Thursday's Post

Don't you hate blogger issues?? Here's my Thursday post a day late ;)

Sigh…the rain is back. Well at least I got the lawn mowed last night, just so it can grow all over again!! Be careful what you wish for, our lawn has very few weeds and my goodness healthy ones need to be mowed ALOT more often. Now for a little lawn that wouldn’t be so bad but when ½-¾ or so of your 1.2 acre lot is grass…

As for stitching the last couple of days I’ve had one of those…I’m almost finished but just can’t keep stitching on it things going on with The Most Patterns, I’ve been a good girl and gone to bed early the last couple of nights and that’s meant my stitching time has gone into my SB St Nicholas needleroll! I did however finish reading Unraveled Sleeve though so that’s a finish right??

Last night was a bit hectic at the house too, wouldn’t you know that the door we don’t use and temporarily have the table top set up against until we take the teak table down had people come to it last night. When Matt came in one of the neighbors teens came looking to borrow jumper cables, but Matt informed her that he wasn’t boosting off of our cars (both could probably stand to have new batteries put in before the winter) so she went to find someone to boost from and then came back to the front door to ask for them….so the table top had to move. You’d think she’d have gotten the hint when Matt said he had to get the shed key and came out the other door so I put the top back, WRONG! Back to the front door she came to return them…I must say, she had enough makeup on that if she’d skipped buying for a month she could have bought BOTH of our vehicles new batteries ;) Then Angela brought my Epicure order as soon as she left so our front door was super busy.

After Alex went to bed, I went to check out a message board thread I’d started. I really had felt bad when Hoffman turned Tracy (www.fiddlestitchcottage.com ) down citing, not enough requests. I don’t just love her designs because she’s a friend, they’re just like a breath of fresh air to my stash!! Any time I post a finish on the boards there are always a number of "Where do I find?" replies so I’ve forwarded them on directly to the source ;) (not go to your shop, have them email Hoffman and if you aren’t completely frustrated then I’ll help you). If Hoffman could see how many of those I get of a single post here and there I think they’d see just what they were missing. Now, I’m getting off track…..so I pc vented how I felt my good intentions had kind of backfired but then received a tonne of useful information and support for Tracy on alternate distribution sources and more designer’s to support her. I think because our favorite stitching shop Because You Count’s (which is probably the biggest shop this side of Montreal) primary distribution source is Hoffman and where the other NB talent Dragon Dreams (ok…that’s MEGA talent ;)) and Stitchable Expressions are both distributed by Hoffman there was some tunnel vision on distribution sources. I realize stitching is in a temporary lull so please don’t think that I think of Hoffman as some evil corporate giant…June just also happens to be the ‘patriotic’ release month…which to a Canadian doesn’t mean to much ;)

So after forwarding on the info to Tracy and checking on my WoW priest LizzieKate, I was ready to prep Alex’s lunch (thanks to a screw up at the school where they didn’t take his hot lunch order) and made a little snack with my epicure buys I was ready for bed J
Tonight I’m hoping to at least finish the daisies and maybe the swirls on the hillside of TMP, aiming for a finish this weekend but we’ll see. Alex’s kid friendly party is Sunday so I imagine Saturday I’ll hit some sort of panic mode that I hadn’t planned enough or something ;)

Progress Pics

Here's my progress pics of the Guardian Angel and The Most Patterns (and a little birthday boy snuck in there too ;)) Some minor frogging is required in some spots but otherwise I'm pretty impressed with the progress

A Weekend In Review

Phew...we avoided a flood ;) My goodness we were in for some hard rain this weekend. I got a bit worried when I went to do laundry and walked over the storm drain and didn't hear an echo so I measured the level of water in there on the hour, until it dropped 2 inches :) Matt checked his trench and it was raging and our pipe which froze this year was flowing as well, there was just so much water coming down it was pooling in just about every low point in the lawn. Surprisingly enough our first hummingbird (ever) decided to brave the storm and show up at our feeder :) It was so nice to sit back, stitch and catch a glimpse of our little visitor.

Sunday I was good and stuck to the 'still not finished' SAL, I even picked up some threads I was missing on my way back from Body Pump. Oh my I was stiff after not being there for a week, and that was trip had been another 'hadn't been there for awhile' due to the wedding trip. Now at least our schedule is pretty much back to normal so I can get there my 2-3 times a week :) I was really happy with my progress throughout the day on my Mirabilia Guardian Angel, I have a little frogging to do tonight but after that at least one colour from the bottom of the wing should match up with the top section, making for alot less counting :) The batteries should be recharged for the camera this evening so I'll take a progress pic.

Saturday I got quite a bit of stitching in on Waxing Moon's The Most Patterns. I have the angel stitched in minus her halo and back stitching, and the curly 95% finished on the side. I'm hoping to finish the daisies and swirly grass this week. Mom, dad and Jazz visited late Saturday afternoon and brought over Alex's birthday presents. His reaction to his new spiderman umbrella is just as imagined *dead serious tone* "I've wanted an umbrella my whole life", gee six years is a lot of waiting ;) He was also thrilled with his set of super soaker pistols. After mom and dad did a little shopping for a new vacuum we all met for a birthday supper for dad and Alex at Boston Pizza, the food was excellent, the server sucked! After we said our good byes they headed home (with a quick pitstop to drop off my brother) and I headed home to do some more stitching, after Alex was in bed of course ;) I finally got to watch Along Came Polly and then watch HP and the Goblet of Fire, my goodness I find the end gut wrenching, no matter how many times I watch it.

Friday Alex's birthday went smoothly. Lots of tacos and cake :) We went to see Over The Hedge which was hilarious, even Matt (who's not really into the kid flicks) enjoyed it. We then arrived home to open Al's presents, he was thrilled to bits with his bag of marbles (hooray for the dollar store). I then blind folded him and was about to carry him down the stairs to where his bike was hiding when Matt suggested we go outside and he'd bring it out. Note to self NEVER PRESENT A GIFT OUTDOORS AT 8 PM IN THE SPRING!!! Matt stepped out and asked if we were ready to which he heard a big 'Hurry up!!!!!", we were being eaten alive! After a few adjustments to the bike Alex was ready to drive. He's still getting used to the fact that he can only pedal in one direction (his other toddler bike didn't have a brake) but he's getting there ;)

It's raining again today so we won't be heading to the ball field tonight, maybe just relaxing and doing some stitching after the clothes are put away :)

Happy Birthday Alex!!

Well, we had one little excited boy in the house today...and he hasn't even received his new bike yet ;) I went in his room and woke him up with a soft happy birthday song, and then he got to open one present (as chosen by me...a ninja turtle shirt and khaki shorts for school). He even got to have a taco along with his breakfast (his favorite food). We then hopped in the van and headed to Tracy's so he could catch the bus with the girls. As we were pulling into her subdivision his name was announced on the birthday parade on the radio and you should have seen the grin on his face!! When he openned the door at Tracy's the girls serenaded him with a round of Happy Birthday. More grins ensued ;)

Tonight I'll be picking him up, having some tacos and birthday cake and taking him to Over The Hedge @7. His birthday works out really well with the summer releases ;) Considering that the tacos are ready, as is the cake it should be a fairly quiet night with the boys. I don't know who's looking forward to the movie more, Alex or his mom ;)

Last night was also fairly quiet, after the groceries were brought in and the recycling taken out. I did something I haven't done in years, played the piano! I did get some stitching in as well, working a little bit more on my needleroll and reading another chapter of my Monica Ferris book ;) We got some pictures from Dad's birthday party... the dog managed to steal every shot ;)

This weekend should be fairly quiet. Mom and dad will be down for a day...although welcome to stay more, Matt's dad might spray our lawn (hopefully just dandilion and ant killer, I can't take whatever fertilizer made it grow so much I had to mow three times a week at one point...an acre lot is alot of mowing with a push mower...even with the small stretch of trees in the back). So...no work for me!! Hooray!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Alex is sooo excited it's Pappy's birthday, that means just one more day until he turns the big six. Sigh...where did the time go. Six years ago today I'd be a day overdue, not happy about it at all, looking up on the internet how to induce labor, running out to the brookside mall to buy the rasberry zinger tea (as recommended on the internet) and walk around the mall, drinking it and then heading to Shanghai Noon only to be in labor a couple hours later ;)

Yesterday rocked, the wedding photos came back and I was very pleased with them :) I was confident in our decision however there was that nagging little voice in the back of my head that was like "you didn't go with a big studio, how will they turn out??" Thankfully that notion was squashed, there are very few that I'm not in love with and even those ones are pretty good ;)

I got an e-mail from Matt requesting I be home at 5, obviously he's never walked at least 1.5 city blocks to get his car, driven downtown traffic, picked up a kid who's been playing all afternoon with his friends and doesn't want to leave (Wednesday are half days for primary schools here) and then drive through possible construction and all the parents making a left into Kingswood to take their kids to gymnastics/bowling/golfing (thank goodness they're expanding the road). But I donned my super cape, moved the car to a free parking zone that would cut out a couple traffic bottle necks on break and made it at 5:00 sharp without breaking any speed limits. I arrived home to take out a row of seats in the van, pick up the hubby, grab some stitching and head to Honda to pick up the mower before it closed...then headed to the ball park to watch Matt's first game of the year. **oh forgot to mention I got stitchy stash in the mail yesterday too...now I have my WDW's to work on Down Sunshine Lane's I Love Stitching, my next 'arghh Matt's reading with the light on and keeping me up project'!!**

We had a really good time. There were alot of kids Alex's age there and the fenced in skate park was free of skaters so the kids played there and I got some stitching in on Guardian Angel, thankfully I was at a part in the wing that involved very little counting, just filling ;) I almost got hit once by a foul ball and when I went to retrieve it I had another zoom past my shoulder from the other field, sheesh! We did 2 out of 3 pages of homework which went way passed the rule of thumb 10 minutes per grade level a night and I sent a note explaining where the other page was. I didn't mind as much in the winter when they continually went over the limit, but 40+ minutes in kindergarten when it's actually nice enough to play outside crosses a line.

Matt rented Aeon Flux (which wasn't as bad as people were saying, maybe our expectations were lowered by all the bad reviews enough that we actually liked it) so I got some more stitching in on the angel. I finished another tree on my SB needleroll while Matt did his bedtime reading. This morning I arrived to work early and ready to stitch on TMP until work started...but alas my needle must have been borrowed for the angel last night, sigh... Guess I'll be making a run over to singer at break time ;)

SBQ

Q : Do you collect charts by one particular designer, yet have never stitched anything by that designer? If so, which designer and why do you collect the charts but have not yet stitched any of them?

A : I collect ALOT of charts, Dragon Dreams, Lizzie Kate, Marbek, Fiddlestitch Cottage, Mirabilia, Lavender and Lace, Just Nan...enough to require a craft room to say the least! But the one I guess I've collected and never finished a project by was Stoney Creek. I did start Noah's Sub....life long project and The Witches of Booville but the amount of colour changes in some of the others is such a turn off. I practically need a caddy to lug my current project around if I did one. I also collected most of them BEFORE I got hooked on the other designs and it's kind of hard justifying lugging around a tonne of floss in the big floss box for a 5*7 when you can do a 8*10+ DD or LL and only carry around a little box and have it turn out even prettier. Just Nan would come in a close second, I have the angels as Matt's mother collects angels so they're on standby for Christmas's and other occasions, love the others but just never get around to them, but I have stitched ONE angel so I guess it doesn't count ;)

Maybe The Girls Caught a Glimpse Of This Pic ;)

Oh Romeo!

Oh my goodness, Alex got his first phone call from a girl last night. Good grief he's only 5!!! *I've had that darn Romeo song by Dolly Parton stuck in my head since yesterday too!* He also came home with a girl's number and hounded me for the phone when I was talking to mom...thankfully I stalled him until supper and after supper was bathtime, phew! And that was BEFORE I had a chance to hand out the invitations to his birthday party...which I've given up hosting and let the dear folks at McDonalds take over ;)

Yesterday saw some stitching progress, I worked on Mirabilia's Guardian Angel when I arrived at work (no flex time yet and I get here very early just to get parking), then I worked on The Most Patterns after I arrived back from my noon hour walk. Last night I plugged away at The Most Patterns for a little bit and stitched another tree on my SB St Nicholas Needleroll in bed. I'm finally getting back into some sort of groove.

Last night I also got the woodwork piece hung that Matt's brother had given us as a wedding gift and shifted some furniture downstairs to make some semi-permanent (or however you'd say for a year or so) room for the keyboard. I also unloaded (but didn't move to it's intended location) the papasan chair that Eleni gave us when they upgraded their living room ;) It'll rock in my craft room :) I was laying in it last night, it's just sooo comfy!

Tonight should be relatively quite. I need to bake Alex's birthday cake (unless I see something at the superstore at lunch) and Matt'll be away at ball if the weather holds off :) Definitely a good night for some stitching!!

I Like to Move It Move It

So..what have I been up to??

Friday was body pump and I assisted/supervised Matt putting up the new clothesline.

Saturday was absolutely gorgeous here so we took out the seats in the van and borrowed a lawn mower while ours was in the shop and finally got the jungle mowed (not to Pro Green, no fertilizer this year please, 3/4-1 acre of grass is alot of mowing). Poor Cathey, she lent us her ladder so we could fix the eavestrough but I'd never seen her truck before so when they pulled in I thought it was another annoying contracter, I guess I gave the death glare (we get alot of them dropping crap off in our mailbox, soI thought they'd spotted me outside and were coming in to tell me to fix my roof or eavestrough or paint my front stairs...) Mom and dad arrived later in the afternoon so we started moving the china cabinet and table out of Gram's house. I find it really depressing going in there now that it's getting empty (not that it wasn't depressing before). Saturday night we had some quiches from the Happy Baker, some salads and a beer or two before rolling into bed.

Sunday I attempted to make a breakfast, I had bacon ready, pan fries and was just putting the eggs on when zap...no power. Dad and Alex had been at the store (which is the source of all gossip in the community) and said that a fire truck went by followed by an NBPower truck which shut ALL of the communities power down for one fire, grrr.... Yes, I do feel bad for whoever had the fire, but if they went passed the store without slowing down that fire was a ways away, NBPower should reassess their grid, especially considering the substantial development in the area in the last couple years. Boo on NBPower. After our potatoes and bacon we headed over to the house to pick up a couch for the play room and my brother's keyboard which we're storing (hopefully for just long enough for Alex to learn to like playing...but doesn't overstay it's welcome when we finish the laundry storage area ;)) Mom and dad treated us to lunch at Momma's Pub and then we moved the furniture into our abode. After supper I finally got to my SAL, my Mirabilia Guardian Angel is going to be soo pretty one of these Sunday/Mondays ;) I took a break and put the remainder of my garden in along with some mulch. When I went out to water it I noticed the bunnies were back across the road (one in Brenda's garden and the other waiting under her car) so I went back in the house for some moth balls...no all you can eat buffet at my house thank you! I did take a shower before stitching again. I wouldn't submit GA to the sweaty, sunscreen, bug spray, moth ball odor I was emitting ;)

Monday was a stitchy mail day, my Crescent Dreams arrived, although I was ticked as Seaside Kingdom and Under the Friendship Tree were not there. I got a 'discontinued' notice, grr...I'd have ordered them all from the same place (obviously other INS) had they had let me know! I picked up Alex's new bike as well and snuck that into the house. After that I was off to Eleni's to do a little more stitching on Guardian Angel. It was fun to have a girlie night. When I hopped into bed Matt was reading and said he wasn't going to for long, so I didn't go out to the kitchen and retrieve Monica Ferris' Unravelled Sleave...instead I started the SB Christmas needleroll kit that was conveniently on my bedside table ;) I guess I'm a stitcher's version of a 'sailor', I have a project in every port (of the house) :)

Introducing the Official Mrs. Katie Côté :)

Well... if I could officially have my first name as that I'd be happy. I envy those little Katie's out there now that are officially Katie's and not a derevation of a long first name that they just don't associate themselves with. It was a good thing my wedding day was a happy occasion or people probably would have seen me done the 'mame' cringe everytime my full name was said ;)

Yay, my cake now has it's own website thanks to the provider Sarah's Sweet Delights.

Yesterday was my first day back to work, sigh honeymoon over :( I was pooped and went to lay down as soon as I got in the door. Not that work was overly stressful, it was all of the stuff that needed to be done during break time, pick up van from mechanic in the morning, coordinate van pick up for Matt at lunch (as he needed it to transport the lawn mower) then run to SNB to change my last name (sigh), then retrieve the cake knife from the hotel in the afternoon. There are days I complain about having to park downtown (with there being more cars than free governement non two hour spaces)...yesterday was NOT one of them. It's nice having stuff in walking distance, although having a Reitman's downstairs after losing alot of weight is a bit detrimental ;)

Last night after Alex polished up the last of the lemon marshmallow salad and some more ham, did some homework and had a bath, I finally got to do some stitching, hooray! Today's been fairly laid back, no gym at lunch :( However it's back to body pump tonight yay!! considering that I just bought a new dress 5+ sizes smaller than I did last year and could probably have fit into another size smaller if it had been available I'm feeling pretty darn good ;)

Not much on the weekend plan list. Mom and dad may/are coming down so we should be moving some furniture and maybe catch a movie (MI3, Davinci or Xmen,who knows!! we'll save Over the Hedge for Alex's birthday Friday). I ordered some of the yummy quiches from The Happy Baker next door to celebrate having a stress free weekend! Then it's all about stitching. Sunday marks the first day of our "Oh My Gosh I Can't Believe It's Still Not Finished" SAL, what do I have that qualifies?? The Wedding by L&L (which I'd like to do inconspicuously and surprise Matt some anniversary), Guardian Angel by Mirabilia and the adapted TW border I've been doing around my DD Elemental dragons...now if I could finish that for Christmas for Alex's room that would rock. :)

Taking the Cake

Well, I've been taking everyone's advice and taking it easy...NO HOUSEWORK!! I've really enjoyed my vacation time, too bad it's back to work tomorrow :(  Not even a stitch in!!  Maybe tonight during LOST...

Just Married

The Côté's

Yay! I survived! There was a point where I didn't think I would but we'll rewind to Friday.

Friday I took the day off to do some running around, batteries slightly low due to another bought of insomnia. There was a last minute room change for a group that was supposed to be in our reception hall Friday so we were able to decorate and I was able to pick up some last minute things. I headed back to the house for a quick nap before Lisa was set to arrive, although I couldn't sleep. I had enough time to set out the sweets, some chips, some pasta salad, brocoli salad, and the lemon/marshmallow salad, the seafood casserole, tortiere, chicken pot pie, taco stuffed pasta shells and lasagnas, I think everyone liked it. Then we motored on over to the rehearsal. It was kind of surreal knowing ths was actually for MY wedding, it was weird enough when it was Lisa's wedding but really different for mine! We then headed over to the James Joyce for a round of drinks and got thoroughly soaked. It was a downpour when my matron of honour drug me home at midnight....things were NOT looking good.

I awoke at 4 to what looked like the beginning of a clear day, but due to the insomnia and excitement could NOT get back to sleep, then at 6 I started feeling really sick. I was sick up until mom brought me some natural gravol at the spa. The Spa trip for hair and makeup was awesome. Lisa, Eleni and Cathey were absolutely gorgeous!! We then grabbed some subway and headed over to get my brothers to take out the middle seat of the minivan so we could use it as a limo for the drive to the church, after picking up a few things at the house we arrived at the hotel to get ready. What a panic when we found out Matt was the room!! Due to some miscommunication he was getting ready there but lisa scared him out :) She must have been pretty good as they left so quick her husband left his pants behind. Getting ready was a snap, although I couldn't wear my strapless bra (which is a blessing) as I've since lost some inches off my chest and I must have taken off some weight this week as my dress was no where near a snug as when I picked it up.

We arrived at the chuch with beautiful sunny weather, a great surprise after 4 days straight of rain, and rain predicted through Tuesday. I'm so glad the weather man was wrong. The service went relatively smoothly and I managed to keep it together going up the aisle, which I didn't think I would be able to do. It was so wonderful to have so many of our close friends and family there to celebrate our day!! After the service we took off for pictures which was a bit of a challenge due to the wind. We moved over to a building close to our original outdoor spot and took what should be some beautiful pictures. On the drive there our best man went to open a bottle of champagne and was hoping to shoot the cork out the sunroof but it had other plans and popped out sooner, and ricocheted off the sun visor. I think poor Lisa is deaf!!

We arrived at the reception relatively on time and had a lovely dinner and dance. Alex was a one man show for the first hour of the dance!! We have some great video of his dance moves. The party extended way passed midnight and there was an 'after hours bar', lol. We retired before one to our honeymoon suite which was awesome, fireplace, hottub, champagne, flowers, you name it. I'll include some pictures later ;)

Festivities wrapped up today with an open house (there's an ongoing EATING theme here) and now I can finally relax and stitch with desperate housewives ;)

Omigosh...

I'm getting married in 5 days!!! Wow...

This weekend I put the guest room back together post flood, mowed the front lawn (would have done both but our lawn mower is having issues, more than likely a clogged filter issued but men just don't listen), made a tortiere, chicken pot pie and bought the fixin's for a spinach basil lasagna, went to Body Combat and Body Pump, planted more bulbs and did some stitching ;)
Saturday night I decided to do a little stitching and rented Brokeback Mountain. It was good, but I thought Walk the Line was a much better movie, but that's just my opinion. I got a start on my San Man SAL as my Sassy fabric showed up Friday and when I got sick of the white I started back on my TMP :)

The boys showed up at 10 am with some flowers Alex made in school to announce that they'd made me breakfast :) I elected for my dinner out to head to our local fish and chip diner and then head to the park afterwards. Matt was tickled pink to find out that it was in the downtown e-zone ;) After Alex went to bed I did a bit of the wedding stuff and then parked my tush for an hour of stitching and Desperate Housewives :)

Eight Is Great

Almost the weekend, or so I keep telling myself... Last night I brought Alex home after pricing bikes at Canadian Tire, started his homework and made two trays of taco stuffed pasta shells for the rehearsal, cooked for Alex and headed out to meet the organist. Now the music is all picked out for the rehearsal, yay!! Today I need to call the photographer and meet with the hotel but that's about it.

After having a much deserved shower I settled in to watch CSI for the first time this year and stitch some more on TMP, my angel now has two arms after some frogging ;) I'm hoping to have some much needed down time this weekend and maybe I'll be down to the flowers by the end of mother's day. :)

I was soo excited this morning, I checked the Fiddlestitch Cottage site and there was the latest three patterns, I LOVE the new Three Wise Mice!! Way to go Tracy!

9 Days to Go!

9 Days to go...where has the time gone. Arghhh... last night I was sooo ticked off when I got home. I'd just gotten through taking Alex to the doctor and picking up groceries to D-future-H working at home, the kitchen was a disaster (his job to unload/reload dishwasher), cooler from his bachelor party still in the dining area, suitcase still in the bedroom, beds unmade, two loads of laundry still to be folded and put away, so I grabbed a bottle of diet pepsi with lime that had appeared in the fridge, grabbed my Monica Ferris book and stormed off to bed. Alex had had a snack so I fully intended on waiting out the disaster before making supper. At 5:45 he came in and asked about supper (we usually don't eat until 6:30) and I replied loudly that I wasn't going in the kitchen until it was cleaned up...well that prompted some movement (and was actually quite a good bluff as I'd made supper the night before in case I'd had time to get to Newbody and all it needed to have done was to heat it).

After a couple rounds of Candyland Alex headed to bed and I computed for a bit until Lost came on. While that was on I snuck into the kitchen and started making squares for the rehearsal and open house events next weekend, one batch of worth hoarding chocolate bars (JCS '04) down :), Matt eventually folded the clothes, and put one load of dishes away, so we'll temporarily ignore the cooler in my dining room and the suitcase on my floor! Plus Matt did serve as my therapist for a good half hour after Alex went to bed (obviously the topic of discussion WASN'T about his lack of cleaning ;))

In stitchy news my The Most Patterns looks like it's been sensored, all of the wording is stitched in with exception of 'dies'. Thanks to getting the groceries done last night I should be able to remedy this at lunch ;)

The last couple of days have just been crazy, Tuesday I had body pump (arghh there was a new cert getting some of her hours in and the chest track was royally screwed up, good thing I LOVE the song and know it by heart and just did my own thing), then rushed up to Zellers to get the bike Alex picked out for his birthday as it was the last one...only to get it to the cash and see that the paint was scraped...well more like keyed! Considering he just fits on this and it should last around 3 years I didn't take it and wasn't going to at full price so I left it there (the cashier was treating me like the biggest snot in the planet but if I wanted scraped for Al's birthday I'd have gone to a yardsale).

Yay, I just checked in with my reading goals and here's where I stand:

• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince *read*
• The Davinci Code *read*
• Sue Grafton's "I" is for Innocent
• Monica Ferris' Framed in Lace *exceeded, Stitch In Time is also read*

Tonight I meet with the organist and make the final arrangements with the photographer, after that I'm hoping to put together some stuffed taco shells and the filling for the tortiere for the rehearsal night...then it's all about stitching :)

Weekend Recap

Phew...where did the weekend go??

Friday the weather just couldn't decide what on earth it was going to do, it was relatively sunny but it hinted at rain all day. At 4:30 I was stuck trying to decide to go to Body Pump or to paint...I went with Body Pump and was pretty glad that I did when it started raining about 6:45. This weekend was Matt's bachelor party weekend up at his family's camp in Riley Brook so after cooking supper, getting the kid to bed and a load of laundry I made him a batch of jalapeno poppers.

Saturday Matt was up early to go so guess who else was? Alex and I headed to market to look at etched mugs for the groomsmen and on our way there spotted this 2 foot strip of wood with nails sticking up on the overpass...but had a car in the opposite lane and another on our tail so I did my best to avoid it...but ended up with a new tire as where it hit couldn't be plugged. Alex and I did a little shopping downtown while we waited for the tire to be repaired, we picked out our mother's day cards and spent alot of time at the bookstore where he finally decided on the book 'Baaa-chooo'. When we finally got home I painted the remainer of the deck, yay!!! I finished just in time to go flower shopping with mom, dad and Jazz. We then headed up to Scoop and Save and the dollar store for some last minute wedding supplies. After that we headed up to the house to enjoy the gorgeous day outside. For supper we headed to Boston Pizza and then up to walmart to pick up some Degu bedding for my brother. I managed to find a pretty Spiderwort plant for one of my gardens. We spent the remainder of the evening prepping the centerpieces.

Sunday mom and I headed out to look at some houses that are for sale out by my place and then we went to McDonald's for a farewell lunch. Alex and I sauntered over to Fabricville to pick up some floss for Wishful Stitching and then headed home. I'd just finished washing the van when Matt pulled in, not quite his normal colour ;) He did prep the lawn mower for me so I mowed for a couple hours, yay! By the time I was done mowing the bees left my garden so I could plant my Spiderwort. Running short on time I made some maple cranberry chicken, broccoli and rice, hopped in the shower and went to pick up the wedding dress which looks awesome now that it fits ;)

After such a busy weekend I thought that two hours of tv watching and stitching were in order...although I only got an hour of stitching in as matt went to bed early and some of my supplies for the new project were in there, sigh... Plus I couldn't find my purse which had me panicked (it was hiding in the dark in the bedroom).

This morning was another bright and beautiful morning so I threw some laundry in and put it out on the line...It's amazing how much you can accomplish in a weekend ;)

A Happy Dance For Me!

More on the weekend to follow but until then...my latest finish which wrapped up during Cold Case last night ;)

Wishful Stitching by Fiddlestitch Cottage

Feeling the Paint

Yay...at least there's a coat of paint on the steps, the landing is started but if I painted any longer it wouldn't have time to dry before night fall. They'll definitely need another coat but at least the steps are presentable for the wedding and the area that's left to do on the deck is straight painting (ie: around the rungs are done). I'll be soo glad when it's done!!

I started cracking the whip last night as well, it's DFH's chore to unload the dishwasher...although this might get done he usually leaves all of the tupperware and attachments for appliances all over my counter tops, he was strongly reminded where they were to go! Considering that I spent my day working full time, getting groceries, painting the deck, unloading the groceries, cooking supper and sweeping the floor that he was supposed to do the night before I don't feel too guilty about snippily pointing out that he should carry the tupperware downstairs and the bread maker basket to the appliance closet!

I did get some stitching in in the morning though ;) I can't wait to have Wishful Stitching done...once I get that and The Time I Spend Stitching framed and the wedding over with I may just have enough incentive to FINALLY paint the craft room. I was too pooped (and my stitching bag was in the van) to do anything last night. Matt and I discussed the rehearsal, my good lord after seeing all the work that Lisa had to do for hers he still thought going out for a full meal after was a good idea, good grief! I'd rather do something simple before hand as I don't want to be starving at 8, over eat and not be able to sleep! I also tried to talk to him about another little non him related thing just because I wanted a sounding board but I guess I'd used up my attentive minutes as about 2 minutes in I realized he wasn't listening, resisted the urge to bonk him with the mouse and went to bed.

So who else is excited that May sweeps is here?? I can't wait until our shows are over for the season so I can disconnect the cable and start saving for a PVR for the fall. I really HATE our cable provider so I'm all for going satellite. I don't watch alot of tv but there's one station that Matt insists on having if we keep cable and to get basic and this one station cablewise is 20 dollars more than basic cable! I've priced the satellite providers and we should save quite a bit, yippee! More stash money ;)

Piece of Me For Sale

Sigh...I knew the day would come but Gram's house is now on the market (if you look very closely you can see some very old pics of me hiding off in the corners). I'm kind of glad we bought our house two years ago so I don't have to make a decision about this. The more furniture that leaves the more I realize that what I'd have been living in a home hoping in vain that things would be back to the way things were 5 years ago.

Lightening Up

Yay, last night after getting supper on for the boys I headed over to the Avalon and sat down for a full set of foils, yay!! After I had Alex my hair went really dark, which I didn't mind, until he started giving me grey hair to go with it ;) Normally I only get some framing done but with the wedding and the up do I decided to get the full set so I have some pretty curls hanging down :) It was so nice to be pampered for almost two hours ;)

When I got home again after the hair and gassing up the van I plopped my tired butt on the couch and stitched while watching Lost....couldn't stitch too much in the last 5 minutes it was so interesting ;) Now I just have 2 bands to go, yay! It's looking like a gorgeous day outside so I might just be able to get some painting in when I get home on the deck, yay! Lunch hour is going to be spent stocking the fridge for the boys, yay!!

So, what else have I been up to? Monday night there was a stitch in at Angela's house, it's looking awesome++ She had her Chatelaine all done and it looks sooo nice. Eleni's Sharebear was looking sooo cute tooo. I'm amazed I found my way home considering I'm not as familiar with the area and it was pouring rain by the time I left, I did manage to avoid running over a frog that had hopped his way onto the road.

Tuesday involved registering Alex into the local soccer league and then heading to Body Pump, I'm so excited that I'll be able to start going on the weekends again!! I also snuck in a few stitches here and there too ;)
I've also had some awesome mail days, one of my SBB orders finally came in, as did the remaining beads to finish off my sweetheart tree ornament. Thanks for the comments on the pictures ;)

Now time for SBQ...Q :Do you or have you stitched with over-dyed threads? (Weeks Dye Works,The Gentle Art Sampler Threads, Six Strand Sweets, etc.) If so, what is your opinion concerning them? If not, why not?

I've stitched quite a bit with the overdyed threads. I've used pretty much all of the ones under the sun (weeks, gentle arts, six strand sweets, glissen gloss, needle necessities, crescent colours, olde willow, caron, you name it). I like them best when they're used for lettering or in a sampler. I like the end effect when stitching with them but I find the 'one x at a time' approach a bit annoying...and I'm a vertical stitcher so going horizontal takes a bit of getting used to. I do get a little annoyed in the JCS ornament issues when they feel the need to used several hard to find hand dyed threads for a simple ornament. I've had one WDW thread bleed before too which was annoying. My last little beef involves quality control, I've had times where my purchased thread looks more like the DMC than the beautiful variegated colour the model uses, plus on bigger pieces that worry about having matching dye lots is a whole other issue.

Some Pics

The Centerpiece which goes in our candle holder
Alex at the beach
Pleats do not flatter the slimmed down me ;)
Awe....the bride and groom :)

Here Comes The Bride...('s Maid of Honour)

Friday Matt and I took the day off, and it's a good thing as the weekend was soo hectic. Friday consisted of driving Alex to school, taking the bottles back while we were in town, picking up a little snack at Tim Horton's before heading to the high school to see Alex's choral presentation in the Music Festival. He was a complete angel the whole time he was waiting, no talking or fidgetiing, good boy! They were sooo cute+++ I video taped it with my camera while Matt took pictures with the old film camera. I had to move though as the conductor was right in front of Alex, sigh... After the music festival Matt and I headed home to finish packing (and I was zonked as I stayed up until midnight writing my MOH speech). After packing and taking a breather we headed down to the Crowne Plaza for our test meal all of which was excellent. We'll be servine an exotic mushroom ragout on puff pastry for an appetizer, a turkey dinner with stuffing that actually rivals mom's (and no one beats moms ;)) although the chicken penne was very tempting....and chocolate mousse cake. Due to the chocolate dessert and Irish Cream Truffles we're having as favors we decided to switch the serving layer of our cake to Irish Cream and make the Kahlua Fudge layer our anniversary layer to avoid chocolate overload. I was soo relieved to see the interior renovations done, the hotel is looking fantastic! After our test meal and picking Steven up we headed to the school, picked up Alex and got on the road. We arrived at mom and dad's at about 3:30 which was great, we had some time to relax before we had to make the trip up to Lyttleton again. Alex had a sleepover while we went to the rehearsal.

The rehearsal was fun, and kind of helpful as now I know what I have to do (I've never been married or in a wedding before...well I did read in one but it was 11 years ago and I wasn't really in to taking notes when I was 18). I forgot that there were stairs in the church (it's been over 11 years since I'd been there) so Dawn and I made a pact to practice with our dresses as soon as we got back to the house we were staying in. We had a nice low key dinner after (good as Matt had it in his head that this had to be a big too do event) and us girls headed to Clyde's house after while the boys went to play basketball and football at the church's rec center. I tried to be a good girl and went to bed early but Matt hadn't been to the house before so I got worried when he wasn't in by midnight but he did eventually show up.

Saturday was hectic, a noon wedding meant me getting rolling when I'm not usually, the
morning. We had a big breakfast and then settled in to getting ready. The wedding was gorgeous and of course I couldn't even make myself get choked up through the rehearsal, getting ready what not. When do I get teary, when I walk in the door, when does my nose start running, the second I'm up facing everyone. It also turns out that Lisa's organist is also a Wildwood retreater...yay another stitcher :) My face still aches some from the photos. I survived my speech and it must have been half decent as it was the first time Lisa got teary eyed all day. After the reception we headed back to mom and dad's, vegged and eventually went out with Gerry and Jessie to the Opera House for some dancing. I learned that under new ownership there are now black lights...that really made my nice new bra glow under my gauzy shirt...now Matt no longer wonders why I keep my slightly greyed bra ;)

Sunday we relaxed with mom and dad, Alex had fun. After lunch Matt went golfing and mom and I went to walmart to look for ideas of what to put in the center of our center pieces for the wedding, I'll have to post some of my pics later...I love it. When we got back I took Alex down to the beach as it was such a gorgous day. We played down there for a little over an hour and got a really good view of all the spotter planes and water bombers that were fighting a fire not too far from mom and dad's (Pics to follow tonight hopfeully). I also got a little more stitching in on Wishful Stitching, I was hoping to have it done this weekend but I ended up getting alot more of the other little stuff done instead :)

We arrived back at the house at 8:30 so I still have some unpacking to do tonight before I go over to Angela's to stitch for a bit :) I can't wait to see the house!

Chasing Rainbows

Last night I came out of body pump to the most glorious rainbow I think I’ve ever seen. I didn’t even mind walking in the sunshower to the van as staring at the rainbow really touched my childhood memories and had me reminiscing. Body Pump was awesome last night, the new tracks are tough (and I upped my weights) but they’re so peppy I love it! (I did rush out and finally bought the Black Eyed Peas after the release just so I could get psyched at home to Pump It!) ;)

Yesterday I spent the day at the Delta at an IT conference, fun. The morning was interesting, it was nice to see some more “place of former employment” refugees, people from my first coop workterm with HRDNB and just some old classmates from UNB. Lunch was ok, I went to the van to stitch in the downtime between lunch and the afternoon session. The one afternoon session was annoying, the screen wasn’t centrally located and we had someone talking at our table the whole time so it was really hard to hear.

After making the boys supper I headed out to body pump and when I returned I showered and played a little WoW, Katiebelle is now a level 45 warlock ;) I then stitched and headed to bed.

Today I have to meet with the minister at the church, and then I’m going to go home and put some more paint on the deck ;) I think I’ll have to do groceries tonight after Alex gets ready for bed so I’ll have time to pack on Thursday for our trip to the Miramichi. I can’t wait, I’ve only been home for an hour and a half this year, although Alex is concerned that his Friday taco routine will be disrupted again ;)

My Happy Dance Pic

Well...here's my The Time I Spend Stitching...now I really need to get working on 'The Time I Spend Framing' as I'm running out of room to pin stuff on my wall...

My Kind Of Weekend!

What an awesome weekend. I started it off with the new release of Body Pump and my triceps are still sore, awesome :) Saturday morning I was up bright and early for a girlie shopping day in Moncton with Cathey. We first went to Elite Framing for Cathey's second LL quiltmaker where I finally found a frame for my DD Imagination Creation, then we hit Because You Count, then I took a quick walk over to the quilt shop to get some variegated sewing thread for the baby rag quilt I'm working on (there are white blocks so I wanted them to have a littl oomph! After dropping some money at that mini mall (yay they had the thread I needed for The Time I Spend Stitching and Wishful Stitching as well as picking up Waxing Moons "She Who Dies With The Most Patterns"

At noon we headed to the seamstress who's doing the bridesmaid dresses for Lisa's wedding, all of mom's measurements were spot on, no need for pinning the hem. The only thing that was off was the arm holes which measurements wouldn't have prevented as they're rarely done... The next order of business was lunch, which we had at the Lonestar. It's located in the Blue Cross building downtown and I got to show Cathey all the neat things, like the waterfall/wishing pool with glass bridge and the glass elevators (ok...well maybe just cool for Atlantic Canada, this coming from someone who took their son to The Bay in Moncton just so he could ride an escalator as I don't know of any others unless they're in Saint John). We had a really good lunch, I had my traditional fajitas with a strawberry marg and then headed to the mall. Walmart just got a shipment of reasonably priced silk callalillies so I picked those up for the reception and some dips, then we found that the Children's Place (home of Alex's hat and the argyle knit vests) had a sale on. So Alex now has some stylin linen pants, a new tie and a new golf shirt for under 30$ sweet! After a trip to Michael's and a visit with Cathey's grandmother we headed back home. It was the perfect girlie trip :)

Saturday night I settled in and finished stitching The Time I Spend Stitching, I'll definitely post a pick when I get home. Sunday we got up and started cleaning as Matt's bestman was supposed to come down but couldn't make it, at least the house is now clean. In the afternoon I ventured out to save what lillies I could from Matt's digging and planted one of my Hostas. After that I started painting the deck and just have the floor surface to work on, yay!! I'm soo hoping we can get it done in time for the wedding. I had my fitting for my dress last night and I'm very confident in my choice of seamstress. It was nice seeing the dress actually fit!! I settled in last night to work on Wishful Stitching and I found I'd left the pattern portion of my pattern pack at work, sigh...I even had my new thread ready! At least I got to do some Bargello this morning when I got in early ;)

Fit To Be Tied

Arghh....last night was very frustrating. After picking up a cranky kid and making my supper seperate from the boys Matt didn't show up to pick up Alex, no phone call, nada. Now normally I'd just be late but where gas prices have been up Eleni and I decided that one vehicle was enough going across river and up to Douglas and were carpooling. So I had to bring cranky kid with me for the dress fittings, something I wasn't too happy about. It would be one thing if it were a shopping trip but a dress shop...where one could pay off a good chunk of the house with the inventory in the shop, not happy. Plus I kind of set a higher standard for myself when I'm out, I don't believe my kid should be out of hand enough for people to point out that he shouldn't be doing something, very stressful. I was so wishing that Bree Van De Kamp existed (before the whole AA subplot)!! It turns out Matt got confused and went to pick Alex up at Tracy's...I will not pretend to figure out how men's heads are wired ;)

The girls dresses look very pretty IMO, the indigo was a little lighter than I thought it would be but still very pretty. I also picked up some earrings for me. I find that sooo hard when I don't have my dress actually on. I was running around last night in my jammies, headpiece and earrings ;)

Sigh, this weekend we need to go on the hunt for a long ladder. Just after we fixed part of our water problem we had a HUGE windstorm Wednesday that blew the connector between the eavestrough and the downspout off, arghhh.... Today on the wedding agenda I need to pick up the unity candle holder, e-mail the dj (yay found the contact info) and double check our test meal time with catering services. In the last 24 hours I've...

• dropped off or mailed the remaining invitations to the dance
• gone to the dress fitting
• set up an appointment for acrylic nails
• dropped off the colour for the cake (DMC 341)
• Set up a rehearsal time and scheduled a meeting about the service contents

But fret not, I did get some stitching in!! I started the smyrna crosses on Fiddlestitch Cottage's Wishful Stitching :) I should be able to put quite the dent in it tonight after doing some cleaning ;)

One Month to Go!

Yay, after much debate I finally made a decision on what to do about the weekend :) Cathey and I are going to make a girlie stitchy day trip to Moncton so I can do that dress fitting and get some stash (and visit Cathey's grandmother). I feel like a big weight has been lifted :) Normally I love going to retreat but due to all the wedding prep and all the Easter events in Grand Falls I've felt like I haven't seen my boys that much and where we're going away next weekend too I'd like to make the most of this one. Plus last time we went they were renovating and if the facilities were anything less than 100% I think I'd burst into tears at the moment.

So with retreat cancelled I was able to not feel guilty about going to stitchy night :) I enjoyed bringing in my projects, I didn't think I'd done much but they really accumulated! I did as much work as I could on TTISS but I forgot one of the threads that I needed, the Kreinik will have to wait until Saturday, then I started Fiddlestitch Cottage's Wishful Stitching. I now have 2.5 out of 15 rows done :) If somone had of told me 3 years ago that I'd be working on samplers, let alone 2 already this year I think I would have laughed them out of the room, my how times change!! Tracy also had her new design that'll be released this weekend "Three Wise Mice" ready to go. I really hope that Hoffman picks up her designs, I just love them.

Yay, I met one of my reading goals yesterday as well, I finished Monica Ferris's Framed In Lace while running. It's so much fun to be back into reading again :)

Today is relatively low key. This evening the girls are getting their dresses fitted so I can finally see them, yay!! I just need to call the church today and make rehearsal arrangements, then try to find the DJ's e-mail tonight, fun. Hopefully I can squeeze in some stitching as well :)

To Retreat or Not To Retreat

Yay, it seems our floods are receeding *knock on wood*. Yesterday it rained on and off but the water in our storm drain went down, it's down a full 1.5 inches in 24 hours. Here's hoping that the drainspout fix will continue to take pressure off of the system. Way to go Dad!
I got a call from Tracy about a half hour before quitting time letting me know Alex had a fever, whatever she gave him worked as he was back to loving Alex when I picked him up 45 minutes later :) For supper he actually ate (he hasn't felt much like eating) and even ate half my ladle in red chili, beans and all! He said the chili made him feel better:)

Matt picked him up at 6:30 so that I could head out to Body Pump. I found out the new releases were this week so I signed up for the classes should I not get to retreat. I've been really on the fence about going where Cathey and half the rest of the group aren't going, then there's the money issue (although I still have to make a day trip down for a dress fitting) and there's the fact that I miss having some time with my boys as all the reorganizing to fit in workouts and our wedding activities due to the other wedding has cut into my time with them. I know it'll be all better soon but coupled with a bout of insomnia I really go back and forth on it. When I got an e-mail from Faye saying she too might not be able to go I really started seeing it as a sign, but some sleep aids and a good night's sleep has me not so certain again, sigh... I really hate being an on the fence person too!

Last night I got a little stitching in :) I have Bent Creek's Joy Angel on the go as my office project, and I've been doing up the last little bit of stitching until my Kreinik's arrive for The Time I Spend Stitching. I'm hoping to start Fiddlestitch Cottage's Wishful Stitching this weekend :)

Tonight's also stitchy night. I'm going to attempt to go to newbody first, then run home, shower, eat and make a later enterance. Normally we try to get there super early but with the upcoming wedding I should go to class and where I'll be travelling alone I can take my good old sweet time ;)

The Easter Racoon?

Well I've heard of the Easter Bunny, infact he was out scoping my new bulbs...twice. The tame little bugger let munched away defiantly until Alex was 2 feet away and then bolted. Then he had the nerve to come back while I was at the store picking up some coke so we could try out the rum mom and dad brought back from us (which is sooo much bette than the captain, I'm not a rum drinker but it was divine!!). Anyway, when I came back and noticed he was again in our garden I had a little converation with him. It took alot of talking to get him away from my arbor...then he took up camp back where my new lillies are planted, grr... It took a good 5 minutes to scare him off and he must have been ticked as he got the forest muscle to come knock over our garbage can.

Enough about bunnies and racoons, my other favorite subject my monkey. Alex is a flourishing fashionista. Thursday he had his first dentist appointment and we had some time to kill so I headed to the mall to pick up some more carpet deodorizer and stopped in The Children's Place to pick up a shirt for easter and Lisa's wedding. Well...he wanted an argyle knit vest (which he didn't get) but did talk me into the hat...

The trip to Grand Falls was uneventful. We made a pitstop in Centerville so I could meet one of our World of Warcraft buddies/Matt's Groomsmen, after mainly grouping with his dwarf and gnome he's much taller than I expected ;) We had a nice visit, eventhough that involved me going to a baby shower. Thankfully one of Eleni's friends husbands knows Matt's cousin and she ended up at the babyshower so I had someone to talk to (it's hard to fit into an enormous family). We headed back home Sunday after dinner with my wedding dress in tow, yay!! Unfortunately my monkey was a sick one by the end of the weekend, it's a good thing he had today off to play with grammie and pappy.

I did get some stitching in this weekend. After Matt and I watch the season finale of Battlestar Gallactica tonight I should be finished The Time I Spend Stitching up until the non gold Kreinik that I need to order, sigh... I can't wait to put that up in my craft room :) I also kitted up Bent Creek's angel (JCS 00) for my lunchtime project.

In other news dad thinks he may have part of our water problem figured out. He noticed when he was out walking the dog that most of our neighbors have their downspouts routed far away from their homes, and ours wasn't... and hitting some concrete patio slabs that are creating a negative slope pushing all that water against the foundation. You could just see the water seeping all along the wall that's had the problems. I put our wheelbarrow out under the downspout until we could head to Kent's and it was full in less than an hour! Now thanks to dad we have a nice new pipe that extends a ways away from the house. I really hope that solves our problem. While at Kent's I noticed their bulbs were on sale so I picked up six Hostas for one of my gardens, a black eyed susan and 5 japanese lanterns. I think the bulb budget is at it's max for this year ;)

Adding Some Bling

Just so people don't think that all I do is complain about my incredibly horrible luck...I have a picture of the instock 'bling' that I added to my Merry Christmas Bellpull. I can't wait until the new cream magnifica beads arrive so I can finish it :)

Today got off to a crappy start, I seriously thought the IT conference was today but when I dropped by the Delta it was the registration was due today ;) So I had no lunch packed, no stitching and was too late for free parking. However I managed to turn some of it around and accomplish the following tasks.

• Dropped two more invitations off in the mail
• Addressed the remaining invitations from my side
• Resheduled girls dress fittings
• Scheduled my dress fitting
• Got groceries, although I got stuck in the parking garage due to some idiot who tried to drive out of the automated parking building without paying
• Applied for and received our marriage license
• Went to Newbody

With all that said it's time for this red head to head to bed ;)

Some Quick Updates

First off my HD Dragon Dreams Proof!

And now the Sweetheart Tree WIP

More Bad News...

Oh my goodness, just when we thought we were having a bad year Matt's mother called early (Matt doesn't usually get in until 6:30 or so) and sounded upset. I could tell from what I was hearing from Matt's end that it wasn't good and it wasn't something he was expecting (very shocked). To digress a little, Matt comes from a very large family and with his mother being the eldest we're actually more in the same age group as the youngest (their youngest child is a year older than Alex). Anyway, I guess his 38'ish uncle had a heart attack at work and passed away. Absolutely terrible, especially when there's children involved.

The contractor was over last night and he wasn't helpful at all. It was buy a sump pump, jack hammer a hole and I'll install it when I have time, WTF??? Do I look like I'm storing a jack hammer in my cross stitch closet? I know I'm crafty but do I look qualified to do it?? Anyway, I'm going to call insurance as we do have a sewerage rider but it's worded like it's possibly not covered but I thought I'd double check. He was more interested in excavating half the back yard and putting up a french drain...well if our drainage system hadn't frozen we wouldn't be having this problem, especially where we're already scraping to find enough money to go to the wedding at the end of the month. The water has been going down since Matt dug his trench so I'm hoping this is a sign of better things to come. I can't wait for my dad to arrive back in the country so I can ask him a whole bunch of questions.

After the contractor left and the lunches were made (minus mine). I picked up Proof intent on finishing it (well except for the one little square of 322, until I find it) and where was the pattern...at work. I did as much of the back stitching as I could patternless, all of the non detail backstitching, played a little warcraft and then Matt and I went to bed as we were both physically, emotionally and financially drained.

This morning I got to work on time, which is a miracle as we left for work late (I needed to write a note to school as Alex heard about Matt's Uncle passing away suddenly and where the whole death subject is still processing in his head post gram's death I wanted to let them know that he might be more agitated or have a bunch of questions). I had exactly 9 minutes between getting to my desk, yay for having to arrive early just to get a free parking spot, and when work started and I managed to finish Proof!. Now to finally take a pic tonight and upload it at home :)

When It Rains...

It pours!! After having a super busy week with rescheduling gym time, dentist, having to go to blue cross to get the money to pay off the dentist bill, and the invitations I had a wedding course to look forward to friday and saturday, which involved preppiing for the MIL and a baby shower announcement, arghh...So I'm thinking already that's it in my already stressed out little world, WRONG! With the weird weather we've had this week we got up to a flooded guest room and laundry room! So we were late this morning as we spent 4 hours straight vacuuming and pailing in vain. After the course we decided to have our septic cleaned a couple months ahead of schedule which alleviated some of the problem as well as digging around a spot were we suspected the water was coming in through the wall. So we're going to have to rip off some dry wall downstairs and patch the corner, yay! I wonder how much that new wonder foam costs...my parents would know but their off in Cuba...

There were a couple bright spots this weekend though ;) My Kreiniks arrived to finish Proof....hopefully doing that tonight and I finished the stitching portion of my Sweetheart Tree ornament. I'll post some pics tomorrow (although I'll still be waiting for a bead colour to come in for the ST)

Wedding Burn Out

Last night I lost my get up and go. Feeling a bit oversheduled I picked up some groceries and headed home. I put the maple pork and sweet potatoe fries in the oven and did up a couple more invitations and out of town packs. I had another 20 people distributed today and wave 3 should go out tomorrow morning when the addresses we didn't know come in from Matt's side of the family. I went through my e-mails and sorted them trying to find the addresses when I found a group of e-mails from my grandmother, that brought on some tears and tuckered me out so I headed to bed early.

However, with all that said I DID get some stitching in throughout yesterday (a trip to the dentist helped that). My Sweetheart Tree ornament now has all of the satin stitching up the side done and has Merry Christmas stitched in, not alot by my usual standards but getting there slowly but surely. Where the addressing the envelopes is all I really have to do wedding wise tongiht I think I'll probably finish the stitching portion :) Although I do have to tidy up the house some for Matt's mother's arrival tomorrow.

I also had a decent mailday yesterday, my Stitch'em girl came in from www.downsunshinelane.com. I'll have to take a picture of her when I get home. I can't wait to stitch her! Now if only my materials from Traditional Stitches would arrive, then I would be able to finish up Proof! and bead the Merry Christmas bellpull :)

Feeling The Burn

Oh my, with the insanity that is the month of April I'm getting really tired really quickly. Last night I started my 'new' gym night of Tuesday where I can't get there Friday's for body pump due to Lisa's upcoming wedding and easter, sigh...Thankfully it's only for a month. Then I arrived home to do up the out of town information for the guests and did up about 20 invitations to send out (the rest are waiting for addresses or are for Matt's coworkers and aren't deliverable until Thursday so there was no rush)...oh I did shower first so the invitations didn't get stinky ;)
No stitching for me last night....sigh...This morning I got up late as Matt has a horrible habit of shutting off my alarm on the day's he works from home before I 'wake up', then I got out to the kitchen, dishwasher hadn't been unloaded and the supper dishes were everywhere....grr.... so this slowed down the prep for tonight's supper. The clothes also hadn't been sorted after I went to bed so I ended up digging through them to find something to wear, grrr.... It's a miracle I made it out the door by 7:30!

This morning I have a dentists appointment and Newbody after work, is that dedication or what?? ;) Hopefully I'll be able to wrap up the invitations and locate the thank you cards tonight and thursday I MAY just have a little me time after doing a 'make up' session of body pump where the gym is closed this sunday for painting and new carpets.

The Frustrations of 'Intuitive' Software

Sigh, no stitching for me last night L Nor did I get to attack the side garden, for some odd reason Word was possessed last night and would not print the invitations properly. After fighting with it resetting my margins, playing with the advanced settings on the printer I finally gave up, went low tech and had wonderful success in word pad, go figure! Now I only have about 10 reply cards to write up, and then it’s onto addressing envelopes and sending/delivering them ;)

Now, just because I didn’t get any stitching done last night does not mean I didn’t get any stitching in at all ;) I did start stitching in the lettering to the Sweetheart Tree Merry Christmas Bellpull Ornament from the 2004 JCS. It is going to be so pretty when it’s done.

I didn’t get out to wash the car or garden last night as planned, the sky started looking iffy while I was making the quiche so I decided against washing the car. Fighting with ‘intuitive’ software took up my gardening time but now the invitations are 80% done, and the thank you cards are ready to mail out as well. We did get out for a nice family walk after supper though so the night wasn’t a complete washout.

I’m looking forward to heading out for lunch with Eleni and Jackson today, it’s hard to believe the number of weeks we’ll be able to do this is getting quite short (well to at least have Jackson attending). I’m going to try to arrange something with Matt so I can get to the 7 pm BodyPump class tonight as well, with the hectic schedule on the weekends I can’t make it to my usual Friday night class until May so it’s going to take some sacrifices during the week to keep on track. Hopefully I’ll be able to sneak a little stitching in though before bed!

Leaping Into Spring

Wow, for a weekend that wasn’t supposed to be busy ours sure turned out that way! Alex had the day off school Friday for parent teacher so Matt worked from home (I can’t wait until the probation period at work is over so I can take some flex time on those days) and he got a call from the parents of another little boy in his class who was supposed to come over this weekend to go visit instead. Well Alex was thrilled :) I was a bit anxious as I wasn’t there to take him, and remind him of proper manners but he did get an invite back, yay!! Saturday he was invited by Kayla to the end of session free swim at the YMCA which he really enjoyed. We also had tickets to the 1pm showing of Ice Age 2 which we all enjoyed :).

The weather was so beautiful Saturday that we spend the remainder of the day outside doing some spring work. The trees are all trimmed, I’ve planted 75 new bulbs (hoping I didn’t kill any old ones in the process), tilled up some of the garden area and cleaned up more garbage from the woods. Tonight I’m hoping to tackle the side garden and get it prepped for some bulbs ;)

I did get some stitching in this weekend. Proof! is now just waiting for the Kreiniks (I really need to take a progress picture) and I started The Sweetheart Tree’s Merry Christmas Bellpull ornament from 04’s JCS. I had started Dragon Dreams The Time I spend stitching but have a question out on e-mail that I’m waiting for a response on before I continue ;)

Last night we had mom, dad and Jazz over for a visit as they were on their way to drop Jazz off to the kennel this morning and then off to Halifax and Cuba…who on earth will I e-mail for a whole week???

Bye Bye Betty

Well, it is done...Betty my beloved Buick was sold for parts and taken away. Sigh, I've never sold nor traded in before and she's been in the family for over a decade, poor old girl. But now at least I can park Vanessa in her spot ;)

In other news Alex had a glowing parent teacher review, which was a relief as the last one had me almost in tears! He still needs to work on blurting out answers (he's one smart cookie and just wants to help kids that don't know) but his Math skills are way beyond what's expected of his grade level and he's already reading at the level they need to be in June. All that one on one work over the holidays paid off and he's less frustrated with printing, which means he's much happier the rest of the time :)

As for stitching Proof! is on the shelf waiting for some Kreiniks, sigh...I was just to Moncton where I could have picked them up but thought I had them...but had the non vintage colours and I really don't think the red is the right hue without it being vintage. I also picked up the 'stitch'em collection' from Hobb Knobb designs from www.downsunshinelane.com for the craft room. I can't wait to see her.

We've had some lovely weather lately (somewhat explaining my lack of posting), I even got to wash Vanessa last evening and do our first bbq of the season :) I also did some spring cleaning around the yard and gathered up some of the dead stalks from last years plants and broken branches, I love being outside again!

I Saw The Sign

Yay, after fretting last night about how on earth I was going to get Betty (my beloved old buick which is sans reverse gear) out of my driveway as the recommended junk yard wouldn't take her...I saw a sign. The road out to my place is 4 lane and there I was waiting at the lights when a tow truck pulled up. Now normally having a big vehicle drivers tick me off until I saw a "We'll buy your clunker" written across the back, yay!! So they're coming over tomorrow to take her away. Now I don't need to park so far from the door ;)

In stitchy news I have a happy dance to report, Girlfriends Forever (click here for chart) is complete yay!!

Now onto Proof!, I'm kicking myself as I was JUST in Moncton at the LNS and didn't realize I was out of 2 Kreiniks, zut alors!

In monkey business, the monkey is sick, sigh... Thankfully not the stomach bug of doom again, just a nasty head cold that had him running a slight fever and had him going to bed early....without prodding. So here's fingers crossed that he feels better soon!

Stitchy Night

Yay, last night was a stitchy night. A long time before Friends That Count Angela, Eleni and I used to get together, then life got hectic, houses built, kids born and our monthly girlie night went on pause. Last night it was revived :) Alex was very excited to have some company at the house and had to show off his whoopie cushion ;) I got to see Eleni's Funshine bear and Angela's Love is Patient, I love seeing everyone else's projects :)

This week just gets crazier. The junk yard doesn't want to take my car so now I'm left scrambling to get it out of the driveway (I don't know why everything on it's new besides the transmission). The school asked for our preference on a parent teacher apt and then made one up out of thin air that goes head on with another commitment on the schedule >:( I sent a note today requesting an earlier apt. Speaking of school I found out why Alex is having such difficulties breaking from a girl that he's polar opposites with, a mother that believes that with work any two people can get along. The school hasn't let her know about any of the problems (or the fact that her daughter has been sent to the principal's office as well). So here's Matt and I pushing him to find new friends and another pushing them to be friends and work on it...no wonder the poor 5 year olds are confused!!

Today I'm hoping to finish Girlfriends Forever, there's only a couple little spots left to do (30 stitches maybe). yay!

Where'd The Weekend Go??

We had such a good weekend. Mom visited with us Friday and then on Saturday we went on a much deserved girlie trip to Moncton to look for wedding decorations. Lets just say we were shoppers on a mission! A mission so intense we didn't really stop to eat until supper at 5:30. I'm so glad we didn't have any plans with anyone else. We headed to Because You Count in the trip and that turned out to cost some $$. My goodness, one sweetheart tree ornament material wise was more than a Mirabilia pattern!! But I'd already bought half the supplies already and it will look mighty pretty on the tree so the paillettes and sterling silver charm (which cost less than the paillettes) made their way home, I just had to pass on a Diane Arthur's pattern for now.

Sunday we headed over to Gram's to attempt to find a cross stitch I'd done for Christmas in 2003, a little Precious Moments chimney sweep. I'd actually forgotten I'd stitched it and was feeling bad that I hadn't stitched her something nicer until I saw it on my cyberstitchers gallery. We couldn't find it though :( After a farewell lunch at McDonald's mom headed home and we headed back to the house. I did the zig zagging on the throw, fringed it and had a good talk with Cathey :) We also had some really good maple chicken for supper. I was pretty pooped from shopping so I vegged to Cold Case and stitching and taped DH.

And without further ado, my finishes and progress (well one piece will be on cyberstitchers until mid may after all the giftable occasions are done, so if your expecting a gift you'll have to work to ruin the surprise)

Happy Dance

Yay! The DMC hogging afghan is done!! Now I just need to go to the local sewing shop and pick up a thread appropriate to zig zag the edges in and fray it. Where it was an early morning finish while waiting for Alex's alarm to do go off I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it just yet.

I'm feeling a bit better today, it's mostly in my head (and not mentally ;)) now, not enough to justify another sick day for certain. It was tempting to crawl back under the covers. Today is a really low key day, no gym (maybe some pilates or yoga at home tonight) and Alex and I are probably going to head to the coop after work to pick up a new spring jacket for him as their Columbia's are in stock, yay!! (plus I forgot to pick up Cheerios when I was there Tuesday and 1.97 a box is too good a deal to pass up ;))

Sick Day

Well, I guess I did get the bug the boys had :( I think it was a bit aggrevated by all of the cleaning we did on the weekend too and all the dust. So I took a rare sick day as I was stuffy and the rest of me wasn't feeling that great either. Although this did mean some much needed sleep and a little stitching on the afghan ;) I'll be so glad to have that DMC hogging project done!

Last night we went and looked at flowers for the wedding, picked up some great deals at the coop and then mom and I headed to Frank's Fish And Chips, yum. The next three house were spent cleaning out two desks at Gram's, the house just doesn't look the same anymore :(

For supper tonight I was going to make a beef and broccoli dish but I was out the thai sauce I needed so I made Spinach and Cheese Ravioli and Maple Tomato Tortenade with some My Yammy Spice and some steamed broccoli, yum++ Tonight I'll be taking it easy and frogging some flowers on the afghan and maybe finishing it up :) Here's hoping!

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 ;)