Giggles Happy Dance

Yay, a Giggles happy dance...now if I only had a digital camera, the pic will have to wait on my roll of film getting close to completion (plus my anal retentive self would like to do a small fix to the 'w').

Last night was fairly peaceful. When we arrived home Matt had left for the after hours clinic so Alex and I did his homework and then I made a double batch of bread dough and the base for some squares for the bakesale Saturday and threw those in the freezer. Alex was very excited that we were having the maple pork for supper to which I had a mini 'yay, he gets excited over real food finally' moment.

Matt returned home just before Alex's bedtime, with a good chunk of dad's Clive Cussler book read from the long wait at the clinic. After Alex was tucked in and I showered I sat down with Matt and Giggles and caught last week's Lost. I was finding it really annoying as the transition between days felt like a deleted scenes reel on a DVD but the end was pretty intense. I can't wait until Wednesday, Lost should be awesome and there is supposed to be a 'smack down' in the fortress of solitude between Clark and Spike 'er Brainiac/Prof Fine on Smallville.

Nothing too much on the schedule for tonight, I've gotta do some more prep work for the baking challenge at school and then Bones is on at 9. I'm going to sort through my current project box and rid it of any floss colours that are not needed in The Wedding and then it's back to stitching that project ;) Oh if only I could clone myself and send the clone to work, that or win the lotto :)

On The Verge

Oh it's so hard to come in to work when I'm *this* close to a stitching happy dance! If I only could have stayed up an additional hour last night Giggles would be complete now! Beading is done and now it's just doing back stitching around the letters "S" and "N" and backstitching a couple tufts of snow and his pompom. Thankfully the beading is all done and I didn't run out of Kreinik as I thought I would.

A Weekend In Review

Sigh...where do the weekends go? We had a fairly busy weekend++

After work on Friday we came home and got Matt and went to Sarah's Sweet Delights to set down the ground work for our cake, next week we go for the taste testing to see what flavors we're putting on our anniversary layer and what's going on the gift openning layer (the lord beaverbrook has dessert included in the meal price so we're only serving the cake the next day). After we wrapped up there (and trying one of her delicious eggnog white chocolate truffles) we headed up to the Fredericton Mall to attempt to Wake Up Santa. Alex LOVED the magician's show (thanks Faith Ann for letting us know about it), although by the end of the night I think our eardrums were going to shatter from all the little kiddies eeks and shreeks at the magician. It was so cute listening to them singing christmas carols to try to wake up santa (he was REALLY in bed). Instead of waiting in the insane line we went and had supper and then came back for Alex's trip to Santa which consisted of "Hi, I'm Alex and I love Star Wars", only waiting about 5 minutes.

Saturday morning I took Alex to the kids crafts session at Kents where he painted a christmas decoration. Then we headed over to Green Village to check out the christmas decorations (I could so move in there), went to see my grandmother who wasn't home (while we were on that side of the river) and then headed into the dollarstore which had the folders that Karoline had at stitching night, they're too neat!! A duotang with 10 plastic page protectors that you can slide your current project in and out of (much more helpful when working on an SB). When we returned home I worked on Giggles and then took a much deserved nap. That evening we went to Williams for some fish and chips and then I worked some more on Giggles' beading. Oh...and I made three batches of playdough for Alex's school's Christmas Bazarre!

Today was also quite busy. At 12 I headed to Zellers to take advantage of the 10% off coupon Faith Ann had dropped of (thanks again) Friday and I'm now FINISHED my Christmas shopping (including stocking stuffers). YAY!!!!! When I got home and hid the stuff I then cleaned out the coat closet and sorted hats and mittens into some nice new canvas baskets I'd picked up while christmas shopping. Then I went out and put up the new hooks for my christmas lights and put the lights up on one side of the front deck (hoping Matt won't notice if I do them gradually). Now it's off to making supper and hoping I can finish off Giggles tonight, lots of tv involved so it's definitley doable :)

Did I Celebrate 19lbs?

I know I've been down that much for a couple weeks but didn't want to make an official post until AFTER retreat, seeing as I wouldn't have much control over my meals for 4 days ;) But after my Newbody class today it was official!! I'm so close to being in another tenth place number :) It was kind of fun being at retreat 25lbs lighter than the last one (I'd lost the other 6 between last april-july).

Stealth Mode

Yeah, my car now runs in stealth mode ;) Yeah, I know it was loud when I took it in (or I wouldn't have taken it in ;)) but now it's quieter than when it arrived in Fredericton in the first place! I don't know what else they did to Betty (I name my vehicles) but she's also alot more responsive so I really need to start watching my spedometer. I remember many moons ago when Betty first joined the family in 96 that this was a 'problem' however in the last couple of years it hasn't been....now if only someone could turn back the clock that effectively on me for 200 bucks ;) Now whenever I pick people up they won't hear me coming...

Last night Alex and I went to look at fabric for the bridesmaid dresses for Lisa's wedding which was fun. We picked up some candycane ice cream on the way home along with some pizza toppings. After Alex went to bed and I showered and made my Silkweaver's order for a piece of Golden Harvest linen for my Ottawa Sampler, I plunked my butt down to bead and watched Joey, my taped episode of House and CSI for the first time all season (curls into ball and goes into Night Stalker withdrawl). Beading is coming along quite nicely on Giggles and I'm hoping to finish him up by mid-day tomorrow.

Today or tomorrow I'm hoping to finalize the wedding cake and then put out the exterior christmas lights. There's just so much to do ;) I think the boys will be tenting downstairs tonight which will be fun for Alex. Oh is it 5 yet???

Welcome Logan!

Yay, Shannon's had her not so little (9 lbs 1 oz) boy last evening. I was sooo excited to see the pictures of him this morning. It amazes me how technology can make it feel like my friends in Ottawa are just next door!

Stitchy night was great! There was lots of oooh'ing and aaaah'ing over Faith Ann's new framed pieces, they both look so pretty. I needed it last night too, after grocery shopping and fretting over the fact that the car was going in the shop (she didn't sound too good) in the morning it was nice to sit back and stitch to the point of beading. I did get a little distracted and checked out the Usborne catalogue that Faye had brought in and of course ordered some really nice books for Alex for Christmas. We also got into a discussion about the new provincial nutrition policy which is going into effect, which has crossed a line in my opinion and of course Alex's school made the CBC about it. I'm not so sure anymore that Alex's pumpkin chocolate chip muffin came home the other week because he didn't have time (1/4 cups of chocolate chips in the entire batter isn't going to completely negate the cup of pumpkin, half cup of carrots, 1/2 cup of wheat germ, honey instead of sugar, low fat eggs instead of egg and applesauce instead of oil, sheesh) and kind of makes me angry considering I had to hear from an ashamed child that he had been sent to the office twice and only then did I find out he needed help with his fine motor skills. It was the one and only time I ever sent a baked good to school and I firmly believe it to be better for him than his low sodium/low fat ham on whole wheat sandwich. sigh... Anyway off of my soap box...

Today's trip to the garage wasn't as expensive as I was thinking, phew... Just the water pump and AC pump going and seeing as I haven't used the AC since 2001 due to a leak (it is a '94) they bypassed it for me, I'm soo anxious to hear it purr again. Now for a nice walk over to the northside of the city after work to pick her up.

Eleni and Jackson were in today and I finally got to Williams (hence the need for walking to pick up the car). My land he's grown and looks like the picture of health! I got to give her the Alfred Angelo brochure with the bridesmaid gowns in it, another wedding thing done ;)

Tonight I'm not sure what I'll be up to, I'd like to stitch and do the beading but with things being so crazy I may do something with Matt if he's not busy. Now that my Nightstalker has been cancelled I have some tvless time to either compute or read my HP book :)

It's Stitchy Night

Yay, just what I need, some retreat debriefing, I'm really looking forward to a stitchy night with the girls! ;) Last night after making some pumpkin muffins, making two batches of marinade (one for tonights chicken kabobs and another to put in the freezer), doing a load of laundry, homework, bathing Alex and finishing up a warlock quest, I finally got to plunk my butt down and stitch while watching Bones. Oh how I love Angel...I mean David Boreanaz ;) I really like the show's dialog, it's got the same kind of witty/pop culture references/dead panning/sarcasm that I adored in Buffy and Angel, mix that with an anthropological/scientific concept and I'm hooked. Considering how engrossed I was in the show I did get quite a bit done, I should be beading about an hour into tonights stitching session :)

Last night I lugged the remainder of the christmas gifts in while the boys were too busy to notice (besides the parcel I'm awaiting from amazon which has Alex's Laugh With Chirp book and one of my brother's presents, oh and a little something for Matt). I'm actually really excited about the Matt component of that parcel, without going into detail as goodness knows when he reads this it's come highly recommended and I managed to get it for 10$ off the regular price. Now to continue wrapping. I also developed a stitching strategy for a band sampler that I'd like done for christmas which has me pretty excited without slowing down my Wedding progress too much ;)

Can Retreat Actually Be Over??

Oh we had a wonderful weekend at retreat!! We started with a shopping trip in Moncton where I found some presents for Alex at Old Navy and the Disney store (6.99 adult and children's shirts yippee). Our first stop however was at Barbara Ann's Cottage, it was sad to see it so empty. Then we headed to BYC and picked up more stash, I picked up some new fabric, the latest Lizzie Kate santa(*2) and tiny tidings, some NN perle cotton, mill hill beads and my candle wrap pattern. :) We were disappointed to see Atlantic Fabrics had gone out of business, good thing I got my membership money's worth out of my Sizzix purchase. Michael's was sooo pretty with all of it's Christmas decor, I really hope the rumor is true and that there's one coming to town this spring. After all this, and a stop at the Roots outlet store we headed to Montana's and I had the best apple butter bbq rib tips ever!! It was fun to meet up with Lisa and Dawn her other bridesmaid. We then lugged all of our purchases to Cathey's grandmother's who graciously took us in for the evening. I never thought I'd be the first one to sleep at half past ten, but of course we did some power shopping.

Friday morning I was up at 6:30 and read in the dining room until Cathey got up around 7:30 or so. We did make it to Wildwood by 10 to 10 so we were doing pretty good. It was great to see everyone again although we were by ourselves (fredericton group wise) until about noon. For supper we headed to Pizza Delight (friday 's supper was only available to those that had paid for thursday night too) and Lucy, Angela and I shared an amazing Santa Fe chicken skillet pizza on a garlic sesame crust, yum. When we returned to camp I finished up Dry Turkey and assembled my Joy Needleroll.

Saturday was a relaxed day, we checked out the local craft fair and I got two cute tole painted ornaments at a steal. We also headed to Frenchy's where I found Alex a Children's Place shirt and a pair of Calvin Klein jeans for 4 $ total ;) We also stopped at the dollar store where I found Alex a whoopie cushion for his stocking. Saturday I was good and got the imprint of the angel done for Giggles between then and time to leave on Sunday.

Saturday night we got a bit foolish ;) During snack we decided to see if the whoopie cushion worked so I snuck down to our circle and placed it under Tracy's cushion as she had a nice hard chair for it to sound off against. When she sat down during door prizes the expression on her face was priceless but we couldn't hear it. Apparently it had made a little "wvooot" sound and she was looking around to see where it came from, when she brought it back over we were laughing so hard we were in tears and just then Lucy's name was called so we put it on her chair and she was laughing so hard she plopped down on it and it let out a big one. I then lent it to the quebec group while we were checking out an inflatible duck on a toilet that Cathey and I were accused of putting there. Gee just because we got out a whoopie cushion and had our top 5 things to do at retreat shirts on doesn't mean we were up to that nonsense ;) When we returned from our duck hunt the cushion was on my seat so I picked it up and noticed Cathey talking about the duck as we got settled back in so I made a split second toss which landed perfectly on her seat. I haven't laughed that hard in ages :)

Sunday it was sad to see people packing up (oh and I bought more stuff at the BYC mini store, bad me, but the little Zweigart elves were there from the back of this years JCS) but I still stitched away. I was so happy to receive Tracy's ornament in the exchange. We packed up after lunch and headed home. We got stuck behind a fire truck who wouldn't let anyone pass for half an hour, when we finally got to the accident I would say a moose had been involved as the car was totalled and the roof crushed :( Alex was very excited to see me arrive home and that just topped off the perfect weekend !!

My Bags Are Packed...

I'm ready to go. I'll be waiting here outside my door...I can't wait for Cathey to pick me up (ok, I can't sing or ad lib songs). I'm so excited for retreat it isn't even funny, I REALLY need a couple days away without the *poof* 'what do you want?', sometimes I really feel like the genie in Aladdin. What's worse is Matt has been on his air exchanger rants, to top off wanting to move the wedding as three guests *might* be invited to another wedding the same weekend as ours. Good grief. I get really frustrated as his sinus problems are stemming from something that needs to be fixed medically (and free in Canada) but would rather shell out money to help it. I'll be soo glad to veg in Moncton tonight!!

Last night I got all of my stuff together for retreat and it's sitting in the kitchen. I almost forgot my light but I'm sure Cathey would have reminded me. It was so hard trying to decide what to pack for projects, you hate to lug too much stuff but it's nice to have a back up project should you need to frog as that's not what retreat is about ;) I packed up my new jammie pants which I'm sooo excited about (comfortably wearing a size smaller rocks). Also yesterday I did my weigh in and I'm officially down 19lbs since the engagement but 25 since the last retreat so I packed some of my nicer clothes for a 'look at me now' moment. I'd still like to take off at least another 15 but I'm much happier at this weight, I have my face back!!

Yippee in three hours we'll be hitting the road!!!!!!!

One More Sleep Til Retreat

I don't think I've ever needed retreat more!! Between wedding date craziness, poor Alex getting sent for quiet time at school and trying to remember my french it's been one crazy month already. I definitely need the stitching break before the holiday season!!

Last night while waiting for the minister to arrive (which the church office failed to notify us that he'd had surgery) I actually ornamentified while watching Bones. It was my first attempt at gluing an ornament and I must say I was very pleased! I also put a hanger on my retreat exchange ornament and put them both in the tote.

Tonight I'm heading out for groceries, making the filling for a tortiere for the boys while I'm away and then packing, lots of fun that's all going to be!! Oh well, just one more sleep...

A Little Bit of Everything Looks Like A Whole Lotta Nothing

Last night I had great intentions of finishing Dry Turkey, not so. Matt did finish the vacuuming which meant I did get the kitchen and bathroom floor scrubbed and I did get the mirrors cleaned in the bathroom and did another load of laundry so I was all set to stitch after tucking Alex in. He had a time out handed out by Matt just before bed so I hopped in bed to give him a little tlc and to say our prayers together. After our standard Now I Lay me Prayer I did my own little one to thank God for Alex and when I was done Alex bursted into tears and said he'd been to the principal's office that day and on Halloween. The poor little guy was soo ashamed. So I stayed in his room alot later than expected explaining that he needs to learn to control his mouth just like he needed to learn control for potty training, that tomorrow is a new day and that it was very good that he was honest about it and that we still loved him very much. I calmed him down and stayed in bed until he was sound asleep.

I didn't feel like stitching much after that so I emptied out the tote for retreat and started packing. I logged into the computer for a little bit and then headed to bed, reading half a chapter out of the Order of the Phoenix and then turning out the light. Alex seemed in much better spirits this morning and I kept reminding him that today was a new day and after a whole lotta hugs he was ready to go to school. I was going to meet up with a friend for lunch today but she had to cancel and where I don't have my book on me I don't feel like running on the elliptical so I think I'll go home and do some serious retreat packing. I can't believe its only two more sleeps away!!

A Shoppy Weekend

Wow, I never thought I'd see that title. Years ago when we were poor and living in an apartment I seemed to do a heck of alot more shopping ;) This Saturday was the annual 20% off sale at the mall so I dropped in for a peek after taking the bottles in, visiting with one of the nicest wedding cake vendors around, picking up my frame and stopping by market. By the end of my little excursion Alex had two new pairs of Jeans from the Children's Place, I'd bought a Christmas gift for friend Shannon (from my brief Acadia stay) and her bundle of joy they're expecting any day now, a cute little christmas themed Christmas object to go with my brother's gift and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles playset which walmart had for 39.99 instead of the 59.99-69.99 Sears wanted for it. Yippee!

Sunday I worked more on the Dry Turkey by Raise The Roof that I thought I'd finish (but more shopping ensued), tonight though... We took Alex to Chicken Little and then I picked up my pants that I was kicking myself for not buying when they were 20% off at laSenza and got to show Matt what I wanted for Christmas in there (and YAY, I'm down a size in there). I definitely needed new pj pants for retreat, my pink ones keep falling off or are hanging way too low for public viewing ;) Matt took us to A&W for supper, which I just don't crave anymore so it was no biggie.

When we got home we started tidying up, which lead to an incident with the vacuum. Matt usually cleans an area then vacuums it, well Saturday he tidied the living room so I assumed that would be his first area of attack when he started the machine up...fast forward to Sunday where the machine still hasn't been going and Alex needs a bath. I got Matt to vacuum the hair and fuzzies in the bathroom before splashing kid was inserted and for some reason instead of heading to the logical area, being the living room, he headed to the hall. Not too long later I could hear a very ticked off Matt from the basement. Apparently he'd stuck the head of the vacuum into our room before it was tidied and he'd managed to catch the end of a spool of perle cotton and overheated the motor! I felt only slightly to blame as he knows he should tidy up before actually running the vacuum into a room (especially with Alex now playing with action figures and their itty bitty parts) but I bit my tongue and kept on tidying up. ;) He eventually turned back to a nice shade of human.

Tonight I need to ornamentify (which I'd planned on doing this weekend before shopping ensued), finish Dry Turkey and get packing for retreat. I can't believe it's only 3 more sleeps away!!! :)

2005 Dragon Dreams Christmyth Happy Dance

Well, here's my Satyr finally although the scan sucks...I so need a digital camera!! This makes his poor eyes look huge! But I'm happy dancing none the less...not only for that but the 4% raise I received today to...just in time for retreat shopping!!

Back to School

Today I got to go to school twice, once as the bus must have broken down as it drove up the road, turned into the subdivision and disappeared for 25+ minutes, how much longer I don't know as I put Alex in the car and drove him to school as I was late for work. Then I got to return to the school at 9 to read to Alex's class :) I almost burst into tears as he lead me to the rocking chair, he looked too proud. We read The Spooky Old Tree (which is my old book) and What Makes a Rainbow, Alex's other favorite book. The girls in his class REALLY like the WMaR book as it has ribbons that pull through with each colour and eventually makes a rainbow.

Last night I did get some stitching in, although I went to bed fairly early (I can't seem to stay up to 10 with this time change). I finished the cross stitching on my DD Satyr, now to backstitch it when I get home. Cathey's convinced me to stitch Raise The Roof's Dry Turkey so I guess I'll be bad and not work on the wedding ALL weekend. I also need to do some ornamentifying before reatreat. This time next week I'll be counting down the minutes until we head for Moncton/Bouctouche!! Yippee!!

I've been sorted

be sorted @ nimbo.net

Finally, A Stitching Night!!

Well, finally after a little break I got some stitching in, though it was not nearly as productive as it could have been (ie: half the colours had decided to go into hiding) but I did get the 2005 Christmyth Satyr started while watching Smallville and Supernatural. Yay that means one less hour (Smallville was an original broadcast) of taped shows that I'm behind on :) I even managed to get a chapter of The Order of the Phoenix read last night yay!!

It was so nice going grocery shopping kid free last night, I was in and out of there in a flash and home and unloaded the car before Matt arrived home with Alex. I'm hoping to get to do that more often!! Mind you the one thing I didn't think about was swapping out the booster seat where I don't have to drop Alex off at Tracy's in the morning, I'll now have to make a detour on my morning trip to work to drop it off.

I was so ticked off shortly after supper when I listened to the messages on the phone, 1 friggin days notice for Home and School, I plan on speaking with the principle today or tomorrow about this. It's not as if they didn't know the last meeting time at the last meeting >:( Matt doesn't get home until the time the meeting starts normally on thursday and one day doesn't give nearly enough time to juggle his driving schedule, and I'm sure I'm not the only parent in this boat (or one similar). Pretty much all evening appointments for optometrists and dentists are also on Thursday so if people knew in advance not to book said date instead of being forced to choose between being involved in the school or facing another month or two long wait for an appointment, grrr...

This morning I got up a bit earlier than my alarm thanks to Matt turning on the light to find his keys so I made some pumpkin spice muffins for lunch. This particular recipe has alot of amazingly healthy items hidden in it (wheat germ, carrot) and today I tried sub-ing out the butter for applesauce and not a single difference in taste or texture (and they were already from the healthy cookbook, making them even better is a bonus). I just didn't feel like maple pork for lunch, which is odd because Alex ate most of mine. He even asked for my pork over his french fries, wow! I don't know if it's school or what but he now says 'trying new things is good', now that doesn't extend to the vegetable world but he's definitely now interested in lean cuts of meat, yay!!

Presenting My Trick or Treater! :)

Onto The Order Of the Phoenix!

Yay, I finally finished The Goblet of Fire last night!! Finding time to do my own reading has been so much harder since we had Alex that's for sure! I passed up my Tuesday night shows, headed straight for my jammies and tucked myself into my health sheets and started reading. Of course having my 40 minutes on the elliptical end with a character dying didn't spur this on or anything ;)

I was zonked when I got home, we got stuck in a huge traffic jam (which Matt had heard about but didn't bother to talk about as it didn't effect his schedule, I would have taken the Mazzerole Settlement detour) and came home to homework, blah! I really didn't feel like cooking but managed to pull together a very easy recipe for chicken parmesan off of the Kraft site while helping Alex with printing. This recipe essentially bakes the chicken in a can of primo tomato sauce with a couple tablespoons of parmesan stirred in, and later lightly topping the chicken with some mozzerella. Because there's a tonne of sauce I usually cook spaghetti noodles and serve the chicken and sauce on top and just serve it spaghetti style to Alex. Well...last night he took me up on the offer to try my chicken and lets just say I had about half my chicken breast! Tonight has maple port on the menu, I can't wait!

No stitching to report from last night, I was busy reading. I may try to stitch up Jennifer's latest Christmyth tonight to add to the collection. I'm actually semi looking forward to doing groceries after work too, A) to avoid the 5 pm traffic with construction and B) I've asked Matt where Wednesday is his work at home day to pick up Alex from daycare for a couple of weeks so I don't have to bring him grocery shopping, yay!

Happy Haunting

Wow....it's finally over! I'm one tired momma this morning that's for sure. We started off the night at about 5:30, Alex was a bit too excited and was running and not being very careful, which lead to me barking and I HATE doing that. After about 8 houses I heard a big crash, when the door was openning the kids shuffled and Alex fell between a small open section between someone's deck and house. He ended up with only a scratch and was ok, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as he slowed down and was alot more aware of his surroundings after that. Trick or treating went much smoother after that.

At about 7 we parted ways with Tracy and her girls and Laura and her daughter and headed for a quick detour to Faith Ann's. I parked down on the road so Alex could get some real use out of his flashlight instead of randomly pointing it at objects. We were about 10 steps away from the door when he said "Mommy, this is one of your cross stitching friends isn't it" (ie: mommy, I know you want to talk stitching but keep it short as it's my trick or treating night). We'd brought treats for her little guy as Matt was late getting home and missed them on their trick or treating run. Alex was over the moon about his Zwak punch, and asked for it for breakfast this morning (good thing I'd put it in the fridge last night). On our way back to the car Alex made a b-line for the playhouse which he thought was a halloween haunted house ;)

We finally got home and Matt had been creative with our jack's, putting the two smaller ones around the walkway. He'd arrived home late so he'd missed the kids, I never thought I'd see the day when I received less kids than my parents who were up 700% at 7 kids! We put our cauldron of candy out beside our witch and headed out to do part of our street. We even got to meet the new people on the block who are our age, yay! Alex got to pick one candy before bed, brushed his teeth and passed out and I wasn't too far behind him, briefly reading some Potter before drifting away to sleep (darn time change). Poor Matt wanted to watch a spooky movie but I was beat and tired...this weekend perhaps.

Good bye Daylight Savings Time

Well, having an extra hour to sleep is always good, and we needed it Saturday night as Alex needed to sleep in our bed after 4, he's just so wiggly and I'm not one to share my pillow!

We had a very nice weekend and productive. I raked a portion of the yard Saturday while Matt resealed some shingles and trimmed the tree that was rubbing against the house when windy. The boys went to get their hair cut and I went on a fruitless boot hunt but did find Alex some Christmas jammies ;) Saturday night I went to bed at 10 after getting mad for stitching in the wrong colour, after picking up what I thought was the rest of the white thread but when I put it under my mock ott-lite it wasn't the same, probably one of the shaders.

Due to our unexpected bedroom guest we didn't make it to church this morning but did attend the area's neighborhood watch halloween party. Alex had a great time roasting weenies, playing games, chasing the other power ranger and facing off against the three darth vaders. He even came in second place in the guess the weight of the pumpkin contest and won himself a cheeseburger and fries from mcdonalds. We also carved pumpkins today, we had so much fun carving our big one that we carved our two decorative pumpkins too! I have a tonne of seeds to roast when I find my recipe!! I also made some really good low fat/low cal pumpkin muffins out of Crazy Plates, much moister than my weight watchers recipe for them and for about the same points. I've done some frogging and stitching tonight as well as set up for the trick or treaters as I won't be getting home first tomorrow night. Now off to bed...

TGIF!

I'm so looking forward to the weekend. I'm hoping to get some stitching in on The Wedding and hopefully either finish off HP & and the goblet of fire or be pretty close, although we'll have to take a break in there somewhere to carve the pumpkin ;)

Last night was relatively quiet, with the exception on a new cousin (second or third, I forget how that goes) for Alex and a note from school informing us about performances and that the money was due yesterday, sheesh. It also involved getting groceries (my least favorite chore) and getting to bed early. ;) Oh and I did wrap 3 christmas gifts!! Another one of Matt's gifts arrived in the mail yesterday (thankfully on a day where he doesn't get to the mail first ;)) so now he's pretty much shopped for, dad's done and so is my brother Steven, plus most of Alex's toy related gifts are bought too! I love being almost done early!

Rita Skeeter Returns!

I have now renamed 'crazy bus stop mom' to Rita Skeeter, when she showed up at the bus stop (to drop off mittens for her son) today my stomach did a flip flop. Why Rita Skeeter, well for anyone who's read at least the 4th Harry Potter book they'd know that (unless there's some epiphany at the end of the book that I still haven't gotten to, hopefully today on the elliptical...) she's someone who takes and ounce of the truth and twists it into a tonne of tabloid news. So today instead of having our little mother son talk at the bus about our days I kept the conversation on quick little facts about our surroundings, I think Alex may have sensed this as it was the first time he's ever shouted back 'have a great weekend mom!' Why weekend I don't know but it sure made me smile. :)

Last night was a stitchy night, supper was a breeze as it was the one day a week to delve into the B-grade pizza box that showed up last week, yum! Then I headed over to Faith Ann's to pick up my ultra cool pumpkin cottage and I finally got to see the house which is so nice, I loved the colours. I'm soo going to paint some of mine after this wedding!!

I did get some stitching in last night after Alex went to bed, story time ran into the beginning of Smallville so we read the last couple pages in the living room. Alex wanted to watch too as he's pretty obsessed with superheros but thankfully as soon as he said that it was a commercial break so he was scooted to bed. I then parked my tooshie on the loveseat and stitched away at the weddding. I think this is going to be the first pattern I make a working copy of to mark up! I dropped by the computer room on my way to bed and logged my character in to pick up her Robes of Arcana and headed to bed.

I'm really not looking forward to grocery shopping tonight, not one little bit! Thankfully I don't need that much as with the trip to gram's for supper friday and the bgrade last night I have two meals to carry forward to this week, yay! Less planning!

Not much notice

Why do I sometimes feel that all the people that make home and school decisions are stay at home moms?? I guess my number one reason would be the lack of notice they give anyone but their inner circle, sigh. Case in point, bizarre organization, a whopping 2 days notice, some of us do exist that actually plan our weeks well in advance to juggle housework/kids/work/evening appointments so as not to take time off of work, thankfully I'm not a working mom with shift work either, 2 days just isn't enough and frankly inexcusible when you can post said information on the schools website. They want their wreath campaign to be successful, well how is is going to be when I just received it at 5 yesterday and have to have it in Thursday when Alex goes to school? It's too bad as I probably could have sold quite a few at work where the prices are pretty good in my opinion, I think I paid15-20 the last time I bought a wreath and this time I'm getting a the big puppy as well as a swag for the side door for the same price, much better ;)

Last night wasn't as stitchiy a night as I was hoping, however I did get lots of quality little boy time so that made it all worth while (and I even won for once at Candyland!!). Tonight there will definitely be some stitching going on as Smallville's on and I might as well start getting caught up on my taped shows ;)

15 more sleeps until we leave for retreat!

Another Movie Night!

Well maybe we weren't out on the town last night but when I arrived home Matt suggested we go for a walk to the Esso and grab a movie for later, knowing that Batman Begins came out last week...So while the roast continued cooking away in the slow cookier we headed over and there were a couple widescreen copies left, yippee!! My poor legs, after a brutal step class walking to the store wasn't as carefree as usual, they felt like lead!! After supper and convincing Alex that roast beef may look stringy when it's tender but really tastes good we made some pumpkin chocolate chip 3 pt muffins and he headed to the tub. He and Matt were reading a story by the time I got my shower and it was off to bed for him. We then settled in to watch Batman but due to the darkness of Gotham my stitching got cut short really quick ;) Oh well, a stitching break here and there never hurt anyone ;)

Today doesn't have anything on the agenda, I may skip the gym as I'm getting a cold and just read Harry Potter as I really need to finish it up before the movie comes out. Tonight I'm hoping to get caught up on at least one taped show before bed which may even be possible before Alex heads to bed where supper is late on evenings Matt's driving ;) Then it'll be trying to finish another chapter of Harry, stitching on the wedding and heading back to bed. ;)

FOUND!!

Yay, Alex's hoodie has been returned after a trip to the wrong household!! I know its silly to get upset about a material object but I'm a bit more attached to it due to it being a) a gift and b)his first ever day of school shirt! (Plus moss/olive green is just too cute on my little red headed guy!!)

Busy as a Bee

This weekend went by so quickly I think I blinked it away. I feel so spoiled that we've had my mom in town for almost a week!! Friday we headed over to my grandmothers for some most excellent spinach tomato lasagna and called it an early night as Alex seemed a bit tired from all the extra attention.

Saturday we got up and put in one of the two new 7 day programmable thermosats, thermostat 2 was more of a problem than the other three as we ran into trouble in the bathroom, more wires than expected and a thermostat directly wired into the box and not on a breaker (leading to very ticked off Matt, a trip to Kents, no power for a couple hours, etc). After Matt returned home I finally planted my fall bulbs, all 63 of them (tulips, daffodils, crocus and something else...can't think of the name right now) just to stay out of the warpath ;) That afternoon we headed up river with mom and gram to visit my great aunt which was neat, I got to look through some very old leather bound albums of my grandmother's ancestors picks. Alex was having fun playing with one of my late great grandmother's stuffed bears and was perplexed by a racoon pelt that was there.

Saturday night we got out for a movie which was fun, something Matt and I haven't done in a long time!! Sunday morning I finally got to talk to the minister and we'll be confirming the date with the church this week, yippee!! We then headed over to gram's and this visit I noticed that she now has my late grandfather's RCAF tags on display as well as a pair of baby moccasins that were hers (what a great history weekend ;)) . We picked up my brother (and got to visit the Degus) and headed to the Snooty Fox, yum! In transit I hit a squirrel, sigh, but he appeared fine as he was climbing the tree when I looked back :( I had their stuffed chicken supreme which is sooo good (chicken stuffed with spinach, feta cheese and garlic with a red pepper sauce), while mom tried out their roasted veggie sandwich. I love that place!!

Sunday afternoon was quiet, as was the evening, just some stitching (pulled out The Wedding again) and watched Cold Case and Desperate Housewives (where smallville was last night I don't know :() I talked with Lisa for a bit about wedding details and Alex called mom on her last night in town to wish her good night, then we talked for a bit more. I've really enjoyed being in the same town with mom even if it's only temporary ;) Tonight will be all about stitching after Alex goes to bed, I'm sure he'll be pretty pooped as he has a field trip this morning down to the Country pumpkin, I hope it stays dry!!

Only 17 more sleeps until we leave for retreat!!

Stitching Blogger's Question

Stitching Blogger's Question
Do you mark or hi-lite your patterns or can you follow them without any markings? Do you make copies to mark up, or do you mark originals?

I normally don't mark up my patterns, I usually don't have mark up copies as most of the designers I stitch have replacement pattern programs, although if I notice the creases starting to get worn while I'm still working on it I will make a working copy. I do good enough keeping my nest of threads, scissors, fabric in order, I can just imagine me trying to juggle a highlighter too ;)

A Fruitless Hunt

Sigh...Tuesday Alex's good Gap hoodie (which looked ultra cute) didn't come home, which has happened a couple times before. After it didn't come home Wednesday I sent a note to school and it's not there and not at afterschool care, he knows better than to take it off on the bus but we'll still check there but I'm pretty bummed. If it wasn't part of his first day of school outfit I wouldn't be nearly as cheesed at the possibility that it got sent home with the wrong kid, eventhough I labelled it, sigh...

I missed Stitchy night Wednesday but got to spend it shopping with my mom which was fun++, I found an awesome present for Alex to boot. I did get to drop in for a bit as Lucy had offered to send the deposit cheque for me and I had money to drop off and pick up, plus my finished projects to show off for a little bit ;) I was glad to hit the sack that night as we'd been to a grueling body pump class at lunch.

Last night after groceries/supper/bath/bed I logged into Warcraft for a bit with Matt and openned up my R&R Reproductions Java Moon for the Samsarah ornament this year and I don't know what they did in the dyeing process but the whiff of whatever it was when I openned the bag almost knocked me out (well just a wee bit of overdramatization there ;)), but it did stink. After working on his belly for a bit it didn't stink as badly. I'm hoping I can finish what threads I have for him this weekend and just be waiting on my 'straglers' order from Janice ;) I think everyone will know when it comes in as I'll be posting finishes left right and center (I'd rather wait than sub threads if possible).

Today's a pretty clean slate, there's the option of going to the newbody class at lunch but I'll wait and see what mom's doing, I do the same routine week after week so having a week to do something different and get some visiting time in makes being flexible fun ;)

To Tell The Truth

Yay, I love dealing with people that are less than truthful! I finally got ahold of the school board transportation director yesterday afternoon and wow, what a story he was told. Thursday she told me she wanted to move the bus because of the guy across the road wanted to drive over (instead of having his kids picked up 4 minutes earlier) then Friday it was 'he's having a hard time getting up in the morning', to which I pointed out how unsafe the other exit (it's a U driveway to an apartment complex) was to which she agreed only to call school board to request the change anyway a couple hours later. Apparently she told school board that all parents had agreed to the change, hello?? and that her kids had been crossing the road all year and that was dangerous. They have been picked up every morning at the same time on the other side, so yay, school has introduced a busy bodied liar into my daily schedule, great! Eventhough I had the stop changed back I'm surprised that they would change it based on one woman's word and without physically assessing the safety for ALL children getting on the bus. This morning I dropped Alex off elsewhere just to avoid the wingnut when she was told the final decision.

Last night Alex and I stopped at Tracy's for her Creative Memories sell off, I picked up alot of neat stuff for my wedding album. Alex followed her 11 year old everywhere and wanted to move in, sigh... After supper, homework, bath, bed, I finally got to watch Mr Deeds which I'd borrowed from Angela. My goodness I laughed, especially where Deeds was saving the cats from the burning building. I stitched some as well although my get up and go for this ornament has got up and left. I stitched in the wrong colour for a little bit last night and will need to check my DMC book to see if there's much of a colour difference between 553 and 554, sigh. I don't find the one that I stitched in coordinates that well with the adjacent colour but I can't see one shade making that big a difference, it's more of a conflict of hue.

Tonight I have nothing on the schedule, hopefully mom is coming to visit tonight which would be nice. Eventhough we saw mom and dad on Thanksgiving it was kind of hectic so it'll be nice to have a quality visit. I'm sure she'll hear all about Alex finally getting to be the class leader yesterday which he's been waiting to be since school started. He was soo proud yesterday!!

A Super Stitchy Weekend

This weekend was the complete opposite of last, a VERY nice change. Lots of stitching involved!! I finished Britty Christmas Kitty, restitched the twill stitch on my Love Needleroll and beaded it (now waiting for the threads to come in), stitched the majority of Cindy Valentine's Sugarplum (just waiting for NN thread for some klosters and the beads to come in) both sides, and started the Water's Edge ornament incase it's the retreat ornament this year as it was the only one suggested so far, thought I'd better start it as I needed to psych myself up for it, but now that I see it on fabric I'm falling in love with it (one of the ones where the picture is deceiving).

Alex and I headed to Wallace and Grommit on Saturday, had to move twice though, once for a three month old and another for a birthday party, I'm so glad we made the last minute decision to move away from the birthday party as they really acted up, just what you want after spending $25.00 on tickets and concessions. Besides the annoyances the movie was awesome! Alex is finally at the age where he's picking up on some of the more tame subtle humor, although the middle age spread jam was totally over his head. Oh... I almost forgot the penguins from Madagascar featurette, my goodness they make me laugh with 'Hoover Dam' and 'Shitake Mushroom'.

Yesterday we attempted to see the minister after church but our service ended up running into the 11:45 service, which never happens, so I sent an e-mail and if I don't hear from him I'll see him next Sunday (I'm just so anxious to get the ball rolling especially where the reception site is tentatively booked!!)

Another Little Happy Dance

Britty Christmas Kitty

18 lbs Down!!

Maybe stress is a good thing, down to 18lbs even after Canadian turkey day ;)

Stressed To The Max

My goodness, my stress level is through the roof! Why oh why couldn't Matt listen to me when I told him you needed to book things in advance+++, right now we've possibly got a room on the 20th of May but there is one couple that had it tentatively booked before us, however the hotel can't get ahold of them to get the confirmation cheque so I don't know how that's going to go. Right now I have the hotel tentatively booked for the 13th, which doesn't give me much breathing room between maid of honour duties but I've got a fiancé that doesn't want to budge, grrr....

Then I get a call yesterday from 'dream job' that they need someone even better than my supervisor, do people not realize that not all organizational structures are the same?? I rarely see my manager and to do my review my supervisor provides him with all the info. Let alone HR seemed to think I could just track him down like that, HAH! that was at 3 yesterday and he's STILL in meetings. I've decided with the surgery and wedding stress that I'm in no frame of mind to certify for bilingual so I have to break it to them that I only want to be put in for the anglophone position, between med tests and appointments and actual work meetings and training I really can't take anymore time off. Ughhh...

Then yesterday at the bus one of the fathers wanted to move the bus stop as he 'couldn't make a left' to get home (from a U driveway, turn your friggin car around). He yelled at me this morning when I took my son to the regular stop to which I replied that unless he went through school board to get it approved which he never would due to safety concerns I was staying put. The bus comes to the other side of the road stop 3 minutes before ours if you can't get up 3 minutes earlier then drive your kids to school, don't endanger other peoples kids by putting the bus at an angle where it's end is too close (but not directly in the line of vision) to a joining street so that turning traffic can't see the lights. Good grief.

With all that I was stressed to the max by the time I got home last night, I put a frozen pizza in the oven which I rarely do..., after we ate I laid down for a bit before the christmas bazarre meeting and slept through half of it so I decided not to go. Instead I finished stitching what I need to on the LOVE needleroll, found the remainder of the threads for Britty Christmas Kitty and then headed to bed. Here's hoping I get ALOT of stitching therapy on the weekend!!

Stitchers Question Of The Week

How do you ‘non-hoopists’ who use a rotation system handle it (as it seems to be lot easier if you are in good terms with hoop)? Do you have several scroll frames? Do you use Q-snaps or maybe something completely different? Or do you just have one or two big projects and others are small enough to be kept in hand while stitching?

I'm a stitching free spirit, when I taught myself to stitch it was with itty bitty kits that were too small for hoops so I never really got into the hoop, qsnap, scroll bar craze so I guess this really doesn't apply to me.

Jump For Joy HD

Joy Needleroll (JCS 03)-Jeannette Douglas

Well it was actually stitched on the weekend but here's my HD picture ;) Now to get the ribbon to tie the ends!! I should have cropped but was too tired last night to access the software by the time this arrived via e-mail last night from dad ;) I plugged away at restitching the Love needleroll which is now all ready to bead and am just waiting for the pearl petite treasure braid and fyrewerks to finish it. I'll probably redo the twill stitch as the stitch instructions in the back do not give the same diagonal effect, e-mailed Jeannette and am waiting to see if she did anything special or if it was just her thread. I've figured out a way to accomplish the same effect and I'm hoping she's just going to confirm what I've already thought of ;)

I've been so zonked for energy this week it isn't even funny. I even taped Lost (not to happy with ABC for moving it so late in the evening) so I could hit the sheets! I'll probably get caught up at 8 tonight seeing as Global no longer airs Joey before Survivor, sigh... Speaking of Joey we watched last weeks and when we turned it off the vcr just happened to be on Friends and my goodness I hadn't realized how much I missed that show! It was the Christmas in Tulsa episode with all of the flashbacks and I then put in a request to start collection the old seasons on DVD. ;) Oh wait, I have a Christmas Bizarre meeting tonight, maybe I won't get caught up at 8 after all... sigh... Why oh why do they only give people 2 days notice about these things, don't they realize that most mothers work now a days and with gas prices up some of us actually make an effort to lump all of our trips in one?? sigh...

Only one more sleep until the weekend thank goodness!

Maid of Honor Happy Dance...

Omigosh, I've been asked to be a maid of honor!!! I'm sooo excited. I've never been in a wedding before (besides reading), yippee!! I was so excited just about the engagement and I found out about that a day ago that I'm pretty darn bubbly now!! Then to top it off Matt gave me a date tonight, so here I am waiting not so patiently for the church office to open at 9!

As for stitching I did do some last night, I have the hearts at the top of the Jeanette Douglas Love needleroll stitched in, and one snow flake (actually the cardinal is done but needs to be restitched due to an off by one, I dislike stitching over one, error which then put the other snowflake off). I also think I'm going to redo the twill stitch to get the same diagonal effect that's on the model. So essentially after lost tonight I should have everything (maybe even some of the hemstitching) done and just be waiting for my RB threads to arrive.

Tonight should be pretty relaxed, as was last night, not having to cook for two days straight is a godsend!

Happy Thanksgiving

Whoa, what a weekend!! I think I need another long weekend just to recoup ;) We spent most of Saturday/Sunday doing that extra little bit of cleaning, dusting the blinds, stripping the beds and doing the prep work for the meal, peeling the potatoes, making and cubing the bread for stuffing, chopping the onions, making pre dinner munchies and some squares. Sunday afternoon Alex and I took a little break and headed over to Green Village to check out their annual halloween maze. Alex thought it was just great. Then we got some icecream and checked out their halloween decorations, picking up a bat wind twirly thing to hang where the hummingbird feeder is in the summer. They've started to get their christmas decorations out but the big trees weren't up yet so I saved my mailing list gift certificate for another trip ;) Monday went off without a hitch, with the exception of the after meal conversation, I swear if one more person suggests I elope I'm going to scream. It wasn't my decision to wait this long to get engaged so why should I give up on my dream wedding, some people's lack of enthusiasm about the wedding really riles me up! Thankfully my two new 7 day programmable thermostats arrived thanks to dad so I had those to play with after everyone left. Now we just need two more for the master bedroom and Alex's room :)It's so nice to be able to save energy and wake up to a warm house!!

On the stitching side this weekend was surprisingly productive. I finished my Joy Needleroll and just need to pick up some ribbon to ornamentify it, all the finishing sewing is done. My Silkweaver bundle arrived on Friday so I started on my Love needleroll only to realize my Needle Necessities was AWOL so I had to put it down after 2.5 bands (mind you I found it Monday, after spending the weekend convinced it was at work), after that I started Britty Christmas Kitty, working over one when you've been cleaning all day isn't nearly as relaxing!! Britty should be done this week and Love should be done minus the Rainbow Gallery Fyrewerks and pearl petite treasure braid I'm waiting for. I've decided to take the entire month off of stitching the wedding and working on ornaments, I should have a fair showing for retreat ;)

Seventeen

Yippe, the official total lbs gone is 17, plateaued around the birthday weeks but now back on track, yippee!

Still No Serenity

Well we didn't get to Serenity last night either, sigh... I wasn't much in the tv watching mode either, but I did watch Night Stalker again which was pretty good. It's amazing how my tv watching has switched, Thursday night's are pretty dead now (well if we were in the states I'd have Smallville to watch but it airs here on Wednesday, sigh). I logged a little time into WoW and worked my my Jeannette Douglas Joy Needleroll which will be finished tonight, they have been such a delight to work on! Here's hoping my ornament cuts come in from Silkweaver tonight so I can get a jump on Love until my Rainbow Gallery FyreWerks and white treasure braid come in!!

When we got home last night after going winter boot shopping (I've learned the hard way to do it sooner than later or else it ends up costing $$$) and surprisingly finding a General Grievous for Alex's stocking (he has one that is minus an arm) we headed home to put up my new pumpkin windsock. When I was trapsing across the wet yard (grass is STILL GROWING, arghhhh....) I noticed a beige spot on my indian corn! I went to investigate as I thought it was one of the husks falling down...nope EATEN!!!! Good grief. When I mentioned it to Matt when he got in he said that Wednesday when he was working at home he heard banging on one of the doors and went to investigate, no intruder at the kitchen, looked out the living room and nothing there either. He threw back the curtain on the front door and whoosh, off takes a blue jay. So much for my 4$ Thanksgiving decoration!

My appointment with the doctor went well, I was so pleased. She warned me it may take awhile to get into the surgeon I wanted but my gut really told me to stay away from the bozo at the breast clinic. I was later venting to a friend of mine who had a relative that had seen said bozo and personally regarded said bozo as a cold hearted, uncaring butcher. I'm a bit more at ease with the thought of going to see a surgeon we've already had contact with before with Alex who everyone else highly recommends. yippee!!

Now to think of how I'd say all this in french to have any hope of passing my bilingual test...

One of Those Days

Yesterday I had myself pretty worked up about this whole 'surgical' option, then I picked Alex up at daycare and the mother who doesn't strap her kid in (and in my opinion shouldn't be allowed to reproduce) shows up and started to lecture Alex which I put an end to, she won't lecture her own kid but attempts to lecture mine who was only helping pick up her daughter's mess??? Anyway, I was still talking to Tracy and left about 10 minutes later. There was 'mother who should not be allowed to reproduce''s baby out in the car running all that time, abject idiot. We then headed to the coop for groceries and arrived home to Matt painting the deck, now we just have the floor and posts to do!! Yay!

I was pretty fidgety as even though I told the assessment clinic I was going for a second opinion there was a letter in the mail booking me, arghhh.... Yay and an appointment for testing that they never bothered to mention. Then I logged into my computer and there was a letter stating that they wanted to screen me for the bilingual position as opposed to the english I wanted, just what I need more stress! I've retained my comprehensive french the 10 years I've been out of school but its my level of communication back that needs work, sigh... I managed to finish stitching the hem stitch on my needleroll, sewed the seam and stuffed it. An ornament for me and an ornament for retreat are now done, yippee!!!

Well off to see if I can get referred for a second opinion!

Seven

I just love lists ;)
7 Things I Want to Do Before I Die
1. finish stitching my stash
2. pay off the mortgage
3. expand our little family
4. see Disney World
5. Finish painting the deck, only to tear it down in a year or so and put a new one up with semi transparent stain
6. have another nova scotia duck tolling retriever
7. visit Cuba

7 Things I Can Do
1. Juggle three hectic schedules and make sure everyone has clean clothes and a healthy meal
2. Stitch in the car
3. Stand up for myself
4. Play Clarinet and Sax
5. Organize and efficiently execute christmas brunch and thanksgiving dinner
6. Pick up toys and clothes with my toes
7. Mow my own lawn

7 Things I Can't Do
1. Drive a standard
2. Tan
3. Pass up the occasional fish and chips
4. Read in a car
5. Go on carnival rides that involve alot of spinning (thankfully roller coasters are still in)
6. Sleep on my back
7. Bring myself to touch a reptile or rhodent with a tail (guinea pigs are fine)

7 Things That Attract Me to Another Person (in random order)
1. Honesty
2. Intellect
3. Wit
4. Height
5. Compassion
6. Adventurous
7. Anything that makes me more complete knowing them

7 Celebrity Crushes
1. Tom Welling
2. James Marsters
3. David Boreanaz
4. Matthew McConaughey
5. Matthew Fox (gosh I really do like Matthew/Mathieu's)
6. Josh Lucas
7. Jamie Bamber

7 Things I Say the Most
1. Arghhh....
2. Is it Friday Yet?
3. I wish I were stitching
4. I love you
5. Taco day is friday, not saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday or thursday
6. You'd drive alot better if you pitched that cell phone of yours in the ocean.
7. Can you turn that down please??

Finished Pics!

Jeanette Douglas's Peace Needleroll-JCS 04

Shepherd's Bush Merry Season

Shepherd's Bush Witches Moon

Last night turned out alot more quiet than expected, our movie plans went bust so I actually got some of the pre-company cleaning done. Does my oven ever sparkle!! ;) Yesterday I also got the photos of Alex's first day of school developed which I'll post later so there isn't picture overload.

I got my hair cut at lunch finally, yippee and picked up the Turkey and Varsol (great combination) after work. After Matt got home we ate and played with Alex until bed time, reading Green Eggs and Ham yet another time and then logged into WoW after tucking Alex in. Darn Major League baseball pre empting Bones!! I did manage to get the hem stitch in on one end of needleroll #2 and hope to have that assembled tonight unless of course we manage to reschedule Serenity for tonight ;)

Lack of Communication Creates Work

Oye! Last night I came home to the answering machine blinking away, it was Alex's school looking for his immunization charts which I'd submitted last September when he was registered at his zone school. First place to logically check, district office! Nope not there call the zoned school they say. So I called the zoned school to get 'the alternate placement school needs to fill out forms to request the files', after I politely asked why they'd have called my house looking for them instead they finally offered to send them over. Why isn't this information centralized so they don't spend time and money (and waste my time) transferring this stuff and why oh why can't these two government departments link their data to avoid this hassle in the first place?? That just might make too much sense!!

Last night didn't yield any stitching, my head just was not in it after a series of frustrating events so I logged into warcraft for a big and headed to bed. Today I'm finally getting my hair trimmed as right now where I've been growing it out for the wedding the layers almost meet with the bottom, making it look like Alex did my last hair cut. I can't wait to crop it up again after the wedding!! I do have the second needleroll packed away in my purse so I can attempt to hemstitch away while it's being cut where that stitch is so mindless!!

Operation Completion a Success!

This weekend was so much fun! Alex and I started off the weekend (Matt was off for a poker/golf tournament) at Boston Pizza. As we were walking around the parking lot looking for Cathey's car Alex blurts out, mommy are you finally walking me to the liquor store?? I wanted to die! I have a firm no kids in that store policy, the occasional bottle of wine or case of beer manages to make it from there to our house but never with Alex in tow...arghhh...Anyway Cathey showed up not to much later and we beat the mad rush. I love the quirky combination of toppings they have. If someone had told me that potato on a pizza was good 10 years ago I would have laughed! We then headed back to the house stuffed and Alex was the gracious host wanting to take Cathey on the grand tour. After awhile, and a visit from the Red SPD Power Ranger and subsequently an Incredible uniformed clad Alex we stitched and watched the first season of Clone Wars.

Saturday Alex and I got up and made our pineapple chicken in black bean sauce for the finishing day down with the Friends That Count. When it was ready we packed up the car with food, stitching stuff and things to keep Alex busy. We headed to market first where Alex insisted on his own hot italian sausage, I'm thinking great I've been doing well on Weight Watchers and if he doesn't finish it I may be tempted to, but he wolfed it down, then promptly got in the line to see tinsel the clown. Where he didn't actually ask to go see the clown I took him for a little walk to pick out our Indian Corn for the door and waited for him to ask nicely to see the clown which he did. He loves his balloon sword and I even got a little heart sticker (which I forgot was on and ended up walking around with all day!!)

When we arrived at stitching Alex wasn't the only little one there, April had come up with 4 month old Quinn. The two of them were so good!! Tracy of Fiddlestitch Cottage showed up near lunch with her Thanksgiving design almost done, I can't wait until it's in print. I did pick up my winter teapot and she also brought in my Creative Memories leaf maker, yippee!! Alex and I headed out at 3:40 (I can't believe he stayed that long) and bought our tickets for Tim Burton's Corpse Bride which I really liked (the new Harry Potter trailer was awesome, although if they do that montage showing the kids all growing up again I'll scream, I'm not supposed to get choked up in previews). After that some mcdonalds was in order and we headed home to play some board games and wait for Matt to return.

Sunday was a super completion day. I finished stitching both needlerolls after Faith Ann dropped off my threads, yippee!!! Then I finished stitching my Dragon Dreams Hippocampus, fixed some stitched and attached the button on SB's Witches Moon, attached the buttons to SB's Merry Season and then assembled one of the needlerolls. After lunch I headed out and finished painting the last three sections of rungs on the porch and after cleaning up a bit I mowed the front lawn (here it is October and I'm still mowing every week....). I also got one bunch of tulips planted!! Sunday night was for relaxing and doing some of the forementioned stitching ;) (Completed pics to follow as soon as I get my film processed)

I don't know what's on the agenda for tonight, probably mowing the backyard and touching up the white paint on the rungs, then we can finally do the floor, yippee!! Thankfully I have no must see programming on Mondays!!

A Stitchy Night :)

Finally some stitching peace and quiet last night! I really needed it after arguing with the hospital at 4. They weren't too happy I wanted a second opinion but that's my business, nor were they happy that I outright refused a surgical biopsy and stated I was willing to travel for less invasive procedures. It really ticks me off how little information they have for younger women that are still of childbearing age hopefully another surgeon will have more input. Ok enough ranting (at least I can kind of let my flood gates go here without the 'well you should go anyway')

Ok, back to stitching ;) I was hoping to catch Joey at 8:30 like it was all last season on Global but no it was Without a Trace, so we popped in Battlestar Gallactica for half an hour, watched Joey on NBC and then finished Battlestar (evil producers putting an even better cliff hanger in than last season's finale and the wait for it's resolution will be even longer!!!!! Save the Chief! oh yeah and the Cylon loving Helo too...) Then we decided to check out Night Stalker which was pretty creepy, I've gotten pretty board with CSI, I really didn't like it when they split up the team last year. This lead to quite a bit of stitching, I even got to play with my new NN Kreinik overdyed. I just have some NN Blue is blue to stitch in on 2.5 bands and I'm done, hopefully it'll show up today or Faith Ann will come across it in Moncton. I'm so impressed with the Jeanette Douglas needleroll, I wasn't when I first started but now that there are some specialty stitches and fibres I'm completely in love :)

Tonight Cathey's coming over to stitch, after we head to Boston Pizza. Matt's off to a poker night tonight and golfing in Florenceville tomorrow so we won't see him until late Saturday night. Tomorrow we have an ornament finishing day so I've been stocking up things for Alex to do so he can tag along. I might pick him up a beginner cross stitch kit at lewiscraft incase he catches the bug. Thankfully there's also a tv with a vcr there so I can dig up some of the disney flicks to bring ;) I'm going to be making my pineapple chicken in black bean sauce dish for our potluck which is always yummy!! I'm so looking forward to some girly time!! (oh and spending some quality time with Alex too...)

We Have a Designer!

After posting on a number of boards and here I finally found out the designer and the name of the design for the picture Karoline was looking for....Campfire at Pine Lake by Great Big Graphs!!

When I called to tell her the good news she got into the back story of why this piece was so important to her and I almost started crying. It was the last piece her aunt had stitched and was on display at her funeral, was started many times and apparently well blessed. The thought of my stitched work outliving me boggles my mind sometimes, hopefully it'll be inherited by someone who appreciates it. Then of course last night I also got my scrapbook out trying to decide what to do for tonight and there was a pictures of the leisure arts Last Supper that showed up two retreats ago with a little story...it had been stitched by one of the girls sisters/sister in law and she became horribly ill with cancer and couldn't continue it with it 3/4 done. Apparently the rest of the family all got together and finished stitching it for her and presented it to her shortly before she passed away, I think I got teary every time I walked past that piece.

Stitching Goodies in the Mail

I was overjoyed to come home last night to stitching goodies in the mail. It's the first time I've ever seen the Needle Necessities Overdyed Kreiniks and they are gorgeous++. I'll be so glad to bring some of them in on our Saturday stitching day and divide them up for others that want to do the ornaments too. Now if only I could find my regular Blue is Blue from NN...

Yesterdays meeting went pretty well with the exception of one question which I promptly marched downstairs after and asked Matt the answer to. I sat for an hour waiting to write the tests for the positions I'd applied to getting very nervous as the one I wrote for Finance was pretty brutal and where I'd missed one question I was nervous about the second one. Well I wrote both which had an hour alotted each in just over a half hour so that was pretty good. Even caught one of my errors checking it over ;) So here are my fingers crossed as they all seemed so nice and laid back.

It was amazing the meeting went as well (imo) as it did I was super stressed+++. The appointment with the surgeon was aweful, I wasn't comfortable with him and he wants a 1 + inch incision on my breast for a 1mm bump. After crying half the night and morning I adopted the 'heck with that' and am looking for a second opinion and a dr that'll wait until after my wedding. For the ridiculously low possibility that its something other than a papilloma I don't feel the need to have that much scar tissue and under go general anesthetic. Now to book an apt with my dr to get a second opinion from a surgeon I like.

Last evening was pretty low key, I got caught up on my Smallville season finale and watched Lost while making a stitching shopping list and working on my Joy Needlerolls. They are turning out sooo pretty++. Tonight there's a Creative Memories scrapbooking night at Tracy's so I'm heading to that and then coming home to tidy up as Cathey and I are having a stitching evening tomorrow where our hubbies (or future hubbies) are out of town ;)

First 2005 JCS Ornie HD

Well, here's my first JCS Ornie HD of the year, Dragon Dreams Paws Off on a Silkweaver Solo.

Last night was a fairly quiet night, I did some studying for a 'meeting' tomorrow. The written portion really worries me, eventhough I've been reassured it's common sense stuff, working away at the same little niche of my field for 5 years makes me wary of the possible broad questions that my field as a whole can generate, sigh.... Oral, now I can ace that, I just don't know how much of the 'meeting's' written section is used in determining the final decision.

Today I finally get into the breast clinic to find out if they're going to do anything surgical to the filling defect my ductogram showed up, I've been stressing myself out quite a bit over it, it's part of the reason I've been pushing for a May/June wedding incase I need to recoup from surgery, sigh... I did pack some stitching just in case I'm waiting awhile up at the hospital.

Tonight has more prep work on the agenda and then it's reorganizing my beads and figuring out which ones I don't have for this years JCS ornies that I wish to stitch and tracking down my Blue is Blue Needle Necessities as it had gone AWOL this morning, sigh...Why does this happen only before I want to stitch something?? ;)

Name that Designer

Does anyone know the name of this design or who designed it??  My friend Karoline's looking for it and I volunteered to put my web knowledge to work on the hunt ;)

A Weekend in Review

Well here it is Monday, all so soon!!

Thankfully our weekend didn't turn out as crazy as it could have. Mom and dad had planned a visit for mine and my brothers birthday weeks+++ ago and Thursday night the FFIL calls and says he's staying at our place Friday, we were ticked, no "have plans", no notice, nada. I could hear Matt's end of the phone conversation and was steaming in my stitching seat, it definitely wasn't the way I was planning the end of my birthday evening that's for darn sure. Not that I don't like company, that wasn't the issue, I just don't want to have to juggle it and where my parents had planned so far in advance it didn't seem fair to even ask that of them.

Friday evening my parents arrived and I don't know who was more excited, Alex or me ;) Matt wasn't feeling good at all so we were out of his hair. Saturday I got up and stitched for a bit on the Paws Off ornament and then Dad came over to play with Alex and mom and I went MOB dress shopping which was fun. For supper we headed to my grandmothers for a baked bean/ham/potato scallop/beef casserole/meatball supper with my mickey mouse birthday cake and an icecream cake for Steven, it was really fun. Matt headed home and Alex, Pappy and I went swimming. Alex loved the opportunity to go down the water slide on his own. His floats have improved significantly and he can now swim about 15 feet before hopping off the bottom and starting again, yippee. It was a late night but well worth it.

Sunday morning I stitched for a bit and leveled up one of my WoW characters. After lunch Alex and I headed to the mall to see mom and dad before they left, shopping is so much more enjoyable when you're with someone that wants to shop instead of "are we done yet, that store wasn't on the list, etc, etc". When we got home the lawn mower was out with it's brand new spark plug and working like a charm again *phew*, I spend the next 2+ hours mowing. I could feel it running low on gas so I stopped and weeded. Alex helped lug lilly stems to the 'compost pit', I've been trying to build up an area so no water gets on our lawn during the spring. We then moved to the back garden and I started deadheading some flowers, while Alex threw the rocks and twigs that had fallen in the garden into the woods, I then pulled out some ferns when I heard a shreik! Poor Alex had pulled something with a thorn! He's out there yelling 'you're killing me!' as I'm applying pressure to the wound and marching him into the bathroom. I had him lay on the floor and had his arm up in the air putting pressure on it with a towl and after 10 minutes (of being screamed at) I called Matt in from painting and loaded Alex in the car as the cut would not stop bleeding.

When we got to emergency is Alex not shreiking 'you're killing me, I'm going to die' the whole way in, even past the RCMP officers that were there. Thankfully they ignored it ;) The nurses patched him up with some glue and some steri-strips avoiding the inevitable stitches I would have had to have had 20 years ago, phew! Now he's good to go. After some, 'you did so well' tacos Alex headed to bed (he was so thrilled that the dressing on his finger meant he couldn't have his usual bath) I settled in to the stitching corner and almost finished Paws Off! while watching Supernatural, Lost, cold Case and my favorite Desperate Housewives. I liken myself to be Brie's prodige ;) It was uncanny how much I related to she and her MIL (who looked alot like my FMIL) during the eulogy talk with the minister, I never thought I'd be ok with Matt's decision to be cremated until I saw the whole scene with the tie and all the junk in the casket, I think if that happened to me I could pull a Brie ;)

There's nothing on the plans for tonight besides brushing up on some Oracle and then stitching. Monday is my downtime on the tv schedule and where I got caught up on my shows I think I'll be heading to bed early!!

Merry Stitchmas! ...or Happy Birthday Me...

To the tune of Aqua's Barbie girl...

"I'm the Birthday Girl

In My Birthday World

Slap Down Some Plastic,

It Will Feel Fantastic!"

Yay! I got my JCS last night, yippee!! And today I bought some little birthday gifts to go along with it!! I'm definitely stitching Lizzie Kate's Sweet Christmas, Jeanette Douglas's Love Needleroll, Erica Michael's Merry Yule, The Sweetheart Tree's Holly 'n Hardanger, M Design's Joy, Shepherd's Bush's As Bethlehem Slept, Cindy Valentine's Sugarplum, Samsarah's The Stars are Brightly shining, Dragon Dreams Paws Off and Brittercup's Christmas Kitty (and prtty much everything off of pages 20-21). I so need to get a real tree and a big one at that! I love how my birthday coincides with the JCS ornament issue, love it love it love it!!

Last night was stitching night and it was so much fun! It as so neat seeing Faith Ann's Bittersweet Season, Giggles and what's done on Crystal Christmas, Angela's baby bib and all the other projects that were on the go. Of course last night was more about looking through the JCS and pointing out potential ornaments that would look nice but the photos were crap ;) Tracy also had her Fiddle Stitch Cottage Winter Teapot all stitched up and in (I LOVE IT) and I was so surprised to see a little present for me (Tracy has no idea how touched I was), it was her Autumn teapot that I've been dying for!

This morning I heard Alex up with Matt long before he had to get up, he was soo excited that it was my birthday. He wanted to wake me up with hugs. I pretended to fall back asleep until my alarm went off and he bolted in, it was soo cute. I had lunch with Eleni and Jackson, so fulll...and rounded out my bridesmaid roster with Cathey ;) Now to set a date....

Where Are My Brother And Sister? (and JCS mania)

If it isn't bad enough that people put their two cents in looking for a sibling for Alex now Alex himself is asking when they're going to arrive...hah! Yesterday when we arrived home he was mad at me for not picking his brother and sister up, little does he realize what the odds are of fraternal twins, let alone the 9 months gestation and the fact we'd actually have to be trying to have more kids which definitely isn't happening until after the wedding. He's tired of only being a big brother to a cabbage patch kid ;)

JCS mania has hit Fredericton, I went up to the newsstand on break but all copies were spoken for, sigh... I think chapters has made it on my boycott list after my experience there, "well as I told you early no they're still not in" Hello?? I haven't been to the mall in over a week...maybe longer, I'm not their often. Besides which there's no need to be rude!

Tonight's stitching night and I cannot wait, just the way to finish up my last couple hours at 27 :) I'll be bringing my wedding progress but probably only working on finishing up Christmas Medley, I can't wait :)

A PJ Weekend and 16 lbs :)

This weekend was a PJ kind of weekend, I don't think I was out of mine unless it was to change into a fresh pair or shower. Just what the doctor ordered ;) I swore to myself Friday that no matter how much better I was feeling I was not going anywhere all weekend to give my batteries a chance to stay recharged. Although this didn't equate to me sitting on the couch all weekend, I got out my new brad setter that my brother had picked up from Lee Valley and finally put our family portrait we had done this spring up, played about 10 games of go fish and monchichi's, put the canvas day to day organizer in Alex's closet and did some of the little puttering around that had been put off fo a long time. Oh...I also got some stitching in ;) Friday I made some more headway on The Wedding, Saturday I stiched in between puttering and WoW to stitch in some of the wording and gifts on Christmas Medley and watched Guess Who? then on Sunday when I wasn't napping I tried to participate in the DD SAL but got halfway through my Christmyth when I noticed two major DMC's had gone AWOL, sigh...

Yesterday was a killer day at the gym with a BodyStep class, I think I was still sweating at 4:30 when I went home. I hopped on the scales and was down another 2lbs, not too shabby considering I delved into my flex points for the last two weeks. Last night I did a little more on Christmas medley, trained my WoW character in cooking and headed to bed early after watching our taped episode of Supernatural. I'm debating getting groceries today but I think wanting to go home and veg is going to win that battle ;)

Under The Weather

Well, I have definitely felt better. It seems the boys decided to give me their cold, sigh... I felt so rotten last night I didn't even get to scrapbooking. Last night I whipped out my looneyspoons and crazyplates cook books and made a maple pork loin roast and crispy herbed sweet potato medallions, where this was all new to us I made Alex his own plate. Surprisingly he ate almost half of Matt's sweet potatoes after trying them and at least a quarter of Matt's serving of pork, he asked for more until it was all gone. I'm really liking the fact that he's not such a picky eater anymore.

After Alex's bath, bedtime story and bed, and a load of laundry I curled up and unpicked part of the christmas tree I had done for the Christmas medley, picking out hand dyed stitches are no fun whatsoever. I logged in to warcraft for a little bit but quickly grew tired and headed to bed.

There's nothing on the agenda this weekend, I'm not feeling up to too much anyway so it'll be a good time to get some stitching in ;)

Dear Santa, I've Been Naughty

Oh my goodness it is so nice to get home from groceries BEFORE 6 pm, and that was with an unsuccessful pitstop to look for the ornament issue, sigh... Last night I went to mow the lawn while Matt painted and the mower wouldn't start, d'oh! Hopefully it's just a spark plug *fingers crossed* I felt bad about not doing something (not that preparing supper, preparing the marinade for tonight's supper, bathing the kid, unloading the dishwasher and doing a load of laundry wasn't something) but I did go out and paint a section of railing after he came in for the night. That expensive PVC railing is looking really good at the moment ;)

Anyway, on to me being bad...after showering (a trip to the body pump class at lunch at the gym and all the running around the house required a nice long one) Matt met me at the bathroom door to see if I wanted to log in Katiebelle, I'd planned on working on The Wedding...Figuring that I could set my character to follow Matt's when they weren't in combat I started yet another project (as I said BAD). I figured in my down time if I had something that was easy to pick up and put down I could still get some stitching in while playing so I started Heart In Hand's Christmas Medley. It should be a quick stitch so I don't feel too guilty about starting it ;)

Tonight is a scrapbooking night which I can't wait to go to, my pages have been neglected lately!!

Meet The Teacher

Last night was meet the teacher night at Alex's school, what a HUGE relief!! After two years of people continually expecting 3 & 4 year olds to sit quietly at extra curricular activities and chewing out parents when their kids aren't in a catatonic state 'they're going to school in the fall, you need to prepare them...', I walked in a room filled with the creative hustle and bustle that I could only ever prayed for. Gone was the image of desks lined in rows, bare walls and Attilla the Hun staring down my child all day but a loving teacher full of all the joy and energy that I'm overjoyed to say will be my son's first official teacher. I'm so glad we pushed to get him moved to an out of zone school, his zoned school wasn't nearly as warm and inviting.

After meet the teacher I headed home, after signing up for what volunteer activities I could fit into the schedule), showered and stitched while watching Bones (and taping House and Supernatural for tonight). With this new schedule I've definitely been hitting the pillow at 10 on the dot much more religiously.

Tonight will be grocery night...yay! Not! Usually we head out Thursdays but scrapbooking is finally starting back up, double yay so I've moved it. I'm hoping one of the local newstands has the new ornament issue out or I'll be extremely disappointed ;) After either painting or mowing, weather permitting, I'll finally get some more stitching in...that is if I can move my arms after heading to the gym's body pump class!!

Paint, Paint and more Paint

Next time I think I'll listen to Matt, redoing the deck has been a HUGE job. We are finally done the railings (minus some touch ups) up to the deck, for those wondering why it took so long we have a raised ranch style house, imagine a split entry with the doors on the top floor...alot of stairs... To say the least it's looking much better!! I started after work and Matt finished it up after supper when I was working on a little homework and bathed Alex, who went to bed early as some medicine I gave him made him pretty drowsy.

After all of the work was done, lunches maid, dishes churning away in the dishwasher I settled down with my cross stitch and watched a taped episode of Battlestar Gallactica with Matt, then I caught the Prison Break I missed last week and set the VCR to tape the new one as I was pretty beat! This morning Alex was up bright and early, somewhere in between the time Matt's alarm goes off and mine and was at the bus with plenty of time to spare. I'm liking my new work hours and the fact that I now get home before 5, Alex however is not happy that I'm interrupting his usual play time with the girls after school to pick him up ;)

Tonight is Meet the Teacher at the school, we haven't quite figured out how we're going juggle not having a sitter and the fact that both of us would like to go (maybe take turns in the playground with Alex) but it should be interesting none the less.

A Weekend in Review

Wow, for the first weekend in forever I haven't had something scheduled, since the beginning of August it's been Miramichi weekend, Miramichi Weekend (both vacation), Grand Falls weekend, baby shower, birthday party, birthday party and so on and so forth, ughhh... You would think it would have been a quiet weekend hah! Matt had a ball tournament so I was up making lunches at11:00 Friday, Gatorade is much cheaper by the can (and water bottles breed in our basement) and I made him some salmon sandwiches so he wouldn't have to drive around to buy lunch. Saturday Alex and I did alot of laundry (need to take advantage of sunny days for outdoor drying) and sanded the deck while Matt was gone. Sunday was SUPPOSED to be the first day of Sunday School according to the bulletin but it was only registration so I had Alex all through a Morning Prayer service at church which he was amazingly good for (especially since its one of the longest and dryest services possible....give me the BAS anyday). On our way home I collected my Frex entries and then gassed up, ouch!, and headed home to paint some of the rungs of the deck. What's done looks so much better, and Matt pulled off the rotten post toppers too which makes me VERY happy.

With all that you'd think I wouldn't have had time for stitching right?? Well, I definitely didn't get as much done as I would in the winter months (there's just so much to do outside before it starts snowing, especially when you have a lawn that hasn't read the memo that it should only grow enough to require mowing every other week) but I did get some work in on the wedding. I should be able to post some progress tonight as I finally got the scanner installed. I plan on working on it tonight as I need to get caught up on my episode of Prison Break from last week.

For tonight I'm hoping to get the front lawn mowed before supper(now that I get off work at 4:30) and hopefully paint some more rungs on the deck if Matt can watch Alex in the tub. Then it'll be parking my butt for a well deserved stitching break (and wondering when I'm going to get the remainder of my fall bulbs in ;))

And finally here's wishing the Dragon Lady (aka: Jennifer of Dragon Dreams) a very happy 40th birthday!

Woot! 14 down!!

Well, I hopped on the scales today not expecting too much but the official total is up to 14 lbs gone, yippee!

Homework For Parents

Well, I was expecting to have to do homework with Alex this year but never did I ever imagine that I'd be the one with the homework assignment, go figure. Last night I spent an hour doing homework, ok maybe writing a letter about Alex didn't take that long but installing the drivers for the printer and Microsoft office on the newly formatted computer did!! ;) While I was installing them I was talking on the phone with Mom and she asked me why I didn't just write by hand. Hah! After years of software development I can type ALOT faster than I can write, plus I now get writers cramp horribly! Also, I don't think we have much in the way of loose leaf around the house anymore either.

After homework last night I settled into my stitching nest and plugged away at more white in the wedding while watching the OC. I had stopped watching it for a bit as I really didn't like the storyline of Kirsten almost having an affair last year but this season premiere was pretty good. I then called it a night as our new morning schedule is pretty high octane. I drive Alex to a bus route along the way to work and now get into work at 7:30 in the morning!! I'm hoping work will be a bit flexible and let me leave at 4:30 now *fingers crossed*

This week is shaping up to be a stitchy one, Matt will be away for most of tomorrow with his softball tournament (weather permitting) so it'll just be Alex and I vegging around the house...unless of course I get adventurous and start painting the deck!!

First Trip on the Bus

Well this morning was Alex's first official trip on the bus to school, he took the bus with Kayla and Shelby this morning although he's going to have to take the stop closer to the house tomorrow. He was sooo excited :) I followed him to the school to get a couple pictures and left as they were lining up, while some of the kids were crying he was waiting to get upstairs to his classroom.

Last night was a stitchy night, after talking on the phone with Eleni and planting some bulbs for a bit I popped in The Notebook and stitched on The Wedding. I had intended on going back to SB's Baby Bug Ball but couldn't find the chart and didn't want to spend alot of time looking for it so it was back to old faithful.

Tonight should be a stitchy night with Veronica Mars and the OC starting back up, hopefully we can finish the last of the prep work on the deck so we can finish that project up. Although it all depends on how much energy I have left after groceries ;)

First Day of School

There's nothing like waking up to your son's first day of school sick as a dog. I felt rotten Monday night when we got home and after a sleepless night I took the day off as the prospect of making up 2 hours was stressing me out even more. Alex did great, as soon as we walked into the library where the kids were meeting Alex's jaw dropped when he saw a boy in the back with a star wars back pack, lunch bag AND sneakers. I half expected him to start worshipping him there on the spot. Alex had been waiting to get to school since 6 am so when 9 am rolled around he was set on learning and was a bit disappointed it was going to take an hour before they even got to see the classroom. Poor little guy. He came back at 11 very happy and sweaty and can't wait until his first full day on Thursday.

As for the weekend it was pretty chaotic. Alex had a birthday party across the river to go to (yay at 139.8 a litre) so while he was there Matt and I picked out the paint for the deck and got some sealant for the two or three loose shingles on our roof. We spent most of the weekend outside either working on the deck or mowing. When I was mowing Sunday something started moving on the lawn, which was later determined to be a mole. I was soo scared that I put off moving one of my perennials as its last known location was in the same garden. I'm such a chicken! Monday I did manage to move the perennial (alot more work than it sounds, I must have looked really cute running across the front lawn with this 30+lb plant in my arms and doing the shot put to get it into the hole I dug....it seems to have survived). Then we went to the Frex with my brother who was up/down from Ottawa. I placed 5 for 5 with two seconds and three thirds, yippee! I was disappointed at the fees for the rides this year, had I had known that it was bracelet day all week I would have went that route instead...mind you it did get us out of there before 5 like I'd hoped. After the Frex we went across the river to celebrate my grandmother's 85th birthday...no wonder I was exhausted ;)

Honey I'm Home

"My car won't start, it's falling apart, I was late for work and my boss got smart" oh sing it Shania. That has pretty much been my day thus far, the car wouldn't start, when it did start I got half way to work realizing that the car seat was in the back and that mom needed it, I let out a little curse at 129.9 a litre at the mistake I'd made, then I get to work and for 5 years I've been trying to keep duplicates out of the resource file and there's about 50 of them introduced by a code update!!!!!! Ughhh...Back to gas, I seriously wanted to go give the provincial finance minister a piece of my mind yesterday. In the paper the department was quoted as saying they needed the astronomical gas taxes for roads (17 cents a litre and then charging a blended 15% on top of that). Well Mr. Volpé here are my words for you, get off your butt and severely raise the fines on transport drivers who overload their vehicles and actually have them enforced and you'd lower the cost of road maintenance dramatically. NB's transport enforcement level is the lowest in the province and letting them ruin our highways is unacceptable to tax payers and with gas prices going up 20cents in one day there are sure as heck going to be more companies trying to squeeze more weight on their trailers. While your at it why not either tax or have a deposit on the studded tires that destroy the roads, and if your going the deposit route don't give a refund if they're past the deadline to take them off. I don't know how many times during the summer I've heard people driving around with them. *stepping off the soap box...and writing a letter to Mr Volpé, the local newspaper network AND my politcal party of choice, with a small child and lack of sufficient transit system not driving isn't an option *

Last night was a nice quiet night although I was running around until after 7. I did groceries after work and asked Matt to vacuum before I got home which he did, somehow that got him out of unloading the car (which normally wouldn't be acceptable but there was a christmas present in there that I haven't had a chance to sneak in the house), then it was make supper, mop the floor, unload the dishwasher and on and on....meanwhile the boys were relaxing, I was pretty ticked. However I refused to do anything after supper and stitched after mom arrived and watched Prison Break again! :) The Wedding is picking up steam.

Not much on the plan for tonight, staying very close to home :) If Alex didn't have a party to go to tomorrow we probably wouldn't be going out until the FREX on Monday. A good weekend for stitching and maybe painting the deck :)

Dragon Dreams Happy Dance

Now if I only drank coffee...

Here she is, the Nashville 05 Morning Fairy stitched on Sugar Maple Fabrics Lilac Blooms!!

So...I had a little happy dance last night, I finished her just in time to put her in the FREX at lunch. A special thanks to Angela who took the picture for me, as our scanner drivers weren't intalled on the new pc, sigh... We had a relatively quiet night last night, providing we ignored the severe wind storm outside. Why is it that men open the windows and leave them open over night when it's so windy. After being woken up by the blinds for the umpteenth time I woke Matt up to go close the windows.

I can't believe today is Alex's last day in full time daycare, what am I going to do with myself in the morning?? It seems like just yesterday I was lugging this little infant in a snowsuit up to Tracy's old place with all his premaid bottles (I think or did I just send formula...) Tonight should be a stitchy night after groceries and until mom arrives...although I should mop the floors. I'm really looking forward to a somewhat slack weekend besides heading to an impromptu birthday party on saturday (and he hasn't even started school yet!).