PIA

I hate that when it's the weekend, or school break and I CAN sleep in a little .. but my body won't allow me to. :( Well, actually that's not completely true. I did sleep in an extra half hour, but upon waking and in desperate need of the bathroom, I can't just go back to bed and fall back to sleep. My mind starts to wander, and I start thinking of what I COULD be doing instead of wasting time laying there thinking.

It used to be that I could never sleep in because of the small infant/toddlers the girls were .. but now that they like to sleep in .. that's no longer my excuse. Damn this inner clock!

On the flip side tho .. I get some time to myself! :D

Oh by the way .. Happy New Years Eve! Have fun, enjoy the company you're in, but please be safe and cautious. From our home to yours .. Happy 2007!

3 days

D works so hard all the time in order for me to continue being the SAHM that I've grown to love over the last 8 years, so when he has a long weekend off, you can well imagine how excited the girls and I get. Last weekend he had a four day weekend, but we were so busy with pre-Christmas activities, company, cleaning up from all those activities, that we didn't really get to enjoy a carefree schedule. But this weekend, other then tomorrow nights festivities, we're going to just enjoy family things. The girls need to make up their mind on whether we're swimming or skating today .. ahhh what a life if that's the hardest decision to make.

We bought the girls each a gameboy advance for Christmas this year and I'm almost regretting it. Not because they're doing anything to make me feel that way, but rather it's Mr Dad that's regressing to his childhood ways and staying up until the wee hours of the morning trying to get past level 6 (now 8) on Tetris. That game takes him back to his childhood when he'd play it for hours and hours, and since the gameboy IS fair game after the girls are tucked in bed at night .. I'm worried my dear hubby is going to lose sleep over his recent addiction. Yesterday we went out and bought PacMan (and a couple others) .. heehee. Now it's MY turn to play. ;)

out with the old, in with the new

I'm in the mood for a wee change, so switching up the header again.

credit should go to Rene Bross for the background paper, paper clip is from Shabby Princess Urban Kiwi kit, the flower charm from Beth Nixon's Faith Hope and Love kit, and the corner word art from Digital Design Essentials Doodle kit.

And of course the photo taken by me, last month, used on our Christmas cards and a big favourite of mine of the girls.

playing on the digital side

Recently I have been dabling a little with digital scrapbooking. After recieving PhotoShopElements 3.0 from a friend, I couldn't help but at least try a little of what has become a huge rave in the scrapbooking industry. So I started out by making a calendar that I could print off, and just today I've made three layouts using templates as my guide. These templates a couple of my online friends create, make THE world of difference when digi scrapping. It takes the whole 'layout' out of the equation, and makes the hardest part only to be what pattern/colour paper one wants to use with the photo. I used a couple from my friend Cheryl, and one from Jen Caputo (sketches).. please check out their sites if this is something you're interested in doing .. seriously .. they make digi scrapping EASY!

And one from awhile ago ...

*credits ..

Bell - Template by Jen Caputo
Kit by KSharonK .. Wishing You

Gifts Galore and Merry Christmas 2006 - Template by Cherpea Designs
Paper .. KSharonK and Shabby Princess Holiday Sampler

Snow Day - Template by Jen Caputo
Kit by Eva Kipler .. Ice Storm

what a whirlwind

Since my last post, so many wonderful things have happened .. obviously, right? because it was also Christmas and Boxing Day in there somewhere. On Sunday, after baking up a couple quiches for C-Mas morning, and a lasagna for Sun, we went over to my BIL and SIL's place to have a hot lasagna/caesar salad and munchie lunch with them and FIL and to exchange gifts with them. The afternoon turned into such a lovely one, with a couple board games played mainly by us girls. Everyone seemed to be pleased with everything they recieved, except for one small mistake on my part. I got S the Apprentice board game because we so love watching the reality show when it's airing, but much to my surprise, she had it already. So I took it, because it's really a cool, fun game .. and I'll replace it with something different.

From there we did our little tour of lights, but Alissa fell asleep so we cut it short as to get home and eat our appy supper and open up the traditional C-Mas Eve gifts and watch a movie. We always all get new pajamas, and this year I threw in a new tradition I hope to keep up. A Christmas themed movie (Jack Frost). Actually it ended up being the year for new movies because the girls and I also got Dave Pirates of the Carribean 2, he recieved the DaVinci Code from my Sister and hubby, and we picked up Son of Mask, Air Bud and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on a Boxing Day sale yesterday. Whew .. that made the row of DVD's grow, for sure.

Christmas morning we were up bright and early opening gifts with Dave's Mom in Alberta, via webcam. The girls got each a Bratz board game, and so much more from their Grammy.

I got a bath set of lotions and bath bombs and Dave recieved Canuck (the hockey team) related things. Then it was on to our own gifts to each other, and the girls got their oh-so-wanted gameboy advances, littlest petshop pets, and their Santa gifts (which Hailey didn't find tucked up with framed photos on the fireplace mantle until later in the day). Dave got me the MP3 player I so wanted .. it has pretty much every feature I wanted, except for the video play .. but that would have cost far to much. I'm so happy with it and can't wait to start putting it to use when I get my lazy self to the gym. From the girls I got a bottle of the perfume I so wanted (J-Lo Glow) and other little school made items. We got Dave the tool set he wanted, as well as the big game dressing set (knives) he had also asked for. Now he can butcher his own game next time he goes hunting.

My sister, bil and nephew arrived for two blissful days just after we had cleaned up from the tornado that apparently had hit our livingroom. They came bearing gifts, food, hugs and lots of chitchatting and visiting. We recieved to many things to even mention, and our gifts to them were well recieved, which is always a nice relief. My sister is 17 years older then me, and yet that age seems to never play a part in our tastes and conversations. Over the years, we've landed up buying the same kitchen dish set as eachother, without knowing. Picking out the same clothes, books, etc. Just recently tho .. our couch toss pillows that I just bought last week. She has the very same ones .. bought earlier in the year. Weird hey?

We had such a fabulous day, topped off with such a delish turkey dinner prepared by us two sisters, and the day finished off with a good poker game.

Yesterday Dave took the guys to a Boxing Day Turkey Shoot (which is not what it sounds like, I've been told, but rather it's shooting at clay pigeons with a shotgun, and you WIN a turkey or some other form of meat if you have the best shot), and my nephew came back with a good size ham and a package of bacon as his prize. Who knew he'd have such beginners luck!

While the guys did that, us gals went shopping. The Boxing Day sales had begun, and with Dave's trip to Vegas looming (for me) ahead, we were in need of a new set of luggage. For some reason we've been able to make do with my highschool graduation gift of luggage, but it's dusty rose, and me thinks Dave wouldn't go for traveling alone with it. hee! So with the huge sale, we got a five piece set originally priced at $150 for $60! Gotta like that kind of sale!

We had a nice afternoon of more visiting and food, then yet another poker game in which I won (woohoo me!), and then at 6pm the visit had to come to an end in order for them to catch the ferry back to the mainland.

Today, it's back to a normal work day for Dave (except he gets day shift) so the girls and I are going to play with new toys and play new board games and just enjoy the very blustery day.

Some random photos from the past few days....

Happy Holidays!

Because I fear I'll be overly busy and without computer time in the next two days, I'd like to wish all my friends and family who read this blog, a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. May each of you feel the special magic of the season, and enjoy each moment with your loved ones.

Dear Santa

My friend, Cori, had this cute letter posted on her blog and I just HAD to do it myself. Go here, and make up your own letter to Santa, then read my comments to this post and you'll see what mine had to say. TOO FUNNY!

on top of things

I finally feel that this is the year I'm on top of things. I started our baking early, bought the first gift at the end of August .. then took a long break from compiling gifts until early November but who's keeping track ;) .. and now have everthing wrapped, cleaned, and just have grocery shopping to do yet. We have Great Grandma coming today just until tomorrow, when she heads up to a more northern town on the Island to spend the holidays with her Son and family .. but then we'll see her again on her way back after New Years. We're also having a very different Christmas/Boxing Day this year. My oldest sister, hubby and middle son are coming to spend it with us. This is a first in MANY MANY years! My family is very large, and the girls have always been scattered across the country, so big family Christmases were only for those that lived near Mom and Dad. So you can well imagine how excited I am that they decided they needed an entirely different plan for Christmas this year after the sudden death of their youngest son only months ago.

So, am I the only one that is so enjoying these last few days leading up to the BIG DAY?
If you're running around still, not knowing if you'll get everything done .. you're more then welcome to vent a little in the comments. :)
And if you're just looking for some crafts to keep your kiddies occupied, my friend Krista, posted a great craft site that we've been making full use of lately.

some crafting

There have been many a crafty item being made in our home recently, and these are just two of the six glass ornaments we made. Hailey asked if we could make each of her two teachers one, and they became so addicting that we soon finished off the pack of six. These are the last two that the girls reserved for themselves and picked the Christmas paper and ribbon for. I added a little tag with their names (not to mix them up in case of a memory lapse over the next year .. they fight over EVERYTHING, so this is a must!), and the year on the other side. I think it would look neat to have an entire tree filled with these, in all sorts of colours of course.

If you want to make some of these too, the clear ornaments are available at Michaels in packs of six, and came in small, medium (this size) and large .. they even had some square ones. Then you just cut strips of patterned paper and curl it by running a scissors along it, and then carefully stuff the ornament until it's full, replace the top, add ribbon, and voila .. beauty!

all in a days work!

The determination, the drive, the sweat and even some tears .. THIS is what my little girl accomplished in approx three hours yesterday, JUST so she could hand it in early.

The assignment was on insects and they were given a list to choose from .. and Hailey chose honey bees. Upon researching so she'd have the three facts she was supposed to include .. even I learned a great deal. She brought a book home from school that we got the idea for the border from. It's stamped using a potatoe carved into that particular shape, dipped in paint and stamped upon the bristle board. It was Hailey's idea to make a large bee out of cardstock, and I gave her the idea to write her facts in where the black lines on the body of the bee would be. It was fun giving subtle ideas, but also watching Hailey's mind in motion. She truly has a creative gene, even if I do say so myself. At one point she even said, if it weren't for her scrapping, she wouldn't have balanced it out so well or been able to come up with such great ideas. I'll just take that as a personal compliment. ;) I believe she was able to complete this according to the instructions and point list she was given, in order to get the full amount of points, and maybe she'll even recieve extra points for getting it in before the deadline (jan 10). I hope this determinations follows her through her entire years of school, because having the drive to finish the assignment BEFORE the holidays, so she can enjoy and relax (her words, not mine), can only be a huge bonus in so many ways.

Now you think I could muster up some of that drive of hers, just so I can get this current batch of wine bottled before the end of this day? *sigh*

could it be?

Only 7 days until we celebrate all that we've been preparing for for the past few months? It's sad in a way, that it all comes down to one full day of celebrations after so much work, shopping, baking, wrapping, decorating and so on. But in the midst of the busyness and the pure joy of rehashing special traditions and creating new ones with the girls .. Dave surprised me with a little token of his gratitude. Isn't this poinsetta just gorgeous? The photo's a tad blurry, but I love it!

While Dave finished up his shopping, yesterday .. the girls and I tucked ourselves into the theatre for a couple hours to watch The Santa Clause 3. What a hoot the movie was. If you've watched it and never been to Canada .. please understand we do NOT say "eh" at the end of each sentence, and we're not 'little' people (although I wish some days I was) and we do not have our anthem blaring from speakers allover the city. lol But we loved the story line and all the fun colours and goodies to feast our eyes on as it was displayed on the BIG screen. The popcorn wasn't bad either. :)

There's so many other traditions we're trying to keep up with and fill into our schedule, and maybe one day I'll start a Christmas Tradition Meme just so I can read some of your's as well. I'm enjoying EVER. SINGLE. SECOND. spent doing them! 

venting

I don't usually like to make my posts negative in any way .. but other then yelling my dh's ear off about the situation, there's nobody else that would want to listen to this particular vent.

It starts way back when I met this lady through another friend. She was sweet and very talkative everytime I by chance, ran into her either at this mutual friends house or in passing elsewhere. Two years ago, this same ladies son, happened to be in a split class with Hailey when she started Kindergarten (he was in Gr 1) because we live in the same elementary school catchment. So we got to know eachother better by chatting while waiting to pick up our kids, etc. I soon learned she was obsessed with scrapbooking nearly as much as I, but had been doing it for longer and liked the stamping area of it more then I. She got me hooked on a few techniques, etc. Anyway .. fast forward two years, and our kids are once again in a split class (Hailey in gr 2 and her son in gr 3). We've participated in scrapbooking swaps, I've been to her house for a visit, etc. She likes to vent about certain things, and I find I'm the listener with very little advice or whatnot. Her particular subject of venting is the school our children attend. She used to be on the PAC but resigned before my kids ever started at the school, because according to her the ladies were all a clique that didn't want to welcome her in. She volunteers in the library and in her kids classes by making crafts, etc. Both her boys (her oldest is in grade 7) have had problems with bullying, teachers, and the list goes on. Finally a couple weeks ago, her oldest was beaten up on school grounds by two of his bullies, and that very day, the youngest (who shares a split class with Hailey) fell and bonked his head agains the desk and suffered a concosion, but the teacher wouldn't allow him to see the school nurse until the afternoon teacher relieved her and allowed the boy to phone home, and not until the mom brought him to the clinic did she find out of his concosion. She's having a bad experience with our children's teachers, and vents about them to me. I have had NO problem with either of the teachers and tell her so. But our experiences are completely different .. like night and day. When she tells me how the teachers communicate with her, it's like she's talking about two completely different people then I've come to know and actually enjoy and trust my own daughter to for six hours a day. Long story short (not really cuz I've already ranted on forever), I wonder if she's the type of person that sees much to much negative in any situation, and if her children are being hurt because of maybe the way their brought up? That maybe she has her parent rose coloured glasses on and isn't seeing what her own children are doing in order to get this response from teachers and fellow students? I realize that us Moms see our children as doing NO evil .. and when something happens we do believe our children and the old bear rears it's ugly head and we fly at anyone harming our children. But could this be more then just that?
I guess if I can just avoid her during drop off and pickups, then I can go on living life and being concerned about my own and that's it.

Alright .. vent over. :)

thankful thursday

I am so bad at commiting a specific topic to a specific day, and if it weren't for my copying Redneckgirl, and her constant reminders of her own posts, I'd forget. So sad, I am!

Anyway .. so now that I've been reminded .. I need to really focus because today has NOT been a good day.
After volunteering in Alissa's classroom again, and baking gingerbread men cookies with the kids, I have to say I'm thankful for my very calm, very obedient (in class that is), very quiet little girl. I get the pleasure to observe the dynamics of the classroom and what each child brings to create the atmosphere in which they have to be in during those few hours. I soon realized that as much as my child gets into trouble, fights with, loud mouths or disobeys me at home .. she is quite a wonderful child to be around in her classroom. Even with her knowledge of my presence .. she still is quick to listen to her teacher and not be distracted by me being there. I give her no extra special treatment, and she knows when I'm there .. I'm there to help and create with EVERYONE, equally.
So after witnessing an outburst from a problamatic boy, I silently said to myself "thank you G*d for such a sweetly mannered little girl".

*disclaimer. Yes I know this is all about me and mine, but it's what made me thankful this particular Thursday. :)

dumb blogger, overflowing river and other such stuff

First off .. I suppose it's my turn to have blogger related problems. Generally I'm able to whip blogger into submission, but it's not working this time around. I'm unable to comment on other blogs (please don't think I'm ignoring you's) mostly because it won't allow me to log in (beta people have to log in under their new beta name which is an email addy), and I can't post even without going through Picasa. URGH!

But that gives me a very good reason to show you our flooding creek that runs right behind our place. Our little backyard is higher up on a rock faced hill, and this grass is a strip that runs along the creek at nearly the same level. It's known as 'common area' for the complex we live in. Anyway, you can see how the bank of the creek has been covered and the water level is up past the fence and starting to flood the 'common area'. I guess that's what happens when we get umpteen inches of snow and rain in a short period of time! In the four years we've lived here, this has happened twice that I can remember. But we're safe, thank goodness for this rise we live on.

7 more days of actual school before the two week break, and I can't tell you how excited this makes my second grader. She CAN'T wait until Christmas, and if she even had an inkling of what she's getting from us, her excitement would be over the top, literally. 

kiss tree

I'm a crafty kinda person and I so enjoy spilling that creativity over onto my girls. I know from past experience how a homemade craft is recieved as a gift, and so again this year we're making teachers Christmas gifts. I found this little 'how-to' on a kids craft site and thought it was so perfect for a Kindergarteners gift to her teacher. Of course we learned from trial and error, and discovered that when they suggest using round, sharp toothpicks as the form of application into the styrofoam cone, the kisses stay better if glue dots are used. This cone stands about 10 inches tall, and took two 300g bags of hershey kisses to fill, with a few tasters to spare. I'm sure if we wanted to make more of these, I could experiment with patterns and preciseness, but Alissa helped, and therefore it reflects her current abilities. ;)
 

such busyness

I guess I can chalk it up to being that time of year. Between activities with the kids, spending time as a family doing our traditional things, trying to keep caught up with everyday things .. whew, I'm exhausted!

We went out on Sunday and picked our perfect little tree. We go to a u-cut tree farm (been doing this for the past 6 years) and make a family event of picking THE perfect tree for us. The farm is a little ways out of town, and there's usually always a skiff of snow to crunch through, although this year there WAS snow, but it also decided to start raining just as we pulled up to the farm. So we made it a quick pick and since it was Hailey's turn to do the initial pick, we let her find it, then we approved. Funny, but the girls really have a knack for picking trees. Last years was perfect too, and we didn't have to veto Alissa's decision either. Once home, the girls and I pulled out the decorations and started to arrange everything perfectly. The girls always get to put their own ornaments on (ones homemade from school, and ones we've boughten over the years for them), and I place the others stragically trying to fill in the gaps and balance things out. Then we went ahead and splashed some colour around the house, with garland and stockings hung carefully along the fireplace mantel. Dave put up a short string of lights along the front of the house (to mirror what our duplex neighbour had done on her side), and that's all we'll do. I like a touch of Christmas in the house, but not overly done because if I start hauling in ornaments and nativity scenes to place out .. what would I do with my usual decor? It sounds like much to much work for me. :P

I'm going to work at getting a picture of the tree in all it's lighten up glory, tonight. Will share when I get a decent shot worthy of blogging. :)

There's so much more I want to share, but it's hard to decipher and sort it all out in my head to make a post of. Most of all tho, I am really enjoying each craft, each activity, and each memory I get to make with the girls. As they get older and remember doing things from year to year, it makes all the work we put into things to create those memories for them, all worth it.

thankful thursday

This week's utmost gratitude goes to Mrs Clause of Country Club Mall. Let me explain why this is.
On Sunday we took the girls to see Santa .. but our most favourite Santa was busy with "pet portraits" and so we were forced to move on to the next mall for "children photos". But before we left, the girls dropped their letters to Santa in his special little mailbox. Mrs Clause (otherwise known as this kind gentleman's wife) puts time in each year and responds to each child's letter if they've enclosed a return address. I received a call last night .. a lady asking me all sorts of questions about my daughter asking for a bell off Santa's sleigh, etc. I said yes, that's my daughter and she continued on to tell me that she had already sent the return letter, but after doing so, her husband called her from 'work' and asked if she had destroyed the Santa letter yet. (she explained the mall has a policy that this be done once she's responded) She had, but he wanted to grant the wish of a bell to this little girl. Mrs Clause happened to remember our last name, so she looked us up in the phonebook and that's why all the questions. She wanted to make sure she had the right people. Anyway .. she got our address and is sending Hailey a bell. I was beyond excited and thanked her perfusely for their kind gesture. I told her it was because of her and her husbands kind deeds, that the spirit of Christmas is still alive in 2006. I've figured out a way to thank them without the secret being spoiled too.

So this week .. I'd like to thank Santa and Mrs Clause for going the extra mile to make a little 7yr old girl super happy this year.

Not a STAY at home mom at all

According to my five year old, ever so sweet, tell it like it is, daughter .. I'm not a stay at home mom at all. I'm a 'go out mom'. I was watching a tv program and Alissa overheard lady say she was a stay at home mom. Alissa looked at me and asked "does she stay at home all the time?" I explained what it meant, the whole concept of the mom's job being at home with the children, etc .. and that I too am a stay at home mom. Her come back was somewhat true. I guess we don't stay at home much these days with all the errands and running to and from school three times a day. Whew .. wears me out just thinking about it.

tis the season

And it's that time again when little ones want to visit the big jolly fella that fills in for the "real deal". And Hailey and Alissa were no exception to the rule. They've been looking forward to seeing Santa since they arrived at the malls on November 18! For me, that's FAR to early for a visit, so we impatiently wait until after December 1st. So all dolled up and ready with letters in hands and mental notes of their wish lists, we stood in line to see, sit with, and spend time with Jolly Old Saint Nick.

Hailey's wish is to recieve a bell from Santa's sleigh (idea from Polar Express I believe)or Amazing Amanda. I do believe she'll be recieving the bell. Amazing Amanda freaks me out!

Alissa asked for the Biggest Littlest Petshop house (big enough to house many of the petshop pets she already owns).
So .. here's the picture. Gorgeous as ever, even if I do say so myself. ;)

I'm also celebrating my one year blogging anniversary today. I've enjoyed being able to share, vent, and just be myself and making some new friends along the way. Thanks to all of you commenters for giving me the extra incentive to keep blogging. :)

only the best salad ever!

Watergate salad has become a 'must have' dish at every big family dinner. This started way back when my oldest sisters MIL started bringing it to holiday dinners. (I was about 7ish at the time) I brought this special tradition over to my in-laws after getting married, and now that we have kids of our own, I continue to serve this salad for those large holiday dinners. It really is a nice desserty type salad .. so here's the recipe just in case you'd like to try it for Christmas.

Watergate Salad:

2 pkgs pistachio instant pudding mixes
1 tub of Cool Whip
2 cups mini multi-coloured marshmellows
1 can of drained pineapple tidbits
1 can drained mandarine pieces
a sprinkle of shredded coconut

Mix and chill the two packages of pudding. Once set, drain the pineapple and mandarines (save the juice to drink if you like) and add to the pudding, add the coconut, marshmallows and slightly melted Cool Whip. Mix until the Cool Whip and other ingredients are thoroughly stirred through, then place back into the fridge and keep chilled until ready to serve. Simply delish!

And if you're interested in setting eyes upon a whole wealth of recipes, you can find them here at Another Chance Ranch who's hosting the Blogging Chicks Carnival this week.