It's been a while

That's becoming a pretty standard title around this blog unfortunately. I really do have good intentions of keeping you all up to date on what's going on around here, but it's really been the same old same old lately. Basement Renovations!

But we're getting sooooo close to being done. And again, I say we as if I have played a major role. I painted the first coat in the office and family room, and a few walls got a second coat done by me, but other than that painting, my involvement has consisted of helping move a few heavy things and wandering down stairs every so often and pointing out little flaws in Chris's work. I really am a horrible wife. But he did tell me that it doesn't bother him that I have not done much when it comes to the major work of this reno, and in fact he much prefers it if I stay away!

This blog entry is going to be mostly pictures. I don't have time to post all of them, so for now you get to see the family room and area and our new couch. I mean sectional. No, I mean monster couch sectional. It's crazy huge.

We went furniture shopping last week...on a whim. We knew we were going to need new furniture, but we had not decided for sure what we were looking for. We had two options:

1. Move the furniture from upstairs to downstairs and get smaller stuff for the upstairs living room or

2. Buy something new for the basement family room and move stuff around upstairs.

The set we have in the living room now is quite a large leather set. It takes up a lot of space. We love it, but it's big. That set and our wide screen tv made my upstairs living room seem very crowded and small to me. I was leaning towards option 1. We also had plans to get a smaller tv for the upstairs living room.

So back to furniture shopping. We found this very cute, reasonably priced leather set. It was much smaller than what we had and was designed for condo spaces. Perfect! It was comfy too. We asked about it and found it could not be delivered until July. That was okay, we could survive. We decided to look around a bit more, but we were pretty sure it was the one. Fast forward about 40 couch sets, all of which we had to sit on, and the kids had to attempt to jump on, and put their dirty shoes on (note to self....floor models may look clean, but they are obviously very, very dirty). We're still thinking of the first set...until....we see a sectional. We never even considered a section. You pretty much have to have the right space for one, and we never really have, until now. This sectional was gorgeous. It had a huge ottoman that all the girls could lay on, at the same time, and not be falling off. And only Katie's toes hung over the edge a bit. If you pushed the ottoman right into the corner of the sectional, it basically made a double bed, perfect for company.

We thought about it for a while and then decided what the heck! The salesman went to check on delivery etc. and it turned out we could get one piece of the sectional and the ottoman right away and the other piece in July. Sure, why not. While he went to right up the order, we went to look at tv's. Then we saw another sectional, in front of this huge tv (which in hindsight probably helped make the sectional look much smaller than it really was). We all had a seat. There were two reclining chairs. One had a vibrating function. And there was a phone in it. Built right in the arm rest of the chair was a phone. A real life, I am so lazy I am sitting in my vibrating recliner chair, not lifting a finger, calling you on the phone kind of phone. The couch also had a hide-a-bed. Bonus. They are heavier than heck, but if our future goes as planned, we will always have movers, so not our problem, lol.

You probably guessed that when the salesman got back and told us this sectional was on sale for $500 off the ticketed price, we were pretty much sold. Chris later told me he didn't really like the first sectional, but that he could tell I really did, so he figured it would be fine. This one, he really likes and I really like, so that's good. It was delivered yesterday and it is huge! It really makes the tv area of our new family room small and cozy, but it's turned into exactly the space I wanted. We're a tv family, I won't deny that. We all live to sit around in the evening and watch a show or a movie together. This space is exactly that. Yay!

Unfortunately though, our new fireplace is not going to fit in that space. We could put it behind the sectional, but that is going to become a kids play area, so I don't really want it there. We've decided it will come upstairs to the living room. Not quite what we had envisioned when we bought it, but it will still be in space where it can be used quite often. And if we buy the right tv for the living room, it will fit right on top of the fireplace (remember, we're a tv family).

So without further ado....our new furniture.

And hidden in one of the armrests of the middle chair is the phone...seriously, can you believe that? Do you think we'll actually use it much?

And this is a shot of the family room from near the basement stairs.

And a shot of what will be the kids area behind the couch eventually. That china cabinet will be moved into the office when the cabinet in the office gets moved to someone else's house. The Universal Gym will also be gone (know anyone who wants to buy a gym...cheap?), so that leaves a nice sized kids play area. It's good though because next fall I will have two 5 yr olds every other day when they are not in kindergarten (one is my own), two 2 or almost 2 yr olds, and one 6 mos old in my dayhome.

Quotable Monday ~ Strength ~

These are for you Michelle...

Once you go through something you think will kill you and it doesn’t, every day is like a present. ~ Elissa B. Terris

To find in ourselves what makes life worth living is risky business, for it means that once we know, we must seek it. ~ Marsha Sinetar

Don't think about how weak you are — think of how strong you're going to be. ~ Michelle (Berry) Dougherty

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Lucky Ducky!

On Saturday the girls and I went to the Child and Family Expo. It was mostly a bunch of booths of local business that have products for children or families. Dora the Explorer was also there, but the line up to see her was pretty darn long, so thankfully none of the girls cared to wait in line to be able to get to stand next to her for 12 seconds. We were there for a couple hours, wandering around booths, participating in the fun crafts and jumpy house things, etc. And while we were there I entered my name into the door prize draw for grown ups and the girls entered their names into the draw for a bunch of Dora and Diego stuff...$150 worth of Dora and Diego stuff to be more specific. That was just one of many draws, but I really didn't want my kids names in a bunch of draws for home parties and stores etc., who would probably put us on email lists or call us asking us to host parties, lol. So they entered the one draw only. It was sponsored by the Army Cadets, so no harm in that right?

Well last night I got a call for Beth. She was the lucky winner of the Dora and Diego prize! I couldn't even remember what was all in the prize since I never really gave it much attention when we entered. We never win, lol. I stopped by the Army Cadet place tonight while Beth was at Sparks and picked up the prize, and here she is with her stash!

That's a lot of Dora and Diego stuff!! I told the girls we would open a few things and the rest would go in the closet for birthday gifts, but I think they have me convinced that we should keep it all. They don't even like Dora and Diego that much, but the idea of new toys, especially the ones that talk and make noise, has them glowing with excitement!

Quotable Monday

Yes, it's been a week since I blogged. I haven't done much since last week though, so it's okay. I did paint a little bit in the basement, but I have not gone back down, since more painting involves moving furniture and vacuuming drywall dust. So on that note....

I'm not going to vacuum until Sears makes one you can ride on. ~Roseanne Barr

Quotable Mondays

Stealing a great idea from a friend of mine who also blogs. I'll try to post a quote that sums up my weekend, or the week to come every Monday. Not sure how long it will last, but it should keep my amused for a couple of weeks at least, lol.

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
~Margaret Atwood

Let's Play!

I babysit a little girl who is Anna's age. A few minutes after J arrived this morning Anna asked her if she wanted to play Pokemon. Anna said she would be the Pokemon and J would be the trainer.

Before I go on, I have to say that I love listening to 4 yr old conversations, they generally make for great blog material. If only I could remember to write even a third of them down, lol.

Anyways, J was unsure about how this game was going to work and didn't know what a trainer did. I wasn't sure either since none of the kids have every played Pokemon before so I was also listening carefully to the rules. Anna simply said "I'll be the Pokemon and you stand there and tell me what to do."

Awww....it's the same game Chris and I play everyday, but we call our game Marriage.

I'll let you guess who gets to be the trainer most often....

The basement is coming along!

Now that more walls are up it's starting to actually look like something. We had our first and second inspections and the third and last one does not take place until you are done. Yay! There were no problems with either inspection so nothing was or is holding Chris back from working away to his heart's content. It's really hard to get good before and after shots since when walls go up, the places I stand to take my pictures sometimes no longer exists. So these shots will have to do.

I couldn't use the flash for the first couple because Chris was mudding and sanding walls while I was taking pictures and the drywall dust really made for a bad picture with the flash.

The first picture is looking into the family room area from the bottom of the stairs. The second looks into the family room and you can see the door into the office.

Looking the opposite way from the bottom of the stairs is more of the family room area. It's a big open space and this is the spot where the weight bench and my elliptical will end up.

This is the office. Directly above is the living room and a bay window and this basement wall follows the same outline as the bay. Along the opposite wall is the kids' computer. Since I took these pictures Chris has finished the walls and I believe they are all primed and ready for paint! I should be able to start painting the family room in the next couple of weeks, but I can start in the office as soon as we pick some colors.

In the office there is a little nook where we have bookshelves at the moment. I'd like that area to stay with shelves but I don't know if I want to keep the ones we have or build something that will suit the area better.

Katie's room has not changed much so I didn't take any pictures and the bathroom was the same when I took the pictures but Chris has since framed in the back wall, so there is a bit of progress being made there as well. We have had 2 plumbers both say they would like to do the job of running the water lines etc., but neither have been able to actually find the time to do the job. Hopefully we'll find someone soon who can do it.

This last picture is my laundry room. To the left are the washer, dryer and deep freezer. The furnace is also over there. On the right will be built in shelving and storage. Things like clothes that don't fit the girls yet, or the out of season clothes, sleeping bags, spare blankets etc. will all have a place on the shelves I have planned out in my mind. There will also be one or 2 closet bars for hanging laundry or storing winter coats etc. There is currently one on the left you can see with a bunch of jackets on it, but that spot is temporary until I get my shelves. Chris is going to drywall in the laundry room as well, but I'm not sure if we will bother with mudding etc since it's just a utility room.

Beth's Birthday

Beth turned 7 on March 15th! We didn't know what to get her that she would love for more than a week. We also didn't know when we were going to have the time to go buy whatever it was she would want. So a few days before her birthday I asked her if she would like a new outfit, a hair cut and to get her ears pierced. Her eyes lit right up when I mentioned the ears!

So Saturday morning we all went out for brunch and then went to the mall for the ear piercing. It was one of the malls we don't normally go to, but there was the annual baby crawl going on and a friend of mine had a table selling her adorable homemade soft sole slippers, so we had to check it out. You can check out her slippers too if you like. Beware....they are incredibly adorable. Her table looked fantastic and she sold quite a few pair and handed out tons of business cards. The mall was packed, but luckily the store where they do the piercing was pretty empty.

Beth was so excited and could not wait to get her earrings. She spent a while picking out the studs she would get and finally decided on her birthstone. Then we paid, and I swear as soon as the debit machine spit out the Approved receipt, the tears started. Beth was so scared of it hurting and she kept saying over and over "I don't want it to hurt!" There was never a "I don't want my ears pierced" so we kept working at getting those studs in. As she cried the ladies convinced her to let them put the guns over her earlobes so she could see how it felt before the earrings went in. Then I told her we would count to three together (the ladies nodded to each other that they would shoot on 2) and we started to count. One, two, CLICK and it was done! There were a few more tears but that ended pretty quickly as we distracted her with picking out some new headbands, lol.

After the ear piercing we had a Girl Guide event to attend and we were cutting it close on time so we had to wait for another day for the outfit. In fact she's still waiting and be unusually patient about it all. After our event we headed to a local restaurant to pick out her ice cream birthday cake. There were tons of cute cakes with all sorts of pictures iced on them, and what does my 7 year old pick? An old lady cake. No offense to any older ladies who read my blog, but honestly, does this cake look like one a 7 year old would choose?

I suppose they all taste the same, and she was happy, so that's all that matters, right?

Happy Birthday Bethie!!

Theory of Evolution

by Beth

We used to be monkeys. That's why we are hairy people. Then one day a monkey drank a potion and turned into a scientist.

What's in your cupboards?

A friend of mine asked on her blog: "What's in your cupboard above the fridge?"



So in response to that, the camera came out, and you all get to see what I keep in that pretty useless space. And I'll tell you this, when you are 5'4", that space is not simply useless, it's impossible to reach AND useless. I do think we are using the space quite well though. The only things I can actually reach without a chair are at the very front. Very accessible after a long day at home with the kids.....

Just kidding, I don't actually need to use any of those bottles after spending time with my kids, lol. Let's take a closer look at what we've all got in there (you can click on the pictures for a larger image).

I didn't label the bottles. I thought they were pretty self explanatory.

It's Family Day today

It's an actual holiday in 4 provinces now (SK, AB, ON and MB....although I think in MB it may be called Louis Riel Day).

So in honor of Family Day, take some time and make your kids smile today!

Work out much?

Since the beginning of September I have been going to Curves every morning before my family wakes up. Sadly I have not seen the most amazing results but dropping pounds slowly is way better than not dropping at all right? Plus, I feel so much better than I did before I started, and although I am not always sleeping great, on average I sleep much better than I did a few months ago.

So if you work out, or believe in the benefits of working out for overall health. Take a look at the following website and think about sending an electronic postcard or personalized letter to you local MP encouraging them to establish an Adult Fitness Tax Credit.

What a bunch of dopes.

This just in. According to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, the smell of marijuana coming out of an open car window is no longer grounds for a police officer to make an arrest and search the vehicle.

According to 53% of people who phoned into NewsTalk Radio this morning they felt the Court of Appeal made the right ruling. According to my husband, those 53% are pot smoking hippies.

Gotta love naptime!

Especially on those few and far between days that everyone is asleep (or at least laying down) at the same time! I should get at least 1 hour of uninterrupted quiet if everyone naps as they usually do. It's just that usually they don't all nap at the same time. Anna is not actually napping, she's just having a lay down in my bedroom and watching a Care Bears movie, but that's as good as it gets for her and it does keep her quiet and resting for a while at least.

Whatever will I do for this hour? Most of my housework is up to date and the laundry is already going, so I don't have to feel guilty about that. I do have a few books on the go that I could be reading, so, after I play online for a bit I guess I'll read.

One of the books I am reading right now is called Family Wisdom from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin S. Sharma. Someone on talk radio recommended it the other day on a call in show and I reserved it at the library. I am highly disappointed. It's a self help type of book focusing on nurturing the leader within your child. It's really a non-fiction book but it's pretending to be a fiction book. By telling the story about the characters in the book the author is trying to teach the readers his lessons. I find it rather hokey. Don't get me wrong, I think the collection of lessons the author is trying to teach and share is very valuable but because of the the style of the book it completely disinterests me. I'd much rather read what the author has to say in a non-fiction style. And that's all I have to say about that.

I hear a baby. I guess I didn't get my hour.

I don't get the American political system. Maybe it's all the talk of the primaries lately that we hear about on the nightly news or talk radio, and the fact that I am not sure exactly how that all works, but I think it's more the celebrity endorsements I don't quite get.

They said on the radio today that Oprah endorses Obama, Martha Stewart endorses Hillary Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses McCain. It went on and on about who each celebrity is going to vote for. I don't know why, but for some reason that seems wrong to me. In an ideal world, every citizen would pay close attention to politics and vote for the party or person they truly feel will make the best decisions for their country. But we all know this is not an ideal world, and I wonder if having a certain celebrity's endorsement is considered a leg up in this election race? Or maybe a leg down in the case of Hillary Clinton who also has Jerry Springer's vote?

February already!

I can't believe how fast January went! With how cold it was, it really should have been a month that felt like it was dragging, but before I knew it, it was over. We had some pretty cold weather too, I'm talking -52C if I don't cover my skin it will freeze in seconds cold, not wimpy I have to wear more than a sweater cold.


And so, as luck would have it, my van suffered the most from the cold. I avoided driving it as much as possible because I know the power steering hose likes to pop off when it's too cold, but sometimes I just need to go out. The week before last Beth was home from school as she was pretty sick, so last week when she was feeling better and had gymnastics, I braved the cold and took her, just to get her out of the house and out of my hair for an hour. Bad choice. It was one of the -50C something days so I kept my van going the whole time we were in the gym. I didn't want to leave the keys in it, so I just kept hitting the remote car start every 10 minutes. My car starter is not one of those fancy ones where you press the button from wherever you happen to be and it beeps to let you know your vehicle started, it's the kind where you pretty much have to be at the driver side door for the car starter to work, so I actually saw it start up every 10 minutes from the door of the gym. I wanted to keep it warm so my power steering would be safe.


No luck.


After gymnastics I buckled the girls in and went to drive away, and had no power steering. Of course I was wedged into a parking spot with one truck in front and a car right behind, and it would have been tough getting out of the spot with power steeering and it was darn near impossible without I tell you. I am pretty darn proud I didn't hit either vehicle actually. It took, no word of a lie, 5 minutes to get out the parking space. Luckily most of the drive home required few hard turns, so although it's really a pain to drive with no power steering, it can be done. Or maybe I am just getting used to it, because it already went on me once this winter and in the past has gone a couple of times every winter since we've owned the van.


Since I was babysitting every day, and Chris was out of town most of the week, the van never made it into the shop until Friday. They put the hose back on, said it was the other end that popped off this time, and ordered us a new hose, which they hope will solve the problem. Luckily they did not charge us for this repair, probably because it had only been in for the same problem a couple weeks earlier. I have no idea what the new hose will cost either. I dread vehicle maintenance bills!

But for now it's working and I can turn a corner with ease. There is no more -50C forcast for the near future so my fingers are crossed that it stays fixed for the rest of this winter, which by the way, is not going as fast as January did.

I dreamed the other night of melting snow. I wish.

On a very serious note

This video was posted on an online playgroup I belong to. It found it very frightening and disturbing. Please watch and if you have kids, seriously consider looking into purchasing a new type of smoke alarm. If you don't have kids, maybe a new smoke alarm would be something you could buy for your grandchildren or nieces and nephews. Also you can check out this link http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/4/1623 for some statistical data of a study done comparing the beeping smoke alarm and the voice smoke alarm. I'm sure there are a lot more studies out there, but I didn't look for any more. This was enough to convince me.

Rick and Polly

Polly Pockets. Delightful miniature dolls with stretchy vinyl clothes. Years ago they used to be teeny tiny, micro-small dolls that you couldn't dress and undress, but things have changed. Just like barbies, most of the clothes are impossible for little kids to put on and off, so mom and dad have to play too. Well, just like Barbie had Ken, Polly has her man. Rick. I'm not sure Rick and Polly stand a chance though. They may succumb to the same fate as Barbie and Ken.

Poor Rick. It was bad enough that the poor guy belonged to a Polly set called Glitz and Glam that came with a sparkly car, sparkly clothes and sparkly cats. I guess he didn't stand a chance. Especially considering daddy was the one playing Polly's with Anna that fateful day. The day when Rick finally gave in to his inner demons...

Basement renos are on hold until we get our building permit and first inspection. There is not much more we can do before that happens or we'll have to rip walls down. Hopefully we'll get the permit this week (we applied a week ago) and then can arrange an inspection soon.

In the meantime I've started some scrap booking. I finished my first page last night. It's of Katie when she was 2 yrs old playing in the leaves.

The picture quality is not the greatest. The paper is a lot more orange in real life. Now I have to pick out a few pictures of Beth and do a page for her. The plan is that each girl will get an album. I'll do them one page at a time, so you can expect the albums to be complete as each girl moves out on their own, I'm that slow. As is common in most families, I have tons of pictures of Katie to choose from, less of Beth and I'll have to use every single picture of Anna ever taken to fill her album!

Or, they'll each get a few pages and then I will get bored of scrap booking like I do with my many other hobbies. Knitting lasted 2 scarves.

Basement Reno's Cont'd

Katie's room still pretty much looks the same except there is more junk in that space than there was before. More specifically a giant tub box, that is now a shelf for junk. It even has the bathroom sink sitting on it.

However, this means we now have a tub and a sink (and a toilet if you're worried) ready to go into the bathroom space as soon as the line fitter guy we made friends with has time to come over and do some plumbing for us.

The office now has a wall making it a real room! This is looking at the wall from what will one day be the family room.

Inside the office there is going to be the access to the storage room that is under the stairs and behind the bathroom. This is the door...all I can fit in the picture. Chris is down there right now drywalling the rest of the office.

The Bathroom!

It has a door now, but the door is not actually secured onto anything, it's just squeezed into its spot. So far we've been lucky and it has not fallen.

This is looking into the bathroom from inside Katie's room. The second picture is looking into the bathroom from where the wall behind the tub will be one day.

She can see clearly now....

I need to start off with a short letter to my sister.

Dear Amber,

I am sorry I promised more basement pictures 3 days ago and have not posted them yet. Actually I have not even taken them yet. But I will. Soon. After Christmas.

Yours Truly,

Corra

Okay, that's done and out of the way. So on to the big news at home here. We had the yearly optometrist appointments last week. Every year for the last couple of years we have been prepared to hear that Katie would need glasses. Chris got his in grade school sometime, I got mine in grade 5 or 6, so we figured it was inevitable. Each year we are slightly surprised when they say her eyes are fine. In fact a couple of years ago it was Beth they wanted to keep a close eye on because she was more farsighted than she should be at her age, which was not what we thought we would hear. Her eyes are good now though, still slightly farsighted, but within normal range for a six year old.

This year however we were 99.9% sure Katie would leave the office with a prescription. We've noticed over the last couple of months that she doesn't see as well as she should. She'll be sitting at the kitchen table and we'll ask her what time the microwave says, and she has to get up and walk to it to read it. Street signs were also bad, she couldn't read them until we were almost driving past them. Sure enough, she needed glasses! She was so excited about it, more excited than I thought she would be. We went out that evening and picked out a couple pairs of frames (2 for 1...yay) and they were ready the next day. I took her to get them fitted and all the way home in the van she read signs, and was so excited about things she could see, like the individual bricks in a brick building. I guess we sort of take our eyesight for granted, even those of us with glasses, and we forget how fuzzy the world can be when you can't see well.

She is so happy to have her new glasses, and very excited that they were ready in time to wear when we go see family over Christmas. She can't wait to show them off!

Katie's favorite are the dark frames, but I like the other one. The picture really doesn't show just how cute they are.

The Basement Renovations have started!

It's very exciting!

When we moved in the basement was unfinished except for the exterior wall framing. It was great because a lot of work had been done yet we had complete say as to how we were going to design the basement. Our plan is to build a bathroom, a bedroom, an office (with a window so it can be considered a bedroom when we sell), a family room, a storage room, and a utility/laundry room. The exact design of each room has changed over the few months we've lived here, and I am sure they will change slightly as we build, but we've actually started! I say we, when mostly I mean Chris has started, but I held some framing still while he put a few screws in and held some drywall up so he could do the same, so I have helped, a little.

I decided I needed some 'before' pictures tonight, but some of the interior framing has been started so they are not completely before pictures.

The Bathroom

First picture: To the left of Katie are the stairs.

Second picture: Looking into the bathroom from where the bedroom will be. To the right where all the boxes are will be the storage room. The bathroom will end right about where the blue drywall ends.

The Laundry/Utility Room

Excuse the huge mess of the basement.

Family Room

The Office

Hail Mary

My kids go to a Roman Catholic school. We are not Roman Catholic. They say prayers three times a day at school. In the morning it's Our Father, which my kids know. At lunch it's grace, and is different depending on the teacher. Before school lets out they say Hail Mary. There is no Hail Mary in our church. Tonight at dinner, after grace, Katie started to say Hail Mary (to see if Beth knew it) and Beth joined in. Between the two of them, this is what we heard:

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with Thee.
Blessed art Thou among Swimmin',
and blessed is the fruit of Thy Mung, Jesus
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Beth laughed at the end and told me her teacher says Women not Swimmin', and then told me her whole class says Swimmin' and they think it's funny their teacher says it incorrectly. Katie says Mung (Beth just mumbles through the last few lines) and she has no idea what a Mung might be, but followed along anyways. Chris and I laughed so hard and when Katie discovered what the real words were she laughed pretty hard. So hard she almost spit soup out of her mouth. Beth and Anna laughed too, but I'm sure had no idea that it was funny and just wanted to join in. I'm sure Beth will continue to say Blessed art Thou among Swimmin' along with her classmates.

Makes me wonder how many Catholics die wondering what swimming has to do with Mary and what the heck a Mung is?

Wall Clmbing Pictures...as promised

I didn't take these because as usual I forgot my camera. I am going to have to start chaining it to my neck. There are none of her at the top of the wall, but she made it up there quite a few times.

On Belay!

If you know my kids and I asked you which one was the bravest, I bet you wouldn't pick Katie. Katie's my bookworm, she's quiet and can be quite shy. She's not nearly as adventurous as Beth who we have a hard time keeping indoors when it's nice out. Katie likes to be outside, but often it's to find a quiet, relaxing place to read. So it will probably surprise you just as much as it did me, that Katie is quite the little wall climber!

She went on a field trip last month and they had a chance to wall climb. When I read the permission slip for the trip I was sure that the wall climbing waiver I was signing was useless since she was never going to do it. But I was surprised when she got home to find out that not only had she given it a try, she got up quite high and really enjoyed herself.

Katie was ecstatic when she found out for the last Girl Guide meeting before Christmas that they were going wall climbing. They needed volunteer adults to belay so I stuck around to help and to watch Katie. I was a little nervous about belaying as I had never done it before, but it was actually pretty easy. Most of the girls did well, only a couple were too scared to go up more than a couple feet. Katie, however, amazed me. She climbed walls none of the other girls could do. Not all were perfectly vertical, some had parts that jutted out at angles and that stumped most of the girls since you had to hang slightly upside down to get around them. Every wall she tried, she made it all the way to the top to touch the ceiling. I'm not sure how high the walls they were climbing were, but they were pretty darn high. Even if I had the strength to do it, I couldn't get over height, so I would most likely be a terrible wall climber.

One of the Guide leaders was taking pictures and I'm pretty sure she got Katie in at least one shot, so I've emailed her asking for a copy and as soon as I get it, I'll post it on here.

Katie was still talking about it this morning. She went so far as to say wall climbing was her passion. I took a brochure from the place home last night, and the prices seem pretty reasonable, so I think Chris and I will try to take her every couple of weeks. Anything to get her out doing something physical is good I think.

Can a 4 year old keep a secret?

That's the question every Christmas season. It's not always a four year old I suppose, but kids in general. Every year they cannot stand the anticipation of finding out what it is that present under the tree with their name on it, so they ask over and over, and then when that fails they ask what their sister, or their mom, or their dad is getting. And every year I am faced with the dilemma of letting them in on the secret or keeping it all to myself.

A few years ago I bought Chris a PlayStation 3. I was so proud of myself that year. I got him something he really wanted, but also something he never thought I would actually go out and buy for him. Katie and Beth were with me when I picked it up from the store. And although I can't actually remember how old they were because I am not sure how long ago that Christmas was, I remember that Katie was old enough to keep the secret and Beth was not. She begged and begged all the way home to tell her what daddy was getting and finally I broke down and told her that I had bought him shampoo (because there was shampoo in the cart that day it was a reasonable lie). I made her promise that she would not tell daddy what we had bought him, and she thought she was so convincing that she would keep the promise. I, however, was not fooled. That's why I said shampoo in the first place.

We arrived home and walked through the front door and wouldn't you know it, the first words out of Beth's mouth were "Daddy, we bought you a present and it's shampoo!!" The best part of the whole story is that it has since become a family tradition that when one of the kids asks what the other parent, or their sister got for Christmas, we tell them "Shampoo".

But the kids are getting older. Katie's been in on the secrets for a few years now, and even Beth can be trusted to not tell. Anna I'm not completely sure about. But this year I did tell them all what they were giving their daddy for Christmas, and he's told them what they are getting for me. I not only bought Chris's gift, but I bought my own, and that's the only part of the secret they do not know. I can tell Anna's been dying to tell me what I got (a beautiful stainless steel teapot) but so far she has not said anything. Well anything out loud. She very secretly whispered to the 4 yr old that I care for during the day, that they bought me a coffeepot(teapot, coffeepot, whatever, there is no difference to a four year old I'm sure). I wasn't even a foot away from her when she whispered the secret, and the whisper was more of a quiet talk than a whisper, but she she hasn't come out and said "Mom, we're getting you shampoo" or anything like that.

She has been trying to 'trick' me about what they've got me though. Today she told me it was a show, a good movie, that I would really love. Then she said it was a real horse, no she meant a bear. All I'm waiting for now is the day she tells me it's really not a teapot.

As far as I know she has not accidentally or on purpose told Chris what I bought him from the girls. I'll have to ask him when he gets home from work if she's let it slip. I didn't tell any of the girls what I got him from me though, so that secret should actually be 100% safe.

Stupid Van

It's still dead. Chris looked for the booster cables and couldn't find them. So we decided to break down and buy one of those jumper battery things. You plug them in and charge them and then boost your car off them. It charged all day yesterday, wouldn't start last night. It charged all night, and wouldn't start this morning. Ughh. I am so frustrated.

Of course Chris was gone overnight for work and won't be back until this evening sometime. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but tonight we have parent teacher interviews at the girls' school. The first one starts half an hour after my dayhome kids are picked up. We could walk, and that's probably what we'll end up having to do, but it's cold out there! It was -17C this morning and it's supposed to be -10C this evening. Katie also has Girl Guides tonight and if Chris isn't home before 7pm (not holding my breath) she won't be able to get there.

Why won't that battery booster thing work? It's making me crazy. Maybe we'll have to take it back to the store. Do most people buy these things right when they need them or do people pre-buy them in anticipation of needing them one day? And if you bought it long before you needed it, and then go to use it and it doesn't work, can you take it back? I have to go find the instruction manual and see if there is something I am doing wrong.

Good Intentions Spoiled

Chris has been away the last couple of mornings. That means my normal schedule of getting up at after 6am and heading to the gym shortly after 6:30am is thrown out of whack. I made it there Monday evening, but I just couldn't drag myself there yesterday evening. I find I am so much more tired during the day if I do not make it to the gym in the morning. Since Chris got home last night I had every intention of getting back into my schedule this morning. I drag my butt out of bed, get dressed, take the bread out of the breadmaker, check my email and head out to the garage. Once I flicked the light on in the garage I noticed one of the side doors of the van is open, and the little blinkie lights that alert other drivers that door is open is not doing it's job. Crap. I knew the van was dead. At our old place, Chris's work had a charger we could throw right on the battery and just let it charge for half an hour or so. We don't have that luxury here. Actually I think we might be lucky if we find booster cables. We're also going to have to push the van out of the garage so we can get another vehicle close enough to boost it. This sucks! I was so looking forward to getting back to the gym this morning since Chris leaves again tonight and won't be home tomorrow morning. This is not going to be a good gym week.

And I can't tell you how badly I want to throttle the child who was too lazy to press the button and close the van door behind her. That would be wrong.

November's Flying!

It doesn't seem like it was almost 2 weeks ago since I last posted something on my blog. Time flies when you're having fun or so the saying goes. From that you could assume we're having fun, but I don't think we've actually had much time to have fun! Chris has been very busy with work so we haven't seen him too much lately. He did have yesterday off in lieu of Remembrance Day, and although he is working today, the rest of the week he is taking off. Yay for us! We get to see him and hopefully our Christmas lights will make their way onto the house and garage! Well maybe not, now that I think about it. He's going with Katie on her grade field trip tomorrow and they will be gone from 6:30am-6:30pm and then on Thursday my in-laws will be here, so that only leaves Friday and the weekend. We'll have to try to squeeze the decorating in somehow.

That's what it seems like all we can do lately, try to squeeze one more thing in. And when you look at our calendar, it's not full really. So why do I feel like everything is a crunch lately? It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I babysit every day til 5:30pm and the kids have activities on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Some nights we barely have time to eat before I'm driving one or the other kid to something. Then I try to get other stuff fit in there too, like the dentist, the banking, errands, grocery shopping, etc. Usually I get a break on the weekends, so I am ready to start it all over again most Mondays, but poor Chris, he ends up working most weekends as well lately. He rarely gets a chance to catch his breath. I'd say this is his week to relax, but you just read about what's planned for his days off, lol.

Sorcerers, Witches and Unicorns...Oh My!

Last night was one of the best Halloweens I can remember! The weather was amazing. There was no snow and my kids wore the costumes without a snowsuit underneath. They did pop home for some gloves, but they didn't have to wear their snowboots and trek through 2 feet of snow. We had 86 kids show up on our doorstep last night. We were told to expect about a hundred and with the weather being so nice, I thought we'd get more than a hundred for sure. Needless to say we had candy left over but I sent it to work with Chris so that I would not be eating it all day long.

I've been very good, not one piece of candy stolen from kids' bags so far!

Sleeping Baby = Pictures as promised!

The cool Halloween Wreath the girls made with my best friend a couple weeks ago. It looks so great!


Our Jack O'Lantern carved last night by Chris. He's not happy with the eyes, they were supposed to be spookier. I'm going to try a picture of it all lit up tonight.


The front yard. The hanging spooky ghost lights up. Well it did. We noticed last night he was not glowing and were not sure why. I looked at him this morning and the cord that connects his plug to the pumpkin lights is severed (how appropriate). The pumpkins still work even though there is a loose wire end, so we'll have to put some electrical tape on it or something so we don't start a fire or anything.



A fire would be scary and all, but not quite the effect we're going for. Burning down our house and the neighborhood would not be a good first Halloween impression to make on all our neighbors.

Happy Halloween to me!

I didn't think it was possible.

The morning girl at the gym was even more annoying than usual this morning. She was giddy and silly, more so than usual. It's not really the silliness that annoys me about her, it's the unending trail of questions she asks the clients. And they are inappropriate. Not in a bad way, really. She just has the social skills of a twelve year old. Rather than making pleasant conversation she grills us and it gets ridiculous.

How was your weekend?
What did you do?
Do you like doing that?
Who went with you?
Do you like them?
How many kids do they have?
All boys? Are they cute?
Do they have girlfriends?
What's their last names?
Are they virgins?

Okay, I've never actually heard her ask if someone was a virgin before, but if we let her keep talking, I'm sure she'd get to it. Luckily the trick to get to stop asking you questions is to somehow turn the conversation to get her to talk about herself.

She, like, has so much fun. Her friends are so awesome and, yeah, it was cool.

I, like a few of the other morning people, just avoid making eye contact with her. I concentrate really hard on breathing properly and look as busy as I can while on a machine or jogging on the spot, which is not an easy job. I've had my fair share of questions, but purposefully my answers make my life appear so incredibly drab (who am I kidding, it's not that hard to make it appear that way), that usually she moves on to more exciting women.

Good news for me though, today was her last day! Probably the reason for her being so much more giddy today I'm sure. She talked about her new job where she does nothing. She answered the phone twice yesterday and once it was her mom and once it was daddy (who got her the job). Then she went online and was on facebook for a couple hours, then she read 2 magazines. Seriously. And she was so excited that she gets paid sooo much to do nothing (of course she told us her wage as well, she doesn't keep anything private). It's not wage to brag about that's for sure. Granted it's more than I make babysitting, but still.

I've spent too much time on her now complaining about the poor girl, and my kids' school lunches are going to suffer, so I gotta run.

A little catch up

It's been a few days, so here's what's been going on.

Our backyard is all done. It's seeded and ready for the grass to grow in the spring. All the bikes are put away in anticipation of snow that lasts, and the lawn chairs and things are put away with them.

The Girl Guide cookies have arrived and all the pre-ordered ones have been delivered. I asked for an extra case and there are 8 left in it, so I sent them to work with Chris today so I don't accidentally buy myself a box. Those mint cookies are sooooo good!

Halloween candy has been bought (finally) and the girls have their costumes all sorted out. They are so excited for tomorrow. I have to somehow come up with some willpower by then so that I don't steal all the little chocolate bars.

Chris has discovered his love for Halloween baking. He's always loved Christmas baking. Before you get too excited and think he's some weird guy who loves to bake, remember that the only way he gets baking is if he bakes it himself, so it's pretty much do or die at our house. That and he is a weird guy who bakes, but I love him anyways. I am NOT a baker. I can bake, I just don't really like to do it. I have enough fun cleaning up after Chris ;) This year he made witches fingers, which he's done before, and he attempted popcorn balls with gummy worms in them. Are they ever sticky! I tried to eat one a few minutes ago (it's snack time...cheerios, raisins and popcorn balls) and they are just too chewy for my teeth. So my back up plan if the willpower doesn't come through is to try to eat a popcorn ball while the kids are sorting their Halloween candy and glue my mouth shut semi-permanently.

I still have no pictures of our yard and I have not downloaded the wreath picture yet. It will happen....by Christmas for sure.

Maybe.

It snowed today

I took some pictures but they are still on my camera, along with the picture of the Halloween wreath I promised. Maybe I'll get around to posting them tomorrow. Maybe not, depends how lazy I am. I want to sleep in til noon, but I'll settle for 9:30am. Last Saturday I couldn't sleep in because we all had dentists appointments (which went amazingly well). This is MY Saturday.

Anna and Jesus...good buddies.

Anna and "J", the 4 year old girl I babysit, were just arguing over growing. Anna's decided that J is not going to grow anymore and she's decided only she will grow taller.

They argue over silly stuff like this all the time. As usual I tell Anna not to say things to hurt other people's feelings and for them both not to fight about silly things.

Anna then asks me if I know who knows everything. I ask her who and she tells me it's Jesus. She then proceeds to tell me that Jesus told her that she was going to keep growing taller than J, and he knows everything, so she knows it.

Yesterday we decorated for Halloween. It's Chris's favorite holiday to decorate. On our new street though we have some competition. In our old town hardly anyone put out decorations, but now the decorations we have look pitiful compared to others. Chris went out to buy some more pumpkin lights this morning, and he plans on buying a few more items each year to add to our collection. A staple of decorating used to be various kinds of leaf bags, but there are hardly any trees here since the neighborhood is pretty new. We couldn't fill a Ziploc baggie much less a giant pumpkin leaf bag!

My friend was here over the weekend as well. She is so creative and crafty and together with the girls she made a Halloween wreath for our door. I'll have to take a picture and post it later so you can see how cute it is! The girls had a blast doing crafts. They also made some pumpkin and ghost candles. I don't my friend could believe how painty a 4 year old can get in less than 20 minutes, lol.

Help!

Three kids.
One mom.
One dental hygienist.

I think it might equal disaster.

Beth and Anna say they are going to be good and open their mouths for the lady, but Beth said that last time too and she most definitely did NOT open her mouth. This time I bribed them, said I would buy them a treat if they cooperated. What does Anna want as a treat for being at the dentist? Smarties, well actually she said she wanted Farties, but I know what she means. I wonder if they'll brag to the hygienist that mum is going to buy them sugar in a box when we leave?

Cheerios and Raisins

Maybe that should be the name of my blog now since it's during snack time that I get to sit and type while seated between two babies, a bowl of cheerios and a box of raisins. However looking at these babies I should probably call it Cheerios, Raisins and a box of Kleenex, as we've had some pretty drippy noses around my house this week and snack time is no exception. They are happy when I had them a cheerio and ticked off when I wipe the noses....but luckily a cheerio comes right after the tissue.

In other news...

Our backyard is done for the fall. Yesterday Chris finished spreading topsoil and rototilling. He bought a bag of grass seed and started spreading it out by hand (I know, I was thinking there has to be a more even way to distribute grass seed to make for an even lawn) and then ran out of seed after only a third of the yard. So I guess the yard is not completely done, we still need a couple of bags of grass seed. Our winter project will be finishing the basement, that I will say right now, scares the heck out of me. I want it to look really nice, like it was done by a professional, yet most of the work Chris will do himself. It just worries me. I don't know where we will start. We have the rough plan of where the walls will go all drawn out so I guess the inside framing should be started first. It's going to be a long project that we're both excited, yet anxious to start. I'll keep the blog updated as work gets completed. I'll have to remember to take some before pictures.

Wednesday

Just middle of the week boring stuff going on today.

I've got all the kids at the table eating a snack. The big girls are pretty independent and the babies are strapped into their seats. Luckily between handing out cheerios and raisins I can sneak in some computer time.

Half our girl guide cookies were delivered yesterday and luckily I was able to snag a case of regular cookies in place of one mint chocolate case. Originally I was told we had to sell 4 cases of mint cookies, 48 boxes, and we presold some but I had a bunch that still needed to be sold. However my brother in law loves the regular cookies so when we phoned him to tell him we had a case of regular he changed his order and bought the whole case! He wasn't kidding when said how much he loved them Hopefully when the other boxes are delivered I can get some more regular ones as a few people prefer those to the mint. Personally I LOVE the mint ones and we devoured a box last night within minutes of the drop off! Currently we have only one box left to sell....pretty darn good I think!

I might have to auction the last box off and see how much money we can make!

Which is funny because when Chris picked up Beth from Sparks the other day the leader said something about selling the cookies to relatives and friends and Chris being the witty fellow he is said "Not me, I'm going to sell them all on eBay for $10 a box!" She sorta laughed and then got all serious and told him he couldn't do that, it definitely wasn't allowed. Like he was really going to list girl guide cookies on eBay. Simmer down lady.

And this one's for Barb...

Can you imagine never having ever eaten bologna? Or how about never having tried a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Wow, some people lead very sheltered lives I tell ya.

The little girl I am babysitting LOVES bologna. The first day I offered it to her she said she had never had it before now that's all she asks for at lunch time. She does call it pepperoni though, which is kinda funny. Poor kid's going to grow up and cringe at the thought of a pepperoni pizza.

As for bologna and hot dogs and all those random meat products, I think the Arrogant Worms say it best in their music.


The Hot Dog Song

Everybody loves hot dogs
Even pasty Hippies
'Cause its hard to beat a tube of meat
But now a question hits me

What the hell's in
A hotdog
I shouldn't ask maybe
'Cause i don't know any animals that grow cylindrically

So have a hotdog on me my friends
It's made out of animal odds and ends
Have a hotdog on me my friends
It's the particle board of meat

Its good to reuse and recycle
The unpopular pieces of meat
That are quite gross
Yet after they're processed
Are such a Delicious treat

That the children eat them 'til they're queasy
Because they love the taste
Of sodium phosphate
And iridorbate
Soy protein
And Sodium nitrate

So have a hotdog on me my friends
It's made out of animal odds and ends
Have a hotdog on me my friends
Its the particle board of meat

May or may not contain
Chicken and, or
Pork and, or
Meat

So have a hotdog on me my friends
Don't think 'bout the parts from the pigs rear end
Have a hotdog on me my friends
Its the particle board
The particle board
The board particle
Off mmmmmeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaat

This one's for you Steph!

We went to church today. For a few weeks we've been church shopping and the last church we went to was 'the one'. As soon as we walked in the door it felt like home. We were then busy for a couple weeks and couldn't get back, but today we went again, and it was an even better feeling than last time. Maybe because we had made the decision that it would be our church? Many people remembered us and they seemed genuinely happy that we had come back. It was nice.

After church we headed out for lunch. We thought that would be a nice tradition for Sundays. We need to find somewhere good, yet still cheap though. We may have found our church, but we're still shopping around for our restaurant, lol.

The restaurant brings me to a gripe though. Why the heck can people not flush toilets in public washrooms? It's just gross and unnecessary, don't you think? I can understand if it didn't flush all the way or something, but most of the surprises I've found in that one empty stall are definitely not cases of 'oops, it didn't all go down". Come on people, you sat your butt on the seat, flip the handle and go wash your hands. Ewwwwww.

Three Things

Three things I hate today:
1. Crappy, crappy Bell ExpressVu Customer service
2. Slimy, sneaky, conniving ExpressVu Business Habits
3. Bell ExpressVu in general.

Three things I love today:
1. Cell phones
2. Sasktel Customer Service
3. Sugar Snap Peas

Rainy Day

Of course it's raining today. It would have to be raining since we just had a load of gravel delivered into our driveway. That's our luck of course. When we ordered it they gave us a delivery time of between 7am and 6pm. You'd think they could have narrowed it down to a smaller time range than 11 hrs. It's like waiting for the cable guy. We honestly thought they would arrive around 10am, but sure enough we never heard from them all day. Finally at about 5pm they called to say they were on their way, just as I was leaving to go register the girls for Girl Guides and Sparks. When I got home we had company over for my birthday supper and they stayed to visit until just about the kids' bedtimes so our evening could not be used to shovel gravel. And today, it's raining.

So now we have a pile of wet, muddy gravel on our driveway. Maybe we'll be really lucky and it will snow on the pile before we can shovel it.

I shouldn't have even said that.

I deserve a cookie

Not only did I get up and go work out at 6:30am when I really felt like staying in bed, I got up at 6:30am and went to work out on MY BIRTHDAY! That surely deserves a cookie right?

So it's September 11th. It used to just be my birthday, but since 6 years ago it's been so much more than that. It's kind of weird actually, when people ask when your birthday is and you say September 11th, they get a surprised, sad look on their face, like they feel sorry for me. Yes, a terrible thing happened on this day in 2001, but it's still my birthday, it's still a happy day for me. And I think that's what we have to remember for not only September 11th, but all those days that something bad happened. It's just a day. Bad things happen but so do good things. Beth started crawling on this day in 2001, I was born on this day 32 years ago. We will never forget the bad things, but we should try to remember all the good things as well.

Reality TV

Why am I so much smarter than the people on reality tv? It couldn't possibly be because I get to see everyone's secret thoughts and secret plans could it?

Chillin out, maxin', relaxin' all cool

Sundays are meant for exactly this. The kids and I are just laying around. Katie and I are still in our jammies and Beth and Anna are in the clothes they wore yesterday and fell asleep in. I've puttered around the kitchen, cleaning up a bit, things that should have been done yesterday. The girls are watching a movie and playing with the kitties.

We really should have gone to church, but we haven't found the one that fits us yet and I didn't really want to go churching without Chris, who unfortunately doesn't get to join in the laziness as he had to work today. Ironically he is at church today. His job takes him everywhere, lol.

I really should go get dressed for the day though. We already had one neighbor stop by to talk to Chris and I think he was surprised to find us in our jammies. That must not be how they do Sunday mornings in this neighborhood. They don't know what they're missing!

I'm in a Jam

Berries and Jars and Certo, Oh My!

Actually I am in a kitchen that smells like jam and is full of jam making 'stuff'. Now before you get all proud of me and my domestic jam making skills, I have to admit that my mom has been here for two days making the jam. I'm just an innocent bystander really. A bystander who gets to help her sister cut the tops off 6 flats of strawberries. A bystander who gets to wash dishes and try to keep things semi clean. A bystander who points out the jam splatters on the pretty new walls to her mother and who thinks her mother might actually prefer using the bystander's kitchen all alone. So not really a bystander at all, more like a sarcastic pain in the ass helper. Whatever. I have 70 jars of jam to choose from now, and more will be coming tomorrow on day 3 of the jam marathon.

It's kind of a give and take venture. I give my kitchen and storage space for the jam and I take whatever amount of jam I can use in a year. It's a win-win situation I think. My kids LOVE my mom's Nanking cherry jelly! They probably go through a jar every week or two. Beth helped pick the cherries this year. Of course by help I mean she picked about 7 and then went and played with the dogs and the kitties while grandma and grandpa picked enough to make, hopefully, a years worth of jelly. Katie picked a bucket at her other grandma's house this year as well and these were delivered to my mom for freezing for future jam use.

A fun, hot, sticky, tiring time was had by all.

That's my mom on the end. The rest of the ladies just came with the Certo.

Well, not really.

Community Association

We're new to the community. Tonight was my first registration for fall programming. They schedule registration immediately following the annual general meeting. The meeting where they elect new board members. The meeting where they beg and beg and then beg some more for people to volunteer for vacant board positions. I've never lived in a city before with young children so this community association thing is new to me. This group plans children and adult programs for the year. For a very small registration fee ($10) your family can join, and then you can enroll your children or yourselves for different activities, mostly sports. The fees for the sports and activities are very minimal. For example 6 weeks of jazz class is $25. However in order for the programs to run, they have to have a board. And to have a board they have to have volunteers.

I had no idea it would be so crazy at the registration. I arrived early to get my registration form and then waited for the meeting to start. There were hundreds of people there and half of them sat at the back of the gym and couldn't even keep their mouths shut for more than 5 minutes while the meeting was going on and they visited with their neighbors. Come on people.

So it's 'election' time. Do you think 10 positions could be filled in less than 45 minutes? It was like pulling teeth for the poor board president to get anyone to volunteer. Sure, I wasn't a volunteer, but I've lived here for all of 2 weeks, I'm not quite ready for that. We saw the financial report for last year, this association has a lot, I mean A LOT of money. Most of the vacant positions were simply people needed to take charge of an area and get contracts on the work that needed to be done. The money is there, there is no fundraising needed. In fact each year the association has to decide what to do with their excess funds as they are a non-profit. This year they bought defibrillators for the schools and bought some community signs for the schools at the cost of over $10,000 each! The money is there.

I admittedly live in quite a wealthy area of the city. Our kids already have many more opportunities than the kids in some of the other areas of the city. Our community association does not have the trouble with funds that some of the other associations do (hmmmm....maybe somewhere to spend the money next year?), so why can't the parents be grateful for what is being offered at very realistic prices? Volunteer for a position, if you can't do it alone, get a friend and volunteer together. It shouldn't be so hard for them to fill the positions. Again, I know I didn't volunteer, and I do feel some guilt for that, but many of these people have been enjoying these activities for years, and not only couldn't bring themselves to volunteer they couldn't even shut up long enough for the interested people to hear the meeting.

It was a zoo.

And then the meeting was over and the actual registration began. It was worse than a zoo. Luckily I had arrived early and they called people in to register in the order they got their registration forms. My number was called within 20 minutes and I was able to get in and out quite quickly as I only registered one child for one activity. And the best part...I get to do it all again in a couple months, well sans the meeting and volunteer extraction.

I'm tired

I'm trying to get into a new schedule. One where I am out of bed before any sane person I know. 6:30am. If that sounds like sleeping in to you, I guess you know where you fall on my sanity scale. So my alarm goes off at 6:25am and I hit snooze and then try to beat my snooze alarm to the bathroom. I lost today. I did get up when the snooze alarm went off though, so I wasn't late or anything.

I wake up and the house is still. A few minutes after my alarm goes off the first thing I hear is the bread machine beeping. Everything else is quiet. The kids are all asleep and so is Chris. Usually Anna has already snuck into our bed and is sound asleep in between Chris and I. Even the cats who have been banished to the garage are not scratching at the door to come in. So I drag self out of bed and into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. Why is it that even though I brushed my teeth less than 8 hrs earlier and all I did was sleep, that my mouth can feel way yuckier than it did after a whole day of being awake? Must be all the drooling I do in my sleep, lol.

After getting dressed into some sweats and a t-shirt I take the bread out of the breadmaker and gather my stuff. Car keys, house keys (yes I have them on separate key chains), water bottle, apple, shoes, cell phone. Lately I have to go back into the bedroom and search through Chris's pants to find my car keys as he's misplaced his, and seems in no hurry to find them as mine are so easy to steal. Then off to the gym I go. Yep, I said gym. And it's still only 6:45am!

I joined Curves (again) last week. I know I have to get myself there as early as possible and with kids to get ready for school, one still at home, and babysitting, my only options are before the world wakes up and the evening. I know that by the time the evening rolls around I'll have thrown around every excuse as to why I can skip a day, or I'll be too tired to go, or I'll forget and then it will too late, so really the evening workout is really a no go for me. Pre-dawn is my only option.

When I get home from the gym it's just in time to wake the kids up, make breakfasts and lunches and get them off to the bus and even get some housework done. I actually feel really great in the morning, but boy am I starting to drag by late afternoon! I have to work on the getting to bed earlier thing, or 6:30am may just kill me. Today though, I am tired in the morning, which can't be a great sign of things to come.

Time to get back to blogging business!

It's been forever, but it's time for me to get back into my blog. We're moved and generally settled, so I have no more excuses. I need the outlet too, a place to write down the crazy, silly, funny, boring, whatever, parts of my day. I guess I find it relaxing to sit down at the end of the day and write out my thoughts.

So what's been keeping me busy?

We moved a couple weeks ago. We were pretty much unpacked right away since out move covered everything from packing to unpacking. However getting things organized the way you want them always takes time. You think you want it one way only to discover that you don't really like it and have to organize it all over again. In between the organizing you still have to keep the house clean and the laundry done, because that just never ends. I will say that this house is much less dusty than either house I lived in in our old town. I guess I was right that the gravel roads there added to the dust in my house and it wasn't simply poor housekeeping. I did give up dusting there eventually so in part it was poor housekeeping, but when it's dusty 5 minutes after you wipe, you realize how futile your attempts are, lol.

This weekend was great. Chris was home from work and we had no real plans. That's rare lately. We spent Saturday tuning up our bikes and the girls bikes and then we spent quite a few hours just out walking and biking the neighborhood. We have some parks nearby with great trails that we are getting to know. The girls put at least 10km on their bikes on Saturday. I was so impressed that they did so well, especially Anna. She did get tired and have to stop for a few breaks but she pushed her own bike when she was on a break. She was a real little trooper. Beth's bike seized up on us though, so we have to get the bearings in her pedals fixed. I'd like to get her bike into the shop this week to get that taken care of so we can do some more biking in the evenings or next weekend.

Sunday we tried out a new church. I don't think it's quite the right fit for us, but I did really enjoy the service and the people. We'll find the right church for us though, it just may take a few weeks and some church shopping.

Today was spent on the house. I did housework and Chris worked in the yard. He built a sandbox for the girls and I shovelled the sand from the centre of the yard into the wheelbarrow and then dumped it into the sandbox. It was three wheelbarrow loads, and I'm impressed I didn't give up on the shovelling, lol. The sandbox is great, although I don't know how much the kids will actually use it. Then Chris measured out the area we are going to keep the trampoline. We priced out the cost of enough pea gravel to cover the ground under the trampoline and we plan to have some delivered this week sometime. It will be dumped into our driveway and we'll have to shovel it into the wheelbarrow which I think might take forever since it'll be way more gravel than we had sand. Chris edged the trampoline area tonight with some landscaping stuff left behind by the old owner, but he couldn't finish since the mosquitos started eating him alive. If we plug away at it day after day, we're hoping the backyard will be ready for grass seed before the snow falls and that we'll have good luck with the grass growing in the spring.

Of course as soon as the yard is done I think the basement renovations will start, so it really is never ending, lol.

I also started working out at Curves last week. My goal is to make it there mon-fri before the kids are up for school and get my workout in. I should be home in time to get them up, fed, dressed and off to school. Hopefully I can keep up the early rising. I know the key will be getting to bed at a decent hour, something I haven't been great at in the past. I timed out how long it takes me to ride my bike to Curves tonight. Twelve minutes. That's not bad, but at the moment I am not in good enough shape to get there in twelve minutes and have the energy to work out for half an hour. And I'm very sure I would not have the energy to bike myself back home! I have to be able to get there and back in decent time though in order to make sure the kids are awake in time to get to school, so for now I'll have to drive every morning. Maybe once the snow has come and gone I'll be fit enough to bike there every morning.

House Hunting

I'm sure I've mentioned that Chris was transferred on here somewhere before. We sold our house and decided to move to the city where his new office will be.

The housing market in the city is crazy! Any market where you have to offer $50,000 MORE than the listed mls price for a house is crazy right? We had been looking at a house that was for sale privately. They had a price in mind and then had an assessment and that price went up a lot more than we had expected. The house was perfect for us, had a huge yard, in a nice neighborhood. Unfortunately their low and our high numbers didn't match.

Then the real search was on. We spent hours on the internet trying to keep on top of what was available. We met with an agent, drove around the city for hours and picked a house to put an offer on. In the market here, if you put the condition of an inspection on your offer, it automatically gets rejected. Crazy yes, but there are always 10 other offers with no inspection condition for the owners to choose from. We had to find a house that worked for us AND seemed relatively sound enough to forget about an inspection.

We put an offer on a house last Friday (not yesterday). We offered $50,000 more than asking (my house here didn't even cost as much as we over offered on that house....crazy). Then on the weekend we saw another house that was for sale privately. No one else was looking at it. It was almost a secret that we knew it might be for sale. It was great! Smaller than the other house, but much newer with a basement all ready for our own development ideas. Way smaller yard, but a much newer house in a very good neighborhood. We thought about it for about, um, a nano second and decided if the owner was willing to sell it for around the price he had originally mentioned we would be very, very, very happy to be the buyers. So we withdrew our offer on the other house. One, and possibly the only, nice thing about this market is you usually have some time to withdraw your offer. The house goes on the market, you give the buyers about 3 days to look and then all offers are presented at the same time on a certain day. We had until Monday at 10am to withdraw and we called our realtor at 9am to pull the plug on our offer. I'd love to know what that house ended up selling for, if we even would have had a chance with the offer we had put in.

Anyways, Chris met with the owner again this week, we settled on a price (we're getting an amazing deal....for this market), and we have a possession date. Now we just need to see the lawyer to draw up the contract and see the bank to finalize the financing and we have a house!!

Tomorrow we get to go back again, have another look, take some more pictures, do any measuring we might need to do, and get a good look at the backyard which we couldn't get a great look at last time because it was pouring with rain. Yay!

Pics are along the side of my blog if I haven't already made you look at them. There should be more added tomorrow.

Mmmmm...lunch!

Let's take a look at today's lunch. This is Anna's plate...

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Yummy...PB&J is the best lunch of all time right? Nothing could be better for my kids. But take a closer look, Anna's added something a little healthier.

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Peanut butter, jelly AND cucumber! She says it's good. I'm not going to be trying it myself, but let me know if you try it and like it. And yes, that's a hamburger bun, we're out of bread at the moment.

Track and Field Day

Today was the K-6 track and field day in the next town over from ours. For the last couple of years I remember it raining on this day each June. They lucked out today and had beautiful weather! It looked like it might rain for a little while this morning, but it stayed away, the clouds cleared and it became a really hot day.

This was Beth's first track day and although she was excited she was a little nervous about what types of events she would have to participate in. For the littler kids they don't do high jump or some of the longer races, but they do have a little race, and a rubber chicken throw which the kids think is funny. This year they had rubber pigs and frogs as well. I haven't attended for the last couple of years, but the last time I went to watch Katie participate it was definitely a rubber chicken that got thrown. Gotta be fair to all animals though, and being that schools are all very inclusive now, you can't stop the rubber pigs and frogs from their chance to whipped around a school yard by a bunch of 6 yr olds, lol.

I went with a friend of mine and we took out 3 yr olds along with us. They had a blast since there was playground equipment to play on and Mr. Freezies to eat, what more could you ask for. You'd think since my friend and I just had one child each to keep track of compared to the normal three each, that it would have been an easy job, but with a hundred other children running around, we did manage to lose our kiddos a few times. Once we even lost them together. We were turned around talking to another mom and when we look back for the girls they were no where to be found. It was no longer than a minute that we weren't watching them, and POOF, they were gone. At least we were pretty sure they were together. It took a good 5 minutes of looking everywhere before they appeared from around the front of the school. A little friend of theirs was kindly showing them some flowers, lol.

Katie was not too keen on me taking her picture during any events, but I did manage to catch one of her doing the running long jump. Check out the side of my blog for more pictures (or on facebook there should be a slideshow).