March!

Woot, February's behind us...I hope ;) Last night I managed to keep up my resolve and go to Newbody. I just have not been that overly motivated to go to the gym lately. I do fit in some workouts at home but I'm probably down to 2-3 classes a week. It was a really good class and I worked up quite a good sweat. I returned home and showered while Alex was out at Beavers. You'd think I would have been motivated to finish the cross stitching portion of the dragons but no, that wasn't the case. After a bowl of popcorn with my favorite beaver I found myself in the Outlands of Azeroth with my hubby ;)

Well now that it's officially March I guess its time to review my stitching goals that I set last year

• Shepherd's Bush Terri's Stocking (for me) (Finished)
• Fiddlestitch Cottage Winter Teapot (Finished)
• Fiddlestitch Cottage Spring Teapot (90%)
• Dragon Dreams Lost Dragon Sampler (for Alex) (Finished)
• Finish Dragon Dreams Summer's Magic (95%)
• Finish Lavender and Lace's In The Arms Of An Angel (this will probably go to work on status as I'd like to stitch Alex's stocking)
• Leisure Arts In The Life Of A Child (2%)
• 6 ornaments (0)
• Finish Mirabilia's Guardian Angel
• Finish SB's Baby Bug Ball (65%)
• Work on Lavender and Lace's The Wedding

Next week I'm off so I'll probably get to do a little more stitching than usual. Alex really wants to learn to stitch so I'll have an excuse to get all of my stuff out :) He really wants to stitch a dragon and I think I have a dragonlet freebie that'll be easy enough for him to do after he masters making his x's. He LOVED the time I let him play with my mill hill beads. They do some big hundredth day of school thing in February and this year we didn't just send 100 of something in (last year was pennies, pretty cheap), it had to be divided in noticeable groups of 10. So, Alex made a little bracelet of mill hill beads. It's soo pretty :) Plus it was a really good activity to work on his fine motor skills. Tonight, no big plans. I'd like to head out to the coop where it's a sale week and Saturday will be insane. I'm hoping to finish stitching the sand at lunch today which should be doable ;)

I'll end this with a new Alex'ism. To begin Alex really wants a digital camera, so Santa has a whole year to price compare/match the Fisher Price camera. However that doesn't mean he still doesn't want a chance to play with mine. I was at the computer uploading some pictures when he came in the room and said, pointing at the camera and without skipping a beat 'Mom, when you get old and die can I have this?' Great! I've got a will chaser already :P

Latest Progress

Farewell February

Well, soo much for a quiet February ;) At first glance the only thing we had on it was mom's birthday, which we were definitely looking forward to celebrating, then it all snow balled. Birthday party one weekend, sleigh ride another, and just when I thought I was going to get a breather we had company this past weekend. Talk about a wipe out! Thank goodness next week is March break!

I have been sneaking some stitching in here and there, finishing mom's teapot and getting very close to a finish on Dragon Dream's Summer's Magic Dragons for Alex's room. Not nearly as much as I'd like mind you but some none the less! After much talk with Matt I did scale back some of my social engagements for awhile. I mean this is month two and the most we've done with the craft room reno is get a quote on some electrical! For all intensive purposes it isn't even 'busy' season yet!

We have March break pretty open at the moment, depending on the status of the Miramichi reno we might get a day trip in, or maybe a daytrip to Moncton and the rest I'm trying to set up some playdates on. Alex and I have a lunch date one afternoon at Luna Pizza and maybe we'll make that a library day too. :) He does want to learn how to cross stitch so maybe we'll finally get a chance to do that as well :)

Fat Tuesday

Oh my, I was all set to do some major stitching last night with Doctor Who and Heroes but the 'unexpected' element of sci fi didn't allow for much concentrating. Not to spoil the ending of the show but of my good lord! Ok, we all cried in Titanic (although there are probably some bb trolls out there who laughed) but it's the same old , someone dies stuff but I was teary for the last half hour of the show, even the 'valentine forgetter' cracked just a little. However in between DW and Heroes I did work a little more on the last dragon's tail and fixed some previous boo boos :)

Speaking of Valentine's, what I forgot to mention in all of my wallowing was that Alex loved his little gift. The night before I set out his card, a bag of cinnamon hearts, a new Magic Treehouse book and a Teen Titan's Comic book (special valentine's edition). He was sooo excited about his first comic book! It permanantly sits at the table and he thumbs through it at ever meal (or at least until I put it in his room again tonight). Woot! So that'll make one different thing I can add to his stocking at Christmas. We went grocery shopping about two days after and he saw the stand that's at the coop (he'd never noticed it before) and boy was he trying hard to convince me to buy him another. I haven't been complimented, loved, offered so much help around the house in a long time ;)

Today's kind of a blah day, so I imagine I'll be doing some stitching. Out of all the days of the year Shrove Tuesday is the one that was Alex's and my special date night with my grandmother (Alex even got to go once with my grandfather). Alex isn't big on pancakes and Matt doesn't get home in time for any of the church suppers so I have no date :( I guess I will get to Bodypump after all and make some at home.

Sleigh Bells Ring

Oh my goodness, is it March Break yet? I was really looking forward to a downtime weekend this coming weekend but unfortunately that got scheduled out from under me, hopefully it'll snow HARD! I don't mind company but February has just been a flat out month and it's not my parents that are visiting, they're easy to take care of and one weekend off would be really swell! It's hard to build a case when the next weekend is March Break and a dead zone though. It's just an extension to the exhaustion.

I convinced Matt to take Alex to Gym and Swim Saturday, I just couldn't deal with the headache that's become. There is a 'problem child' in that session to begin with. He's physically all over the other boys and there's rarely anything done about him, meanwhile his mother's flapping her trap about how unstrict the schools are now a days...I have to sit and put my iPod on to drown her out and not rip into her. Anyway, Alex worked very hard with his Pappy over Christmas and his swimming improved 10 fold. He was assessed at the beginning of the term and went right up to the max level of the group. Unfortunately that meant being grouped with the demon spawn. The second class Alex had done EVERYTHING they were supposed to without whining and did it better than the rest of his class and was peacefully treading water when hell child swam up and kicked him in the stomach hard enough to push him back through the water. Alex sat out and had dry heaves when I got him to the change room. The next session? They put Alex down to a beginner level because he didn't look comfortable, well if you'd been paying attention Barbie you'd have seen why he was in pain. It's been a big fight ever since to move him back up. I'm sooo frustrated. He loves swimming but he's frustrated at having to sit back and blow bubbles when he can swim widths of the pool. I'm not a competitive mom, if he can't do something he can't but how do you empirically measure 'comfortable'?? He's not learning and he's no longer having fun with lesssons and justifiably so and this is OUR hard earned money going into the program. I'm really conflicted as a consumer I'd be asking for a refund by now but really, I'd be taking lessons away from Alex and then he's punished yet again. Sigh...

While the boys were gone I did some fiddly much neglected house work, like washing the valances and cleaning the blinds (dark blinds nice, dust magnets though). I stripped the guest bed and put in more loads of laundry. I even cleaned off some of the grimy prints on the walls. It was nice cleaning and not having the two of them behind me messing something else up! I got their stuff out and ready for the sleigh ride and put on a snack for the quick transition from swim to sleigh. The beaver sleigh ride was fun, although my back is paying for it ;) The potluck was fun but a bit awkward. We're a suburb's troop which equates to no other 29 year old mothers, Matt who's just shy of 34 is probably one of the closest in age to me (but there are at least some there that are his age!) so I really feel out of place. In the city there'd be younger families still in apartments and such but not in the burb's (although I'd have more mother's like the gym and swim mom's so maybe it's better just to be uncomfortable than completely frustrated). The kids had a grand time at the lodge especially since there'd been a birthday party just before we got in and they left all of the balloons. I made Alex one popular kid by teaching him about static electricity and what you could do with that and the balloon!

Sunday I got a little more stitching in (did some Saturday while catching up on Stargate) and tidied up more of my stitching stuff upstairs for transport down to the craft room. No more loose hand dyed's to sort out, hooray! Alex was pretty excited to see my summer dragons, knowing that they'll be for his room whenever they're framed. He and I are still suffering from the aftermath of our bug, decreased appetite and generally just wishywashy so it was a quiet day. I did have to buy another of the nifty 'crafting tackle box' I'd picked up last week, the first was confiscated for tidying up the ninja turtles. Now that they have a place they're played with ALOT more.

Tonight should be stitchy, the Doctor Who season finale's on as well as Heros (well not the season finale of that one), good night to sit and stitch :)

Valentine's Sucks

Oh my, long time no blog! Combine a fun family weekend with the re-emergence of Norwalk and I guess that's what we get ;)

We had a really nice birthday celebration with Mom Saturday, chinese for lunch and mexican for supper, followed by an irish cream chocolate cake and boiled frosting! Wrap that up with The Illusionist and some Epicure Three Onion Dip mix and I think her birthday went well ;) Alex ended up sick by Sunday though, sigh.

I've been stitching away at Summer's Magic. I think I'd like to have that WIP wrapped up before going back on rotation, although I'll be parking an ornament here at my desk for lunch hours. I should be able to post a progress pic tonight.

Valentine's was not romantic. Matt and I both ended up with Alex's bug although I didn't realize how bad I was feeling until I got to the office. When I decided to leave I went to take the elevator for once, pressed the button and boom...the power went off! I took the stairs down to the main level and the automated parking was out as well! Thankfully the security guard was able to get the gate open or they were going to have to assign a janitor to me! I spent the rest of the day in bed miserable, combine feeling rotten with no valentine card and you can imagine my state. What is so GD hard about picking up a card? It's not like they don't come out the day after Christmas. I don't need to to be extravagent, I just want a damn card. It may be cold outside but my shoulder's alot colder!

Yesterday was another storm day, I was still too sick and weak to do anything so I was in bed. Sigh if I hadn't have been so sick I might have been in the position to finish my dragon's this weekend. Oh well!

Sweet Sixteen

Well, here's what I've been working on for the past week quietly as it was for mom's birthday. Presenting the Winter Teapot by Fiddlestitch Cottage :)


Just 34 more projects to go before I can pick up another couple of charts ;)

Still Kickin!

Yes, it's true! I'm still kicking. I've been sidelined quite a bit this week though! Saturday was crazy. I was going to take Alex to Gym and Swim but saw he was a bit whiny due to the Beaver sleepover so I brought him home to rest, avoiding the potential nuclear situation of whiny kid with G&S bully. It had snowed the previous night and with the crazy winds the drive out to the birthday party was extremely stressful. We cut through a subdivision instead of taking a main road which saved 10-15 minutes but I was regretting it the whole way down to the old highway, however the old highway was in worse shape due to the blowing snow than the subdivision road! I didn't kick myself for long. Where the party was 2 hours and I was minutes away from Cathey's I finally went to see her gorgeous home :) Cathey got to see my stocking first hand and I started a new little project. Those 2 hours really flew by. The drive back to the house was no better (although it seemed faster where I was confident of where I was going!) and I ended up arriving with an extreme migraine.

Sunday we had a very quiet family day. I was kind of moping around the house as it was the sad realization that it has been a year since I last hugged my grandmother so I really wanted to be home with the boys and enjoy the family I have as you can never take that for granted. Also, until the gym settles down I've rearranged the schedule to avoid going there on the weekend until I can essentially arrive for class and leave again, being there super early to secure a slot and not actually working out while I'm waiting is not worth missing that family time! We had our little superbowl party that evening and I resisted all of the Superbowl sales!!

Tuesday was crappy, for me anyway. I've been at odds with how the project I'm on has been run for awhile. All of the little bottlenecks in the system result in big delays by the time they arrive at my desk. Now combine this with a meeting that cut our flex time back when my area of the project has no reason for it and suggest overtime when we spend half our week in meetings...I swear I think there are meetings to discuss if someone should be able to pee...and I wasn't a happy camper. Matt arrived home with a nice raise so I guess our day balanced out...however that didn't deter a second round of the migraine and I was out for the count Wednesday.

Thursday was exciting, stitching exciting and not the Office Space moment I had with the consultant on this project ;) I got word that a very exciting project that I'd discussed with Tracy of Fiddlestitch Cottage is going to be available to the public very shortly. It was kind of a brain child that involved a permutation of one of Tracy's existing patterns for a very awesome charity project, it would be like whomever suggested changing Giggles in the Snow to Giggles in the Leaves or Giggles in the Sand seeing the light of day AND benefiting a very dear charity close to one's heart. I'll leave it at that, but I'm really excited!!! This is as close as I'll ever get to designing, unless of course I'm ever called off the benches of model stitchers and it's just neat. I can't wait to share the details!!

Today is a day for rememberance, I can still picture the events of last year in slow motion as if they happened hours before. I remember being brought to tears in training over at Polar Bear in the middle of the morning out of the blue, the huge feeling that I should find some of my family at the hospital, running into Reverend Lovejoy (not really his name but ask my bridesmaids, he conjures up images of Rev Lovejoy off of the Simpsons) and knowing deep down that something was truly out of sorts coming off the elevator and walking into a room of someone that looked very sick, not deceased as I was soon to find out. It didn't matter how many times I'd told Matt that I really thought the doctor's were missing something all along, it was still a huge shock. It's been a year since the first time I've had to deliver that sort of news to someone as unsuspecting as myself. It was probably only on that day that I would end up coming home late after picking dad up from the airport and not cry myself silly in frustration that my entire house was covered in vomit! Who knew a little boy's stomach could hold that much?? I was almost greatful to have something to take my mind of the days events no matter how gross it was ;) We miss you Grammie...

Tomorrow though is a day of celebration! Mom turns 39 again ;) Alex is super psyched for their visit. He helped me bake a cake last night and tonight we get to frost it, we have reservations at our favorite Mexican restaurant and the rest will remain a mystery mom if you're reading :P

In closing I thought I'd quote this little ditty I found on MSNBC. I don't claim to condone anything that people do to wind up in the tabloids however this sadly speaks volumes about our society.

"The level of meanness in our current society isn’t exactly a news bulletin, but this is brutal. When someone like Anna Nicole Smith goes, with all her baggage and scandalous exploits, it says a lot more about the people who dump on her dead body than it does about the woman herself."
~Michael Ventre MSNBC

Finish 15 :)

So here it is, minus the charms until Alex's is finished. Presenting MY stocking :)

Tori's Stocking by Shepherd's Bush

Buy Milk!

Just a friendly reminder NB'ers that milk goes up 5 cents a litre tomorrow, you'll see me trying to find two bags tonight with an expiry date off in the future ;)

Poor Alex, last night when we got home he openned our mailbox and was delighted to see a baggie with a magazine in it, his Chickadee subscription...or so we thought. He took another look at and said it was a mistake and it wasn't his. I thought it was just the coupons/ads that come with it blocking the view. He was pretty disappointed. While making supper I openned the bag to get the coupons out and it was in French! His birthday subscription had been changed to something age appropriate for a French raised child, not one that has been in Immersion for 5 months. The thought nice, but he really can't enjoy it for a couple of years and in the meantime no Chickadee. So now we either have to have it refunded and resubscribe to Chickadee or move it to something more language appropriate for him. Thank goodness mom had sent him a Twisted Whiskers e-card, that made his day :)

As for stitching, there has been some progress in the stocking. The last bit is the annoying stitch here in this colour, stitch there in that colour kind of deal. Compound that with the excitement of a new game and the daily chores and well...it's taking awhile :( I'm really looking forward to Friday though, I'll be able to kick back and stitch. I may even rent a movie and eat some chinese food while I'm at it (the boys are away). Although of course if I had company that would be just as great as I'm not too picky ;)

Six Weird Things

I've been tagged by Carolyn :)

Six weird things that you didn't know about me...
1. I sleep with a fan on, even in the dead of winter
2. Apparently my husband thinks it's scandelous that I can't name a single song that was put out by Pink Floyd. If he could read this he'd be proud that I didn't had 'some group' in front of PF.
3. The subject of teeth completely grosses me out. I have to send Alex to his father to have his mouth checked when he claims he has loose teeth. YUCK
4. I generally do not eat vegetables that start with C - carrots, corn, cauliflower, celery unless they're hidden in a casserole
5. I hate it when my food touches, especially when food has an 'over contact' period with a condiment. Fries must be dipped, NO condiments on my burger as it makes the bun soggy, cranberry sauce should NOT contact the turkey...you name it ;)

Long Time No Blog

What have I been up to?? Well, there are very few that would understand ;) It involved the need to obliterate things on the computer with a redheaded warlock. Between the on going saga of little miss fists, DH's workload and a consultant that seriously ticks me off, stitching by myself was NOT going to be very productive.

Friday we received an e-mail about a team meeting, said team meeting involves our flex time and over time because we have a consultant that is used to snapping her fingers to get things done at their old job. Said consultant has tonnes of work resources available but their time is extremely mismanaged and we should give up our flex time and family time due to their failures?? I have never been so irrate in a very long time. I could go on and on about how cold (suggested someone would come back early from bereavement leave to meet with our COTS provider), unprofessional (three status meetings in a week? Having someone come in on a day off for the third status meeting of the week for a total of 15 minutes) and two faced ('the schedule is flexible next week' meanwhile their whining to the director about us saying the department is too flexible with us), but that would be exhausting. Needless to say I went straight home Friday and relaxed with my family.

Saturday was busy. Alex and I had gym and swim in the morning. He did really well avoiding a real PITA kid. Due to a staffing issue we've had the director taking care of the gym portion and she really takes no flack off this kid, great :) But at the pool he's a holy terror, the second the instructors backs are turned he's hitting, kicking and shoving. Alex stayed clear of him this week but did end up kicked in the stomach by him when they were actually in the pool. Matt suggesting bring the camera in next week and showing the instructors the video footage of what this kid is up to. Saturday was also heart breaking. Alex has made real strides in behaving with other children. Common sense is finally kicking in so he gets up and leaves when someone is bothering him which was half of his problem. It's heartbreaking though to see a child who's 'reputation' is tarnished by how they behaved in kindergarten (case in point, another teacher automatically put him on 'the wall' when he was punched after an accidental slip). I was standing out at the pool while Alex was lined up waiting for the other kids to arrive and an 8ish year old boy looked and said 'oh look there's bad Alex'. :( I wonder how many years of good behavior will make up for the adjustment of public kindergarten. I know if we have another child we'll be paying the money for private kindergarten.

Sunday was a family day, we finished Alex's latest Magic Treehouse book, played Uno, toasted bagels and after I took a break to go to BodyCombat we went sliding! Well, I think I'll have to have my old three ski brought over as it was a HUGE hit. We let him go down on his own on his old sled but he really wanted to try the three ski (there was one left in the woods when the previous owners of our house moved out). Matt and Alex wiped out the first time but the second they made it to the bottom of the hill which is a great distance off. Then it was my turn. Oye, scary. One hurtles down the hill when their sled is over double the weight with both of us on it than the last time I ever went sliding! Alex was squealing in delight in the front, I was shreiking in terror in the back ;) I was convinced we were going to go airborne with every bump. Let alone the second time I braved going down and Matt said Alex could drive. He's sooo not getting his license when he's 16!!! We were all pretty sore after an hour and a half and headed home after a quick stop for a treat :)

I did manage to get a little stitching in though, the row of hearts and sheep is almost done so then it's just the vine and my name to stitch in. Piece of cake :)

A Letter of Truth

Well, well, well....little Miss 'give boys black eyes' finally confessed that Alex had indeed accidentally slipped and in the process came into contact with Miss Fist-a-cuffs who punched him and told the teacher that he had hit her, failing to note both that she'd punched him to the teacher, sitter and daycare provider until this week. She says she was mad that he didn't say sorry for his accident, but gee at 29 if someone's immediate reaction to me slipping and falling, then punching me out and filing a lawsuit (or adult version of telling the teacher) I really don't think I would be too apt to say I was sorry either. What concerns me even more is that Alex is so beaten down by the school system and the not being a 'tattletale' that his kindergarten teacher forced on him that he feels that telling the whole truth will just be seen as a lie and just end him up in more trouble. I had to teach Alex something I never thought I'd have to, how to completely ignore someone. He's been told in the past to stay away from Miss Fist and apparently when he tells her he can't play with her she threatens to tell the teacher he's being mean and he's the one that usually ends up in trouble. I mean when I took him to our family doctor to have him initially assessed for ADD after 15 minutes of talking to him she asked me who this 'Miss Manipulative' is and if there was any way to separate them, he attention was perfectly fine but he was just too overloaded with her nonsense and couldn't cope. Sigh, this is only grade one... at least she can't enter Frenchi Immersion until grade 6 so they'll be in separate classrooms until at least high school :)

Stitching wise it's been a very slow week, this little drama has taken on a life of it's own and has been wearing me out. I have everything but the tree trunks now stitched on the bottom of the sock and have started the sheep at the top. I'm really hoping to get some additional stitching in this weekend but it looks like it'll probably be another busy one, sigh... Gym and swim to go to , groceries to pick up, birthday presents to pick out...I may just skip the insane lines for Body Pump Sunday and go straight to Body Combat which doesn't require people to be there 20 minutes in advance. I really hate Januaries at the gym!

Let it Snow!

Yay, my stocking saw the light of day again :) It didn't this weekend that's for certain. I was experiencing a bit of 'new game-itis'

Back to the weekend. Well after not having a winter since 2004 it finally arrived Friday. The drive to Eleni's going away lunch was interesting to say the least. We ended up downstairs in the booth section as the cook for upstairs couldn't make it in. Oh well, I still had my donair AND it was on special! On the way back to work I deemed it a necessary day to splurge on the parking lot instead of heading to the parking lot, trudging through over a foot of snow to work and back and cleaning off the van again. Of course this wasn't without incident ;) This building has automated parking. Needless to say I was a bit worried when the power started to flicker 5 minutes before I was supposed to go and the ticket machine is electronic! In this state of panic I managed to leave my cross stitch bag at the office, noticing the second I approved the transaction so I had 10 minutes to get to the 5th floor and back down, start the van and get to the gate. No pressure or anything ;)

The boys were out shovelling and playing in the snow when I arrived so I could make it partially in the driveway. Alex and I geared up and headed out to our sliding hill to beat it down. After we were thoroughly soaked we trudged back to the house threw all of our stuff in the dryer and made some tacos :)

We woke up to a winter wonderland. I wanted to go sliding but I only got one foot out the door before the wind made me think otherwise. Matt and I cleaned a path for the van so I could take Alex to gym and swim and he didn't disappoint! My timid little guy from September was gone and he was swimming back and forth across the pool, even once in the deep end. He was even jumping off the blocks. Normally I stitch during lessons as he was in the shallow end but this was just too darn interesting ;) He was also a very good helper when we went grocery shopping after so I treated him to a bagel. Plain with butter he requested. Of course by the time we left he was hooked on my onion bagel with light vegetable cream cheese.

Monday the old Caris crew (Eleni and Angela) met at the house to stitch. Alex was very excited that a pregnant lady was coming to the house. It's so neat seeing everyone's progress. I pulled out my stocking and finished the row of hearts on the bottom. I was soo excited to hear there was going to be a floss run. I may just start Alex's stocking sooner than expected. Where I want to make a substantial cut in our debt this year having a stocking that can be finished without costing alot of money is VERY appealing, especially considering that I have about three or more pieces waiting to be framed already! I wonder if I can convince Matt that framing money makes a good gift?? :)

Black Eyes, Black Ice And Trying To Get In The Black

Yesterday started as a nice day but it was just one of those days that spiralled down hill at a rapid velocity. I made progress on my stocking at lunch, and had taken off another 2 lbs that I'd gained over the holidays. Then I picked Alex up...

I saw him playing with his little friends and I noticed his eye looked puffy. I just thought he must have had a late bedtime or something where I wasn't there to be mean mom and send him for 8 o'clock. When I got him to the van I got a good look at it, bruises! Now I treat a 6 year old's story with a grain of salt, I obviously wasn't there, according to him he slipped on some ice, banged heads with 'lucifer-a incarnate' from last year and before she ran to the teacher she punched him in the eye and he, and only he was the one who got in trouble. I don't even came if his end of the story wasn't as innocent, there's a whole lof of physical proof that it was more than a one sided battle. Needless to say I'll be making a phone call to the school when it's next in session (today's a storm day). Then Beaver's rescheduled their sleepover. Alex was disappointed and me too! I was looking forward to having the house to myself for a night ;)

For some ODD reason by the time the rage started to pass the Canadian HBP popped into my head, and I realized that when I switched jobs last year going from an auto RRSP deduction to a pension plan that my retirement savings now don't count towards said plan. For those unfamiliar with it, you can deduct from your RRSP's without penalty to put a downpayment on your first home, and repay that amount over 15 years. If you do not make your minimum payment after your second year (I forgot there was this clause, so my contribution last year reduced it anyway), you must count the difference as income. I was sooo mad at myself for not realizing this! Thankfully you can contribute the first three months of the year to it. When one is trying to get back in the black, it was kind of a mini set back. I'm proud of how much better budgetted I've become and seeing my personal debt load go down, but still, it killed the pat on the back feeling for sure.

Considering all of this I decided not to stitch last night for fear I'd screw something up! Instead I 'computed' ;)

Thank goodness Wednesday was stitchy night. We braved the cold and headed to Sobey's. It was a smaller crowd than usual but relaxing none the less. Faith Ann's Three Kings is gorgeous and Cathey's 'dog peeing on snowman' is a hoot :) It was nice to just escape. Faith Ann and I held the fort until closing as goodness only knows how much uninterrupted stitching time one can get at home ;) As you could see from the other week the stocking is really coming along. I got more stitched on it yesterday at lunch and it looks finishable for the weekend, especially considering the weather is supposed to be pretty yucky!

Today's highlight: Eleni's going away lunch!! Best wishes on her future endeavor ;)

Stitch Night Progress :)

Quick update with my latest progress pic (one of my New Years resolutions, post more progress!)

First Friends That Count Night of the Year :)

Woo hoo! It's stitchy night. My bags are packed and I'm ready to go conquer more of the stocking. Considering I've only had a small amount of time to work on it this week, there's actually quite a bit of progress since my last post :) The little village of houses is just about done, the row underneath it is done and the row of trees is started woo hoo!

It's a good night to get out of the house. We've been looking at things that need to be done before painting the craft room. Somewhere the fact that I've changed priorities on one particular item and don't want or need it was completely lost in translation to the individual who does the 'man talk'. The electrician was in last night to give a quote, something I was very scared about. We had my friend's carpenter husband look at it and when he said, the electrician will give you a quote, it won't be in the thousands, more like hundreds, that initial 'renovations never go under budget' creeped in my head. Seriously my Christmas gift was to make the room NICE for me, not to spend alot of money on. Removing the outlet from the quote knocks the hours down, materials down and really makes the other work quite cheap. Patching where some access points need to go, not fun but much better than the mess the outlet would make. Considering it was simply to plug in a 9 year old stereo it really isn't necessary.

It's been snowing and really cold here. The drive into work was a mess yesterday and definitely NOT good for my nerves. Ice = bad, not able to see the lines on top of that = even worse! Today, it's just cold. My eyelashes were starting to freeze together on the brief one block walk from the parking lot to the office. No fun at all!!

So after a not so fun week I'm definitely ready for some unwinding tonight :)

Woot! Stitching Progress

So, as promised although slightly late here's my stocking to date:

This weekend has been purposely quiet. We'd thought of making a trip to Matt's parents but he's just too tired from his job this week to travel. The only thing I've done besides my exercise classes and groceries is sleep and play with Alex. I'm hoping to get a little more done on her today before BodyPump and BodyCombat, but I'm also hoping to get the veggies chopped for this weeks dinners so who knows. Next weekend will be busy with a beaver sleepover, gym and swim starting back up and Matt taking a drywall ceiling course, woot! Ok, maybe not woot to the insanity which will ensue, but woot to the fact that the purpose of going to that course is to complete my craft room :)

On The Soapbox

*Highly opinionated, slightly religiously tied entry. If this isn't for you visit back in the afternoon for a stitching update*

I've had a number of questions on what this woman that ticks me off so badly does for a living. So, I'm answering it and giving my reasons. Normally, I'm not a judgemental person and am ok with people not sharing my opinion on any matter. I love God, but have friends that are atheists, buddists, agnostic, and probably others (no scientologists yet :P). Freedom of speech is a privelege most countries don't have and we're very fortunate in Canada to be able to express our opinions. I don't (or try not to) judge people on their opinions or what they have done, it's what they continue to do that irks me.

So back to the woman I cannot stand, her occupation: 'clinic' worker.

I have a 6 year old son and got married when he was 5 so obviously their 'services' aren't for me. But here is the foundation of why I feel this way:

• 
  Said clinic is set up in the backyard, literally of my son's future middle school. What's next, a methadone clinic beside his elementary school?? Seriously, we need better zoning around our children's places of education
• 
  The older I get the closer to home fertility struggles get. I watch extraordinary people attempt to start families and sympathize with their frustrations which are truly heartbreaking. I watch people spend thousads of dollars attempting to adopt out of country and struggle with invitro. It seems like a complete and total waste of life. For once instead of graphic pictures of what the procedure does I'd rather see the beautiful people I know/or of who'd love to be fortunate enough to have a child in their lives. It's just waste.
• 
  One of our offices floors is shared with ob/gyn's. I go to work early, I've seen countless girls go in, boyfriends in tow and days later I see them in the bathrooms/elevators after their post checkup alone and distraught. I honestly feel sorry for them. I've had friends that do not share my side of the fence, I can't name one of them that saved a relationship going this route. Men get off easy, when it comes down to it, they really didn't make that decision now did they?? Unexpected pregnancies are scary, I know, top that off with crazy hormones and I feel that our vulnerability is exploited.

Now I could go into all of the pro-life/pro-choice points, each side has it's valid arguments in a neutral forum. These are just my personal points for sitting on my side of the fence. My purpose is not to offend, just to explain why on top of not knowing just what the future holds for the size of our family and dealing on a daily basis that I feel incomplete without another child, that seeing this woman touches that very nerve.

Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Tuesday was Alex's first day back at school and my goodness, his book bag was full of goodies. One little girl made him up a gift bag with a decorated candy cane AND a 5$ book of Tim Horton's money and she's not even in his class, strange. I double checked the tag and it said Alex on it, guess he has a new admirer. There were also Christmas cards and a little pack of snowman soup from his teacher in his bookbag, impressive.

I worked on my stocking after Alex went to bed, he was quite zonked after a hard days work, and getting used to sleeping in. We're quite fortunate, he's very good at playing by himself and grabbing cheerios or a nutrigrain instead of getting us up (not that we ask or expect him to). It's coming along quite nicely, if only I could locate the perle cottons that came in during the Christmas rush :(

Wednesday was my first trip back to Newbody in AGES. The fall was just too hectic. It was nice to be back though. Very crowded but nice. The new instructor was fabulous, however one attendee that grates at every single ounce of my moral fibre showed up beside me. I really need to find a t-shirt that might make her clue in that she should find another spot. I'm sure she's a very nice woman, I just can't get over what she does for a living and although it sounds junior high 'ish, I just want MY space. The evening went by in a blur between beavers, a little stitching and a little computer and it was bedtime for me. We also got a notice that there's a beaver's sleep over next week, one of us won't be getting much sleep next Friday night.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to snag some progress pics tonight ;)

25 Signs You've Grown Up

1. Your houseplants are alive, and you can't smoke any of them.
2. Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.
3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
5. You hear your favorite song in an elevator.
6. You watch the Weather Channel.
7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of "hook up" and "break up."
8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.
9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as "dressed up."
10. You're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won't turn down the stereo.
11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.
13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.
14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's leftovers.
15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.
16. You take naps.
17. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.
18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.
19. You go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.
20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good crap."
21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.
22. "I just can't drink the way I used to" replaces "I'm never going to drink that much again."
23. 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.
24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.
25. When you find out your friend is pregnant you congratulate them instead of asking, "Oh crap what the hell happened?"

Bonus:

26: You read this entire list looking desperately for one sign that doesn't apply to you and can't find one to save your sorry old ass. Then you forward it to a bunch of old friends 'cause you know they'll enjoy it & do.
And now you know why I am forwarding this to you...

Well...there goes my high from being mistaken for a student! :(

I'm A Student

Not! But someone thought I looked young enough to be one today :) Where I'm turning 30 this year I had perma-grin after that. Mind you I'd just come from a two hour workout at the gym and was still in my yoga pants with my Roots backpack slung over my shoulder and white Columbia coat on instead of my nice black wool one but still, I don't feel like I look young enough for that ;) I should have picked the couple things I wanted up before class but was running a little behind and when I got back I think half the university students arrived back in town and had literally taken over the Superstore! I've never seen so many carts of Kraft Dinner and toilet paper EVER!

We had a fairly quiet weekend. One can't do much when they're tied up taking all of the Christmas decorations down. The last note of business is disassembling the mini tree which may or may not get done tonight. I did start reading The Nanny Diaries this weekend where I couldn't locate the book I had been reading and I did a little stitching on Teri's stocking (for me!!!). I can't wait to start back on the rotation this week. This weekend was off the rotation until the decorations came down as that's a major undertaking. It's amazing how much more room we have!!

Friday I had a really good mail day, something few and far between since I started the 50 project challenge. My fabric arrived for the Marbek Nativity AND my fabric for Alex's stocking and perle cotton's for my stocking arrived. I was a good girl and waited on ordering the charm packs until they're actually ready to have them attached. Alex also decided on what stocking he wanted. I was hoping he'd choose either Harry or Reed's which he did, Harry's. I was kind of looking forward to getting to use the hand dyed perle's again but when I saw how little checkering was in Harry's I was pretty excited. I also held off telling him until after he decided that Faith Ann's little guy also had Harry. Alex was pretty excited when he heard that they were both the same but I'm glad he made his own decision first :)

Tonight we're going to have a little date night at home, Smallville is unfortunately a rerun on ASN (why can't we have the CW so I can watch the new one) and Desperate Housewives is on later than I usually stay up so that's not in the way of renting a movie for 8 pm :) Movie and stitching, woot!! :)

Happy Birthday...

Faith Ann!!!

Woot, I'm up to 14 projects done for the 50 project challenge. I conferred with the girls this afternoon and where I didn't attach the charm's onto Matt's stocking until after it wasn't done, then I forgot that I'd stitched Raise The Roof's Arm and a Leg and I finished stitching Alex's Lost Dragon Sampler during My Super Ex Girlfriend (which the boys rented, not owning up to that ;)). One line isn't perfectly centered but I must have Amish roots somewhere to blame that on, isn't there supposed to be one mistake in a sampler as only God can be perfect?? I'm anal but not THAT anal ;) Alex will be pretty pleased when his birthday rolls around, and yes I do realize that it's just under 6 months away. I hate deadlines!! He's wanted some dragons for his room and was super pleased with his "Good Knight, Sleep Tight" piece. I was a little choked up when he told me he loved all the pictures I'd made for him and that he liked them better than ones you buy in a store. We'll see if he still wants a 2 foot square Precious Moments Noah's Ark when he's 17 though...

Arm and A Leg - Raise The Roof

Lost Dragon Sampler - Dragon Dreams

On Twelth Day of Christmas

I'll hopefully move past the 12 projects completed to 13 on the 50 project challenge :)

Woot, only 38 more projects to finish before I can buy a pattern again. Although I think the 50 project challenge puts things more in prospective than anything. I just have one band of illustrative blackwork to do on Alex's Lost Dragon Sampler and that will bring the total to 13 :) Even with the tree coming down this weekend I think it's more than doable to expect that to be completed.

To date here are the 50 Project Challenge finishes since early October when I officially commited (I should have committed in September when I was mulling it over then I'd already be down to 37)

Lizzie Kate - Here Comes Santa Claus
Brittercup Designs - Christmas Puppy
Brittercup Designs - Christmas Kitty
Dragon Dreams - Trick Or Treat
Jeanette Douglas - Hope Needleroll for me
Jeanette Douglas - Hope Needleroll for exchange
Lizzie Kate - Dear Santa, We've Got Cookies
Told In A Garden - Voice Of The Shepherd
Dragon Dreams - Christmas Bunny ornament
Dragon Dreams - Santa's Unexpected Gift
Mill Hill - Mandolin Santa
Lizzie Kate - Tis The Season

If I ever mention organizing my cupboards again someone please restrain me ;) What an ordeal that was although I am quite pleased with the end effect. I can now find all of my food, grocery shop a bit more efficiently :) Interesting finds included:

3 bottles of apple cider vinegar
5 boxes of lasagna noodles
and finding out that my counter tops were manufactured 2 years after our house was built....interesting :)

I'm finally starting to feel better although Matt now has the cold. I made it to the gym yesterday and surprisingly it wasn't that busy. I always hate going in January when people are there to burn off some cookies and that's it.

This morning the roads were nasty with a capital N. Only after I got to work did I hear that there weren't any salt or sand trucks out and people were advised to stay home until 9, sheesh. Here I was at work by 7:45 :( The walk to work was even worse. Hopefully this will all be out of the system by tomorrow. Alex and I have an exciting little trip to market and the library planned ;)

First Finish of 2007

Ok...well technically it was finished before New Years, but the actual finishing wrapped up today. I apologize for the background that washes it out, the table is in use (more on that to follow). Presenting Deck The Halls by Dragon Dreams, featured in the Holiday edition of A Needle Pulling Thread

New Year's Eve was pretty low key for us with both Matt and I battling colds. Not that we are ever up to anything overly exciting. Finding a sitter is too big a hassle and I kind of like spending it under the same roof as Alex, as I'm sure he WON'T want to be spending it with us in the next 10-12 years ;) Every year we let him stay up a little bit later than last and take part in a bit more of our little festivities. This was the first year we let him try the fondue. Not that he got to actually put things in the pot but he did get to assemble his fork and eat it when it was done. He also put a dent in some of the appetizers. After we went to bed we crashed on the couch with a beer and chips (and stitching ;)), turned on the CBC and mindlessly waited until 2007. We actually missed the countdown as one of the programs went until 12:07. Mind you I was only half awake as being reclined made drifting off easy on my sinuses ;) We're getting so old ;)

Today we didn't move too far from the living room. I'm actually starting to feel better. We casually ate appetizers on and off all day, watched some of our new movies (POTC Dead Man's Chest and Cars), Alex and Matt built two of the POTC Megablocks sets Alex received for Christmas and I even started tearing apart the kitchen. Out of all the things I try to hide in the house mess wise my cupboards have been number one since we moved in. When we moved to the house 2.5 years ago I had boxes labelled for what rooms they were supposed to go to, where were they when I finally finished packing/cleaning the little things at the apartment...All in the kitchen/dining room and for anyone that's been to our house they know it's the main artery (especially where we still need to fix the front doors handle ;)) Anyway, things got put away in a rush and combine that with poorly laid out cupboards (gorgeous on the outside but impractical until we put in some lazy susans) and you got the disaster that ours were. I have yet to look into a lazy susan but until then I'd like to scrub them down and at least group stuff in some logical fashion. Let's just say finding 3 bottles of apple cider vinegar really emphasises how disorganized they were ;) So if I meet any resolution in 2007 organizing those cupboards are priority 1!!

Now to finally get back to some stitching. I wonder if I can finish up Alex's Lost Dragon Sampler before I have to head back to work on Thursday??? :)

Wishing You A...

"
www.123glitter.com

We're Back...

Hooray, we arrived back in town today at around 4. There's ALOT of unpacking to be done but I'm just doing it in spurts as I feel up to it. Can anyone say never ending cold?? I really need to find a sign that advises people that although I only have mild asthma the combination of their small cold germs and my condition do NOT mix. I know Faith Ann can hear me barking from her house ;)

Before heading back I gave the boxing day sales one last try. I mean day one I came home with a 99 cent package of gift tags and that's it (although I did run into Michelle while shopping who had my cold and was also up visiting family). Day 2 I hit Walmart and took advantage of their book and DVD clear outs. I picked up Hoodwinked for Alex's birthday and another season of Matt's favorite show for future presents. I picked up a book for dad, hard cover, only to find him reading the soft cover. So I guess that's going to be for Matt as well, 5$ for a Clive Cussler hardcover, how can one go wrong?? I also stopped by the gift shop in town and picked up a piece of Kim Kirkpatrick Pottery at 15% off. We received a bowl as one of our wedding gifts that we adore and I'd really like some complimentary pieces. Combine elegance and whimsy in a piece of art and I'm in ;)

With this cold I haven't had much stitching time, having to continually hold a kleenex is not very productive! However I did finish my Christmas Dust Bunny by Dragon Dreams. I adore him. Now to finish the Nun stitching around the edges. I should also check the packages that arrived while I was gone from the stitching shops but it just seems to require too much energy :( I did check my visa during the week and I see my Marbek Nativity Fabric shipped from Heaven Lee Creations during their rare sales ;) I guess I'll have to adjust my stitching goals for 2007 ;)

363 Sleeps Until Christmas

Oh wow, the holiday sure does go quickly. Christmas Eve I finished up some of the appetizers for our little party after church. Mathieu finally arrived late in the afternoon with his bag of burger king as predicted. He always says he's coming early and ends up coming late...and with burger king, ewww... Wow, I really felt my age in church, all of the kids were all grown up! I still don't see myself at 30 at all. Alex was very well behaved, although it wasn't until we arrived there that I noticed he'd put on his big winter boots instead of his dress shoes, eww... After church we all got to open a present. Of course the one Alex was after was way under the tree, but he was very pleased to receive his two transformers from Matt. Before bed Alex laid out the cookies, his letter, the new cross stitch and the Christmas Pickle for Santa to hide ;)

After he was safely in bed we rolled out the appetizers and settled in for some Scattergories and then Santa made his visit. Mathieu was quite impressed with the stocking he received.

Christmas morning was busy. Alex hopped into bed with us at about 8:30 and after the stockings were emptied I started the big Christmas brunch. Between that and the late start we only wrapped up gifts at 1pm. Dad liked his Alex Calendar and mom also liked her Voice of The Shepherd

We must have been pretty good this year. Matt received a much needed new wardrobe between Santa and my parents. Alex LOVED all of his gifts. Cutting back led to one much more grateful child. Myself?? I'm going to the spa for a day, have some new clothes, a new Pampered Chef Baker, pinking sheers, lots of goodies for my tender tootsies and a large Home Depot Gift Card to put towards finishing my craft room. Ceiling and painting over 'Go Habs Go' and maybe even some mouldings woo hoo! I am going to call an electrician though to see how much it'll cost to put in two new outlets and move the thermostat to one controlled from that room.

Boxing day we finally got some snow!! This green Christmas crap does not agree with me at all. If it's going to be green I'd forego the tree and head to Disney in a heartbeat and for once watch the parade LIVE. Matt was storm stayed and it made up for the day he didn't get down :) We didn't go far as the city plows weren't on the roads. I started working on my Dragon Dreams Dust Bunny ornament which should be done before I head home :)

Today's Boxing Day sales held nothing more for me than a set of 99 cent gift tags, although that's very good for the pocket book ;) Tonight I'm planning on taking Alex to A Night At The Museum which should have a couple of laughs and if not, some yummy popcorn ;)

We Wish You A

"
www.123glitter.com

Anxiously Waiting

Well, Alex has been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Mr Claus and has been checking Norad's tracking site religiously!! ;) It's hard to believe it's Christmas Eve, especially where the grass is GREEN! Gotta love the effects of global warming :(

Matt's arrival has been delayed due to work issues and some severe freezing rain yesterday. I think Santa may be picking him up en route ;) Meanwhile in between baking prep I've been sneaking some stitching in here and there and finally finished this little guy to place beside the cookie dish tonight ;)


Wishing you all a safe and Merry Christmas!! Katie :)

Alex's New Aunt

Well, city hall should be closed by now in Switzerland so Alex officially should have a new aunt. Congratulations Eddie and Isabelle.

I haven't been up to too much. Yesterday was spent assembling that last Christmas gift (woot only 3 more days and I can display it ;)). I took Alex to Charlotte's Web in the evening which was pretty fun. He's been pretty wound up so it was nice to have some quiet time. I did go to the cross stitch store here yesterday and it was a bit of a disappointment. It was the owner's husband working to begin with which wasn't nearly as fun and I don't know if it's just me in my no pattern buying that just doesn't get the thrill of the hunt anymore or the fact that she actually didn't have the 2006 Mill HIll Christmas kit as my source of disappointment. Needless to say I think the urge to go there when I come to visit is officially dead.

Last night's wind was crazy. It blew something in my eye and that combined with my cold had me awefully pretty this morning, not!! My eye was stuck shut and maybe that was so I couldn't see how bad it looked when I finally washed it enough to open it. It was sooooo swollen. After some compresses, drugs, shower, time and carefully placed makeup it was presentable enough for Market. We did some last minute grocery shopping for our appetizer Christmas Eve party and I snuck out to the final dollarstore to check in my quest to find some new frames. I think they had the remaininig NB stock, but I only had just over 9$ on me so I left with 8...for now. There are just soo many little projects that can go in them and where else would I find a square frame for a dollar?? There are none left in Fredericton so I'm justified in buying them ;)

The remainder of today I think I'll just go with the flow, I still don't feel all that great so putting my feet up (and maybe even having a nap) should feel glorious. Matt announced we could have an extended stay if we pleased where we aren't travelling for once immediately after Christmas. The poor guy forgot to book any vacation with all the stress of his work :( I'm so relieved not to have to do any additional travelling with this stupid cold!!

Now to hit the sheets :)

The Holiday Part Two

We've arrived on the Miramichi safe and sound!! The drive was thankfully uneventful although my timing couldn't be worse. I think we met every school bus on the highway. Alex slept the whole way home so I had two whole hours of peace and quiet. After a delightful supper at My Mother's Kitchen we came home to decorate tree number two. I absolutely adore tree decorating! This time around it was a live tree which is a bit more of a challenge than our artificial at home but here's what we ended up with ;)

So yes, relatively no stitching that night with the exception of beginning to attach the charms to that last gift that needs to be assembled ;)

I've been battling a new sinus infection *yuck* which had me out at the malls searching for drugs yesterday. With significant amounts of pseudoephedrine in my system I was able to steal a couple minutes of sleep here and there without being kept up by my ringing ears. I also finished attaching the charms, finished basting the outline of the stocking and basted on the cording yesterday. Hopefully all of this basting will pay off!!

After supper dad and Alex headed out to the pool. I think they swam the entire 2 hours as after they came home Alex went in to watch Miracle on 34th street and when we went back to check on him this is what we found...

Mom and I then snuck out for a girlie night, exactly one week since our adventures with Flat Shannon :) What did we go see?? The Holiday, again!! I think I liked it even better the second time. Jude Law was just too adorable.

Today consists of finishing up the Christmas baking and a little sewing, hopefully. The cherry balls are all assembled and now I need to dip the Oreo Truffles and mix up the icebox cookies :)

Happy Holidays!!!

Adventures in Curry

Oh my goodness! What an adventure indeed!! Last night where it was Alex's and my last night home before Christmas (Matt follows on the weekend before or Christmas eve) I decided to attempt to make a fancy dinner. Well, I've learned that there are more than one kind of curry paste, and that the Tandoori I bought will make your curry maple chicken penne bright fuschia, borderline NEON!!

After supper I packed up what stuff was safe to leave in the car in the parking lot, suitcases hidden in the back, stuff hidden under the seats and my stinky gym bag to detract would be burglars. I love minivans but that's my one little beef, there's no concealed area. I have tinted windows but it still feels a bit openNow I just need to make a quick trip home to pick up some mittens, frozen fudge and some mittens as its cold!!! I didn't get to stitch much last night, there was a couple things I wanted to get done so I didn't come home to a complete disaster zone, but took these tasks at a leisurely pace. I did however get to play with my stash!! :) I packed my big rubbermaid container with the supplies for DD's Deck the Halls, Not Dust Them, the thread to finish off the Lost Dragon Sampler, Our LK First Christmas ornament to ornamentify, Matt's stocking to sew and my Christmas Elf Fairy...oh and my stocking. Yes, I do realize I'm only going for a week but what if I ran out of a critical thread on one project?? Oh, or what if I had something to frog?? Anyway, it's packed and ready to play with.

When on the Miramichi I'm going to see if I can find a large count for Alex to play with (I donated all of my aida to one of the elementary school stitching groups). When he saw me packing up my stitching yesterday he asked if he could stitch with me. I then asked him what I was going to stitch and he informed me that he was going to stitch a dragon. Hooray, he'll like his christmas gift from me then ;) Anyway, I've got a tiny one of her freebies that should be decent to stitch and doesn't involve alot of colours. We'll see :) Just think of how many more projects that would be completed from the stash if there were two of us to do it?? ;)

Last night I also went on the mad hunt for my cherry ball recipe, which is what Matt requested for his choice of cookie. After digging through the cookbooks (which are on the please sort me list when I get back) I finally found the itty bitty Tartan cookbook dad found when he was cleaning out his mother's house. Little old ladies sure knew how to cook the rich stuff back in the day. Mind you, some of the recipe names reflected the times and not the great multinational Canada we know today. It seems that anyone that had a regular recipe that wanted to make it sound fancy put Chinese in front of it! Authentic Chinese Brownies, never heard of them??? Of course when I got to the main dishes section was there any recipes for chicken almond su guy?? Kung Pao chicken?? Szechwan?? No :( Now back to the cherry balls! I went to the index, no cherry balls!! I got thinking, could I possibly be wrong about what cook book it came out of?? Frustrated and not wanting to leaf through the numerous cookbooks and magazines I sat down to read some of the old recipes. Then I came across "Secrets" and there were the cherry balls!! They truly were a secret ;)

From Santa to Bond

Arghhh...why oh why do I get sick right before Christmas and why oh why is it the only the one night that I leave my Christmas cards at work that it happens??? I guess I'll have to mail them and I guess they'll probably arrive during the 12 days of Christmas. I've never woken up sick out of the blue in awhile, usually I have the head cold for days before Friday's beast. What's worse is I don't feel a heck of alot better but I start vacation tomorrow afternoon and it would look quite fishy if I didn't show up for work. Sigh...

Ok...enough whining. I did at least get to watch a slew of Christmas specials with Alex Friday evening, Winnie The Pooh and Christmas Too was a Warm up to The Santa Clause on CBC. Alex now has a new favorite Christmas movie. He asked this morning if he could watch it again and I told him we'd see about renting it and maybe the sequel when I'm on holidays. I got quite a bit of lacing done during the specials :)

Saturday we had our quick trip to market and a disastrous trip bookshelf shopping. I'm a very skittish passenger (a car wreck will do that) so I tend to annoy Mathieu on the best of days, so me panicing when the elderly lady was driving up our lane and was going to turn into the handicap spot regardless if our car was coming or not was like the boy who called wolf. Although this did get us home earlier than planned so I worked on my Christmas Elf Fairy and did MORE lacing. We rented The Davinci Code and I started a stocking for ME. After weeks of stitching other gifts and working on Matt's stocking I was ready to do something for me. Back to the code...is it just me or does anyone get annoyed when they change trivial things from the book in the movie, things that just don't need to be changed...like Sophie being a brunette instead of a red head and her connection with her grandfather. In another movie, Where The Heart Is, they changed the number the main character was paranoid of. Why? I have no clue! Saturday was also my first time framing a piece of fabric that was a hair too short for the foam core, something that originally I had planned on framing in something smaller. I was a bit worried at first but was pretty impressed with the results.

Sunday I was still zonked. We slept in until 10 and then I made the executive decision to go to Bond alone, we've been trying to get a sitter since it openned in November with no luck and it's not on in the Miramichi when I'm there. I absolutely loved it. I wasn't looking forward to a blond bond but a throw back to high glamour and less cheesy gadgets was totally worth it. I spent the remainder of the afternoon packing (without the checklist that was sitting on my desk) and I'm happy to say it's only got a couple items left to do, woot! That should translate to just doing some baking with Alex and then do some stitching :) I'm going to load the clothing items in the van tonight and make a quick trip out to the house tomorrow to pick up the presents after work before hitting the road. I don't feel the need to tempt people all day with my van in the parking lot.

Let The Countdown Begin

Wow, I haven't been blogging much. Maybe it's been the baking, wrapping, finishing and of course a 'wild' night out ;)

So far we have three batches of fudge and a bowl of gingerbread dough which should be rolled out shortly. I'd planned on having a little more done by now but I wasn't planning on waking up with the cold Matt and Alex had last week and completely wiped out on Friday. I almost fainted when I woke back up and saw the clock at 12:30pm.

Wednesday night was really fun, Cathey has the best account of our night with Flat Shannon. It's a good thing we'd planned our night out to the chinese restaurant and chick flick about a month ahead of time or I'd probably have found myself too wiped out, like any other invitation this month. But getting out was awesome, the closest I've had to a real girl's night out next to retreat in awhile. It really recharged my batteries.

I did inventory on the closet last night and just have a couple more presents to wrap, which hopefully will be done tonight so I can box them for the trip to the Miramichi on Tuesday. Woot! Any of my stitchy time this week has been dedicated to lacing pictures and doing some ornament finishing on both a project for me, and two gifts.

Tis The Season from the 2006 Tiny Tidings for Alex's Teacher

Britty Kitty and Britty Puppy, two gifts (and my first attempt at making cording)

And this is just for me...

Now...back to work...

Deck The Halls

Well here's some pics of what we've been doing around the house...and compromising my stitching time

Our Tree & Côtéville

I have a tonne more pics but I'll save them for subsequent posts ;)

This weekend saw more prep of presents and the finale of gym and swim. It was bring a friend day so Alex brought his best bud Kayla, after he'd gone to her finale on Thursday. I took the kids for a festive donut and chocolate milk at Tim Horton's (gee, thankfully you guys aren't as critical as some on the boards or I might have to provide all of the nutritional info for the week ;)) The kids had a little impromptu playdate while I got groceries. I really hate the grocery trip with the non grocery items that make the bill skyrocket. I did find a monky flyer for Alex's stocking, something we say at retreat. I showed it to Matt the other week and must have had a broken one and forgot about the piercing shriek it lets out, which of course scared the poor cashier half to death when I threw it on the belt! How embarassing!! Of course the thing screamed all through the parking lot too every time the cart hit a bump ;)

Today was a Jam/Pump day. Why of why do I attract the people that show up late and are exactly the kind of person you'd NOT be beside. I get talkers or 7 foot people at the movies and today I got someone who came in late enough for the give yourself plenty of room or end up getting hit speal. Said person also decided halfway through the routine and stopped to watch the instructor, right in my path, oye. Then at pump the queen went and put her step right beside mine, with no room for me!! She even had the nerve to tell me to move my step forward. Then I went to get my weights and had someone drop a 2.5 to 5kg weight on my shoulder/collarbone...now that doesn't hurt or anything. Nothings worse than trying to stay composed in front of 30+ people when you're already having a bad day. Well at least I got more of my Christmas gifts ready. I can't wait to do some lacing this week.

I also started my bakefest this weekend which saw some really yummy new recipes such as Irish Cream fudge, Grand Marnier Fudge and some bits and bites. That's the one 'work' part of Christmas that I truly do enjoy :) Here's hoping for some actual time to put in on Mirabilia's Christmas Fairy this week ;)

Did You Ever...

Have read a post on a bb that just ticked you off?? For Example this just drove me up the wall and back down again...

This woman just dumbfounds me. In July our 4-H club planned a trip to a high-mountain lake for canoeing and swimming. Her son was 8. She asked if someone could give him a ride. I said, "Did you ask an adult to be responsible for him?" She replied, "No, I didn't think I needed to."
I am currently organizing the Homeschool Ski Program involving nearly 70 people. Today the same mom asked another family if they could give her son a ride to the hill. They refused, saying that they didn't feel they could be responsible for him. "Well, Heidi didn't say I had to have someone responsible for him." DUH!

And responses such as

-"It's always amazing to me the number of parents that look upon these activities as free babysitting. I really feel sorry for their kids. "
-"Sadly, common sense isn't very common anymore.

And even more sadly, many parents just don't seem to care about actually *parenting* anymore.

When organizing trips, be sure that the first thing on the cover of your list of details, permission slips, etc. is a notice that EVERY PARENT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN CHILD and if their child is going without a parent, the parent is required to get another adult to agree to be the responsible party for that child and accept liability."

And the killer

"Makes you wonder does this woman leave her son alone at home unattended? How could anyone ask strangers to take her son to some place and just leave him alone? She has got to either take him herself or pay a sitter to take him and tend to him.

Yes, you have got to do papers that say child has to be taken by parents or responsible sitter or relative. Can not be dropped off or left alone on its own."

Its?? Obviously this isn't a real parent children are not an 'it'...or only on certain occasions?? ;) What on earth is up with people being overly critical of today's parents?? Bah Humbug?? Quite frankly I like the screening that most organizations do to their leaders, at least in Canada and I really wouldn't be overly happy with some of the other parents tagging along...or someone going just to be a guardian, what's that crazy percentage of a child related sex offenses being by a family member or friend of the family...trusted people...yeah I like some level of screening of who's around my son. My goodness, the economy almost demands that both parents work, and I know lots of working moms that burn both ends of the candle to be uber moms and are very hands on with what time they have.

I'm grateful we live in a nation who's justice system doesn't permit quite as many lawsuits! Whatever happened to "It takes a village to raise a child". I'd be more than happy (and do) drive other children around and ammore than willing to have an emergency playdate (or even a babysitting one). Letting one's child watch a tv show here and there is not a babysitter. Children have bad days just like alot of adults I know.

So to those who feel overly critical of todays moms...stop lumping us in with the wingnuts that have and always will be around...and BAH HUMBUG!

Final Score: Spiral Tree 2 Katie 1

Ack...I love the look of spiral trees but my good lord they hate me. I came home all excited to put up my new multicoloured tree, the same company and size as the last tree, went to put it on the existing pole and it wouldn't go...so then I assembled the new one, brought it outside and it still wouldn't fit over the hole. Spiral tree 2. I even tried frigging with it to get the star to possibly be propped. By this time I was getting a little irate. So my next trip out to the tree I had a power drill and the biggest drill bit I could find in the house and drilled the stupid thing until the hole was wide enough to fit. Katie 1 My neighbors must think I'm crazy ;)

Yesterday I got the remaining icicle lights up inside. Although doing the picture window lights was not the best thing to do before heading to work, I ended up with a Christmas cactus bud in my hair!! Mom came down to pick up her wreath and we went out for a wonderful family supper at Boston Pizza. My son, being the creature of habit that he is quickly picked up that we had not ordered our usual appetizer of cactus cut potatoes ;) He brought one of his Franny K Stein books with him to show his uncle. Afterwards we ran a couple of errands and picked up some food for Matt then settled in for a nice visit :) Why on earth do they put Christmas specials on so late that school aged kids can't watch them. I was shocked to see Santa Claus is Coming to Town on at 9 pm, I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and purchase that one (it's one of my favorites). I stitched as well and finished my Hope needleroll. I can't wait to stuff it and put it on the tree.

Today's been one of those days, kid that didn't want to go to school, van that didn't want to defrost, people that don't respect people's calendars and schedule meetings, one that even spans over the lunch time slot (well too bad, I'm going to my son's christmas concert) I'll be happy to arrive home tonight, hopefully with the pictures for the Christmas cards...

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who supported the school's wreath campaign, raffle draw and bazarre this year. These events raised over 16,000$ for Alex's school (on top of the 7,000$ they raised for Unicef), hopefully for some Smartboards to go with their new amplification systems they purchased last year. :) Thanks Again :)

Spiral Tree 1 Katie 0

Well, last week was another busy week. I was soo glad to see the bazarre finally roll around. Friday after BodyPump Alex and I loaded the 3 loaves of cinnamon bread, 2 dozen mini pumpkin muffins, 2 dozen brownie bit cookies and 2 dozen worth hoarding chocolate bars (thanks Cathey for saving my disorganized neck...I knew she'd be able to find the copy of the JCS I was missing in about 2 seconds) into the van and took them to the school. What a zoo! Alex helped me bring the food in and then we picked up the wreath orders. Alex practiced the whole way home saying 'Thank you for supporting my school' but by the time we got to Faith Ann's I could barely understand what he blurted out ;) He really wanted to stay and play and I got to hear the whole way home how disappointed he was that he couldn't stat to play, thankfully it's a very short drive.

We decided to skip the Christmas tree festival Friday night where it was freezing rain off and on. I brought up the ornaments and was surrounded by glass ones when the power flicked about 3 times followed by a boom off in the distance. Of course everything beeped as it died and woke up Alex who is terrified of the dark. After my eyes adjusted I was able to make it out of the glass forcefield I'd built while someone looked for his flashlight. I got to put my decorative candles to good use ;) He then went searching for the phone book to call NBPower, somewhere the 'I already programmed that number into the phone' was not getting through as Katie programmed the speed dial on the land line for NBPower. We all ended up in the same bed and sealed off the bedroom incase we would be without power for awhile. When we woke up it was back :)
We rushed out to Gym but skipped the Swim as you really need to be at the bazarre first thing. Our early arrival was rewarded when I got to the 2nd time around table and picked up a Magic Treehouse book, Lemony Snicket #4 hardcover, Ramona book and a George Shrinks DVD for 2.25 :) The boys meanwhile navigated all of the games and picked me up a little something from the secret shop for Christmas :) We had lunch there and headed out, we never win draws so why stick around for them...

I drug the boys grocery shopping as well, the family that suffers together stays together :) Neither was too pleased, especially when we got to the line up and it was a wait. I left them and the cart and headed to the shoe section and found a pair of Nike Air Assaults (I think) for 30$ less than the Footlocker. Matt's mother gave us money for Christmas and I desperately needed new sneakers for the gym and these fit the supportive bill. We unloaded and began decorate the tree, or correction, I worked on the lights and ribbon. I was dancing around the living room to John Denver and the Muppets singing Old St Nick and low and behold it finally started to snow. I called Alex out and he was just as excited as me. We then started decorating, Alex was much more into it this year!! The tree though did not seem to want to stay straight so we headed out to the mall for supper and to find something to tie it with :) After that we headed to the Christmas tree festival. Alex would have enjoyed it more if we hadn't had such a busy day but he still thought it was pretty neat. His favorite part was the ginger bread houses. Highlights for us, a girl guide cookie tree, present's under the police tree wrapped in evidence reports and bows of crime tape, and even a picture of our old apartment was on a tree!! One of the real estate companies bought out our old place and had all of their properties on. Another neat tree was the Women in Forestry tree, all forestry stuff in glittery pink, that got my vote for best tree :) Then we headed home, stuffed and wiped!

Sunday was low key. I headed to Pump after lunch and then finished the stocking shopping, even picking up Santa's 'naughty' reading material ;) I also found a light bulb tester and when I returned home decided to try to fix the spiral tree that only half lit up and all I got for my efforts was a borderline sprained finger, scratched up knucles and a half inch gash in my finger for what turned out to be a dead socket. Needless to say I picked up a new spiral tree today and may just light the old one on fire ;)

So yes...no stitching this weekend :( Although sometimes it's nice to have a little break from it. I'm all set up to finish my JD Needleroll for this year and put it on the tree tonight :) Here's hoping...

Wacky Wednesday

Phew...Last night was busy! Matt was home sick all day so I got him to pick up Alex so I could get to a class at the gym to make up for at least one of the ones I missed last week. It was interesting to say the least! It was the new release of Body Jam and it involved alot more spinning and jumping than the last one. Needless to say there were lots of flying bodies during what one instructor called the "African Disco" segment.

I returned home and heated up the remainder of our homemade cream of mushroom soup (which Alex actually tried and liked) and made some 'garden style' quesadillas. While Alex was in the tub I put in a batch of dough for cinnamon rolls and made a batch of pumpkin mini muffins for the bazarre, tonight I'll make another batch of dough and the squares so Thursday I'll only need to make a batch of cookies. After all that was complete and Alex was in bed after another chapter of Franny K Stein, I got to throw yet more clothes in the wash, shower and edit some photos on the computer for a gift I need to order tonight. So by 9:40 I was pretty zonked and headed to bed...with my needleroll in tow. I finished the dreaded over one stitching in the candles and shut the light off. This needleroll is progressing much smoother than the one I did for retreat :) Hopefully if all goes smoothly it'll be beaded tonight!

Tonight's agenda a) pick up remaining ingredients for bazarre cook off b)pick up kid c) do homework with kid and prep baking 'center' d)throw supper in oven e)fix son's beaver uniform f) start more sweet dough g) put squares together h)possibly make cookies i)drop kid off at Beavers j)Get workout in and bead k)Read chapter of Franny L)Squeeze in shower m)slay dragon (ie: geek stuff) n) head to bed....really not that bad a night...not!! Thankfully tomorrow is hot lunch day so I only need to pack recess. I'll be sooo glad when Saturday evening rolls around ....by then the tree should be decorated, the bazarre over with and I'll be looking forward to a relaxing week ahead with 'optional' baking. I seriously must have done to pledge sheet before medication!! ;)

A Week in Review

Where oh where oh where have we been? Last week was one of those weeks that you just want to crawl up and ignore some of the goings on and rejoice in the others.

Tuesday: Headed to Angela's for some stitching and bitching and also taking in all of the progress they've made on their home which is truly gorgeous

Wednesday: Day from Hell...After prepping poor Alex for his 'booster' we get to public health and don't 'need' it for school admission. I was pissed to say the least. I got a letter from the school that was forwarded all the way to district office about it and for no reason whatsoever. I tried calling both public health and the school to find out what shot was missing to confer with my doctor, neither could tell me sh*t. I found out that the 'audits' were done in the spring and that the school had left off telling me until a day or two before the last day they were legally obligated to. So, I spent hours trying to track down this 'needle', had to take an hour and a half off of work to go to public health, lost my parking space, burnt a load of gas for what...to be thrown in the same barrel as the deadbeat parents. There is one well worded letter being compiled for head office!

Thursday: Fun Day...Had another appointment with my doctor (two appointments in one week, yuck...at least only one was for me). Then I got to go home. Mom and Jazz came up for a visit and Alex was excited to let Jazz out when we got there. After supper we headed to the school for parent teacher. Alex was pretty excited to show mom his school and they headed off to the bookfair. The meeting went well and Alex found some new books at the bookfair (and thankfully avoided the Magic Treehouse book I'd already picked up). He now has another favorite book series Franny K Stein-Mad Scientist by Jim Benton, although Matt wanted to know who enjoyed them more, Alex or myself.

Friday: Out on the town...we had a nice outing with mom to Scott's nursery, house 'hunting', a little christmas shopping and a nice lunch at Quiznos. Alex only had a bratty moment at Scott's and was eventually turned around and happy as a clam. We got home to Matt telling me I had to go to the school...I was ticked, I had been looking forward to walking the dog before mom headed back...but Alex was drawn as the grand prize winner at the bookfair winning 25$ worth of books...that had to be picked out by 3... and it was 2:30. So we hightailed it in to town. I guess his teacher was pretty excited as the class got 25$ worth of books as well. I'd planned on going into town after mom left to get groceries and didn't want to make another trip in so I bit the bullet and took Alex with me, and didn't have my trusty list or menu. Oh well... After supper we went to the treelighting at Scott's but didn't stay for the whole thing that was really drug out for one wound up kid. He was pretty excited to see Callie sing and we got to chat with Eleni and Craig for awhile (and Jackson worked his...really you want another one just like me charm on Matt). Oh during our trip out with mom I got the last set of lights for my village and it's now lit!!

Saturday: Run AWAY: Ok...I left the boys Saturday morning to go stitch. With inlaws incoming and I needed to recoup some sanity. Their trip was uneventful, besides our trip to the parade...note to parents don't put new boots on your child before said event. Alex ended up on Matt's shoulders for most of it with my mittens on his feet if it's any indication of how that went! The highlight of the parade for him? Most kids are happy with Santa, mine went ape over the mascot for Boston Pizza!! All you could hear for a block was 'Hi Boston Pizza Guy!!!' until he was out of sight, Santa got a Merry Christmas a wave and that was it!!

Sunday: Our company left just in time for me to miss the second of my classes, sigh... Oh well, Alex and I still had time for a stitching playdate over at Faith Ann's. Alex was begging to go back if that's any indication of how well they played together.

Monday: Flex day off!! Alex and I had a nice day planned...with sewing of a christmas gift and wrapping Matt's gifts planned...until he showed up home sick. sigh... We met Angela and Eleni for lunch. The boy has been obsessed with trying clams since he saw them in a menu on our Miramichi trip! After that we took the bottles in and headed up to Fabricville where there was a really bad diesel smell so they called 911, of course everyone was rushing to get out and stuck with an incompetant cashier...top that off with "I've GOTTA PEE!! I don't want to pee my pants' and you can begin to guess how pleasant it was! And it only got worse, just as I was about to pull out of there to take Alex to the bathroom a firetruck pulled in behind our spot!! So we made a mad dash to Tim Horton's... I did manage to wedge the van out and head to the mall. First order of business, take Alex to Santa :) We did a little shopping too, Alex got to take the bottle money to Chapters where he was down right awestruck at the full collection of Magic Treehouse books (and ticked when I told him they were off limits for his purchase). Fast forward to two tired redheads driving in the yard ready to wrap and watch a movie to find out we no longer had the house to ourselves, sigh... Not that I don't love Matt's company, it's just very rare that I ever get the house to myself!! After supper I settled in to stich and watch Doctor Who and Heroes. I tried to watch Dexter but it was just too gross for me. Whenever Matt was out of the room I started basting the cording on the stocking, oye...

Today: No plans besides body Jam, woot!! I need to make a pan of squares for school and that's about it for me!!

Just One of the Things We've Been Up To In The Last Week

'Tis The Season

Woo hoo, there's no better way to start a weekend than with a report card that shows obvious improvement!! Alex's report card was sooo much better than last year, and much more positive. I also got back to Body Pump, which was good, I've been feeling a bit blah due to the missed gym sessions either due to our hectic schedule or colds/headaches. My goal is to make it to two body pump classes a week and then get back up to three in January.

Saturday was the usual run around day, Gym and Swim went relatively well and then Alex and I headed for groceries. For supper Matt decided to have a special dinner out at Pizza Hut and Alex got to order his cheesy bites pizza (essentially cheese filled garlic bread mini buns make up the outer crust). After we returned to the house I grabbed my iPod and keys and headed to Green Village for their annual tax free sale. The trees were gorgeous but I didn't end up getting too much as I already had alot of the ornaments. I picked up some snowment and that was about it. They didn't have indoor mini LED lights which I was a bit disappointed about. After that I headed to Walmart to look for the LED lights (again no luck), resisted the urge to heckle the suckers waiting in line for the Wii and find some replacement bulbs for the village. I was tickled pink when I found a 5 light strand for the village!! That definitely reduced the number of wires!! I couldn't remember exactly how many houses I had so I withheld on a second strand but of course I got home and found that I had exactly 5 more houses to do!! Oh...I also got all of the outdoor decorations put up during the mild weather...

Sunday we slept in so I stitched on Alex's teacher's present until the Body Jam/Body Pump combo at 12:30. After that I tried a couple more stores looking for the lights with no luck. Oh well! It was so mild that Alex and I were able to go for a bike ride around the block when I got home and then we made 'Worms in dirt' for dessert (chocolate pudding, oreo crumbs and gummy worms).

Monday was a bit hectic, it just seemed hard to get going in the morning. I tried out a new recipe from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry and Jellystone Pork was a huge hit. After Alex went to bed I settled in with my stitching and watched Doctor Who. By the end of the episode I had a little happy dance which was actually quite monumental, I'd finished Alex's teacher's Christmas gift (Tis The Season from the latest Lizzie Kate Tiny Tidings), it also marked the end of 'gift' stitching!! Seeing as Justice was a repeat at 9 I celebrated by making some healthy caramel apple muffins and tidying up the kitchen ;) Then I settled back in and watched Heroes and dedicated my full attention to it, and it rocked!! I meant to go downstairs after and get the pom poms for Tis The Season but the evil Sylar had me too scared to go down in the basement alone...who wants to have their head cut open and brain removed anyway?? ;)

Matt had a little surprise for me as well yesterday, a CARD!! Not only was it monumental because it was a card but he'd also doctored up an anniversary card to mark 1/2 a year, wow!! :)
Tonight I'll be stitching with the girls for a bit, I can't wait to see the improvements on Angela's house!! I need to track down my JCS though first so I can get back to my Hope needleroll :)

Twenty Dollars

Just incase any of you need a reminder of how special you are ;)

$20.00

Sometimes we just need to be reminded!
A well-known speaker started off his seminar by
holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked,
"Who would like this $20 bill?"
Hands started going up.
He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you
but first, let me do this.
He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill.
He then asked, "Who still wants it?"
Still the hands were up in the air.
Well, he replied, "What if I do this?"
And he dropped it on the ground
and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.
He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.
"Now, who still wants it?"
Still the hands went into the air.
My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson.
No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it
because it did not decrease in value.
It was still worth $20.
Many times in our lives,
we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt
by the decisions we make and
the circumstances that come our way.
We feel as though we are worthless.
But no matter what has happened or
what will happen, you will never lose your value.
Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased,
you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you.
The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know,
but by WHO WE ARE and WHOSE WE ARE.
You are special - Don't EVER forget it."