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 :)