Tuesday, June 26, 2007

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

Monday, June 25, 2007

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 ;)

Thursday, June 21, 2007

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.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

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...

Thursday, June 14, 2007

I Hate Minor Hockey

There...I said it.

There was a time when I used to enjoy watching the sport but now the only excitement it generates is when one of the pro-Cdn teams makes it to the playoffs and it's more excitement in the revenue it generates, but again that's any sports team. Last night we had to sit through yet another meeting and yet another vote on supporting rinks that the city has already gone ahead and built and if we want to pay more for them. What a load of dog dung that was, we've already said no. So instead of listenning to that they offered up a couple more selected 'sports' with minimal user fees 10-15 dollar range to try to sell an extra tax so the hockey parents wouldn't have to fork out 600+ in user fees. I'm sorry, minor hockey imho is a sport for the priviledged and really I DON'T feel sorry for people that have to pay out. 300+ in registration and another 200-400 for gear, I'm supposed to want to help people with that when the amount they want to up my taxes is the registration for MY non hockey playing son's swimming lessons which are not covered? I have yet to figure out what is so great about hockey. Growing up I played basketball and when we were ranked at the top of the province and hockey a solid last we always had to do our own fundraising while they were given new uniforms. The school bought a new van, we got the old one and when we did get the new one after that team had it for a couple weeks, the old van was looking in better shape. I watch my sister in law with her two boys in the program, they're NEVER home and rarely together as a FAMILY. My nephew was about 8 for our wedding last May and they couldn't come to our wedding, on a long weekend, due to hockey....in May.... erm, yeah. Frankly I like sports that have a set season, not two seasons that equate to the whole year. Don't even get me started about the fact that the last two years there have been tournaments on the Easter weekend. Yeesh, I online game on top of stitching and all 'guild' activities were cancelled for the Christian holiday, online gamers are NOT the ones you'd expect to have more family values. Sure, there were the bleeding heart parents of hockey there, do I really feel sorry for you when your robbing my son of what he likes to do after you're forking out 500+ already. IMHO Hockey is a sport for a well to do one child family, the odd schedules, driving, $$ are just too much to juggle and still be strong family unit with any additional children. There are soo many other choices (football, soccer, swimming, basketball, martial arts, fencing, baseball, volleyball, raquetball, badminton, gofling, gymnastics, orientering, hiking, biking, kayaking, water polo, ultimate frisbee, rugby, cheerleading) that it just disgusts me how much money and time gets invested in a program that hopes to push out another Sydney Crosby. And with that I'll end my rant.

We had a really fun family weekend. Friday night we went to the Bucket Club and shot some mini golf with Alex, followed by a quick trip to the driving range. Saturday we lived outside, playing and reading books in the beautiful sunshine until it was time to get the boys to the barber for a haircut. Alex was beginning to look like a wooly mammoth. While they were getting their trims I found a replacement for my burning bush that died over the winter, wooo hoo. I was worried I wouldn't be able to get one near the same size as the one I was replacing but I managed to find one at Walmart. Sunday we headed to Yoho Lake for Alex's end of year Beaver party. It was soo much fun. Just the right amount of children were there and there was lots of outdoor play and the kids got to try out Kayaking. Alex enjoyed getting out for a swim and didn't want to leave, even if he was falling asleep the whole drive home ;)

I've been trying to decide on my next project. I think it'll be Bethlehem Christamas by SB. The buttons and fabric arrived from my one little stash purchase (25% off and a crazy Canadian dollar, I'm sticking to my no new patterns though until 50 are complete). I've been good, passing up the drawers I could use in my craft room as well as an elliptical for now so I thought I deserved a little 20 break :) Lately though I've been on a reading kick and it's just one of those activities that is not possible to do at the same time. I can now say I'm on the last of my borrowed Scrapbooking mysteries and then it'll be on to putting a dent in my own book collection (although with Sins and Needles coming out on paperback next month as well as the new HP my Sue Grafton's may have to wait just a little bit longer ;))

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Presenting Bent Creek's Wedding Row


Eighteen

Wow, I actually finished something. It feels so few and far between lately. The end of May always seems to zoom right on by, mother's day/anniversary/anniversary of moving into the big white box/dad's birthday Alex's birthday. Needless to say, very busy. However, I didn't have much left to finish on my Bent Creek Wedding Row so I managed to squeeze it in this weekend while winding down from the party. I planned on posting the pic last night but a migraine had other plans *le sigh*.

The birthday party went very well. I found out that metallic candles do not blow out and that pinatas do take much longer to break open than one would believe. It was nice to finally have children over to the house, with a huge playroom and a huge backyard it sometimes just feels empty with only one little guy running around it. I can't say I didn't like hearing compliments on our yard either, it's the one thing that placates any issues we come across with the house. We had a wonderful dinner with our groomsmen and his family at Boston Pizza. Alex asked us about 5 times if we had reminded our server that it was his birthday, he wasn't disappointed when they came to sing to him. One of Mike's little guys is the same age and immediately asked if he could come for his birthday ;) At the end of the day the best part was Alex cuddling up and saying "Thanks for the best pirate party ever mom".

Due to the whirlwind of activities on Saturday we skipped our annual trek to the theatre and moved it to Sunday. It was soo hard walking past Johnny Depp and going to Shrek. It was funny but missed that 'spark' from the other two. The weather was absolutely gorgeous when we got home so Alex and I headed out for some reading, stitching and sleeping outside. How could one resist??