Against The Current

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you're just swimming against the current. Such is mine. We're adjusting to Matt not carpooling. Yesterday it involved him getting up after we're in the swing of getting ready, taking a 15 minute shower while we're waiting to get in and me entering the bathroom to find my flat iron that I'd been waiting to use unplugged, 3 minutes before I had to walk out the door. There was a Scrubs/Alley McBeal kind of moment where I got great satisfaction having my imaginative alter ego beat him with the flat iron but lucky for him, I'm just not that way ;) This morning I got out to do the supper prep and the dishwasher has yet to be unloaded and two piles of dishes were waiting in the sink. My alter ego took a walk down the hall and dumped a couple of dirty pots on him but I was reduced to searching in three spots for every measuring spoon or cup. Needless to say there is a lecture coming.

Last night was Beaver registration and I figured I'd check my facebook account before I went out only to find my 8 year old cordless keyboard dead, no amount of new batteries would revive it. Thankfully after shelling out money hours earlier for basketball and again for beaver's I had some Futureshop giftcards tucked away and went back to a corded keyboard. I really wasn't in the mood to spend 70+ on a keyboard mouse combo (I'm fussy and only buy Logitech) so the 19.99 cord came home with me. I settled in to watch House and goofed on stitching a section over again but meh, I have the one night a month were the stars and moon align for me to get out of the house sans les garcons! I imagine they'll be scrambling to find me a birthday present in my absence ;)

Friday I'm apparently taking the morning off and going on a field trip with Alex's class. Not really how I'd normally spend a vacation period but I'm running out of years he's going to want me tagging along. Then it's off to a fun filled lunch with the girls to celebrate the last day in my twenties.

In other news our annual Thanksgiving dinner has been moved, hooray! We'd been having it on Mondays based on when my brother would be coming back to university here but really...I'd like to have Monday's to relax and eat leftovers. Now that he's at a different school he's actually heading there on Monday so Sunday works out (plus I like having it on the Christian Thanksgiving). I'm hoping it's a sign for change to come. I really want to drop travelling at Easter but that hinges on me convincing people to come to our house for Christmas which is about the only holiday I don't want to be complete isolists on. All of the travel really wears me out, I wouldn't mind rearranging my time off to take more in the summer instead. I'd like to have one easter where Alex still believes in the EB at our house to do an easter egg hunt there. When you're not in your own home you can't get uber creative on your hiding places. It wouldn't be proper at someone else's home to hide them in anything you'd have to open. However dropping a trip to one home means nailing down christmas plans 8-9 months in advance to be 'fair'. Here's hoping 30 is a sign of things to change :)

Hips Don't Lie

No, that they don't. My right hip has away of reminding me that I'm not as young as I used to be, nor will I get any younger. Sigh! Thankfully it's not all of the time, I can't wait to hear what my doctor has to say about it. :)

As for the rest of me I've faired better. Dealing with a a hyperactive biological clock that lives with a hypoactive one has been frustrating to say the least. We are also dealing with MAJOR teacher problems this year. Why couldn't we bring Alex's teacher from last year?? To summarize, when after 4 days your son's teacher is keeping a log on all of his behavior, callously throws out the term ADHD and then laughs it off because whenever he's sent to sit quietly he does just that, tells you that instead of talking to you or meeting with you that you have to wait and have a large meeting with the principal and vice principal and completely discredits the guidance support that the principal issued before the program even starts. Well, 10 years ago I probably would have had a gun blazing showdown day one, now? Well, I'll use the time to dig up teaching ethics violations, let her continue to go on down that path and she can have her large scale meeting, she'll be given enough rope to hang herself as the saying goes.

Needless to say it has impacted the stitching a bit. I have a little Frogging to do on Velcome and I need to replace some of my perles for the stocking I'm working on. With my FREX winnings I splurged and bought the accessory pack for Victoria Sampler's Poinsetta Tuffet ornament out of the preview issue. I was tickled pink when it arrived last night in the mail. I've been itching to do some hardanger again and it's perfect for that little fix. As for the gym, I'm slowly but surely building my classes back up so I can hopefully get back down to my wedding weight again.

Mi Vida Loca

Oye, I think I kind of got used to not having to run around too much this summer. I just looked at this falls schedule and oye...

Monday:
Me-Gym (afterwork)

Tuesday:
Me-Gym (afterwork)

Wednesday:
Me-Gym (afterwork)
Matt and Alex-Basketball

Thursday:
Me-Groceries (afterwork)
Alex and I-Beavers

Friday:
Me-Gym(afterwork)
Matt/I and Alex-Swimming

Saturday:
Free

Sunday:
Family-Church
Me-Gym
Me-alternative grocery day

It's a good thing I bought a 'Mom's Taxi' Tshirt!

This That and The Other

Since the last time I'd blogged we've been busy in a laid back kind of fashion :) Friday I had a flex day in the bank and decided to use it. It was fun sitting back and working on LK's Velcome while Alex played. After lunch we headed to the mall to pick up a birthday gift and totally lucked out. We found a Bratz mermaid and playset that was normally 29 on for 14, woo hoo! I puttered away a bit more and did some additional reorganizing of the craft supplies that seemed to creep into places they shouldn't have been ;) I rented Wild Hogs for us to watch that evening and Matt and I loved it. Sadly enough we could relate to the 'growing old' theme but I think we laughed away a couple of wrinkles!!

Saturday I needed to take Alex for a haircut. I'm really beginning to think I speak greek, or that all hairdressers think that little boys should be shorn. I like his hair longish but tidy ie:not around his ears. I stepped out for 3 minutes to get a birthday card and we were back to shorter hair. Mind you it was longer than a couple of the other times but still shorter than I'd like. We had a quick trip home to get dressed for the party and some sunscreen and it was off to the waterslides. What should have been a maybe 20 minute ride turned out to be over an hour. I was picking up the voucher's for the boys ride bracelets for the exhibition on the way back but when I got to the store (different one than I usually use to pick them up) they were only accepting cash. This meant a walk around the block to the bank and back, lovely! So an hour later I strolled into the house. We both went to pick up Alex as there just happened to be a driving range where the party was. The boys tee'd off for awhile while I stitched, pure bliss.
Sunday we went to the FREX. Alex made it on every single ride there :) As for my entries they did the following:
Mirabilia Cherub - 3rd framed cross stitch
Christian's Stocking (for Matt) - 2nd large christmas decoration
Jeanette Douglas 06 needleroll - 3rd small christmas decoration
LK's Santa, We've Got Cookies - 1st small wallhanging (it got reclassified from medium christmas decoration somehow, but I'm not complaining)

The judging was sketchy at best. The Grand Champion was nicely stitched but the framing sucked. Angel of Autumn is not meant to be in a gold oval with a gold frame, the piece was completely lost. Also there was an entry that I'm 99% certain was entered a previous year and an aida piece being ranked over perfectly stitched evenweave. There's also one lady who repeatedly puts in a collection of ornaments in the small christmas decoration category, it's not a collection category! I've spoken to women who judge at other events and they pretty much have the same guidelines, and the placements just didn't fit. I don't mind not placing first, that's not the issue, Cathey and I are pretty anal stitchers so it's a little shocking when we don't do the one two punch ;)

Monday we completely vegged. Being on my feet for 4-5 hours really wore me out!

Tuesday was back to school for Alex. He was pretty happy with his new class as of last night. We were happy that we'll know his homework for the week in advance again and that we've been given a list of his 'special day' schedule. It's nice to know which days he has gym to dress him in track pants and which days he has art so as to not send him in his reallly nice shirts. Apparently the district decided to change the bus numbers and not notify the parents so Alex got on his regular bus with his buddy, only to be heading to the country! Thankfully they straightened things out. Alex's status on the busses is in question though and that doesn't make me a happy camper. His zoned school was full last year on french immersion so he's in the school that happens to bus to his daycare, they had better not screw that arrangement up as it's due to their overcrowding that he's there. I'm not asking for them to take him to our house out of zone, morons.

Twenty Five

Mirabilia's 2006 Cherub

Well, here's this year's Frex entry. A little smaller than usual but I just have't been in to big projects this year at all. The beads were a pita to put on but I'm happy with the end result. Not a grand champion showing but she should take home something little.

A Cherub Completed

Well the weekend went by in the blink of an eye. Friday I was royally not feeling good (fatigue) so I opted out of going to body pump and headed home. I put the taco shells in for supper and the power went out, sigh... We called the church which is on the other side of the main road and they still had power so we made Alex a sandwich, dropped him off and had an impromptu dinner date. We tried to get into the new Frank's location but it was uber busy and there wasn't even a place to park so we decided to try a different chinese place. It was ok, it was no Seasons or anywhere near the ones at home (it's hard to beat Miramichi chinese food for some reason) but it was nice to get out for a date. Service was painfully slow and we just made it to the closing of Vacation Bible School. Alex was pretty sad to see it come to an end.

Saturday Matt had a golf tournament so it was just Alex and I. We did a tonne of chores, dropped the bottles off, groceries, returned some items, picked up his new Franny K. Stein book that was just released and picked up our tickets to Mr Bean's Holiday. We returned to the mall after we dropped of the groceries and had some lunch to watch the movie. Alex LOVED it! The people behind us got more entertainment out of watching Alex than the movie, he was just roaring. It's quite funny as the boy has only ever seen the 'Unseen Bean' tape and that's hardly Prime Bean, ditto with the movies. I can't wait to show him the original show one of these days. I didn't mind the movie, it was light hearted and funny, Alex's reaction made it worth paying theatre prices over a rental though.

Sunday I put two and two together as to why I'd been so agitated all weekend when I was felled by a migraine. It wasn't until I read up on them a bit more that I put my agitated days together with the pre migraine phase. I really need to start listening to my body better. A nap in the afternoon helped and let me work on my Cherub for the exhibition but by bed time my head was back to throbbing. Monday was not much better. I still got to work on my Cherub but by the end of the night I was ready to Botox one side of my head.

Today I'm pretty wiped out. I get alot of sleep when I have migraine episodes but it's not a refreshing sleep. I spent the lunch hour in and finished my Mirabilia cherub, now just to frame it tomorrow at lunch where tonight is written off. Goodness only knows but at least the Mirabilia Cherub is now complete ;)

30 Days Until the Big 3-0

ACKKKKKKKKK!!!!

Kitchen Crazy

Well, yesterday was one of the least productive stitchy days I've had this month! It was nice at lunch so I went for a power walk, I felt sluggish after not getting to the gym last week so I headed there immediately after work, I had to shower/eat and get Alex to Vacation Bible School in the span of 30 minutes and then it was off for groceries as after almost two weeks away Matt had pretty much cleaned them out! I was soooo excited when I found this at the coop for 29.99! I've been needing a new frying pan for awhile and this one is simply spectacular!! Although, lol, what I was planning to make for supper tonight did not require a frying pan. DH's reaction? 'It's too big and won't fit in the dishwasher, it's so big it'll cost more to heat' Meh, I already have 2 12 inch pans so there! Afterwards I cooked up some Tickle Me Elbows for tonight's supper where it'll be another hectic afterwork time, Alex to VBS, me possibly to the gym, somewhere in there probably helping my brother move/clean, yep, welcome back to reality!

Whistle While You Work

So I've rejoined the land of the working, sigh... I'd planned on coming back Monday but was completely wiped out, jaw was fine, other parts of me were not happy with the drugs dumped in my system though.

We had a wonderful weekend at mom and dad's. Friday we took it easy and simply went to market for lunch where Alex got his Kurt's sausage fix (and snuck a little of dad's schnitzel). Saturday dad picked up a case of lobsters. My son who's normally not afraid of anything was not touching them for more than 2 seconds with the tip of his finger. They were soooo yummy! Of course he had a bad sinus headache all day so that might have contributed it. At noon he was at his completely wound up stage and not accepting that if he just rested he'd feel better. Thankfully he did pass out from exhaustion eventually and was up an hour later a bright as a button all over again.

Sunday I packed the van in the morning, worked a little bit more on the Mirabilia 2006 Cherub and then we all headed to lunch at Pizza Delight. The local restaurant had been renovated and Alex LOVED the grill your own garlic bread gimmick, although by the end of the meal we were all ready to grill our waitress. The donairs were awesome as usual though ;)

The drive home was stressful yet again. We got stuck behind some morons that insisted on travelling slowly together but tailgating so you weren't quite sure if car 2 was going to pull out and pass, meanwhile I'm stuck behind them in a vehicle that should only be permitted to pass one vehicle at at time when not on a 4 lane with some jerk driving an 18 wheeler and right on my tail for 45 minutes. When did dumb and dumber leave the highway, right before the actual dedicated passing lane. I could have screamed! I was not feeling too hot already and the tense drive had me completely wiped.

Yesterday I recoup'd at home. I stitched a little bit more on my cherub and hung out with Alex, doing a little unpacking here and there but nothing that required alot of effort. At 6 Alex was ready for openning night of vacation bible school. He was a bit intrepid at first but when he saw the setup (kind of Indiana Jones themed) and the minister's daughter had asked him to sit with him (they're beaver buddies) he was off to the races. He was soo animated when I picked him up which was very nice to see, and bonus, it was at the church just around the corner from the house. He's there all week so Matt and I will actually have a whole 10 hours of the house to ourselves. Oh my!! ;)

Back from the Oral Surgeon

So, I'm back from the Oral Surgeon none too worse for the wear. I had my lower wisdom teeth out 5 years ago and finally decided to go back and get the upper ones out. They radiate with pain whenever I have a migraine and I'm sick and tired of second guessing if it's a sign they're rotten and they had descended so much that part of the root was exposed on one with was fun at times. Of course I read up on the possible complications and was pretty blah about the fact that they were much more difficult to extract after 25 when the bone thickens, I'm just shy of 30 and I was feeling old. Then there was the whole possibility of a perferated sinus, like I need any other problems with that.

So we arrived on time. I won't go see the idiot who holds a license in our city, I know over a dozen people that have been to him and he's rough and has the manner of a frozen tv dinner filled with grissle (I had the pleasure of listening to him after Matt's surgery a couple months ago and he can take that as sealing his fate). Plus he's known to push laughing gas instead of going under, and he only handles general anesthetic, my surgeon 2.75 hours away does conscious sedation a nice memory free happy ground. We arrived there on time and it took forever to do the paper work, sigh...I'm an anxious person when I'm NOT having surgery my BP was through the roof if I had to guess. Then it was back logged so I got in an hour and a half later, sigh... NOT fun considering I'd been fasting for over 12 hours because getting up at 5 wouldn't have been fun, 6:30 would have been doable had I'd have known. So I got plenty of stitching done in the waiting area but only brought in one colour as I wasn't expecting to be there THAT long. The nurse was nice, I explained my concerns as I did have two memories from the last surgery, flashes really but still I wanted to be good and out. So she topped off my IV with some Valium and I had no recollection of anything, although I must be hard to put out. It usually takes 30 seconds and I had counted past that++ waiting. I woke up very alert considering the times I had my flashes I was on less and was dopey well into the evening. The teeth were a very easy extraction and didn't even need stitches, woo hoo ( again memories of hauling out the stitch that wouldn't dessolve, yuck). We headed to Tim's and I had the challenge of trying to drink an iced cappuccino with no straw with a frozen upper lip fun!

So now it's past midnight, my only nap was one to take advantage of the day off of work ;) I do feel weaker than normal and am going to take it easy until at least Sunday, maybe Monday (the last time my teeth were fine by Monday but my tummy was not on the high doeses of ibuprofen and I do NOT respond to Tylenol). So far no swelling so that's great, not that I had much last time considering they were completely sideways. Apparently after 5 years they now hand out drugs for swelling, great! It's also helped my asthma cough I've been dealing with, bonus! *note to self bring up the fact my inhaler prescription is out next time I see the doctor*. So far so good, thanks for all of the well wishes guys :)

Twenty, Twenty One, Twenty Two, Twenty Three and Twenty Four

Ok...so I've been a little busy... I apologize for any crooked pics but it's late

Happy Hoppers ~ Lizzie KateBeware of Cat! ~ Lizzie Kate
Family Medley ~ Heart In Hand

Joyful Christmas ~ Shepherd's Bush

Tina's Stocking ~ Shepherd's Bush

For Lack Of A Better Title: Tuesday

Day two at the office, blah...

Ok, maybe it shouldn't be too blah considering it's only a 3 day work week for me (there's gotta be at least one benefit from having two wisdom teeth removed) but still. Work that was supposed to be done by others so I could continue did not appear on my desk while I was away so it makes the days a bit long and said people are on vacation this week.

As for stitching I finished the cross stitching the letters in on SB's Joyful Christmas last night during Doctor Who. A couple of weeks ago Alex was tidying up his mess when it came on and was instantly sold on the show so that's our one family show. Last night he didn't want to take a shower between 7:30 and 8 for fear he would miss the beginning. We don't watch alot of tv so having one of the shows that we actually watch being watched by all members of the family is kind of nice.

As for pictures they should be up later this week when Joyful Christmas is complete. I need to do some mass ironing and don't want to take the pics before then. Fear not Cathey...I'm not fibbing on my numbers :P

Back for Now :)

I'm back from vacation, sigh...

The week just never seems long enough, vacation is gone and it's almost the middle of the last month of summer, depressing++

We had a wonderful week away from the hustle and bustle of our life here in the city. We didn't HAVE to be anywhere or HAVE to do anything and that was pure bliss. We commenced the week by driving up in a blistering wind storm, apparently there were some F1 tornados along the way but we missed them. The drive was tiring, between one set of towns we had an antique car in front of us and a beat up truck travelling with it slowly, the passing lanes are short and the mini van is a pig, needless to say I was relieved when they pulled off. Then we had some little old ladies haul out in front of us and then drove 30 through town...well until I laid on the horn and motioned it was a 50 zone and there was a back log of about 20 cars. Finally we got rid of the slow people (and I'm not a fast driver) got ready to set the cruise control and the heaven's openned up, sigh.

The rest of the week was full of activities, but at a leisurely pace :) We got a tour of our friend's new house (I'm sooo snagging his girlfriend to arrange my furniture), the boys went golfing, mom and I went to check out the nursery close outs, I saw a grand total of 4 movies (Bourne Ultimatum, Underdog-which was actually a cute family film, The Simpsons and Daddy Day Camp), went to the local beach, played some frisbee, swam in the pool a couple of times, checked out the Napan Agricultural fair and of course, had our girls day in Moncton. I think I was pretty good, considering I don't really do alot of shopping anymore. I picked up some back to school supplies at Costco, found a pair of jeans I actually liked at Roots, was very good in Michael's considering I only picked up one little figurine for my christmas village, and did a little bending at the LNS. I've had the urge to do a big piece for quite awhile now and when I walked in there was Mirabilia's Lady of the Mist sitting there on a beautiful lavender. I was sold when Charlotte told me it was in a frame available from Michael's for 30 something as really, that's part of the reason Guardian Angel is still a WIP, the wiggle room for framing that would do the piece justice is fleeting. So I ended up walking out with it kitted, one of Shannon's Heart In Hand 'pooping birds', a new piece of fabric for Three Kings with 3 skeins of the same dyelot and the fabric for Giggles In The Snow (girl). That was my one little exception I'd made in the 50 project challenge woo hoo.

Stitching wise it was a very productive week. I attached the button to LK's Happy Hoppers so it's officially done now, LK's Beware of Cat is now also complete as is Heart In Hand's Family Medley and SB's Tina's Stocking. I stitched SB's Joyful Christmas as far as possible until my Sheep's Silk arrived (which was waiting for me when I walked back in the door) and got a very productive start on my FREX entry for the year Mirabilia's 2006 Cherub. As for reading I only openned my book the two times I went to the gym, however Janet Evanovich's Two for the Dough is now complete, bring on book three :)

Celebration

Wow, wasn't expecting to see this yet when I drove in to pick Alex up from daycare :)

New House

Two More Sleeps!

Yay, only 2 more sleeps until we hit the road for vacation! I can't wait!!! My head is already in permanent vacation mode. Yesterday did not help, we had a 'team building' golfing activity in the afternoon (goodness only knows where that's leading, I'm a bit skeptic on the motives). I had fun. As long as it's a scramble I'm up for golf, I don't want to know what my score would be normally. After golf I rushed over to pick up Alex as golfing got out an hour later than expected, I felt really bad about being late. Alex and I gassed up the van for Friday (sure today they imply gas prices are going down), picked up some buns and bbq'd :) After that it was off to the lake. I'd picked up some Diego goggles on clearance and Alex wanted to try them out. We ended up swimming until 8:30. Matt arrived home shortly after we did with his special edition 300 DVD. I was too chicken to see it in the theatres incase it was gory. So after I got the VCR set to tape the finale of Shaq's big challenge and my stitching in order we were watching away. :)

The movie actually turned out pretty good. I think I was annoying Matt having my Ott light on though. Normally it's not an issue but on dark movies the reflection is just out of place. Tonight I'm going to mow our front lawn if the weather permits, maybe even the back too if I can convince Matt to take Alex to the lake, otherwise the back will have to wait. I'm not giving up prime swimming weather for the boy for a lawn, but if someone else can take him I'll mow ;) Hopefully after a nice shower I'll be able to start packing for the weekend and get a little bit of stitching in ;)

Wet and Wild Fun!

Well, it's been a hot weekend that's for certain! Friday night we had a quick dinner and headed to Starlite lake to cool off. It was Matt's first trip to the lake and even he was in splashing around with his water babies ;) We didn't stay as long as we normally would have as we had early morning plans that we hadn't told Alex about. When we returned home it was stiffling on the main level so we headed downstairs where it was pure bliss. Thankfully we have a family room (albeit with a tiny tv) and two bedrooms, so we were camped out down there. I picked up my stitching while Matt introduced me to Big Trouble in Little China, I just wasn't into it. Stitching a boring border on LK's Happy Hoppers was much more exciting! :P We retired as soon as it finished and hoped and prayed the weather cooperated with our little surprise.

We woke up to sunshine Saturday, sooner than we were expecting as one of the alarms wasn't shut off upstairs, woops. I made some sandwiches and proceeded to wake Alex up and tell him we were headed to Magic Mountain in Moncton. I don't think a shot of adrenaline would have gotten him out of bed nearly as fast. I'd packed the night before so it was breakfast and out the door for us.

Alex packed and strapped in as we backed down the driveway.

We arrived in Moncton at about 10:30 and the place was already hopping. We groaned at the sight of the line ups at the enterance but then spotted the express line for those who had bought their tickets online...like me :) We quickly rented a locker and a double inner tube and were off for some fun. Alex's first stop, The Tornado! It's an inner tube waterslide that you need to be over 48 inches tall to ride, and finally this summer he was. When we reached the end of the slide it something straight out of The Incredibles, Alex was pumping his fists, hopping up and down yelling "That was totally wicked". Forget the other slides that's where he was going for the rest of the day. Matt and I got on one of the 'boring' slides each but the line ups were long. We also did the Pro Racer (head first, eek), myself twice. Alex and I did the Lazy River while Matt read and we spent alot of our time in the wave pool which Alex enjoyed even more now that he can swim. Alex tried two slides that Matt and I just have no luck with, I think they'd be fun slides if you were only 100 lbs, anymore and it's just way too much momentum for us. Alex loved them, he even did the Bullet which I equate to the beginner's Kamikazee, one of the huge straight drop slides. Been there, done that, have the wedgie to prove it :P

Crowds!

The Best Wave in the Wave Pool

From Left To Right: The Tornadoe, The Pro Racer and the Kamikazee

At 4 we decided to call it a day. We weren't waiting around an hour to get on slides and we'd been thoroughly water logged in the wave pool. So we cleaned up and headed to Montana's :) It was really yummy! Alex loved the dessert best of all!

We made a couple stops to some shops around town while our food digested and ran into quite a few people from home who also made Moncton their choice to spend the weekend. ;) After picking up a few things we were back on the road and headed for home. We lugged Alex in and put him to bed fully clothed, lugged everything else in and collapsed ourselves after a totally awesome adventure :)

Satellite Maps are Cool

Just an idea of how close we are to our subdivision's lake (we are the little black square). Close enough to go but far enough away not to be bothered by anyone that goes (and easily forget about it sometimes).

A Boogie Board is a shorter, wider surf board like apparatus. It's generally used for body boarding, the same thing as surfing but laying down. Right now the most we're doing is towing Alex around on it and shoving him off into the lake (he always comes back though ;)) I'm looking forward to trying it out at my parents house where they get some waves from boats that go by or in the Northumberland Strait where you get some real waves. No Honolulu or anything but enough to play in :)

Got Thread?

Woo Hoo! Did you hear my squeals??? My threads finally came in for the 4.5 WIPS (4 of which have been completely held up waiting for said threads) Of course I'd promised Alex to take him to the lake in our subdivision for a swim after supper so all projects had to wait. We've been at the house 4 summers now and Wednesday was the first day we'd actually remembered that there was a lake in our subdivision for our use. It's deeper in the subdivision than our house so we just don't think about it. Much better than treking all the way across the river that's for certain! It's a man made lake as well so I don't think there are any fishies present to scare the bejumpin's out of me either. I bought a boogie board for Alex earlier in the week and he had a blast on it. This time I brought my bathing suit instead of just wading into my shorts. Of course the day that I'm PMS'd + swollen from the heat (ack...I had preggie feet) and not feeling all that fit don't I run into people I know when I'm in a bathing suit, horror! We didn't leave the lake until the sun started going down. We came back all refreshed and poor Matt was all sweaty finishing off Harry Potter inside the house. :P

I played with my new threads for awhile and absolutely love the colours. Where I didn't have much time to stitch before bed I picked up the piece that had the least amount of stitching required and should be able to finish that up at lunch today (unless it's not humid enough outside to impede my walking), then maybe I can finish up Heart In Hand's Family Medley :) Tomorrow I think we're packing up early and heading to Magic Mountain in Moncton for some fun on the waterslides :) I really hope the weather cooperates. Last year Alex was just under the 4ft requirement for one of the funnest slides there, a tube slide (although he could go down the one on the foam crazy carpet head first...yeah that makes sense) and he was determined this year to grow enough to go on the Tornado so getting there this year has been a must, just trying to coordinate a weekend that is nice, we're all in town and no one has been on call has been a challenge, sigh... So here's hoping the weather's nice tomorrow!!!

Do I Speak Greek?

I'm beginning to think so. At first it was fun keeping score at how often Quizno's would attempt to put tomatoes on my sub instead of the onions I asked for. We started to keep count, and also try the other outlets around town...well we stopped counting at 30 mess ups. If I didn't love their turky bacon guacamole so much I'd gladly cut my ties but right now they are the only place that serve anything with avacado :( Today it was "tomatoes and onions on that", "could I have onions and black olives please" "sure" 10 seconds later "was that tomatoes or onions" "onions" "so that was onions that you didn't want on it" "no I want onions and black olives on it" /le sigh

Book Worm

Well, my book pick up timing and my media boycott for the weekend let me read The Deathly Hallows without some mean spirited ninny ruining it for me (or even just some person talking in passing, had that happen with a movie we'd been planning to rent once). I decided to stay home eventhough Matt's golfing buddies were staying there for the night on Friday instead of going to pick up my book at midnight. With my luck I'd have had someone leak some internet spoiler or be person 50 in line and have person 8 flip to the back of a book and say "Harry..........". 8 am worked much better for me, there were about a dozen parents either the same age or older than me, otherwise you'd have probably seen me yelling 'Crucio' to anyone that leaked ;) I was happy to see I was right on pretty much everything Matt and I had debated about the ending and will only say that'll be a VERY long time before I ever let Alex read that book. I'm used to reading adult mysteries so anything with a death total over one is high by my standards.

Saturday however was mostly spent doing inventory at the mini home. If I wasn't decluttering minded before I DEFINITELY am now. Not that there was clutter but I guess you don't realize how much you have until you have to throw it away. It was really difficult seeing all of the posessions being dragged out one by one. Miraculously one bag of baby keepsakes survived, almost all of the pictures survived, scrapbooks survived (I love Creative Memories but their protection system fails when there is water involved, three sided page protectors are DEFINITELY the way to go). I managed to salvage one of the ballerina's I'd stitched for the girls years ago, I even got the soot out of it :) Now to remount it! I don't think I've ever needed a bath as badly as I did when I got home. I washed my hands, grabbed my housecoat, peeled my clothes directly into the washer then soaked in every pretty smelling bath product I own. Now, some observations that hopefully you'll never need...

• Photos really are best stored in those photo boxes, those things were as dry as a bone coming out, albums got humid (although the pictures could be saved, just ALOT more work). Plastic systems melt even when not on fire and well, chances is if your storage system is actually on fire you're going to lose them anyway.
• Three sided page protectors for scrapbooking is a must for scrapbooking!
• I know they're but ugly but wire closet shelves (and even shoe racks at the bottom) are THE way to go. A week later everything was still damp from the hoses, drawing the water away from your possessions ups their chances of being salvageable
• Close your doors! I know we've probaby all heard it before, but you could be like me and live with a 'who wants to return from vacation to a stuffy house'. The center bedroom's occupant was out with friends at the time of the fire and had her door closed. The center room really only had smoke/water damage. I'm not going to say it was pretty but it was in much better shape than the living room that was at the opposite end of the house from the start of the fire. Most of the salvageable belongings came from that room.
• Do inventory and keep your records off site. Update them at birthday's and holidays. This will save you alot of heartache later
• Videotape your house at least once a year. New Years Day is a great
  time to do this, if you're like us and put your presents away that day