McLean family

Moved!

2008-03-03T21:48:00.004-06:00

I am really settling into my new space, this blog is now my archive.

For my new blog click here!

To follow Anna McLean the artist click here.

See you there!

I am moving!

2008-03-03T01:03:00.003-06:00

Ack! I totally oopsed and let the cat out of my own bag!

I have been trying different blog spaces and hosts and well, I have decided to stick with blogger till I find my perfect match. I liked the mac site but I didn't like that I couldn't edit code.

I might go that route eventually but right now it is easier to just move laterally.

I need the space desperately and this way I can still putz around making blogs all over the net till I am happy.

From now on you will find all my new posts here (click). I will slowly move all my sidebar stuff over and this blog will just be my archives.

Hope you like the new space:)

The day after...

2008-02-29T11:49:00.005-06:00

a very long night.
I don't know if it was because I had a cup of coffee later in the day or if it was growing pains.
Ethan did not sleep.
Therefore none of us did.
We had a fun day out of the house and both kids where in bed by 8pm. I was thrilled and whirled around the house cleaning for an hour so I could settle into painting for the rest of the night.

I got part of the base coat done. That is it.

By midnight Ethan had woken up a few times and would not go back down without a huge fight and so much noise that he would also wake up Kaitlyn.
We finally figured that it might be hunger and fed him a snack. He ate and drank a lot but he still wouldn't sleep. He thrashed and kicked and cried off and on till 4:30 this morning and then was ready to get up at 8:30.
I really hope tonight is better, we have been making such great progress with Kaitlyn and last night it all got thrown out the window.

Enough whining, I think I will dwell on what we did yesterday for a few minutes.
See the scowl in the second photo. This is something he has been doing a lot. Rather than talk and say what he feels when he doesn't like something he scowls. and he doesn't forget things either, he will hold his anger and continue scowling at you for a day or two if you tick him off enough.

Playing baby. I have no idea about the bowl on the head.

Kaitlyn and I love to dance for the 10 sec timer and then run up and see how silly we look.

Oh, and for those of you wondering I got my boots at Zeller's. Wal-mart had the floral ones but they where a much lower rise.

In the afternoon we headed down to the rink to meet up with my mom sis and bro and a few cousins to go skating. On the way there I went through the intersection where the "baby cops" (according to Em) were taking turns learning how to direct traffic.

They are actually RCMP in training and as a kid we used to call them the "wanna-be's''.

I had to go around the block a second time to see them again and was laughing so hard I was nearly crying and my sides ached. They were pointing different directions and seemed so confused. The ones on the corner watched and pointed at traffic, maybe trying to help.

Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious to watch.

I had no idea that there was actual training for this, never thought about it I guess.

I am in love with my new rubber boots!

My mom is going to kill me for this one I am sure, but I just love her whispies, now I know where I get them from.

Can you tell he's mine?

This afternoon he is going for his 18 month shots. If you are a praying person please send up a little prayer for him. I am always freaked out about shots so I hope it goes well.

Petals, a playdate and dreaming of puddle jumping

2008-02-28T01:23:00.013-06:00

They should have been sleeping! Again they pushed till midnight and a painting was not released from the chains in my brain.
It is not like they didn't have a busy day, we jam packed it....here is how it went...well first I will distract you with more pretty flowers.

No it is not my birthday and I am not sick, that I know of.
My sister 'TT' bought flowers and gave me her left overs, cheery!

Now back to how they should have been worn out enough to sleep last night.
We headed out for a lunch play date at BK.

The kids played for nearly two hours while Kami and I babbled away. I sure hope I didn't babble off her ear. I always feel like I talk way too much. It is not that I do not listen, I do, I love to, but I somehow think I do way too much talking, I go on and on and even forget what I was talking about in the middle of it.
That is bad!
However Kami is amazing! She is deep and thoughtful, you cannot help but love her, and she is cute to boot!

And can pull off sweet hats, I wish I could!
I had a great time hanging out and when it was all over we headed back to her place and I got to meet another fellow blogger in the flesh.
She was super sweet too and I look forward to seeing her again. I think that is the cool thing about meeting bloggers, it is like you have a great screening process and you become friends with them and then when you finally meet you already know each other and it is so natural.
This might sound odd like online dating or something, but really it is not.
It is a community and support system thing.
I think.
Anyway, off track again. Since it was now the middle of the afternoon I decided we should keep trecking and skip past the naps all together so we went rubber boot shopping for me.

Decisions!
Once I chose and bought a pair I thought I better go check out one other store and make sure there weren't others I might like more....I always do this. Decision making kills me!
The only issue is that we are on a very tight budget this week so to get them I had to dig into my grocery budget.
If anyone wonders why they didn't get dinner last night....it is my boot's fault.
If there are any questions as to why we are eating ground beef for a week, well, aren't those boots just too cute!
On the way to the next mall naps happened, just for the 15 min car ride so I though that it would be ok, it was only 15 mins!!

I found another pair that I thought were so cute, ack, why!! I just wanted to hate everything else that I saw so my decision would be easier.
Then I actually went into the grocery store...to get a few groceries with what was left of my cash. Of course I found something else,
these cute pots.
I didn't break the budget though, I will go back for them next week.

They will go perfectly with my new spring paint theme.

Since I got new boots and Kaitlyn already has cute bug boots, poor Ethan's looked so plain and lonely so I decided to paint them.
Kaitlyn found her old pair so we could paint together.

By this time it was already late. We struggled to get them down for the night over a few hours. They should have been tired and out by 9 with the day we had but that one little measly nap did us in.
We are on strike against naps today, I am dying to paint. Seems selfish but I need the release and the me time. Otherwise I just might blow a gasket or two.

We are ready to go puddle jumping now though, bring on the melt!

Filtered through

2008-02-26T17:02:00.003-06:00

I love flowers and I love sunlight, these are on my window sill and cheer me up like you wouldn't believe.
I took a few other shots, pretty pinks and whites too, click here for them.
We had a break through, a huge one!
Last night Kaitlyn slept right through the night, for the first time, well if you do not count that she woke up once about 30 mins after going to bed. Dave shushed her back to sleep and that was it till I woke her up this morning.
Amazing!
This night weaning thing is going really well. However last night Dave barely got a wink of sleep because he kept waiting for Kaitlyn to wake up and would then lay there wondering if she was ok since she hadn't woken yet.
I actually did go in and check on her once to be sure she was ok.
Maybe she slept so well because she ate over 200 grams of shrimp before bed...enough to make me sick, hmmm, maybe I will feed her shrimp every night.

If she keeps sleeping this well I can just imagine what it will do for our sex life, whaa-hoo!
Now just to get Ethan sleeping like this and it could be like it was before kids, ha, ha!!
No, this does not mean more babies, not thinking about this for a few more years yet, well maybe we'll think about it next year, maybe!

We went for a chilly walk to a nearby school to play yesterday. I am afraid that when it comes time for Kaitlyn to actually go to school she will be greatly disappointed that it is not all about recess.

There are a ton of other pics from the weekend. I even dressed up for Dave just to go to Rona. Funny how you get different treatment from people based on how you look. (and I really wasn't that prettied up)
These two older men offered me their donuts and coffee and chatted up Kaitlyn as I got popcorn.
If I was in my frumpies I am sure I would not have gotten a glance let alone a bantering conversation.
I managed a terribly rough shot of myself in the closet door section....as I dreamt of a completed place to get my clothes off the floor. Click here to check it out. (it is at the bottom of the page on the rt)

Cement eye lids

2008-02-26T01:52:00.002-06:00

Once again it is the wee hours of the morning and I am soo beat I can barely keep my eyes open let alone sit up.
I am sorry that I have been the most boringest blogger of the week but we have been so busy.
Fun busy and yuck busy, cleaning, organizing, visiting with family, shopping, swimming......and a pile of other stuff.
Dave has been doing the night wean thing with Kaitlyn for a few nights now and last night she only woke once, yay!!!! This is massive progress on her 6-8 normal wakings.

Ok, so I uploaded around 700 pics, sorted them and got them ready to post, however I am as tired as a marathoner so I will just share a bit of what I have been doing in the evenings and post the biggie tomorrow....sometime when I catch a break.

Kaitlyn loves to help...even if it is just rinsing my brushes.

Three of the completed pieces....a few others still on the go. The two larger ones are for the store and the smallest is a gift....oooo, she might just see this, I am such a spoil sport. I won't name names just yet...let there be a bit of mystery...really i am just too tired to do a link at this moment.

I was also inspired by the same chicko to do a little sewing and since I am madly in love with totes I dug through my massive fabric sample pile and whipped this up. A little rough, but it will serve grocery purpose.

That is it, I am backspacing more than typing, if you where here you would think I am loaded (I am not)
so sorry for the typos, will do a gooder later.
Night!

Brush in hand

2008-02-24T03:07:00.003-06:00

This week has been a bit of a blog break for me. Between the working on myself, marriage, house and kid stuff I have hardly even slept.

It has been a needed break and last night I was able to pick up my brush and start a few more projects. I have a few to finnish but the problem is that I have a creative traffic jam in my head and to relieve the pressure I had to get a few more started.

Things are going alright, just been sooo busy! I will fill you in on the happenings, hopefully tonight.

Plunging with my bottle cleaner

2008-02-22T01:18:00.005-06:00

Guess I wont be using this scrubbie for bottles any more.

This afternoon we went out to go swimming with mom the kids, Aunt Deb and 2 cousisns. I had somehow screwed up the swim times and when we got there only had 25 mins to swim. They let us in for free but it was barely enough time to get wet.
It was fun anyway and after our little toe wetting we hit up McD's for coffee and a snack.

Cheeky monkey.

Totally rolled out of the wrong side of the bed. (Not really but she had the funniest look and the worst post swim hair ever)

Does this make my head look big?

Did I ever tell you that once upon a time I illustrated a book?
Well I did. Click here to see all the drawings.
Don't look to closely at the drawings....I was only 17 at the time. It is still in circulation too, ack!

Sorry for this lameo short post. Dave came home tonight after a few days out of town......you know what this means;)
Good night!

Cute as a.....

2008-02-21T00:39:00.011-06:00

button...or two.

Buttons! Love em!
Mind you they are a pain in my you know what to sweep up and I will most likely be finding them around the house for weeks....they still beats sparkles!

Kaitlyn quickly sorted out her "favite colours."

A little word in with the buttons. Not something big but it jumped out at me and smacked me in the face. I need to make it a priority to be and look for happiness all through the day.

A part of this realization was to really choose my battles and even if I don't feel like putting in the effort and to just enjoy the mess making along with the kids.
I started to freak out a bit and asked Ethan to stop sweeping buttons off the table, then Kaitlyn joined in, I was not happy. Then I saw the delight in thir little faces as the sunlight bounced off the buttons as they flew onto the floor.
I smiled, I lost that battle, and I am glad.

Of course I put them to work sweeping up the mess.

However Kaitlyn doesn't quite get how to make propper piles and swept up little piles all the way over to where I was sitting.
Despite the mess I had a lump in my throat, I just love these little munchkins and feel so blessed to be able to hang out with them day in and day out.
I sure have my moments where I feel like yanking every last strand of hair out of my head but they are fleeting and I just have to think about how awesome these little ones are for the next moment and it brings me to tears of love and gratitude. I love them!
The occasional break is welcome however and this Sunday I had a treat day and made a few cards at a party.

Cute huh?!

Tonight I picked up Emily and we headed to It's a Blast for a few hours. It is such a fun place to go when we are feeling cooped up...we expeled tons of energy (thank you 2 hour naps) and got our seretonin levels on the move.

"Yay, mommy"

Stolen kiss.

Now since I have been absent again a few days, not intended, but I have been working on the messes around here... I will bring you up to date on yesterday.

Since the big talk with Dave about our love life, kids, housework and everything else in between I have been working hard on change.
I made lists, charts and schedules, stayed up at night plotting what I would do to make things right.
The answer to my problem...go shopping!

Why do I always cock my head like that?!

Doesn't shopping always fix everything?
I actually hit up a consignment store a few blocks away and snagged all these outfits...3 tops, a jacket, and 3 skirts for under $100 bucks. I am happy!
Now my pact is to dress up every day....well at least try to be pretty. No more 3 days in the same pair of jeans and same t-shirt and a pony tail. I am going to mix it up, wear a few skirts and even wear socks and shoes!
I hate socks!
This is a big deal for me.
And make-up, I will put on eye brows...didn't you know?
They are transparent, I have to draw them on. Scary!
Moving on...again.

Baking cookies at 11:00 PM. The whole sleep schedule is going ok. The days Kaitlyn does not have a nap she is down by 9. The days the she has a nap there is no way to get her down early.
Seems to be every 3 or four days, kind of a cycle.
Now just to work it into my charts, hmmmm.

Cheese.

Been MIA but I am alive

2008-02-19T01:22:00.006-06:00

Where have I been ?!
Well for one my internet connection has been extremely sketchy for the last 4 days and so I have hardly been on.
It has actually been a good break, a well needed one.
We had issues to deal with.
House, plumbing, money, love life, parenting.....
It has been a heavy few days to say the least. It seems that every once in a while things just come to a head and one minnute everything is fine and the next nothing is fine.

I chalk a lot of it up to the weather, I HATE winter! The fact that this year has been a cold one has made it worse but I am usually just a little down during the winter to start with.
However this year is tough.....we are trying to rearange, de-clutter and clean up, the process is brutal and involves piles and stacks of mess all over the place waiting for proper storage. I hate this, I cannot function and sit and stare at it thinking I must deal with it so I can do something fun.
Plumbing went Friday night. Dave plunged a face cloth out the tub, but it still won't drain properly and the toilet wont drain. Of course we refuse to pay weekend rates and this being a long weekend we have gone three days with trecks to the basement potty.

In my mind is .....I really want to go to BlogHer and I have to save money.....how can I do this with added expenses.
Oh, ya, the furnace fan went on a weekend too, couldn't wait for that though and paid double! Ouch!
Then Dave's truck went into the shop Saturday morning......$2000.00 later it came out.
Double ouch!
Needless to say BlogHer is getting further and further out of my reach. So sad!

Then Dave and I went on a date, to talk.
Seems since haveing kids our relationship has suffered, we just don't go out of the way to do special thing for each other or ....I don't sexify my look, I am a frumpy mommy and well, I need to put more effort into me and him.
There is more, so much more, why does everything crumble in on me at once?!
So the last few nights I have been thinking, journaling and trying to make personal changes.
It is hard!

Anyway....blah, blah...sorry to vent, it just helps to type it out somehow.
We still had fun, even though my head was full of trying ot figure things out we headed out to the cottage to take advantage of the third nice day this winter.

It was amazing out, the perfect winter day! Tons of snow and happy skidooing boys....if all winter days where like this, I would love winter!

Anyway I hope to get this house and my head in order in the next few days, I am dying to get back at my paints and finnish a few half completed projects.

Thanks for bearing with me, I feel like a rollercoaster ride!

Click here for the rest of the photo's from the last few days.

Pertty petals

2008-02-15T02:31:00.003-06:00

Today was super full and waaaay too long! I am toast!

However there are a ton of pictures with caption so you can see our journey.

I would blog them but my gosh...there are 38 photo's, I would be sitting here till this time tomorrow waiting for them all to upload!

Click here to check them out!

There was a few cute moments not captured on film...er...memory stick...here is one that I remember.

I walked into Kaitlyn's room to see what she was up to, she had been quiet for a while so I thought I had better see what she was up to.

She was laying on the floor in her lady bug costume, on her back, not moving and with her face turned towards her bed.

I asked, "Kaitlyn, are you having a nap?"

She said, "No, I am looking at my bed!"

She then turned and gave me a look that read, "are you nuts?!"

I remember one other moment.

I was baking cookies and once again I realized it had gotten quiet, usually not a good sign so I went on the hunt.

I checked ever room, started to panic and ran back peeking into every room again, where were they?!

Did the rapture happen and I get left behind?

I was freaking a little when I heard a tiny noise from Kaitlyn's room. I rushed back...i had been there twice already, how did I miss them?

I walked in and there they were, in her closed with a pile of toys playing together quietly, in their 'fort'.
Sigh, a golden moment.

A lovely day

2008-02-14T01:34:00.006-06:00

Sweet on you.

Crafting with love.

On display for daddy.

Doing school work.

Ethan too.

Since seeing Emily do her school work Kaitlyn has been obsessed with the idea and when we were at the dollar store and she saw these work books we had to get them.

We stayed in and watched the snow fall all day, it was so beautiful!

Peek.

Trying the comb forward.

"Shobling" with daddy.

"Cheeeeeeeese"

I have not made my move officially yet, I am still here :)
I will let you know when and if I do do if for sure.

Happy Valentines Day!

Big move in sight

2008-02-13T02:30:00.005-06:00

OK...so here is the deal.
I have been considering a move...blog wise for quite some time. I have tried out a few different hosts and, well, I like blogger. However I am runing out of storage and it is going to cost me and I do not like the fact that they want me to back everything up onto Picasa when I already have the whole Flickr affair going on.

So since no matter what it looks like I have gotta fork out some dough (and really I should for the amout of time I diddle around on here)...I have finally found a space I think I like.

Now bear with me, I have a ton of work to do still, a lot of moving of stuff over and yadda, yadda. For now it is in the baby stages, testing the waters stages. Links don't work yet and pages are not filled out.

However.....I am dying to know what someone other than me thinks!

Go check it out and let me know what you think. Seriously and honestly...do you like this or that?!

You can post a comment here or there, I will get it either way...it is not like I am gone from here yet....this is only a test!

I am giddy about this, aaaggghhhhh........

Ok, ok......click here for the link!

Enjoy! (if the link doesn't work, let me know)

Zippp...

2008-02-12T02:55:00.000-06:00

This is a quick one. I have a huge project that I am working on and am kinda consumed by it at the moment. I should be ready to reveal in the next day or two.

It is exciting.....well, I am excited, can hardly wait to share it.

Here are the pic's from the weekend that I promised.

Click here.

A little chill and California dreamin...

2008-02-11T01:40:00.000-06:00

I have so much to share and I figured I would just upload into flickr. However my uploader seems to have zonked out on me tonight and I have way too many pic to upload onto here...I would be up all night, well for what is left of it.

So, I will get them onto flickr tomorrow.

Dave worked all weekend and with the weather being brutally cold...my truck almost didn't even start, it laboured and fought before turning over.

Poor thing!

It is so cold and windy that when we did venture out to get groceries the wind actually caught my breath and made me cry out. It hurt!

Now I realize I should not whine about the cold, there are millions of people who suffer through it and worse, I should really count my blessings!!!

I have a warm home and loving family, the bills are paid and food is on the table...now I just have to paint my butt off and sell some art so I can go to BlogHer '08....wish me luck!

Ooo baby, you make my heart sing....

2008-02-09T01:50:00.000-06:00

Today was one of those days that was just plain fun.

We crafted all day long, played, drank smoothies and baked. Not one ounce of house work got done and we ate leftovers. I wish we could do it everyday, but now I have my work cut out for me tomorrow!

We had a blast and here are the photo's to prove it!

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

All mushy and fuzzy inside

2008-02-08T01:40:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we took the kids to our family doctor for their follow up appiontment...from when Ethan had the ear infection a few weeks ago.

Notice in the photo above how Kaitlyns knees cave in a bit...this has concerned me and we had both kids feet looked at. They are both flat footed and are now to see a pediatrist. Whoo-hoo, what fun! (not really)

Now for a change of subject ( I will do this a few times this post) I got Caught Being Good by CC. I think she is the one who deserves this award more than anyone...she is an amazing wife and mother and plugs through whatever life slings at her. She is real and honest and has a beautiful loving and passionate spirit.

Here are the rules that come with this sticker:
1. Choose 3 people you want to reward for their good bloggy behavior. (I say if you don’t have three that’s ok. Pick one person.)
2. Link them in a post along with the “Caught Being Good” sticker.
3. Let them know they’ve been “Caught Being Good” and encourage them to pay it forward (if they feel like it).
That’s it! Go spread some linky love. You don’t have to be nominated to nominate someone but these writers are my picks:

a)Chatty housewife, becuase she is always consistent and upbeat. Her passion show through in every post and her photography is awesome! She is also a demestic diva and I think we are due for another one of her domestic tips post (wink, wink)

b)Second up is Kami. She is a relativly new blogging friend and one who has crossed over into my real life. She is funny and her posts always make me either smile or laugh. I need this!

c)My old friend Sandy. She is an amazing homemaker and mommy and is expecting her second child. She also works from home, chases around a two year old, cooks fantastic food, looks hot and still keeps it all together. I really don't know how she does it!!!

Now I will get back to my little life. As you all must know by now I looooove me some non-bill mail! Packages make my day, I smile and smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
It is like getting a little love or a hug, it just adds a big bright hue to the day.
This week has been great for this!
On Monday we got a package from Nicole. She was so sweet to send me a tote (she is the queen of totes) and it has a design by one of her talented sister's on it, cute heh?!!
The other thing she included in the package was dish soap, amazing earth friendly dish soap with no SLS!
My hands are no longer bleeding from one load of dishes! This stuff is fantastic and it smells good too! My eczema is under control for the first time in months, I cannot thank you enough Nicole!!

Oops, I am goin to change the subject again....not smooth here today!

First craft of the day was making hand shaped Valentines...for each other.

After that little break the door bell rang and we were delivered a party in a box, Thank you Aunty Kathy!!!
The kids had a blast opening and playing with everything...and they still are, this box will keep us going for weeks!

The second craft of the day came from the party box and ended up being a pretty little necklace for Kaitlyn.

Now for what I have been up to. The kids went down early last night (8 and 9) so I tackled my computer chair. I had Dave haul it out of the trash behind our old appartment down town Edmonton...when we were first married. He didn't want it because it was only adding to the stash of stuff we had crammed in the tiny space.
I had a vision for it though and since we were moving into our first house right away he let me keep it....on the balcony.
It then spent a few years kicking around in the garage at our first house, endured the move with us here and then hung out in the basement.
Last night I finally got to work on it!

Like the new fabric? I have quite a collection of samples like this one. I save them for more projects in my head that haven't happened yet.

It is almost done, still needs a few more coats but I am sooo happy, finally a project that I had in my head years ago is coming to fruition...this is why I have such a hard time purging, I always want to rescue and refurbish everything!

Flickr through my day

2008-02-07T02:59:00.000-06:00

I don't even know where to start this post. So I will babble and see where it takes me.

So far tonight the whole new schedule thing with the kids has not gone well. We completely threw it off by going out to dinner and stopping by my parents place. I had hoped the kids would be worn out and sleep in the truck on the way home...it was 10pm!

No luck and they were up past midnight! Kaitlyn was awake till one and this was after Dave fell asleep on the floor in her room after many books and I had poored sleepy time story after story out of my brain. Prayed with her and sang. No luck.

We cannot go out after dinner, that is it! Lesson learned!

Today was actually a really great day. Dave had the day off so I got to sleep in (oh, yeah!) and the de-cluttering continued. Chores got done and we just had fun!

It is now super-duper late and I am beat, rather than stay up another hour waiting for my photos to upload I have plunked them all into Flickr and done a picture by picture walk through of the day. Just click on each photo to bring up all the text. (Click here to see our day.)

Can you believe what happened to our snowmen...crazy!!

Hope we have a better night tomorrow and I can do a real post:)

Round two in the battle of sleep

2008-02-05T15:58:00.000-06:00

The kids are both napping, whew! I am smacking back a few chips, shhhhh, so I cannot hear my thoughts too well.

OK, done, now let's see, where was I....I have had a huge dialogue and post going in my head for over a day so I will try and pick away at it as best I can.

Kaitlyn is sleeping, she really didn't want to go down and fought me on it for 35 mins, but I pulled a few Super Nanny moves and dozed on her floor (with one eye open) in the process and when I woke up(opened the other eye) she was out too, yay, one battle down many to go!

I want to say thanks again for all the tips and advice that I have gotten. It has got me motivated to get back on a strict schedule.

I read a sleep book and it said that it is not important to stick to a strict time but stick to the schedule of doing the same routine.
We have done this and I now disagree with the book. I think that the time is also important.

When I grew up the schedule varied and it meant that we slept in after a late night, this is the same trap I have fallen into with my kids. Up late, late to rise.

This will be hard for me especially after 6-8 night wakings but I will start slowly. The kids WILL be in bed by 9 and up by 9. I hope that after week of this we can move it to 8pm and 8 am to rise. It will be esier in the summer because that is was the schedule we were sorta on last year and getting out for a morning walk was so nice.

About the wakings. Ethan is moving back into his bed. I had been putting this off but I think it is a crucial step, he is getting to the age that Kaitlyn was when she made the move and I think, or i should say hope that we will all sleep better in the long run.

I am dreading it a bit since that means that I will have to get up physically to get him back to sleep. I tried this a few months ago and after two times up draged him back to our bed, so I expect this processs to go quite slowly.

Another thing will be to get Dave some nose strips for his snoring....he wakes me up quite a few time every night and I end up smacking him or yanking his pillow to get him to stop. Truth is that when he was gone to LaRonge that week I actually slept a lot better than when he is here.

Now Kaitlyn. I have been talking to her the last few nights when she wakes up to try and get a grasp on what is getting her up. Turns out that she is having nightmares, mostly about purple snakes coming out of her closet and mice in her bed.

She has a night light and white noise, what do you do about nightmares?

The mice nightmare she has been having for about a month now and just tell her it is ok, there are no mice, mommy is here, go back to sleep.

What is the solution?

I also had nightmares like this as a kid and remember watching elephants and VW bugs drive down the hall and I remember swarms of bugs circling my head and hiding under the covers. I would wake up and cry for my mom throughout the night till I was 7 or 8.

This is exactly what Kaitlyn is doing so I fear it could go on for years!

She did wake up the one time because she was hugery and after two hours of trying to get her back to sleep Dave got up with her and got her some crackers...I think she was growing that night!

Usually she stays in her bed and just needs to be comforted back to sleep.

I fear that what I do is blog the exceptions and am painting a terrible picture for you all when the average night just involves me getting up 3 or 4 times to get Kaitlyn back to sleep and roll over a few times and get Ethan back to sleep...oh ya and wake up a few times to stop Daves snoring.

Hmmm, it does sound worse than it feels.

Anyway, I am excited about the schedule. It will be hard on the weeks that Dave works the late shift because the kids like to stay up and see him and then get all excited and it takes a few hours to get them down after that.....usually around midnight.

We do dim the lights and have quiet time from around 8 as it is but I think we will just have to be more firm about keeping them in bed despite not being tired. Sitting with Kaitlyn for a few hours wont be fun but hopefully after a few nights she gets that she has to stay there and cannot get up to play and gives in.

Last night she sat and sat and sat staring at me...for 2 hours before she finally rolled over and went to sleep!

I also want to say that I am so blessed, despite their poor sleeping they are really calm and good natured kids during the day. The exceptions to their behavoir are the pictures I share....the messes are NOT every day, thank the Lord!!!

spell check still isn't working and I have no time to proof read....sorry:)

De-cluttering and a plea for help.

2008-02-03T01:48:00.000-06:00

First off I will address a few things. I want to thank those of you who left comments and thank you for your concern and for your advice.

I do agree with Kim about a schedule being very important. We have tried a schedule off and on and it is so hard to keep. One night out seems to throw it right off but I do admit it is nice when we abide by one.

Caffine.
I actually rarely drank coffee until this past summer and have only been drinking it regulary for the last few months. Only in the morning....occasionally in the afternoon....on really bad days. I never drink pop....ok, not never, maybe once a month I will have a bit of fountain pop when we are out for dinner, but I am a huge water drinker.

I was worried about coffee affecting the kids and was wary about drinking it but the reason I started to was to help cope with the exaustion I was feeling after being up so much through the nights.
Water just wasn't giving me much of a boost. I have skipped the coffee many days just to be sure it didn't affect the kids, but it is about 10 hours between my coffee consumtion and their nurse time. I usually only have 2 cups... I know more will affect my sleep so I really try. Then again there are exceptions....on bad days.

However none of this seems to help any with sleeping.

So here is the deal. I will tell you how our nights go and how our situation plays out and if any of you have any advice or can share what works for you, please, I would love to find a way to get them to sleep through the night.

I know many of you are fans of the cry it out method. I have no issue with this method.
However it does not work for us.

I have read sleep books and they said to do this method by 6 mos and 12 at the latest. Well when Kailtyn was six months old I hit my second trimester with Ethan.
She was just starting to sleep long periods and I was quite happy. However she was a breast only baby and with going into the second trimester my milk turned back to colostrum.

She got quite upset and since she did not take a bottle (we had been trying for two months every day to get her used to one) she started to get pretty hungery. After a few days of not getting any milk and only sipping water off a spoon and just starting to eat a few things I was getting worried and she was super fussy.
After a doctor's appointment we where told that this was common with such close pregnancies and she would adjust and within two weeks be on a bottle.
We percivered but she was stubourn.
Long story short and after nearly daily doctor visits for 32 days she finally broke down and took a bottle.
She had become listless and was rarely soiling her diapers. She was trying to nurse ever few minutes and was upset around the clock. I was freaking out at the doctors for not booking her in, but they said that when she was hungery enough she would cave.

It was the longest month of my life!

Anyway the next 6 months were all about getting her to eat and drink more than an ounce at a time since her belly had shrunk so bad. She was taking her bottle every 2 hours around the clock and still nursing for comfort.

We decided to try the cry it out method and cut the night feedings. We ended up going to the hospital since she hyperventilated so badly---for almost 4 hours.
The doctors there scolded me and said that the cry it out method is not for every child and definitly not for her. We were to try and calm her down as quickly as possible to and try to avoid letting her get so worked up.

I felt like the worst mother in the world!

Then Ethan was born.

He has no problem crying it out...he will cry for up to 10 mins and then zonk right out, however....he wakes Kaitlyn when he cries and she is worried for him and starts to cry and then we have to calm her down so she doesn't hyperventilate and her crying only works Ethan up more and then I end up shoving a boob at each of them to get them to calm down and get back to sleep.

Aaaaggghh!

They both are extremely light sleepers and will wake if you creak a floorboard in the hall as you walk past thier room. We run the furnace fan to create white noise to cope with that.

Now another this is that both Dave and I are night owls and I for one have always been a very light sleeper. I remember as a kid waking up throughout the night...my poor parents...wait, now I am going through it. Hmmm!

So anyway.....what we do now is rush in to see whomever wakes up first and get them back to sleep before they wake up the other and get the cycle going.

They do not need to be nursed but just comforted for a few minutes and they are alright and go back to sleep...usually. Sometimes they want to nurse and other times they are just wide awake.

Thing is they wake every few hours so Ethan sleeps with Dave and I. This way I can just roll over and get him back to sleep and only have to get up a few times with Kaitlyn.

I want them to sleep through the night so bad. I am sick of not sleeping and getting up every time I feel I just was getting to my deep sleep.

Maybe the fact that they are only 12 months apart plays into this a little, maybe I am just crazy!
They are awesome kids during the day, happy and good natured, unless they are sick. Then they are clingy!!

So please, I want to know....if any of you have any advice, I really want to know what works for you!

Anything, really I am all ears!

Now I am going to totally change the subject. We did some major decluttering this weekend.

I think the cabin fever thing was what got it moving. Being cooped up in the house day in and day out made me want change. So I decided it was time to rearange. We started with one shelf.

Nice and clean, hmmmm, maybe it should go, we could move things around and it would look cleaner.

Ya, that is looking good.

Hmmm, looks a little unbalaned on either side of the fire place.

And the clutter......I am sick of looking at stuff.

It goes to.

Ahhhhh, thats better! Now we can reorganize and clean up.

Day two in the shmucky department

2008-02-02T03:42:00.000-06:00

I don't know why our kids don't sleep at night but after being up with Kaitlyn for three hours in the middle of the night and through numerous other wakings I could hardly sit up this morning let alone talk.
I am sure the poor contractor who came knocking and woke me up thought I was a morning lush, I didn't even make sence to myself!

It is late now and I am beat, have a great weekend and here are a few photos of our day....craft distractions and the reality of the state the house falls to when I am too tired to pick up us as they go along.
Enjoy!

Schmucky brained.

2008-02-01T00:11:00.000-06:00

I am glad today is over!
Another day cooped up in the house and I was a grouch!
I started a post earlier but all it was was whine, whine, whine. I don't even want to read it again so I will spare you having to read it as well.
I think I just need to get out, have more me time, redecorate, and get better organized.
Yup, should be easy!
Ha, ha!
Maybe just getting a breath of fresh air will clear my head. I am just crank, crank, crank. I did have a bright spot this afternoon when I read this(it is yesterdays post and today's is pretty funny too), Kim cracks me up!
Put's my crappy writing to shame!
I blame it on no sleep, not enough coffee and not hanging around other adults all day.

Anyway...
Now that I look back on the pic's of the day I realize we--I mean the kid's had fun despite my fuzzy head.
They rock, though at the time I just wanted them to have naps.

I guess the fact that they stripped a few times and I had to mop 3 puddles and then one massive three room span-disaster of poop, (way to gory to tell the whole story) kinda blurs my outlook on the day.
Bath time was redeeming though.

So was our continuance of summer party in defiance of winter day's.

Cheers!

During these few blissful painting moments with Kaitlyn was when Ethan decided to do his number two and distribution therof.
I will choose now to remember the painting moments, yes mind over matter and I must remember-I am complaining less this year!

Daddy time rounds up the day.
This was one of those days where I just felt like no matter what I must have rolled out of the wrong side of the bed, I am glad it is over, I feel so schmucky. I am glad Dave worked late and crashed on the couch after his kid time, he wouldn't want to hang out with me I am sure.

Heck I am just anoying myself, sorry folks, I will shut up now before I blah, blah, blah, you to tears.
I am now off to plan a bunch of fun crafts and a day trip for tomorrow, I will fight this winter cabin fever-blah-funk I have slipped into even if I have to break a nail trying!

One thing that I think would brighten my day is this coat. However it is a final sale and not returnable, and it is online from the states and it kinda freaks me out. What if it doesn't fit?
Or looks funny on me. What do you think of it?

(on another note, my spell check isn't working so please forgive the typo's, my brain reverts to french when I write sometimes, so I will use that and my lack of sleep as my excuses)

Oh, and are the scrolling hearts anoying, or is it just me?
Should they stay or go?

Dreaming of summer days

2008-01-31T01:30:00.000-06:00

This is just a quick update and a little skittish, sorry.

We never left the house today. You would have had to pay us.
Instead we pretended it was summer and hung out in summer clothes indoors.
Aaaahhh, pretend bliss.

I think we have reached the 'are we there yet?' stage with Kaitlyn.
As I made dinner tonight she asked me every few seconds, "mommy, ready now?"
"No Kailyn, not yet, I am just boiling the potatoes."
Kaitlyn, "Ready now??"
Me, "No, I still have to drain them."
Kaitlyn, "Why?"
Me, "Well, I am going to mash them so we have to drain them."
Kaitlyn, "Oh, ready now?"

This went on and on throughout the whole dinner making process, right up till it was time to eat.
What a fun stage. ;)

We played 'hair salon' on "Suzie baby."

Em and Phil came over to give me a break and a chance to clean. And I did, like a mad woman on speed!
The floors are even vaccumed and washed!

Ethan is feeling like his normal mischevious self again and I am so glad! For the first time in weeks he wasn't hanging on to my leg or my neck all day, though he still dished out a generouse amount of hugs and winks.

He sang a few songs and pounded a few keys.
I am so glad we are getting better around here, finally, maybe our fake summer day did the trick.
Now if you noticed the new banner, I know it is a day early, but I have a few ideas for my Feb banner so I decided I might just swap them out. This one was just a rough sketch done as a trial run, so that is why it isn't pretty or anything.

Chatter.....brrrrr........ch..ch...ch...aaaaaaaaa!

2008-01-30T00:06:00.000-06:00

I hate winter.

Have you ever had the snot on the inside of your nose freeze?
In less than a minute of being outside?

Well I have, today.

I do not mean to be a downer but I am sooo sick of it and being cold.
Despite Dave plugging in his truck last night and running it at midnight it did not start this morning, not even a chug or spatter. Frozen solid.

Then again, it is -53 degrees C out there!

He ended up trying to start my truck and despite not being plugged in the beast fired up, it is a monster!

I was worried about going out, Ethan had had a fever since 11pm last night and it continued off and on throughout the night and continued today.
I was worried that his ear infection was coming back but his fingers were in his mouth more than his ears and after feeling around in there I figure he is cutting molars. He is miserable and spent the whole day in my arms.
If he is not better in the morning we will have to brave the cold and get to a doctor, poor little man.

After work Dave tried to get his truck running again with no luck and we ended up towing it to my parents garage.

Boy we miss our old double attached garage!
Old areas are nice in the summer, pretty and eclectic, but in the winter, just cold and drafty!

Now let me tell you towing a vehicle was a new experience for me. We bundled up the kids, I drove the Durango and Dave steered his truck. It was weird and stressful, yet kinda fun to get out and have an adventure.

We made it there without incident and pushed his truck into the garage. Turned on a few heaters, one huge kerosene one and a little electric and let it thaw for a few hours.

It is cold, so cold that when you go to slow down at a red light the vehicle doesn't really slow to a crawl, it just kinda abruptly halts.
The screen doors slam hard and wood doors stick really bad.
Ice is growing on the windows and man holes are steaming then freezing over.

Going out into this cold is crazy, frostbite only takes moments and your limbs go numb if you are not in layers.
My face is still a little tender. I had frostbite on my cheeks as a teen walking to school in weather like this and to go out in it again was like an instant refresher. My cheeks where numb and so was my butt and legs. My snot was frozen in my nose and the tears that leaked from my eyes froze too.
I should have worn thermals and a scarf!!
I cannot believe that Dave was out working in this all day. Mind you he didn't have to run any cable outside, it snaps in this brutal of temp, but still, he is tough!!

And it is supposed to be colder tomorrow!

Why do we live here????

Here is the ice on my parents front door....on the inside.

After getting home we cranked the heat and guzzled hot chocolate. Mmmmm, noting like bringing back the warmth like a hot cup of cocoa!

With sprinkles and whipped cream and .... berries, hmmmm.

Painting, baking and running from Snowzilla

2008-01-28T13:39:00.000-06:00

Wonder were I have been?

Well I have been crazy busy, having fun! I have been in the mood to paint and once the kids are in bed head straight for my canvas and brushes. I would normally paint and blog but these offspring's of ours just do not sleep!

We put them down between 9 and midnight....Ethan is out around 9 but Kaitlyn is a night owl. So by the time she is asleep I am left with nearly no time to do anything.

I will reveal what I have been up to in a while, a few of the paintings are gifts for people so once they have received them I will post them.

Saturday morning we baked cup cakes for breakfast.....see me waving at you?

Getting in the mood for Valentines day.

I got my hair done....Friday. (for pic's of the whole wild ride click here)

A little excited about getting 'Cars' pull-ups. When she peed Kaitlyn exclaimed, "Mom, I peed in my car!"

We had the family over for dinner on Saturday night and Aunties and Uncles all got in on the painting.

Yesterday was not like today. Today is a blizzard and extremely cold. Yesterday however was melty and beautiful.

We hung out and played in the snow.

Can you tell there are a few characters in this family?

Check out the scene below.

Aaaaggghhhhhh, run for your life, the great dreaded snowzilla is coming and little snow men are falling victim to his twig teeth.

(Thank you Phil)

While we busied ourselves outside Dave took the alone time opportunity to work on our closet expansion project, yay!!

I have more painting to do and Phil and Em are here for the afternoon, so....I will be back :)

Chow!

Chugga-chugga me some goodness

2008-01-25T00:03:00.000-06:00

A pictorial walk through my day. There were just too many good shots to choose from.(you will scroll forever!)

Our craft of the day....sorta. It happened at 1 AM last night. I had intended to paint since the kids went down early but just as I hit publish on the last post and got up to get my paints out, a little not so sleepy headed girl decided to wake up and hang out with me.

I went back online and found us a paper craft to do. Something, anything to do other than rock and watch Dora. I chose something I would enjoy and found the pattern here.

We cut circles.

20 of them. Kaitlyn busied herself cutting strips of paper into little pieces and exclaimed over and over, "hooray, lovely, oooo, beautiful, awwwww a piece for daddy."
She cut and cut and finally decided that all the little purple squares that she made were actually coins, hmmmm, ok. Can't say she's not creative.

We then folded and tape rolled them. I am way to impatient for glue.
It was a great trial run and it looks a little rough but I do not care, it happened in the middle of the night so I totally get a break on the perfection.
The next one will be perfect. ;-)

After being up till 2:30 AM with Kaitlyn and then up throughout the night with both kids this was soooo inviting at 9 this morning.
Actually I drank 5 cups before I felt normal and functional today.

We headed out of the house for a few hours. I knew I would crack being inside all day with little sleep and it ended up being a really great day.

Peek-a-boo mommy.

"Hey mom, I am melting your heart."

"Peek."

"I have no nose."

We picked up Em and Phil and headed to the library. We loooove books and love the library. Kaitlyn goes a little crazy with 'buying' the books and we usually end up with around 38 to take home.

Then again it takes us only a few days to get through them at 10 books a bedtime reading.

Em found a comfy spot and plugged herself in to her books on MP3.

Ethan found a lady to check out.

"Matching hats!"

Kaitlyn got lost in her books.

Ethan kept trying to escape the kids area despite our barricades.

And he did.

And headed straight for the stairs every time.

We also hit the mall. I got new furry gloves. Sweet huh?! (they were only $1.97......brand new, can't beat that!)

Ethan likes them too.

Kaitlyn is a very involved little girl. If mommy does it she does it and if mommy does something it is cool. I put her to work and she thinks it is fun, ha, ha (evil laugh) if she only knew!

In the pic above is my all time favourite ever scalloped potatoes in the making. The key ingredient to this hit is the dill, mmmmm, it makes it!

I got this recipe from an old friend and if she is reading this I thank her, we love it!

Here it is.

6 medium red potatoes, peeled and sliced.
2 cans mushroom soup
3/4 can water
garlic powder to taste
2 tsp to 1 tbsp dill. Whatever you feel like. I like almost 1 tbsp, but not quite. I find 1 tbsp to be a little much.
A couple rings of onion chopped
seasoning salt to taste
salt and pepper to taste
half a brick of old cheddar

Layer potatoes, mix the ingredients and pour some, layer again, pour more sauce, and layer once more and pour the rest over top. Bake covered for 1 1/2 hours at 4ooC then remove lid and brown for another 30 mins or till desired tenderness is reached.
Devour.

Multitasking.

Adding a little love to the mix.

Button's, friends and paint.

2008-01-23T22:09:00.000-06:00

And this post is as willy-nilly and all over the place as the title.

For the first time in ages the paint brushes weren't touched all day long.

Instead we (as in Kaitlyn) glued buttons.

Ethan watched, but really just wanted to eat the glue I am sure so we didn't let him near it.

He was sad.

The sadness did not last for long however because Kami and Camden showed up for a playdate.
I think Ethan has a crush.
He flirted and batted his eye lashes, cocked his head and smiled. He really has a thing for pretty girls!

The kids played, all in their own little individual parallel worlds while Kami and I sipped coffee and chattered away.
What fun!

Later in the afternoon I was giving the kids horsey rides on my back. Kaitlyn was screeching, "Giddy-up, giddy-up let's go." Then she stopped and said, "horsey stop now, I have to make a call."
I stopped and she dialed her play phone,
"Hello guy, beep guy, worker guy, I'm riding horse.....ya.....ya....oooh........good bye, see you later.''
She continued to ride then and had to dismount to take the next call. Silly girl.

Supper time.
The kids love to help and found pounding the meat to be great fun. Though they would pat and then look at their hands like they should be covered in Wasabi Teriaki sauce. Mmmmm, my favourite chicken slather!

Now rather than fill you in on my eat's of the day, (I was really good) I am calling it a night. The kids are asleep, I have done my 'hub's' time and now I am going to paint, yay!!!!
I should have a few canvases to share with you soon...seeing as the kids keep sleeping.

The other night I was complaining to Dave that I have had no time to paint and he said, "Oh really?!"
I said, "Ya, I sure miss it."
He said, "Well you could blog less."

Point taken.
I am offa here!

I think I may have walked a mile....in my own shoes!

2008-01-23T01:00:00.000-06:00

Another pretty morning.....looking out the window.
Then I had to go out and brush off the truck, start it, let it sit and warm up by gulping away half my gas and then drive it....with my frozen butt on unheated leather seats and tackle some crazy slippy icy roads!

I love winter.....not!
I am sick of it! Bring on some melt, I am ready for summer!

Ethan watching the snow.

I couldn't pick just one, he was being so precious!

My little love bug!

Peek-a-boo!
Watching me freeze while I brush off the truck.

Now....Thank you everyone who left the comments about food and diet. I think a lot of this bad mood about my shape is PMS and winter blah's induced.

I am sick of the 45 mins to get out of the door just to go 5 mins to the store. And then only to lug a cranky kid in each arm and in layers of clothing, minus boots kicked off in the truck, across an icy parking lot with frigid wind ripping at our ears. And I am told I should love winter, ha!

Dave just told me to suck it up, I am not supposed to be complaining so much this year.......oh, ya, I had kinda forgotten about that. Thanks Dave.

Hmmmm, ok, so instead of sulking I will tell you about the rest of our day. My goal was to do some thigh busting.

Kaitlyn and I watched a Carmen Electra hip hop video this morning and did a bit of dancing. By bit I mean about 6 mins.

Then it was, "mom, watch Frankin peas."

So much for that.

We then tagged along with my mom, Phil and Em to the gym and walked and walked and even jogged a little.....trying to work those thighs. Now they just hurt.

It is a good hurt though so I think I will go do this again, maybe this will be my way of embracing winter.

As for food today, well after reading the comments it got me to really thinking about what I put in my mouth. I am actually pretty good aside from my fry and chip cravings. I always have eggs and or cereal of french toast for breakfast.
Lunches are usually leftovers or healthy meat and veggie sandwiches (unless I am out, then we get fast food) and suppers are healthy too, snacks.....another story!!

I am going to follow what a few of you said and drink more water and try to eat veggies or fruit....this seems yucky to me, only because I find when I am starving and drink water or eat veggies or fruit it makes me nauseous. I usually gravitate to carbs so I don't get sick.

I am sooooo weird I know, but I am going to try the water, fruit, veggie thing and let you know how it goes. Maybe I have grown out of the pukey stage. :)

More painting tonight before bed. It seems that Kaitlyn now waits until Ethan is in bed then says, "mommy let's paint now!" I don't blame her! Ethan always dumps the brushes and makes a huge mess, so for Kaitlyn painting in peace is such a treat!

Here are the cards I made at last nights girls night out party. No not the boozing up kind of party, a relaxing sit down with friends and crafting kind of party. The perfect rejuvenator for a wiped-over-kiddy-crafted me!

Thunder thighs and the gym

2008-01-22T11:22:00.000-06:00

This diet.
Not going so well.
I went to card making party, yay to a girls night out!!!! (I will post pics of what I made on the next post)

For snack I had guacamole, a few kinds of chips and a few other dips. I was hungry and it looked good, I figured "I will just start the healthy eating tomorrow."

Then I came home and put the kids to bed, sat to go through the pic's of the day and my stomach was growling!

I rummaged and found a few chips and some dip, then a Japaneses nut mix, then Dave went to 711 and how could I resist....he brought me a Hoagie. I held back and only ate half.

I have lost weight, but don't know how, still feel sluggish though so it doesn't matter, I think everything is just shifting to my thighs!

I get too darn hungry and when I am hungry get faint and see spots and will fall over if I don't get something into me that minute. (preferably something salty)

How the heck do people do diets when you get sooooooo famished?!

I just love to eat so I guess it comes down to choices and where I am failing is in the snack department, I love me some salty chip snacks!

Any advice on healthy alternatives?

Kaitlyn has started gymnastics again and this session she has to be independent and go with the teacher all by herself, while I sit in the stands and watch.

I actually got a lump in my throat, she is growing up so fast!

We picked up fries after gymnastics (our tradition) and headed over to my parents place for lunch.
Kaitlyn got busy doing Emily's school work, I am thinking I could get the homeschooling kindergarten discs and she would be pleased as punch to sit and learn.

Dude, come on...what is it with guy's and hands in their pants?!

A little painting before bed.

And if you are board to tears of the Kaitlyn painting pics......here is one of me.

Kaitlyn demanded, "No more pitch mom, me take pitch of you!"

A little pre bed gaming with daddy...football, enough to put any 2 year old in the mood to sleep.

I am now off to the gym.....hopefully I can do the track with the stroller and get these thighs into some sort of shape.

Frazzled!

2008-01-21T14:47:00.000-06:00

edited to add---I fixed all the links that I had screwed up at the bottom of this post(opps)

The look of her hair is about how I felt at two in the morning last night...this morning, whatever....it was late. Ethan was up eating bologna, two whole pieces and guzzled down 8oz of milk too. No wonder he kept waking up every half an hour since 9, he was starving.

This is why this post did not happen then. he ended being up till 3 am talking up a storm as his meal digested. Of course this all happens on the night that we all have to be up early to go to gymnastics, ugh!

We rushed to get ready stormed out of the house eating as I drove only to get there and find out I had the times wrong and our class what the next one 30 mins later. At least I had the day right.

My little helpers.

Craft of the day.

Ethan-upright!! He has been progressing with his walking over the last three days and yesterday walked 90% of the time!

Yay, I am sooo glad, I am so sick of not being able to put him down at the store. He would crawl around and get his hands and knees filthy so I will be delighted to have a cleaner child!

On another note, I have been given an award by my new blogging friend Hannah. She has a fantastic life on the other side of the world, a beautiful family and her blog inspires me to get back at some adult crafting....I get lost in the kids stuff and forget about doing things for me.

Now part of the deal is that in accepting this award I am to pass it on to ten more blogs that I deem worthy.
This is a problem.
Not that I don't have ten blogs to pass it on to but I know that in doing so they must do the same and some of these friend have neither the time nor the link list to do the same.

So without an ounce of hesitation I am going to change the rules.....I hope the blogosphere police are not watching, can I even do this?

Here are my list of ten:

My mom...she has three blogs and almost no one knows about any of them!
My cousin Kim, she is a wonderful mommy and decorator and organizer and friend.
My life long friend Chatty, her photos always make me smile and her writing takes makes me feel like I am right there.
Another life long friend MadameBlueStocking who reminds me of me.....only without kids.
Her younger sister 'His Cowboy' who's writes in such a way that winds you through her life and really makes me feel like family.
Deliajude, Nicole inspires me with every single post, I love her style, her projects, her links and hey, she even had chickens in her yard and shares my dream of an acreage!
Viking conquest, Heidi has become a friend and is so supportive and her words of wisdom and encouragement are such a bright spot in my day, she feels close despite the miles.
Bethany Actually who always has fun crafts and is so cheerful.
Jenibeans, poor girl has been sick but she is the one who has kept me going on this de-cluttering kick!
Keren Meg, she is funny and stylish and has a to die for kitchen, oh and two kiddos who are cute and funny too!

I really don't want to stop.....I love all my links!!! I tried to pick ones that I haven't seen win an award lately, I could go on and on!

So I award all these blogs, do not feel any pressure to pass this award along, I award it with no strings attached. The end!

Cellulite and candles

2008-01-20T01:45:00.000-06:00

"TT" moved in today. Well her stuff did anyway. We thought it would fill one corner of the basement and we were soooo wrong! There is no place to play and a path to my laundry folding couch.

One of the movers suggested a garage sale, I think for both "TT" and I.

Sounds like a good idea, I am on a de-cluttering/purging kick, however I have no intentions to sit out in a snow bank freezing my tush and frost biting my nose in minus 30 C weather for a few measly bucks....NO WAY!

I would much rather sell out and get adds placed on my blog thankyouverymuch!!(however this would not solve my basement full of stuff issue.)

I had a bunch of stuff to say tonight but now it is late and I have no idea what it was....oh, wait, right.....some of you are going to shoot me but I am going to say this anyway.

I am going on a diet.

I know, I know, I am well within my healthy range for height but let me explain.

I am 5'3" ---very short and have a small structure, and when I gain even 2 lbs I feel it. I am my happiest at around 108-110 lbs and have been that up till Christmas. Since then I have hardly gotten out for my walks and have steadily been putting on weight.

Now I weigh 115 and it hurts! My thighs hurt, like the skin is being stretched and the cellulite is bumping it's way out. My belly is jiggly and my pants are tight....and NO I am not prego!

I generally feel sluggish so my goal is to loose 5 lbs and tone up. I have never done a real diet before and fear I would not have the will power, I loooove food, so I will eat healthier and less.

My plan is to do my pilate's and strip aerobic videos and see about getting into a yoga class for the spring session, I need that feel-goodness and flat abs that working out brings, I have got to get out of my sluggish caffeinated crawl and get my serotonin levels back up.

You may have no pity and that is ok, this is what I must do.

Anyway.....I will let you know how this goes, I will start after I eat all the Chinese food leftovers tomorrow.....isn't that how it always goes?!

Blah, blah, now back to the day.

We went over to my parents place for Emily's family dinner tonight and chowed down on BBQ'd burgers, salad and chips.....I am sure I gained another lb or two!

Emily had a great night.....

she kicked back in her new cowgirl boots,

Blew out a few candles,

all with one big breath...

ate some cake....(we all ate some,yummmm)

and opened a few presents.

Happy winde up Birthday lil sis!

Back home Kaitlyn helped me sort our glass stone magnet collection. She helped me do all the gluing and even some of the cutting, now just to find homes for them.

Hmmm, maybe a giveaway waiting to happen or maybe an addition to my soon to be etsy shop, I will have to think about it....I guess I could do both, wouldn't that be fun!

Now I am off, I have a little two year old girl on my lap who just got up and I must corral her back to her bed, have a great Sunday!

It's like I reached through the screen....

2008-01-18T23:43:00.000-06:00

and grabbed a blogger.
The one I met today is every bit as cool and sweet and smart as she is on her blog, and why would I think otherwise!
I was a little afraid and nervous, what if she doesn't like me in real life, or we don't click and just stare at each other in uncomfortable silence?
My stomach was a little jittery as I walked up to the Starbucks and it wasn't because it was -30 C!
The coldest day so far this year and us two crazy chic's braved it for a chance to meet.

I stood in line and nervously glanced around, what if I didn't recognize her, or she me?

Then I heard a little giggle, a boy giggle and peeked around the fireplace, and there was a happy little man who was so familiar to me on screen and his beautiful mamma.

We waved and smiled, I got my coffee and we sat down. The whole meeting went so naturally, we have similar personalities and I wish we could have talked for hours, as it seemed we barely skimmed the surface.

What was I so worried about, we both love shoes and we are both under 5'4''.....won't say by how much though, of course there would be a connection!

Aren't we cute! (though I think my nose was way too close to the camera, ugh)

Now you may wonder how I met Kami. I have been thinking about it and I think that this is how it came about.

An old childhood friend of mine started a blog and one day I went though her link list looking for others I might know.
I made a stop here ( I sorta know her family) and found a link to kedge (I stayed at her place in CA and have been friends with her for years).
Through her blog I found SAJ's (her niece) and then through her commenter's list started to read Beachmama (whom I met last year while she was out this way) and then also started to read Angella's blog.
One night I was bored so I peeked in on blogs through both Beachmama and Angella's comments.
I came across Kami (her pic here) and loved her boot post and kept going back. Then one day she did a post about the slogan on her licence plate and I was like..."hey, that is what mine says."

The e-mails started to fly and soon we realized we only live about 10 minutes apart!

I think that is our story, so thank you every-one who played a roll in this game of twister, I am glad we met and look forward to future coffee-playdates!

After getting home we changed diapers and Grandma A. came over. She is in town doing inventory and always makes a point of setting aside time for us, yay, we love seeing her!

She brought us all treats....so spoiled! Matching dresses for Kaitlyn and her baby, clothes for Ethan to grow into, a hot little beach dress for me to wear on our Mexico trip next year and a shirt for Dave to grow into.....it is getting exchanged, I really don't want him to grow into it.

I was famished and we finally ordered Chinese food. Next thing you know I see someone coming up the walk, I get up to get the door for the delivery guy and Dave walks in!

6:00 on the dot! He had rearranged his day, and came home a whole day earlier than I expected. I was soooooooooo excited!!!!
Daddy is home!

A little on the hairy side but I don't care, he's home and that is all that matters.
I must say that this not-quite-a-week apart has been an eye opener.
I learned that I am stronger than I thought and that I vent on Dave way more than he deserves.

When the garbage got full and I got annoyed there was no one around for me to yell, "come do something about this garbage." I realized that I must just suck it up and take it out myself and I really had no place getting annoyed in the first place.

I realized that I have been slacking in the wife department and vow to put in more effort, he deserves for me to show him way more love and way less nag.

I had to yell at me this week and I didn't like it, no wonder he gets cranky when I do it to him!

I also realized that I love him more than ever and now I want to go spend some time with him.

Yaaay!

Almost clean-ish

2008-01-18T00:29:00.000-06:00

I have been tooling around in photo shop with most of my photos since Christmas and absolutely love doing it....it is kinda like playing with paint only in a virtual world.

Here is a before and after.....just colors and contrast and levels have been messed with. I should have removed her snot. Poor pumkin is almost better....just the odd nasal drip now.

What do you think, does the second one look realistic or have I been going way overboard?

Busted and totally busted! He's not supposed to be on the table not supposed to be touching the mug Kaitlyn had just painted.

You may have a few words about his diaper. It is just poofy, really! The kid has no hips so the diapers hang off his thighs....see where his belly ends, maybe this contributes to his infrequent steps.

He is walking more but still chooses to crawl 90% of the time. After all he has perfected it and can nearly keep up to Kaitlyn running!

Poor guy had a few baths today. For some reason Kaitlyn brought a fresh not dried painting into the bathroom with her as I was prepping bath one. Ethan promptly sat on in and then moved over to the floor and made pretty pink and purple bum prints. Actually quite lovely, better than the horrid lino in there now!

The second was after bath #1. I was dressing Kaitlyn and he disappeared, hmmm, so quite, then of course he crawls into the room with paint on his head, knees hands and mouth. Bath #2.

The rest of the day I tried to kick dirts butt.
I made a bit of progress...as Kaitlyn screamed, "mommy, plaaaaay, plaaaaaaaaay, pleeeeaaassee!!!!"
I would play and then sneak out till she realized I was gone and then we would do it all over agian.
Now for the cleaning.
I really want the vileda mop and bucket system (I used to use it in the lab-love it) no more disposable wipe pads.....I am in the process of....uh, wanting to be more green.

You are going to gasp in horror I am sure at what you are about to read but.....I currently bring my groceries home in plastic bags.
I know, I know, tisk, tisk! So I have decided it is time for cloth.

I have a few lululemon bags and a few others, but some nice pretty ones would be really cool....if any of you have an easy pattern you could recommend I am totally in the mood for the fabric store. This could be so fun!

Anyway that is me....bad no make up face again.....only when I go out of the house or if Dave is around to I make myself look pretty. I love to put make up on, but what is the point when no one sees me and I don't go out. Well you see me but, I can choose how much of me you see....and you don't have to smell me.

Not that I stink or anything! I finally got a shower, last night at my parents place. It had been days, gross I know but with the kids and all it just didn't happen. When Em or Phil were over I was so busy trying to get an ounce of cleanliness into the house I kept putting me off.

When the heck do single parents ever shower???

Seriously!

The house is looking better, the floors are mopped, most dished done, dining room table half windexed....the other half has computers....and a few neat piles of stuff. The toilet is clean and even the laundry got folded......a whole ton of it!
We had to run the little base heater today...it was a freezing 14 degeees down there!
This does contribute to my putting off of doing laudry.

I started the day thinking I better get on it since my mother in law is coming to visit, after all she is the queen of clean. Then I thought, hmm....I could really use her help, and changed the goal to have a clean inviting space for Dave to come home to.

I am so excited....the time is flying by!

Tonight my sister 'TT' came over. She moves in with us this weekend, and will rent a portion of the basement. I will post pics as it happens.
She has a fantastic career, but also goes to school, just to keep her brain going. Now she has decided she wants to go to Europe for a year to school so she sold her condo and is moving in with us to create a nice cushion to travel and live on while she is there.
I am jealous!

We readied her area and moved some things around and one of the things was the mosquito net we had over our guest bed. Now it is Kaitlyn's room, and she looooooves it!

Picture brain

2008-01-17T01:07:00.000-06:00

Saw this on my mom's fridge tonight....I can totally relate!

Tonight while on the phone with Dave I was trying to share our day with him. Finally I just gave up and told him to read the blog.

How sad is that!

The deal is that I have a mind that thinks in pictures. I remember whole wardrobes of my elementary school teachers....shoes and hair bands included.....and some of theses outfits were soooo bad, 80's!!!
Maybe this is why I am terrible with math.

I went to a lot of Bible conferences as kids and I remember what everybody wore and what the preachers wore and the decor....even what the food looked like. What any of the meetings were about...beats me!
I would continuously get in trouble for doodling on any and every scrap of paper I could find, even the corners of the pages in my Bible and forever be in trouble for not listening.
It wasn't that I wasn't listening, I just couldn't remember what they were saying because they didn't have big diagrams to go along with it!

Maybe this is why I used conferences as social meeting grounds, I really don't remember getting anything out of the meetings.
If I went back now....I would most likely end up doodling, playing with the kids, or be trying not to fall asleep or just pretend to listen and daydream instead.

And maybe this is why I don't care if I ever go again, and if I do it would just be for the social side, same as my child hood. Sad I know. People would talk about all this encouragement they got from the meetings, I would nod my head, but really deep down....swooooosh, totally lost on me!

Anyway.....blah, blah, blah......I probably lost my mother at the first glace at all these words.

What I was getting at is....this is why I take a gazillion photo's every day and by the end of the day I have to look at them to remind me what I did.
So you can imagine poor Dave sitting way up north waiting to hear about my day as I hum and haw and cannot remember the details.

Once I look at the photo's bam, I remember everything that happened when I took it. Photos from my child hood bring it all back too. I live for photos...so Kami be warned!

OK....yadda, yadda, here we go. The photos for Daddy.....here was our day at a glance.

First thing this morning Kaitlyn wanted to continue painting. She was actually so sad that I made her go to bed without finishing her painting last night that she put her paints and wood on the bedside table so she wouldn't forget to finish it in the morning.

She sure was tired though and not too impressed that Ethan had to join her.

Choo-choo!

Oh, ya, I had mentioned that I have been decluttering.
Da-ta-da!!! Our old craft corner and the new cleaned up craft corner.
Pretty huh?

Emily got an MP3 player for her birthday and when she came over today was so stoked to show it off....."Anna, you must put this on the blog, I am soooooo spoiled....and I am only 9!!!"

Tea with the ladies....really he was just Mr. Destructo smiling with glee at what he was about to do as poor Kaitlyn meticulously packed a lunch unawares of the tornado about to strike.

Why, oh why did I let this happen again. I was doing so good.
I busted a few moves on those piles today, found a few outfits I forgot the kids had, oops.

We love you daddy and can hardly wait till you get home!

I feel so blue.....

2008-01-16T13:31:00.000-06:00

without you.....or something like that.
Anyway...
As planned the blue tea party breakfast for Emily went off without a hitch....unlike this post happening within 12 hours. Oops, I shouldn't have planned it! Life with toddles is unpredictable!
Last night....ugh, last night. It is a good thing I never started this post or I wouldn't have published till 3:30 AM.
After getting into bed and just getting to that stage where your thoughts no longer make sense Ethan woke up screaming, as if he was in massive pain. I thought it was his bowels at first but then after more screaming I realized it was his legs, must have been growing pains because when I massaged them he went right back to sleep.
I was so glad they slept in this morning, The Lord new I needed it!
And yay to reaching the halfway mark without Dave, counting down the days!

Emily's birthday breakfast, we even had blue berry juice....wasn't really blue though.

I wore a blue dress.....and made french toast. I would have done blue berry pancakes but I wasn't about to brave the frigid morning cold for blue berries.

After breakfast the skateboard painting continued.
she is quite proud of her one of a kind paint job and stated that when people ask her where she got her super cool board that she will tell them they can't buy it anywhere because she painted it herself.....it is the "coolest board ever!"
I agree.

The rest of our day was uneventful, the kids had late afternoon naps----never again!

Supper was uh, ummm, well kinda interesting. I cooked up that liver....trying to boost Ethan's iron levels, only mine got boosted, both kids spit theirs out. I used this recipe. It was a good flavour, you just have to get past the liver texture...it's the texture that gets to me. I ate it anyway, it looked and smelled so good, but ya, the texture, yuck!

I had let Kaitlyn sleep so late with her nap because I knew that when you are sick you need sleep to help get better. However I was unprepared for a wide eyed child begging to paint at one in the morning.
I know she gets it from us, both Dave and I are night owls. I get my creative energy boost around 11 and it goes till 3. If I paint in that window I am the happiest, however this is also why I keep a pad of paper next to the bed. When I sleep during those hours my mind is still churning ideas like crazy and I have to wake up and sketch or write them out.

She is napping now so I only hope this means she goes down at a decent hour tonight....I need the me time!
Oh, and you see the newly improved craft area behind her?
This was a part of my decluttering, I will post a before and after later tonight...maybe, no planes here, nope, nope, nope!

Garbley gook and goofy eyed

2008-01-16T01:35:00.000-06:00

Hi all. This is just a quick post to say that I am so flippin wiped that I have no energy to pound out a real post. To tired to sort through photos or even upload all of them.

Kaitlyn just finally went to sleep....at 1:30 AM!
I usually need a few hours to unwind after the kids are in bed but not tonight....I am fried!

It was a good day...the kids even had naps, I vacuumed, swept and washed floors, ....even cooked the stinkin liver for supper....I'll tell you all about that later. However her nap went from 3:30 to 6:30, I will NEVER let her sleep that late again!!!!

Good night.....and I will do a proper post with pics after I wake up.....I am guessing in the next 12 hours. Blaaaaahhhhh!

Plans-shmans!

2008-01-15T01:03:00.000-06:00

Isn't that how it always goes?! All this excitement over a blue tea party and when Kaitlyn woke up it had to be white. So now for the rest of the week my plan is to fly by the seat of my pants and take it moment by moment.

Today went exceptionally well, the kids are feeling better so we got some shopping done, hung out for a very long while at my parents and then after super Phil and Em came home with us.

Anyway, I contemplated not writing a post tonight, I am soooooo beat, but then I thought of Dave. This is his only connection to us while he is gone so I must do it!

Now since my mom says I type too much...here is a break in the form of pictures.

Breakfast.

Daddy's girls....once again a morning bad hair and no make-up shot---well there are smudges of yesterdays mascara under my eyes, sorry to be so scary!

White tea party. I couldn't find the white cups and after much persuasion she accepted a blue one.

Two new additions to the red shoe family(the ones on the rt are old ones)
I love shoes and really love red ones. The ones on the bottom are for Kaitlyn. And can you believe it, both pairs together for under $7! Value Village rocks!

Phil got some fancy metal work today.

Tea party hats, part of our purchase today. Poor Ethan is wearing Kaitlyn's shirt and hat, I must never show him this pic!

"Orange tea party please mom."

I should have made orange pekoe tea, opps, we had green as usual.

A little painting before bed.
All are now tucked in and sleeping soundly.
The blue tea party has been replanned (oops I just planned again) for the morning as part of a birthday breakfast for Emily. She is going to be 9!
I must remember to have blue berry tea, yumm.

A littlr grrrrrrrr and mail on a Sunday

2008-01-14T00:29:00.000-06:00

Whew, day one without Dave is drawing to an end. It is now 11:30 and both kids are sleeping. I miss Dave a lot and cannot imagine how excited I am going to be to see him next Saturday, I sure don't know how so many of you do this so often, my mom too!

Kuddos to you all!!!!

When I opened the blog this afternoon and saw the post he left for me my heart melted, he is an awesome guy and great daddy!

Anyway, I don't know how long the kids will sleep so I will do my best to catch you up with what has transpired around here the last two days.

After our crummy doctor experience on Friday I vowed to never see those doctors again, and so then guess what happened Saturday after noon?

Well the clinic called and said they had some of Ethan's test results and the Dr wanted to see us immediately. His shift was over in 30 mins so I had to get out of my house coat, get dressed, start the truck and throw coats on the kids and beat it out the door. Dave had just gone to get his Christmas presents installed in his truck....of course, the moment he is not home is when I get the call.

We rushed down to the clinic and I vowed that this time would for sure be the last to see the quack. Once in the room the Dr said "I have seen you before, right?"

I say, "Uh, ya, yesterday and the day before and I just got a call that you had to see us now!"

He says, "Oh, what for?"

I say, "blood test results"

He says, "Oh his bloody nose"

I say, "No, Ethan fell on his face a few times, this ear infection he has has really thrown his already shaky balance and he fell on his nose."

He says, "Oh, he needs cream I will get you cream"

So off he goes to get cream for Ethan's nose, which does not need cream, it just had dry cracked blood around his nostrils from his nose bleed earlier and I hadn't soaked it enough to get it all off.

He comes back with 5 tubes of cream and says, "Now you come back on Monday" and gets up to leave.

I say, "Wait!! I am here for BLOOD TEST RESULTS!!!"

He says"Why would I have those?"

I say, "Well, you sent us to this friend of yours who had a bunch of tests done and he referred us back to you even though I asked every thing to get forwarded to my family doctor instead!"

He says "And when was this?''

I say, "Yesterday!!!! Agk!"

He says, "This is too soon"

I say, "No, I just got a call, please look in his folder."

The Dr opens the folder to the first page and says, "No, nothing here, you come back on Monday"

I say, "NO, turn the page!"

He turns the page and there lies the results, he says "Uh, yes, that is fast, uh, Ethan has low iron, after he is off the penicillin come see me, and we will get him some iron, you may need to see that specialist again too, he will call."

I say, "No-oooo-oooo! You called me in for this?!"

He says, "OK, so you come in on Monday between 9 and 12."

"Whatever dude!"

(my grrrrr....no make up, no hair done, mad as all get out and super ugly face---right after leaving the Dr's office)

Seriously! What just happened?! This guy is a nut!

I was talking to my aunt and my mom later in the day (as well as Kami via e-mail) and told them what happened, and they told me of experiences that they and friends of theirs have had with him. Apparently he just gets you to come back over and over and over even if there is nothing wrong with you. And if you cough he tells you that you have pneumonia.

Three other people I have learned of had this happened to them and it was nothing more than colds and allergies. He has quite the reputation in this city and if you know of him you avoid him like the plague, he should be banned.

So since his iron is low we are boosting the green's intake and also bought some liver.(yuck!!!)

If any of you have good(is that even possible?) recipes for liver please, please share!

Anyway, our day did not get better, I really don't want this to be a vent fest, but Heidi is right, when you go through something, you just gotta get it out, and for me it happens here.

Ethan was starting to feel better but by midnight Kaitlyn was coughing and throwing up, Ethan wouldn't sleep hearing all the commotion and we ended up being up till 4 am taking turns with each kid, back and forth, and back and forth. Kaitlyn also had the fever and still does. Tylenol has been keeping it in check but she is still warm. She seems to be just a few days behind Ethan with this bug.

However, if she is like Ethan I hope she is now at the turning point because today he was much much better, yay!! Thanks again for your prayers!!!!

Apparently in all the business of the last few days I have forgotten to check the mail and this afternoon was pleasantly surprised, OK, let me refraise, exuberantly freaking happy to have received a parcel, and an awesome one at that, with two sets of BB flash cards made by the talented SAJ. And the yak(for Y) and Newt(for N) trading began.
A few minutes after that fantastic make-my-day moment the door bell rang and it was "Lady" bringing us cookies and muffins, she is soooo sweet, and only added to the make-my-day list.

Then my brother showed up and played with Ethan and shortly after he left we all went for naps and when we woke up my mom showed up and entertained the kids so I could get dishes done and the floor swept. Thank you mom!!!!!

Oh, and I almost forgot that my sis "TT" stopped by with lunch, Sammies from Quiznos.

Now bring on the sleepovers, I want to be busy, busy, busy, and then it will feel like my honey gets home sooner!! (I hope)

Oh, and bring on the coffee too, ya, yumm.

Now for a sneak peak at our plans...for the morning(you know how plans go, but we'll try), a blue tea party had been requested by Kaitlyn and she has now been talking about it for two days, now she must find all things blue!

I love you and I will ,miss you

2008-01-13T09:59:00.000-06:00

I love these guys with all my heart!

For starters this is not Anna, this is dave. I am not going to do anything special or fancy here. As I am sure you are aware, I am going out of town today, for a week. I have never been apart from the kids and Anna (since we've been married), for longer then 12 hours, so this is going to be very hard. I am going to miss them so much.

Anna you are my wife, my love and my soul mate, I just want you to be strong. If you have any issues or problems, make sure you call on friends or family. I love Kaitlyn and Ethan , and now both are sick. What a great time to go out of town. Last night was horrible and I am sure every night will be, but just remember, you can always get someone over during the day and get your breaks, blogging and rest then.

I would like to ask all of Anna's Friends and Family, from our town, to offer a hand or at least make yourself available. I don't think people realize how hard it is on her with these 2 little ones, but i give her all the credit in the world, because I can barely handle the nights, there is no way I could do it every day and night, especially when they are both miserable and sick. So please offer to help, or give her a call and make sure she is alright.

I love you guys and I will call everyday, and I will try to check the blog everyday. I will be thinking of you every minute and wishing it was saturday, when we will all be together again.

Ping-pong

2008-01-11T19:04:00.000-06:00

I know, this is one of the lamest illios ever! It is actually my rough sharpie hand sketch and I just had not time to do one in illustrator so , this is it. You get to see what is usually given to the kids to color on.

(Ooo, and just up front.....we are home....the Ethan update is just a little further down.)

Back to the business at hand...It has been brought to my attention that it is national delurking week. Well, well.....interesting!

I always wonder who all my readers are, I see the hits and then the comments, and there is a pretty significant difference in the numbers!

I was going to write a post like this one, I thought Angella was pretty smart and witty with it, but I am too beat to come up with anything like that.

So rather than beg you to delurk I decided to flip the tables and sneak stealthily around and find out who my lurkers are.....tee, hee, hee, hello reader in Honduras, and you over there in Russia and the whole group in South Africa too, I know you are there!

Oh, it's not like I can see where you live, I just see what city my hits come from. This is something I have never ever paid attention to before, all I have noticed is when someone else came on while I am on, but that is it.

I was actually quite surprised to see that I have a global reading, I am sure a lot of it is just random hits, you know the kind where you click, scroll and click away to move on to the next in a search for something that grabs your interest, but hey it was fun to watch!

So now if you feel inclined go ahead and say hi, and tell me what your favourite weekend pass time is, or if you are new how you found me, through someone or random. Or say whatever you want, I jsut want to know who you are, now that I know where you are. I feel so sneaky. :)

Now for what we have all been waiting for, the update on poor little Ethan. What an ordeal!!!!

Last night after seeing the doctor and being told that Ethan was to be admitted in the morning we got to thinking that it was rather strange. Usually if it is serious you go straigt to the hospital, you don't sleep on it first then go in.

We were told to meet the doctor back at the clinic this morning for the paperwork and then head straight to the hospital.

So we got up early, packed a lunch----you never know how things go when you are in the hospital-- and headed back to the clinic to meet with the doctor at 9:15 am.

I was very frustrated with the doctor last night, all he did was take a listen to Ethan's breathing and say "he has pneumonia and you must go to hospital." I tried to get more out of him but his English was so poor and his second, or I should say first language was not french so we where out of luck.

Off we went to the hospital....parking was another story all together, but lets skip that one.

We soon found out that "go to hospital" does not mean that we were admitted, though I had asked the doctor and he had said we were.

What it meant was that he had referred us to his friend who also spoke no English but has a medical office in a wing of the hospital. We waited and waited, ate some lunch, waited some more while other patients trickled in and then the new doctor finally came in.

He saw the kids and actually did check ups, throat swabs and looked in their ears, good thing cause Ethan also had an ear infection. He didn't rule out pneumonia, but thinks it could just be a cold. Then he sent us for blood work and an x-ray. Then referred us back to the first doc for follow up.

Now what I do not get is why the doctor last night didn't look in Ethan's mouth or ears and just send us for the x-ray and blood work.

These two doctors referred to each other as friends and were definitely from the same community. I felt passed around like an old pig skin or a little white ball in a ping-pong round and was really miffed, this way they could both make a buck and help each other out.

I even had to get the receptionist to clarify from the paper work what was happening because once again I could not understand the doctor. Either he speaks almost no English or maybe just a dialect I don't know. It was frustrating!

Off to the blood work. Poor Ethan, the techs couldn't get a needle into his arm so they cut his thumb and drew two vials of blood, drop by drip down a little trough into the tube. He cried and thrashed and it took three of us to pin him down. I cried too since it took forever to draw the blood. He was so exhausted and worked up afterwords he threw up all over himself and me and the floor.

We took a little break before heading for radiology were he would once again get pinned down only this time without me in the room.

As we sat waiting our turn I rocked and sang to him his favourite song, 'Praise the Saviour', I didn't care if people stared or were annoyed, it is what works to calm him down, it will even put him to sleep. I think the young man on the stretcher next to us was ok with it, he smile as we left....or maybe he was just glad he didn't have to listen to me anymore.

Next stop was the pharmacy. Penicillin for Ethan's ear infection, saline spray for his nose, benelyn for the cough. Kaitlyn has impetigo in her nose again and a little cold too so she gets cream and cough meds too.

Kids! Now we wait three days for all the test results. I am just glad to be back home!

I feel kinda rotten though for complainting, my regular, not so winey post shall resume tomorrow.....decluttering in progress.

Anyway, about feeling rotten, I know that some of you with kids have been through so much more and far more serious times with your kids and you are so strong about it. I really admire this!

I want to thank you all for your prayers and comments, I appreciate them more than caramel fudge gooey cakes.....and I really appreciate those!

Really from heart, I thank you, your insight and encouragement mean so much to me!

Feeling a little green

2008-01-11T02:24:00.000-06:00

And not the environmental kind of green. It is not that we really don't try but we both drive gas guzzling SUV beasts and we do not recycle soup cans. I know, I know, something to work on right?!

Early this afternoon the contractors who are going to reno our bathroom called and gave me 8 min's notice that they were coming over to do the quote.
Let me tell you did I ever scramble and got a little over zealous.....that is a pair of Kaitlyn's pants hanging from her chandelier that I threw into her room in the last-minute-dash-cleaning-frenzy.
Emily had just arrived---thank goodness or I would have stalled them by sending them to fetch me a coffee or something.

Since Ethan was still sick and seeming to get worse I was spending all my time with him. He seemed tired so I promised the girls a tea party and to give them something to do and buy me some time I sent them on a search for all things green.
I don't know why considering that St. Patricks day is a ways off, we'll just say it is that smidgen of Irish in our blood rearing it's head.

We sipped green tea...

with green friends...

wearing green clothes, and nibbled fake green food.

The rest of the afternoon seemed to go down hill for Ethan. It was now his third day with no solids and his cough was getting chesty. While getting groceries I talked with the pharmacist and she said he didn't sound that bad and she would let it go another day and then see how he was, but also to let my instincts be the guide.
I was getting worried about him and started to think a trip to the doctor might be in order.
As soon as Dave came home I packed him up and off we went to the clinic.
One listen by the doc and the words I dreaded were uttered.......pneumonia and hospital.

He is booked to be admitted in the morning, so pray for him please!

Back home Kaitlyn had been missing out on all the attention and was fake coughing to get noticed, trying to get up on my lap, "me cough, like Ethan, up please." I sure hope Ethan is better or at least on the mend by Sunday, I just don't know if I can do this without Dave and his support around.

Reading up on pneumonia, poor buddy.

I'll have a biscuit with my missery

2008-01-10T01:23:00.000-06:00

Good morning mom, NOT!
Another long day.....I don't want to complain but really, the poor little man. He would cough so hard he would throw up. He hasn't eaten for two days and when I give him cough meds he throws them up. He is miserable, but I am glad to report no fever today.

I do have to say thank you to all of you who left me comments. You are so encouraging and really were the bright spots in my day, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I really am freaking out about not having Dave around next week and I think that Kami's idea of having Phil and Em move in for a few days sounds pretty darn good!
(oh by the way click on any of the coloured type for a link)
And Ponty, yes, this situation really has gotten me to thinking about 'that girl'. My hat sure is off to her and her strength to go it alone so often. Maybe this will help me to connect with her in a new way.
I do hope that this week alone without Dave only makes us stronger, and really makes us appreciate each other more than ever.
It will be so weird though to sleep alone, I have only ever spent a few nights without him since we were married. The first was when Ethan was born and then a few more when I was in the hospital with Kaitlyn a year ago.

So...I was hoping to get dressed up for Dave and make him appreciate me and have a 'special' time with him tonight, I am missing him and he isn't even gone yet, sheesh!

But nope, the poor dude was lucky I rushed on some deoderant before he walked in the door. I greeted him with yesturdays hair, make-up, the shirt I slept in-still without a bra, and the sweats and sweater I was wearing last night, oh yeah, I was a yummy mommy tonight!

I can't even publish a photo of myself, you would never come read this blog again, I am scary!!!

One exciting thing this week, I invented two recipes and they both turned out great!
This is now more for my records than anything, so if you are bored out of your brains by now feel free to skip over the technicalities.

(If you get grossed out by meaty stuff skip the rest of this)
The first was a roasted chicken.
I peeled back the skin and smeared a blend of cream cheese and rosemary between it and the meat. I then stuffed the bird and then brushed it with sun dried tomato and oregano dressing. It turned out amazingly! Dave raved and drooled about the skin and flavour.
Next up was what to do with the leftovers, hmmm.
So tonight with a freaking out little Ethan hanging off my leg I mixed the left over broccoli, long grain wild rice with fine herbs, stuffing and chicken together with a can of mushroom soup and half a cup of milk.
Threw it in the oven and while I waited for it to start bubbling whipped up some cheese biscuits and then threw them on top to cook. It looked kinda gross and boring, but man...
Was it ever good!!!
Usually when I invent recipes it turns out alright, but the last few, yummm!

Dave took a turn with Ethan so I could have a few minutes with Kaitlyn after supper. Poor girl has had almost no mommy time for two days now and she was missing me, OK, maybe not but I was missing her.

So we took on a craft project, of course. she chose the paint colours and I chose the objects, well the first few objects. After painting a few smudges on the salt and pepper shakers she decided her nails needed a little colour and went to town.

As a result of all the rocking and little of anything else the house has not gotten any more decluttered than it was a few days ago. I have moved a few messes from shelf to table, pile to pile but they are not sorted or out of the house. It seems to be taking me an awful lot longer than I had anticipated.
Maybe next week when Dave is gone I can finish a few projects....what you don't think I will have any extra time?
Well I won't have to really cook, I think I will take a break from real meals and live on salads and sandwiches for a week...that should give me a few extra hours. Then again maybe I should do laundry.
I am going to miss him so much, in fact I already do, I sure love that guy!

Tea and a trip to the north pole

2008-01-09T01:39:00.000-06:00

What a beautiful sight out the window this morning, glad I didn't have to go out in it though.

So remember how I said I was going to complain less this year?....well I think I have been doing quite well so far.
However today has been a bomb so please, bear with me. I have been surprisingly calm all day, and although I had a few close to crying moments, my insides were pretty peaceful. Someone musta been praying for me today!

It started off with little Ethan not feeling well, he had a bit of a cough and runny nose but then by noon was getting kinda warm. He was clingy and crabby so much so that I only had a few bites of egg for breakfast a slice of turkey sandwich meat and a wedge of cucumber for lunch---stolen from a little persons plate---and that was it till Dave came to the rescue at 6pm with a free pizza from the restaurant he was doing some contract work at.

The second thing was finding out that my husband is getting shipped out of town for a week on business, and has to leave this coming Sunday!
I have been contemplating whether I should go with him or not but he is going to LaRonge and my idea of a winter vacation is NOT the north pole!!!!!!!!!
So what do I do when I am all depressed and starving and have a fussy sick child hanging off my hip?
Try to cheer myself up, by doing crazy make-up and hair and then looking in the mirror for a laugh.

Emily stopped over for a few hours while Phil went to his tutors so she broke up my day by playing with Kaitlyn......as she later told me it was more like job shadowing.

They had a few tea parties while I rocked Ethan. By this time he had thrown up a few times and was all dosed up with Tylenol for his fever and just wanted to be held and rocked.

Tea with the animals and a dance party after. Thank you so much Emily for coming over, even if it felt more like job shadowing with all the spilled tea you had to mop up you really are so great with Kaitlyn!

Still in the rocker. By this time my butt was numb and my bladder the size of a basketball. I had been sitting rocking Ethan for 5 hours and Kaitlyn kept trying to climb on me saying, "I'm soooo tired mommy" and wanting to cuddle. She finally made it onto my lap and fell asleep.

Big mistake---it was 5pm!

See what time this post was published at? Ya! She finally went to bed after 12:30. We still really have not adjusted from our Christmas trip with sleeping patterns yet. There have been a few Ok nights and that's it.

Ethan has been up every 30 mins since around 9, so now I finally get a moment, and I NEED it! I don't care I have to chug an extra coffee in the morning, this is my sanity!

I totally don't know how I am going to manage next week alone (choking back a sob now)

I cannot imagine a day without Dave here let alone a whole week! Aaaggggghhh!!

Mish mash

2008-01-08T02:15:00.000-06:00

Crafts of the day.

Did you know I used to dabble in jewelry making? Well some of you do. Five of you sport wedding bands that I created and at least six of you wear rings or pendants that I made. I had forgotten how much I loved to do this and while on the hunt for beads for Kaitlyn's crafts I came across these three fashion rings I made back in '04, '05.

It brought back to memory a conversation I had the other day when I was asked if i miss working outside the home.
My answer?
Yes and no. I do miss it terribly, the routine, the laughter, the actual lunch breaks, the actual work, I really enjoyed being a dental tech and I loved making jewelry in my spare time.
However, it does not compare to being a mom. The stress is on a different level now, I no longer strive to please dentists, instead my focus is on two little precious people who look up to me and mimic my every move.
The rewards I reap now do not even compare. A nod of approval for a good job done used to tickle my fancy, but now, a little smile, giggle, blown kiss or big bear hug is enough to send a tear of gratitude down my cheek. I marvel at the simplicity of it, the unquestioning love, and I am going to soak up every bit of it that I can!

Busted!
And a few more steps. This is a rather wobbly journey so far but every day Ethan takes a few.

Hee, hee, some of my earliest work, done when I was 4. You will have to click on the images to see them better. My mom kept all my work and while over at their place the other night we came across these.
And what did I look like at four?

In this last one are my cousins Aaron, Kim(her blog here), me and my sis 'TT'(her non-updated blog here).

Aren't we cute?!

Snow-tacular!

2008-01-07T11:10:00.000-06:00

What an amazing weekend....well Saturday, Sunday was recovery. But before I get all ahead of myself and caught up in the day I am going to get some other business out of the way.....ya, ya , if I wasn't a day and a half behind in my posting I wouldn't be in this position, but as it is I am.

So first of all the reason you didn't have this post to read first thing this morning is because I was up till past 3 am.....learning the tricks of navigating in illustrator and also doing a bit of site renovation over on my art blog. You see a special friend of mine is a very talented graphic artist, and amazing blogger.....what you don't read her blog?!
Well, well....you will get hooked and love her like we do, she has a witty way with words.
My connection to her?
Kinda funny actually. We grew up going to the same church, I stayed with her aunt, hung out with some of her friends and went to a pool side get together with her brother and SIL(click), but cannot recollect ever meeting her. Strange. Different circles I guess.

Anyway then we met up in blogland and the rest is history. She has now designed a new banner for me over here(Click) since I am illustrator illiterate, well, was, am working on it now. :)

Now for her identity....well it is kinda a secret, as in an agent kinda way....Ok, Ok, (clickety-click here) to see who she is!
Told you that you would love her!

Now for Saturday. (that is mia mammia above) I love her. And my lil Eth-man pulling up his shirt to soak up the warm winter sun. He knows he needs more Vit D. Anyway, it was an amazing day, almost t-shirt weather. I loooove winter on days like that!

So we headed out to the cottage with my family to go skidooing for the day. Kaitlyn and I even went and Kaitlyn was screeching "faster mommy, faster", hee, hee, she is going to be a little like me with her infatuation to go fast. Must be the adrenaline part.

Sledding down the hill was so fun too. Last year Kaitlyn cried her eyes out as she watched me fly down the hill, but this year she was all into it and giggled with glee as we went down together.

Taking a hot cocoa break.

My boys!
Hope you had a great weekend. I just cannot believe I am coming around to winter, ha, ha, as 40 below is just around the corner waiting to pounce on me. I will just enjoy the warm sun all I can right now.

Just remembered something....looking out the window at the skidoos my Grandpa started to chuckle...."Red and yellow, black and white." Like the sunday school song....all are precious in His sight.....in this case their sight. :)

Tea Party

2008-01-06T01:59:00.000-06:00

This is not how I like to start my day, I usually like my coffee in the pot! Can you believe I was so desperate for a pick me up that I actually drank some of the sludge while waiting for the second pot to brew?! (It was gross)

Coffee mess soaked up and the house frantically cleaned, well the bathroom, (a must before company!) living room and kids rooms straightened (heaps of stuff thrown in our bedroom on the bed and the door slammed shut). I had to postpone the playdate by 10 mins to wash the floor and change two dirty diapers before rushing out to pick up said company.

Why is it that just after coats and boots and hats are all on that both kids suddenly find the urge to do a smelly number two and throw my perfect timing and fresh smelling front hall out the window?

We went and picked up out company. Remember the girl I have written about(click) with the two little daughters who live in smoke filled, furniture-less home, with a husband who is never around?

Well after doing the date to the mall with her and stopping by to lend a shoulder on a rough day my heart was so heavy for her and her children. Her husband was supposed to stay here after Christmas and ended up ditching town on her last week and leaving her stranded for days.

I almost cry every time I think of her and even though I totally disagree with how she lives and how she behaves around her kids I feel the Lord pushing me to her so strongly.

So after seeing her kids sit in front of a TV on a hard floor all day long while she smokes a pack a day in depression and alone I had to have them over. We have been so blessed and spoiled rotten with stuff-----to the point of being in need of major purging. I knew it would be good for her little ones to get out of the haze so off we trotted to bring them home.

It went all right. We had our tea party very quickly for the attention spans of her kids is very short then it was on to the toys. My kids clung to me and watched her kids destroy all their neatly put away stuff, it was flying every where, it was like Christmas morning!

I found it almost heartbreaking to see how happy they were and know that they had nothing like it to go home to so we let go of a few things and sent them home with a few items I knew we wouldn't miss, yee-haw the purging and decluttering continues!

And you know it does get easier!

After the playdate Kaitlyn stated to me "no mo play date mom!" So since it was so nice out we headed across the street to the park for a while. While crossing Albert Street (the main drag) at around 4:30-getting to be rush hour so heavy traffic, we somehow managed to loose both of Ethan's boots, keeping traffic stopped in all four lanes while I dashed back to collect them. A kind passer by rushed out to give me a hand, thank goodness, I was so embarrassed and felt like a crazy scatter-brained mommy who couldn't keep track of anything.

Then on our way back it was really rush hour and we had to wait for a while before the nice people came along and stopped for us. What is with people speeding by and giving me the evil eye for wanting to cross the street? I was even using a cross walk!

Anyway after getting across we hear a loud smuck and turn back to see that one of the cars at the end of the line(half a block down) was taking it's time to get going, he musta been picking his nose or something and a small car smashed into the van behind him. Totally unawares to what happened he slowly drove off while the other two cars had to get out and exchange info.

I kinda feel guilty for crossing the street at such a busy time now and am totally going to avoid it on late afternoons from now on!

So pensive....I think he is scheming about eating marker tips while I take out the garbage or something along those lines.

It was still super nice out in the evening so we picked up Phil and Em (my lilest bro and sis) and headed to the rink down their street.

I would love to say the kids slept well after all the running around, but that would be a lie.

These kids of ours I swear they could get by on 4-6 hours and not need naps!!!

Yay to the weekend!!

Still all squishy

2008-01-04T02:45:00.000-06:00

(mommy and son shoe match-y day)
OK you guys!!! My gosh the love I feel, I got the warm fuzzies over and over as I read and re-read your comments on the last post. The funny thing is I always imagine every ones homes to be perfect all the time and that you all have perfect hair and makeup and greet your husband at the door with a kiss while wonderful aromas waffle in from the kitchen. The kids in perfectly pressed and clean clothes and not a toy or dish out of place....of course not a layer of dust on the TV or bunnies in the corners or under the couch.

Knowing this, I must let this perfect image I have in my mind go. I love my kids to bits and even though I get so tired of playing with them all day I know in my heart I am doing the right thing. The messes can wait. I must let the stress of it go!!
And about rushing around last minute before company comes...I thought I was the only one that did that and always felt so guilty once the guests arrived....I was usually hiding the vacuum as they pulled up. I felt like I was lying, if they had just seen the place a few hours earlier. Then I would act like it is always nice and clean, ha, ha!
(As a bead of sweat runs down my forehead.)
So tonight I have been doing the mad rush around for a playdate tomorrow and have given up. I will wash the floors in the morning and leave the clutter. This is just how it is! I will distract the guests with fun crafts and a tea party....stick with what I am good at and hopefully they wont go home whispering about the state of the space we sipped tea in.

After a trip to the library today we played store...and used daddy's calculator as our debit machine and scanner. Kaitlyn chatted about the weather and mentioned that she found everything she was looking for, cracked me up! I had no idea she payed that much attention to the mindless banter I carry on with store clerks.

Kaitlyn was so excited to "work just like daddy.
"A new tool belt and tools to fight over...I just love this stage (not complaining--really!) it is just a little tough to continuously distract one so the other can play for a few minutes without having to share.

By this point in the day....the shirt says it all!
Boy did we greet daddy with kisses at the door tonight, he was sure a sight for sore eyes!

A day---and an award nomination:)

2008-01-03T02:06:00.000-06:00

I have been nominated...awarded, something! I have never had this honor before, (blushing, warm and fuzzy inside) and am just tickled about this!

I had the picture loaded and now I lost it and cannot get it back up, hmmm, I must be doing something wrong because now all my words are too big too. Oh well too late to care. Sorry.

My sweet new friend Kami was behind this---go check her and my award out here(click)!

I am so flattered but also feel a little unworthy, she gave me more credit than I deserve! Thank goodness it is not a house keeping award, I would have been at the bottom of the list for that one!

Shade your eyes. I cannot believe I am going to share this because if you came to my house I would not let you past the living room to see it. It doesn't always look this bad but here it is.

It is not that I don't want to get house work done, I do in the worst way but with a 1 and 2 year old hanging off you the kitchen becomes a dangerous place. It gets the worst abuse, especially the weeks Dave works the late shift....like this week. It started off this bad and got a lot worse and is now a lot better even hand washing stuff done. After Dave came home he corralled the kids to the living room and I busted out my super mom moves and kicked the kitchen monsters butt.

Seriously though...I tried doing flylady(click), and have a few choice words for her right now. Like....Hello, she must not have a 1 and 2 year old hanging on to each ankle or have kids that do not sleep or she must not play with them all day.

If she does please forgive me and hook me up with whatever drugs she is on, because she is a machine and I need me some of those!

Lunch time. "Have some salt and pep mom?"

"Well, ok." (she never gets to do it herself)

"Uh, Kaitlyn I think you have enough, OK, STOP!!!!!"

"WATER MOM!!!!!!"

"Ya, you wont do that again,eh?!"

mom, "What are you doing Kaitlyn?"

Kaitlyn, "Changing my baby's dipe"

mom, "Oh what is your baby's name?"

Kaitlyn, "baby Ethan!"

Craft time. I shall now address a comment from a blogging friend of mine....she(Jenibeans-click) asked"... Do you come up with all of the ideas on your own or do you get them from somewhere else? Share share share!"

So here it is.

Some times I get ideas from other blogs or from websites but usually I have a ton of ideas in my head and then when I go to the craft store I get more ideas. I see stuff and think hey, we could do that for cheaper if we made it ourselves at home with non -prepackaged stuff and go from there. There is so much we do not do though, Ethan is trouble!!

Doesn't he look like trouble?

We spent the whole evening walking babies. Ethan is getting good at walking this way...I think. He never took any steps though all day and then when Dave came home took 20 steps to him!!

Seems he was saving up to make up for last night.

First purge and 9+5 steps

2008-01-02T00:34:00.000-06:00

Sound intriguing?
Well we'll get to that in a bit.

Ethan is talking a bit more now and one one of his favourite words is "fix." He will work on anything as long as there is a screwdriver or anything that can be plugged into something.
Today was a bit of a lazy day. We didn't get up till late in the morning....and it was so nice to hang out in bed and snuggle as a family. I love it when Dave has a day off!
After donuts and coffee we busied ourselves around the house with odds and ends. Dave had to preform surgery once again on the bath tub drain pipe.
Another cloth managed to get sucked down and this time caused the main line----including the toilet to back up.
Bathroom reno's just cannot come soon enough. Or I suppose I could get a catch of some sort to put an end to these issues.

Like mommy, like Kaitlyn. Dressing Kaitlyn today proved to be a bit of a challenge. All she wanted to wear was a tee-shirt, nothing else, so I convinced her that if we dressed alike it would be cool, she likes to be 'cool' like mommy.

A little shoe love.

This afternoon we headed over to my parents place for dinner and visiting. Ethan got ahold of Kaitlyn's new shopping cart (it had to come with us as her comfort item of the day) and walked all over the house with it. It was so strange to see him upright, he has been crawling for so long now. He is still super wobbly but in the last week is making huge strides towards walking.
After we got home and had put Kaitlyn in bed Dave, Ethan and I headed down to the basement to try and make a dent in the massive mess of stuff we have accumulated.
While Dave was down the hall Ethan stood up and took 9 steps towards me, plopped on his butt, got up and took another 5. The whole while I was calling for Dave to come but he just didn't make it in time and of course trying to get Ethan to do it again was fruitless.
Progress is good though, I am so excited for my little man!

Now about the purging.
This is part of my resolution for this year and it is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Dave dragged out this blue Rubbermaid bin full of bathroom stuff that I have been carting around with us from move to move city to city to city....since the apartment downtown Edmonton!
It was full of conditioners, shampoos, lotions, cleansers, make-up, hair accessories, bathroom accessories and all kinds of little bathroom things. I have added to it over the years the things I just couldn't throw out because I just might need it some day or because it wasn't empty.
We threw almost all of it out save for a few things like hair elastics and bobby pins and Aloa Vera lotion...I had been looking for it.
The thing was...it was so hard to do! There where little things I still wanted after not seeing for at least 5 years. And I didn't miss them one bit, why would it hurt to let a few old Ikea plastic soap dishes go?!
I hope this gets easier!!!!

Resolutions?

2008-01-01T01:54:00.000-06:00

What?
Don't you look this good after pulling an all nighter?
Ha, ha. Actually we had a surprisingly good day after such a rough night. And now...can I get a whoot-whoop?!
HAPPY NEW YEARS!
We are ringing it in in style this year, bells on our toes, silly string and party hats.
Just kidding.
I watched the later half of Shrek 2 while putting the kids to bed and then started editing the photos from the day.
Celebratory snack?
A glass of wine and a tube of Wal-Mart brand Pringles....they aren't bad actually and half the price. I just wouldn't recommend salt and vinegar chips along side a Cabernet-Shiraz!
Anyway....at the stroke of midnight I woke Dave from his slumber on the couch to kiss him into the new year.
But hey, I was celebrating....the kids were in bed by 11!!!

So kissable! Check out that wisp of hair....that is it, all his hair. OK, so he has a little more around the back but at the sides he has these funny wisps I am forever tucking behind his ears.

That lotion mess I mentioned in the last post. It smelled so darn good I just couldn't be upset and am now considering using it as a furniture polish. That wood looks and smells so fantastic now!

You would think I never feed them.
What?
I know his legs are scrawny but really, I do!!

"Drrrrrr, coming to get you, run mommy, run!"
After chasing me and Ethan through the house she found some tulle and then announced that she was a lion princess.

After last night we decided that the crib would get set up again. Enough said!

Now for the new years resolutions.
The big one...and I am sure the hardest to keep is that I am resolving to not complain so much. I had told myself that I was going to find the joy in December and I forgot all about it a few days in. So this is going to be tough.
I have been told I whine too much....pass the plate of cheese, yumm. Really though, I am going to try!!
The next resolution is to wean the kids. Crib should help.

And the final one is to declutter. I really admire living minimistcally and I want to be that way....but as you know I live in a house crammed full of stuff. I think I need most of it, but I know it is not true.
It will be a lot of work but I am actually really excited to start this process. I hope to get the tree down tomorrow....really early for us and start making a dent in the stash of stuff.

How about you?
What did you do for the new year?
Any resolutions?
I hope you all had a great 07 and have an even better 08. Now i am starting to reminisce....that is another post though.
Happy new year!

The Worst night EVER!

2007-12-31T12:04:00.000-06:00

Last night was horrible!

It started off alright with Ethan going to bed around 9:30-10 ish and Kaitlyn went down around 11. It did not last long though. Ethan was up three times by 1 am and just wanted to use me as a soother. The moment I would try to delatch he would scream and scream so I would nurse again in fear that he would waken Kaitlyn. Sure enough this went on until 3 am and she woke screaming for me and wondering what was up with "Eth". I hadn't slept yet and Dave only snippets, and to top it off my joints were killing me, must have been the barometric pressure, or maybe too much caffeine the day before, so I was not having a good night!

I wound up in the rocking chair with Ethan and then Kaitlyn decided that she only needed a few hours sleep and wanted to change her jamies, play baby, read books and then watch Dora.

Dave was up with her till 5:45! Ethan had finally just drifted off and we all crashed at 6:00AM!!!! Dave then had to get up 30 mins later for work....I should call him and see how he is holding up. I am guessing we wont be doing much in the celebration area tonight.

Now that I have vented I shall treat you with cuteness, the mornings are so redeeming!

Bible story time for baby.

Furious he cannot fit into the car. This is an issue every time he sees it.

Tea time with daddy.

More daddy time, aren't they swell little helpers?

Ooops another tea time shot. I cannot figure out how to rearrange the photos from the Mac, it was a lot easier on the PC!

Day dreamer.

"heping mommy"

Craft of the day.

Just one shot of the pig pen. You would just die if you saw all the messy house shots I took so I will spare you! I was having a break down by the time Dave came home last night, I am positive it was PMS related, but also built upon by clingy children and having to stare at the house all day long. He took the kids out to pick up a few things so I could rush around and get cleaned up, it looks much better now!

But as I have sat here typing I could smell a beautiful Tahitian orchid scent, then it hit me, not good, I looked up and the TV stand is well moisturized in a thick layer of 24 hour hydrating lotion.

I just cleaned it and Kaitlyn, they are shiny and smell beautiful, the wood has a gorgeous sheen to it! (Pictures later of them)

This is what I get for trying to blog while they are awake! I'm offa here, I hear Ethan into the travel mug drawer in the kitchen.

Have a fantastic day all!

Christmas travels

2007-12-30T00:46:00.000-06:00

This is a long post, I am sure my longest ever, but you have to remember I have crammed a whole weeks worth of Christmas festivites into it, so you can skim the pics if you like or if you have nothing but time read away:)
Normal posts shall resume tomorrow.
We left for Alberta on the 22nd. It was a long drive, but a few breaks and yummy sandwiches made by my sister got us through.

Upon arrival in Edmonton at Dave's dad and stepmoms we met up with the Ross Great Grands and Aunt Deborah and Aunt Kathy.
Gift opening happened (#3), and many happy faces.

Kisses for Grandpa then Kaitlyn and Auntie Kathy got busy doing each others make-up.

Ah, one of the projects I was working on before Christmas can finally be revealed. So much time went into these! I made 4 scrapbooks, one for each set of Grandparents (our parents) and one for us.
I figured I could knock them out in 2 nights, ha,, ha, I love to kid myself!!! Of course it ended up taking over a week of night after night work. But I love how they turned out and I think the grandparents do to. What they are is a book filled with a photo from every month of our kids lives...to date, with plenty of room at the back to continue. I had planned on getting a few paintings done as well and ended up handing out IOU's, sorry folks, I just didn't plan far enough in advance. You will get them....eventually. :)
After gift opening we took a drive to Candy Cane Lane(click). We have taken the kids every year so we were excited to take them again, however it was a bit of a bust. There where some great houses but there were also a lot that just didn't go all out...and they used to. Oh well, it was still fun. I took way to many pics trying to get a good one, tried every setting on my camera and probably annoyed the heck out of every body....but hey, that is what I do.

Our nights were rough. Let me say....We are NOT doing this again any time soon! Kaitlyn threw up a few times every night. Both the kids where out if sorts and clingy, not eating or sleeping well. Kaitlyn had nightmares and talked in her sleep and moments later would sit up and throw up. After the first night of changing sheets and PJ's and running for towels we quickly learned to just triple up on the towels under where she slept and just remove a layer after she got sick.
Being a mom is so fun!
And to think we are/were considering more! I think we might just wait a while before opening the baby shop once more.

After church on Sunday we went out with our old neighbours Bri and Rose.....I miss having them next door, he is a doctor and super smart and she is a creative memories consultant and loved my little rugrats, I used to run over there a few times a day, either for a visit or for help or so I could vacuum, they were amazing to us!

Sunday afternoon we stopped by Grandpa Grumpys shop to check out his big truck. The kids seem to get excited when they see big trucks so we thought this might be a special treat. Turns out they are a lot bigger up close and they were a little overwhelmed. I thought it was pretty neat though.
As it turned out the starter on the big rig had blown (I think that is what it was, Walter you can correct me if I am wrong) and Dave ended up staying to help replace it while I went over to visit and have tea and a little Bible reading with my very dear sweet old friend Marion.

Marion has had the most amazing life, filled with adventures such as a hike through the rain forest and a walk along the wall of China while in her 80's (she is now in her 90's). She has had many careers and raised children while traveling with the air force, is a photographer who had her own dark room and is a painter and pergamano(click) artist. Of course there are many other things she has done as well, too many to get in to, but what I want to say is that I love her and admire her to no end!!!

She dug out one of her children's old toys for Ethan to play with, an amazing-now antique-ish toy car.(not to age those of you who remember toys like that)
After tea I went back to see how the guys were doing with the truck and they were not even at the halfway point. (old starter still in place) And my husband, I have never seen him so dirty, it was kinda hunky actually;)
He threatened to hug me and I took off, no way was he going to get close to me in all my winter white!
We were supposed to head out to the Ross farm for dinner but with the guys still hard at work and the kids all out of sorts and cranky I went back to the base for the night.

One of my dearest friends, Sallye came to spend the evening with me, ahh, sweet fellowship with friends, I miss my old familiar friends! Not that I don't like meeting new friends, I love new friends, it is just that old friends have an old comfy sweat shirt kinda feel to them.

Kaitlyn snapped this one of the Grumpy's, Awesome isn't she!

More time in the truck. Monday we headed down to Lacombe to see more Great Grandparents.

The Anderson Greats have recently moved into a retirement Lodge and are now whooping it up with all their friends who also live there. I had no idea what a Lodge was like and as it turns out there are a ton of things to do and your friends are just down the hall, kinda cool actually. Except that they just get an over sized bedroom to live in, I cannot imagine that at this stage in life.

Great Grandma showing Kaitlyn the birdies, and a group shot taken by Great Grandma of us with Dave's mom and Chuck.
Gift opening by the kids #4.

In Calgary now at Grandma and Poppa's. Whew last stop! Snack time, and another photo taken by Kaitlyn.

Christmas eve dinner at the Gomez house and gift opening # 5.

And of course a tea party, hello, we are the tea toting tots!!!

Peek-a-boo!

Christmas eve fire, make sure Santa's buns are nice and toasty.

Christmas morning, yay!!!

The kids where once again excited to open gifts...for the sixth time!

Grandma and Poppa loved their scrapbook....well the pics of the littlest grand kids anyway.

Another project that was all hush-hush around here was the one that Kaitlyn and Ethan made for Dave. At-shirt with prints of their little paws on it.

Happy boys!

A few more before and after Photo shop-ed photos. I am really having fun with this lately.

Gift opening number 7 and then the traditional Christmas afternoon walk around the neighborhood.

Before and after....another photo shoped one.

And a wild one thrown in for fun.

Cheers! And matching SIL bracelets.

Another before and after though I think in this case if I had just had the flash on the camera set properly that the proper results would have been acheived. In the after shot I should have adjusted the brightness a bit more.....the white is blinding!

Chilling with uncle Fernando and then the gingerbread train was built.

Gamers, we are a family of em. Can't start young enough. Look at Ethans face, click on it if you must to enlarge it....he is so into it and seriously!

Tony and Alex got Guitar hero for Christmas and I we all had to get in on the action, fun!

And finally that sums up our Christmas vacation.

The kids are glad to be home, no more throwing up or sleep talking, though they haven't quite adjusted to being home yet. It is now way after midnight and Kaitlyn is still up. Ethan is up too though he has had a few hours off and on of sleep. I hate the readjusting part! From now on every one can come see us, this is absolutely brutal!!! I am loosing my mind.

I love our family dearly and want to see them all the time but the havock this little trip has thrown this little houshold into is not alright. I am super cranky and frustrated and not doing so well.

Both of them have been rather clingy and still cranky, not liking it if I am not within sight, I think they just need quality home time for a while.

Now back to regular posts!

Time, I need more time

2007-12-29T01:30:00.000-06:00

Before and after.
Like you couldn't tell.
I have a massive post to write but it is the middle of the night and now that I have wireless working once again...on both computers I can start working on it. However since it is so massive and somewhat intimidating I chose to relax and play around in Photo shop for a few mins instead.
Now if my kids would have gone to bed before midnight that would have been a help. As it is I am to wiped to type anything that requires my brain so this is all you get.
My house is a dive and way to cluttered, so my resolution....if I can call it that is to declutter, don't even know where to start.
Oh, and the news of the day.......da, ta, da.......
Ethan took 4 steps all by himself, we are so proud!!!!!!!
Good night!

Oh...yeah...Merry Christmas!!!!

2007-12-28T01:47:00.000-06:00

Ya, I am still alive. I fell off the blogosphere there for a week. No it didn't hurt thought I am afraid I did suffer withdrawal, I didn't even get the chance to check my e-mails once!

I had a nightmare a few nights in that everyone I knew had done daily posts and I would be reading for weeks to catch up....as it turns out I do have a ton of catching up to do but not as bad as I dreamt.

The following night my dream was a little better, like my brain was trying to compensate for the nightmare the night before and my dream was that no one else posted while I was gone so I missed nothing, as if that would ever happen.

Though as a kid I used to think the world stopped revolving if I left the room. That all the shoppers in the stores would freeze the moment I walked out, reality is such a downer!

But no, the week off was not intentional believe me, I intended to post a week ago and let you all know I was heading out of town on vacation...but I was so busy and so pooped I just figured I would write on the road. Ha, ha, ha!!!

Right!

Then next thing you know we are home! I have so much to post about and tons of pics but they are all on the laptop and we cannot find the network key to get the internet back up and running on it, so this is also my first official post from my iMac. I had a few pics on the camera from last night so sorry, you will just have to wait till the evening for the real post.

Festive sprinkles, mmm!

My old tired diaper back pack. It was a Nestle freebie----I love freebies:) from over 2 years ago and it was so toast. The snaps wouldn't hold it closed and the inside was torn out, things were forever falling out of it and it became hard to carry. Sad thing is it was like that for almost a year and I just never got around to getting a better one, not like I don't have a closet full of other huge bags I could have used, but it seemed the right size so I endured.

Until this week that is. With Christmas gift card in hand I dragged Dave and the kids off to the Lululemon(click) in downtown Calgary on boxing day and found a replacement.

Smashing wouldn't you say?

You will need a lot of time for this one

2007-12-21T01:27:00.000-06:00

Doodling with my new Bamboo pen(click). What a cool gadget! I wasn't sure if I would like it and it is going to take a bit of getting used to, but I think I am falling for it!

Ornament project....this was a few days ago and I for some reason missed these shots. So lets take a little trip back.

Since we put Ethan's new train set in his room we had to move something out....his bed. Not like he uses it. Once in a while he has a nap there but otherwise we keep him snug in our bed.
When I went to move his bed I found it kinda stuck, I tugged and found that it was iced to the wall. Hmmm. Says something about our heating bill!
The other pic.....big shoes to fill. He was so mad that he couldn't get his foot in.

Back to today....my sweet-ums!

After doing our painting project of the day I was snapping away and Kaitlyn took off.."me pitch too....cheese mom."

"See pic" (lets review and see if it was any good)

Off to check on Eth-man---don't remember if it was a diaper change or playing train or what, but when I came back this is what I found. Our house is now covered in glitter...I mean it, seriously, it is everywhere. My floors after trying to sweep (I should have mopped now in hindsight) are glittery, the sweeping just spread it out even more.

Uncle Phil and Auntie Em came over for lunch so mom could take Aunt Deb out for her Birthday .....Happy birthday!!!

Off to the spa. Bye-bye yucky toes, hello pretty new toes! I went back to En Vogue for my monthly treat. I have never---really---never ever had a professional pedicure. It was really nice.

First I soaked my feet in a beach inspired room with a palm leaf umbrella and beach photos on the wall, soft ambient music in the back ground, and a hot apple cider in my hand.
Next I climbed into a warm cozy bed with a heat pack around my neck and just my toes stuck out. The technician worked silently the whole time and left me to my thoughts.

Being so relaxed with no where to go and nothing to do but keep myself company is so weird! I thought...really thought, without having half an ear tuned in to the sound of my kids or waiting for a sound...like right now.

I though back to the days before kids. I would come home from work, make dinner, watch TV, hang out with friends, go rollerblading, go for drinks, do crafts, scrapbook, do my nails, hang out on the couch snuggling with my hubby, dream up new decor for my house, dream up renos, garden, tan, paint---life was good!

But I always felt like something was missing. Don't get me wrong life was full, I had my family, friends, my husband, the Lord, what else could a girl want...I mean need, I can always come up with wants.

I had a longing in my womb...like it was crying out, "I am empty, and need to be filled"
It was a strange ache, it made me cry with longing for a child. My heart cried to, it wanted to share the love I knew it had. I just wanted a baby so bad!
When we found out I was pregnant I was so excited, the dreams for that child and the possible life ahead, the anticipation was so great.

Then a few months in I passed a small clot and thought we should get it checked out. We went to the hospital and they did a few tests but said they were inconclusive and it was borderline with heartbeat hearing...shy a week or so of a good beat.
They said I was probably fine and set me up for an ultra sound the next day. I went to work and Dave did too....his commute about 30 mins to 1 hour to down town Edmonton from St. Albert depending on the day.

I felt fine and went to the ultra sound alone. It took forever, the technician looked and looked, relubed and looked some more...not saying a word.
I started to get worried and asked, "what do you see?"
She said "well, I will have to get the head tech, I do not have the authorization to speak" and walked out.

My heart broke.

I knew it couldn't be good. He came in and said, "There is no heart beat, the baby died yesterday." He then told me that I must go wait in the ER waiting room and wait to get an appointment for a D and C, things did not look good.
I went out side called Dave, wept and told him we had lost the baby then went back in sat in a full waiting room....min 30 people, found a chair, curled up into a ball and sobbed, rocked and sobbed. Crap...now I can hardly write through the tears, this is so hard!!!!

Dave cabbed it and was there in 35 mins, tears streaming down his face and we sat and rocked and wept together. It was as if our dreams where flushed out the window.
We sat for hours before getting called in and once in the doctor said, "oh, did someone tell you already?" "YES!!! do you not see our faces!!!!"
He then told us that it was his job to tell us and that if he had know that we knew he would never have let us out into that waiting room, we must have freaked a few people out!

I went in for the D&C...which did not go well. Every time I get put out I have a worse reaction and struggle really badly to wake up. It takes me hours longer than most people and then I am extremely sick after. I was afraid going in, I was still in shock and it was all going too fast.
Next thing I know we are back home trying to get our lives back on track and with doctors orders not to try again for 6 months. I really needed to recover well.

The next ten months were the longest of my life. What if I could never conceive again, what if I just couldn't carry a baby, will my body reject the next one too? It had been over 6 months, why wasn't I pregnant? We were trying.

It seemed every one around me had a baby, my friends and every one else. Why not me Lord???

I now believe that this time was a time that the Lord was teaching me to really lean on Him, trust Him, learn patience and get a true appreciation for life.

After 10 months we were pregnant again, but with a new perspective. Excited, but cautious, and the appreciation for that little life and how precious and fragile it really is and how much of a miracle it is was so huge.

I sit and reflect now on how much my life has changed in the last three years---it was 3 years and two weeks ago that we fould out I was pregnant with Kaitlyn.

My life now is so different. I am now a stay at home mommy---and paint and blog on the side to stay sane---and my work no longer involves a lab, good friends, nap times, extended rollerblade lunch breaks, days off just because it is nice out, bonus' just cause, cranky dentists, stress from metal work not fitting or miss-casts. I sure miss some of it, but the cranky dentists part, nope!

Anyway, I wipe snot, change diapers, play house and trains and cars all day, clean occasionally, and cook meals, and can say I love my life. I am so blessed!
I no longer have that ache, usually don't have time to think about it.

You now understand why this blog is mostly about them, and all the photos, it is because I love them that much, I just cannot get enough of them and want to capture and savour every moment. I want my memory bank to be so full when I am old and grey and as I sit and rock I can reflect and weep with joy that I could be there for every single stinkin moment!

Now, back to the spa....whew, I don't know if I can handle another pedicure if it brings all this out of me!

They sent me home in flip-flops, so I didn't wreck my nail polish. Hello! It is the middle of winter!

When I got home Kaitlyn saw my nails and had to do hers too, Ethan watched.

We finished off the night with another craft project, more magnets. Kaitlyn just loves to glue things!

Now I must say, if you made through all my rambling, thank you! And congratulations, and sorry to vent on all of you. I haven't really gotten the whole miscarriage thing out like that before, I feel so light!

Merry, merry, Oh, soooooo merry!

2007-12-19T23:28:00.000-06:00

This morning I finally got the kids out to It's a Blast. Kaitlyn has been begging for days to go and play and since I had the house mostly cleaned up as of last night I thought today would be a good day to get out and have a blast elsewhere! (and keep our house from getting messed up)

I was also a beautiful day so on our way home we picked up Em and Phil. I still had a lot of work to do to get ready for the evening....they play so well together despite the age gaps....though it is kinda more like baby sitting for them I guess.

This evening we had my side of the family over for dinner and then we had our gift opening since we are all going separate ways this year for Christmas.
I was so excited to see the kids open their gifts and I was sure that my gift would be dull in comparison....I couldn't have cared less if I even got anything...just seeing them light up would have been enough for me. Don't get me wrong-I love presents, but I just love to see their little faces light up!
Then Dave brought out my gift.....
...and I got a monkey face....
I should get an award for the faces and dances I did, I must have looked like a nut.
I sure didn't know I could get as excited over something as I did. I was screeching...speechless....blabbering.....giddy....ooo, just soooo happy.
Why? you ask.
Like get to the point already.
OK, ok!
Hello!
I got a ....well you can see in the pic below!

Hugs, big hugs and kisses go out to my man! He sure knows the way to this girls heart!!!!!!
Oooooo, I just love him!
He is the best!
The bomb!
Oh, yeah!

With a bow on top!
I just love my dad and brother Phil's faces in this pic....it was a good one!

Kaitlyn had unwrapped the brushes and canvases once already but had no trouble acting excited all over again.

Now for the ones I was waiting for...the ones I was anticipating.
"Oh, my...Ahhhhh, kitch!!!!"

"ooooohhhhhhh"

"Yaaaaahhhh!"

"Brrrrrrrmmmmmm, choo-choo"
The excitement wasn't quite as high for Ethan, he was tired and cranky, but once he saw his train table he stood and played for an hour.
I think they liked their gifts....I sure like mine.....I think. I have yet to get to know it, but it sure is pretty!

My real life....

2007-12-18T10:19:00.000-06:00

has interrupted my blogging life. Sheesh, yes....I do have a life outside of the blogosphere.....a little one but a full one...well right now anyway. I have missed my regular blogging....as I am sure you have too, baw-ha-ha...I give my self way too much credit.
Anyway....more on that in a bit, now for an update....a long picture-y one.

The weather has finally been nice enough for me to venture out of the coziness of home....for a few minutes. It has snowed a few days in a row and on Sunday......yes that is how far behind I am....it stopped so I bundled up the kids, had Dave dig out the jogger for me and off we went to the park.

We ended up cutting trail and I wished for ski's rather that tires, I think a sled is in order!

We didn't get too far and turned back, way too much work plowing through all the snow. However it was so pretty! I loved winter that day! And actually I still am kinda liking it, it is still really pretty out there, driving had been another story and I have had my truck in 4x4 lock for traction on the ice, but now that it has warmed up a bit I am finding things to like. And it is really Christmasy too!
Joy!

Sunday evening we headed over to my parents place for Turkey dinner #1 and gift opening #1.
Three more to go!(gift openings that is)

I come by it naturally...here is the proof! (my dad and grandpa)

The ladies who slaved so hard.....Gram, Aunt Deb, and my mom. Awesome meal by the way, Thank you!

Hi Grandpa....and since no one ever takes pic's of me here is a self timer shot.

Toy assembled once we got home, thank you Grandpa and Gram, the kids love this thing!

Monday. Recovery day. Why? Because I was up till the wee hours of the morning slaving away on projects.....I really cannot share since they involve Christmas for some of you. Anyway....Ethan....folowing in Grandpa Grumpy's footsteps......driving truck.

My mom's mood. Make sure to check this as you come into the house!

My little bro Phil and his friends taking off for the bowl.

Last night Dave was going to take the kids out for a bit so I could continue making dents in projects, but we found Ethan splashing in the toilet. Bath time instead.

And crafts.....not part of my projects, but a few others to keep them out of mine.

And for some internet love....the kids are doing a coloring contest hosted my the super cool OMSH(click) and we made magnets inspired and pattern shared by the crafty and cool cat over at Bethany Actually(click)...though my printer was running low on ink and we couldn't find the right glass stones at the store, so they are no where near as cool as hers!

Now here is a little hint at what I have been working on rather than blogging. The moment the kids are in bed I drag everything out and set up shop, work my butt off till my eyes need toothpicks and then crash into the sack. I have missed you all, but I am still kickin!

And so excited for Christmas gift opening #2 tomorrow night, yipee, I looove Christmas!!!!

Oh, ya, I am in the mood!

Cheeeeeeeeese!!!!!!!

2007-12-16T13:51:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Kaitlyn kept asking me if she could use my camera. I finally got sick of the pleads and dug out our old camera...which still needs to get sent off to be fixed, the battery door is taped on. "Cheese Emmmmy!"

Ethan has been standing more. Still not walking, but getting better at his balance. I thought he might walk by Christmas..he will be 16 months then, but now I am not so sure. He is really taking his time!

The neighborhood mall had reindeer for the kids to see. They had a booth set up and you could get your photo taken with one----for $10.00! And all you got was a little home printer picture.

It was all kinda cheap looking and a bit of a rip. $5.00 I could have handled, but please!

I sunk a pic of Emily next to one----they had signs saying 'no outside cameras'. So I didn't use the flash. Maybe next year if we are feeling rich we'll take the plunge.

On to the next mall. Kaitlyn and Emily were still towing the camera around and whenever I took a pic, the little mini-me had to too. "Cheese mom."

The evening was spent relaxing by the fire. Ethan pretended to play Wii with the remote and when I tried to get a romantic-ish pic of my hubby and I.....yah!

Funny guy.

Oh, joy!

2007-12-15T00:49:00.000-06:00

Paint love.....washable!

We finally have gifts out. After naps together yesterday they were pretty excited too see "pesents".
However Kaitlyn was really sad that she couldn't open them and started to cry when she learned they were not all for her.
This has been a new trend with her...emotional crying. While watching Wonder pets a few weeks ago the baby chic got sap on her wings and could no longer fly. Kaitlyn cried so hard we had to fast forward to the rescue to calm her down.
Then last week we watched Cars and at the part where they play sad music and show the city in its former glory Kaitlyn's lip started to quiver. She kept looking at me as if to say "mommy why am I going to cry?"
i said, it's ok Kaitlyn, let it out. She sobbed.
She gets it from me, I am a sap, I had a lump in my throat when the sad music came on too, poor sweetpea.

"I'm dreaming of a ....."

"...yawn."

You are in trouble mister!

Mesmerized by anything Christmasy on TV.

Caught red handed!
I re-wrap every day.
She knows better, but does not seem to understand when Christmas is and keeps coming up with new excuses so she can sneak open a few gifts. When I caught her today she said "mommy no look" pointed to the kitchen and said, "no look, go away."
Ha! Fat chance there missy!

Well, hello!

2007-12-13T12:06:00.000-06:00

I'm back. Whew!
This season is busy! Tuesday was a recovery day....recovering from Monday. The kids and I spent the day lounging around at my parents place and when Dave was finished work he came over too. We stayed for dinner and hung out till it was the kids bed times. We have found that if Kaitlyn does not have her nap she goes to bed a few hour earlier than she would otherwise....around 9. So we are trying to keep her as stimulated as possible and create a new routine....of sorts. We are now 4 days into this and so far it is going all right, we had one day that she got up at 4 to play babies and read books, but other than that it has been good.
I must learn that I just cannot jam pack my days with too many activities, we just cannot afford to take too many recovery days, sets us back!

Now for the next day....Wednesday, my little brother Phil's 13th birthday.

We baked hot cocoa cookies, mmmmmm.

Then Phil and Em came over so mom could prep for Phil's day and I could have a bath, all by myself, yipee! I set the kids up to make puppets and it looked like so much fun I got in on it too.

Time for the show.

After the show I got the bath, it was soooo nice!

Happy Birthday Phil!

It was also Dave's work dinner so we left the kids at my parents, for 3 1/2 hours, the longest we have ever been away from them! And they were fine, never even missed us! Poor Dave has come down with a cold, doesn't he look happy about it?!

And every contractor got a gift...a shuffle.

Sweet, I think, Dave already has a mini and for Christmas I got him a......ooo, shhh, he might read this, never mind, that will have to wait.

Anyway, maybe he will give the shuffle to me, not that I have any use for it. I just don't really listen to music anymore. Since having kids my ears are tuned in to them and when I do have a quiet moment I use it to think or daydream.

I figure that maybe in the summer while out for walks I might use it, but then again I like to soak up the sound around me and.....dream up ideas for new projects.

When do you listen to music?

Do you all have time and when and how do you fit it in around kids and thinking(those of you that have em)?

Those if you who don't have kids I know how you do it....I did before I had kids too. ;)

The mystery, a witness, a lot of profanities and a gosh darn long post

2007-12-10T17:03:00.001-06:00

Ooo, the days are a counting down and I am getting into the mood, a little late, but hey, I am feeling good. Just to put it in perspective, that it is about Jesus' birth and celebrating it and giving gifts because he got gifts and gave the ultimate gift--his life for our salvation. Even just being able to give gifts is a wondrous thing. I always want to hoard our money and just get stuff for us and when I think about it, that it is not the Christmas spirit at all.

Giving in itself is a gift, that we are blessed with the cash to be able to give is something to be thankful about. Being able to share at the end of the year---the fact that we had a good year and are able to buy whatever we want for our family is truly a gift!

Now lets go shopping, I am feeling the love!!!!!!!
Guess I should finish those Christmas cards and get them out too!

Now for the mystery---------revealed! Catharine has received her gift so I can now show you all the little package we put together for her.
The contents of the mystery gift from the draw a week ago are...

a few goodies....Snowflake ornament made by Kaitlyn, painted rock magnet made by me and every thing else is just little treats I thought others might like since I do....the weekly calendars-love them and the teas too! I ended throwing in a few extra chocolates...not show...because I know how many kids my dear friend Catharine has and two just wouldn't have cut it!

The last day of gymnastics wrapped up this morning and daddy showed up with coffee in hand---for me, he is so sweet, and then took Kaitlyn to her class, did I say sweet? (Sigh) He really is. I should not complain!

On the way home from buying groceries at Sobey's, after our traditional after gymnastics-Monday morning pit stop to McD's.....I witnessed an accident.
I saw it coming, like in slow motion, my eyes stretched wide open, mouth gaped, I slurred out a "Nooooo, waaay, he's not gonna, he is, they're gonna-----(loud crunch, squeel)----gasp, they did."
"Oh, man, that was stupid, what was he thinking?!"

There were probably at least 15 other cars around when it happened and all closer than I was but they kept going. I pulled over and hung out---the guy who was a fault sat in my truck to stay warm--he had a supped up Charger and the hemi did him no good today, mind you the girls that he hit were flying.
The girls were both hurt, one with a bleeding face and the other with neck injuries---they got whisked away quickly while the offending dude, who had his plates in his trunk and no coat, insurance or licence with him---and had been in three other accidents this past year hung out with me waiting for the cops. It was a very interesting experience!
As I sat there I played over the accident in my mind, recreating it, thinking about the angles and speed and how if the girls hadn't been speeding the whole mess would have most likely been averted. Took a few pics. (I know, I take photos of everything)
I am a visual person, I remember what I see first and associate everything to that.

When I was young----er, I used to want to be an investigative accident recreating specialist-is there even such a position?
I have seen a lot of accidents, been in a few-not my fault and have always been interested in the math involved and how the accident could have been avoided.

New subject...

Remember a while ago I went on that dreadful playdate? Well today she called and asked me to go shopping with her. I said sure, the mall is a safe neutral place to meet, why not, I still feel drawn to help or encourage or something...let my light shine for her. We did some Christmas shopping and looked at clothes.

Of, course everything I tried on Kaitlyn tried on too. Looked way better on her too!
Anyway, it was a long afternoon. I don't mean to mope or whine, but it was brutal.
I just don't know what to do with this situation. I feel such a strong draw to be an example to her and to be a support to her, yet I find it extremely hard to be around her. She has filthy language, every other word is G** d**n or f**k or a whole string of others. It is not only that but she is also really loud and obnoxious and every where we went people stared.
She made a comment about her language and got mad at her kids a few times for repeating what she said.
I said, "Well maybe if you didn't say that then your daughter wouldn't repeat it."
I was so afraid to say something and offend her....she is also super sensitive, but I just don't want my kids around it, at all!!!
I feel such a burden in my heart for her and her sweet little girls, they really are adorable.
I also feel a little miserable that I am even sharing this experience, I just have no idea what to do or say.
Today I was mostly quite--not normal for my usual blabby mouth, but I just had no idea what to say and figured that if I was quiet and calm, maybe it would wear off on her. I really feel the Lord has a plan here, I just wish I could read his mind!
Ok, lets get over this, I will just leave it in His hands, something I am working on in a few other areas of my life right now too, maybe he is trying to teach me something through this too.

On another note,
I received this in an e-mail from my dear cousin Kim(click), I hope she is ok about me posting it, but I really wanted to share it...and I think I should print it and put it on my wall, and if people come over and are unimpressed with the mess, I will shove it their way for a read. Here it is:

Mother, of Mother,
come shake out your cloth,
empty the dustpan,
poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockabye, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done
and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.
-- Author Unknown

Yup, so when you come and see this. It is this way because I love them:)

Tonight ended up being craft time...with such a busy day and no nap I had to keep this one entertained till bed time. No conking out at 6---we pushed till 8:30 and then she was out for the night....I hope.

After all the fun beads where used up she gave up and walked away. "All done mom, no mo beads!"
I put the last few on for her and the clasps. I should have measured before pinching the clasps on though because it fits me rather than her. Guess I'll just have to put it in her treasure box for later.

And the flakes are finished! About time too, now that the season is in full swing. Oh well, I will take them down to the store tomorrow. (I hope)
I am not making any concrete plans, we all know how those turn out!
Click here to see them on my art blog.