top 12 movies of 2009

Over the past twelve months, J and I have had alot of movie date nights and thus seen ALOT of movies. Some so good I'd love to watch them again (and that says something since I'm not usually crazy about rewatching movies) and others that left alot to be desired and we'll just pretend they never happened. There were many older movies we watched as well, that could have easily made the list, but I decided to pick from the new releases we watched since it's all about 2009.

1. proposal


2. taken


3. hangover


4. seven pounds


5. obsessed


6. the ugly truth


7. bruno


8. dark knight


9. forgetting sarah marshall


10. body of lies


11. the brothers bloom


12. one week

These are pretty much in order of how I remember I liked the movies, but I dislike commiting to a certain order because sometimes two are liked equally.

top 12 photos of 2009

I looked through my stash of photos I took this past year and picked out my favourite for each month. Some months there were slim pickings and other months I had way to many to choose from .. but here are the top 12 in no particular order. Don't forget to click on the photo to see it in a larger format otherwise some of those are teeny tiny.

sausages

Yesterday the girls were finishing up the last of the garlic sausage coil I had boughten to go with crackers and cheese, and after asking what some of the dark flecks were (I said spices, but god knows what they really were .. and we don't really want to know, do we?) they became curious about how sausages are made. I told them how I knew them to be made, because I've had to help, somewhere back in my childhood that was something a child knew.
And then I suggested maybe we could look up a video on youtube. Of course I KNEW I would have to be close at hand for this search because of the very word. So upon my searches, I came across this little clip and laughed myself silly. I remember this episode, and just love when Kramer and Newman get together, they're always up to no good, those two.

I better get back to my searching, and see if I can in fact see more sausage machine footage somewhere.

Meet Pomagranite .. Hailey's little betta from Santa. Actually, he left the bowl and stand with light that it fits onto, a jar of food and money enough to go pick out and purchase her own fish. She has such pride in this little guy. Almost too much. She wants to feed him often .. which I've talked her down from, change his water daily .. which isn't needed as we've had other bettas and know the routine, and mostly she just wants to have him near her at every moment. Hopefully she shows lasting interest in him so the role of caregiver doesn't land in my lap eventually.

dismantling

The tree's coming down today. I realized earlier that we've had it up for well over a month because remember, I just HAD to have an artificial tree so we could enjoy the lights and ornaments earlier then we could have if it had been real? So now I'm more then ready to have Christmas packed away so my other decor can sit out pretty again, and the chair that usually finds the corner the tree was in, home, can return there.
I just need to remember to tag the tree parts so I don't have the same problem assembling it next year as I did this year.

As this year comes to a close, I'm finding I'm being forced to deal with some things that are somewhat out of my control. I am in charge of my life and how I react to situations, and I need to keep reminding myself that or this feeling of helplessness will devour me alive. It's been tough having to face reality as my aging parents both needed to be hospitalized at different times. My dad to never leave except to the facilities of the care home, and my Mom to hopefully rebuild enough from the loss of her recent stroke, so she can reside in an assisted living apartment. An ex that seems to let all my words of concern of our daughters, fall on deaf ears. But in this, I do have some control and I plan on being my girls advocate so they get their needs met. If he wants to screw up the relationship he had with them then that is HIS choice, but I don't ever have to own that and in that little instance I do feel in control.
So when this year finally comes to a close at the stroke of midnight December 31'st .. my wish is that 2010 brings good health, hope, love, insightfulness, and peace to my small circle of loved ones and myself.

know what's difficult?

Trying to reason with someone that's not thinking with his head or heart, but with his manparts instead. Yep .. it sucks having to be in cooperation with someone that isn't thinking of his childrens best interests, but rather letting his latest 'insert appropriate label here' dictate what and how he thinks. Stupid STUPID f'ing ex!

recalling christmas morning

The girls were royally spoiled yesterday morning and got so much of what they had been really wanting. Hailey had asked Santa for a certain set of four books, but he brought her a fish bowl instead .. something she had wanted desperately as well, but had not mentioned to Santa. She also got the Twilight book, and two Wii games .. one she really REALLY wanted. Alissa only asked for a boat load of Bratz things, and Santa fulfilled that wish! And they also got the box set of the three High School Musical movies, HSM boy dolls, pj's, and a few other little things I can't recall .. and that was just from J and I. They were spoiled by others as well, and came home with lots of little things, and got a couple gift cards in the mail as well. It really is the most fun watching children on Christmas day! The excitement, the magic and energy of the day .. it's simply perfect!
We spent the afternoon with friends of ours and their family .. hanging out, snacking, gossiping, filling ourselves with dinner and dessert .. the kind of day Christmas is supposed to be like.
And today we're cleaning up the aftermath, and went shopping for the Betta fish for Hailey, and the girls spent a little of their gift cards too. We managed to escape the crowds without being to abused by elbows and are home now for our own little turkey dinner. Have dinner with someone else is wonderful, but I missed having the leftovers to have today, so I'm cooking up our own turkey and small amounts of fixings and then we'll have lots to have buns and soup with. Mmm!

Merry Christmas!

From the girls and I, to you and your families .. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

this song by John Lennon is my most favourite Christmas song .. please listen and enjoy. :)

I don't really think any words need to be said with this song posting. It's just a-m-a-z-i-n-g!

merry c-mas eve

After all the baking we did yesterday, we took abit of a break while the girls used their imaginations with their barbies instead of shot wounds on sugarmen. Then they twisted my arm into assembling the gingerbread house. It's become a tradition we do every year, and they enjoy it so much. This year the kit came with wet icing .. something I had never come across before .. and at first I thought BONUS! But as we assembled the roof .. we quickly realized that it took alot longer to set then the kind I would have had to mix myself. It also could have been that at this point in the day, I was completely out of patience and didn't want to sit holding the roof for hours on end, but it lasted long enough for me to take these shots and then slowly it slid off. No worries because when the girls get home, they'll likely be into dismantling it anyway .. and eating all the candy off.

As a side note (only because I spoke of barbies at the beginning of this post), did you know you can't mix barbies and bratz when playing? This rule is derived by none other then Miss Hailey. Barbies are taller and slimmer. Bratz have big heads. And of course, here in real life we all look the same and thus can't interact with anyone looking differently then us. *dripping with sarcasm*

baking

This is the extent of our holiday baking this year. First cranberry shortbread bars which are divine, peanut brittle and then sugar cookies in several different shapes. The girls were creative in their decorating, and poor little sugarboy looks like he's been shot in the belly.


I'm having abit of a break as the girls celebrate Christmas tonight and tomorrow with their dad. This gives me a chance to finish up the gift wrapping, do a good cleaning of the house, relax and destress or decompress (whichever term suits the situation best) so I can get through the next little while of having them home 24/7. Christmas Day we're going to spend with a friend of mine, her daughters, mom, sister and afew other family members. She was sweet to invite us, and I'm looking forward to the lazy feel of enjoying time playing games, chatting, cooking, etc with a busy household. If I can think of one thing that I miss about being with family at this time of year , it's being surrounded by people .. people that I like! I guess that's what happens when one comes from a busy, large family.

baking, shopping, crafting

Not in that particular order, but those are three of the things we did today. And as I type this, I'm waiting for our dinner to finish cooking in the oven and then we'll call it a day.

Little angel doll crafting kits were made today. And we discovered that they're even to hard for me, and far exceed any patience I happen to have for crafts, but Hailey managed to figure out an alternative way of completing hers, after a few hours that is. And Alissa did about half hers and then packed it up. We shopped some more today, but this time our experience was much pleasanter, despite hitting the mall where everyone, their grandparents, cousins and dogs uncles were shopping, but I found exactly what I was looking for .. yay me!
And then we came home to bake. Because we ran out of time, two of the recipes are in halfway mode (refrigerating) but the peanut brittle is done and put away so we don't eat it all.
I have shake n bake pork steaks and homemade stuffing in the oven for dinner, and it's smelling so divine!

And that my friends, is an update from my home. Is it school time yet? :P

birthdays

Today, the shortest daylight day of the year, is my brothers birthday. Happy Birthday Ed (even tho you don't read my blog) .. hope your day is the best and that you got all your trouble out of your system at your party on Saturday!

Also celebrating a birthday yesterday, was my dear friend Eva! I made her this cake, which I have to do a little bit of bragging about because it turned out sooooo delish. A big Happy Birthday to you Eva, for your actual day .. the 25th!

I realized just now that I hadn't posted anything today. Oops. I've had a busy day, but also alot on my mind yesterday and today. My Mom had her third stroke since July, yesterday .. and this time it was much worse then the other two. My heart and mind are up north with her, since my body can't be. I dislike living so far away from my parents at this stage in their lives, but there is a reason for everything .. I just haven't figured out what mine is just yet.
I promise I'll update a little better tomorrow, and also share what movie's on the agenda for Movie Date Night. But for now I have a little one that's begging some computer time too.

G'night!

wordless wednesday

I caught my kitty in a big yawn the other day when trying to get another better picture of him. I often feel like this too .. whether it be baring my teeth in bitch mode, or in sexy vixen mode. hah!
Don't look too closely tho .. he has a bad case of plaque despite the tartar control treats he's fed.

moustaches

I have this dislike for moustaches .. seriously! And when I saw this daily image, I had to laugh. See how unflattering it is? I'm serious guys .. if you can't grow anything to go along with the 'stache .. like abit of a beard to make a goatee, then give up .. it's not happening! Tho I'm sure there ARE women out there that like this, I'm just not one of them. Unless you plan on using it to tickle, forgetaboutit!

s-n-o-w

I'm not much of a fan of snow, but the girls really are, and despite my feelings of keeping the snow at bay, it has arrived. :( We got about six inches of it last night, probably enough for the school to pull a 'snow day' .. I'll have to listen to the radio to see. But today it's back to warmer temps, and rain in the forecast. Woohoo!
Last night the girls were out playing in it of course because unlike their mom, they DO like the white stuff oh so very much. Hailey made this little guy in less then a half hour after the snow started falling. Isn't he cute? and just as soon as I got a photo of him, out he went .. smash against the pavement. How heartless! She said she'll build a big one today .. but I think she'll be disappointed the snow's not sticking around for long once the rain starts.

*photos were taken last night before the full six inches had dropped

these three things

I watch a little bit of the news most mornings between getting ready for the day, and having to head out to walk the girls to school. That usually consists of about 20 minutes of 'breakfast time'. I just want to see what weather is in store for us, if there's been an earthquake during the night I didn't feel, or snippets of what's happening elsewhere, that sort of stuff. But it seems that between the two or so chanels I flip to, there wasn't much other then interviewing authors, and talking to some sports pro for about five minutes, so I picked the author to listen to briefly. She's Canadian, and lived in the prairies, but I can't recall her name nor the name of her book, but what did stand out for me was what she quoted to the interviewer.
She said she's found there's three things to happiness. Something to keep you busy right now, something to look forward to in the near future, and loving and being loved. She is completely right. When I'm not pleased with my current life, it usually means I am not busy with something that's out of the ordinary or I don't have something to look forward to. Giving love with any expectations, but rather freely and unconditionally reaps its rewards by way of the feeling you have inside. And that feeling translates easily into happiness. I would add one more thing to her list of three tho .. and that is being lonely. Have you ever been surrounded by people, the hustle and bustle, the goings on in your life, the 'to-do' lists, sharing coffee or conversation with loved ones or friends and yet still feel lonely? But when all these four things line up .. it makes for a very happy life.

So there's my nugget of profound knowledge to contemplate on this early Monday morning. :)

Santa's Beauties! ;)

I got talked into posing with the girls for their annual picture with Santa and I wasn't too opposed to the idea, so don't be feeling sorry for me. :P I actually think it was a great idea, and loved the girls picked out the perfect girlie border to go with it. This is a picture of a picture .. so the quality leaves a lot to be desired, but you get the idea. :)

santa time

Our only big plans for today .. a visit to Santa. Look out big guy .. here we come! :)

slaves in the making!

Err, I mean to call them talented, not slaves. :P
After the three of us sleeping in until 9 .. YES, 9am!, Hailey asked if we could have pancakes for breakfast and that she'd like to make them for us .. all by herself. She's just learning measurements and I admit to not having let her take full control over baking ever .. just helping me. So after we found what looks like it's supposed to be a tasty recipe (not like the last time) .. I did up the dishes as a way of supervising the kitchen while she measured and mixed. She only needed a little help as we were doubling the batch, and the math of that was to much this early. She's still frying them up while I type this and sip on a very YUMMY cup of cinnamon coffee, so the jury is still out on the taste. Alissa likes to help too of course, and makes little dollar size ones for snacks later on in the day, and sometimes she works out an animal shape or two as well.

she's all that

A few weeks shy of being ten and a half, and today she's attending her first ever school dance! It was such a big deal to her, from what to wear right down to accessories and hair .. we curled it even! :) I don't know how it went yet, but I'm hoping it was all she thought it was going to be, and that she had lots of fun! It took a lot for me to wrap my brain around my little girl being old enough to attend, let alone allowing her to. But we must let our little ones fly, right? Or so I'm told! ;)

dear santa

This is what I want for Christmas. :) I know it's not going to happen, but if a 10 and 8 yr old can still dream and believe, then so can this 36 yr old Mama.

snowflakes

As much as I hate to admit it .. we DO get snow here on the Island, but because it usually doesn't come soon enough for the girls liking .. we opted to bring it earlier by way of paper crafting. Here's our snowflake garland we made late last week (when my computer was having fits and I was unable to post). They're pretty easy for any age, and so much fun. My most favourite part is after all the cutting is done, and you can then carefully unfold it, revealing such a pretty picture! We may just have to do more!

I still haven't hung more lights or pulled the rest of the christmas decor out. We'll have to do that this week or weekend, because you know what? There's only 17 days until Christmas!

A few things we have left on our list of to-do's:
* finish decorating the house
* attend the girls school christmas concert
* watch the anual singing christmas tree performance
* make a visit to one of the mall Santas (try talking Hailey into ONE last sitting and chat with Santa before she's to old)
* create our gingerbread house
* bake some yummy cookies
* entertain ourselves with more crafting, colouring, playing of games (this will pass the week of no school prior to C-Mas)
* gift shop and wrap
* attend friends' Christmas parties
* listen to 'good' Christmas tunes
* and so much more!

mia

Hello my dedicated followers.
I'm so sorry I've been MIA lately. My computer was bit by the stupid virus bug, and it's not even quite fixed yet, but it's hobbling along enough for me to post this.

Not much has been happening in the past few days anyway .. so you haven't missed much. I did have the weekend sans kids, but then spent a great deal of it just laying around doing nothing. Mostly because I felt horrible yesterday and it's still yet to be determined if it was truly a bad case of a hangover, or abit of the flu. The symptoms weren't completely the hangover kind that's usual for me, and thats why I'm not certain.

Yesterda was really nice to just veg and not feel at all guilty. I watched alot of TV, a not so bad movie with J, and that's about it. Saturday I did alot of cleaning once the girls left for the weekend. Laundry, bedding, floors, a pickup of the girls rooms so I could get in there to vacuum, dusting, and I even pulled out the couch to get a good sweep under and behind it. So when I didn't feel well yesterday, I didn't feel to much guilt just giving in to it.

So there's an update for ya. We're in for a cold week so I'm sure I'll be back to find some other goings on to report on.

wordless wednesday

One of the pink ornaments we got for our pink/green girl christmas theme last year. I really do still love it!

it's on!

25 .. 24 .. 23 .. 22 .. 21 ..20 .. 19 .. 18 .. 17 .. 16 .. 15 .. 14 .. 13 .. 12 .. 11 .. 10 .. 9 .. 8 .. 7 .. 6 .. 5 .. 4 .. 3 .. 2 .. 1

Today we start the countdown to the big day! Between the mantle garland, the paper chain, the cardboard chocolate sets (from the store) and the little tree we move the star around .. we have four different ways to count down. That should keep the girls excited, no?
I'll hold on to whatever little things the girls want to do, because before I know it, they'll be to old for some of these things and that day will make me terribly sad. Hailey already admitted yesterday that she's to old for Santa's lap. :( I may try talking her into it yet .. but 10 is the new 20 apparently. All of a sudden being ten makes you to old for many things. Maybe I should show her what Santa thinks of 36 yr olds sitting on his knee. ;) Or not!

*l:hailey .. r:alissa