Canadian Eh!

HUGE Paint the Moon Giveaway!

2010-11-29T13:04:00.004-05:00

Over $1300 in prizes to nourish your creative soul!!!

If you haven't tried Paint the Moon actions I highly suggest you do! Get over to her website and enter this amazing contest and pick up some of her actions while you are at it. I don't use anything but her anymore that is how much I love them!

Head over to Paint The Moons blog here: http://paintthemoon.net/blog/

She's One.

2010-11-15T18:48:00.004-05:00

How did this happen? This was the fastest year ever! We love you baby girl! Happy Birthday!

What the heck?

2010-11-12T08:52:00.012-05:00

So most of the people that read here and follow me on facebook probably know by now that I'm going through some very personal stuff. That is still very much going on but I am realizing that pushing the creative side of me to the backburner wasn't doing any favors for my soul. Yesterday was a very bad day, so when I saw Sophia slipping off for a nap, I got to work and created this:

I'm still playing and tweaking but I must admit it felt so good to get back on the wagon again.

So catching up: I'm way behind. Halloween. We all know I hate it but I do love the costumes :)
Joseph and Joshua both wanted to be more of a feminine costume with Joseph being a bunny and Joshua being a witch. Before you ask why there isn't a photo of Jordan, that's because he decided he was too cool for Halloween. He wasn't going at all. Then at the very last second he decided he was going and wanted to use his old costume from last year, except the mask was wrecked, so he couldn't use it. That's when he decided to get mad at me for ruining his Halloween! Ummm, excuse me? Then he decided he wanted to rip clothing so he could be a hobo which I quickly vetoed. More arguing. Finally he decided to use one of Terry's hockey jerseys and be a hockey player. He asked me to paint him a black eye which I did while biting my tongue. I thought it looked pretty decent and turned around to dress Sophia the kitty and Jordan comes out of the bathroom without his black eye! He thought it looked terrible. Needless to say, I told him he better run out the door before I changed my mind about trick or treating. *sigh*

So photos of 3 kids:

Sophia really didn't want to be a kitty. She fought me with those ears tooth and nail!

I'll be back later with photos of Joseph's birthday.

A week is a long time.

2010-10-13T13:56:00.008-05:00

We lost our internet and phone. It seems our internet company didn't get the memo that we were staying put and disconnected our service. They also disconnected 3 weeks late, completely dropping the ball. So they needed 6 business days to get it back up and running which turned into 7. They said they were transferring all our calls to our cell phones but I doubt that it was very effective. Our phone rang very few times in the course of a week.

So one more bit of drama out of the way and I'm done.

Phone and internet outage.
Colds.
Earaches.
Drama with that awful house.

I just want everything to go back to normal. I have a list of very "normalish" things I want to get done.

Convert a spare bedroom into an office/library. Hmmmm. A little work required but very necessary.

Hang some very recent test shoots I received from WHCC. Can't wait for that.

Work with my Photoshop book in my new version of CS5. Yes, CS5! I haven't had enough time to play with that but I will say, Content aware works beautifully!

I want to make stews and take Sophia for walks.
Organize the house.
Encourage Sophia to take those first steps she is so worried about taking.
Try some recipes from The Kind Diet.

And I need to plan two very important birthday parties coming up next month. One for a very important, soon to be one year old and another for our soon to be five year old.

All the stuff that doesn't involve any drama.

If I happen to mention that I'm bored over the winter, please remind me of our summer and all it's issues.

So. Talk to me. What have YOU been up to?

Taking a break.

2010-09-22T16:38:00.009-05:00

We are settling back into the house which is daunting. It took me 2.5 hours to reassemble my bed today. But it's done. It will be nice to sleep in a bed again.

We are still trying to deal with the drama over the move. I can't wait to get this over with so we can just move on. I decided over the fall and winter I am going to tackle some projects to make the space here work better and more comfy. I'm excited about that.

I decided to take a break today and play with some of the photos I've taken of Sophia over the last week or so. It's amazing how much time we have to play together. It's incredibly quiet around these parts.

Sophia has discovered climbing. She is so fascinated with it. She climbs to the top and looks down at me amazed with her feat.

Today while I was filling out some paperwork I suddenly didn't hear Sophia anymore. This is what she was up to. Eating Oreos. The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree. I love how she looks startled in the first photo, like she just might be in trouble, but once she realized I was going to take a photo she broke out in this smile.

I love how she scrunches her nose when she smiles :)

For Heather :)

2010-09-20T14:04:00.004-05:00

Oh, the Places You'll Go.

2010-09-16T10:06:00.002-05:00

Sometimes it's just this easy. I was reminded to keep my chin up and refer to this. It is one of my favourite books, so I thought I would share again.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!
by the incomparable Dr. Seuss

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

I maid lunches :)

2010-09-15T22:54:00.005-05:00

The school has already started sending book order forms home. You know the ones from Scholastic?
Nothing really unusual except that Jordan? He's getting the Teen flyers now. TEEN as in, my son
will be 13 soon. Where did that time go? This year his teacher is the same teacher he had in Grade
3. I remember when he had her. It seemed like not that long ago. Now he's in Grade 7 and did I mention almost a teen?

Joshua really lucked out this year. He got Jordan's teacher from last year. She's the perfect
balance of fun loving and organized. I thought about saying strict, but she' not that. She's
organized, fair. Perfect for Josh.

MY first impression of Joseph's teacher is pretty good. She seems sweet but knows how to keep '
the kids in line. It's only been a week and Joseph is falling into routine. He stands against the
wall outside every morning and waits for her to come and get them. I wish he listened to me that
well. He's practicing his writing and learning his letter sounds. He is happy and can't wait to
go to school everyday.

Yes, I'm babbling about nothing. I mostly just wanted to share what I woke up to this morning from Jordan. It was a nice start to the day :)

Oh and that teen book order form came in pretty handy. I ordered a copy of Wuthering Heights for a whopping $1.99. I can't wait to read it.

Decisions, Decisions

2010-09-14T16:19:00.004-05:00

When faced with adversity and you are forced to make decisions, how do you know you are making the right decision? Trust me when I say, I’ve called everyone. I’ve emailed everyone. I’ve asked around at work and then I’ve asked again, How do I know I’m doing the right thing?

Today I decided to relax with a good book and a hot bath. Joseph was napping after a hard day of Kindergarten, the boys had run off to play before dinner. It was a great time to fit it in. Sophia crawled by me and I decided to skip the book and bring her with me.

It’s not just the boys who are experiencing new things with school. Sophia is doing new things everyday.

She loves to pucker her lips and “pluck” “pluck” “pluck”

When she’s mad she throws herself facedown, arms and legs flailing and cries.

She has a freckle on her back that appeared out of nowhere.

When she babbles it sounds like a language all her own.

She crawls up the stairs and when she reaches the top she turns around to smile and marvel at her conquest.

My favourite? The way she scrunches up her nose when she smiles at you and the tips of her two very new bottom teeth peek through.

It seems like it’s been a month or so since I’ve really been able to see and enjoy these things.

The sun shone through the bathroom window and that weight on my shoulders seemed lighter.

Sophia smiled and I knew.

Some say I have settled and in a sense I did. I moved my stuff out and this weekend I will move it all back in. Crazy?

Maybe so.

And Maybe not.
Yes I settled.

But I settled without sacrificing my integrity.

I settled without sacrificing my kids.

I settled for something maybe I should have appreciated more. Some things were bigger than others, but I see that maybe some of those things were not the huge mountain I made them out to be.

Sometimes settling is okay.

This isn’t over yet, but we have a roof over our head. People have extended their help when we needed it most. I feel pretty confident that we will win when all is said and done.

But the best part is that I finally know I’ve made the best decision for us.

First school work.

2010-09-10T10:42:00.004-05:00

We are full force in the moving process. Today we are taking things to the dump, tomorrow we are moving. House cleanup during the week. I'm glad it's Friday. As much as I needed the kids to go back to school, it's been awfully quiet around here. I especially miss Joseph, mostly because I worry about all the shenanigans he's up to at school.

My heart melted on Wednesday when his first piece of schoolwork came home in his little bag.

The best part? It has a little bit of chocolate on it. I can just picture him, cookie in one hand, pencil in the other, diligently (or not) penciling out his letters.

So of course I have to share quickly, since I'm so afraid it will become lost in the shuffle of moving.

Kindergarden/Back to School

2010-09-07T10:24:00.006-05:00

Today was back to school day for Jordan and Josh and a fresh new start for Joseph. Jordan was less than thrilled to go back. Josh seemed excited trucking through the house at 7am in his brand new shoes and Joseph was beyond excited. I couldn't even get him to sit down and eat breakfast. He seemed calm too which is such a bonus. I thought he might have been all over the place but surprisingly he seemed okay. I took him to his class and mentioned to the teacher that I was a basket case and she could call me anytime today. Ha!

I was happy to see to other ladies in the class to help out. They are going to need it! For now I am going to enjoy that it's quiet for the first time in two months and maybe have a nap! I don't remember the last time I did that. I've been trying to maintain two houses and get the kids ready for school. You know when you wake up and your eyes don't even want to open they are so swollen? That's me this week. I could manage it if I didn't have to work tonight but sadly I do.

For now here are some photos:

Fingers crossed that Joseph has a great day :)

One Thousand Gifts

2010-09-03T21:34:00.005-05:00

I was reading one of my favourite blogs today and came across an older post for
A Thousand Gifts. This blogger who has also written a book due Jan. 2011 appropriately named "A Thousand Gifts" started a gratitude journal. A list of 1,000 things. Not things she wants, but things she has. Things to be happy for. I think everyone needs a gratitude journal.

You can read about it at The Holy Experience

And for even more reasons to start:

"At the end of the 10 weeks, participants who’d kept a gratitude journal felt better about their lives as a whole and were more optimistic about the future than participants in either of the other two conditions. To put it into numbers, according to the scale we used to calculate well-being, they were a full 25 percent happier than the other participants. Those in the gratitude condition reported fewer health complaints.

People who kept a gratitude journal reported feeling more joyful, enthusiastic, interested, attentive, energetic, excited, determined, and strong than those in the hassles condition. They also reported offering others more emotional support or help with a personal problem— supporting the notion that gratitude motivates people to do good. And this was not limited to what they said about themselves. We sent surveys to people who knew them well, and these significant others rated participants in the gratitude group as more helpful than those in the other groups."

*Excerpt taken from The Holy Experience blog*

I happened to stumble across this while feeling little gratitude for what I had at that moment and was amazed at how easily I can start my list today:

1. A Dad that will drive 2 hours to stand up and help me with a house of horrors.

2. Terry, who when it really counts, will scour the internet for hours looking for answers.

3. Nichole, my constant voice of reason. My constant friend.

4. Christine's blog. She always manages to write about things that seem to be perfectly written for my situations right now. (I'm starting to think this isn't an accident.)

5. This blog

More soon.

I told you.

2010-08-27T23:10:00.004-05:00

Somebody please remind Santa to bring me a big ole' laptop for Christmas because if I had one I would be the best bedtime blogger ever. But my eyes are droopy and I just want to drag myself up to my comfy bed so I'll make this quick..

I was attacking the packing, and cleaning today and found myself mostly wandering around in circles, so I said to Nichole.

"That's it, I'm making a list"

I started making my list and reading it out loud as I went along.

#1. Take dump shit to the shed.

She laughs and then proceeds to tell me there is no way I actually wrote that down in my planner.

That stuff that needs to go to the dump has been a thorn in my side for months. So it's most definitely called the dump shit now.

And there I was thinking she would just be proud that I had embraced my inner list making skills.

That pebble is in my way!

2010-08-25T16:49:00.010-05:00

I don’t know about you, but when things start going wrong in my life, I instantly attribute it to all my failings as a Mom, as a person, friend, and wife. I had a small pebble in my path and it grew into a rock, and then a big boulder that I haven’t been able to get around for quite some time.

While thinking about my post for today, it finally occured to me what my problem is and I’ve talked about it here, and here and here again. Blah.

O.R.G.A.N.I.Z.A.T.I.O.N.

It's my boulder. The sad and ironic part is that I know that I have more posts about it, but I'm so disorganized, that I don't know where they are. The organized folks would have every post neatly tagged and labeled so they could find them later if they ever wanted to.

Blah.

So my whole life revolves on how well I'm organized or how I've not only dropped the ball, but haven't even picked it up.

Happiness exists for me with a clean house and an organized schedule. Sadly all of my happiness is wrapped up in lists, plans and goals.

One of my facebook friends that just had her first baby commented that she was feeling overwhelmed with all the things she felt she wasn't getting done in a day, and I recommended lists.

You can't even begin to guess how accomplished my day feels when I've scratched stuff off the daily to-do list. Maybe I should start taking my own advice?

All the things that I love to do that make me feel content, like reading, photography and scrapbooking all fall to the wayside when the house looks like a proverbial wasteland which is exactly what happens without order and lists.

And then I wonder why I'm in a slump, why I can't get anything accomplished?

Half the battle lies in solving the problem.

Now I just need to get that stupid boulder out of my path.

Welcome to the world of dayplanners and order.

Now I wonder if I can get Martha Stewart to accept my friend request on facebook?

P.S. If you know of any websites for helping me along, please comment.

Getting back on track

2010-08-24T23:02:00.002-05:00

They say some of life's biggest stresses are having a baby, moving or starting a new job. I might not be the one starting a job but I can honestly say it feels new to me with Terry working graveyards and leaving almost all the day to day responsibilities to me.

Sophia is now 9 months old but I had truly forgotten the total shift that comes when you add a new (however cute and tiny) body to the house.

Moving has been a complete nightmare with no end in sight.

I was chatting with Nichole the other day when I said:

"I just feel like the person I was a year ago is gone...lost....you know?"

"Hmmm" she says.

Well crap.

I thought she would tell me I was being totally ridiculous that I was fine and needed to fix nothing at all.

but Nichole doesn't really roll that way, and I suppose if she did we probably wouldn't connect like we do.

So I mentioned how I was missing my blog, which surprised me a bit. I've always loved my own little place in the world to ramble about all the little things I find important but I didn't realize just how important it was to me until I couldn't even put "pen to paper" anymore.

So we (we, as in Nichole) came up with this great idea for motivating each other to get back writing, blogging, venting, and just feeling creative again. We compiled a list of things we wanted to share, and talk about. Things we feel are important, move us or just get us through the day to day monotony of life.
We hope some of you will join us along the way too.

Wouldn't that be the ultimate motivator?

Happy 1oth Birthday Joshua!

2010-08-23T21:15:00.015-05:00

Joshua turned 10 today. I almost can't believe that 5lb 1oz baby that arrived much too early is now 10. Funny how time passes. My super sweet friend from work made Joshua the cutest castle cake since we all remember that I can't bake a cake to save my life.

Here's Josh last year. Ugh. Look at that cake! Look at that photo. Ugh!

And this is the cake she made:

Much, much better!

I love that she went the extra mile to add these cute little flags to the top.

Thank you Catherine! You so rock :)

One of my favourite concert moments!

2010-08-20T20:05:00.001-05:00

I finally found someone who uploaded a decent video of Michael Buble doing Michael Jackson. This was one of my favourite moments of the night!!!!!!

Cheerios

2010-08-17T16:16:00.004-05:00

This girl loves Cheerios. While she was drooling over the box, I quickly grabbed the camera. Won't this photo be cool in 10 or 20 years? How will that box of Cheerios look down the road?

I couldn't resist.

"Weekend Getaway"

2010-08-12T16:09:00.018-05:00

Remember those Michael Buble tickets we got way back in the winter? The time finally came to use those bad boys and by the time it was here, I was more than ready to enjoy a couple of days away.

We managed to get a place before I left which helped ease some of the mounting stress, but it needs a bit of work. Thankfully our new landlord seems like a great guy and he started by replacing all the carpets for us. Whew. The last tenants liked cats. That's all I'm going to say about that.

So it had the property we wanted.
I have no neighbours (unless you count the 60 year old across the highway) also a HUGE bonus.

Woodstove in the basement. Ahhhh, yes! That woodstove in the basement will also be our family room which we have never had before. The kids need that space to hang out without wrecking the rest of the house.

Gas fireplace upstairs in the living room. All I saw was a mantel for Christmas.

4 bedrooms. Big bonus. They are on the smaller side but still totally workable.

Pond in the backyard, small but adds character I think.

A garden that the previous tenants just let grow weeds and grass. *sigh*
That will be fixed come next summer with a little help from Dad. *hint* *hint*

Lynda is giving me all sorts of ideas for decorating. She has a gift. I'm finally getting excited.

These are the color schemes I'm looking at:

The colors looked so much nicer before I scanned them but you get the picture.

As for Michael Buble, that show was amazing. They randomly searched my bag and took my camera stating "professional" cameras were not allowed. It took me awhile to get past that but I wasn't about to let it ruin my night either. We managed to get some great shots when he came out to perform under our noses. He really is an amazing entertainer.

Yep, I'm still speechless.

Househunting Blows.

2010-08-06T12:59:00.028-05:00

We are still on the hunt. I'm crossing my fingers and toes for Saturday when we look at the next place which sounds really amazing. I'm not going to say anymore about that though in case I jinx us.

I'm suffering some serious insomnia these days. Mostly I'm in bed by 2 but Tuesday I laid in bed staring at the ceiling till 6 am! My body was completely revolting.

So Wednesday, feeling tired and miserable I decided to take the little ones out to the pool for a quick swim.

Sophia is always looking for ways to stand up, so she didn't stay long in the pool:

Now she's happy.

Joseph and Sophia playing while I try to sleep/take photos of them.

Look what I got in the mail today! I just had to share these adorable prints with you.

Aren't these prints the cutest? I have so many of them in my favourites. I only bought just one to make sure they came from a good seller. Not only is she amazingly talented, she is so nice. My print arrived in less than a week and it's gorgeous! I can't wait to put it on the wall of Sophias room when and if we ever get there.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/trafalgarssquare

I highly recommend these prints!

Happy weekend :)

Miss you Blogger.

2010-07-30T16:19:00.010-05:00

I was going to share my window project that I finally completed, then I was going to catch up on some emails. I plopped Sophia down on the floor beside me with some Cheerios.

How much emailing do you think I got done? The Cheerio dust on her bum kills me.

P.S. I'm so going to miss that late afternoon light in the kitchen!

July

2010-07-24T15:17:00.016-05:00

I know July isn't over yet but I miss my poor neglected blog. I think about blogging every single day and always manage to find something else to fill the day, then I get into bed every night feeling bad that I didn't get it done.

So July pretty much sucks:

Terry starting working at another store 45 minutes away AND he's working graveyards which has put a damper on our summer since most of his time is spent sleeping.

We did manage a trip to the beach which was good for everyone, it's too bad it costs so much to live there. I could have died on that beach.

Sophia is 8 months old now and crawling up a storm and just as I predicted she is much happier for it. She's already decided she's above crawling and is starting to pull herself up to standing. Once she stands she is a little lost on what to do next but it won't be long.

The humidity has been ridiculous this month which keeps the kids mostly close to home and unmotivated to do much more than play Runescape, Ninja Wars, and Farmville. Who got those kids hooked on facebook anyway?

The basement flooded and flooded again and is flooding as we speak. I've called the landlord who claimed it was the kids. Hmmm, yeah. I always blame the kids when the basement floods. That was about the last straw for me and I gave notice a few days later.
The landlord came by a few days after that and went straight to the basement and mentioned to Terry that he was planning on selling this place. I wish him the best of luck. It won't be easy to sell a leaky basement.

Remember that farmhouse I'm always saying I want to live in? We went to look at it yesterday. There were so many things I loved, like the decks, and the quiet and the size of it? Absolutely perfect for us. What I didn't love was that the only source of heat was propane, I suspected there may be a problem with uninvited critters, and then I worried about the half hour bus ride every morning for the kids, specifically Joseph.

The next place we looked at looked the a house perfect to reshoot The Exorcist. No kidding. Strange silver and black wallpaper. The tenants were still there and the place was a pigsty and smelled of cat pee. Terry was practically running to the car.
So we are pretty frustrated on the home search. Why is it so hard to find a nice place to rent that doesn't require the selling of your kidneys to heat. Clean would be good too? I always feel better after going househunting. I think I do a bad job of keeping up until I see other houses. *shudder*

Josh's birthday is coming up in August. What does he want? A day at the lake! Are you kidding me? He is his mothers child :)

I've noticed a new maturity growing in Jordan this summer. I love that. He's made things so much easier while dealing with some personal stuff.

Made a date to see Christine next month! I am so thankful she came into my life. Love you girl. I can't wait to see you!

Photos:

A perfect example of why you should never, ever set your ISO to 1600. Had to add texture to it because I still love it.

I love a good bath shot.

Sophia and Grandpa

Jordan enjoying the kiddie pool during the heatwave.

It's not very often I can capture Josh, much less Josh with Sophia.

Another ISO 1600 shot. Bad, but so good :)

I actually finished a project. I can't wait to share it with you.

Hello Canvas & Shutterfly Review.

2010-07-16T13:31:00.012-05:00

Back to my quest to get things off the hard drive and onto my walls or into books, I recently made two purchases. A shutterfly album and a canvas from Hello Canvas. I promised a review of both but Shutterfly took quite a long time to deliver so I should start with them first:

Shutterfly:

Shutterfly takes a long, long time. Yes I live in Canada but geez, we aren't delivering across the globe or anything. I will say that we had a holiday and the States had a holiday but I still think just a couple days shy of month to receive a book is a little long.

With that being said, I didn't set my hopes very high with Shutterfly. I thought the 8x8 book size would be too small and since I threw the book together in time to use the coupon I received, I thought the quality would be less than stellar. The book arrived just the other day as Joseph and I were running out.
I have to say I love the packaging. How can you hold off opening a big bright orange box?
We didn't. We sat there right on the front porch and opened it up.

From a kids perspective (aka Joseph)

Joseph loved this book. It was the perfect size for him to hold in his hands and he marveled at each and every photo in front of him.

When we finished he just wanted to "read it again" and again and again. All the memories from last summer came right back to him and he has a something tangible to refer to.

From an adults perspective (aka Me, in case you were wondering)

Like I said before, I had low expectations, but from the minute I saw it in the mailbox, all my frustration about the slow shipping faded away. I had to stop myself from smiling ear to ear reading it. There is something so amazing about having something you created in your hands.

The quality is amazing. The pages are thick and lustrous and the color is gorgeous.

My only regret is that I didn't add more pages to the book because 25 pages just wasn't enough.

I recommend to everyone who is taking photos and/or scrapbooking to print at least one book. I think you will be hooked. I know I will be buying more books soon.

Hello Canvas:

I have nothing but good things to say about this company. I got an email immediately after payment. I was informed when my canvas was sent and received a tracking number to watch it come to me.

AND IT WAS HERE IN UNDER A WEEK!

Hello Canvas indeed!

Talk about customer service at it's finest. I'm very impressed.

Did I mention it's gorgeous! Again, there is something about seeing your work hanging on the living room wall. If you are a photographer and haven't put a photo to canvas, I highly recommend it,I also recommend getting a larger size. I ordered the 16x20 canvas and although it's huge, you have to make sure you put it on just the right wall or the wall will just swallow it up. I'm glad I got the larger size.

I highly recommend this company, especially if you need a quick turnaround and don't want to sacrifice quality in the process.

As you can see Joseph loves it too :)

Clipping Mask Tutorial

2010-07-08T21:42:00.024-05:00

Clipping Mask Tutorial.

I've had a few requests for a tutorial on clipping masks for using my new storyboards, so I thought the easiest way would be to do a blog post. So here we go:

*I don't know how many times I've opened up a template and been distracted by the kids, the door or the dog barking next door and clicked File-Save and written over my template, so first I recommend saving your file BEFORE going any further.*

You can do that by clicking File-Save As

1.Open up the first photo you want to add to your storyboard (FILE > OPEN). Your workspace should now have the following files open: the template, your photo, and the layers palette open as shown below. (Note: if you don't see your layers palette, go to WINDOWS > LAYERS > and make sure LAYERS has a check mark next to it).

2.Find the clipping mask layer (1 - clip photo here) that you want to attach your photo to and select it (you can tell which layer is selected because it is highlighted).

By selecting the layer it will ensure that the when you open your photo, it will go directly above the layer you want to clip.

Now, to add your photo, click anywhere on your photo to make it active. Select the move tool,then drag the photo and drop it onto the template.

Your photo is now on the template above Layer 1-Clip Photo Here (as illustrated)

To get our photo to fit nicely within it's "frame" (1-CLIP PHOTO HERE layer), we are going to clip the photo to it. To do this, move your cursor so that it hovers between the photo layer and the clipping mask, when you see your cursor turn into an overlapping circles icon, click Alt+click or Alt+Ctrl+G for Mac Users.

Now you can resize your photo to fit within the frame. You can do this grabbing a corner of your photo and dragging it toward the center.

Repeat these steps to add more photos to your template.

If you want to change the color of your template you can do that by, first choosing your color in the swatches palette.

I'm changing mine to black. Once I've done that, I click Edit-Fill (making sure my "template" layer is selected)

Here is my finished template. (For this example I was still using white)

Feel free to add text as you wish.

Storyboards Set 1

2010-07-08T15:04:00.007-05:00

I forgot to mention what it is, I've been working on. Storyboards! Set 1 is here and ready. Available for Personal or Commercial use and completely customizable layered PSD files. You can grab them here at my blog under the Resources tab or at my Etsy shop. I love them and I hope you will too:

Heat Wave.

2010-07-07T20:37:00.021-05:00

We have been sitting in a heat wave for about 5 days now. Our temps are hovering around 40 degrees (100 degrees for my American friends) with the most amazing humidity ever. There is literally no air moving around. We have been huddled in our living room, which is the only room with air conditioning.

Terry started work in Port Elgin Monday and we headed out to check out the town (45 minutes away from us) and take the kids to the beach.

I could literally die there, honest. It's gorgeous but way, way out of our price range.

Want to see some photos?

Sophia loved the beach! I sat her on the shore next to Jordan and I think she could have sat there all day splashing the little waves that came over her.

Don't you just love her bathing suit? I'm glad I liked it because it was the only one left in her size. Literally, there was nothing else. The joys of small town shopping!

ALL my kids together! Can you believe it? If only that family wasn't in the background, I think it would be the perfect photo....

The best thing about this beach is that I don't have to worry how far out Joseph is going. It's shallow for quite a distance out which is perfect for kids.

How perfect could it be that the random beach go'ers next to me were standing there blowing bubbles?

I've decided beach photos are officially the most unflattering! This one doesn't show the major crows feet I didn't think I had...

I don't care what anybody says, I thought he looked amazing in his goggles:

And my favourite?

Yep, this one takes the cake for most heartwarming.

Did I mention I love the beach?

Happy Canada Day...a day late.

2010-07-02T17:58:00.001-05:00

Canvas!

2010-06-25T14:04:00.007-05:00

I had a million other things I wanted to share, but then I got a 40% off coupon for Hello Canvas. (Get the code if you fan Shutter Sisters on Facebook)

Now I've been sidetracked and I can't figure out which photo to use. I would love a photo of all the kids together but I don't have very many of the quality to put to canvas (Note to self, take more photos of ALL the kids together)

So please help me choose from these:

Ouch & Projects.

2010-06-21T13:23:00.004-05:00

We spent a portion of Father's Day in the emergency room. Jordan dropped a toy hot wheels car out the top floor window which bounced off the trampoline and hit Joseph in the face. What are the odds it would have hit him and what are the odds that 3 stitches would be needed? I guess pretty good. He was such a trooper until the nurses started to hold him down and then he was pretty mad and he's not happy about going back to get them out either. I guess by not getting dissolving stitches his chances of a more noticeable scar go down. That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

I did say I was going to share what I was working on, but I have to work in 2.5 hours, and I've been busy all morning working on a project for someone else. As soon as I'm done, I will share.

Hope everybody else is having a better start to the week.

Shutterfly Share

2010-06-20T18:30:00.003-05:00

I have photos on disk, all over my hard drive and it nags at me like a bad cough. A fancy camera and it never gets appreciated. Sooooo, it has become my mission to get things off disk and onto my walls and into books. When I got an email from Shutterfly offering a free 20 page 8x8 book, well I jumped all over it. They were only offering a simple path which basically just dumps your photos into the book and offers almost no creative control but free is free right? So I made the photos full size and I'm pretty happy with it. It's a small baby step towards the goal. I can't wait to get this baby in the mail. Then I'll share again with a little review :)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Lost?

2010-06-16T16:51:00.013-05:00

It's me. I am still here. I was distracted in cyber space for a while. I seem to say that all the time lately, but it's true and probably one of the best words you can use to describe me. I'm easily distracted. I have the attention span of a five year old most days. I've discovered a few more things I'm NOT:

Focused or Driven. I suppose being unfocused is the same as being distracted and realizing you aren't naturally driven is a bit of a blow to the self esteem.
I'm mostly just distracted. I think it might not be just me, it might just be a sign of the times... the kids, emails, housework, and keeping track of everybody on Facebook is a full time job in itself.

So distracted, unfocused and undriven (is that a word?) and a little discouraged if we are being honest.

I have had some really nice conversations over the last couple of weeks and some of their words have stuck with me, so I thought I would share:

1. Baby Steps.

Thank you Helen. This one has helped me more than you know since I usually tend to do things in leaps and bounds and then wonder why I can't accomplish anything. Thank you for prodding me back to the real world.

2. Do what you know/Do what you love

Right.
Sometimes I get caught up in all the goodness out there and all the talent and I want to stick my toe in ALL those waters. I forget that sometimes it's better to just admire. Nevermind all the time in takes extending yourself here, there and everywhere. Again another full time job.

3. Beware of Email, Facebook and the dreaded Farmville.

Enough said right? I don't know how many times I've sat in front of the computer to accomplish something, only to look at the clock and find 2 hours has passed and I'm no farther ahead. Rumor has it Farmville has somewhat of a cult following it's so huge. Some days I open the Facebook feed and it's mostly Farmville stats.

4. What?

I read something somewhere recently that you should ask yourself frequently two questions. What is working? and What isn't? Seems simple enough but when you really think about it and get it down on paper, you quickly see where your priorities should be and maybe where they aren't.

So in taking all that advice in, I've developed a plan that works for me. I've written it out along with ideas and it has become my new focus. I love that I can refer to it when I get distracted again. I pretty much guarantee I'll get distracted again. Some things never change but I have a focus now and that feels pretty good.

So later in the week or the beginning of next week, I can't wait to share what I've been working on.

AND another email session has me so excited. That isn't written in stone but either way it's a direction I'm excited to be moving toward and there might even be a collaboration in the works.

P.S. Joseph found a friend:

She seems to love the camera too!

You Tube Share

2010-06-05T10:44:00.002-05:00

I love this little girl. If only everybody could be like this. And Joseph may just be in love....

Thunderstorm

2010-06-01T12:35:00.007-05:00

One thing I love about living here is the thunderstorms we get. We have had some pretty sweltering hot days around here and finally we got a thunderstorm to cool things down. Trees are down everywhere and the streets were flooding in under 10 minutes. It was really quite a sight and not something I've seen around here before. The drains just couldn't keep up with all the water! I wish I had rain gear for my camera but I did manage to get this one photo out the door.

Look out!

2010-05-31T12:35:00.003-05:00

;" src=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YPzx78skq28/TAPzdBt-vFI/AAAAAAAADvs/jxFhkGlT_qM/s1600/he%27s+at+school%21.jpg alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477489251815701586" border="0" />

This little man is holding school hostage as we speak. Today is Joseph's orientation day for Kindergarten. They spend a couple hours at the school familiarizing themselves with rules, the classroom etc. When I dropped him off they were watching a show in the gym and she asked him if he wanted to sit and watch. He sat and she turned to me and gave me the thumbs up to go. I cringed. That lady does not know what she's getting herself into today. Should be interesting to get the report back at the end of the day.

He is really, really excited though. When I was leaving another lady was trying to bribe her son out of the car.

"I SAID, Get out of the car"

I didn't see anyone, but I definitely heard him say he wasn't getting out of the car.

Poor woman, I'm glad I wasn't her.

May 24.

2010-05-25T11:03:00.019-05:00

May 24 is a long weekend here in Canada. It's Victoria Day, the official "safe zone" for planting flowers without worry of frost, and most commonly called May two four, for all the two fours of beer that are consumed on this weekend. We were so lucky here because we had amazing weather. Summer weather!

Friday we went to see Shrek, The Final Chapter. It was cute.
Saturday rained which was a perfect day to clean the house and Sunday, Monday were scorching, gorgeous days.

I had the PCF challenge looming over me though. Do you know how hard it is to get 4 kids to cooperate for a photo? Just when I thought I'd have them all in the backyard, Josh would disappear, and after the second time of calling him I yelled:

"Would you get your butt out here so we can take a family photo already"

Off to a good start right?

I should mention the challenge for this week is Aleida's Challenge which gets us out from behind the camera and into the shot with our kids. Unfortunately some mother's like Aleida don't get to see their kids grow up, but she did get behind the camera thousands of times with her kids to leave many great memories for them. The challenge is to get all of us to take more photos of Mommies with their kids.

Case in point. Mom called last week to thank me for my Mother's Day post. She said it was a shame that the only two photos of us together,she was holding a beer in her hand! There arent' alot of photos of us with Mom, or me with my kids for that matter.

Here's why:

I can't believe I'm posting these! Look at us, I mean really? Check out the expression on Joseph's face! It kills me and makes me laugh everytime!

And finally:

I love that ummmm, shell shocked look on Sophia's face. Jordan's smiling. Josh has a very typical Josh look about him and Joseph? That's him each and everyday! So Joseph. Me, well whatever, job done.

P.S. Would you all help me out and tell Jordan he does indeed need a haircut? He thinks he looks "cool" and doesn't see what the problem is.

Blue Skies

2010-05-20T13:01:00.004-05:00

Nothing better than sitting outside watching the kids play in the sun. I'm taking it all in today.

Lettuce in your Smoothie?

2010-05-18T12:14:00.010-05:00

I am a meat and potatoes girl.
And a carbs girl.
Oh and a chocolate girl.

As I get older, I've become aware of the need to take better care of myself, which
in my case means more fruits and veggies in my diet.

My cousin Charlene (aka Char) is a vegan and she started her very own facebook page and blog with recipes for everyone. I would take a peek here and there but then it occured to me that some of these recipes would probably be good for a girl who would rather drink her veggies :)

So I went digging and was instantly intrigued by this one:

Lemon Banana Pear Berry Smoothie (click title to go right over and check it out)

So here's the recipe:

1 1/2 cups water
1 scoop Vega ( I didn't have this so I skipped it)
2-4 cups of Greens. (I had romaine lettuce on hand so that's what I used)
1 banana
1 pear
1/4 cup mixed frozen berries ( I had strawberries)
Juice from 1 lemon (about 2 tsp

I started mixing this up:

Romaine lettuce in my smoothie! Hmmmmm,

I LOVE bananas :)

Adding the Romaine...eeeeeek.

Okay, this looks like a science experiment gone terribly wrong. But wait....

It's sooooooo good. Once you get past the lettuce in your drink, it's REALLY good. It's the perfect blend of sweet and I'm telling the truth, I think I feel healthier already :)

Go check out my cousin. I think she rocks at this stuff!

Blog:
Char's Kitchen

Facebook:

A Vegan Friendly Food Blog

Photo Challenge_Portraits

2010-05-17T19:53:00.004-05:00

I'm usually late for submitting my photo to the Photo Challenge Forum. I wasn't even thinking about taking portraits (this weeks challenge) but was feeling kind of moody today and thought I would try out my new photography prop, a really lovely blanket from Ikea. It makes a great backdrop!

Want to do Joseph next, it's been awhile since he's been behind the camera! Honestly, I can't get him to stop moving around long enough to take a decent photo!

Apple of my eye.

2010-05-15T20:09:00.005-05:00

I've been following the amazing photography of Kimberly Chorney over at flickr. She had an amazing photo of a baby with apples and I thought I would try it. I didn't even come close to doing her photo justice but I still thought they were cute.

Here's a link to hers: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39474827@N02/4581884006/

Love this commercial

2010-05-11T13:20:00.001-05:00

Yep, two posts in one day, but I just had to share. I love that guy :)

Tuesday.

2010-05-11T10:08:00.006-05:00

Took this photo yesterday that I am officially in love with. I had to sneak over to the neighbours to get it. Wish I had one of these trees in my yard.

It's windy again, it's cold again, it's going to rain again. I'm really getting sick of this crap. I'm ready for some heat around here!

Mother's Day. Terry irritated me, with his general "man~ness" but then he made me a wicked dinner and all was forgiven. You could run me over with the car, but if you make me dinner after, all will be quickly forgiven around here. We all sat around the table which was nice. Terry is a table kind of guy, where as I am a grab your plate and sit in front of the TV girl. I forget how nice it is to eat at the table and listen to what's going on with the kids. Funny thing about eating at the table. The kids WILL tell you what's going on in their life. I can't get much out of them otherwise.

I discovered Sophia has a thing for Dean Martin. This girl amazes me daily with her awesome-ness.
She can be the most miserable thing until you turn Dean on. She'll stop crying mid-scream and just stare at the stereo. It's the beginning of a love affair for her.

This is her favourite:

Ain't that a kick in the head. Ironic really..

Today:
Tea, editing (working on something fun) racing through the house cleaning before Sophia wakes up. Better get moving.

Happy Mother's Day.

2010-05-09T10:18:00.011-05:00

It's a funny thing being a Mom. I always catch myself thinking about my own mother when the kids won't listen to me, when the house is always a mess, when I feel like I just can't take it anymore. I understand just what she must have been thinking and feeling.

Thank you Mom for putting up with the eye rolls, the nights when I came home past curfew, or didn't come home at all. (What that must have been like!)
For enduring my first cigarette, sneaking out and that time I came home drunk.

I appreciate you more than you know.

As I was looking for photos of Mom and I to post, I stumbled on this one of me (I'm on the left.) and gasped. Just in case I was losing my mind I called Jordan in.

"Who's that?"

"Sophia"

"Nope, that's me"

"Holy cow Mom, she looks just like you."

I'm thinking so too. And it totally made my day :)

Happy Mother's Day to all my Mom friends out there.

Cool Contest!

2010-05-07T14:11:00.003-05:00

Things I love Thursday.

2010-05-06T08:57:00.013-05:00

I am inspired by flickr on a daily basis. There is so much goodness over there, it's hard to break away. I thought I would start sharing some of the photos that inspire me.

1. LEMONS for sale...., 2. Pinkle Toein', 3. the spice (of what little girls are made of), 4. Silent Night, 5. S U N R I S E, 6. www.flickr.com/photos/lilylove/4520617238/in/faves-234317..., 7. *beach*, 8. pursuing hopes., 9. Day 95: Heavenly White

Click on the titles to go directly to flickr and have a peek at these fabulous photographers.

For the love of white:

This blanket is full of texture and so gorgeous.

This lens is on my wish list:

It's not in the budget right now, but it's on the list. *hint* *hint*
So I'm experimenting with a reverse adapter. By mounting the lens backward on a camera body, you can create amazing macro images. I'm not having much luck with mine, but Maria is having amazing luck. Go check her photos out! (Click her name, to see her photos)

You can find this for under $20 if your interested.

Yarn!

Yes, yarn. I'm on a mission to learn how to knit, hats for Joseph (which he can't wait for) possible photography props, blankets. The possibilities are endless and I love buying yarn. I just need to USE it.

Today is miserable. I'm going to load up on tea and clean this house. Here's to hoping it's a productive day.

Dreams are good.

2010-05-05T14:36:00.013-05:00

I have a dream of a home in the country,with old wide plank floors, where I can leave my front door wide open and smell the fresh spring and summer (and even fall) air throughout the house. My screen door will slam a hundred times a day from kids running in and out.

I will have a big beautiful white kitchen with lots of early morning light. I can sit at my table and drink my morning tea without the noise of everyday life around me.

We have a porch that we can sit out on at night and enjoy the evening with a glass of wine. A porch the kids can sleep on when it's too hot inside.

I will not live in suburbia with neighbours close enough to touch.
I will not have a perfectly manicured lawn.
I will no longer get caught up in the "hustle and bustle" of things.

My kids will be able to run and play without worry of traffic and noise.

A girl can dream right?

And sticking with the country theme, here is my photo for this weeks Photo Challenge-Seating. I borrowed this chair from my neighbour, even though Terry thought they would think I was crazy.

The Everyday.

2010-05-04T13:28:00.021-05:00

Today started out simply enough. Nichole called, we were talking and I took the kids outside to do it. Looking around I realized the lawn needing mowing and since I vacuum while we talk, I figured mowing while we talk wasn't much of a stretch. So I came in and asked Terry to keep an eye on Sophia while I got it done. He gave me a look which stated he wasn't doing it.

Fine!

I dragged out the saucer and plopped her in it.

She loves me today. She seemed content to hang. Either that or she felt sorry for me.

Either way, I kept talking AND got started.

Mowing is actually a pain. We have three sections. Front, back and side. Dad bought me an electric mower for a reason. I mow the lawn around here. Electric is a pain in the butt. The cord only reaches to mow the back and half the side before it has to be moved to do the the other half of the side and the front.

AND the trampoline has to be moved to get the lawn underneath (which grows like a weed by the way)

So I'm talking
and mowing
Joseph wants to jump on the trampoline
and he's running with brand new socks on through the grass

because the bag for the lawnmower won't catch the grass
and I'm moving the cord
and the trampoline.

Nichole is laughing and laughing because she's cruel like that ;)
but telling me all the while it's too important not to blog.

"Go grab your camera and tripod and take photos" "You HAVE to document this"

I stop mowing and run in for the camera. Terry thinks I'm nuts. Little does he know, this little project doesn't make him look like the model husband he is ;)

In the meantime, Sophia is still hanging. Thank god for her!

Now Joseph wants to mow:

Well okay then:

Well then, I'll take a load off, enjoy a drink and chat some more...
(Good lord, somebody have a word with me about posture?)

Sophia isn't going to make it!

Just everyday chaos around here.

Moral of the story?

1. Get off the phone?
2. Listen to your poor mulitasking (and pretty good at it) wife?
3. Women power!

or all of the above.

Click here to read Nichole's take on the conversation.

More Love!

2010-05-01T23:12:00.008-05:00

More things I love this week that I want to share:

After much irritation and waiting, the dress I ordered Sophia from Etsy did arrive! I love, love, love this dress, don't you? One month and one week later, it arrived. I was pretty peeved with this seller in general, but the dress is adorable and fits so nicely :)

I LOVE reading blogs. In fact, I am a blog stalker. Just try and take my Google Reader away from me and see what happens. This week I added much goodness to my reader that I wanted to share:

If you go click on any of the links here this one is it: Kind over Matter. There is so much goodness here, I don't even know where to begin.

A beautiful Ripple Effect. I got some great journaling ideas here.

Chicken Soup for the Dorky Soul

Clever, clever blog title. Lots of goodness there. Especially loved her post about blogging (scroll down a bit) and her most recent post of reasons she loves herself. I think we all need to do that more often.

A Holy Experience

This woman truly has a gift for writing. Truly amazing blog.

and in case you missed my last post, this one is awesome: The Kick down the door Project

(Just click the name of the blog to be taken directly there)

The Project.

2010-04-30T09:48:00.003-05:00

It's funny how things come your way right when you need them to.

The Kick down the Door Project.

...is a digital zine compiling the stories of creators who have broken through obstacles -- mental, physical, and situational -- to live the lives they’ve dreamed of. some are living those dreams and others are still on their journey. we can learn from them all.

Download it and save it to your computer for just "those days."

I think you'll love it.

HERE!!!!

The Lost Recipe

2010-04-21T16:29:00.004-05:00

So for all of you that were interested in the Oreo Cheesecake, I FOUND the recipe! It was tucked in a magazine I was reading in my room and since I haven't been in there for a couple of weeks now (avoiding germs) I figured I had lost it. Terry seems to have gotten over the worst of the mono so while I was tidying I came across it and thought I should post it for you all.

Cookies and Cream Freeze:

What you need:

14 Oreo cookies divided
1 pkg Philadelphia Brick Cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping
4 squares Baker's Semi Sweet Chocolate, melted, cooled slightly

Make It:

Line an 8 1/2x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan with foil, the ends of foil extending over sides.
Place 8 cookies on bottom of pan. Crumble remaining cookies and set aside.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in medium bowl with mixer until well blended. Stir in Cool Whip. Spoon about 1 1/2 cups of cream cheese mixture into a medium bowl.
Stir in melted chocolate.

Spread remaining cream cheese mixture over the cookies in pan. Sprinkle with crumbled cookies, gently press into cream cheese mixture with back of spoon. Top with Cool Whip mixture. Freeze 3 hours until firm. Remove from freezer for about 10 minutes before serving. Flip that thing over onto a serving plate.
Remove foil and let it stand a room temp to soften slightly before cutting to serve.

Let me know if you make it. It's yummy!

Easily Sidetracked.

2010-04-19T14:50:00.007-05:00

I'm amazed at how quickly sidetracked I can get from my goals. I'm equally amazed at how quickly creativity seems to seep from the cracks, so to speak. I was feeling sorry for myself and how slowly I'm getting around to the never ending to-do list of must do's and want to do's, when I stumbled upon Kal's post about creativity.

http://lovelife.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/04/kicking-my-own-ass.html

So yeah, nothing seems to be stopping me, but me.

So I'm writing a list of things that NEED to get done (if not for my own sanity)

1. Get started on a few things for Lockhart Photography

2. Start getting my photos on up on the wall around here.

3. Stop talking about getting my photos into albums and just do it. Liz is making me feel bad over here.

And that is just a list of things I want to do to keep me sane.

That doesn't include all the chores around the house!

Where's Terry you ask?

Mono is beating him down at the moment. Yeah mono, and it looks like he caught it from work (or the giant petri dish of germs) and he's off work for a few weeks to recover. Since he spends more time sleeping than he does actually awake, it looks like it's up to me. He actually ate something sustainable today though which was a good sign of recovery around the corner. Cross your fingers for him.

Just when I think I can't take it anymore, Joshua comes in with these:

"Surprise! I picked you some Sunflowers"

"Thank you Joshua"

"Can you keep them for a really long time Mom?"

If only they could live forever. So I took a picture of them to remember. It's begging to be scrapped.

Back soon!

Easter, or the lack thereof.

2010-04-05T20:23:00.035-05:00

Like I said in my last post, Terry is pretty sick with the flu, so the Easter Bunny arrived but that was pretty much the extent of our day. The weather has been freakishly amazing here so the kids have been lucky enough to escape outside. We took a few photos, played with bubbles until they got spilled. I mostly spent
the day wandering around aimlessly. I finally decided to bake. ( I told you I was bored) I just HATE baking!

I made Kami's lemon bars. Jordan loved these things! Thank you for the recipe Kami.
You can find it at her blog. Then I made biscuits from a recipe at Pioneer woman. Yum! I havethis scary addiction to biscuits.

Wendy made a comment a couple posts ago saying she couldn't wait to see Sophia in her Easter dress.It's a good thing she said it because it really never
occurred to me to get her a dress. I guess after all the boys, she will take some getting used to. So very, very last minute I rushed to a shop on town for a dress. They still had quite a bit to choose from even though they claimed it was picked over. They were super helpful and I managed to get a really cute dress.

So here are a few (or alot) of Easter photos I loved:

Jordan. Okay, I paid $25 for his haircut on Saturday which is the price of an adult cut! Since when is 12 an adult? So he hates the cut and IMMEDIATELY wanted to use his birthday money on a hat which he wears backwards all the time.

He's turning into a teenager, BUT he gave Joseph his chocolate bunny, helped me set up for the Easter egg hunt and then stood beside me watching and commented on how cute the "little" kids were. LOL. I had a moment. Honestly.

Looking for that Oreo cheesecake recipe for you guys. I seem to have misplaced it.

And finally:

Don't you just love these shoes?

Getting caught up...maybe

2010-04-05T17:35:00.011-05:00

I'm behind on pretty much everything. So what do you do when you are behind? Blog about it of course. I mostly feel like this:

Terry has had the flu for almost a week now, which means he's been in bed for a week, which means I have no help with the kids or the house. I started out managing pretty good if I do say so myself but after too many days with the kids home, everything slowly crumbled around me as I got burnt out. How do single mothers do it anyway?

I'm behind on Project 52 (Flickr isn't really helping matters, since for some reason they don't want my money and I can't access all my photos right now)

I have more photos to edit.
Cleaning to do.
What I'd really love is 2 hours of peace with a good book. But I'll take catching up on my blog too.
I can't really post my Easter photos without sharing Jordan's birthday photos. We are officially only one year away from having a teenager on our hands. (Although he acts like one already) Thankfully he is pretty easy about parties. He only wants friends over for a sleepover and video games, so I finally decided to get him that Xbox Live he's been asking for. What a nightmare! No wonder I was holding out on him. Okay, so according to Xbox.com, the easiest way to hook up live is with an ethernet cord, this is also the cheapest way, so of course it doesn't work either. I plugged in the cord and nothing. I kept getting either the error that it couldn't find our hardware, or it couldn't find our IP address. So after over an hour of that (while listening to 7 kids screaming through the house) I decided to return it to Wal Mart and try the wireless router. (which I might add is the most expensive. Shocking hey?)
I grabbed the router and made sure to ask the Wal Mart employee if it was all I needed. Yes she said.
Of course she had no clue.
I hooked it up and well it would seem wireless should mean wireless right? Apparently not.
So I need a network adaptor for the back of the Xbox or a cord which to me totally defeats the purpose of wireless no? Since the adaptor is worth another $65 I'm not willing to invest, I decided to run the cord (which you remember I returned) so it's back to Wal Mart for a cord and this time it finally works.

And where was Terry you ask? He drinking a beer or two and protesting that it was a good thing he had me, because he was really bad at that kind of stuff.
It's true. He is really bad at that stuff, but he is pretty darn good at wrestling and making kids scream even louder than I thought possible.

He's also the cool parent.

Go figure.

So here it is. Finally hooked up and what do they do?

Yeah, they decide it's time to go outside.

The cake. Oreo, cheescake and a major hit which was great because that meant no baking on my part. I hate baking and always mess up the cake. So Jordan`s friend was so funny because he ate his piece, came in and asked for more. So I gave him more and he came back for more! This time I said no, so he asked me for the recipe! No kidding! I said I`d get it for him later thinking he`d forget right. Well he didn`t. He asked again, and again until after the 3rd time the next day, I photocopied it and put it in his bag. His poor mother is going to be making Oreo cheesecake for the rest of her life.

It turned out pretty well though. He has a great group of friends, they come year after year.

Jordan had decided he didn't need decorations this year, which just seemed wrong to me, so I stuck 12 balloons to his ceiling instead the night before so he would wake up to a room full of balloons. Pretty cool hey? I would totally want to wake up to it myself (hint, hint Terry)

All I have to say is thank god it's over for another year. Look out 13!

Back with Easter photos tommorow, hopefully :)

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T22:49:00.005-05:00

Hope you all had a great Easter!

Blogger Satisfaction...

2010-04-03T20:35:00.001-05:00

I have a problem. I can't ever just leave well enough alone. I've decided to fiddle around with my blog again so I can fit larger photos. I've made a mess again.

Be back soon!

Birthdays.

2010-03-26T12:53:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was my birthday and thanks to my friend Tammy who risked it all to come by and watch the kids, I managed to get away for a little "me" time. When I had Sophia, the girls from work pitched in and got me a gift certificate to the spa. I am so not a spa girl, so I've been hanging on to that thing for about 4 months now. I finally decided to use it for my birthday and booked a manicure and a brow wax. There isn't much to do while getting a manicure except feel guilty for being there which I did pretty well. I was excited for the brow wax though. They managed to get what takes me 45 minutes to do, done in about 3. So needless to say, I'm hooked on the brow wax. I even managed to get into bed at a decent time and read my book courtesy of Mom,

The Photoshop CS2 book for Digital Photographers

Amazing book!

Sunday is Jordan's birthday. He is having an Xbox Party, 3 of his closest friends to play Xbox, and eat junk and generally make a ton of noise and a ton of mess. Should be interesting don't you agree?

Joseph and I baked his cake today. Or should I say didn't bake his cake. Somehow a no bake Oreo cheesecake sounded like the best cake for a 12 year old. Joseph helped by eating all the Oreos (which means I'm heading back to the store) but he enjoyed himself. He's mad that he can't eat the cake till tommorow.

In other news. Joseph has decided "No more pictures"
He's got to be kidding. Ha! I just kept snapping away, but thought this one was funny.

I've become that mother. The mother that attaches ridiculous bows to her childs head in the name of... well I don't know what, but she looks cute no?

Joseph thinks she looks "Beauniful" and spent about 10 minutes telling her so, and she of course ate it up.

I'm awaiting more hairbands and bows from Etsy, and this gorgeous little pillowcase dress for summer.

Back to reality, which means dishes and vacumming. Have a great weekend!

It's DONE!!!!

2010-03-22T11:08:00.003-05:00

Surprise! Or not such a surprise to others.

Click here!!!

I was so excited last night I could barely sleep!

Happy Birthday!

2010-03-21T09:00:00.006-05:00

Oscraps is celebrating it's 4th birthday! and in honor of it the Sue Cummings CT has designed birthday cards free for you to download! There are going to be so many to choose from!

You can grab them here

Also be sure to check out Sue's sale for 30% all week long and a free gift with every purchase.

You don't want to miss it!

Here's the one I made. You can grab it free over here

Progress.

2010-03-20T16:54:00.004-05:00

For those of you who care about my surprise, I am making progress. Really I am, it's just that progress these days moves at a much slower pace. MUCH S.L.O.W.E.R.
I did make huge leaps and bounds today, but now it's the weekend and I have to wait until Monday to see if I can finish this stuff. I won't make any promises this time though because the last promise didn't work out too well.

Yesterday was beautiful. I'm talking 18 degrees and sunny. We are talking no jackets or sweaters. I got the shopping done and then I went next door to get Sophia an exersaucer and got stung by a bee. I hadn't been in the store less than a minute when I felt it. Then the little bugger made it's way down my back. Can you picture me dancing in the middle of the store trying to get this bee out of my shirt. I'm running to find a bathroom because I just couldn't get it out, it's just crawling around on my back and occasionally buzzing.

Willies!

The funny part was this. I came home and Terry asks me very seriously if I cried.

Cried? What? I just gave him that look all women give their men when they say something incredibly and utterly retarded.

"I just had your baby. I've had four of your babies."

A bee sting?

Men.

Today, brrr. I went out to get coffee and turned right back around and came back in for my winter jacket.

0 degrees with a chance of the S word.
Talk about a spring tease.

The bee sting was worth the trouble, because Sophia is enjoying the exersaucer.
How cute is she?

I'm still working on it.

2010-03-17T21:16:00.001-05:00

I ran into a few issues with my surprise, but in the meantime while I waited, I did a mini shoot with Sophia.

Uh Oh!

2010-03-15T18:36:00.001-05:00

Glitches everywhere! Yikes. Patience is not my forte.

Coming Soon...

2010-03-13T18:45:00.002-05:00

Something exciting coming soon, I'm hoping this Monday. Stay tuned.....

Oh thank god!

2010-03-07T09:14:00.006-05:00

I'm back! Dad fixed me up with a kick ass, racing fast computer that I think I'm in love with. If only it was red, I'd take a photo of it for PCF this week.Instead I added the newest photo of Sophia. Her smiling face is exactly how I am feeling about this thing. Dad did his research (which he is good at and I am so not) and found the best computer for me. I'm so thankful that he heard what I was saying about wanting a terabyte for all my photos and scrap supplies. At first he was skeptical, but low and behold the beautiful terabyte won over. I installed photoshop right away and it works like it never has before so I can get some scrapping in again without it taking a whole DAY like it was before.

Josh lost his glasses! I was hoping they would miraculously turn up but I finally cut my losses and got him new ones this week. He was pretty excited about it, saying, I can see everywhere we went.

Sophia is getting HUGE! She's really starting to get heavy in my arms now.

I love it when she is content in my arms.

Going to spend my Sunday enjoying the sun! Yes, sun. It's finally made an appearance around here, and not just for five minutes at a time, we have had a whole weekend of it. If the lawn would reappear again, I would be a happy camper. Then I'm going to start transferring files over to the new computer. Joseph has become quite the puzzle expert these days and I can't wait to get to the photos of him "building." I'm so behind on everything these days.

Now I'm off to make my rounds on YOUR blogs thanks to Dad. Thank you Dad!

Happy Sunday!

Facebook welcomes her!

2010-02-19T16:12:00.007-05:00

If you are my friend or family you can view the images larger here:
*link*
*link*

Alot can be said about facebook, good and bad. But one day I was looking at all the comments made while I was in labor and after Sophia arrived. I thought it such a shame that it would soon be forgotten in cyber space. Or would it? Not for the digital scrapbooker it wasn't. How cool is it going to be to be able to print these images in her digital baby book? I think it will be amazing for her to look on later in life. All these people excited for her arrival. I wish I could have shown the images side by side how they will appear in her book, but you get the point. {Or at least the digi scrappers do anyway}

No supplies needed. Almost no effort (except for the irritating task of making each page even side by side) but what an effect.

Can you tell I'm psyched about this one?

Funny!

2010-02-10T17:28:00.001-05:00

This could only have been written by a Canadian, although the spelling throws me off.

DIARY OF A SNOW SHOVELER

December 8th - 6:00 PM

It started to snow. The first snow of the season and my wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Moses Print. So romantic we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!

December 9th

We woke up to a beautiful blanket of crystal white snow covering every inch of the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Can there be a more lovely place in the whole world? Moving here was the best idea I've ever had! Shovelled for the first time in years and felt like a boy again. I did both our driveway and the sidewalks. This afternoon the snowplough came along and covered up the sidewalks and closed in the driveway, so I got to shovel again. What a perfect life!

December 12th

The sun has melted all our lovely snow.. Such a disappointment! My
neighbour tells me not to worry- we'll definitely have a white Christmas.
No snow on Christmas would be awful! Bob says we'll have so much snow by
the end of winter, that I'll never want to see snow again. I don't think
that's possible. Bob is such a nice man, I'm glad he's our neighbour.

December 14th

Snow, lovely snow! 8 inches last night. The temperature dropped to -20.
The cold makes everything sparkle so. The wind took my breath away, but
I
warmed up by shovelling the driveway and sidewalks. This is the life!
The
snowplough came back this afternoon and buried everything again. I
didn't
realize I would have to do quite this much shovelling, but I'll certainly
get back in shape this way. I wish I wouldn't huff and puff so.

December 15th

inches forecast. Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Blazer. Bought snow
tires
for the wife's car and 2 extra shovels. Stocked the freezer. The wife
wants a wood stove in case the electricity goes out. I think that's
silly.
We aren't in Alaska , after all.

December 16th

Ice storm this morning. Fell on my ass on the ice in the driveway
putting
down salt. Hurt like hell. The wife laughed for an hour, which I think
was
very cruel.

December 17th

Still way below freezing. Roads are too icy to go anywhere. Electricity
was off for 5 hours. I had to pile the blankets on to stay warm.
Nothing
to do but stare at the wife and try not to irritate her. Guess I
should've
bought a wood stove, but won't admit it to her. God I hate it when she's
right. I can't believe I'm freezing to death in my own living room.

December 20th

Electricity's back on, but had another 14 inches of the damn stuff last
night. More shovelling! Took all day. The dam snowplough came by
twice..
Tried to find a neighbour kid to shovel, but they said they're too busy
playing hockey. I think they're lying. Called the only hardware store
around to see about buying a snow blower and they're out. Might have
another shipment in March. I think they're lying. Bob says I have to
shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he's lying.

December 22nd

Bob was right about a white Christmas because 13 more inches of the white
crap fell today, and it's so cold, it probably won't melt till August.
Took
me 45 minutes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel and then I had to
pee.. By the time I got undressed, peed and dressed again, I was too
tired
to shovel. Tried to hire Bob who has a plough on his truck for the rest
of
the winter, but he says he's too busy. I think the butthole is lying.

December 23rd

Only2 inches of snow today. And it warmed up to 0. The wife wanted me
to
decorate the front of the house this morning. What is she, nuts?!! Why
didn't she tell me to do that a month ago? She says she did but I think
she's lying.

December 24th

6 inches - Snow packed so hard by snowplough, I broke the shovel.
Thought I
was having a heart attack. If I ever catch the son of a bitch who drives
that snow plough, I'll drag him through the snow by his balls and beat
him
to death with my broken shovel. I know he hides around the corner and
waits
for me to finish shovelling and then he comes down the street at a 100
miles
an hour and throws snow all over where I've just been! Tonight the wife
wanted me to sing Christmas carols with her and open our presents, but I
was
too busy watching for the damn snowplough.

December 25th

Merry fricking Christmas! 20 more inches of the damn slop tonight -
Snowed
in. The idea of shovelling makes my blood boil. God, I hate the snow!
Then the snowplough driver came by asking for a donation and I hit him
over
the head with my shovel. The wife says I have a bad attitude. I think
she's a fricking idiot. If I have to watch "It'sA Wonderful Life" one
more
time, I'm going to stuff her into the microwave.

December 26th

Still snowed in. Why the hell did I ever move here? It was all HER
idea.
She's really getting on my nerves.

December 27th

Temperature dropped to -30C and the pipes froze; plumber came after 14 hours
of waiting for him, he only charged me $1,400 to replace all my pipes.

December 28th

Warmed up to above -20C. Still snowed in. My WIFE is driving me crazy !!!

December 29th

10 more inches. Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in. That's the silliest thing I ever heard. How dumb does he think I am?

December 30th

Roof caved in. I beat up the snow plough driver, and now he is suing me for a million dollars, not only the beating I gave him, but also for trying to shove the broken snow shovel up his BUTT. My wife went home to her mother. Nine more inches predicted.

December 31st

I set fire to what's left of the house. No more shovelling.

January 8th

Feel so good. I just love those little white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed?

New blog format.

2010-02-09T15:47:00.012-05:00

Sophia stopped crying long enough to get my blog changed up a bit. It was getting pretty old and tired looking. Thank you Nichole for the clever catch line. I'm honestly not sure if I'll keep it, but it sure is clever.

If anyone has any suggestions I would be open to them.

Watch for more changes to come!

More news? My best friend and I managed to score floor tickets to the Michael Buble concert coming a mere 7 months from now. It's okay. I've got this image to tide me over till then:

Thank you Sean for being such a sweet hubby and ordering those tickets for us. He's even going to endure the concert with us.

Week 5 of Project 52 AND my photo for Develop on Fridays. I'm all caught up on it. This is week 1. Developing your voice. I was enjoying a quiet snowy Sunday and wanted to capture it and Amy (thank you) said my voice was very calm and relaxing which is EXACTLY what I was going for.

Week 2 was to take a photo based on someone who influences you and so I chose this one:

Millie Holloman is my influence as she just rocks! She has this amazing gift for capturing the most intimate moments flawlessly. She also rocks light and detail like no one else. I can't even begin to compare, so I chose this photo where I paid attention to detail.

I've even managed to get some scrapping done this past week:
{Click on the images for credits}

And finally, Terry got an offer for yet another job transfer, so the question this week remains: To move or not to move {again}

Recycling

2010-01-31T16:27:00.008-05:00

I'm pretty sure I've said a hundred times here that I have a pretty strong love going on with garbage day .In fact every week you can probably witness me skipping my garbage out to the curb. The more garbage the better. 6 bags of garbage meant I was having a pretty productive week in the housecleaning department. 1 bag and I'd been hanging my head in shame. Everything revolved on how much stinking garbage I was dragging to the curb and I am WILLING to pay for this service. $1 a bag in case you haven't been paying attention here. It's like Starbucks, I'm happy to spend the money.

Something happened recently that made me re-evaluate my whole thought process on garbage. We got a letter from the town to inform us of a new policy on garbage. A CLEAR bag program. Basically they want to see that you are making an effort to recycle around here and if they see recyclables in your garbage, they aren't taking it, plain and simple. I was outraged! (sort of) I mean seriously, I recycle. I don't really care if I have my weekly 6 bags of garbage, I'm recycling too and it's a total pain in the ass which meant I had two huge problems with this new program.

1. Time. Come on people, recycling takes work and I like to save the enviroment with the best of us but sometimes I get lazy and throw a tin can in the garbage instead of going all the way downstairs to recycle it. I guess I figure some recycling is better than no recycling right?

2. I can drive an hour and half to Kitchener where I used to hail and throw a couch on the side of the road and the garbage man with faithfully come to pick it up. No word of a lie, just before we moved, we threw out a T.V. a captain's bed and a couch and I sat at my window come garbage day (apparently I don't have much of a life) to see if he would actually pick it up and he did! No trip to the dump for me, which is a good thing right?

My point is, if I have to pick through every single piece of garbage why shouldn't everyone else?

I was whining about my plight to my aunt who has the luxury of property where she can burn virtually everything. She suggested getting a small can to put under the sink for just recyclables. Okay, so I did it and well, it wasn't rocket science, suddenly it's easy to recycle and I couldn't believe how fast that can filled up. By the end of the day, I had to empty it. Holy crap, I'm throwing all this away into a landfill when it can easily be recycled?

Suddenly my happiness at throwing 3-6 bags of garbage to the curb seems a little stupid doesn't it?

I realized I can still be the ruthless thrower~outer of all things but I can also do it in a more responsible way and that makes me smile because I'm doing my part.

And now I'm sharing it with you too.

Now how do I get down from here?

Project 52

2010-01-30T18:59:00.012-05:00

It's been so long since my last blog post. I'll have to do better but this past week or two has been crazy. Sophia continued her reign of crying and then to make matters worse Terry brought home a cold, which I caught in about 3 seconds being as run down as I am these days.

My cousin invited us to go tobagganing, which sounded like a great idea at the time and not such a great idea come Sunday. Jordan had a game, the house was a mess, and I was really starting to actually feel a little like death. I told the kids we weren't going and they really pitched in to gather up the million things we needed to head out for the day. It's amazing how quickly you forget just how much stuff you need to bring a baby out for the day. The day was good. I'm glad we got out and it was super mild and a bit rainy but still good.

I was just over at Nini's blog reading about a blog she found called the Simple Woman's Daybook
and I loved the idea so much I thought I would do one too. It will help with the blog posts and I might get some great scrapbook pages in too!

FOR TODAY...

(refer to the simple womans daybook)

Outside my window...It's snowing

I am thinking...it's awfully quiet here right now.

I am thankful for... being able to breathe through my nose again.

I am wearing...jeans

I am remembering...this to shall pass

I am going...to do the dishes and fold laundry after this

I am currently reading...nothing. Tonight I will choose a new book to read...

I am hoping... to get caught up this weekend

On my mind... the household chores

Noticing that...my mood is much better when the house is in order.

From the kitchen... Spaghetti and green beens

Around the house... laundry!

One of my favorite things~ a good book

From my picture journal...

Speaking of photos. Project 52 is coming along so well. Project 365 was so daunting and I knew this year with a new baby I would never be able to take a photo a day. A photo a week is so much more do~able.

Here's what I've got so far:

Including the sledding photo as week 4.

I'm hoping time will allow me to participate in Develop on Fridays found at the Paislee Press blog every Friday. I missed last week but hope to pick up this week. Check it out, I'm really looking forward to discussing this amongst a few close friends.

That's it for now...

Motherhood Unedited.

2010-01-18T18:48:00.009-05:00

You know, sometimes I wonder if people think before they speak. Everywhere I go, everyone stops to ask me how Sophia's doing. "Is she a good baby?" I'm wise to their game now, because if I say of course she's a good baby but she sure loves to cry with a giggle they look at me with pity and then decide that Sophia is not such a good baby after all.

I went into work for my daily dose of tea and ran into one of the regular customers and he told me "You look tired, you okay?"

Well of course I'm tired you moron, I was up 3 times last night with a newborn baby!

Obviously I didn't say this but let me tell you, it took everything in me not to say it. I just smiled agreed that I looked like crap, grabbed my tea and left.

Yes, Sophia cries ALOT. As I type this, she has just woken up from one of her marathon 5 minute cat naps, looked at me and you guessed it, she has started to cry. Now I frantically rock her seat with my foot and hope this will settle her for the remainder of my post.

Life with a newborn isn't easy. Sophia loves to cry and she also poops like it might be an Olympic sport, and yes, she is up every 3 hours in the night religiously. I seriously feel like a milking station as I lie awake at 3am trying to keep my eyelids open, but more often than not I wake up with my head resting against the headboard, wiping drool from my mouth while wiping Olympic size poops next to VERY dim light in a vain effort not to disturb Terry (he has to work you know, *insert eye roll here*)

My sister tells me it's a girl thing, she named her daughter Cryin' Rian and now we have affectionately nicknamed Sophia, "Sobbin' Sophie" (My sister thinks Screamin' Sophie is much more accurate, but I like the ring Sobbing Sophie, brings to the table, don't you?)

I try to look at it positively. This soon shall pass and maybe my little girl loves me soooo much that she just wants me to hold her ALL the time.

She can cry all day if she wants, because she does this pretty often too:

Oh and I went back to my old blogger template for now. I'll give you 3 guesses as to why....

Under Construction

2010-01-11T23:53:00.001-05:00

Under Construction....
Be back soon!

More resolutions and a poll..

2010-01-11T13:27:00.008-05:00

With the photo challenge at the PCF being all about resolutions, I got to thinking. Now I don't want to admit that I'm not organized, because I think I am, but I came to the realization that my time management and organizational skills could use a little work. For instance, I'm trying to find a photo this weekend and I realize I could be alot more efficient if I didn't have hundreds of photos in my folder to scroll through. Half of them I wouldn't print and the other half aren't edited. As I spent some time this weekend going through my photos and being a little cut throat I wondered, what all of you are doing with your photos?

Take this photo for instance:

I must have had too much wine when I took this. It's ridiculously blurry, and Terry hates that double chin effect he has going on. BUT this photo would never make it into my "cut" pile. Blurry or not blurry, it's pretty special, so that leaves the question of what to do with it? I decided to do a poll and ask you what to do. I am absolutely determined in the New Year to do something with all my photos that I love, instead of staring at this teetering pile of photo disks that is collecting dust.

and then comes the other question. If you print them all, then you have a teetering pile of photo albums to worry about in 2011.

Today

2010-01-02T10:25:00.005-05:00

Today I woke up to a sore throat which I think is totally unrelated to a cold. It's the kind of sore throat that requires a trip to the doctor's office I think.

It's -27 with the windchill out there which is okay until you realize you are out of milk and bread.

only to find a little boy standing on the kitchen counter chewing through the lid of a pudding cup which I guess is breakfast.

only to realize my "perfect" scrapbook page that I wanted to post is totally off center.

Went over to read Heather's blog and she had some resolutions listed. I really don't remember having any last year, I even double checked my blog posts and scrap pages from last year and nothing. This is a good thing I guess, there is nothing I didn't do I suppose, but this year I have a couple.

1. Take the plunge and stick to it no matter how hard
2. Do every single week of Sue Cummings 52 Inspirations
3. Keep up with my reading. I read 49 books last year and had a blast doing it. It was a huge stress relief for me. I'm not going to set a target number for how many books I read. That would be crazy with a new baby, but I resolve to keep reading everyday, even if only for a few minutes.
and finally:
4. I mentally resolve to do this one every year and always fail but I'm going to keep trying to be more patient and embrace the chaos. Usually I crack under even the slightest chaos and then lose my patience at record speed, so we will see how that one works out for me (*wink*)

Here's a start at Sue's 52 Inspirations:

New Year!

2010-01-01T20:35:00.004-05:00

Happy 2010!

We didn't do much of anything, which quite frankly, is just the way I like it. I'm not much of a party girl, and I'm not much of a drinker either, so New Years is a bit lost on me. I rented movies instead.

We watched,

The Line (Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta) not a bad movie, not great either.
The Ugly Truth, very appropriately named!
and Paranormal Activity which was disturbing, hard to turn away from and really irritating all at the same time. I had one glass of wine and got bored. The kids played AC/DC for Rock Band and I just barely rang in the New Year.

I live a thrilling life eh?

Christmas Update

2009-12-29T22:20:00.016-05:00

I can't believe it's been 10 days already since my last post. It seems to have just flown by. New Years is upon us already and I haven't even got my Christmas photos up yet.

Josh was up at 4:30. He waited quite some time for the rest of us to get up. Joseph was in awe of Santa's magical powers ;)

Jordan's favourite gifts were his NHL 2010 and his IPod docking station. I got him $15 from ITunes which I've never seen spent so quickly.

Joshua lost his mind over Rock Band and the new PS2 from Grandma and Grandpa to replace the broken one.

Joseph seems happy with each and every gift equally although he told the cashier at the grocery store today that his most favourite gift was his Go Diego Go sled. So cute!!!

I want to take a class in Christmas morning photo taking. Every photo seemed blurry, so I switched to Auto Mode (*gasp*) and they looked even worse. Next year I am strategically placing a tripod.

I do have some favorite holiday photos though:

Joseph looking cute while checking out the presents.

Sophia under the tree on Christmas Eve. She's a gift all her own :)

I love the look of concentration on Josh's face and Joseph as the resident singer, yet again. Rock Band is VERY noisy by the way...and I'm noticing a pattern with Joseph here. It seems it was a pantless Christmas for that boy. Hmmmm. You have to wonder what his parents were thinking...

I love any photo of me with the kids. They are so few and far between. Terry took this one pretty late at night so it's blurry but still one of my faves.

Jordan was really into building this gingerbread sled. I love the concentration and tone of this one.

I loved their hands in this one working to build. Josh wanted nothing to do with the building and everything to do with the eating of it after.

I was going to keep the tree up until after New Years and didn't make it. The tree came "crashing" down today. Tommorow I want to get the house back in order and focus on getting things done before the New Year.

I'm thanking god for Terry's gift to me today. It's -20 with the windchill out there, but Terry got me a new down filled coat and I am finally warm. Thank God!

Hope everyone else had a very Merry Christmas!

Little bits.

2009-12-18T11:22:00.004-05:00

1. I knew there was a reason I loved ITunes so much. The holiday sampler rocks and it's free by the way.(but only if your a Canadian)

2. Sophia is one month old now. What a blur! I feel a little like I lived that in a haze of sleepness nights and chaos, and it makes me a little sad. She's changing so much everyday. I must say though, I'm enjoying the fact that she doesn't scream blue murder EVERY time I try and change her diaper, I'd say she's down to half which I'm thanking God for.
Trying to find a Christmas dress for this little peanut has been an impossible task. Walmart doesn't have anything that isn't hideous. The small specialty shop doesn't even have dresses? and the shopping here just sucks. I have a feeling online shopping will be my new obsession for girly stuff.

3. No I'm not doing Christmas cards this year. I can't seem to organize a family photo (or even a kids photo for that matter) to save my life. It's been bothering me that I haven't got it done, but I'm going to have to let it go, there is always next year right?

4. I got my hands on Stephen King's new book "Under the Dome" all 1068 pages of it. I already know I'm incredibly dorky in saying that seeing that gigantic book in my hands made me excited.

5. FINALLY got the parcels mailed out. I hope they get there on time.

6. The house is finally looking clean. I got the bathroom cleaned, floors washed, dusting, organized under my sink, cleaned the fridge, washed, folded and put away laundry, got the garbage and recycling out, and I even managed to get a scrapbook layout done and pick up my book from the library. Now if I could just get the boys to clean their rooms, I'd be all set.

7. Setting a little time aside to work on my little project ;)

8. Making cookies in bulk is NOT my specialty, but Joseph loves making stars and trees. The older boys are getting set to make themselves a mean gingerbread house this weekend to celebrate their holidays.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't such a little post after all :)

Still here..

2009-12-16T11:22:00.004-05:00

It's a winter wonderland out there. Today I need to:

Mail parcels
Make cookies
Clean
The boys Christmas concert is later tonight.
Wrap presents

But first a cup of tea.

Canadian Snowday!

2009-12-11T20:47:00.015-05:00

We are in the middle of a huge snowstorm here. Dad if your reading this, look away now because I'm going to say it. I really love snow. I can't imagine living somewhere where we didn't get it. Okay, it's cold. I can do without that, and I get a little sick of shoveling the driveway come Febuary, but I do like it. No, I love it. It's gorgeous, the kids have a blast in it and it really puts me in the Christmas spirit, not to mention it's great to photograph too. It is cold though. That snow is really blowing out there which always makes me thankful that I have a warm house to hide out in.

We are not so thankful for the hydro bill though.

Some areas are expected to get up to 100cm or 2.5 feet of snow and I'm starting to think we are one of those places! It's been snowing all day long and as I write this at 9pm, it still hasn't let up and it's not showing any signs of stopping either. They didn't actually cancel school today,just the buses, but Jordan wasn't about to go in, Josh for some reason decided he wanted to go, so I only have photos of 2 out of 3 boys.

That guy in the photo above is my neighbour up the street. He was enjoying the snow too and to tell you the truth, I was a little jealous. It looked like a ton of fun!

Would you believe that this is UNDER the tree in my front yard. They wanted to make a fort in the tree and had to clear out the snow first!

Jordan is weird like me. He actually likes to shovel the driveway.

The neighbour kid, literally up to his ass in snow. Check out that sky. Whiteout conditions out there.

My boys :)

Christmas stuff.

2009-12-10T17:29:00.013-05:00

Having babies before Christmas is chaotic to say the least. There are doctor's appointments, people stopping by, Jordan and Josh's Christmas concert is coming up next week, cookies to bake, decorating to get done and don't even get me started on shopping. I have ALOT of shopping still to do. I was going to start tommorow and then a wicked snow storm hit us and we have a TON of snow out there. I was up bright and early trying to shovel the driveway before Terry went to work. I started out feeling groggy and miserable (Sophia didn't go to sleep till 2 and I was up again at 7:30 to start the day. Don't forget the feeding in between too!) By the time I finished the driveway, I was feeling energetic and ready to start the day, which is totally why I shovel in the first place. It's too cold to take the baby out, so shoveling has become my exercise. It felt good. Eating chocolate while watching episodes of Dog the Bounty Hunter (don't ask) don't really make for productivity after all.

Last night I decided I didn't like the way the tree was decorated so Joseph and I took it apart while Jordan and Joshua watched and we changed up the color to red, since we had more ornaments that matched that color scheme. I'm almost happy with it now :)

I can't even begin to describe how excited Joseph is for Christmas this year. 4 must be the magic age because he is just beside himself. The other day when we went to get coffee they had a giant Santa in the entranceway that sang and danced and he really didn't want to leave. He was just mesmormized by this thing. He wants to watch everything Christmas on T.V. and he pretty much wants everything from the wishbook under the tree come Christmas morning. He wants loads of stuff for his sister too.

Did I mention that he worships her?
If he so much as hears her cry he's yelling at me "Baby Sister!"
Which is code for drop everything and run :)

Today she was crying and Joseph figured a "sooder" was going to fix it all. He loves to give it to her and smiles when she stops crying.

Loving Sue's Merry and Bright Daily Download. Everyday is a new surprise to scrap with. When Terry and I asked Joseph what he wanted for Christmas the other night, these were the top 3 wants on his list. It was too cute not to scrap.

Snow (which we got)
Candy
and robots.

Now if only the older boys were this simple.

In the spirit.

2009-12-04T16:21:00.011-05:00

Sue Cummings has an amazing kit over at Oscraps. It's the Merry and Bright Daily Digital kit. If anyone should have a marketing degree, it's Sue Cummings. This kit just screams buy me from the shop, AND it's packed. At the end of the month you'll get 24 papers, 100+ word art and elements, 10 quick pages and many more bonuses along the way. I hear you'll even be able to make a Christmas album which will come in handy for a busy new Mom with not alot of scrap time!

Get your kit here

I was really starting to wonder where all my inspiration went but today we had our first snowfall and suddenly I had the urge to take photos and scrap again. Honestly, I was scared for a bit there!

Saw this cute challenge at Oscraps, where you write a letter to Santa and honestly this Michael Buble song popped into my head. Grown up Christmas List makes me cry every single time. I wanted to remember this song, so it was scrapped.

and I had to scrap my first page of sweet Sophie too:
Thank god for QP's!

Computer is working a bit better too, so now I can work on my surprise. Be back soon :)

Just a quick update.

2009-11-30T12:48:00.009-05:00

Sophia is 15 days old today. I feel like she has changed so much, so quickly. She is so alert and seems very aware of what's going on around her.

Me? I'm totally unmotivated. I deluded myself into thinking I would have her and things would go back to normal around here, (yeah, sheesh) but *duh* that is sooo not the case. I'm not motivated to do anything at all, which is really irritating. I have to keep reminding myself, it's only been 2 weeks. My mind tells me to take our Christmas photo, send out thank you cards, clean the house, but my body is telling me to just hold her, which is what I'm doing.....

...and then I can't seem to put her down. Before I know it, it's 3 o'clock and really little in the way of "chores" have been done.

I still have big news to share BUT my crappy computer is getting in the way. It is running ridiculously slow and I just don't really want to deal with it right now, so my news is going to wait until I figure this out and/or Santa brings me a new computer..ahhhh wishful thinking over here huh?

The tree is almost decorated. It just needs a few more finishing touches.

I electrocuted myself putting lights above the cupboards in the kitchen, right after I got home from Wal Mart (in my quest to find a Baby's First Christmas ornament, which by the way, I didn't) and bought a very cute sweater only to have a button fall off of it within the hour, and then I burnt the pizza while tending to my fried hand, feeding Sophia and searching for the crappy button.

Chaos. Chaos and more chaos.
I'll be back later when there is less chaos.
Maybe in about 18 years?

For now, I'm headed back to pick up that little girl of mine, till 3:00, but this time I'm not going to feel guilty about it.

Welcome to the world Sophia!

2009-11-23T14:49:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I'm way late in posting, but I have an excuse:

Sophia Lynn Elizabeth
November 15th 2009
6lbs 15.5oz

She is such a good baby, so alert and so content. Terry is still getting over the shock I think. I really, really think he was that skeptical about her gender that he was genuinely surprised that she was indeed a she. It's hard to believe in the blur of my Mom being here and the lack of sleep and complete chaos in the house that in just a blink of an eye she is already a week old. We haven't been doing much of anything around here. Eating, watching alot of T.V. and between the 3 of us, cleaning up the house. It's been restful. Terry went back to work this morning, and Mom leaves in the morning and then it'll just be us again and I have a feeling, a ton of caffeine will be in order to survive it all.

But she's so worth it.

Stay tuned for more exciting news this week. I'm taking the plunge thanks in part to my Mom who wouldn't really take no for an answer.

Thank you Mom!

In the Store.

2009-11-11T08:50:00.001-05:00

The lovely Sue Cummings has put one of my quick pages in her store!!! Thank you Sue for the great opportunity!

You can only grab it until December 1st so hurry and grab it :)

Happy 4th Birthday Joseph.

2009-11-10T09:39:00.017-05:00

Joseph was so happy to see the house decorated when he woke up. He came in to get me.

I said: "It's your birthday today!"

Joseph: "Is he here?"

Me: "Is who here?"

Joseph: "Santa?"

So he's a little confused between birthday's and Christmas but it was a cute conversation that might have to be scrapped!

He's still in love with Lightning McQueen so he got a (very annoying) race track and because Transformers is such a huge hit, we got him a very cool Transformer which broke that very same day. *sigh* He's very upset that "Bunnlebee" (Bumblebee) is broken.

LOL! Look at my cake..It was really yummy, but my talent is not in cake making.

Halloween and stuff.

2009-11-05T17:19:00.017-05:00

Halloween wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. They were calling for rain and thankfully it held off. It was chilly but dry and the kids had a great time! Terry, Jordan and Joseph carved the pumpkin on the left, while Josh and I went to the school and carved a cool alien pumpkin. It was fun and I'm not really a fan of carving pumpkins.

Terry took pictures of me and the kids but surprise, surprise, they all turned out blurry and unusable! Joseph is shirtless these days showing off his Transformers tattoo to anyone that walks in the room.

Like I said, I can't take a photo to save my life. They were all so blurry, but to my credit it was pretty dark when they were taken.

Darth Vadar Josh:

A lion again

and Jordan got really creative this year and went out as a girl! I love this costume!

In the baby department we are still waiting but she is up to about 7 lbs as of the last ultrasound and the stupid doctors really bullied me into the H1N1 shot which I wasn't expecting, but they said it would protect the baby so why wouldn't I take it?
I'm sick of all the H1N1 drama. Facebook is loaded with it, everybody thinks they have it and everything on T.V. is H1N1 all the time. I wish it would just go away really.

Joseph is turning 4 this Saturday and even though I'm anxious and ready for this baby to come, I really don't want to miss his birthday. Terry thinks it would be cool for the baby to be born on the same day as Joseph. Me? Not so much.

I'm going to attempt this cake for his birthday:

Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

My Spouse and I.

2009-10-27T19:25:00.002-05:00

My Spouse

I decided to play along with this game posted by Heather, and I hope you do too. It's such a cute little quiz and I couldn't resist.

♥ What are your middle names?
Nicole and William

♥ How long have you been together?
17 years.

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
5 minutes or so. Isn't that how it works in high school?

♥ Who asked who out?
Neither I guess, it was just unspoken I think.

♥ How old are each of you?
He is 30 and I am 33.

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most?
We don't really ever see either of our siblings. We live too far away.

♥ Do you have any children together?
3.5!

♥ What about pets?
Not right now :(

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Not having family around us like most people do. At least my Dad is here.

♥ Did you go to the same school?
no.

♥ Are you from the same home town?
Yes

♥ Who is the smartest?
Me :)

♥ Who is the most sensitive?
Me again.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
We don't eat out too much because I'm paranoid, but we do agree on a certain Chinese restaurant.

♥ Who has the worst temper?
Again me, he's so laid back. I hate that!

♥ Who does the cooking?
Me mostly but he's starting to add more to our menu.

♥ Who is more social?
Normally I would say me, but since he works with the public so much, I'd go with him. I'm just more willing to get out there I guess.

♥ Who is the neat-freak?
Depends on the day I guess. He has his moments.

♥ Who is the more stubborn?
I'm starting to look bad in this quiz.....

♥ Who hogs the bed?
He does, sometimes I end up with Jordan and he honestly wonders why?

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
He does. I don't get up until I absolutely HAVE to.

♥Where was your first date?
It was high school, we didn't really do the dating thing. You like each other and you become inseperable. That's pretty much the extent of dating.

♥ Who has the bigger family?
Me

♥ Do you get flowers often?
No, he knows I hate them. Plants arrive in the house though :)

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
Usually just us.

♥ Who is more jealous?
I'd say he is.

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
Again, about 5 minutes...

♥ Who eats more?
Oh me for sure. He eats nothing, I'm not sure how he lives really.

♥ Who does/did the laundry?
Terry and laundry? Betcha five bucks he doesn't know how to turn it on..

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
That's a tie I think.

♥ Who drives when you are together?
He does.

That's it! Feel free to copy and paste this to your own blog, and link me once you get it done so I can read your answers.

Notes.

2009-10-21T19:54:00.005-05:00

I'm writing little notes mostly to myself since I can't scrap a layout to save my life. I can't seem to take a decent photo either. I took a bunch of photos the other day of Joseph playing in the leaves and most of them turned out terribly. I'm assuming it's "pregnancy brain" or something. There has to be a technical term for what I'm experiencing.

Yesterday all my focus was on cleaning and organizing. Nesting if you will.
Today, not so much, but in my defense the heartburn that I was just bragging was gone, returned with a vengance. Heartburn sucks. Remember back here when I mentioned an old wives tale my Mom told me about heartburn in pregnancy = baby having hair? Well that might not be just an old wives tale after all. At my tenth (yes tenth) ultrasound this past Monday, I was told my baby had hair. How much remains to be seen, but I can't wait anymore.

I had a tenth ultrasound because the doctors are paranoid. Heaven forbid a small person have a small baby! I was proud that she went from weighing roughly 4lbs 5oz to weighing 5lbs 14oz in just 3 weeks. That's progress right? You would think it was but nope, I got handed another requisition for an ultrasound booked for November 2nd. It doesn't matter because I wasn't planning on being pregnant that much longer anyway :)

The goal is a Halloween baby. Don't tell Terry that though. He's running the show at work this week, so I'm not allowed to have a baby yet. *sigh*

Registered Joseph for Kindergarten for next year and feel so much better about holding him back a year. It was informative and they gave him the cutest little tote packed full of learning materials and his first bible! This little thing is adorable, full of stories and illustrations.

Terry and I are feeling much better and miraculously none of the kids got sick, let's hope it stays that way!

Gearing up for the dreaded Halloween and trick or treating.

Josh wants to be Harry Potter for the second year in a row. Jordan is undecided which makes me crazy with only 10 days to go. Joseph is going as a lion again. He thinks he's cute :)

So tell me. What's new with you?

Stuff.

2009-10-14T10:20:00.007-05:00

Most of the friends we meet online and in the scrapbook world, sadly we may never meet. Most of them reside in the U.S. and even Australia, but sometimes life surprises you and you get an email from a friend that lives so close, it would be silly not to meet right?

So I got to meet Christine!!! My scrapping hero and probably THE sweetest person I think I've ever met!!! How lucky am I? It was a whirlwind visit squeezed into the chaotic frenzy of getting the kids ready for back to school, but we did it and I'm so glad. I honestly hope we will see each other more often.

Thank you Christine!

Josh took this great photo of us right before Christine headed home. I don't think he did such a bad job, except for the fact that my hair is an embarrasment, I'm pretty happy with it.

In other news, Terry has a few days off of work so we have been recovering from our colds, drinking gallons of tea and whining about our misfortune, but yesterday we were talking about how close we are to having this baby and Terry took out the camera for some belly shots.

This one is my favourite of the bunch!

October Sucks....

2009-10-11T14:12:00.006-05:00

So October hasn't started out really well. My baby (the computer) crashed and crashed again, and then just when I thought I was brilliant and had fixed it, it crashed again. I have to wonder how you can love something so much yet regularly want to chuck it out the window and smash the crap out of it with a bat.

No, I don't have any anger issues I need to work out.

I've had doctors, or should I correct that statement and say MY doctor giving me such a hard time about the pregnancy that last week at my scheduled appt. I was actually sitting on the table gagging, I was so nervous. Thank god, I was seeing a different doctor this time and when I left, I must admit, he had me feeling quite Superwoman-ish. Gotta love that.

The boys are outside in their winter jackets. You know it's cold when the kids are complaining that it's cold. Me? I'm watching from the window. Oooooh, I know I'm bad, but if you want to try it, I fully endorse it.

I received another cold so bad that I asked Terry if it would be okay to just cry.
I am literally drowning over here and Terry wouldn't let me cry about it either.

But....

It's Thanksgiving weekend here and there is something about sitting in a warm house with a lemon tea, baking pies (badly) and knowing you have enough food to feed 20, that just makes you feel thankful.

Don't you think?

Feels like fall.

2009-09-30T08:28:00.018-05:00

Don't tell Terry, but I think I'm starting to love fall. Usually with the arrival of fall, Terry gets the pleasure of hearing me complain about the chill, the window he likes to have open at night in our room, the inevitiable doom of the approaching winter season. I'll admit, I'm a whiner about it. In my defense, I am a stick, with no body fat or reserve to save me and I mostly run on survival mode from October to March. (or April)

At 8:15 this morning when Jordan left for school he told me another animal got into the garbage and it was strewn all over the driveway, so I grabbed some gloves and a bag to go out and clean it up and it was CHILLY outside.

I kind of liked it.

It's only been raining for 3 days now, so I think to see the rain gone is a much better fate. I feel like bundling up, grabbing a hot chocolate and taking Joseph for a much deserved walk.

I put a roast in the crock pot. I want to go shopping for big chunky (and warm) cardigans (that's going to have to wait)

I feel somewhat productive, I finished my girly paper pack ( a wee sneak for ya) named appropriately Sophie. (Thanks Nichole for the help in naming it)

I'm working on Halloween designs and frames, and I'm hunting for a store to sell this stuff in.

I bought these awesome boots last week and now I can actually wear them. Joseph calls them cute. I didn't realize what a great deal they were until I got the receipt and they were originally $100 and I got them for $10.

I wonder if portrait photography is not my thing. I couldn't get Josh to do what I wanted him to do and he kept making all these funny faces. They are still cute though.

I was really surprised at how cooperative Joseph was, but it didn't last long. This is my favourite of Joseph.

The day is slipping away, so I'm going to grab a very patient Joseph and head out for that hot chocolate now :)

Nesting.

2009-09-24T08:19:00.006-05:00

There is something to be said for that stage in pregnancy called nesting, but I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not. Isn't there something to be said for resting? Shouldn't I be curled up in a chair with a good book and my feet up? That's what everybody tells you to do. "Rest" or "put your feet up," which is all good in theory but my mind is telling me to clean up my hard drive and paint the living room. I suppose in a very short 7 weeks, when I'm sitting on the couch, exhausted and devoid of all energy whatsoever, I'll be glad I painted the walls instead of putting my feet up, but still. Is there any end in sight?

I just keep adding stuff to the list that needs to be "nested."

I got all that computer stuff done. It took all day which amazes me. One seemingly tiny project can take up your whole day, but this is going to WORK for me. I went from having 65 GB on my hard drive to having 85, I wasn't expecting such a big jump but when your August photo folder is a whopping 4 GB's alone, it's no wonder.

Here's what I did with my scrap stuff. I took it all off my computer. I put all my supplies on a card and only kept very organized folders of designer previews. No more sifting through folders for what I want or "think I have" I just open the designer folder and I can see everything I have at my finger tips and just upload it from my card reader. I scrapped two pages yesterday in my organized bliss.

What I really wanted to do was my baby book, but that is becoming a very slow going project. A pretty pink paper pack is in the works, along with some designs for photographers. But first things first, that stupid living room and the wall that needs paint.

The sun is deciding to make an appearance which means Joseph will be wanting a walk. That I can deal with.

That and a two hour premiere of Grey's Anatomy! Is it wrong to be so excited about a T.V. show?

Order.

2009-09-21T11:45:00.013-05:00

I decided over the last couple of weeks that I want to DO something. I'm sick of sitting around thinking about it all the time. I want to just do it. If I fail, I fail, but at least I tried right? Look at Jessie. She wanted to write books and she writes books, she wanted to start a photography business and she just did it. She definitely didn't waste time sitting around just talking about it. I have to admire that.

Anyway, in my quest to start this stuff up. I need order. When it comes to my computer, this is pretty much accurate.

No it's not my closet. I would never have a closet look like this and sleep at night, so why should my computer look like that? No wonder I can't get anything accomplished.

5,720 items just sitting on my computer? Geez.

All that stuff is photos and scrap files!

Terry brought home an 8Gb memory card which all my scrap files are being transferred to and they are getting cleared off the computer! Photos and scrap files will no longer be in the same place. Stuff I'm working on will have it's own space. Stuff is being deleted and moved around and I'm excited about it.

I'm juggling finances. *sigh*

But I'm getting it done.
It feels good. Thank god for rainy days.

Ahhhh, history.

2009-09-18T08:24:00.007-05:00

My grandfather passed away a few years ago, but my aunt Jackie has been sharing photos and video over on facebook for all of us and it is quite amazing. I hope she doesn't mind but I have to share all these photos and the video of grandpa singing opera. She did the most amazing job on it!

My Mom is that adorable little thing in the middle.

This one blows my mind. Something about them playing dress up together is just too cute for words. Again, my Mom is in the middle.

Is there anybody out there?

2009-09-15T18:46:00.009-05:00

I have this thing with hats, especially hats for babies. I stumbled upon this site that sells these hats that are completely adorable but really, really expensive. Is there anybody that could make these? Of course, I'd be willing to pay for them.

Aren't they just too cute for words?

I can't help it.

2009-09-13T09:27:00.009-05:00

These things are always fun to do and pass along. Thanks Heather!
Feel free to do one too!

Don't Ask Me No Questions

***********FOODOLOGY***************

What is your salad dressing of choice?
Italian!

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
East Side Mario's or any other Italian restaurant for that matter.

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
Pasta!

What are your pizza toppings of choice?
Mushrooms, veggies.

What do you like to put on your toast?
Strawberry Jam, peanut butter. I'm not picky ;)

***********TECHNOLOGY***************

How many televisions are in your house?
2. It used to be some ridiculous number like 4 but we have kids. Figure that one out!

What color is your cellphone?
I don't have a cell phone. I think I have an aversion to them actually.

Do you have an iPod?
Yep, the IPod touch. Best piece of technology ever.
***************BIOLOGY******************

Are you right-handed or left-handed?
Right handed.

Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
Just kids ;)

What is the last heavy item you lifted?
Joseph. Probably not wise.

Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
No, but I probably should have been a few times.

************BULLOLOGY**************

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
No, wait yes. If knowing could change the outcome somehow, then yes.

If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
I wouldn't change my name.

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000?
No. No I wouldn't.

**************FAVORITOLOGY****************

Season?
Summer

Holiday?
Christmas

Day of the week?
Can I say Thursday because Grey's is on? LOL

Month?
December. Snow. Making Christmas cookies. Christmas concerts. Shopping. Decorating.
Yeah, hands down it's December.

***********CURRENTOLOGY*****************

Missing someone?
Anyone who doesn't live here.

Mood?
Irritated. THe kids keep taking the cushions off the couch and jumping on them!

What are you listening to?
Kids and cartoons.

Current worry?
Germs, money, having enough time. You know the everyday worries.

***************RANDOMOLOGY*****************

First place you went this morning?
Computer.

What’s the last movie you saw?
G.I. Joe for Joshua's birthday.

***************OTHER-OLOGY*****************

How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
One pair, that I wear constantly.

Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
High school?

Last person you talked to?
Joshua

Last person you hugged?
Joseph

Do you always answer your phone?
No.

It’s four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it?
Somebody who isn't very smart ;)

If you could change your eye color what would it be?
I wouldn't change my eye color.

What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic?
Sonic? Must be American?

Do you own a digital camera?
Yes, the best gift ever from Terry. Canon Rebel XSI

Have you ever had a pet fish?
We have a nasty algae eater that Terry won't part with.

Favorite Christmas song(s)?
Where do I start?

Have yourself a merry little Christmas-Sara McLachlan
Baby it's Cold outside.

What’s on your wish list for your birthday?
Birthday? That's a while away, but maybe books. Scrapping supplies. Clothes?

Can you do push ups?
Yeah, but why?

Can you do a split?
Doubt it.

Does the future make you more nervous or excited?
Excited. I want to travel.

Do you have any saved texts?
Nope.

Have you ever been in a car accident?
No.

Do you have an accent?
No.

What is the last movie to make you cry?
Marlie and Me. The only one I can think of off hand.

Plans tonight?
Reading and baking cookies for school.

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?
Yes.

Name 3 things you bought yesterday?
New cordless phones, some baby clothes, a few groceries.

Have you ever been given roses?
Yes, but I'm not really a fan of them. I'd rather get a plant that will last longer than a day or two.

Met someone who changed your life?
Many, many people.

How will you bring in the New Year?
New Years? Isn't that a little far off?

What song represents you?
Hmmmmm

Would you go back in time if you were given the chance?
Who wouldn't. I mean we are talking Back to the Future here aren't we? LOL

Do you have any tattoos/piercings?
Nope

Does anyone love you?
I hope so.

Would you be a pirate?
Probably ;)

What songs do you sing in the shower?’
I DO NOT sing in the shower or anywhere else for that matter.

Ever had someone sing to you?
Nope, I don't think so.

Do you like to cuddle?
Nope. Not really.

Have you held hands with anyone today?
No

Who was the last person you took a picture of?
Joseph I guess.

Are most of the friends in your life new or old?
Mostly old. A few new.

Do you like pulpy orange juice?
It's not real orange juice if it isn't pulpy!

What is something your friends make fun of you for?
It'd probably be a shorter list to name the stuff they don't make fun of me for.
Mostly the germphobia.

It's that time again.

2009-09-08T18:34:00.005-05:00

It's that time again, and by time I mean back to school.
I'm also going to be honest. I'm doing a happy dance about it.

I love my kids, but my house is in chaos, any routine we did have was gone the first week of summer, and my sanity has reached it's breaking point, honestly and truly.

The kids were excited too. Up before me and in the shower with no drama. Gotta love that about boys. They are easy, which works fabulously for an "I hate mornings" Mom.

I was looking for a little more serenity this morning but it didn't happen. Our internet went out Saturday night which was just our luck being a long weekend. So we went without for 3 excruciating days.

I could have killed Jordan when he asked what was up with the internet and I told him the modem went and we would have to wait till Tuesday to have it fixed.

He looked at me like it was somehow MY fault and said:
" I have things to do, and need to harvest on Farmville."
I had to send him to his room so I didn't kill him right then and there.

Farmville?
That retarded facebook game that everybody is addicted to? This is high priority?

So without internet I actually rearranged furniture to create more space, and it actually worked. I feel so much less claustrophobic.

Next up. Projects. Like that baby book I was talking about.

Playing at the park with Joseph. We might just get an Indian Summer here.
(Crossing my fingers and toes, but so far, so good)

Cleaning and preparing for baby. She's making me nervous this one.
And the indigestion, I tell you it's killing me.

Photo Sharing..again.

2009-09-03T16:23:00.017-05:00

I don't think I shared the photos from the day we went up to Bruce Caves.

A little history:

"The area obtained it's name from an eccentric hermit, Robert Bruce, born on the Orkney Islands of Scotland and believed to be a member of the Scots guards at the beginning of the Crimean War. Bruce was a British remittance man who owned the cave property around the turn of the century. He lived in a small shanty near the entrance to the caves and charged a minimal fee to the numerous tourists who came by horse and buggy to view the caves. A soft spoken man, Bruce loved to tell stories. For clothing he bought grey flannelette blankets with soft blue or pink stripes and had them made into loose fitting jackets and pants. Bruce was buried in Oxenden cemetery on January 24th 1908."

*Source: Bruce-Grey Tourism*

I could have stayed there all day.

I'm sure she's my twin.

2009-09-02T16:41:00.005-05:00

I laughed so hard when I read this. Surely this woman and I have been separated at birth.

Denial and acceptance being my personal fave, followed closely by anger and "non acceptance" since I have never reached this stage.

Some things just soooo need to be shared.

Kami are you with me?

http://dailyrelish.squarespace.com/journal/2009/9/2/outbreak.html

(Blogger is being a pain in the ass, copy and paste the link.)

Baby, baby, baby.

2009-09-01T13:17:00.009-05:00

It seems like life lately revolves around the arrival of this baby. It's only about 10 weeks to go now, but feels like an eternity. Heartburn has become an issue which was never a problem before. I was talking to my Mom last night and she says:

"Heartburn means your baby has alot of hair."

I responded to that with a whole lot of silence. Hair?

This is when she admits it is an old wives tale. Who comes up with these things?

Today I had a checkup. Almost 30 weeks along now. I would really rather claw my eyeballs out than sit in a waiting room, which by the way was packed, giving me nausea and the urge to flee.

I waited an hour and in he comes with a student. He checks my dates AGAIN which always irritates me, because he does this every single time. Maybe he should write it down so he doesn't forget?

Then he says, "Well you haven't gained that much weight."

If looks could kill, my icy stare has killed this guy.

"Oh right you don't really gain alot of weight do you?"

"25 pounds doesn't seem like nothing to me." I want to punch him. I really do.

Every single time I have a baby, they whine about my weight and every single time I produce a healthy baby. I guess to be "healthy" I have to gain 300 pounds and have a Ceasarian because I can't even deliver it. This seems to make them less nervous.

Then he tells since I'm far enough along I can go over to the OB clinic in the hospital now for the rest of my appointments.

I hate the clinic. I want to punch him again.

You can spend the whole day in the clinic waiting to see a doctor amongst a bunch of chatty Moms to be who live for these appointments to compare notes and make fun of each other. It's a prison sentence that place.

I usually get "the eye" and the questions about my size.

10 more weeks. Less if I'm lucky. I can do this. I will bring books and my dayplanner and pretend to be utterly busy while I wait.

Nobody ever said I was a social girl did they?

Comfort food.

2009-08-28T18:36:00.006-05:00

I get excited when the Kraft magazine comes in the mail. It's a free publication that comes seasonally with all sorts of good recipes and tips. Jordan has taking a liking to browsing it too, for the great back to school snack ideas. He requested that I make a new recipe tonight.

Easy Everyday Pot Pie. Pretty much a variation of a tuna casserole but so much better. Since it's the most drizzly, damp day ever, comfort food was looking pretty good so I made it and the kids literally devoured it.

What you need:

1 pkg Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken (the kids favourite part of the recipe)
3 cups cooked chicken
3 cups frozen mixed vegetables ( I used corn and fresh brocolli)
1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup of milk

Make it:

Heat Oven to 375 F
Prepare stuffing mix as directed on package
Combine chicken and veggies in 2.3 L baking dish. Mix soup and milk: pour over chicken mixture. Top with stuffing. (We ended up using 2 boxes of stuffing)
Bake 30 min. or until hot and bubbly.

Total goodness.
Now I have a date with a cup of tea and a load of laundry.

Happy Birthday Josh.

2009-08-25T09:23:00.006-05:00

And now he is 9. Whew! Where does the time go anyway?

Since he couldn't decide what he wanted for his birthday, everybody gave him money. Now he's prancing around the house feeling like the richest boy in the world.

I did know that the timing was perfect to have G.I. Joe playing so we went to see it. Joseph was crying at the door. He wanted to come too and since I can't resist him, we brought him with us. Not exactly an age appropriate movie for him but in my defense he was more interested in his candy than he was the movie. He did well too.

I still suck at low light shots, but this one of him blowing out his candles wasn't too bad.

Happy Birthday Josh!

P.S. Gotta love this freebie template from Heather.She rocks. Grab it here!

Tornados!

2009-08-21T08:36:00.010-05:00

Remember that hot summer weather that I've been wishing for? Well we've had it. Lots of it and last night it resulted in tornado's all across Ontario. One landing 15 mins away in Durham.

Terry and I were sitting in virtual darkness it was that dark outside when I said,

"This is prime tornado weather."

"Nah, he says, we don't get those."

Not five minutes later Jordan who is on the computer sees "Tornado Watch" flash across the screen.

Case in point. The woman is always right.

Mom called because they were getting reports in B.C. Then Terry's family called.

Here are some photos I found across the internet this morning.

A photo of the storm before it hit Oshawa.

A shot of a tornado touching down in Vaughn.

Markdale, where my Dad and a ton of aunts, uncles and cousins live. According to my little cousin Hana, a barn was lost, a trampoline ended up in a hydro pole and the baseball diamonds are no more.

I absolutely love this photo from Durham. I know that sounds bad, but whoever took it captured perfectly the complete loss and destruction. Durham is in a state of emergency now. I would love to get over there and take a peek but they are trying to keep everyone who doesn't belong there out at this point for cleanup.

Today: Many things to scratch off my to-do list.

Joshua is turning 9 this weekend which means I have to make a cake.
Poor, poor Joshua.
Appts. to make
Back to school shopping.
Bill paying.

I'm enjoying my new planner thanks to a tip from Heather who says it's always better to start it September or the start of the new school year. I got plannner pages for a dollar yesterday and got to filling it in. Thanks Heather. My life might just get a little more organized.

Oh and for those of you who don't know yet:

It's a girl! Or so they say anyway.

I've received the usual "Are you sure's?"
The skeptical looks and tones of doubt.
and my personal favourite, "Better prepare for a boy just in case" with a look of pity thrown in for good measure.

So, last time I checked I wasn't an ultrasound technician, so of course nothing is for sure, but I will trust in her experience and yes, a boy will be just as loved as a girl.

Just in case you were wondering and all.