Just Another Manic Monday

What a night! After having Alex's cookies sent home (stuffed under his homework and lunch, thankfully they're pretty robust moist cookies that don't crumble) with no reason why, nutritional redflag/ wrong day I don't know as there wasn't a note I was pretty steamed. I put them in the freezer after all that work and will call the school today. Alex did have a very successful homework night, he's really getting the hang of printing and actually looks for times to practice (this coming from the kid who not even 4 months ago broke into tears of frustration when asked to even hold a pencil). Homework that used to take 30-45 minutes is now done in 10 or less. yay! After that I went to make supper and while making the sauce for our salmon (4 ww points, somewhere between 170-180 calories) I found out that the superstore had the wrong cans above the sticker price and had tuna instead of shrimp, it's a good thing the sauce doesn't rely on the shrimp, it's just a bonus for us seafood lovers :) Matt came home sick and I think Alex had a touch of whatever he had as well, but when he went out to pick up some medicine he did come home with some movies. I really enjoyed Walk The Line and we have Lord of War for another night or two to fit in.

I did get some stitching in last night thankfully, I made some real progress on the afghan. I need to run to Singer on break to pick up the remaining threads. I can't wait to have that project done and out of the way.

In other news I had a call on my answering machine stating I'd won 2nd place in the 'Win Your Fantasy Cake' at Sarah's Sweet Delights, I have my choice of a champagne flute/serving set or a gift card. Where the ballot that probably won was from my purchase of my champagne flutes I'll be going for the gift card. There's so many other things there that I'd like ;) I had to listen to the message again as the first pass of hearing part of it over talking kid made me think it was one of those telemarketing wins because I never win anything! I also found a seamstress to alter my dress, yay!!

Salmon in Lemon Shrimp Sauce:
2 lbs salmon fillets
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tsp reduced calorie margarine
2 Tbsp flour
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup shrimp (I used canned or chop mine if it's just matt and I)

Bake salmon fillets at 350 for 20 minutes, at about 10 minutes in add the white wine to the pan (the recipe says to put it in in the beginning but I find it burns off too quickly). Melt butter in a small sauce pot, add flour. Gradually add chicken broth, lemon juice and remaining spices. When salmon is cooked add the pan juices and shrimp to the sauce. Goes great with a side of sautéed or steamed baby spinach.

Getting Back on the Fly Lady Track

Gee, another weekend another stitchy weekend lost :( Well it wasn't completely lost, I did start Proof! by Dragon Dreams while taking a two hour off of cleaning to watch some Stargate with Matt. The cleaning over at Gram's has caught on at home and we were so motivated that we started tearing up our bedroom and computer room late Saturday. Matt finally started going through all of the boxes that his parents sent up and turfed quite a bit of his old clothes :) I worked cleaning out my bedside table and the pile of stuff that kept growing beside my bed (seemed to be the place to move stuff when we had company). I went out and dug out the boxes at the bottom of the garbage (the new sanitation guys suck, everything has to be bagged or they leave it in the dumpster). By the time we were 'done' cleaning our dumpster was full++.

In exercise news I finally got back to classes on Friday, training threw off my normal gym schedule so I couldn't get there at lunch. My triceps were soo sore Saturday but I was back Sunday afternoon for more toning. Definitely couldn't slack off after having beer and Irish Cream cake in the house for the holiday!! After hearing what a big success the applesauce meatballs were at Faith Ann's we made those last night, and they were a success with my boys :) I also had to make cookies last night for Alex's cookie day fundraiser, I'm just hoping that his don't get flagged as unhealthy. I sub'd out the oil for applesauce and used 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips instead of a cup of regular sized, plus it had pumpkin. After learning how to cook healthy I know looks can be deceiving, so I'm hoping that the 'nutrition experts' at the school are actually knowledgable to accept that there's a big grey area of good nutrition. There's less fat in mine than the average 'healthy looking' oatmeal cookie, all the healthy goodness of pumpkin and we don't even need to go in comparing the miniscule amount of chocolate chips to the large amount of raisins in one of the 'healthy' recommendations. I get a good laugh when the wellness commitee sends out their 'Smoothie Day' promotions, Booster Juice may add vitamin supplements but when you look at the calorie counts, oye! If I were going to have a calorie splurge I'd rather take a supplement and a can of real pepsi (and still be 100-200 calories ahead). Now to step off the 'nutritional grey area' soap box. :)

Now don't think we forgot about Alex all weekend ;) We actually tackled his closet this weekend as well. Ideally we'd purchase one of the toy bin shelves for him but until the wedding's over the current system of containers will have to do. We did however go and sort all the toys, GI Joe's here, Star Wars there and Sunday when he did go to play the mess was minimal as he wasn't going through 10 containers to find the pieces for one theme of toy. Matt had him cleaning his room before for speed but really it wasn't that speedy if he had to clean up even more toys per session because he couldn't find anything, I brought that up and the two of them are going to make more of an effort.

And in closing, some new 'Alex-isms' & signs that he's really a big boy now:
On receiving 20 minutes on the timer to go play some nintendo ROMS on my old P120: "Thanks dad, you're cool"
On sneezing just before eating his meatball that had a bit of rice on it, which he doesn't like: "See dad, I'm allergic to rice"

Stitchy Night

Yay, last night was stitchy night. Faith Ann and I went early to get some good seats :) There were some very pretty projects completed, Angela made a shoe bag, Karoline had a tonne of finishes and we got to see the Fiddlestitch Cottage Christmas ornament, I love it! Speaking of Fiddlestitchcottage Tracy had her latest pattern in and I of course HAD to get one for the stitching room

I forgot to bring in my candlewrap as it actually got put away while I was looking for my ring.

In other news I had an interesting discovery yesterday. I went to clean up some bottles that had been disposed of in our woods and clean up the garbage that the unsanitary sanitary department left loose and in my ditch (I wish they'd pay more attention to how they dump garbage into the truck) and picked up a particularly dirty bottle which turned out to be a makeshift bong! Good friggin grief. I put it right back down and called the RCMP immediately as goodness only knows what happens when your prints are on that crap. Matt called neighborhood watch while I was out and then we're going to pay 'mother who needs to crack down on her 16 year old son' a visit to show her our discovery. We live in a nice neighborhood, tow the line and keep it that way!

Now it's time to walk up to Sobey's and get some groceries, yay!!

Lost and Found

Yay, I can blog again. I was soo preoccupied yesterday. To start off Matt worked from home Monday as his car pool buddy had the day off as he became an official Canadian citizen (congrats Sarma) and extending his time 'on call'. I went to bed at 10 and heard him trip on something on his way in later, waking me from a deep sleep...then the stupid pager went off (where's my pager pay??)...now for the last 28 years this would simply have been annoying but now that there's a big ring on my finger (especially one that's loose) as I have been known to get up and get a drink or go to the bathroom without any recollection. So just imagine the panic when I woke up to no ring on my finger or by my bedside table!! I tore my side of the room apart as best I could (it's a bit of a disaster at the moment...haven't had any flylady time lately) and couldn't find it by the time I had to go to work, sigh...After about 15 minutes of searching (and hoping to goodness I hadn't had it slip off in the bathroom in the middle of the night) I saw a little sparkle and it's back on the finger, phew...so if I didn't e-mail anyone yesterday that's why, very preoccupied!!

Yesterday at lunch though I met mom and went to the newly renovated Burrito Loco, yum++, it looks so neat in there. It's so hard to believe it was once a converted Hertz rental! Mom and Jazz came over for supper, some yummy curried chicken and linguini :)

Tonight is stitchy night :) I can't wait. I have two projects on the go, one afghan and the other is a kit that Cathey did up for my shower basket (Janlynn's Girlfriends Forever). Now to decide which to stitch :)

Back To The Grind

Poor Alex, march break is all over. I think he enjoyed it a little too much as he had to be put down for a nap by Sunday afternoon he was sooo crabby. Sunday was great, we went swimming with Matt's parents, then headed over to clean off a deep freeze of my brother's that I sold for him while he was away. After that both dad and Matt's father were sized for their tuxes, one less thing to do :)

I went home and found out where the annoying ants were getting into our bedroom and blocked that off, then I went and poured what ant killer we had left out on the nest (ants in March?? Definitely not the norm). After cleaning that up and going a bit DH Lynnette on poor Matt (episode with the rat anyone??) I chopped up some veggies for Looney Spoons Starvin Guy Chicken Pie, chopped up the chicken I'd put in the slow cooker that morning , set out the good silver and my new wine glasses and laid down. After a brief nap I put supper in and waited for mom and dad to arrive. We had a nice supper with some very delicious green apple wine from the Ryan's...now if only I'd had enough energy to make some chocolate waffle fingers for dessert...another time I guess.

After Alex was in bed and our company had gone home I pulled out the afghan and a little chardonney, and stitched. I decided my post Da Vinci code book would be Framed In Lace, started a chapter of that and headed to bed (I'm soo exciting)

Today is shaping up to be a pretty lax day, due to training I can't get to the gym at lunch so instead I'm going to Scoop and Save with mom to look at wedding stuff. Then tonight mom and Jazz are coming over for the Teriyaki Chicken Vegetable Toss on Spaghettini, yum.

I Got Punk'd

Well, I didn't think I'd ever be surprised before but Eleni pulled off a surprise shower today ;) Matt's dad called Friday before he got home and asked if I was ready for my big day...and then asked if Matt had mentioned taking me to Moncton. I thought that was odd but didn't mention anything to Matt as if he was planning a surprise I didn't want to let him know it was spoiled. He did bring something like that up after his father called again but said he wanted to go to Market , something nice for the family to do without spending alot of money so we went. Then we headed up to the mall and I wondered why my non shopping future hubby was willingly going through walmart to look at stuff to register for. We then went out for a drive to find a new 'affordable' development on the southside (239000-275000$ which may sound cheap in some areas of the country, not in Atlantic Canada) which was taking us near Oromocto...and if we were that close to oromocto I was hoping to get to Frenchies but my shopping luck was running out and Matt turned towards Lincoln. He suggested dropping by Eleni's which I was all for, but feeling guilty as the kids were probably napping and I know what my little guy can do to the house and it always seems to be before an impromptu guest shows up! Meanwhile the whole trip I kept noticing a purple camry around and was joking that his parent's were stalking us...which he found slightly amusing until the time I spotted a car at the convenience store near Eleni's....Anyway, we showed up and as I was walking up the stairs I could hear people and I'm thinking great...we've woke up the kids and she already had company...then I noticed it was MY friends and mom and Matt's mom were near the railing, I must have had the dumbest expression on my face. The shower was fun++ and I really appreciate all the thought Eleni put into hosting and my friends for coming :)

Tonight I'm wearing down from the excitement, and just finished the Da Vinci Code too boot. We had dinner with mom and dad and now I'm stuffed and ready for stitching and bed ;)

Eye Spy

A whole lotta dove's eyes...

Now it's in the wash and then it'll be ready to have the burgundy silk satin hearts stitched in, words two hearts one love stitched in as well and the charm attached, yay!

Nothing too much on the agenda tonight, maybe some reading (getting close to finishing The Da Vinci Code) and maybe working on Lisa's afghan. Newbody was awesome tonight and I really worked up a good sweat. I'd screwed around with my oven this morning trying to see if I could figure out the dials to autostart it and ended up disabling it so poor Matt couldn't put the maple pork (Marla's Maple Pork-Crazy Plates) before I got home so I had time to make My Yammy Spice except with half the spices so Alex would eat it tonight, what a yummy meal, the sweet potatoes were awesome with the maple sauce!!

Tomorrow I have my first conference call to attend, yay!!! Then it's groceries at lunch and a night off of the gym. What ever will I do?? ;)

Cutwork

Yay! I moved on to the cutwork phase of the candle wrap and reaquainted myself with the Dove's Eye last night

So, a dozen or so more dove's eyes and then I can wash it and stitch the satin hearts and wording on it, yippee (the hearts are a burgundy silk and I need to wash it before it goes on, just in case it would like to run).

Sigh, I didn't get to read a single page of the Da Vinci Code last night :( Making my dove's eyes look right and doing it with an eight perle was something else, in the past I've used 12 and find the 8 bulky. For supper we had the Chicken Burritos out of Life's on Fire and we loved them. Matt was also very receptive to the Loafstyles meatloaf, yay!!!

Tonight I'm hoping to finish the guest list and start on the invitations...after a Newbody class that is :)

Flying Under the Radar

Yay, we flew under the assessment services radar this year!! I was reading Eleni's blog about how her assessment went up but ours only went up 700$, much better than the 4000$ the first year we were in the house. And no, I don't live in a shack, nor in the sticks, just a very popular underrated bedroom community just outside city limits...and the edge of city limits that actually has places we go to frequently ;) Considering the amount of flyers I get from real estate agents trying to buy/sell in our neighborhood I'm by no means insulted by the assessed value ;) DS gets very upset when he sees these come in, he never wants to move and thinks these people are mean trying to sell our house, we've had to explain a number of times that someone had to sell the house for us to get it. Things work out in the end.

In stitching news I have the buttonhole stitch all done on the candle wrap and have half the algerian eyes done. I find hardanger so relaxing. I also started a wedding gift for Lisa, LK's Two Shall Be One on a Canterbury Cross Afghan. The Da Vinci code has been such an interesting piece of fiction it's been cutting into my stitching time!

Tonight we're making some Loafstyles of the Rich and Famous (turkey meatloaf) and some Miami Spice (baked sweet potato fries). Getting closer to the weight goal makes motivation to cook healthy so much easier :)

My Grammie Always Said...

Somedays you need eyes in your a** ;) Today after a one way webcam chat with my parents (we don't have on yet, it's still out of stock) we decided to video tape with my digital camera Alex and I making some cookies for them. Well...let me tell you, watching it was interesting. Especially the segment where I put the flour and sugar back under the cupboard. The camera was propped up so it caught Alex taking, not one, not two, nor three, nor four but five swipes of cookie dough while I wasn't looking!!

Today I also took at trip over to Gram's garage to take a pic of my brother's deep freeze which he's trying to sell. That was different, not being able to just walk in and chat :( I then headed to the bottle depot and then walmart to look at stuff to register for for the wedding. We started a registry at Sears but they haven't had as much stuff there that I want/need. With all that said, I still managed to find some time to stitch ;) I'm almost done the buttonhole stitch and should finish it up before bed.

In other news I weighed in after Body Pump Friday and was down 2 more lbs, bringing the grand post engagement total to 25 :) Now just 10 to go til goal no. 1!

Hasta La Vista February

My goodness what a month February was! With Gram passing away early in the month I was hoping that the end of the month would start to quiet down, hah! Then we lost (although definitely not as big a deal) our beloved ‘Betty’ a 94 Buick Regal, well she does go in forward, reverse is just shot but essential. As I was driving her back from the garage I saw the signs about ‘Shrove Tuesday’ and pretty much lost it. I didn’t realize it was so soon. This was something very special to me, Alex and I used to go with my Gram to her church supper. To top all of that off we found out Monday that there will be a full inquest done which reversed most of the ‘healing’ of the last 2 weeks. Then this morning we found out at work that one of the gentlemen in our group had a mild heart attack (being in IT this just isn’t something I’ve even considered dealing with, we all seem so young). Needless to say it was nice to see February go away!!!!!+++++

Last night we went over to Gram’s house to have spinach basil lasagna that Gram’s tenant makes, it’s sooo good. Alex got a full tour of the house, he saw the basement, the ‘bomb shelter’ and the number off nooks and crannies that would make awesome hiding places for present! Matt picked him up and I helped mom get together another bag of stuff to toss last night and headed home.

This morning I took my ‘new to me’ vehicle named ‘VANessa’, only appropriate for a minivan over to have a squeaky belt looked at and just have an overall assessment of the frame and mechanics done. I might hit the gym at lunch instead of going to Newbody just so I can get some stitching in tonight after I unload the van with the stuff I brought over from the house. Most of the items are a Christmas Village (or the original village that started it off in our family) which has a lot of fond memories, another is my Great Grandmother’s silverware which takes my breath away.
Now to get psyched to stitch ;)

Carless Weekend

Sigh, the transmission is toast :( Now we're waiting on the assessment value of my gram's mini van to see if we'll buy that or something else, lovely. Sure Matt has a car, but I can't drive it...yet...

We had a quiet weekend, I spent most of the weekend doing some long overdue tidying. My craft room is back to normal!! The desk could still use some cleaning but the rest is all sorted and put away properly, even the fabrics are folded and in the baskets again. Mom is down this week driving my sorry butt to work (and DS to school) until a car is straightened out so we wanted the place to be in tip top shape ;)

I also finally finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Friday as well, not that it was a long or difficult read, it's finding the quiet time with an active 5 year old ;) I was so excited to start the Davinici Code, I'm even on track to finish it by the time the movie comes out, yay!!

In stitching news I finished the Klosters on the wedding unity candle wrap, I forgot the pattern at home so I won't get to work on it until tonight. I also heard that we're losing our Lewiscraft, not that it was the best place to shop but after losing our little semi servicable LNS (the better ones are in Moncton) it still hurt a little. Although the announcement came with the fueled gossip that we're finally getting a Michael's like Saint John and Moncton. Not that it's the best place for stitching stuff, but LC wasn't either, floss and beads...at least now the floss will be cheaper and the beads in stock.

Highs, Lows and Threes

Good grief, yesterday was one of those days! I walked into the office and saw a familiar face from the gym, it's been several week since we moved our desks up to a different department which had room for our team and with training and bereavement leave I actually haven't been here that much. The second time I saw her she asked me if I was still going to the gym where she hadn't seen me. I've been going at night due to the new job's locale but the free parking situation requires walking a block then driving across town so lunch hasn't been an option. She actually offered to drive 3 days a week!! Yay! Now I can take the Sunday body pump and only have one week night that I have a class on or have to go after work, yay!! So I was feeling pretty good...then it all went bad.

Left work and picked up the boy, did groceries at lunch so it was looking to be a nice early peaceful night, NOT!! After talking with Tracy for a bit (Alex's caretaker and my friend, babysitter sounds so impersonal), well half an hour, Alex mentioned that his sneakers were in his book bag and that he needed new ones. Thanks for the notice, I can just imagine if I got home and found out I had more running around to do on a thursday, the day Matt gets home late so anywhere I go I have a monkey in tow, let alone the extra gas...so this involved a trip to the mall. Sears prices on the sneakers that fit the school criteria were insanely expensive (no lace ups until grade 2 and from those slim pickings most velcro shoes have too much plastic crap on them). Then we went all the way through the mall to the walmart/payless corner, and Payless had their BOGO event so Alex got some new indoor shoes and some outdoor sneakers for the spring from their Smart Fit line (decent arch supports, real leather and a decent price to boot). So after shelling out for those we headed back to the car, where I noticed he'd ripped his good columbia ski pants >:( The lack of snow but occasional freezing temps have made it hard to dress him and they don't seem to use any judgement and put him in his lined splash pants when it's warmer. 2 things down.... We then drove home. I went to back into the driveway, no REVERSE!! Darn it! I had to drive down to the cul-de-sac, turn the car around and drive in. I got half way in and though well...I should park it so if we have to push it it won't be to far, then I remember Matt wasn't in yet so I'd have to drive it up at least to the point where the driveway was officially doubled. I then sent the kid in because I was upset and was likely to be a bit snappy, brought in the groceries, put some transmission fluid in and called home.

That was helpful, I think. I felt a bit better, it's one thing knowing that you need repairs but when it's a possibly big job if it's not just a simple leak issue and you're in the works of buying a new to me vehicle it's really hard to know how much to give the garage the ok for. After supper Matt and I pushed the car out of the driveway which was a workout in itself (anyone that's seen my driveway, although straight would no why, it easily fits 4 full sized cars in lengthwise if not five). We also learned that the driveway isn't completely level! I then called dad as I'd calmed down some (knowing that at least I didn't have to spend the 80$ to tow it to find out what was wrong) and he was very helpful. The forward gears work like a charm so I drove it over to the garage this morning.

Now although I got my three breaks done I wasn't about to chance screwing up my hardanger candle wrap (Wedding Glow by Nordic Needle) so I called Cathey and then read more Harry Potter, less than 100 pages to go!! Today I'm waiting on hearing what the garage has to say and then hopefully having some stress reducing stitching tonight as I should be able to make an even bigger dent in Harry over the noon hour and finish it up quickly at home. Here's hoping things get better!

Twenty Three!

Yay! I'm now officially down 23 lbs! I'd been down 25 earlier in the month but that corresponded with being sick and having my gram just pass away so I knew it wasn't one of those lbs that was going to stay off. Although to make myself feel even better that number is more like 28 which was me at my highest. ;) Just 12 more to go until this goal. My BMI is back in the healthy range so I expect to really have to work on this last 12.

Last night I didn't get a single stitch in, although I did get quite a bit in over breaks during the day. Newbody was awesome, and there's been a new release so it wasn't boring (which after weeks++ of doing the same routine was getting a bit monotonous). I logged into MSN just as Smallville was coming on and there was mom and Eleni so I set the VCR to tape ;) I had fun watching mom's new webcam, even with it's hiccups in sound and inverted horizontal display. I guess we won't be going home this weekend, our slots in the car have been usurped by the dog ;)/:( Oh well, I tried...I can't wait until the day I have a 'highway worthy' automatic vehicle again.

For supper last night we had Salmon in a white wine shrimp sauce out of the weight watchers cook book with some spinach, yum! We kind of od'ed on it last year until I pulled my other healthy cookbooks back out, the night before we had the Teriyaki Chicken Toss in Spaghettini out of Life's on Fires which was amazing, I even sub'd in some low sodium soya sauce and some whole wheat noodles, yum! Tonight's the curried chicken again, I can't get enough of it, and its quick to prepare on grocery night. Grocery night shouldn't be too bad, I still have stuff in the freezer from the last time I was actually shopping but didn't end up cooking that entire week due to the funeral and other family related activities. Yay!!

It's a Tough Job....

MMM....Today I headed over to Sarah's Sweet Delights to check on a message, instead of calling. Apparently the supplier of my ring bearer pillow found the discontinued one that I wanted (exactly one) at the back of the supply room, yay!!!! I wanted something that I could use in my home if I wasn't going to stitch something up (and I didn't need the stitching deadline).

In stitching news I think I have stitcher's ADD! Last night I started the unity candle wrap from Nordic Needle...must have been motiviated by my wedding nightmare....thankfully I find hardanger goes pretty quickly.

Nothing on the agenda for today with the exception of my Newbody class, I can't wait :)

PJ Day!

I envy DS this morning, he got to wear PJ's to school, it was quite a sight driving in and seeing the principal out in flannel pants and bathrobe holding a big stuffed frog (their mascot). Why can't we do that at work??

Last night I got some stitching in on ITAOAA, the blueish purple section is really coming along. I'll have to post a pic tonight. I got to stitch and get caught up on Battlestar Gallactica as well, good night in all. Although last night I had another wedding nightmare (showing up unprepared) so maybe I'll start on my unity candle wrap tonight! I have my side of the guest list done and I just need to dwindle Matt's down some, yay! After that the invitations can go out :) And one less worry off the plate!

Only 3 months away

Oh my, how time flies! Only three months until the wedding!!

A Date With a Monkey

This weekend went by fairly quick and was much more enjoyable than last weekend.

Friday we were without power for about 9 hours, the lighting (candle & LED flashlight) wasn't good enough for stitching but I did get some reading in ;) Saturday, the monkey (ie: DS) and I packed ourselves into our fridgid car and headed to the theatre only to find that even showing up an hour early was too late to get tickets to Curious George, so I bought tickets to the 4 o'clock show and took him to toys r us to use part of his gift certificate. I really enjoyed the movie, it's a great first movie for little ones. I was kind of concerned walking in as there were alot of 2 and 3 year olds but they all seemed entranced with it, even Alex was. I'll pay the 13.75 anyday just to have him cuddle on my lap uninterrupted for an hour and a half though ;) Saturday night we introduced Matt to Wallace and Grommit as we picked up the Curse of the Were Rabbit, I'm kind of kicking myself as I didn't even think to look for widescreen, oh well.

Sunday morning the boys were up early and didn't shut the door nor attempt to be quiet so I was up when Matt's mom called. His father has a bad habit of calling WAY to early in the morning but not his mother and she sounded upset so I knew something was wrong. Apparently Matt's cousins husband (they live in the same subdivision as us) was in a really bad ski doo accident, but as of last night was stable. I was looking out the window when Matt told me and thought to myself, where on earth did he find any snow! (only half of our back yard has snow). I cracked a rib once and can only imagine how painful having 16 broken ribs is.

I did get some stitching in this weekend, In The Arms of an Angel is coming along nicely. I like that it has all the divisions in colour so you can work on a block, get sick of it and work on a completely different block of colour. Tonight I don't have any plans besides maybe spending my 15 flylady minutes in the craft room attempting to tidy it up, the house cleaning kind of went to the wayside last week and things are kind of everywhere, yay! Oh well, plenty of time to clean up...and leave some stitching time ;)

Friends That Count

MLI's- Katie's Eggs

I am eternally grateful for all of my friends that have made this week bearable. I appreciate the beautiful cards, some chicken a la king, e-mail's, friends at the wake, hugs, help with Alex, being lent the latest Monica Ferris mystery and even a MLI cross stitch to cheer me up made by Cathey. I am so thankful.

Last night was stitchy-Friends That Count-night, I was unsure of how long I was going to stay but I stayed until the very end. It felt so good to be out and about and laughing again. Now if only my stitching hand was moving as fast as my mouth ;)

I started In The Arms of An Angel yesterday, it just felt appropriate this week. Today we go meet with the hotel about the wedding reception, it's kind of bittersweet, something fun to look forward to but at the same time it'll be hard not to miss Gram's presense. After that there's going to be some stitching and sleeping and then it's back to trying to have a relatively normal workday tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Mom

Well, its a day late but in light of all the running around that had to be done yesterday we'll be doing a little party tonight. I've felt and looked better but thanks for all the virtual hugs, prayers and e-mails or I'd probably look much worse. Yesterday was draining, I went to the Miramichi with dad to pick up clothes for mom and attempt to find her birthday gifts. I also spent most of the day trying to figure out how to tell my son his great grandmother to whom he was very close had passed away. Thankfully we were late getting back and it was to close to bedtime to tell him. Yesterday was also his hundredth day of school and I didn't want to dampen his celebrations, the news wasn't going to magically change unfortunately. Thankfully the autopsy that the hospital insisted upon was brief and not drag this out any further...morons, they couldn't admit her all the times she'd been in since christmas but now that she's passed away NOW they're interested in conclusive answer.

Last night mom informed me that they were doing a collage (sigh...most of the pics are on the miramichi) and when I went through the scrapbook I found my Grammie's Crab Apple Jelly day spread and started crying. It's also how I managed to tell Alex this morning without being 'cold' or distraught...eventhough no one intends on coming off that way as most people are in shock, I just wanted to give him a really happy day to look back on when I told him, instead of my mascara streaked face. Much better than how I found out, although that's primarily my own efficient self's fault. Mom e-mailed me to tell me she had headed for te hospital as there had been a call saying she'd taken a turn for the worse and that she'd call if there was a change. I was in training at a different building so instead of going over and checking my messages I walked to the government lot, picked up the car and headed up. I ran in to the minister coming off the elevator and he looked grave so I thought we'd gotten the bad diagonosis that I was expecting...when I walked into the room mom and my uncle were off in the corner crying and gram was asleep, I thought they just didn't want to wake her. It was only after walking back there that I found out she'd passed away :(

Today's a sort of day of rest. I need to find some clothes and we're doing a big family dinner with mom's brothers and their families (topped off with a Bailey cake ;)) Then it's the long haul, two wakes tomorrow, 2-4, 7-9 with an additional hour for family at 1 and the funeral Monday at 2. I'm off work until Friday and probably actually need it that way. Haven't stitched too much but that's to be expected.

Thanks again for all of your prayers

Helen Willis 1920-2006

We lost a great beacon of light and spirit in our family this morning, rest in peace Gram.

Speaking of Power...

We got estimated...grr...For those not in on NB's latest WTF news story, NB Power doesn't have enough 'manpower' to check meters so they estimate them 4-8 times a year (but have enough to pay their employees a salary way off the regular scale for this area). Good grief. In the last month we've had our heat on even less, in fact turned off completely some days, and our power bill was higher than it was last year (100+ higher than last month) when it was -20 every day. They're going to get a NICE phone call today...I'll even drive their lazy butts out to the house so that they can properly read my meter, idiots. What ticks me off the most is that they don't even offer to compensate the overpayment with interest and charge interest if you don't pay that full amount, it seems highly unethical to me.

Yesterday was quiet otherwise, I didn't get a single stitch in :( I did sort the threads for a Mill Hill kit and that was it. We had a new dish from healthy family, curried salmon and egg noodle bake with peas which we really liked. I won't eat peas as a side dish so I measured out half the amount and mixed it in with the casserole, very good. After Alex got to bed and I tidied up some stuff I took a shower, logged online for a little bit and got ticked after I read my power bill, called mom to see how Gram was doing and headed to bed after a little cooking reading ;)

Today should be pretty quiet, I remembered my lunch so I should be able to get some stitching in at lunch instead of waisting time picking lunch up. After work I'll be getting groceries and then having a pizza/leftovers night before we head to the Math night at Alex's school. Stitching to ensue ;)

Change of Power

Well the conservatives were sworn in yesterday...reminds me of another change of power 26 years ago from Feb 6, happy birthday little brother ;)

Nothing too much to report besides the previously noted happy dance last night. I did get caught up on battlestar gallactica last night while stitching but that's about it. This morning after making some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (sigh...forgot my chicken curry that was supposed to be for lunch at home) I grabbed one of my mill hill kits (I'm on course this week so I'd rather pull one of those out while I'm on break) and headed out. It's been so hard to figure out what to dress Alex in, snowpants or splash pants. It's so cold in the morning but it's usually warm and muddy by lunch, meaning many extra loads of laundry to keep his snowsuit presentable...

Today doesn't have anything on the roster, yay!! I love Tuesdays. Monday I try to head to the gym after work, Wednesday Newbody, Thursday groceries, friday body pump...except for this week where there's a math night at the school and I can't show up all sweaty ;) I may get groceries though and give myself a free night (well not so free, doing some pilates at home) on thursday ;) Mi Vida Loca!

What a Day

Today started off on a sad note, reading that fellow blogger Laura passed away suddenly over the weekend. I'd read her blog on and off and was amazed by her work (her Titania is what inspired me to do mine on wedgewood as well). From her pictures and stories she seemed like a very vibrant person even if I hadn't met her personally (I don't get the opportunity to actually meet too many bloggers living off on the Canadian East coast). Life definitely is too short.

Although amoungst the sad news there was actually some good news filtering out of our house, a) Alex's Christmas concert clothes finally made their way home (brand new size 6 Children's Place Khaki's and polo oxford shirt, had just cut the tags off and sent as back up clothes for that concert)
b) Booked a DJ for the wedding
c) Stitching Happy Dance on Heart In Hand's Christmas Medley

I've Been Tagged For Five

Yay, my first official tag, thanks Faith Ann. I must be a real blogger now ;)

What were you doing 10 years ago?
10 years ago I would have just transferred to UNB from Acadia (I was homesick and the boyfriend was up at UNB). Because I was a poor student I wasn't up to anything overly interesting though ;)

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Still unpacking the house and getting my craft room in order and was very dedicated to Flylady. I really need to get back to that. We (I) did alot of outdoor work this summer restoring some of the wood fixtures and flower beds so the indoor work kind of fell to the wayside.

Five snacks you enjoy
Theatre Popcorn with real butter (not that artificial flavored oil crap that Empire has now)
Rippled Chips (large ripples, not small)
Jalapeno poppers
Potato Skins
Cinnamon pretzels with caramel sauce

Five songs to which you KNOW all the lyrics
Welcome To The Blue House (theme song from Bear In The Big Blue House)
Hollaback Girl-Gwen
Oh Canada
My Happy Ending-Avril
And 99% of the english songs Celine Dion has recorded (about 50% of the french ;))

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
Pay off the house
Grace my city with an LNS
Put some money away for Alex's education
Buy myself a reliable puddle jumper
Buy a house on my street for my parents to have as a retirement home ;)

Five bad habits:
Leg shaking
Leaving the laundry in the dryer
Stash buying (I have enough in my craft room to live 5 lifetimes as a millionaire)
Leaving my stitching stuff in the computer room
Misplacing my purse

Five things you like doing:
Cuddling at the movies with DS
Stitching
Scrapbooking
Soaking in the Tub
Checking out online stitching specials

Five things you would never wear, buy, or get again:
Skin tight ikeda's
Perms
Jumper
slouch socks
ear muffs

Five favorite toys:
Digital camera
Cheer Bear
Strawberry Shortcake
Sizzix Machine
The entire room of stitching, stamping, scrapping and sewing ;)

Another Finish

Mill Hill's Ginger Cookie

Yay, another little finish. Nothing to dance about though really, she's been sitting downstairs mostly finished with the exception of the red and green in her dress for a year now. I LOVE Mill Hill kits but have a bad habit of grabbing one that requires stitching for a car trip and then forgetting about beading them (can't quite bead in the car), now I have a goal to finish up one a month (the mitten was first, then ginger, and I think there's at least 4 more). It seemed like a good weekend to do so, I forgot my chart for DD's Summer's Magic at work, d'uh!! Now to go attempt to finish Heart In Hand's Christmas Medley...Can I have a 2 finish day??

Does Fur Count As A Specialty Thread?

Before I go to the dogs...I thought I'd share my progress on Summer's Magic.

Today was a quite day, not alot on the wedding front, some training at work, an awesome lunch with mom and dad at the Snooty Fox and then tonight after groceries and homework I got to meet the newest edition to the family, a 3 year old Nova Scotia Duck Toller who's going to live with mom and dad.

I'm a big dog person and immediately fell in love with this guy. Alex wanted to make sure he knew his commands and tested him on 'sit' multiple times. After he got used to the fact that Jazz is about 4 times the size of Tanner, Tracy's Pug he was ready to hug and pat him. While mom was playing with Alex and Matt was showing dad some partitioning stuff on the PC I went out to play with the dog (who currently isn't allowed on carpet where he was kennelized at the breeders), 7th heaven!

I think it's the most relaxed I've been in a long time.

Now to avoid weaving in some dog fur while I stitch ;)

Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week

Q: With the exception of your online stitching friends, do you have any other stitching buddies?

hehe, why yes I do ;) Although I must say, I was surprised to find an online stitcher just across the main road from our place who's now one of my best stitching buds ;) We have a local 'guild', non affiliated with any official guild, just a really fun group of girls that get together once a month (and sometimes when we're on the ball arrange workshops or most recently a baby shower), and since I've started going I've found a whole new set of friends. We also head up to a retreat twice a year in Bouctouche, NB which is soo much fun, simple but just what this mom needs. Also two of my very good friends at my old job were stitchers as well. And to put it all in prospective 2 out of 3 of my bridesmaids are stitchers :) It also amazes me how many techie girls stitch, alot of the girls I know through Computer Science are also stitchers...I thought we'd all be in the Arts faculty ;)

Turn On A Dime Tuesday

Yesterday was going good until about 8:30. Found out alternate church was available, got to look at my awesome piece of fabric for Firefly Fairies from SMF which came in Monday, Cathey brought my BYC order with my LK Snippits for this year, buttons for Official Snow Guide, fabric for DD's Magic in My Needle and some WDW to finish up my HIH Christmas Medley, even my opalescent 25 ct lugana for the unity candle hardanger needle wrap and doilie arrived finally (another BYC order) but alas that was all to crumble :(

At dinner I told DFH that the church was indeed available and how grateful I was for my family helping me, then after DS went to bed and I asked for a flat out yes/no about switching then everything stalled and enter the first mention of 'I want our own church' reared it's ugly head, I don't swear much, if any in the last 6 years but after all the stress I've been under and the fact that I or members of my family have been doing all the leg and $$ work, I was probably a little less composed than Bree's famous meltdown and Rex's second graveside ceremony on Desperate Housewives.

But today's a new and hopefully better day, with hopefully some visitors arriving from the North ;)

Monday Madness

Did you ever have one of those Monday's that just makes you want to crawl in bed and wish it was the weekend again? Well I did, thankfully I had some stitching along to keep my hands busy and amp me down a bit. ;) As previously mentioned, the cost of the church for the wedding is a HUGE issue and after talking to numerous friends a 4 times more expensive than every other church in possibly the province so on goes the hunt for a new location and new church home for our family. This upset me a great deal, and really feeling trapped with so little time before the wedding. That was before I got home and found the pamplet for the 'marriage course' in the mail, I could deal with the 80$, but the hours definitely weren't what we were told making them very difficult to arrange for childcare (and the fact Matt doesn't even get home, let alone eat until a half hour after it starts). So this led to LOTS of stitching last night ;) I plugged away at Summer's Magic, watching a little Battlestar Gallactica and passing out at 9:20 from exhaustion.

This morning I was up early as Matt left the door open meaning the second he turned on the hall light my face was blasted with light, grrr...so I got up and ready and arrived at work nice and early to get some more stitching in. Very therapeutic. At lunch I need to run over to singer and pick up a colour that's missing but that's absolutely it for my plans today. Yay!!

Progress Pic

Dragon Dreams Summer's Magic

Posting BP would have been bit frustrating considering how much I have to frog....sigh....  However, switching projects and temporarily distancing myself from my stitching for a couple hours meant I finally started the baby rag quilt who's materials have been sitting in my craft room for the last year, until I ran out of thread on the bobbin and had I replenished it would have had no thread left on the spool ;)

Another Weekend Bites The Dust

Wow, weekends have really been flying by. This weekend was the Dragon Dreams stitch along over on the Needle and Thread board. I diligently pulled out my Blackwork Princess at 9 am, stitched some, then played with DS. I snuck in a little more stitching in the afternoon before we went for a nice walk around the subdivision then headed to Hoodwinked, that movie cracked me up++. After a little sub from subway for supper and playing Ninja Turtles with DS until bedtime I got out BP only to discover an error in my stitching. I was so ticked off at myself I put her in a pouch and got out Summer's Magic. I was between that and There's Magic In My Needle but my fabric at the remainder of my Because You Count order is at Cathey's so Summer's Magic it was. I did take a little stitching break and logged into WoW, with DH and one of his friends from work. We had an Ogre ask to join our little group and couldn't believe there was an online couple (Bettycrocker and DuncanHines ;))...now if only DH would take an interest in stitching like I have his golfing and online gaming ;) It would only be fair right???

Today I got up and DS and I spent some more time playing Ninja Turtles. After making the Cheesy mushroom soup from Life's On Fire and griping to mom about my parish I headed to Body Pump and on my travel's passes Faith Ann from what must have been the photo session ;) I picked the wrong day to up my weights...a new release. My legs were aching but Bad Boys was on tv and they were just about to the scene with Will Smith running around town with his shirt all open so I hopped on the treadmill and ran for a good 15 minutes...until he put on the bulletproof vest. When I got home I worked on Summer's Magic while DS and I watched Toy Story 2. Santa brought him Toy Story on DVD and he loved it and the VHS version of no. 2 will have to do until the easter bunny comes around. He laughed so hard, especially at the Star Wars references.

For supper we tried out the cheesy asparagus lasagna from Life's On Fire, very good, although mine didn't look as good as the picture. Tonight should be relatively low key, some stitching and hopefully a new Cold Case as Desperate Housewives isn't new :( Hope everyone had a great weekend and thanks for all the support on this crazy stitching and weight loss adventure :)

Weigh In Happy Dance

Yay, the official count is now up to 22.5 lbs down since the engagement ;) I had newbody on Wednesday nights which really worked up a sweat. I had one of the not so fit women ask me how come I was sweating so much where I was relatively more fit but I also watched couldn't help but see her form through out the session and knew why her workout hadn't been as effective. Newbody was designed by a physiotherapist and relies alot on the Pilates priciples, control in all movement, not flinging weights around with momentum.

Yesterday was interesting to say the least. I was coming out of the government parking lot on my way to work and noticed it was really quiet in front of the jr high, until I saw the pile of kids out back. I got a glimpse of three bigger boys beating up a little fellow, I promptly crossed in hopes of finding a teacher as goodness only knows what else you can do anymore with all the silly lawsuits. But being a mom I couldn't stand back and watch or walk away from someone else's little boy be beat up either... Some of the kids saw me crossing (the only time in about a year that I've J-walked) and warned the 'bullies' and they dispersed. Not before I took down a description of what they were wearing, heights, etc and called the office the second I got to my desk. Groceries last night was also INSANE, it was one of the big sales at the coop and getting stuck behind one of those 'I'm paying by Visa but have to have a perfect pump' people I was already behind. Inside was crazy and I ended up getting in line when I'm usually leaving and the line up was back to electronics...thankfully 75% of everything I bought was on some sort of sale ;)

I was so zonked after supper (thankfully the boys didn't complain too much when I served left overs) that I logged into WoW for a bit and headed to bed, no stitching for me. DS was up at 4 with an accident, which seems to be more prevalent since the incident at school last week and DH turned off the alarms thinking it was Saturday. Thankfully DS's alarm is set 15 minutes after mine so it woke me up. I've never seen DH get ready so fast in all my life, although I think he might have been running for his life as he has been told on numerous occasions NEVER to touch my alarm (I don't know how many times he's turned off my alarm on work at home days).

This morning I did get to work 15 minutes early and worked on BP, I'm hoping to finish her this weekend, if not by next Wednesday ;)

Today there's nothing on the roster except BodyPump, yay!

Rule of Four

Rule of Four
There, Faith Ann had an 'open' tag so I'll consider myself tagged

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Playground Leader (summer program for kids)
2. Tim Horton's coffee chick
3. DFO secretary/self appointed computer specialist
4. Programmer Anaylyst

Four movies I would/do watch over and over again:
1. Star Wars
2. Ever After
3. Mr and Mrs Smith
4. The Notebook

Four places I have lived:
1. Miramichi, New Brunswick
2. Wolfville, Nova Scotia
3. Moncton, New Brunswick
4. Fredericton, New Brunswick
5. where I currently live :)

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. Lost
2. Smallville
3. Desperate Housewives
4. toss up between Bones and House (they're paired so well together)

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Kingston Ontario
2. Charlottetown PEI
3. Halifax, Nova Scotia
4. Manchester, New Hampshire (I don't travel very well)

Four websites I visit daily:
1. TVGuide
2. MSNBC
3. Needle And Thread Bulletin Board
4. Stitch and Stuff

Four of my favourite foods:
1. Estey's Fish and Chips (Miramichi)
2. Lonestar Fajitas
3. Lobster, cooked by people that actually fish them and use enough salt!
4. Mom's Strawberry Squares

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. At the Nashville Market...one can dream
2. Disney
3. Yankee Cross Stitch New Hampshire
4. In bed stitching

Four people I am tagging:Anyone who wants to answer!!

Beat The Plateau

Yay, broke through any of my previous post preggie weight loss lows (and in probably the best shape of anytime I've attempted to slim down thanks to the mix of classes offered at the gym) Yay, now just 14 lbs to go before Matt owes me 350$ towards a new wardrobe, which in my head I have everything picked out now that I'm downtown where the nice stores are ;)

I worked on BP over the lunch hour, blackwork can be fun although next time I'll definitely do it on evenweave. She now has an empty lower part of the sleeve, her left hip and some chest ;)

In cooking we tried the sample curried chicken recipe from www.cookingfortherushed.com and it was amazing. I'm fussy on my curry and this hit the spot :) My two cookbooks also came in today, yay! Tonight I put Marla's Maple Pork from Crazy Plates into marinate, I can't wait to have it tomorrow, it's a personal favorite :)

Two Finishes

Well, there were two finishes this week on the stitching front, Snowman and Joyful Santa, both by Mill Hill. I can't wait to get the Christmas tree out again...

No progress as of yet on my Blackwork Princess though :(

I went to a kick butt Body Pump class on Friday, skipped the Sunday one though for Eleni's Mary Kay get together which was fun. I really needed a pampering session after this week. DS got in trouble at school on Thursday, swinging around and coming into contact with a grade 2 girl. I checked my phone messages (he's good about telling me when he's been punished for something) and the teacher left one at work (I was in training) and it was more of a "well they said", so we laid out a big restrictive punishment. Friday however I was talking to my friend Tracy (and coincidentally DS's after school care provider) about what had happened while he was outside and her ten year old piped up that these two grade two girls had been tormenting him all lunch hour and knocking off his hat. Don't get me wrong, he shouldn't have done what he did but I'm quite frankly disgusted at how, I dare say, gender biased the discipline has been in just his first year of school. So much for the anti-bullying initiative !!>:(

This week we also had a visitor to our lot, a nice big fox went flying through the back yard. Not what I was expecting to see stepping out of the shower! It was so nice Saturday we went for a walk through part of the subdivision and I'm now thankful we're on high ground. The street behind us is much lower (we have a sliding hill at the back of our property) and many of the homes on that street have severe damage to their culverts due to the unseasonably mild weather we've experienced lately.

Well enough of me rambling on...Blackwork Princess Awaits!!

Stitchy Night

I had so much fun at stitchy night last night, just what I needed after last week's headache of trying to find a photographer and track down our minister! There were a tonne of completed projects and I was kicking myself for forgetting the digital camera. I almost had a finish but realized that the charm I needed was sitting on my desk as training got out late and I didn't have time to go back to the office. I felt like an idiot this morning when I went to pull my needle out of my other mill hill kit and there was the snowflake charm I needed, included with that pattern too which I'd had one me, d'uh. After flip flopping between stitching the christmas elf fairy and the blackwork princess the girls convinced me to start the blackwork princess ;) It's my first go at blackwork and will look cool in the future home of the computers which we plan on building downstairs with a medieval theme (some day...some $$)

Faith Ann brought her Cooking for the Rushed books last night and I'm sold...so sold they were ordered first thing this morning. I like having a good repository of healthy recipes that the whole family will eat. Well...now onto training..

Back Down to Pre Christmas Weight

Yay, I made it down to pre Christmas weight again (actualy 1 oz under)!! Faith Ann's success has been a real re-motivator ;) It's been hard with the new job to feel that successful where my normal gym routine has taken a big hit, thankfully I have a stockpile of exercise videos to help supplement until my probation period at work is over.

In other news I'm getting really close to another happy dance, this time a Mill Hill Charmed Mitten. I was so surprised to see the progress at the end of just my lunch hour, very motivating ;)

Today was just one of those days, the roads were crap and my wipers froze up. When I reached the nearest red light I reached outside to flick it and the next thing you know it was off and in my hand! Yikes. Thankfully it's kind of on (no heavy duty work though...) until I can get to Canadian Tire tomorrow, roads are just too crappy at the moment. Then when I got in the parking lot did I not reverse a little too far into the little barrier...thankfully the snow hanging off my bumper started scraping before I did any damage.

Today I got in for a 25 minute run at the gym, a far cry from my 40 but it'll have to do. I did end up doing the 4 flights of stairs up and down 3 times today and the stairs to training in the other building (8 flights) once, that and the walk to the government parking lot has to add up to something. We've also been eating much healthier ;) Tonight was Little Chickens out of Eat Shrink and Be Merry, tomorros is Chicks on Sticks out of Crazy Plates, Wednesday Tartlette O'Hara's out of ESABM and Thursday is Awe Shucks out of ESABM (tacos on friday are non negotiable ;)). I also have a batch of Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice (CP) muffins set aside for breakfast/snack the next couple of days, how's that for planning? ;)

Wild Weather Weekend

Wow, it was so nice out Saturday! What a treat to have above zero temps (and how scary that we've damaged our climate so), this is the first time we've been able to take our christmas lights down/out in January (usually the deer and the spiral tree are frozen into the ground). Matt and Alex took this opportunity to dig out the cinder block that had managed to find it's way into the center of our sliding hill so we'll be able to use it this winter. Yay!

Saturday night I found my GAST Straw Bonnet so I could work on my Heart In Hand Christmas Medley again...only to realize that in our travels over the holidays the two WDW's I need to finish it have gone missing. sigh... I guess I'll be calling the LNS in Moncton this week. After I finished the sections I could today I moved to my Mill Hill charmed mitten that I'd been working on at lunch, it should be done by the end of the week :) This weekend we also got back on the Flylady wagon, the house is finally getting back on a normal cleaning schedule (and supper is mostly prepared for the week, veggies chopped, meats marinating, yay). I had planned on going to Body Pump today but the roads had a different plan, the temps dropped and made them quite slick, I turned back. It's not really good for the body if it lands me in a body bag... So while Matt was taking care of Alex's bath I did some more fat burning pilates :)

It's stitching week with the 'Friends That Count' and I can't wait to bring in some of my finishes and see what the other girls have accomplished over the holidays :) I really look forward to our monthly meetings :) Well, I should hit the sack.

Second Happy Dance of 2006

Jeannette Douglas Needlerolls 2003-2005

Yay! I just finished the Love Needleroll, after a sewing machine issue. It's amazing how a little thread remnant can make it jam sooo bad! I couldn't believe how LONG the petal stitch took, it looked so easy but by far it was the most time consuming row of all the needlerolls (including the hem stitching!)

Yesterday was busy+++, at lunch I went to check out gym prices downtown then stopped in the bank to transfer 75$ into Alex's RESP account, that ended up taking half an hour, sheesh (profile update, paperwork+++, had I have known I just would have called online). Then afterwork I got stuck in traffic going to Body Pump and the class ran late as they were having technical difficulties with the stereo, arghh...I rushed home only to have Matt's carpool end up right in front of us and stop in the middle of the driveway >:( Then I rushed out to my hair apt only to have the 3rd occurance in a year of them booking in the wrong week and my reaction was not good, especially considering it took about 20 minutes to drive there. The southside location accomodated me but I really missed MY stylist and fired off a letter to the manager today.

Today I just stitched, ended up getting up a bit earlier than normal as Matt didn't turn off Alex's alarm last night >:( Lots of vegging. Here's hoping everyone is having a great weekend!

Girlie Night

Oh my goodness yesterDAY wasn't alot of fun, attempting to find a non overpriced photographer that wasn't already booked was insane. This was worsened by the fact that pushing 30 and having a 5 year old gives one some sense of practicality, asking over a thousand dollars for an album that would sit in my closet and paying and arm and a leg for reprints, no go!
Finally on my afternoon break I had some luck and now we're paying less than that and getting the negatives :)

Although the day wasn't all not fun (I wasn't in official training either so yesterday was kind of unstructured at work) I did get out to lunch with Eleni and picked out my wedding band (just need some bigger diamonds in it ;)). We rushed home, had some awesome chili from Eat Shrink and Be Merry then headed out to order the girls dresses. I had SO much fun. Eleni went first and modeled quite a few, all looking very nice then Cathey went in, tried one one and we sat back for a little fashion show when the next thing you know she came out in white and lavender (not my colour, just the demo size), it took us a couple seconds (or me at least), to figure out she came out in a t-shirt! I forgot she was a power shopper and just wanted to check the sizing of the skirt ;) I had a really good laugh at this! After the dresses were ordered Eleni and I headed to Tim's on the way home and had some girlie, mommy talk time which felt so good. So my disaster day turned out pretty good after all ;)

Tonight is going to be hectic again, hitting body pump at 5 then dropping Alex off and heading over the the Avalon for my hair cut as it's soooo unstylable at the moment, yuck!

Long Day

Today turned out to be a long day, I work less hours but today I took a bad traffic turn on my way to groceries and it took forever! After two days of hitting the gym after work doing groceries was the LAST thing I wanted to do but with the girls ordering their dresses tomorrow night (can't wait :)) it was a necessity. I spent part of my lunch figuring out the weeks menu form Eat Shrink and Be Merry and the rest working on the petal stitch of the Love Needleroll.

When I got home I had to unload the car myself as Matt wasn't home, start supper, put a load of laundry in as Alex managed to get his ski pants dirty, put him in the tub, start homework and then Matt got in so we had supper. I finished Alex's homework and the boys disappeared, leaving me to start tomorrow's supper, unload the dishwasher, load it with new dishes, prep lunches and throw the laundry in the dryer *somebody shoot me*. I collapsed in front of the computer and read that Faith Ann lost another 2 lbs (CONGRATS!!!) and suddenly found motivation to exercise, and did Fat Burning Pilates for 40 minutes :)

Now to go set up the VCR (yes we still have one, no PVR yet) for LOST and do a little hem stitching as I'm dreading doing the frogging on the stitching over one, YUCK!!

Did the Alarm Really Go Off

Ughhh....I could use some more sleep! Monday 5:00, kerpow! toenail first kick to the shin, couldn't get back to sleep, Monday 10:20, finally asleep when big ruckus from computer room (DFH way too into teamspeak in WoW), Tuesday morning 5:10 thunk, elbow to the forehead, yet again...no returning to sleep. Next stop, purchasing a straight jacket until Matt gets out of whatever sleep cycle he's in ;) I expect snoring tonight, it always seems to come in threes ;)

I got to work super early yesterday and did some stitching while I waited for my Oracle training to begin (and the work day). I even got some stitching in at lunch. Where I've moved locations I'm going to be heading to the gym after work for the next little while so I guess I'll be able to get some stitching in over the noon break.

Last night was kind of crazy, I made super in advance for tonight and the roads weren't pretty making it a long drive. I was pretty tired so I headed to bed at around 9:30 after a failed attempt to located my package from Traditional Stitches, oh well.... hopefully some more stitching tonight ;)

Cake

Here's a preview of my cake, without the flowers of course...changed the verse to Happily Ever After, now just looking for a topper that I can actually put somewhere in my house...need to check out willow tree for something small enough.

Back to School

Well, tomorrow's back to school for the monkey, here's a peek at the amount of homework they sent home for the week I took him out of school before the holiday...and he's only 5 >:( This weekend was nice, mom and dad were down and mom and I hit the bridal shows. It was fun and also a little depressing, so far it's been shopping at places I know I can afford, but 600+ for a decent video and 500+ for portraits (the nicest photographer was 1100-1600). I just want one nice picture to put up on my wall but they want to put them in unchild friendly albums and then you need to order decent sized pics at extra $$. I've been really stressed out of the whole maid of honour situation as well, the time and cash its taking to be a part of my MOH's wedding is becoming a real strain mentally and budgetwise, especially where my car is for city use only. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so close together. I really don't know what to do.

Work so far has been good, I really like the people that I've met so far and must look into this 'hockey' sport. Not really my thing besides watching a university game or the olympics (after years of playing basketball and watching all school funding go into hockey, and a whole other bunch of bureaucratic bs it was hard to not harbor just a little anomosity) but I think I'll have to look into it so I can converse abit more. It's hard to when you're on probation to feel out just when you can start being a little more social.

We investigated our sliding hill today and after a good 40 minutes it looks like we'll have to get a sledge hammer if we want to use it this year. Somehow a cinderblock that was in our woods is now imbedded in the ground in the sliding path of the big hill :(

I did finish some stitching tonight while we watched Sideways, it had it's funny moments but not the kind of funny I was needing tonight. And now presenting Santa's Garden...

Christmas Tree 2005

Ok...so we're one of those families that keep their tree up for the full 12 days of Christmas (I'd keep it up all year if Matt would let me ;))

First Day of Work

Yay, the first day of work went great, of course it wasn't the same without all of my old work friends. Thankfully the city isn't too big and they aren't too far away ;) I'm really excited about the opportunities my new position is going to provide, the amount of training is phenomenal, I feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to update my skillset, that's for certain.

Stitching wise nothing too much on the table for tonight, I'm pretty beat after having the pre-work antsies all last night and not sleeping too much. My threads from Traditional Stitches finally came in though so I may at least look at my Love Needleroll and imagine putting the final stitches in ;) When I say 'finally' I in no means am upset with the length of time it took to get them, one of them was pretty 'rare' and I'd been figuring it would take quite some time.

Tonight on the 'back to healthy eating' front we had 'Awe Shucks' a pan seared scallop dish with alfredo white wine sauce and surprisingly my 5 year old LOVED it, I had to beg him to try a smidgeon of scallop but after that he ate half my supper (really low cal/fat after that ;)) So far so good with Eat, Shrink and Be Merry! Now to check the gym's group fitness schedule to see what I can do this period, especially where I don't think I'll be able to make it to the lunch classes while on probation... small sacrafices ;)

Happy New Year

Yay, it's 2006 already! Where does the time go? We spent new years eve fairly low key, some munchies, beer and checking out Matt's new Jade Empire for the Xbox (moi stitching away). New Years day we actually had our appetizers (we'd been too stuffed from supper to eat any new years eve) and then had a beef fondue for supper along with a bottle of red wine after Alex was in bed, a very fun night (obviously NOT a stitching night though)

Today was fairly quite as well, we shoveled the accumulation of snow and unpacked more from our recent journeys. I also got to stitch on Santa's Garden and he's nearing completion (although I had to frog the tree pots upon looking at the model, yet another poorly explained part of the piece). Tonight we tried out two recipes from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry! which were very good, Ponderoasta and Darth Tater (which Alex ate after he confirmed that I hadn't cooked his Darth Tater toy ;))

Now onto some stitching goals for 2006:
-Finish Mirabilia's Guardian Angel
-Stitch Flower Girl on L&L's The Wedding (this is going to be more of an anniversary project)
-Stitch 1 Mill Hill Santa
-Start L&L's In The Arms of An Angel
-Stitch this year's DD JCS ornament and Christmyth
-Stitch Lizzie Kate's Snow Days
-Stitch Fiddlestitch Cottage's Friends That Count
-Stitch and ornamentify at least 6 ornaments

Reading Goals:
-Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince
-The Davinci Code
-Sue Grafton's "I" Is for Innocent
-Monica Ferris' Framed in Lace

Gardening Goals:
Thankfully this will take less of my time this year as the majority of the beds have been rescued and have had new perennials/bulbs/shrubs put in. Also after two years of extensive pruning our lilacs are in tip top condition as well as the mystery shrub out front. Although I still need to: -build up the beds to either side of our arbour, two hosta plants are in order for sure and I'm uncertain on what else I might put in there
-add additional bulbs to the back garden and maybe some phlox
-continue building up the flower box around out maple/birch
-add another pjb rhodedendron to the side garden to complement the orange and white varieties (white added in 2005)

Limmerick Entries

Yay, the deadline has passed for the Dragon Dreams Limmerick contest. I'm sure there are hundreds of fab entries but that prize of all the Nashville releases would be soooo sweet, here are my entries...

I've cleaned my brick chimney of red
Hoping Santa will bring me thread
No gift cards or cash
Lord, I 'need' some stash
I pray this as I head for bed

From the chimney I heard a great crash
So, to the parlour I made a dash
Santa was covered in soot
Our fireplace was now kaput
But at least he had brought me some stash!

Now here's crossing the fingers

Santa's Garden Progress

Well here's my progress to date (and still learning to use the new camera at 6:00 am ;))

Santa's Garden-Gail Bussi

We arrived safely from Grand Falls at about 4 yesterday, then had the task of digging out my car (although I can't complain to much as our neighbor cleaned out most of our driveway while we were away) so I could get to the airport to see my brother off. What a foggy, wet drive, yuck! To make matters worse I'm not overly familiar with the new exit system to get to the airport so navigating that in the fog was not fun (although I could navigate my way to the mall blind folded and backwards)

Besides the numerous errors in the chart/model (why can't The Cross Stitcher put their errors in a file online??) I've really liked stitching Santa's Garden. I can't wait to have it up on my walls next year. Arriving home it was nice to see the Christmas cross stitches up, guess I didn't appreciate them as much when I was home before where I haven't been out travelling since retreat. It was also nice to be reminded what a large living room we do have (when my stitching stuff doesn't creep up there).

Today's my last day of work at CARIS and my first trip back to my gym since going on vacation. I think I'll be half dead by new years as I have 4 exercise classes in two days on the roster (so I can get my microfibre shirt and recharge after having so many tempting cookies and cakes around ;)).

Some Final Happy Dance's for 2005

Well, we've arrived safely in Grand Falls after waiting out the storm in Miramichi all boxing day. We took the long route which took us past our house to drop off some presents and avoid the crappy 'highway' that's a short cut (I wasn't up to moose, bad conditions, transports and no gas stations or anything for almost 2 hours). I really enjoyed being home an extra day with my family, it's been bittersweet knowing that next year Christmas will be different for me without my brother coming home. Where we're spending it is a bit up in the air although I think I'll follow my parents anywhere they go ;) It's just so rare that we're all home at the same time now a days. Matt's been considering adopting two of my 'grand nieces' although we're still looking up proper degu care and costs, they were sooo fun to play with and much funner than the fish he's been considering buying ;) Now to see if my brother's dumped them off at the store yet.

Back to stitching...I've been plugging away at Santa's Garden and hope to have it done before 2006 rolls around, I'm VERY disappointed with the model that was stitched and the lack of checking over the chart, one symbol isn't there although on the model it looks the same as the hat so I'm going with that and the three sided stitch is not stitched on the model as in the directions. Sigh... Now to check the site to see what's up.

Here are my two latest Happy Dances

Cindy Valentine's Sugar Plum

Mill Hill's Northern Lights Santa

It's Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve Greetings from the Miramichi! Yay, we've all arrived Safe and Sound, Patrick from Ottawa, Steven also from Fredericton on Thursday and Matt on Friday, and also dearest Marge (my PC). It's been odd having limited computer access as mom and dad's pc is having issues to the point it's unusable, odd for computer developer moi to be away so long.

We're gearing up for our big Christmas Eve Balderdash game and food fest, the potato skins just need to be coated, the jalapeno poppers are ready to go in the oven, cookies and squares galore and whatever is left of the caramel corn I made earlier in the day...proved too tempting for some ;) I think while the family is at church (we went to the 4 pm catholic mass as mom and dad's church doesn't have a minister and their only service is at 9, much to late for one anxious monkey) we'll do the rest of the breakfast prep and then I can further examine my Mirabilia Christmas Fairy Kit that arrived with Matt on Friday, it's going to be so hard not to start it before the holidays are over ;)

Alex was good at mass so he openned a gift from Tracy, Daryl and the girls which he is over the moon with, a Star Wars game for the tv. His expression when he saw it was priceless ("hey dad come here and check THIS out"), anyway, I wasn't the camera chick so here's the closest we have to his look ;)

This will be the last Christmas Eve wish from the Scott-Côté's...next year we'll be the new and improved Côté's ;)

Halfway Through The Work

Sheesh, this massive amount of kindergarten homework is seriously cutting into my stitching time! Oye! I do have a really good start though on both Gail Bussi's Santa's Garden, although I need to look up an error in the pattern and I also have a good start on my Mill Hill Northern Lights Santa. Last night mom and I had a chick flick night and watched The Skeleton Key and Must Love Dogs (really liked that one), which involved a whole lotta stitching ;) Although I had to frog out almost an entire row of Algerian Eyes due to some confusing numbers, should have been one strand instead of 2 but saw the 2 not realizing it was the Anchor conversion. Sigh...

Today has also seen some progress on NL Santa while Alex and I watched The Polar Express on a break after doing 5 pages of work this morning. Yay! This afternoon mom's heading south to pick up the boys and the degus so Alex and I'll be baking and plugging away at more work, sigh... Dad should be returning home tonight so Alex is hoping to get swimming, he swam the length of the shallow end on his own (minus his 'super' suit even).

Arrived Safe And Sound

Yay, we made it to the Miramichi safe and sound yesterday via the bus, we made really good time, so good that my parents hadn't arrived at the bus station when we unloaded. It was alot of fun juggling 3 suitcases, 2 carry on's, 1 cabbage patch kid, a 5 year old and a car seat! Didn't do that much stitching on the bus, I did separate out some threads though for a Mill Hill Santa though. We hadn't been here too long before we took Alex swimming, I was amazed that he can now swim the length of the shallow end.

Today we did some of the huge stack of homework that was sent home, and sigh...Alex's good concert clothes, including a pair of brand new khakis have gone completely awol :( What's worse is they were 'emergency only' clothes that he should never have been wearing in the first place >:( Oh well...I just hope the children's place gets some replacements in. To get an idea of just how much was sent home one booklet of the three has 30 pages, I'm sure they're really doing THAT much work in school this week.

After lunch we headed over to the Zellers here and I found one more set of indoor icicle lights for my house finally. Yay! Then I ran into my friend Darren's mom and found out he was finally flying in for Christmas (I don't think he's made it home for Christmas since graduating from NBCC 8 years ago) so that was kind of neat. I also headed to the gym here and finished off the Order of the Phoenix while running. Now to go do some laps at the pool :)

Gifts Delivered

Well the last of any gifts that I need to take care of went out the door in Alex's backpack this morning, a box of Sarah's Sweet Delights truffles for his teacher and two boxes of Pot of Gold Excellence chocolates, one for each teaching assistant. Mind you in all of the hussle and bussle I forgot to pack the bath ring for Jackson and the tape of Callie when I see Eleni at my going away lunch today. I'll probably make a quick trip up to the house to retrieve them over the 'coffee break'

I was really tired last night, Alex and I had a major freak out session after groceries (and not at each other). As we were heading to our car we looked both ways and crossed a good distance away from a car that had just loaded someone in (not in a spot) when they put it in reverse full blast never seeing us. I kept pushing Alex in a diagonal pattern but he was scared stiff. I was so upset I had the urge to kick the bumper and hard when it finally came to a stop, narrowly missing us. That incident pretty much put my head in a state of exhaustion for the rest of the evening.

We returned home and made some spaghetti which we ate in the living room so Alex could watch the Sponge Bob christmas special. After he went to bed I wrapped the gifts, had a power nap then watched Joey. I made some pretty good progress on Christmas Medley and it should be done by the time I leave Sunday.

Today's my big farewell lunch which I'm looking forward to, Boston Pizza was full but I'll take Keystone's anytime ;) Then at 3:30 we'll be having our staff party here so I'm pretty excited about that too. I'm hoping to convince Matt to make a trip out to see the Christmas lights tonight or tomorrow, I think that would be alot of fun :)

Stitchy Stuffy Night!

mmmmm.....cookies. Everyone brought their 'A' game to the exchange at last night's stitching night and now I'm stuffed. When I got home Matt and I sampled the Kris Kringle cookies, cookie dough truffles, two bite pecan pies and whipped shortbreads, yum girls! (oh and we taste tested the mini cheese cakes as I hadn't had a chance to before I brought them...just to make sure they were ok)

I had alot of fun last night, even if I didn't participate in the stitching exchange this year. I've just found everything hectic with school fundraisers, regular christmas stuff and planning a wedding to get in another ornament. I worked on the chain stitching for my Cindy Valentine ornament (now hopefully some new beading thread will appear in my mailbox tonight) and then went back to stitching on my Heart In Hand Christmas Medley :)

Tonight I don't have too much on the schedule. I need to pick up Alex's teacher's present and some light groceries to make some stuff up so Matt doesn't starve next week (like that would happen). I'll definitely be watching the Chrismukkah OC special tonight, I've gotten out of watching the show but those episodes are too funny! Only 3 more sleeps until the trip to the Miramichi :)

Productive Night

Well there wasn't as much stitching involved but I did do some chain stitching (who ever invented that stitch??) on my Cindy Valentine Sugar Plum ornament. From 6-8 I made supper, tidied up the kitchen, made up cute little recipe tags and packaged up my 12 half dozens of mini cherry cheesecake cookies.

After getting Alex to bed, I tidied up my stitching corner and got some of the laundry started, as well as started the task of cleaning out the fridge before I go away on Sunday. Fun stuff. At nine I settled into my 'den' and frigged around with the Chain stitch and was wondering where on earth I'd put my Heart in Hand Christmas Medley pattern while watching Bones. It was particularly good last night and I loved the whole Christmas storyline. I really haven't been able to go back to CSI after I started watching that show!

Yesterday was also the day that my 'going away' lunch was announced, I got alot of jabber messages of well wishes which was so sweet (probably the reason I got more choked up than usual watching the Christmasy Bones). Friday should be a blast, my going away lunch at Boston Pizza followed by a Christmas Party during office hours that I don't have to find a sitter for that afternoon, sweet.

Tonight's the big cookie exchange at stitching, I can't wait! I'm also looking forward to seeing what every one is up to. I'm proud of myself for getting all of my stuff ready to go on time! Sometimes things are a bit helter skelter and I'd almost expect it that way this close to the holidays (although this has me a bit scared)

Giving Notice

Well, that's what my day was about yesterday, all of the hullabaloo about writing a proper, unbridge burning, resignation later and getting up the nerve to hand it in. I'm not someone who can do things like that very easily and where my manager was out most of the afternoon I took it to HR, probably easier where I didn't know him as well and wouldn't get overly emotional, just choked up. What a whirlwind, bon voyage lunch this friday, yay :)

Last night I did all of my exchange baking during the commercial breaks on Corner Gas and Degrassi, another thing down. While the shows were on I cleaned up my little corner of the living room some as well. Things will be nice and tidy before I leave (and hopefully I'll return with everything in the right order). I just need to put cherries on the mini cheesecakes tonight and then I can sit back and stitch...well after making some gingerbread men for DS.

Speaking of Alex, he was wonderful in his concert yesterday! We're so proud. Matt had a hard time spotting him at first as his telltale red hair was covered in gold tinsel with a star sticking off the top! There was one little boy in his class that sang his little off key heart out, it was just sooo cute. Speak of the devil, his alarm just went off time to go :)

Yet Another Weekend Gone By!

I did have a 'finish' this weekend, sewed the button on this tonight ;)

Dry Turkey-Raise The Roof Designs

Besides that we actually had a very quiet weekend. Friday evening Alex and I made tags with my stamps and sizzix dies. Saturday only consisted of a trip to the mall to pick up our "The Côté's" ornament and mail Shannon and Logan's parcel off as I needed Matt to drive me, poor Betty was acting up which will require her to go see the garage sometime this week.

Today has also been pretty quiet. I slept in so I didn't make it to church, then made some spaghetti sauce and a cake, tidied up some of the stuff that had accumulated while I was sick and then we all hopped in the car to go see Narnia. I really liked it, and would so love to adopt the little girl who played Lucy, she was too cute for words! It's been almost 20 years since I read the book, all I remembered is that I really liked it. Hopefully after I do my baking tomorrow this week will be a little more productive stitching wise!

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Q :Have you done any charity stitching, been in one, or would like to organize one?

A: Yes I have done charity stitching, I stitched on a lovely bag that our "Friends That Count" group raffled off at last fall's retreat. I'm a hands on charity person and like to ensure that what work on actually makes it to public sale. I wouldn't be interested in organizing charity stitching, probably because I wouldn't like to nag people to get something done. Stitching is supposed to be relaxing not something that has big deadlines looming (that's what works for ;))

I Hate Being Sick!

Yay, day two home this week, sigh...I've been so achy that I haven't been able stitch either. I thought Tuesday's day of rest would have cured me but it didn't. Yesterday I mistook my uneasy feeling as anxiety over reports that a small plane had crashed, knowing my dad was out flying that day as my reason for not feeling too hot and headed to the gym, no sooner than after I went to wipe down the elliptical did the chills not return. I spent the afternoon at work with my 'work sweater' on with my big columbia wrapped around my legs popping advil. By 5:00 I felt great! At 7 I headed out to pick up Cathey's ornament at Sears engraving (and to order an engraved 'The Côté's" ornament for us) when the clerk I was dealing with was asked by another for directions to the Ramada, when he didn't know (they weren't an age group that would probably realize that the Ramada took over Howard Johnson's) I piped up that I knew, and the cashier asked me when I was done to give the lady directions. When I went over and started giving directions she asked where the nearest cab company would be to call, seeing as the function I was going to was two buildings over I offered to drive her after I picked up some Christmas gifts for Logan. Gee, it was only until she was following me out that I realized how fast I walk around when I shop ;)

The Ladies Night for Breast Cancer was awesome, they had a 20% off store discount, a masseuse, wine tasting, goodies from the Happy Baker/Chef (can't remember the name but they made an awesome bite size chocolate mousse tart with raspberry jam hidden inside), jewellry cleaning (my ring sparkles) and Healthy Chef was there too making thai and curried shrimp flambéed in Jack Daniels (yum yum yum). There was a fashion show by Lindor but where the youngest model was pushing 45 I didn't really feel like it was for me ;)

When I returned home my back started tingling, I thought it was from the massage but withing a couple minutes of hitting the sack I had severe chills again and was up half the night, sigh... Today I spent the day mostly in bed until the 'sick sweat' smell got to me and I ambled downstairs to through the sheets in the washer. Now I'm just mustering up some strength to go out and pick up Alex, sigh...of course it's a day where Matt's driving and gets in too late to pick him up himself. Oh well! Here's hoping everyone else is getting in a heck of alot more stitching time than me ;)

A Day of Rest

Yesterday was a day of rest for me, I wasn't feeling too hot (chilled in fact) so I took a rare sick day and got about 5 hours sleep. I didn't move too far from bed besides to drive Alex to school in the morning. Thankfully I had some stash in my room so before nodding off to sleep I got a good start on my exchange ornament for next week, and actually finished the stitching part that evening, now just to sew on about 12 beads and hemstitch. I also called in my order for a frame for SB's Merry Season so it may actually make it up on the walls before Christmas ;)

I did get 8 of my christmas cards done over the course of yesterday, that's about the one thing that I'm slightly behind on ;) While whipping up some supper for the boys I did manage to dip my marshmallow logs into caramel and roll them in pecans to account for some of my christmas baking ;)

Tonight I'm heading over to the Green Village for a Ladies Night for Breast Cancer research, I could really live in that store come christmas time. Hopefully before I go I'll have enough time to get my beads sewn on ;)

It's Monday Already?

Where on earth did the weekend go, the closer we get to Christmas the faster the days seem to fly by! Friday I arrived home with some pop, a bottle of red and a bottle of green, along with some icecream to make some floats for our tree decorating. While we were waiting for Matt to arrive home I twisted the ribbon to fall from the top of the tree and got all of the ornaments out and ready to hang. I even got the lights on the mini tree ;) So after supper we decorated both trees and watched Santa Claus is coming to town with our floats and the pringles Matt picked up the night before. Alex LOVED the special, especially where it was a show that answered some of his "why" questions ;)

Saturday I woke up before the boys and snuck out to a Body Pump class before my holiday decor class. The decor class was fun but the first project was VERY time consuming leading to the ink dyed ornaments kind of turning out crappy (they should have had more time to dry between coats), but I'm so happy with the rest of my projects we'll just forget about that ;) Alex LOVED his Christmas jeans and is actually wearing them now at school. After supper on Saturday we headed to the Christmas tree festival which was alot of fun, Alex was particularly taken with a tree that had all kinds of christmas related jokes on it. Saturday night I finally got to stitch again, only to get to the border of my band sampler to find that my Blue Spruce was AWOL after my floss ring came apart at retreat so I worked on my Cindy Valentine Sugar Plum's as we were watching The Grudge and there were too many suspense sections for me to concentrate on The Wedding.

Sunday morning Alex and I watched Strawberry Shortcake's Christmas ;) Faith Ann saved my project and I went for a walk to pick up some Blue Spruce, I had alot of fun checking out everyone's Christmas displays along the way. After lunch we FINALLY headed out to see Harry Potter, Alex went over to visit my grandmother and Matt and I finally got to see it (we've had NO luck finding sitters lately and not for lack of trying). Poor me LOST it at the end of the movie, I can just imagine how much worse I would have been had I not read the book. I think the fact that we're also an only son family at the moment makes me a bit more vulnerable to some of the touchie moments in the books/movies ;) We had a very nice dinner at my grandmother's after the movie and then headed home. I finished the band sampler while watching last week's LOST and headed to bed.

Tonight should be pretty low key, I woke up with all the inklings of a cold coming on (something I've been trying to ignore for the last couple of days but was worse this mornign), I probably would have taken a sick day today if I didn' t need to go to the framer's today, sigh... Oh well, that just means plenty of stitching time tonight ;)

Twenty One!

Nope, not the game, not the big birthday to celebrate being legal everywhere in North America, 21 lbs gone, yippee!

To Trim A Tree

Well that's our mission for tonight, the exterior lights are all lit (and on a handy dandy remote that I found at Zellers so I don't have to go out and manually plug them in and unplug them), the tree is up and lit and all ready to decorate!! I can't wait. We plan on getting some munchies out and trimming it while Santa Claus is Coming to Town is on tonight on CBS.

Yesterday was one of those crazy shopping days, I searched in vain to replace the interior icicle lights and I don't think they make them anymore, exterior ones are all over the place and the rest are all LED or swag lights...sigh... My last hopes, walmart or the dollar store ;) I did buy some star lights just in case I couldn't find some and I'll just move the icicle lights from the picture window to Alex's room. Oh and on my travels I found a light up house (6$) for what I hope will one day be a christmas village, my mom and grandmother have them and I just love them!

We also went out after Matt got home (he was supposed to pick us up on his way to dropping off one of the guys in the carpool but neglected to mention that he'd be getting off work early so we missed him) and headed out to the coop where he got some new Levi's and a pair of Columbia khakis (for under 30$). He usually scores some really good clothing deals there before christmas. Because we'd had a late night we got some subway and headed home.

Due to all of the decorating I didn't get a single stitch in yesterday :( It's a good thing I at least got another chapter and a half read on the Order of The Phoenix or it would have been a complete anti Katie time day!

Happy December

Gee...it feels like September weather outside, I'm predicting a very green christmas. Not that I'd let the weather dampen my spirits though ;) We had a really nice dinner with mom last night, I made my chicken kabobs and we polished off the Bailey's cake (warning very addictive) and then after playing with Alex and reading the new books Mom bought him and putting him to bed, we loaded mom's car with the gifts and dad's ladder and she bid us good night... only to return 5 minutes later as stupid me forgot to put the wreath in her car (I'd gotten a bit too concerned with the fact that Matt was handling the gifts).

After that I popped Celine's christmas CD into the DVD player and started bringing the boxes upstairs. One of my sets of indoor icicle lights has gone AWOL!!! I'll have to get that along with another extension cord this evening. Matt was mocking mortification when I came in to put up icicle lights in the computer room ;) This morning I moved the armchair into our room and made room for the tree which I'll be setting up tonight so we can decorate it Friday. I was so excited to read Faith Ann's blog and see that the christmas tree festival was back++, I've missed it for the last two years.

I did squeak in a row of smyrna cross stitches yesterday and hopefully a whole lot more tonight ;)