it's all about being crafty

When Hailey saw this hat in the store today, she just had to have it. We were hat shopping already, so I was easily persuaded .. and I'm glad she picked one she could decorate herself. There'll never be another hat out there like hers!

Alissa got one too, but she has yet to decorate hers. I'll share a picture when she has tho, you can be sure.

Yawn!

After dragging my offspring to work with me this morning, the two gals that I work with, and I decided to hit the water park with all our kiddies. Another gal and her daughter (Hailey's age) ended up showing up too, and what a nice time we had, just catching up and yapping. I have to say, I so enjoyed being aware of the fact that my girls are old enough to play, then come find me when they need something (food, water, bandaid for a random cut, or bathroom break), and two of the three gals I was there with had almost 7 yr old boys, but they also have 2/3 yr old second children too. Times like that, I'm reassured that having my girls 10 day less then two years apart was a brilliant idea. I'm passed the stage of having to run after them! Ahhh .. the life!
BUT, on a less wonderful note, I burned my one arm. :( I think our sunscreen has seen it's better times (as in last year). Even tho the expiry date is for August of this year, after having applied it at two different times on myself and Hailey .. her shoulders burned, and my one arm (the one facing the most sun) burned slightly. Time to get us a new bottle of 30 spf.

So now I sit, relaxing after having tucked my sweeties into bed, and I'm so ready to hit the pillow myself. I'm pleasantly pooped!

sing it with me folks....

School's out for summer!
Yes that's right! Summer is officially started here in our district, and I couldn't be happier. Here come the days of lazy dazy day trips to the surrounding parks, lakes, beaches, and whatever else I can dream up for us this summer. Now please don't remind me of this exciting moment I'm sharing with you, when you hear me mumbling about entertaining kids, yadda yadda. lol

So to celebrate, I stole an idea from a friend who I believe stole it from her friend and am starting it as our 'last day of school' tradition. Off we went to Dairy Queen for a small blizzard of the girls choosing. Hailey ended up with a strawberry cheesequake and Alissa with a cookie dough. I splurged and had a strawberry cheesequake too, but surprised myself when I couldn't get through half of a small. Amazing for me. :P

And yep, I forgot the camera which I had intended to take with me to the school at pickup too because I'd have loved to get a picture of Hailey exiting the school, but oh well.
So it's official .. my bright daughter is off to grade two in the fall. She passed with flying colours (as should be expected), and even recieved an award for "exceptional reading skills above grade level" at their awards ceremony this morning. That's my girl! :D

many aplogies

I swear I'm getting my just dues. This morning was very challenging, and although I thought I had figured things out enough that I wouldn't be put into that situation again .. apparently I was suckered into it again.Let me explain...
Miss Lissa has inherited this particular trait from me. (I outgrew this trait, in case you're wondering *as I look down at my frumpy outfit*) She's picky in what clothing she wears. She won't wear anything that has stripes, pants have to be jeans, not sweats or elastic waisted. She'll wear shorts that are of the same sweat pant material tho, and she loves skirts and dresses, and is very particular with skort styles and what logos are on her tops. And to top it all off, she has to be in the "mood" to wear certain things. So generally I leave it up to her to pick out what she wants to wear, and to dress herself. I tell her what the weather's like, and she does the rest. Today she asked me to pick out her clothes. Before I did tho, I warned her that whatever I chose, she would have to wear it, or I wouldn't help her. She reluctantly agreed (which should have been my clue not to go there) so I picked a very cute jean skort and darling denim spaghetti strap top with a barbie logo on the chest. She put it on and allowed me to continue on with my getting ready for the day. All of a sudden the choice must have set in, because she decided she didn't like the outfit. I gently reminded her that she had agreed to keep the clothing I chose for her, on. Nope .. she wouldn't have any of it. So I let her whine and cry till I had finished my hair and makeup. I tried to enforce my decision and teach her a little lesson, but then Dr Phil popped on in my head. Pick your battles. Okay .. so do I back down and let her have her way, and in turn showing her that she can do this again with other situations and end up getting her own way? Oh screw it .. I let her strip down and pick what she wanted .. which by the way was another denim skirt (not skort) and a blue t-shirt (mid length sleeves) with a butterfly logo. Whatever! She was now happy, and I was saying 'sorry Mom' over and over in my head. How on earth did my mother put up with this from me?
On another note, but still sort of related.The other day Alissa had been outside playing, when she came in and found me in the kitchen. She blurted out a question and stood their with much curiosity in her eyes. The question? "Mommy, how did you make me?"My first thought? Oh heaven help me .. I'm NOT ready to explain this to HER, when in fact I haven't even had to go into the itty details with her sister yet. My answer? "I grew you in my tummy for nine months .. that's how I made you." Her reaction? "Oh" then she walked away. Whew .. thankfully such a simple and vague answer was enough.
And in case you're wondering. Yes I'll be scrapping these stories, and yes she'll have even more pages of embarassing information to be mortified over when I share them with her future husband. Hah .. how's THAT for payback on the first story in this post. hee!

and what a party it was!

I don't have much time to post a detailed number .. but I wanted to post some pictures of how much fun was had by all. I need to be discreet with faces because I haven't asked permission from the parents .. but here's a few that I can post.

#1 The girls are decorating their frames that'll house their glamour shots once dry.

#2 The birthday girl taking a HUGE breath to blow her candles out. (note: isn't the backside of our barbie cake just
a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e?)

#3 .. the front of the a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e cake. :)

happy birthday Bean!

I am now a mama to a 7 yr old!! Unbelievable! Where have those years gone?

Hailey .. my wishes for you for this year are that you continue to be the sweet, innocent little girl you already are. That you let that sweetness shine through more often then the little monster inside. That you continue to always feel you can come to me whenever you need anything .. from hugs and kisses to answers for some of your more complex questions. That you enjoy being 7 and don't try to grow up faster and be older then what you are. That you strive to do your best, but if your best isn't what everyone else thinks it should be, that you can be happy with what you've done and move on. (this is something I continue to work on even at my age) And because I can make these wishes go on and on .. especially if I were to get all selfish like, I'll end with one important one. I wish that you will continue to look at daddy and me with the utmost love and respect and although there's many things in the world that can sway you and uproot your grounding, that you'll know that what we say is always in YOUR best interest because WE LOVE YOU!

Why'd I just put myself through that .. oy .. the tears!

disclaimer: remember way back when I said alot of the reason for this blog is so I have a permanent place for my thoughts and feelings in case I want to journal them on a particular scrapbook layout. I'll definetly be scrapping these thoughts because I'd be interested in seeing how my "wishes" change by her 14th birthday. I'm thinking the same, but those hormone rages she'll be having may have me wishing her through the next four years so she can legally move on! lol

one more!

So now it's little Miss Bean's turn to count down the days until HER birthday. (told ya having two born in one month is a HUGE disservice to the bank account)
Tomorrow marks the day my first born entered the world in all her glory. I swear the angels were singing when they pulled her from me. Her perfect halo of glowing golden hair, her procelain white skin .. all I could think of was how much like a china doll she looked. And now .. her skin is still so creamy and fair, her hair is even blonder (white, we tease her) and she has the perfect mix of being a girlie girl when she wants, yet getting dirty and collecting bugs with the best of the boys.

What are the party plans? A girlie party of course! ;)
Manicures, pedicures, hair and makeup .. getting dressed in costume princess dresses and sitting down to little finger foods. Yes .. this IS her fantasy party come true. Only thing is that her Auntie and I are going to be in severe need of a spa day ourselves once we've pampered each of the seven girls, the birthday girl and her sister for three hours.

If you don't hear from me tomorrow .. you may want to check the sewer. I may have been tossed out with the foot spa water after fainting from giggling and screaming exhaustion.

and another year bites the dust

Here's my little preschool graduate. We had a really great time at the preschool grad party held at a small local playground/park. You can't top a party that has a clown with his hand puppet puppy, balloon animals/shapes, great finger food and best of all .. good company.
I'm thankful we didn't have to say final goodbyes, because that would just be to hard to do after having been with this preschool for four years (two with Hailey and two with Alissa). Thankfully, they have an before/after school care that brings the teachers to the elementary school for pick up and dropoff and so we'll see them at those times.

Here's my girlie .. acting all grow'd up! 

a Jerry Springer episode?

Last night I served the girls watermelon as their "bedtime" snack. As I was doing the dinner dishes, Hailey kept asking for more. Since the watermelon was already over ripe, I obliged since it really needed to be eaten quickly. A little later she came to me again and had me look at her rounded tummy. "Look, Mommy .. it looks like I'm pregnant!" I laughed and jokingly asked her who the daddy was. She looked at me oh so quizically, then. "Daddy, of course!"
After letting many things run through my head in the short couple seconds before I responded to her .. I let her know that as much as she loves her daddy, he's HER and Alissa's daddy, and when she's grown up she'll find someone to love that is just as great as daddy .. and they'll marry and have babies together. Although at this point, she has NO idea how a baby is conceived and we're just NOT going to go there for a couple more years, or until she asks.

So yes, a perfect episode for Jerry. *snicker*

Pet Peeves

I have a few things to get off my chest .. so don't mind me for a few minutes.

Things that down right piss me off.

1. little boys that haven't mastered the art of pee'ing standing up and tinkle all over the seat and floor and leave it there nicely for others (read: me) to clean up.
2. trying to find a place to park at walmart and some lazy person/car sitting idle behind another vehicle anticipating their exit. Hello! There's a football field worth of stalls up way yander where you could park if you weren't to lazy to walk the distance. I can understand if it's raining, but the sun WILL do you some good .. as will the walk. Sheesh!
3. children that say "you made me do it" in a whiny cry. Nobody MAKES you do ANYTHING! Now hush already!
4. if you know already that you're always late for everything .. why not leave the house 5 mins earlier to make yourself look better by being on time. Heaven help you when you actually have children and the delay getting children ready cause.
5. don't tell me I'm not listening to you when I don't respond to something I've heard you say a million times. Sometimes it's not worth the wasted breath of saying "uhuh" or any other acknowlegding sound.

Whew .. I think I'm done now. That felt good. Now if only those people would read this, AND do something about it!

eye on the ball .. or not

this is what happens when you're playing ball with daddy, and he carelessly tosses the ball at your head. DUCK!

my man and our girlies

Every year, I like to take the girls to this particular Rhododendron grove for a little photo shoot. Of course, this year we're a tad late, but I thought it would be fun to get some birthday pictures on my own instead of taking them to a photo studio (read: good old Walmart) for posed, indoor ones. I have a very stuborn little now 5 yr old that act silly when I pull the camera out, but I can sometimes sneak some good poses from her without her realizing what's going on. Today, I managed to get NOTHING good of Dave and the girls together, but I think this one picture speaks volumes of how they act with their daddy. One's trying to show him a flower and the other is just letting her inner monkey hang out.











And here are the two best of the girls out of the bunch.

HFD!

Happy Father's Day Dad!

I'm missing my daddy today. I always miss my parents a little more on special days such as this one. I really wish we lived closer, so I could show in person how much I care and love this man .. but alas destiny has a different road for me.

It's hard now that he's 76 and his health is a factor. In December he went through a quadruple bypass heart surgery, but because his heart had blockages for so many years already (his heart attack in 1999), his brain had been deprived of oxygen, and although alot of his memory loss can be attributed to old age and dementia .. it also had alot to do with the oxygen levels. Oh yes, my Daddy remembers me and all his 8 other children, but there are many small memories he's lost. It's so sad to see him get frustrated with not remembering a story we're rehashing, or even the year we're currently in. It's times like that, that I wonder why on earth am I living so many miles away. I'm not there to enjoy the everyday times, to continue to make memories for myself and to let my children enjoy the finer things of having a set of grandparents nearby. But today I'll reflect on all those issues, and I will call my daddy, and I will tell him how much I love him, how many positive memories I have of him growing up, how he's been there for me in so many ways, and how much he means to me.
Then I will enjoy helping my children make a special day for THEIR daddy and help them create just as many wonderful memories as I have.

To my brothers, brother-in-laws, father-in-law, and friends that are fathers .. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Walk the Line

A Johnny Cash movie. good? bad?
Let me give you my opinion.
I really like Reese Witherspoon's acting. She did a fantastic job .. accent .. persona .. all of what June Carter is really like. But Joaquin Phoenix left a little to be desired as his portrayal of Johnny Cash. I can't say I was a fan of JC, and therefore can't make a pure judgement on how well Joaquin's acting coincided with the real person, but I can say I'm not a huge fan of his and perhaps it was the storyline that bothered me so. As usual, we saw how publicity and famedome (is this even a word?) rocked an individuals world to make him do things that are classic for musicians. (drugs, drinking, cheating...)
To wrap it up .. I wasn't as pleased with the storyline as many that recommended the movie to us, were .. but in all it was an okay watch. Just not one I'll be running out to purchase anytime soon.

Now because I'm a HUGE fan of Chris Daughtry .. I absolutely LOVE his version of the song "I walk the line" he sang on American Idol. In my oh so humble opinion .. I think he may have blasted the originator away with his own twist on the song.

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Steeee-rike!

Well, maybe not a strike persay, but she's quite a little bowler anyway! A ten frame game of five pin left Alissa with 111 as a final score. Way to go Alissa! She beat Daddy by 9 points, but Mommy beat her by 3pts. hee!

She had a blast, with 5 little friends joining her, along with Auntie S, B, V and of course Hailey and Daddy and Mommy.
Silly me didn't get a picture of her blowing out the candle on her cake, because Dave was busy video'ing it.

happy FIFTH birthday 'Lis

Here's my baby, showing off how old she is. The ONLY year she can do this, so she may as well take full advantage.
Because her party's not until tomorrow and dh is working this evening .. we gave her her birthday present early this morning. I think she's in heaven .. she loves it so much!

one more sleep

The cupcakes have been baked, decorated and saran'd .. ready for the 20 something preschoolers to devour tomorrow morning. Alissa's lucky enough to be attending preschool on her actual birthday again this year .. and what fun to be able to celebrate with your friends, by getting your fingers all gooey in icing and being able to lick them clean because, after all, they ARE preschoolers. ;)
So as per Alissa's request .. star sprinkles atop white icing. Voila .. couldn't be easier then that! 

Missy Lissy's on a countdown

Yes that's right .. just two more sleeps dear little one. Please don't grow up so quickly, my baby, for Mommy has not caught up with the excited feelings you're having about turning 5.

So tomorrow after work, we'll head to finish picking up some minor items to complete Alissa's party plans. It's just a small party, with more adults then children .. but that's the most memorable, less hectic kind anyway .. right? And I'm even buying her cake because I figure the amount of time and energy I'll need to put into making cupcakes for her preschool class will compensate for a cake .. and I just don't have the time to bake an elaborate, memorable cake this year. However .. Hailey's getting one (hmm .. is that fair?) and I've been working on her party invitations for next weekend too. Whew .. my advice to anyone still to have kids .. please plan it so they're not born so close together. 10 days apart (plus nearly 2 yrs), with Father's Day in between, is just not a smart spacing.

lucky teachers

This year, the girls are having some fun and making little works of art for their teachers. Alissa has 5 teachers, so she's painting 5 little terracotta pots, and Hailey just one, but they both have each one for themselves. Don't they totally look enthralled in their crafting?


And they're sporting Daddy's paint shirts as smocks. I hope he won't mind pinks and purples as his new t-shirt decor. hee!

ahh yes, finally a layout!

It felt wonderful to finally scrap a layout today. I've only been working on cards as of late, because I had this brilliant idea to make sets of 10 cards as gifts for Hailey's teacher and Alissa's preschool owner. The other preschool teachers will recieve something a little less time consuming, but just as precious in Alissa's eyes anyway.

The sketch on this one was by Andrea from 123-Scrap .. and Pam issued a weekend challenge to use this particular sketch along with three different patterned paper. With the leftovers also make a card and send to Chris for the Cards for Soldiers program.


And because I had my envelope of pictures from our trip up to Northern BC out, I scrapped a picture of Hailey and her cousin, Sammy.

11 years!

Today marks our 11th year anniversary as a married couple. In many ways, it seems longer then that, because we've been together for 14 (I was almost 19) and as I see it .. life didn't really start until I met my man. We've had lots of good times and some bad times that we've come through and are stronger because of it. I never quite understood my Mom when she said that your love will grow deeper and into something you never can quite understand until you're there. She's so right.

A blogger I recently found, celebrated an anniversary last week and when I read her post, I knew there was no way I could describe a marriage, a relationship quite like she did. So I'm going to just link to her post. THIS is how I feel as well. Thanks Jen for putting it so elequently.

So to celebrate (we have NO kids for the entire weekend), we're heading for Victoria. First stop? Old Navy, baby! :)

it's raining and I'm going into hiding

It's such a miserable day out there, and other then dropping Hailey off at school, I don't have to be out and about in it .. so today I'm hiding in my little corner and am going to scrapbook. Every other chore but laundry is going to have to wait .. I NEED to feed this urge of mine.

oh suzanna

How many times can you hear this song, sung at the top of one little 4 (almost 5) year old's lungs? Well, in my case .. it was nearly 20mins. None. Stop.

fun day cursed?

Last week was our schools scheduled fun day (aka: sports day), but the rain came down and it was just much to wet for the kids to be out in the field. Later that day, the sun came out and shone all weekend and week up until today. It's not raining, but you definitely can tell it must be fun day again because the clouds have moved in and it's a very grey albeit dry day. Are the sports gods against this activity? Is there some kind of unmentioned rule that outdoor days be gloomy or wet? I think they'll be able to still be outside, and at least they won't be thirsty sweaty children running around with unmeasurable amounts of sunscreen keeping them from being burned.

The Queen's youngest son, Prince Edward, is visiting Victoria today. He's spending 10 days in Canada, and was in Vancouver yesterday for an opening of something (didn't catch what it was when watching the news). Probably something to do with the 2010 Olympics. I think it would have been an interesting experience to be in Victoria when he and his wife visited, but imagine the other swarms of people with the same idea. I'm not about to be pinned in a crowd of fans, when really I just think it's a neat idea, but not one I'm sure I'd follow through with even if I didn't live 2 hours from the city.

orientation and other mishmash

Blogger is out again and I so wanted to write, so I’m using good old Word and I’ll just have to c&p later.

Alissa had her Kindergarten orientation today. She’ll be having the same teacher Hailey had for the past two years, and she’s happy about that. The English program at our school is so small (it’s a French immersion school and they’re slowly converting it into 100% French, but in the meantime our little 25% still fight for our rights) that they have split classes for all grades up to 7. So that’s why Hailey had the same teacher for K/Gr 1.
Anyway .. only one other child showed up (our families just recently started hanging out outside of the school situation) out of the five that are registered. So Mrs H spent an hour with the two, asking questions, singing songs, doing small activities, drawing pictures and writing their names, and then finally a tour of the school. They don’t assess the kids with a grade, but from doing all the activities they did today, the teacher was able to tell whether by fall our kids would be ready for Kindergarten. And we got the two thumbs up we needed. Then again, I had no doubts since Alissa’s been attending preschool for two years and has learned so much from there, as well as her big sister.
My nerves aren’t so bad, now that I’m seeing how much she really does enjoy the school setting. I see this as a big step for her AND I, and we’ll get through it. She’ll love it, and I’ll just wipe away any tears that come from sending my baby off to 5 half days of school.

While I’m typing, I’m also listening to music. I have Real Player set on random, and a Barry White tune just came on. Ordinarily I’m not a huge fan, but one particular friend of mine is HOT for the man. Okay, maybe not the man in particular, but his voice. What’s with his voice that women swoon over? Okay, yes it’s a clear and mesmerizing, but certainly not anything that gets me all worked up over. If I want that, I just listen to some Clay. That boy can sing. Not much to look at, but his voice is just so soothing.
I’m currently working on teacher gifts. Obviously it only means a great deal to the teacher if it’s FROM the child, so I bought some of those taracotta flower pots for the girls to paint, then we’ll plant flowers in them. But I wanted to add a little extra something and because I try to incorporate my craft into any gift I give, I’ll be making sets of 10 cards for Hailey’s teacher and Alissa’s preschool owner. Alissa also has 5 other teachers/aids, so they’ll just get the flower pots. I hope they enjoy them as much as I know the girls are going to when they get to paint them.

50 random questions

I'm not sure what posesses me to actually answer these things .. but here goes again.

1. Name and Nickname (if you have one)? Rach, Chach, Ray, Bella, Mommy
2. Are you named after someone? No, but if my Grandma had had her way .. I would be called Sunshine .. not after anyone either but it would have been cool to be named by my Grandma none the less.
3. Astrological Sign?Libra
4. Do you have a journal? No, but not for lack of trying. I have a weightloss scrapbook that I try to record some of the more serious issues or just the basic stats every once in awhile. I blog .. that covers it all, don't ya think?
5. Do you still have your tonsils? Yep I do
6. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? When I wear shoes with ties, yes .. but summer time = flipflops and sandals
7. First feature you notice on someone you are attracted to? I think my honey's cute, and I remember it being his eyes and his hair that had my hear melting.
8. What is on your mouse pad? I have one of those thumb roller mouses.
9. Book you are reading right now? I'm in between novels at the moment, but I can guarentee the next one will be a mystery, since I have a few borrowed from my sister, just waiting for me to read.
10. Do you collect anything? I collect coin money from different countries, and of course I collect scrapbooking supplies. ;)
11. Favorite TV Show? Anything reality .. seriously, I'm such a reality junkie. Love the CSI's and Ghost Whisperer too.
12. Do you wear glasses or contacts? currently glasses, but have worn contacts but found they're a nuisance. I'd love to have laser eye surgery one day tho.
13. Last movie you saw? Oh man .. I'd have to go to blockbuster.com to find it. It was obviously a waste of money if I can't remember.
14. Favorite vacation spot? I love where I live, and we find many places to explore just around this Island. But I do love traveling through the mountains too.
15. Shoe size? 10
16. Do you eat breakfast? Yes
17. Favorite cereal? Granola
18. Favorite lunch meat? real turkey or ham .. not much for the processed stuff but will eat it.
19. Do you have any tattoos or piercings? yes .. my ears and nose are pierced and I have a small cartoon bee on the inside of my left ankle. I'd like to get one more tattoo, of a pair of dragonflies with two baby dragonflies to symbolize Dave, the girls and I.
20. What color is your bedroom carpet? grey burber that desperatly needs replacing, but we rent. *sigh*
21. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, what store would it be? Home Sense. OMGoodness, I love that store!
22. What celebrity(dead or alive)would you like to have lunch with?
23. If you were given a round trip ticket anywhere in the world, where would you go? Holland
24. What time do you go to bed? 10'ish
25. Favorite fast food? Burger King.
26. Dream car? Toyota Matrix
27. Do you wear a watch? Yes, just recently started since recieving a beautiful italian charm watch for Mother's Day
28. Fabric softner or dryer sheets? Dryer sheets .. Bounce w/ febreeze
29. Dine in or carry out? I like to dine in, but sometimes it's easier to just take it home
30. Mystery or romance novels? Mystery, hands down.
31. Early or late riser? Super early .. as in 5:30 or 6am
32. Mayo or Miracle whip? Either
33. Dill or sweet pickles? Dill
34. Chocolate or vanilla? if we're talking icecream .. then vanilla. If it's desserts, then chocolate please. :)
35. Cake or pie? Pie (love blackberry/apple/pumpkin and not in that order and certainly NOT all together)
36. Steak or chicken? Oh steak please, especially if it's bbq'd to a wonderful medium rare.
37. Gold or silver? gold
38. Roses or carnations? carnations .. they last longer
39. Croutons or bacon bits? bacon bits
40. Disney or Warner Brothers? Disney.
41. Desk, messy or organized? organized
42. Coke or Pepsi? Diet Coke
43. Summer or winter? Summer please. :)
44. Chinese or Mexican food? Chinese! We've found this delishious chinese restaurant with a wonderful selection in their smorg. Yum!
45. Rolling Stones or The Beatles? I don't really like either.
46. Baseball or Football? Can hockey be a selection? I'm more apt to watch that these days.
47. White or wheat? Wheat for sure!
48. Action or drama? Drama. Just give me a good plot without all the spark and special effects.
49. Dark or milk chocolate? Milk Chocolate
50. MAC or PC? PC hands down.

So after having this in my "draft" folder for about a week .. pecking at the questions slowly a few at a time, I now dare YOU to answer them too. Go ahead :)

+/-

listing just a few things from my morning so far...

+'s

• was greeted with a warm sun and clear blue sky this morning
• had a GREAT cup of coffee (just the right strength and perfect amount of cream)
• a pleasant walk to school with my baby girls. Some interesting topics were discussed, one being how "dilly bars are on sale for only $1.25 on Thursday. Can I have money for one pretty PLEASE, Mommy?"
• enjoyed two hours of blissful ME time .. managing to start designing party invitations and watched last nights episode of Canadian Idol and four judges that need to be put back into Kindergarten due to such childish behaviour
• with Little Missy's help .. carefully selected the most perfect daisies from an empty lot near her school, to make a beeee-utiful bouquet for the kichen table

-'s

• didn't feel quite like exercising this morning .. but am seeing such a drastic change in how my pants fit, that THAT in itself is my motivation
• discovered that I need to contact the college I plan on taking the MT course through, for some more information and to have them fill out a special form, and in turn putting my application on hold for the time being
• summer's here and doors and windows must stay open to create a breeze but the neighbour doesn't quite understand how her smoking habit is putting a damper on my one particular sense. Hmm .. cigarette smoke? freshly cut grass? I'll take the grass or even better .. freshly baked bread. Yum. Okay, maybe not, cuz then there goes that healthy eating plan of mine. Argh

student?

Today's THE day. I get to apply for a student loan for the amount to cover the MT course I'm interested in taking this fall. Had I been on the ball, perhaps we could have managed to save the amount needed .. but when raising two little garbage cans on a single income, it can be hard to do so. So cross all your extremeties, wish me alot of luck, and send any positive vibes you can spare my way please .. because this is such a huge step for me and already the butterflies are having a party going on in my stomach.

freaky little hairy monster

Normally I'm not quite so freaked out by a little spider, but this guy wasn't so tiny, and he also took my by surprise. I was minding my own business, doing my hair and makeup this morning, when out of the corner of my eye and with the help of the mirror to reflect, I spotted a dark something on my thigh. At first I thought it was a ball of cat hair and since Meesha was currently looking for attention by perching himself up on the bathroom counter and rubbing himself against any part of me that came close to him (tip: do not try applying mascara when a cat's bumping up against your application arm). But without my glasses on everything seems a little fuzzy and I couldn't quite make it out. So I stooped down to really look and OMG I screached. Quicker then in one seconds time, I had picked up my hair brush and flicked that horrid spider off my body and onto the floor where it sat exactly how it had landed. Still within that single second .. I whipped over to the toiletpaper, grabbed a l-o-n-g piece and squashed that thing till I could feel it squish. Not a pleasant feeling, but something I knew I had to do before looking, or I'm sure it would have jumped up at me. I cropped this picture just to spare you, my readers, the horrid image of yellow guts. Eww!

I'm thankful the girls were already downstairs eating breakfast, and didn't hear their very strong, can do ANYthing, isn't afraid of ANYthing, Mama screach. They don't happen to fancy spiders much either .. but I would hate for my fear to compromise their fun of bug collecting/handling, and I bravely answered Hailey's questions about where I found it, how I killed it and smartly I never admitted to being scared to death of the thing.
But to defend myself just a tad. I do have every reason to fear this horrid things. We've found a wolf spider crawling up our wall once .. and it was so big that Dave thought I had placed a prank spider at his eye level on the wall, until he saw it move. Eeek! We've also heard of Black Widow's living here in this neck of the woods .. so if it ain't a regular looking spider that's smaller the the end of my thumb .. I'm steering clear of it, thank you very much!

party, party

Yesterday was my nephew's first birthday, and since they were here visiting for the week .. we of course put on a party for the birthday boy.
Thank goodness the weather turned out nice, so we could spend most of it outside .. and later came inside for the gift opening and cake.
The theme? Sesame Street of course! We made sure to make Justin the star of the show, but because Kayla, Hailey and Alissa also celebrate June birthdays .. we made sure to give them a little love too. Afterall, it's not often we see Dan, Kim and the kids .. and we won't be together for the other three birthdays so may as well spread the cheer while we're together.

Here's a few pictures of the cakes my SIL and I made. (the 'parade' float one was so the girls would have some candles to blow out too). Why we choose to make birthday cakes every year, is really beyond me. It usually turns into a 3 or 4 hour project, making us tired and hot and with other party preparations in need of being done .. at the end of the day, we're just so exhausted. But you know what? It's worth it if only for the memories and pictures. I can proudly say that all except for one birthday (last year when I got super lazy), my girls have had homemade/decorated cakes every year.


The day was great, we got some good visiting in, lots of pictures and cake and good food (mmm hotdogs ;)) and after cleaning up (cake and carpet do NOT mix well), I crawled into bed extremely tired and nodded off almost immediatly.
Today it's raining and the guys have gone fishing. Die hards I do believe. If they bring home some lingcod, it'll all be worth it. Yum!

great sunday time passer

I was directed to this little questionaire by way of Bill's blog, and although I'm not positive if the outcome is correct .. it sure was fun mulling over the questions. :)
Want to see what colour of crayon YOU are .. take the questionaire here.

You are Red
Though often torn between love and hate, one thing is for sure, your feelings are never left for other to wonder about.

*edited to add colour. Oops! *blush*

The reason I've been in such an emotional upheaval as of late, has been revealed to me and so I plan on not wasting another breath being negative. Time to move on to looking on the bright side of things. Hard to do when the weather's been so crappy .. but that's the Island at the worst of times, for ya.

I was going to share a photo that I took the other day while visiting the beach, but I've tried several times to upload it and Blogger goes into fits by freezing and leaving me with a message typed but no way to publish without starting all over again. So .. it'll have to wait.

I did do something productive today. I got my hair cut to my spring length. Sorry .. no pics. :P

can you say .. anxiety?

I warn you now .. this is a post chalk full of whining and complaining and alot of venting. If you get to the end of my post and suddenly realize that was five minutes you'll never get back .. hey .. I warned you!

I've been wanting to just release some pent up thoughts for the last couple days, but every time I sat to write, nothing would come out sounding right. So today .. I'm taking my chances and just spilling regardless of whether it makes sense or not.

I'm really feeling anxious with this part of my life. I know there are drastic changes coming up and the more I think about it, the more I stress over it and get nervous and almost get panicky. This week gave me just a little glimpse into what I can expect. I've been working Wed and Thurs mornings for a government funded program for Moms/babies. I childmind the older siblings while the Moms and infants under 12 months spend time together, etc. Anyway .. this week I subbed in as CM for another group because the usual gal had another engagement. This made it so I worked three mornings this week, which in the great scheme of things is nothing for those that work 20+ hours a week, but for someone that hasn't worked outside the home in more then 7 years, it has been huge. My usual routine of cleaning, cooking, caring for and spending time with my girls have been shuffled around to fit these work days in .. and although it's not for the money but rather for that time out .. it's gotten to feel alot like W-O-R-K. In September I'll be dropping this, so that I have time to commit to the Medical Transcriptionist course I plan on taking for the 9 months it requires, and then later .. work from home. And I realize yet again, that I'll have to rejuggle things to fit all this in and keep a happy balance of work, home, children, hubby and myself. Will things fall apart around me? Am I being to selfish by wanting to school myself which in turn will provide an income at some point in the future? My feelings are this. Becoming a parent to me was to be a full-time, lifetime job. I never wanted to not have the time for my children. I often wonder if when I do start working, even with me being able to drop off/pick up, is that enough for them?
I have to honestly admit that this part of my life is far more scary to me, then the becoming a parent was. I grew up knowing I wanted to be a Mom .. that's it.
I'm excited to see my girls grow and mature and learn as they grow. Watching them become independant and so individually different brings me such joy, yet it also freaks me out to come to the stage that they no longer depend on me as much. That my baby will go five days a week to a place where she'll be forced to look to another adult for guidance, and even though two years of preschool was supposed to prepare me (oops .. I mean HER), it still jabs me in the heart to know she won't be looking to me to answer all her lifes questions. It also means that with her growing up, I'm able to expand my wings and enjoy some self fulfilling things (like schooling), and as much as I look forward to that .. it's also really taking a fearful grip on me. I'm sure if I take it one day at a time, I'm more then likely to come through it, live it and laugh at my feelings after the fact. I'm looking at to big a chunk here, and need to focus more on the smaller goals, smaller accomplishments .. and that should carry me through.
Like with an exceptional novel .. it's hard to come to the end of a chapter that held such great things .. such a wonderful story that captivated your very being, and turn that page to see a new chapter has begun.