On hold

Since Chris got called into work this weekend our bathroom renos are on hold. Hopefully we'll be able to get back to it next week when he is on nights. He usually is awake at noon so we'll have a few afternoons to work. So since I have no renos to write about or pictures to show I thought I'd share the short after dinner conversation Beth and I had tonight. We ate spaghetti for supper which Beth used to like, but now she complains every time I make it that she hates it.
Anna got up from the table and I told her she had to wash since she had sauce all over her face. She's the only one of the kids who eats spaghetti sauce. Beth remarked that Anna had to wash because she was saucy and I giggled. She then told me Katie would have to wash because she was cheesy (Katie only eats Parmesan on her pasta). Beth then says she doesn't know what she is and I told her she was picky. So we have saucy, cheesy and picky. She thought for a while and then started laughing and said "And mom, you're BOSSY!"

It's so true.

Bathroom Renos...Day 3

Didn't get much done today since I was in the city for most of the afternoon and Chris was at work and then working at the area until just before the kids went to bed. After the kids were tucked away though I did paint the trim and the molding and door to the attic we have in there. I painted it the same color as the walls which I am not sure how much I like, but I can always change it right? Chris really didn't feel like finishing the walls tonight, so that will be tomorrow evening's job. I might do some more trim touch up during the day tomorrow if it looks like it needs it. Really no pictures this time.

I lied...there are pictures

After supper Chris decided we might as well start painting the ceiling. One thing led to another and this is what my bathroom looks like now:

We'll do a second coat tomorrow and finish off the trim. Then on Friday we're going to the city to pick up whatever we use for the back splash, the flooring, the molding and baseboards. I can't wait to see the finished room!! The color already makes it look so new and modern.

Bathroom Renos...Day 2

Today I took off the baseboards and pried off the moulding. I also too down the towel racks and removed a few nails from the wall. Finally I washed the walls and got all the old wallpaper border glue off. Tonight Chris is going to fill in the holes and then I might get started on painting tomorrow. I have a dentist appointment though, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to it or not. The paint is here though, just waiting for me to use it!

No pictures today, it looks pretty much the same.

Oh, and I wanted to add for all those concerned about putting laminate in the bathroom since I've had quite a few people warn me about this, that they 'claim' the new laminates will seal completely so moisture in a bathroom is not an issue. However most manufacturers recommend to add a thin bead of glue to the top of each joint of the clickable laminate to ensure a complete seal. Then you also need to silicone wherever the laminate meets with a tub, sink or wall.

Bathroom Renos...Day One

We're sprucing things up in our bathroom! Out with the old and in with the new. Unfortunately we haven't bought any of the new yet, but at least we know what we want.

This is our bathroom now (well this morning actually).

We want to replace all the tile behind the sink and toilet with a white back splash sort of thing, like wainscoting, or barker board or something. We've also considered flat pine boards painted white as well. We haven't quite decided which option we'll be going with. We'll also be painting the bathroom with a color we've picked out called Hacienda Clay. I've looked it up online and the color is not the same as the swatch we have, it's a browny orange I guess. So that wall behind the sink will be half painted and the bottom half will be white with some sort of molding in between to make it look pretty.

We are also going to rip up the tile on the floor (yep it's the same as the stuff on the walls) and put in laminate flooring. We'll paint the baseboards white as well and add a nicer trim between the walls and ceiling. We'll be giving the ceiling a fresh coat of white paint as well.

We've thought about these plans for a while, but that has been as far as we've gone, lol. So today I started ripping down the tiles! If our bathroom looks horrid we're more likely to finish it right? The tiles on the wall and floor and the peel and stick kind so they were relatively easy to take down. When removing them though, I've discovered that there must have been some other type of tile there before. The wall is in pretty rough looking shape. Luckily with our plans it will all be covered up. If all goes well we'll get the paint tomorrow and whatever material we are going to use for the wall. I'll TSP the walls tomorrow and then paint Tuesday. Then this weekend if we have all the material we'll put up the wall behind the sink and install the flooring. Then if we have time we'll replace and paint the baseboards and put the molding in between the walls and ceiling. I hope we can get it all done....I hate the thought of living in half renovated rooms, lol.

This is what my bathroom looks like now:

We also have plans for some new furniture shelving in here. We know where we are going to get it from, but we'll wait until it goes on sale again usually advertised for 40% off every few months, so I can wait a bit for that. The new shelving will be a chocolate brown color and should look great with the Hacienda Clay and the white half wall.

Winter...Is it over yet?

Please tell me the end is in sight?

I hate the cold. After the blizzard last week, we've had a crazy cold spell. Not that it's ever warm here in the winter but I can handle -20C, although I prefer -15C and warmer. It's the -30C and feeling colder than -40C with the windchill that I absolutely cannot stand. Not only is is colder than heck for people, it's just too cold for vehicles.

Chris got called into work yesterday morning. Something had to be attended to and the closest on shift employee was over an hour away. Chris was only 10 minutes away, so he had to respond. It was at 8:30am which is not bad unless you were working nights the evening before like Chris had been. He didn't get in until almost 4am so responding to a problem at 8:30am was not on his list of things to do that morning. That list pretty much just had sleep on it, maybe a bathroom break and some manly scratching, but mostly just sleep. Chris was also pretty sure that the work vehicles were in the city being used as well, which was also a problem. He hopped in our van, drove to the office to discover, as he had thought, there were no work vehicles available so he had to use our van to attend the problem.

Anyways three hours later he made it back home and the other employee who had been an hour away was with him. Chris was lucky because after he went back to the office and went to start the van again, he heard a pop and saw fluid gushing out onto the ground. Our power steering hose blew. He tried to put it back on but it was too cold to be fiddling around with it, so he got a ride home. We went back to the office last night to try again it just blew again right away, he just couldn't get underneath well enough to get it tightened on well. He limped the van home last night after work and tried yet again this morning. No luck. He's since limped it to the local mechanic who is crazy busy because of the cold. Cars just hate the cold. Hopefully they'll be able to get to the van today so that it's ready for tomorrow since Chris has a dentist appointment. He had one today too, but we had to cancel. I hate doing that, after they've already called and confirmed and everything. I suppose with this cold they've had their fair share of cancellations though.

Stupid cold.

Muffins...from scratch!

I baked this evening. I know many of you know me, and must think I'm lying, but it's true. I baked...from scratch. It's not that I'm not a good baker, it's just not something I've ever really enjoyed doing. Chris likes to bake, or he likes the end result of baking, either way we have cookies or cakes around once in a while, but they never last long.

So tonight I baked something....healthy. I've been reading my Whole Foods cookbook lately looking for yummy muffin recipes. Chris brought Timmie muffins homes a couple nights last week and it was so nice to have one in the morning for breakfast, but they are far from good for you. I thought it would be nice to make a few different batches of muffins to freeze and have around for breakfast (so nice with my cup of coffee and bad for you International Foods creamer) or for a snack once in a while.

Chris is going to the city tomorrow to run some errands and I have a nice long shopping list of ingredients I want him to pick up for the other batches. I plan to bake a bunch this weekend. I had almost all of what I needed for the Apple Muffins I baked tonight, so I planned to pop into the store in town here this afternoon once Chris shovelled out the driveway. Of course the van was dead, and the garage had filled with snow, and my van was filled with snow from Chris getting in and out of it yesterday while trying to get the girls from school, so the short shopping trip took quite a while. Maybe if the weather ever warms up (it's -40C with the windchill today) my van will have a chance to defrost.

I did make it to the store though to pick up the missing ingredient...apples, and tonight after supper I baked muffins. They made the house smell so nice. Katie has already sampled one, but she thinks they are not sweet enough and that next time I should add more honey. It's probably the 'wholeness' of them that she is tasting coming through, being used to store and restaurant muffins made from who knows what, lol. These ones had whole wheat flour, wheat germ, milk and apples as the main ingredients. They are really good though, I had a bite of Katie's. Before they were baked she had asked to take on to school tomorrow, so we'll see how much she actually likes them when it comes time to make lunches tomorrow morning.

The real test will come when Chris gets a chance to eat one. I told him I wanted to make muffins this week and he thought we should either buy some muffin mix or make them from a cake mix. I kept telling him that I wanted to make them from scratch and he just didn't seem to understand, lol. Hopefully he'll like them, but if not, more for me!

Blizzard

Well we are in what's hopefully the tail end of what we've been told will be remembered as the Blizzard of 2007. It should have a more foreboding title though I think, like The Great Blizzard of 2007 or January 07: The Big Blizzard! We are apparently over the worst of it, but it's still blowing out there like crazy. I'm not sure how much snow has actually fallen, but a lot sure has been blowing around. There are now drifts in my yard that are 5 feet high!

It was already pretty windy when I woke the girls up for school this morning, and although the buses were not running, the school was still open, so I drove the girls the 6 blocks so they could spend the day with their town friends watching movies and playing in the gym. Since most of our teachers come in from the city the staff at the school was pretty bare. Mostly just TA's from town made it in, and the vice principal from a nearby village. By this afternoon though, the wind had picked up incredibly. Highways were closed and those that were open were not recommending travel. People were stranded in ditches all over and there were not enough police out that could even get to them. A lot of people spent the whole day in their vehicles just waiting for a rescue. Tow truck drivers were advised to stay off the roads too! I sent Chris to pick the girls up from school since I could not even see the houses across the street from our house the visibility was so bad and I was not comfortable driving. One hour later he arrived home with the girls. Yep, and hour to go 6 blocks there and back. They got stuck a few times and had to help unstick some other people so they could get through. I was getting pretty worried since Chris did not have the cell phone with him, so I was unsure if they were stuck or flipped over in the gully that runs through town. I was so thankful when I saw the van pull into the driveway. When Chris went to open the garage door it got caught by the wind and blew off one track, so he was outside fixing that for a while too. Poor guy was red, windburned and frozen by the time he made it back inside.

We're the lucky ones though, we're in our own house tonight. Many people who work in the city never made it home. They either got stuck somewhere on the highway or have to sleep in a hotel tonight. The hotels in the city are reporting that they are at full capacity, and that was already hours ago that was reported. According to the news there are over a hundred people stranded at Costco and that's where they'll be spending the night tonight. The vice principal and another teacher at the school here are spending the night at the school. They were offered numerous homes to stay at instead but opted to pull out the gym mats and to sleep in the gym where they can watch movies on the giant projector screen, lol.

Chris ended up leaving an hour or so ago to try to rescue some more people stranded in their cars on the highway. Unfortunately he only has the car, not the truck with 4x4, so he'll have to be incredibly careful not to end up stranded himself. Hopefully he can get some scared people home to their scared families. I know I worried after him being gone an hour this afternoon, so I can't imagine how some of the families are feeling of people who have been stuck in the cars all day. The blizzard has already claimed the lives of 2 people who were stranded in their car and tried to walk to the nearest house or town. It is just not nice at all out there.

For some pictures and videos of the blizzard you can go to: http://www.ckom.com/ but I am not sure how long they will have that link to news on the blizzard.

I can't sleep. I hate that. It seems to be a problem I have a lot. I'm tired but I just can't turn my brain off and stop thinking. And usually I think about unimportant things, like what I would do if I won the lottery.

I wish I were like Chris who falls asleep before his head hits the pillow and is then dead to the world until the alarm goes off and I kick him a bunch of times. It's not fair.

January may now officially begin

My Christmas tree is finally down. Okay it's not down, but it's undecorated. All I need is for Chris to get home and help me pack it back into it's box and it's all done. All the decorations from the tree and the house are in their boxes and even put away in the storage room already. Once the tree is in the box and put away I can sweep, put my furniture back in order and then January can start.

I don't think I've ever had my tree up for this long before. Usually it's down just before or just after New Years day. This last has been filled with sick kids unfortunately, so not much other than tending to them has been done. Plus with Chris working so much lately I've barely seen him it seems, so when he is home, I don't want to be working on other things.

Hopefully by Monday all the kids will be healthy enough to return to school and it will really feel as though January is here.

It's been a perfect morning.

• up at 7:30, but snooze til 7:37
• had time all by myself in the bathroom, although the cat was in there with me so I wasn't completely alone.
• woke Katie up for school.
• turned on my laptop.
• closed my bedroom door since Anna and Beth were in my bed sleeping still.
• woke Katie up again.
• checked all my boards and email, played trivia online.
• made juice for Katie's lunch.
• visited with Katie while she made her lunch and got ready for school. That was nice, we don't often get a chance just to talk with no other interruptions.
• unloaded dishwasher while we chatted.
• put a few dishes from last night in the empty dishwasher.
• Sent Katie off to school with a warning that if she took her Tamagatchi (sp?) out during classes she would get in trouble at school AND at home. She swore she was only going to show her friends before school and at recess and that after today he or she or it (and before you go thinking I'm a bad mom for not knowing what sex her tamagatchi child is know this, she's already killed two of them...who's the bad mom now?) whichever it happens to be at the moment will be left at home for the good mom to babysit.
• Washed the popcorn bowl from last night and washed down all the cupboards and the table.
• Made coffee.
• Did a load of laundry.
• Am currently drinking the coffee and watching talk shows because the two children at home today are still sleeping, thanks to the closed door.
• And of course I am back online.

My cats are dogs...remember?

Remember the day I blogged about my cats being like dogs? I think I had posted a picture of Rufio perched on the toilet seat having a drink, but I was not able to catch Domino in the act. Domino loves a fresh cold drink, but he doesn't perch, he is stretchy enough to keep his back legs on the bathroom floor while poking his head inside the toilet bowl. I was finally sneaky enough to catch him in the act with my camera in hand. I had to sneak up to the bathroom door and then just move the camera into position without moving my body and hope I had it aimed right when I clicked the button. It was a good one though.

So I just tried to download the pictures off my camera and it died on me. The batteries are in the charger and there are no more good ones to use in the meantime, so I'll have to add the pictures tomorrow. For now I guess you just have to take my word for it.

Beth has given our cats middle names. Rufio is now known as Rufio Tigger and Domino is Domino Fluffball.

I think if I had been the one to add new names I would have called them Rufio Tail-Chaser and Domino Toe-Biter.

Do you think the cats really care what we call them? Dogs recognize their names, you can tell for sure, but cats, mine especially, don't come when they are called or even perk up their ears when you say their names. They just continue to lay there and look at you with one eye half open.

Happy New Year!

Here's to a wonderful 2007!

Now that the New Year is here, things should settle down right? We can take the Christmas tree down soon, actually we HAVE to take the tree down soon since a few relatives stopped by today and Chris brought the giant chair we moved into Katie's room to make room for the tree back into the living room so we would have enough seating. Now I have a great big chair in the middle of my living room looking silly and taking up space. The tree space is the only place it can go, so hopefully Chris will feel like dismantling Christmas one of these evenings, lol.

Christmas was good to all of us here. The kids were all happy with their presents. Well that's a lie I guess. Beth is at that age where she did like her presents but they were still not good enough. My mom was right when she told me that the only thing that would have made her presents be 'enough' would be if no one else (her big sister especially) had received anything. I think it's the age, and she'll grow out of it....well she'd better.

I finally got the puzzler roller I have asked Chris for every Christmas for the last five years or so. I love doing puzzles, but just don't have the space to do the big ones that take more than a day to assemble. He also bought me a box that had 10 different puzzles inside which should keep me busy for a while. I've done 2 of them already, one took quite a few days and one I did in an evening. And tonight I'll be using my new George Foreman grill that Chris also bought for me. I guess when you are hard to buy for, people can't help but get you kitchen items, lol. I've got chicken marinating right now and I can't wait to try out the grill!

Now it's time to do the post Christmas clean up. Time to find spaces for all the new stuff, maybe get rid of some old stuff (aka toy reduction), throw away the left overs and try to get life back to normal. 2007 will hold some big changes for us since we will be moving at some point this year. We don't know where or when yet, but hopefully we'll have a better idea in the next couple of months. It's exciting yet scary at the same time.