he said he didn't really like Sunday school as one kid said 'Santa isn't real'. I reminded him that he was a good boy and asked him if there was ever a year that didn't have presents under the tree and he seemed satisfied with the notion that Santa only comes to good boys and girls and children that make others cry wouldn't be on the list. It's the best I could do in the middle of the service. I know that some day he'll figure it out on his own and probably carry it along with him like I did one day seeking out the confirmation that the physical entity doesn't exist but still have the spirit of giving. I know there are more and more 'realists' in the world that don't start the Santa tradition for a number of reasons (don't believe in lying to their children, or want them to be thankful to the right people). However, imo, kids have to grow up way too fast as it is and deserve that magic. It's nice when people say thank you and are grateful but it's not in the spirit of giving to be looking for it or looking to have it reciprocated. The best thing about Christmas morning for me now is watching Alex get super excited about a present, and the icing on the cake is hearing him call out his thanks to Santa, even though he is no where to be seen.

Mom and I checked out an open house in the afternoon and then did a little bit of shopping. Apparently alot of boys size 6x-7 are getting pj's for Christmas as they were pretty hard to find ;) I also picked up my two Christmas movies I budgetted in for this year, a 'Muppet Christmas Carol' to replace my very worn out VHS and Home Alone 2 where Alex loves the first one. After supper last nigth Alex and I watched that until bedtime and our sides hurt from laughing so much, surprising after his new obsession with Shrek the Halls ;) Needless to say I'm really enjoying being 'done' all of the preparation for Christmas and now just sitting back and enjoying the show (even it it means a little less stitching that usual)

My Daemon

Movin' Right Along

Well this weekend's trip to attend a bowmaking and a centerpiece seminar was pretty fun. Mind you I could invest a whole lot of money in centerpiece making supplies...I could definitely use more tables to display them on first ;) Faith Ann and I also browsed over the hundreds of lovely ornaments and decorations. I settled on a set of three baking themed gingerbread bells, a gingerbread cook for my kitchen, a beautiful glass bon bon and two sparkly ornaments. Another highlight of the weekend? The discovery that the uptown dollar store now takes debit ;)

Sunday was relatively quiet. I started on batch two of the Christmas cookies, brought the non tree decorations upstairs and decorated as well as adding the remaining lights to the trees outside. Even the village made an appearance. I can't wait to light everything up Dec 1st :) Mind you I STILL cannot find the lights I bought 2 years ago to go around our front door. My husband thought we needed some colour so I got a garland set to intertwine with some greenery at an after christmas sale. I haven't seen them in two years of searching! Oye.

Apparently I was a bit pooped from the whole weekend and after about a half hour of listening to nostalgic Christmas tunes and sleepily looking at the decorations Monday night I retired at 8pm.

Tuesday, Faith Ann and I braved the crowds at the annual Coop sale, mind you everywhere you turned there was someone you knew. We even came across Eleni and her DH while we cut through the parking lot. Flats of coke for 3.99, Butter 1.20 off, family blocks of cheese 3.**, how could I pass up that? I normally do my groceries either in advance of that week or elsewhere but I usually pick the best sale items and stock up++. Mind you it wasn't truly that bad, sure it was hard to navigate a cart at times but the main line was moving quite quickly I thought. We were express though. I try to get there before they let the reciprocal shoppers in myself ;)
Again no stitching that night either. I've been attempting to be disciplined and actually sew up my stockings before starting something new. I'm really hoping that I can get it done this weekend when I have a 5 day holiday (Alex is off of school). Speaking of stitching, this was the first official year I put stitching stuff on my christmas list, yippee ;)

Girlie Time

This week has been awesome for getting in some time with friends. Sometimes its just what a girl needs. It's been nice to have someone to walk with at lunch since Eleni moved down the hill. Thursday we checked out the local Christmas craft fair and here's what I got (the first two are for my favorite little boy scout Alex :))

Tomorrow Faith Ann and I and maybe my ta ta tassle twin are heading over to Green Village for a bow making seminar, maybe a centerpiece one, some ice cream and some tax free shopping in their gorgeous ornament section ;). The seminar could suck but it's free and getting together with friends is just good for the soul :)

My pictures of the craft room didn't turn out (some weird ghosting issue) and I need to do a couple touch ups but the initial reno pics are coming soon ;) And just in case you might think I haven't had time to stitch this week here's my latest finish :P

It'll probably be my last finish for another week or two. I'm attempting to be a good girl and finish sewing the stockings, and y'all know how much I love to sew :P

Primed!

Well, almost done. Today was the first day I ever picked up a roller and I must say I'm pretty happy with my craft room so far. For anyone that has seen or heard me b*tch about my craft room they'd know that the 'wonderful' people that lived here before were hockey fans (a sport I abhore...hey, if you're a basketball player you'd understand why). They 'tastfully', right, took red and blue paint and had cheap looking hand painted Go Habs Go! He Shoots He Scores, I love Hockey *vomit* in red and blue all over the room. Do you know how hard it is to prime over 'custom' jobs, oye! Anyway, the offensive words are getting closer to white but I've had to resand a couple of places that the custom jobs paint was a bit thicker and after a couple coats of primer I could see it raised. Depending on how I feel tomorrow I may just head to Home Depot and pick up the paint I picked out Shortgrass Prairie by Behr.

While I wait for the primary coat of primer to dry and the spots I ended up sanding and in one case patching to dry again I'll be taking advantage of the gorgeous weather and putting out our Christmas lights. As for stitching it's been kind of on the backburner while I prepare the glorious room dedicated to crafting ;) It had to be done some time and the three day weekend seemed like an excellent opportunity :)

A Weekend of Happy Dancing

Well, I did spend a good chunk of Saturday shopping ;) However we were without power for a good 7+ hours today thanks to catching the tail end of Hurricane Noel so there was plenty of stitching on top of checking out the 'Bee Movie' to go somewhere with food and heat.

So here's what's been accomplished bringing this year's total to 29:

The Decorator ~ Full Circle Designs JCS Ornament Issue 07

Three Kings ~ Imaginating

Where Does The Time Go?

It feels like eons since I blogged. It really sucks that I no longer have access at break time or lunch to do it but oh well. Life has been hectic. Alex is a Halloween freak! So much that he got in a spot of trouble with his teacher this week that was rather stressful. It's hard to assure someone else that he hasn't joined some satanic cult or something and will be back to himself by monday once the holiday is out of his system. I had some nice phone messages and e-mails expecting me to drop my job and head straight to the school. I've always stood behind the school and whatever means they see fit to discipline the children there, although I do wish they'd get the big picture and take care of ALL parties involved. Anyway, I have medical tests coming up, medical and dental appointments so really my luxury to leave the office just isn't there. I've delegated the task to Matt.

Halloween was fun, although exhausting. I think we trick or treated on and off for just under 3 hours. The first 2'ish were with Alex's friends so there was the mob mentality going on. Otherwise we'd have been home after the first time his costume caused a wedgie ;) Then we had to save face with our neighbors and visit them, I think they buy candy just for him as he always gets an "I was wondering when you'd get here" when he shows up at the door. Although this had me lugging stuff in the cold for all of this time and I passed out pretty much when Alex did. The next day I was exhausted and promptly went to bed at nine only to wake up at 5:30 with some extreme vertigo which I had never experienced before. Needless to say in was quite unnerving and an unneeded addition to my other symptoms that require the tests at the hospital and such. Sigh

However, I did get some stitching in somewhere over the last couple of days. I finished The Decorator today at lunch from this years JCS and will take a picture as soon as I get it ironed. That should give me enough time this weekend to finish off three kings as well. :)

So speaking of pictures, here's some of my little trick or treater (on various nights)

Caveman for the beaver party

A warlock for our sole trick or treaters

Our haunted crayon

Photo Status

Things have been a little hectic with Halloween quickly approaching. Here's some pictures to tide you over until I can write something decent ;)

Progress on Three Kings
Wedding Row back from the framers
and a finish... Robert's Stocking

The Golden Compass

I can hardly wait!!

Picture Day

Hmmm...here's Alex's school pic proofs. I kind of like the smirk myself

What Jane Austen Heroine are you?

:: L I Z Z Y ::

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of silliness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

Take the Quiz here!

Katie - Google Grease Monkey

Hooray! I have gotten rid of my brake light coming on and didn't blow up my van ;) When I moved back to the city I spent 3 years up here with Matt only getting up on weekends (I wasn't' cut out for small town life), and with an older model car it meant learning a bit more about cars in general than your average Joe. Dad found me a very good mechanic in town but I still wanted to be a bit more 'up' on any issues I was experiencing, just in case. Well, at least now I can diagnose most of my problems, although I still look for confirmation from dad or Matt once in awhile and when there is a problem I can get it in faster when I tell them what needs to be done, instead of 'my car is dead help'. Sure I don't have the tools, nor want them, to be completely self sufficient but I can check every fluid in the vehicle and top it off enough to avoid towing it :) Needless to say I'm pretty proud of my ability to patch up my vehicle.

Last night was stitchy night and boy did it feel good. I got to see Faith Ann's Christmas Village and her gorgeous Dragon Dreams Christmas bears. I stitched away at my Three Kings and it felt so good putting some of the upcoming medical tests on the back burner. It was fun just to get some me time and not come home to be immersed right back into Brie Van De Kamp territory. As usual the room was filled with pre-retreat excitement and for once I was indifferent. I love retreat mind you but it just doesn't look in the cards and that's ok by me. I don't have my exchange ornament done, and I've got a craft room calling for a paint job :) Who knows what way the wind will blow in a couple of weeks but as for that weekend, I'm open to whatever direction it takes me :)

A Night With Robert Munsch

Thursday we had a wonderful night. It was a bit busy. I picked up the groceries, then the boy and rushed home to drop off the refrigerated goods. I cleaned Alex up and then we headed to our favorite Fish and Chips spot Williams. Alex is becoming a real seafood junky. He finished his clams and chips in record time and then made a dent in my fish...sigh... After that we headed over to the Playhouse for our Robert Munsch story telling concert. We ran into Faith Ann's family in the lobby where there were a number of books for sale and then we headed in to take our seats with Eleni and her daughter. She scored some awesome seats for us. Mr Munsch is absolutely electric. I've never seen so many children admitting to wetting their pants just to get up on stage with him (I've Gotta Go!). As you've probably guessed from the video Alex got to share some stage time with Canada's best selling author for the story 'No Clean Clothes'. After the show we waited for an hour to get two of Alex's books autographed and it was well worth the wait.

Friday was very quiet, the biggest excitement was Matt and I renting Knocked Up which had us both in stitches. Not for the faint of heart but I loved it ;)

Saturday was the annual Beaver Apple Day and Matt and Alex were stationed at Kent's here in the city. I dropped by at about 11 and they were just about sold out of apples. Apparently Alex is quite the sales man. Other than that we've been staying inside waiting out the rainy weekend.

Here There and Everywhere...Again

Long time no blog. Things are starting to settle down so I guess I'll have a little more time to blog and catch up. :)

300$ after the van fiasco (hooray for towing and also blowing the tensor) we had just enough time to get back on the road and head to the beaver nature walk in Mactaquac. 3 hours with 20 5-7 year olds really was alot. Afterwards we had a really nice visit with Cathey and her DH. Alex was in 7th heaven playing with the dogs. After that it was prep prep prep for Thanksgiving. We were expecting 6 people on top of our three and that week the cushion floors decided to suck in as much dirt as possible which due to their age can't just be mopped, it requires scrubbing.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with mom, dad and Steven up. As if the weekend wasn't busy enough, Alex managed to get a birthday invitation thrown in there too. Mind you that trip to Toys R Us worked out very well. Some of the stocking stuffer toys (Littlest Pet Shop) where on a big sale. All that the boy needs for his sock is a package of underwear (Santa's practical in our house) and a couple sweets. Woo hoo! On Sunday we were briefly joined by Matt's parents and his grandmother and after supper all we did was veg (oh and stitch).

As for the blogless week my stitching report goes as follows, Bent Creek's Wedding Row finally framed, Imaginating's Three Kings restarted after this summer's dyelot fiasco and Robert's Stocking is just waiting for some additional 823 to arrive, sure I could pick it up locally but I honestly don't know when I'll be working on another project that requires perle 5 so I don't need two skeins hanging around. I do plan on stitching up more of the stockings in the new year but that's a while off just yet. For that stocking all I have left is 1.5 reindeer (plus a little butt lift on two of them) and the blackwork band. Needless to say a work night or two and it'll be finished.

This week is also a bit crazy, but not as bad as last week. At least we have a clean house and a fridge full of leftovers! Tomorrow we have tickets to see Robert Munsch so I think I'll take Alex out to our favorite fish and chip spot as a kind of date night, Friday = swimming, Saturday the boys will be at the local Kent's store selling apples for Beaver day + a bottle drive in our community all for beaver's (so if you have any home building needs Alex will gladly sell you an apple to tide you through going through the store). Sunday, yet another birthday party. My goodness...I'm hoping next week is a bit more sane ;)

Boom!

Hooray for Chrysler! For fun google dodge caravan belt...and get a picture of my evening. Yesterday was my first productive day back at work, I was just feeling better and dreading a suddenly overbooked weekend. Task number one, take the boy to swimming on a Friday night I was supposed to have off. So, I packed him up, packed up my stitching and off we went. I got a fair bit of stitching in on SB's Robert's Stocking :) Alex is out in record time, showers in record time and even dries himself properly so I wasn't attempting to unroll pants that stuck to his clammy little butt cheeks. Hop in the van, drive home, get about 2 km away from the house and BOOM! I thought it was me hitting a branch or something as it was quite windy. I pulled over to assess the damage and nothing. I get back in and my power steering is completely shot. I somehow managed to negotiate the left onto my street but left the van on the side of the road. Matt assessed what he could, nada. Called dad and he didn't have a clue. Walked out myself as soon as there was some sunlight and noticed I was missing a belt! Go chick mechanic. Arranged to have it fixed, towed before the boys awoke ;) Apparently the belt tensor went into complete failure and blew apart, like every other person you'll encounter in google. So my trip to Value Village and the dump has been postponed until another weekend. Of course the crap I was looking to get rid of has been waiting this long already. I'll be lucky if I can take Alex to his Beaver outing to Mactaquac, but they assured me I should be back on the road by 11:30 giving me enough time to get to Mctaquac by 1 and maybe a quick trip to Cathey's while I'm in the area ;)

C'est la vie

Birthday's are Killer

Birthday’s are killer! ;) Apparently my body didn’t get the memo that the birthday girl is NOT supposed to come down with the flu the day after the festivities. My birthday itself was great. The boys prepared breakfast for me and presented me with my gifts, Warcraft playing cards, a replacement G ‘n R CD and the Mummy DVD collection, then there was one last gift from Matt, some very sparkly ½ carat earrings. I’ve wanted a nice pair of earrings for soo long, bling is good ;) We had breakfast and headed to market for a cupcake which was fun as usual. Later in the afternoon mom, dad and Jazz arrived for the remainder of the festivities. Alex had fun stuffing leaves in dad’s crocs and pockets while we played outside. We then headed to Boston Pizza for supper, yum! We took a bit of a breather before partaking in the yummy pound cake mom had made. I opened my final gift from mom and dad and was very excited to find a three whicker drawer stand PERFECT for my craft room! Now I have a space to put my in progress projects and not re-sort them to all of the other places in my craft room :) After all that excitement Matt and I unwound at the theatre (our first date in ages). What a birthday :)

Sunday we had a fondue with mom and dad. Alex was on cloud nine! Sadly after lunch they had to return home so I climbed back into bed only to wake up with a killer sore throat. Sigh.

Monday and Tuesday kind of went by in a blur, I was just feeling so yucky and not looking too hot from coughing so much. I had to return to work Wednesday as there’s a thing about how many consecutive days you can be off without a note and I couldn’t get in to my doctor and I think I’d rather be miserable at work than at outpatients. Today I’m taking another day to recoup. I actually got some sleep last night (oh yes, combine having difficulty sleeping with a hubby who happens to be on call this week…arghhh).

Now this week hasn’t been all bad. I did finally pick up my JCS ornament issue, now to figure out which one to do first ;) Also, I finished my sophomore Halloween/Fall SAL that Cathey, Faith Ann, Shannon and I have seemed to gravitate towards. So here it is LK’s Velcome :)

Happy Birthday to Me

Omigosh, where did the last 30 years go? More info later, I have a date ;)

Against The Current

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you're just swimming against the current. Such is mine. We're adjusting to Matt not carpooling. Yesterday it involved him getting up after we're in the swing of getting ready, taking a 15 minute shower while we're waiting to get in and me entering the bathroom to find my flat iron that I'd been waiting to use unplugged, 3 minutes before I had to walk out the door. There was a Scrubs/Alley McBeal kind of moment where I got great satisfaction having my imaginative alter ego beat him with the flat iron but lucky for him, I'm just not that way ;) This morning I got out to do the supper prep and the dishwasher has yet to be unloaded and two piles of dishes were waiting in the sink. My alter ego took a walk down the hall and dumped a couple of dirty pots on him but I was reduced to searching in three spots for every measuring spoon or cup. Needless to say there is a lecture coming.

Last night was Beaver registration and I figured I'd check my facebook account before I went out only to find my 8 year old cordless keyboard dead, no amount of new batteries would revive it. Thankfully after shelling out money hours earlier for basketball and again for beaver's I had some Futureshop giftcards tucked away and went back to a corded keyboard. I really wasn't in the mood to spend 70+ on a keyboard mouse combo (I'm fussy and only buy Logitech) so the 19.99 cord came home with me. I settled in to watch House and goofed on stitching a section over again but meh, I have the one night a month were the stars and moon align for me to get out of the house sans les garcons! I imagine they'll be scrambling to find me a birthday present in my absence ;)

Friday I'm apparently taking the morning off and going on a field trip with Alex's class. Not really how I'd normally spend a vacation period but I'm running out of years he's going to want me tagging along. Then it's off to a fun filled lunch with the girls to celebrate the last day in my twenties.

In other news our annual Thanksgiving dinner has been moved, hooray! We'd been having it on Mondays based on when my brother would be coming back to university here but really...I'd like to have Monday's to relax and eat leftovers. Now that he's at a different school he's actually heading there on Monday so Sunday works out (plus I like having it on the Christian Thanksgiving). I'm hoping it's a sign for change to come. I really want to drop travelling at Easter but that hinges on me convincing people to come to our house for Christmas which is about the only holiday I don't want to be complete isolists on. All of the travel really wears me out, I wouldn't mind rearranging my time off to take more in the summer instead. I'd like to have one easter where Alex still believes in the EB at our house to do an easter egg hunt there. When you're not in your own home you can't get uber creative on your hiding places. It wouldn't be proper at someone else's home to hide them in anything you'd have to open. However dropping a trip to one home means nailing down christmas plans 8-9 months in advance to be 'fair'. Here's hoping 30 is a sign of things to change :)

Hips Don't Lie

No, that they don't. My right hip has away of reminding me that I'm not as young as I used to be, nor will I get any younger. Sigh! Thankfully it's not all of the time, I can't wait to hear what my doctor has to say about it. :)

As for the rest of me I've faired better. Dealing with a a hyperactive biological clock that lives with a hypoactive one has been frustrating to say the least. We are also dealing with MAJOR teacher problems this year. Why couldn't we bring Alex's teacher from last year?? To summarize, when after 4 days your son's teacher is keeping a log on all of his behavior, callously throws out the term ADHD and then laughs it off because whenever he's sent to sit quietly he does just that, tells you that instead of talking to you or meeting with you that you have to wait and have a large meeting with the principal and vice principal and completely discredits the guidance support that the principal issued before the program even starts. Well, 10 years ago I probably would have had a gun blazing showdown day one, now? Well, I'll use the time to dig up teaching ethics violations, let her continue to go on down that path and she can have her large scale meeting, she'll be given enough rope to hang herself as the saying goes.

Needless to say it has impacted the stitching a bit. I have a little Frogging to do on Velcome and I need to replace some of my perles for the stocking I'm working on. With my FREX winnings I splurged and bought the accessory pack for Victoria Sampler's Poinsetta Tuffet ornament out of the preview issue. I was tickled pink when it arrived last night in the mail. I've been itching to do some hardanger again and it's perfect for that little fix. As for the gym, I'm slowly but surely building my classes back up so I can hopefully get back down to my wedding weight again.

Mi Vida Loca

Oye, I think I kind of got used to not having to run around too much this summer. I just looked at this falls schedule and oye...

Monday:
Me-Gym (afterwork)

Tuesday:
Me-Gym (afterwork)

Wednesday:
Me-Gym (afterwork)
Matt and Alex-Basketball

Thursday:
Me-Groceries (afterwork)
Alex and I-Beavers

Friday:
Me-Gym(afterwork)
Matt/I and Alex-Swimming

Saturday:
Free

Sunday:
Family-Church
Me-Gym
Me-alternative grocery day

It's a good thing I bought a 'Mom's Taxi' Tshirt!

This That and The Other

Since the last time I'd blogged we've been busy in a laid back kind of fashion :) Friday I had a flex day in the bank and decided to use it. It was fun sitting back and working on LK's Velcome while Alex played. After lunch we headed to the mall to pick up a birthday gift and totally lucked out. We found a Bratz mermaid and playset that was normally 29 on for 14, woo hoo! I puttered away a bit more and did some additional reorganizing of the craft supplies that seemed to creep into places they shouldn't have been ;) I rented Wild Hogs for us to watch that evening and Matt and I loved it. Sadly enough we could relate to the 'growing old' theme but I think we laughed away a couple of wrinkles!!

Saturday I needed to take Alex for a haircut. I'm really beginning to think I speak greek, or that all hairdressers think that little boys should be shorn. I like his hair longish but tidy ie:not around his ears. I stepped out for 3 minutes to get a birthday card and we were back to shorter hair. Mind you it was longer than a couple of the other times but still shorter than I'd like. We had a quick trip home to get dressed for the party and some sunscreen and it was off to the waterslides. What should have been a maybe 20 minute ride turned out to be over an hour. I was picking up the voucher's for the boys ride bracelets for the exhibition on the way back but when I got to the store (different one than I usually use to pick them up) they were only accepting cash. This meant a walk around the block to the bank and back, lovely! So an hour later I strolled into the house. We both went to pick up Alex as there just happened to be a driving range where the party was. The boys tee'd off for awhile while I stitched, pure bliss.
Sunday we went to the FREX. Alex made it on every single ride there :) As for my entries they did the following:
Mirabilia Cherub - 3rd framed cross stitch
Christian's Stocking (for Matt) - 2nd large christmas decoration
Jeanette Douglas 06 needleroll - 3rd small christmas decoration
LK's Santa, We've Got Cookies - 1st small wallhanging (it got reclassified from medium christmas decoration somehow, but I'm not complaining)

The judging was sketchy at best. The Grand Champion was nicely stitched but the framing sucked. Angel of Autumn is not meant to be in a gold oval with a gold frame, the piece was completely lost. Also there was an entry that I'm 99% certain was entered a previous year and an aida piece being ranked over perfectly stitched evenweave. There's also one lady who repeatedly puts in a collection of ornaments in the small christmas decoration category, it's not a collection category! I've spoken to women who judge at other events and they pretty much have the same guidelines, and the placements just didn't fit. I don't mind not placing first, that's not the issue, Cathey and I are pretty anal stitchers so it's a little shocking when we don't do the one two punch ;)

Monday we completely vegged. Being on my feet for 4-5 hours really wore me out!

Tuesday was back to school for Alex. He was pretty happy with his new class as of last night. We were happy that we'll know his homework for the week in advance again and that we've been given a list of his 'special day' schedule. It's nice to know which days he has gym to dress him in track pants and which days he has art so as to not send him in his reallly nice shirts. Apparently the district decided to change the bus numbers and not notify the parents so Alex got on his regular bus with his buddy, only to be heading to the country! Thankfully they straightened things out. Alex's status on the busses is in question though and that doesn't make me a happy camper. His zoned school was full last year on french immersion so he's in the school that happens to bus to his daycare, they had better not screw that arrangement up as it's due to their overcrowding that he's there. I'm not asking for them to take him to our house out of zone, morons.

Twenty Five

Mirabilia's 2006 Cherub

Well, here's this year's Frex entry. A little smaller than usual but I just have't been in to big projects this year at all. The beads were a pita to put on but I'm happy with the end result. Not a grand champion showing but she should take home something little.

A Cherub Completed

Well the weekend went by in the blink of an eye. Friday I was royally not feeling good (fatigue) so I opted out of going to body pump and headed home. I put the taco shells in for supper and the power went out, sigh... We called the church which is on the other side of the main road and they still had power so we made Alex a sandwich, dropped him off and had an impromptu dinner date. We tried to get into the new Frank's location but it was uber busy and there wasn't even a place to park so we decided to try a different chinese place. It was ok, it was no Seasons or anywhere near the ones at home (it's hard to beat Miramichi chinese food for some reason) but it was nice to get out for a date. Service was painfully slow and we just made it to the closing of Vacation Bible School. Alex was pretty sad to see it come to an end.

Saturday Matt had a golf tournament so it was just Alex and I. We did a tonne of chores, dropped the bottles off, groceries, returned some items, picked up his new Franny K. Stein book that was just released and picked up our tickets to Mr Bean's Holiday. We returned to the mall after we dropped of the groceries and had some lunch to watch the movie. Alex LOVED it! The people behind us got more entertainment out of watching Alex than the movie, he was just roaring. It's quite funny as the boy has only ever seen the 'Unseen Bean' tape and that's hardly Prime Bean, ditto with the movies. I can't wait to show him the original show one of these days. I didn't mind the movie, it was light hearted and funny, Alex's reaction made it worth paying theatre prices over a rental though.

Sunday I put two and two together as to why I'd been so agitated all weekend when I was felled by a migraine. It wasn't until I read up on them a bit more that I put my agitated days together with the pre migraine phase. I really need to start listening to my body better. A nap in the afternoon helped and let me work on my Cherub for the exhibition but by bed time my head was back to throbbing. Monday was not much better. I still got to work on my Cherub but by the end of the night I was ready to Botox one side of my head.

Today I'm pretty wiped out. I get alot of sleep when I have migraine episodes but it's not a refreshing sleep. I spent the lunch hour in and finished my Mirabilia cherub, now just to frame it tomorrow at lunch where tonight is written off. Goodness only knows but at least the Mirabilia Cherub is now complete ;)

30 Days Until the Big 3-0

ACKKKKKKKKK!!!!

Kitchen Crazy

Well, yesterday was one of the least productive stitchy days I've had this month! It was nice at lunch so I went for a power walk, I felt sluggish after not getting to the gym last week so I headed there immediately after work, I had to shower/eat and get Alex to Vacation Bible School in the span of 30 minutes and then it was off for groceries as after almost two weeks away Matt had pretty much cleaned them out! I was soooo excited when I found this at the coop for 29.99! I've been needing a new frying pan for awhile and this one is simply spectacular!! Although, lol, what I was planning to make for supper tonight did not require a frying pan. DH's reaction? 'It's too big and won't fit in the dishwasher, it's so big it'll cost more to heat' Meh, I already have 2 12 inch pans so there! Afterwards I cooked up some Tickle Me Elbows for tonight's supper where it'll be another hectic afterwork time, Alex to VBS, me possibly to the gym, somewhere in there probably helping my brother move/clean, yep, welcome back to reality!

Whistle While You Work

So I've rejoined the land of the working, sigh... I'd planned on coming back Monday but was completely wiped out, jaw was fine, other parts of me were not happy with the drugs dumped in my system though.

We had a wonderful weekend at mom and dad's. Friday we took it easy and simply went to market for lunch where Alex got his Kurt's sausage fix (and snuck a little of dad's schnitzel). Saturday dad picked up a case of lobsters. My son who's normally not afraid of anything was not touching them for more than 2 seconds with the tip of his finger. They were soooo yummy! Of course he had a bad sinus headache all day so that might have contributed it. At noon he was at his completely wound up stage and not accepting that if he just rested he'd feel better. Thankfully he did pass out from exhaustion eventually and was up an hour later a bright as a button all over again.

Sunday I packed the van in the morning, worked a little bit more on the Mirabilia 2006 Cherub and then we all headed to lunch at Pizza Delight. The local restaurant had been renovated and Alex LOVED the grill your own garlic bread gimmick, although by the end of the meal we were all ready to grill our waitress. The donairs were awesome as usual though ;)

The drive home was stressful yet again. We got stuck behind some morons that insisted on travelling slowly together but tailgating so you weren't quite sure if car 2 was going to pull out and pass, meanwhile I'm stuck behind them in a vehicle that should only be permitted to pass one vehicle at at time when not on a 4 lane with some jerk driving an 18 wheeler and right on my tail for 45 minutes. When did dumb and dumber leave the highway, right before the actual dedicated passing lane. I could have screamed! I was not feeling too hot already and the tense drive had me completely wiped.

Yesterday I recoup'd at home. I stitched a little bit more on my cherub and hung out with Alex, doing a little unpacking here and there but nothing that required alot of effort. At 6 Alex was ready for openning night of vacation bible school. He was a bit intrepid at first but when he saw the setup (kind of Indiana Jones themed) and the minister's daughter had asked him to sit with him (they're beaver buddies) he was off to the races. He was soo animated when I picked him up which was very nice to see, and bonus, it was at the church just around the corner from the house. He's there all week so Matt and I will actually have a whole 10 hours of the house to ourselves. Oh my!! ;)

Back from the Oral Surgeon

So, I'm back from the Oral Surgeon none too worse for the wear. I had my lower wisdom teeth out 5 years ago and finally decided to go back and get the upper ones out. They radiate with pain whenever I have a migraine and I'm sick and tired of second guessing if it's a sign they're rotten and they had descended so much that part of the root was exposed on one with was fun at times. Of course I read up on the possible complications and was pretty blah about the fact that they were much more difficult to extract after 25 when the bone thickens, I'm just shy of 30 and I was feeling old. Then there was the whole possibility of a perferated sinus, like I need any other problems with that.

So we arrived on time. I won't go see the idiot who holds a license in our city, I know over a dozen people that have been to him and he's rough and has the manner of a frozen tv dinner filled with grissle (I had the pleasure of listening to him after Matt's surgery a couple months ago and he can take that as sealing his fate). Plus he's known to push laughing gas instead of going under, and he only handles general anesthetic, my surgeon 2.75 hours away does conscious sedation a nice memory free happy ground. We arrived there on time and it took forever to do the paper work, sigh...I'm an anxious person when I'm NOT having surgery my BP was through the roof if I had to guess. Then it was back logged so I got in an hour and a half later, sigh... NOT fun considering I'd been fasting for over 12 hours because getting up at 5 wouldn't have been fun, 6:30 would have been doable had I'd have known. So I got plenty of stitching done in the waiting area but only brought in one colour as I wasn't expecting to be there THAT long. The nurse was nice, I explained my concerns as I did have two memories from the last surgery, flashes really but still I wanted to be good and out. So she topped off my IV with some Valium and I had no recollection of anything, although I must be hard to put out. It usually takes 30 seconds and I had counted past that++ waiting. I woke up very alert considering the times I had my flashes I was on less and was dopey well into the evening. The teeth were a very easy extraction and didn't even need stitches, woo hoo ( again memories of hauling out the stitch that wouldn't dessolve, yuck). We headed to Tim's and I had the challenge of trying to drink an iced cappuccino with no straw with a frozen upper lip fun!

So now it's past midnight, my only nap was one to take advantage of the day off of work ;) I do feel weaker than normal and am going to take it easy until at least Sunday, maybe Monday (the last time my teeth were fine by Monday but my tummy was not on the high doeses of ibuprofen and I do NOT respond to Tylenol). So far no swelling so that's great, not that I had much last time considering they were completely sideways. Apparently after 5 years they now hand out drugs for swelling, great! It's also helped my asthma cough I've been dealing with, bonus! *note to self bring up the fact my inhaler prescription is out next time I see the doctor*. So far so good, thanks for all of the well wishes guys :)

Twenty, Twenty One, Twenty Two, Twenty Three and Twenty Four

Ok...so I've been a little busy... I apologize for any crooked pics but it's late

Happy Hoppers ~ Lizzie KateBeware of Cat! ~ Lizzie Kate
Family Medley ~ Heart In Hand

Joyful Christmas ~ Shepherd's Bush

Tina's Stocking ~ Shepherd's Bush

For Lack Of A Better Title: Tuesday

Day two at the office, blah...

Ok, maybe it shouldn't be too blah considering it's only a 3 day work week for me (there's gotta be at least one benefit from having two wisdom teeth removed) but still. Work that was supposed to be done by others so I could continue did not appear on my desk while I was away so it makes the days a bit long and said people are on vacation this week.

As for stitching I finished the cross stitching the letters in on SB's Joyful Christmas last night during Doctor Who. A couple of weeks ago Alex was tidying up his mess when it came on and was instantly sold on the show so that's our one family show. Last night he didn't want to take a shower between 7:30 and 8 for fear he would miss the beginning. We don't watch alot of tv so having one of the shows that we actually watch being watched by all members of the family is kind of nice.

As for pictures they should be up later this week when Joyful Christmas is complete. I need to do some mass ironing and don't want to take the pics before then. Fear not Cathey...I'm not fibbing on my numbers :P

Back for Now :)

I'm back from vacation, sigh...

The week just never seems long enough, vacation is gone and it's almost the middle of the last month of summer, depressing++

We had a wonderful week away from the hustle and bustle of our life here in the city. We didn't HAVE to be anywhere or HAVE to do anything and that was pure bliss. We commenced the week by driving up in a blistering wind storm, apparently there were some F1 tornados along the way but we missed them. The drive was tiring, between one set of towns we had an antique car in front of us and a beat up truck travelling with it slowly, the passing lanes are short and the mini van is a pig, needless to say I was relieved when they pulled off. Then we had some little old ladies haul out in front of us and then drove 30 through town...well until I laid on the horn and motioned it was a 50 zone and there was a back log of about 20 cars. Finally we got rid of the slow people (and I'm not a fast driver) got ready to set the cruise control and the heaven's openned up, sigh.

The rest of the week was full of activities, but at a leisurely pace :) We got a tour of our friend's new house (I'm sooo snagging his girlfriend to arrange my furniture), the boys went golfing, mom and I went to check out the nursery close outs, I saw a grand total of 4 movies (Bourne Ultimatum, Underdog-which was actually a cute family film, The Simpsons and Daddy Day Camp), went to the local beach, played some frisbee, swam in the pool a couple of times, checked out the Napan Agricultural fair and of course, had our girls day in Moncton. I think I was pretty good, considering I don't really do alot of shopping anymore. I picked up some back to school supplies at Costco, found a pair of jeans I actually liked at Roots, was very good in Michael's considering I only picked up one little figurine for my christmas village, and did a little bending at the LNS. I've had the urge to do a big piece for quite awhile now and when I walked in there was Mirabilia's Lady of the Mist sitting there on a beautiful lavender. I was sold when Charlotte told me it was in a frame available from Michael's for 30 something as really, that's part of the reason Guardian Angel is still a WIP, the wiggle room for framing that would do the piece justice is fleeting. So I ended up walking out with it kitted, one of Shannon's Heart In Hand 'pooping birds', a new piece of fabric for Three Kings with 3 skeins of the same dyelot and the fabric for Giggles In The Snow (girl). That was my one little exception I'd made in the 50 project challenge woo hoo.

Stitching wise it was a very productive week. I attached the button to LK's Happy Hoppers so it's officially done now, LK's Beware of Cat is now also complete as is Heart In Hand's Family Medley and SB's Tina's Stocking. I stitched SB's Joyful Christmas as far as possible until my Sheep's Silk arrived (which was waiting for me when I walked back in the door) and got a very productive start on my FREX entry for the year Mirabilia's 2006 Cherub. As for reading I only openned my book the two times I went to the gym, however Janet Evanovich's Two for the Dough is now complete, bring on book three :)

Celebration

Wow, wasn't expecting to see this yet when I drove in to pick Alex up from daycare :)

New House

Two More Sleeps!

Yay, only 2 more sleeps until we hit the road for vacation! I can't wait!!! My head is already in permanent vacation mode. Yesterday did not help, we had a 'team building' golfing activity in the afternoon (goodness only knows where that's leading, I'm a bit skeptic on the motives). I had fun. As long as it's a scramble I'm up for golf, I don't want to know what my score would be normally. After golf I rushed over to pick up Alex as golfing got out an hour later than expected, I felt really bad about being late. Alex and I gassed up the van for Friday (sure today they imply gas prices are going down), picked up some buns and bbq'd :) After that it was off to the lake. I'd picked up some Diego goggles on clearance and Alex wanted to try them out. We ended up swimming until 8:30. Matt arrived home shortly after we did with his special edition 300 DVD. I was too chicken to see it in the theatres incase it was gory. So after I got the VCR set to tape the finale of Shaq's big challenge and my stitching in order we were watching away. :)

The movie actually turned out pretty good. I think I was annoying Matt having my Ott light on though. Normally it's not an issue but on dark movies the reflection is just out of place. Tonight I'm going to mow our front lawn if the weather permits, maybe even the back too if I can convince Matt to take Alex to the lake, otherwise the back will have to wait. I'm not giving up prime swimming weather for the boy for a lawn, but if someone else can take him I'll mow ;) Hopefully after a nice shower I'll be able to start packing for the weekend and get a little bit of stitching in ;)

Wet and Wild Fun!

Well, it's been a hot weekend that's for certain! Friday night we had a quick dinner and headed to Starlite lake to cool off. It was Matt's first trip to the lake and even he was in splashing around with his water babies ;) We didn't stay as long as we normally would have as we had early morning plans that we hadn't told Alex about. When we returned home it was stiffling on the main level so we headed downstairs where it was pure bliss. Thankfully we have a family room (albeit with a tiny tv) and two bedrooms, so we were camped out down there. I picked up my stitching while Matt introduced me to Big Trouble in Little China, I just wasn't into it. Stitching a boring border on LK's Happy Hoppers was much more exciting! :P We retired as soon as it finished and hoped and prayed the weather cooperated with our little surprise.

We woke up to sunshine Saturday, sooner than we were expecting as one of the alarms wasn't shut off upstairs, woops. I made some sandwiches and proceeded to wake Alex up and tell him we were headed to Magic Mountain in Moncton. I don't think a shot of adrenaline would have gotten him out of bed nearly as fast. I'd packed the night before so it was breakfast and out the door for us.

Alex packed and strapped in as we backed down the driveway.

We arrived in Moncton at about 10:30 and the place was already hopping. We groaned at the sight of the line ups at the enterance but then spotted the express line for those who had bought their tickets online...like me :) We quickly rented a locker and a double inner tube and were off for some fun. Alex's first stop, The Tornado! It's an inner tube waterslide that you need to be over 48 inches tall to ride, and finally this summer he was. When we reached the end of the slide it something straight out of The Incredibles, Alex was pumping his fists, hopping up and down yelling "That was totally wicked". Forget the other slides that's where he was going for the rest of the day. Matt and I got on one of the 'boring' slides each but the line ups were long. We also did the Pro Racer (head first, eek), myself twice. Alex and I did the Lazy River while Matt read and we spent alot of our time in the wave pool which Alex enjoyed even more now that he can swim. Alex tried two slides that Matt and I just have no luck with, I think they'd be fun slides if you were only 100 lbs, anymore and it's just way too much momentum for us. Alex loved them, he even did the Bullet which I equate to the beginner's Kamikazee, one of the huge straight drop slides. Been there, done that, have the wedgie to prove it :P

Crowds!

The Best Wave in the Wave Pool

From Left To Right: The Tornadoe, The Pro Racer and the Kamikazee

At 4 we decided to call it a day. We weren't waiting around an hour to get on slides and we'd been thoroughly water logged in the wave pool. So we cleaned up and headed to Montana's :) It was really yummy! Alex loved the dessert best of all!

We made a couple stops to some shops around town while our food digested and ran into quite a few people from home who also made Moncton their choice to spend the weekend. ;) After picking up a few things we were back on the road and headed for home. We lugged Alex in and put him to bed fully clothed, lugged everything else in and collapsed ourselves after a totally awesome adventure :)

Satellite Maps are Cool

Just an idea of how close we are to our subdivision's lake (we are the little black square). Close enough to go but far enough away not to be bothered by anyone that goes (and easily forget about it sometimes).

A Boogie Board is a shorter, wider surf board like apparatus. It's generally used for body boarding, the same thing as surfing but laying down. Right now the most we're doing is towing Alex around on it and shoving him off into the lake (he always comes back though ;)) I'm looking forward to trying it out at my parents house where they get some waves from boats that go by or in the Northumberland Strait where you get some real waves. No Honolulu or anything but enough to play in :)

Got Thread?

Woo Hoo! Did you hear my squeals??? My threads finally came in for the 4.5 WIPS (4 of which have been completely held up waiting for said threads) Of course I'd promised Alex to take him to the lake in our subdivision for a swim after supper so all projects had to wait. We've been at the house 4 summers now and Wednesday was the first day we'd actually remembered that there was a lake in our subdivision for our use. It's deeper in the subdivision than our house so we just don't think about it. Much better than treking all the way across the river that's for certain! It's a man made lake as well so I don't think there are any fishies present to scare the bejumpin's out of me either. I bought a boogie board for Alex earlier in the week and he had a blast on it. This time I brought my bathing suit instead of just wading into my shorts. Of course the day that I'm PMS'd + swollen from the heat (ack...I had preggie feet) and not feeling all that fit don't I run into people I know when I'm in a bathing suit, horror! We didn't leave the lake until the sun started going down. We came back all refreshed and poor Matt was all sweaty finishing off Harry Potter inside the house. :P

I played with my new threads for awhile and absolutely love the colours. Where I didn't have much time to stitch before bed I picked up the piece that had the least amount of stitching required and should be able to finish that up at lunch today (unless it's not humid enough outside to impede my walking), then maybe I can finish up Heart In Hand's Family Medley :) Tomorrow I think we're packing up early and heading to Magic Mountain in Moncton for some fun on the waterslides :) I really hope the weather cooperates. Last year Alex was just under the 4ft requirement for one of the funnest slides there, a tube slide (although he could go down the one on the foam crazy carpet head first...yeah that makes sense) and he was determined this year to grow enough to go on the Tornado so getting there this year has been a must, just trying to coordinate a weekend that is nice, we're all in town and no one has been on call has been a challenge, sigh... So here's hoping the weather's nice tomorrow!!!

Do I Speak Greek?

I'm beginning to think so. At first it was fun keeping score at how often Quizno's would attempt to put tomatoes on my sub instead of the onions I asked for. We started to keep count, and also try the other outlets around town...well we stopped counting at 30 mess ups. If I didn't love their turky bacon guacamole so much I'd gladly cut my ties but right now they are the only place that serve anything with avacado :( Today it was "tomatoes and onions on that", "could I have onions and black olives please" "sure" 10 seconds later "was that tomatoes or onions" "onions" "so that was onions that you didn't want on it" "no I want onions and black olives on it" /le sigh

Book Worm

Well, my book pick up timing and my media boycott for the weekend let me read The Deathly Hallows without some mean spirited ninny ruining it for me (or even just some person talking in passing, had that happen with a movie we'd been planning to rent once). I decided to stay home eventhough Matt's golfing buddies were staying there for the night on Friday instead of going to pick up my book at midnight. With my luck I'd have had someone leak some internet spoiler or be person 50 in line and have person 8 flip to the back of a book and say "Harry..........". 8 am worked much better for me, there were about a dozen parents either the same age or older than me, otherwise you'd have probably seen me yelling 'Crucio' to anyone that leaked ;) I was happy to see I was right on pretty much everything Matt and I had debated about the ending and will only say that'll be a VERY long time before I ever let Alex read that book. I'm used to reading adult mysteries so anything with a death total over one is high by my standards.

Saturday however was mostly spent doing inventory at the mini home. If I wasn't decluttering minded before I DEFINITELY am now. Not that there was clutter but I guess you don't realize how much you have until you have to throw it away. It was really difficult seeing all of the posessions being dragged out one by one. Miraculously one bag of baby keepsakes survived, almost all of the pictures survived, scrapbooks survived (I love Creative Memories but their protection system fails when there is water involved, three sided page protectors are DEFINITELY the way to go). I managed to salvage one of the ballerina's I'd stitched for the girls years ago, I even got the soot out of it :) Now to remount it! I don't think I've ever needed a bath as badly as I did when I got home. I washed my hands, grabbed my housecoat, peeled my clothes directly into the washer then soaked in every pretty smelling bath product I own. Now, some observations that hopefully you'll never need...

• Photos really are best stored in those photo boxes, those things were as dry as a bone coming out, albums got humid (although the pictures could be saved, just ALOT more work). Plastic systems melt even when not on fire and well, chances is if your storage system is actually on fire you're going to lose them anyway.
• Three sided page protectors for scrapbooking is a must for scrapbooking!
• I know they're but ugly but wire closet shelves (and even shoe racks at the bottom) are THE way to go. A week later everything was still damp from the hoses, drawing the water away from your possessions ups their chances of being salvageable
• Close your doors! I know we've probaby all heard it before, but you could be like me and live with a 'who wants to return from vacation to a stuffy house'. The center bedroom's occupant was out with friends at the time of the fire and had her door closed. The center room really only had smoke/water damage. I'm not going to say it was pretty but it was in much better shape than the living room that was at the opposite end of the house from the start of the fire. Most of the salvageable belongings came from that room.
• Do inventory and keep your records off site. Update them at birthday's and holidays. This will save you alot of heartache later
• Videotape your house at least once a year. New Years Day is a great
  time to do this, if you're like us and put your presents away that day
  

Ok, So Being Only 14% Classy Isn't So Bad...

Your Score: Katharine Hepburn

You scored 23% grit, 33% wit, 42% flair, and 14% class!

You are the fabulously quirky and independent woman of character. You go your own way, follow your own drummer, take your own lead. You stand head and shoulders next to your partner, but you are perfectly willing and able to stand alone. Others might be more classically beautiful or conventionally woman-like, but you possess a more fundamental common sense and off-kilter charm, making interesting men fall at your feet. You can pick them up or leave them there as you see fit. You share the screen with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, thinking men who like strong women.

Link: The Classic Dames Test written by gidgetgoes on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Rise of the Phoenix

Seeing as I had no daycare today I decided to make myself useful. First off, a call to Harvey's studio. The girls had yearbooks from this year and miraculously, the masters are still on file and are being reprinted for them. Second, a trip around to a couple of stores to make a 'pick me up' basket. We managed to find some really good sales and picked up a Bratz doll, a Polly Pocket and a Littlest Pet Shop Digi pet for the girls (oh and a book), a book for Tracy's husband, some scrapbooking basics and yarn for crocheting for Tracy and a Kong-like thingie and a rawhide for the dog. It was one of those miracle trips where everything was on sale, oh and we found a nice wicker basket to put it in. We then headed down to the house and it was a media circus, sigh... Alot of the early groups were focussing on the lack of hydrants and not the needs of the family and by the time an outlet showed up trying to help everyone was burnt out. I had to choke back tears when we were looking at the damage from the outside. This was somewhere my son practically grew up, I think he may even have more hours logged in that house than here (we only moved into Casa Cote 3 years ago so yes...our child doesn't live in daycare). Seeing the house decimated in the back and all boarded up was just horrible. Although somehow the pug flag that was mounted on the corner of the house was surprisingly untouched. There were alot of donations and it was just amazing to hear of the generosity of the community especially where there's no official organized outlet for donations. Stories like that warm my heart.

Alex has been wanting a playdate forever so it was the perfect time to have one of the girls over. We tried out a little diner near here for a quick lunch and then the kids moved through both levels of the house...what we bought the house in the first place for. The point of having a playroom was to actually have enough room for kids to play :) After that the kids hit the back yard and bounced back and forth between the swings and the pool...yay for mowing the lawn with a bagless mower. There was lots of skimming involved after but my goodness the sounds and squeals of delight made it all worth it. I was parked in my observant but not interfering spot on the deck making up an organized book to help sort everything out for insurance. I think I'll definitely be taking notes from this and video taping the contents of the house, taking inventory and backing up our important information offsite.

Tomorrow it's back to work for the day, I wonder if they missed me? ;)

Snow Fall

Snow Fall - Shepherd' Bush Kit

Holmes on Homes

If only he would come visit....I just had my own slightly less beefy version running around the house this weekend. My golly we got a tonne of stuff done, the ceiling fan that we brought from the apartment is finally installed in the computer room (which gets mighty toasty with two pcs) after 3 years, the doors got new hardward (again yay, after three years I can finally open the front door from the outside), the door stop for the bathroom was finally installed (again 3 years in the coming) and we installed a new shower head after my reliable super saver head I've had since university (not counting the years on that one) decided it would rather spray more water out the sides than at us. I did squeeze some stitching in here and there, I have Shepherd Bush's Joyful Christmas stitched as far as it can go until my threads come in. Now to figure out what else to work on unless I drop by the office and pick up the stocking that I forgot there Friday. As for our house, it's looking mighty good with some suble updates, however all of those we hold dear were not quite as lucky.

This morning I was having a really good dream when Matt came in with the phone for me. Seeing it was 8 o'clock and most people fear waking me I knew something was up. Tracy was on the other line and if I had any sleep left in my head it was quickly shocked out with 'the house burnt'. I've been pretty teary all day at the thought of such a wonderful family losing everything. Alex temporarily being displaced from daycare was one of the last things on my mind. Thankfully they're ok, the dog and hamster are safe but sadly the cats hid. I'd grown quite fond of the coon cat who loved to lay 'road kill' position when I'd show up or who'd jump his big old frame over the baby gate with the greatest of ease. Where my schedule doesn't allow for a dog and my furniture would never survive a cat I live vicariously through my friends. It just breaks my heart thinking of all that they've lost, all of the precious memories, momentos, toys for the kids and even crafting (scrapbooking) material. I know, low on the list of things but when I'm stressed that's my 'therapy' and I imagine it's the same. Matt and I thankfully have a bit of play with our schedules so I'm home with Alex tomorrow and more than likely Wednesday when we can hopefully come up with something thoughtful to do. Please remember them in your prayers. Katie

Looking Up

Well, last night I managed to retrieve the 'doubles' bag and had 4-5 814's in there. I brought them up and compared them with the 2 that I purchased under the OTT light. I had one that definitely worked...however in the excitement of confirming one the bad two got mixed in and somewhere in all of it a bad one hopped into my lunch time stitching bag :( So, I decided to shelve the project until after my vacation, surely my threads for three almost finished WIPs should be arriving any moment now. Thanks for all of the offers to look, I just might take some of you up on it when I unshelve the project after my August vacation. At that time I'm going to give my eyes a break looking at the skeins and just label a scrap piece of fabric and stitch some test strips. On the skein the difference is very subtle, even under the OTT light but stitch with it and whoa baby! Even DH could see it although he thought the only reason was because I mentioned the dyelot issue and thought I should shelve my anal retentiveness instead of the project ;)

So...once said package arrives I should be able to knock off Heart In Hand's Family Medley (2 colours), Lizzie Kate's Happy Hoppers Pocketbook Kit (1 colour) and Lizzie Kate's Beware of Cat Pocketbook (3 colours) in a matter of days. Really that should keep me occupied enough NOT to think about the DMC dyelot from 'h' 'e' 'double hockey sticks' right?

First Time for Everything

Well...Three Kings WAS progressing nicely. I ran out of thread last night and dropped by the sewing shop here, picked up two skeins of 814, stitched at lunch and it's the first time I've encountered a dyelot issue! I'm going to check the other store in town as there's just too much done to tear out, sigh...

Happy Hump Day

Did you ever have one of those weeks where no matter how much you slept, you were still sleepy. That's what this morning feels like! I've been getting my 8 hours of sleep a night but I think this dreary weather has zapped my batteries.

Last night I went for my 40 minute run at the gym. I had my Janet Evanovich book with me so it made the run go by quite quickly. On the way out I picked up some additional energy saver lights which should just about complete replacing the old ones in the house as they were on sale and dropped by the garden center scoring a new ruby wygelia bush on clearance. It's sad to see the garden centers closing up, especially so early in the summer but I'm more that happy to take some of their plants off of their hands ;)

Supper was another success. We've been trying out some new recipes now that we're back to consciously eating better. Sunday was To Stir With Love from Crazy Plates, my only substitution was bamboo shoots for the red pepper which was approved by the 7 year old critic. The following evening we had Square Dancin Salmon from Looneyspoons which was such a big hit with Alex he wanted it for breakfast. Last night was Honey Lime chicken from www.aimeesadventures.com, yum. I've decided to put Matt to task on days he works at home for prepping supper, why should I have to do all of the cooking when he's home earlier right?

After a nice family walk and settling Alex into bed we parked on the couch and I stitched away at Imaginatings Three Kings. It's actually working up quite fast. I don't know how all of those brave souls would stitch it in varigated thread, I think that would drive me batty ;) However I did run out of the DMC I was using so I'll have to pop into the overpriced sewing shop downtown on my break this morning. When on earth are we getting out Michaels???

Here There and Everywhere

That's what the last week has felt like. Hence the lack of blogging. Wednesday the boys got a clean bill of dental health from their dentist, picked up the insurance cheques, deposited them and had someone back into the Corolla, le sigh. Thankfully the boys are ok and the car is driveable, the passenger fender is kaput and prohibits the door from openning. Thankfully the car was off so the other driver is 100% at fault. However that hasn't meant that we don't hear from the collision people. They'd really like it not to go through insurance, which I can understand but Matt can't exactly catch the bus to Florenceville the three days it's going to take to replace it either. Repairs they're ok on where the boyfriend works at a collision center, rental not so hot. Oh well.

This weekend was a nice weekend at home. I almost said relaxing but when I look back at how much work we got done I can't really say that ;) Matt got caught up on laundry, the house got tidied up and the suitcases were put away. I snuck in some stitching time in between spurts and finished my Shepherd's Bush Snow Fall needleroll (well minus the finishing) Saturday evening during The Fountain (which I just can't bring myself to recommend no matter how much I like Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz). Saturday evening we had a nice family picnic (yum Quizno's) at the wading pool. Alex swam away until his teeth were chattering. I'm soo glad I invested (a whole 4 dollars) in the pirate pull over towel. It kept him warm and was nice and private for changing him into some dry clothes.

Sunday we did a little more cleaning, I did all of the prep for this week's healthy meals after groceries and then we had a family outing to see Transformers :) I was pleasantly surprised with the movie, I think my expectations were pretty low going in as the new cartoon series completely murders the concept. The highlight for Alex? The segment of The Simpson's Movie trailer that featured 'Spiderpig' good grief. He was still rolling around laughing way into the next trailer. Transformers has to be second on my list of favorite movies of 2007, Die Hard is going to be hard to beat at that ;) That just leaves Harry Potter, The Bourne Ultimatum and maybe The Simpson's Movie on my list....I think ;)

There's No Place Like Home

It's good to be home :)

Last week was a bit out of the norm. Matt had some extra vacation days where Christmas got a bit messed up so the boys headed up to the inlaws Wednesday morning. This equated to me having the house to myself for two days before I joined them Friday ;) Wednesday was really fun. Faith Ann, Cathey and I had a girls night out! Dinner at our favorite chinese restaurant in town (even with the AC on the fritz) and Johnny Depp, how can one go wrong :) Thursday mom joined me at my little oasis. We had a wonderful dinner with my brother at the Diplomat and then went house hunting, not for me of course ;)

I had taken Friday off as a flex day so mom and I headed down for a downtown for a wonderful breakfast at Cora's, my spinach and cheddar crepe was delicious. We then took a walk around downtown and checked out a couple of shops, mainly Think Play! and the Urban Almanac, which has all of the cool cooking and houseware gadgets. After a quick trip to the coop it was time to say goodbye and meet up with Matt and Alex.

It turned out to be a very stitchy weekend. I have my Heart In Hand Family Medley stitched as far as it can go until I can get the white for the sheep/sail/fence and the red for the boat, less than an hour of stitching once it arrives. I was also in a hurry on Friday and just grabbed one of my kits in case I finished the medley and ended up stitching Lizzie Kate's Happy Hoppers with the exception of the butternut squash required for the border. I guess that was my feeble attempt to try to catch up to Cathey ;)

I was soo tempted to beg to go to Presque Isle when I heard Faith Ann was going there but we forgot Alex's birth certificate at home :( I would have loved to have gone to Ruby Tuesdays and picked up some sugar free jello. Instead we went to the John Caldwell alumni breakfast Saturday morning and checked out Live Free or Die Hard Saturday night, which was hands down the best movie I've seen this year. Sunday consisted of the parade, which Faith Ann describes perfectly, a trip to the Grand Sault for my favorite normal pizza (can't beat Boston Pizza's Spicy Perogie or Desperado though) and a trip to a 'carnival' followed by a smidgeon of fireworks (I've been spoiled by the fireworks shows in the city).

Monday we packed up and headed home. The weather would go from sunny to down pour ever other kilometer which led to a little hyperventilating on my part. We had a quick lunch in Woodstock and then it was back to our big white box :) I unpacked a little and headed out to wash off my van. I checked the movie times and Ratatouille was starting at a very convenient time so Alex and I hopped in the van and checked that out, we loved it! The Pixar short at the beginning had Alex in stitches long into the openning credits ;) After we got home I got brave and decided to mow the front lawn, sure enough it started to rain about 60% through but I trudged along, sigh. After getting Alex to bed and having a nice warm shower I curled up and stitched til bedtime :)

We Interrupt Your Normal Stitching Gossip For This Important Message

District 18 School Bus Petition
http://www.district18schoolbus.com
Elementary school students in the Fredericton area have always been able to take a school bus to their after school day care, even if it is outside of their school zone.

What is the point of educating our daughters? District 18 has gone on long enough with their discriminating policies that make it almost impossible for women who persue a higher education to be a productive member of the work force. Ignoring the crucial link between their system and the afterschool programs is not just ignorant, it is discriminatory. When push comes to shove it's a disproportionate amount of women who end up picking up their children, how many employers are going to accept mother's leaving work every day at 2 pm?

Have they even assessed the environmental impact of that many parents driving unnessary kilometers? Is carpooling an option? I think you can take Ontario's legislation that children need to be in booster seats until the age of 9 as a firm no. Think of the logistics of shuffling carseats, such a move puts our children in grave danger.

Regardless of your location I ask that you please sign this petition and stand up for the children of Fredericton and say NO to discrimination. Please forward this to as many people as possible as together we can make a difference.

Katie

Nineteen!

Shepherd's Bush - Bethlehem Christmas

Another One Bites The Dust

Weekends are short enough, yard sales make them much shorter I've come go discover ;) Eleni and I spent alot of time Friday getting ready but I can't complain, got some exercise and some venting in and that always helps ;) I guess we're kind of spoiled in IT, it's hard to justify working for so much less an hour when you figure it all out but I'm still ahead. It's soo weird what people buy, things I expected to go quick were still there, things I was thinking I'd have to turf went. The rest I've been dividing and conquering, posting some online for sale, planning what charity to give what to, and what pawn shop type of stores to visit ;) The difference in the basement was already quite noticeable which was nice. Sure that meant with the extra space I could pull out more stuff to sort so it's no cleaner, but it's stuff I actually use.

It's been a week for big change in the house. We walked away from our 'together' hobby, WoW so I now suddenly have more stitching time. At the moment, it's just a summer break where we're going to be away alot and have alot of work to do around the house. So over the weekend I finished what I could of SB's Bethlehem Christamas until I see Cathey again and pick up my thread. Then I began to re-sort my stitching supplies and found my fabric for Heart In Hands Family Medley which is working up quickly.

This weekend also marked the back on the fitness track start. I got two Body Pump classes in, woo hoo! I also made some tentative movie plans where the boys will be out of town this week, what a change ;)

Stitchy Night!

Woot, last night was stitchy night. After the week I've been having I sure did appreciate it. I've also been off of going for the last three months due to a number of circumstances. It was fun to see some of the girls again, albeit a select few due to the summer wind down. It was nice to get caught up on all of the projects as well. I'm completely sold on Leera's choid of fabric for Imaginating's Three Kings, a gorgeous mushroom metallic with a rich plum thread. Now if only I could figure out where I'd have enough space to put another Christmas piece. I plugged away at SB's Bethlehem Christmas which I'm really liking, not to mention it's an uber fast stitch!

Faith Ann and I arrived home earlier than usual but still refreshed. I could stand to have some time home too ;) Matt and I popped in Mr and Mrs Smith and I finished the bottom charted section of my piece, now I just have from the Angel to the right to stitch, shouldn't be long at all :) I've gotta say, that's one of my all time favorite movies, there are just soo many lines from it that I begin to think the screenwriter had a webcam in our house or something. We didn't make it all the way until the end as it was getting late but had a good laugh in the meantime.

Lol, I woke up and couldn't believe it was sunny. I know most people wish for that but it's soccer night and with the flurry of activity associated with the last week of school a night off guilt free would be nice, and rain would provide that. It really was odd making Alex's last lunch of the school year this morning. They're having a teddy bear picnic (which I found out at the time I normally leave the house as the note was stuck in his lunch bag), so I had to find a teddy for him to bring, label it (I REALLY don't like the idea of sending toys to school) and find a towel, yay.

Bits and Bites

We had yet another busy weekend. This time around Matt and I golfed with my Division at work Friday evening. Thankfully it was a scramble or I'd still be there. Saturday we went to meet up with Faith Ann and her son to watch the dad's play softball. Poor Matt ended up injured :( The boys however had a blast and I think it was my final trip into Frank's for lunch before the new location opens. Needless to say it was a bit weird being in that neck of the woods and not detouring to my grandmother's house. Where Matt couldn't compute we decided to rend a movie, of course I walk in the door with the movie and Patriot Games was starting on tv. I stitched and watched that and then put our movie in, ack, subtitles. Not what one wants to see at 12:00!

Sunday was very low key. Alex and I picked up some KFC for Matt where he couldn't go out as planned. Poor guy. While we were at the mall I went into SportChek gung ho to bring home some new burgundy mary jane Crocs but came out with some chocolate and cotton candy colored Croc Cleo's. Mylanta they're comfy! Alex went to Toys R Us to spend his birthday gift card, a trip that HAD to happen after playing with one of of Faith Ann's little guy's neat toys ;) However the item must have been sold out as we scoured the place. Instead Alex got these cute little mini star wars figures and really, he plays with those a bit more and in the long term will get much more play value, I think the novelty of Venom's exploding head would wear thin quite rapidly. Matt had already received his gift of a new hat and shirt (which came with his 24 'man flowers')

Yesterday was the dreaded car inspection, which thankfully was pretty cheap considering I had an oil change too. I was ticked at myself though. When I had my tires changed another garage broke a bolt and were supposed to replace it free of charge. It wasn't in stock so they'd call me when it was in. I COMPLETELY forgot about this, or I should say anytime I would remember was when I was in the middle of a highway somewhere not near a phone. So that was 10$, grr... Nothing big in the grand scheme of things but still grrr.... Matt had rented A Night In The Museum as he hadn't seen it so I plugged away a little more at SB's Bethlehem Christmas before the nightly routine.

Today, is looking great. Alex and I have a lunch date ;) His school has a shine only family picnic and it's shining. Where else could I go for lunch with a drink and dessert with Alex for 4.00$ total ;) I have my stitching packed just in case. Tonight is going to be front lawn mowing though followed with some stability ball exercises. Yay...