Christmas Pics

Auntie and Kylie, decorating gingerbread cookies the Sunday before Christmas.


Jacob making chocolate pops for our Christmas Eve party. He was so excited about our Christmas Eve PJ Party that he just stayed in his pj's all day long lol.


Jacob with his new guitar and his Green Day shirt.


Sam in her new Dora chair. We felt sorry for her, having to sit in the
ghetto chair that Kylie made so we bought her a cushy armchair for reading books in.


I'd like to show you a picture of Kylie, ever so excited about her Christmas gifts, but she doesn't seem to get excited about anything lately...so this is what you get. But according to her, she is very, very excited in this picture.

Stupid, stupid dr >:{

Argh! Remember last Monday, I took Kylie to the medicentre to get her checked out because she was so sick? Stupid dr took a throat swab, but told us that he believed that it was just a flu...well, guess who called this morning! The medicentre, asking for Kylie to come back because she needs to see a dr again. Well, after 4 hours of waiting (unreal) we finally got a prescription for antibiotics, as Kylie has strep throat! An entire week she was walking around with this, and I just read that it's freakin' contagious!

Could that dr have not just wrote us a prescription and told us not to fill it unless the test comes back positive? Could he not have saved us a 4 hour wait? How lucky am I to have my mom so close that I could just drop off the younger 2 kids to play while I sit in the stupid waiting room with Kylie all freakin' morning. Argh, how frustrating!!!

Scott is working late tonight, because now he is backed up with files because he had the nerve to take Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. I have to go to work tonight, I hope he makes it back at a decent hour :( .

It's all over but the crying...

So Christmas is done for another year. The kids got spoiled, of course, and we had three great meals: Christmas Eve of hors d'oeuvres here, Christmas Day at my in-laws and Boxing Day at my moms. I helped out this year by making two types of perogies (well, I didn't make them...Cheemo did lol), a big garden salad, some cooked garlic carrots, and a bunch of squares and cookies. My mom made the ham, which was super yummy.

I get points for being the best wife on the block this year: I bought Scott a motorcycle for Christmas. My mom's neighbour was selling Scott's dream bike, a V-Star (I have to admit, I have no idea what that is). Scott was hemming and hawing about maybe getting it this spring...or using our savings to build a fence. I really wanted him to have this bike, he never does anything for himself. So I went behind his back and bought the bike. I didn't know if he would be angry or happy lol. So Christmas morning, he opened a mouse pad with a picture of the kids in it...and I told him that I couldn't decide which picture to put in, so he should decide...he looked behind the picture of the kids and found a picture of the bike. I think he just about fell over lol. His next gift was the keys and the bill of sale. I can't wait for this snow to go away so that he can go for a ride...he really, truly deserves it.

The Christmas tree is coming down tomorrow. I know some people leave it up until the New Year, some even leave it up until Ukrainian Christmas, but I can't wait to get my living room back. There is just no room to move in here. We've already decided that next year we are doing a theme tree, but we've agreed that we have to make 90% of the decorations with stuff we have around the house. The favourite theme right now is Pirates...I can't wait to see what a Pirate Christmas tree would look like lol.

Next week I will help the kids go through their rooms and pull out all the toys that they don't play with anymore. I have an itch to wash walls...I think I will do spring cleaning early this year.

Merry Christmas!

Since I probably won't be on tomorrow, here's an early greeting to my blogging friends:

From our family to yours, we wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tuesday.

"And now for the continuing stoooory..."

Does anyone remember that? I think it was Pigs In Space on the Muppets...but I can't remember how it went exactly, and it is bugging me to no end. It keeps me up at night to be perfectly honest with you lol.

Let me tell you a little story. Once there was this little girl, who was such a miserable hag that I couldn't take her anywhere. It all started when she turned 15 months old. Her poor, inexperienced mother was at her wit's end. Why was her perfect baby screaming and throwing herself on the floor when she didn't get her way? Why was her beautiful girl having such a hard time? What on earth was going on? Should we see the dr?

Fast forward 10 years, and that mother has more experience...and she also has a 15 month old girl again...flailing on the floor when she's not allowed to play with the cordless telephone...screaming at the top of her lungs in Superstore because she's not allowed to throw the bananas at passing shoppers...

Today has been a hard day. My baby is having horrible temper tantrums, while her older brother and sister try to parent her ("No, baby, don't touch the Christmas tree! No, baby, don't touch the TV!"). It has been loud here, and very, very hectic. I had to send the big kids in the basement to play, and let Sam cry it out on the floor, because she wasn't allowed to scribble in her book with a pen.

*Sigh*. I can laugh at the situation now, as I write the day's events in her baby book. My poor baby, all she wanted was the phone...everyone else in the house gets to hold it sometimes, why can't she?

It's late, and everyone is sleeping here. I'm going to bed now, and tomorrow morning we will wrap all of Scott's presents while he's at work. He should be home by 130, and then the party can begin :) .

Good night, everyone.

Monday

We've been so busy here lately, I have to say: I really don't like this part of Christmas. All the busy, jam-packed days...I can't wait for Christmas Eve so the party can begin :).

Some quick thoughts:

1. I have pulled the plug on the bottles. I have had it with them leaking in my purse, had it with washing all those stupid parts...I pulled out my favourite Gerber sippies and threw the bottles in a Safeway bag. Sammy wasn't too happy the first day, but oh well (what a mean mama). That was Sunday, and at suppertime tonight, she drank milk from a Rubbermaid litterless juice cup :) . The first time that she figured out what to do with a straw (believe me, I've tried countless times). She was so proud of herself, she smiled and let the milk just run down her chin and onto the floor lol.

2. Sam walked today! She pulled herself up on this tall '50s ashtray we have in the dining room...and then she walked 3 steps on her own. Then she looked at me, smiling, as if to say, "Hey, did you see that Mom?" lol. Then she fell down on her bum :) .

3. Kylie is pretty sick, her nose is raw-red and bleeding from the irritation. The humidifier isn't working, neither is the kid's Tylenol cold medication. I'm not one to run to the dr when my kids just have a cold, but this seemed a bit extreme...the dr gave her the once-over and sent us home. He did say that she is old enough (10??) to take adult Advil Cold, but do I really want to give that to her? She's a bit tall for her age, I guess...I dunno.

4. Scott has to get up at 330am Tuesday morning, to drive 4 hours to Edgerton, Alberta to check out a fire claim. His manager should be doing it personally, but since he's on holidays this week, he assigned Scott to it. Although I think it stinks that he has to leave for work so early, and I worry for him driving on a snowy/icy highway, I'm thankful that it wasn't our house that burned to the ground. Very thankful.

5. I spent nearly two hours trying to figure out how to use computer iron-on tshirt transfers, because Jacob asked for a Green Day shirt for Xmas. It looks perfect, better than store-bought (couldn't justify $28 for a tshirt). Jacob informed me today that he doesn't like Green Day anymore, he likes Linkin park. Hmrph!

6. Today, Kylie asked me to make her a kimono for Christmas. Yes, I'll get right on that, dear daughter. Yeah, right, in 2 days???

Later, dudes.

The Christmas Guilt is setting in...

So with all the rushing around lately, planning/executing the school bake sale, finishing the Christmas crafts for the teachers...I completely forgot that the kids would be having class parties today, and each kid requested home-made ginger snaps to take.

Do I feel like the absolute worst mom ever??? You bet! I made sure that all other tasks were taken care of, except for my very own kids: which sucks, considering that they are the reason that I am at home in the first place. Bad Mama. I made up for it by buying mini chocolate cupcakes from Safeway this morning...does that even make sense??? Working all week to make sure that a bake sale goes off without a hitch and then I run off to Safeway to buy cupcakes lol. Oh, and also those stupid Lunchable things that come complete with Nerds and a juice box, because I was at the school most of yesterday and forgot to help the kids make lunches last night. I suck.

At least the bake sale was a resounding success...we made almost $300, and had tons of baking donated from lots of parents. There were even donations of donuts and Little Debbie snack cakes, donated by parents who didn't have time to bake but wanted to help out in some way. That was absolutely awesome to see.

I'm looking forward to picking up the kids after school today...because they are home with me for 2 weeks now :) . Tomorrow we are baking gingerbread cookies, and then on Sunday we will decorate them. I think I will go to work on Sunday night this week, so that Monday night I can take my mom for groceries for Christmas dinner. She is making the ham/turkey while I am bringing perogies, salad and juice. Kylie wants to make a cupcake cake, one of those kind that looks like a reindeer head or something...I think that will be fun. And I still needs to do baking for our Christmas Eve pajama party.

Well, I should go...nanaimo bars aren't going to bake themselves!

Videos!

Pics

There is nothing better on a cold day than sitting by the fire, in the ghetto arm chair that your big sister crafted out of a Costco box and a pillow.


Well, enjoying a book by the fire is very enjoyable, too. Even if the book is upside down.


Scott, all dressed up to shovel. Two pairs of pants + long johns, 2 coats and 1 toque.


Marshmallow pops for the bake sale at school. I planned on making more white chocolate ones, but frankly I got bored of the whole thing and figured I had done my share. Time to enjoy a coffee and Bailey's in front of the fire with my family.


Sammy Sunshine's favourite new pass-time...unloading Scott's bottom drawer and then crawling away, leaving the mess for Mom to clean up.


Our Christmas picture! Four bucks at Capilano mall, can't beat that. Then I just had to go on Monday to pick them up at WalMart...I don't get how other malls can charge upwards of $14 for this same service??? Unreal.

Ouch.

If this is what it feels like to work all day then I'm not interested lol. My feet hurt!!!

This is the first time I've sat down all day, other than dinner. Today, I ran all over town returning things, mailing things, doing PAC stuff, finishing Christmas crafts with the kids, finally getting my contribution to the school bake sale done, organizing said bake sale donations with various family members, wrapping my bake sale stuff, banking...plus some. I am pooped.

This is the part I don't like about Christmas...the running around like a chicken with its head cut off part. Not fun.

Brrrrr!!!

I went to Superstore this morning...it was -37C with the windchill. It was so freakin' cold, but that kept away a lot of the shoppers...making for a pleasant trip for me :D .

Saturday morning we braved the cold to head to the mall for Santa pictures, which I will pick up tomorrow. Again, it was so cold that the mall was dead. Perfect, just the way we like it.

The rest of the weekend has been spent indoors: baking, playing board games and sitting by the fireplace heater. The kids have been getting along great, and you would think that they would be at each other's throats and going stir crazy, but they are like two 'chuthers this weekend (I know what you're thinking, you're saying, "what in the heck is two 'chuthers???" That's a phrase my niece used to use when she was little. Instead of saying "they look like each other", she would say "they look like two 'chuthers". Now it is a part of our family's everyday language lol). I hope they play together that nicely over the Christmas break (yeah, right).

I think I'm done Christmas shopping, other than a gift for Scott's assistant at work. Myself and another mom at school have finished the shopping for the school treat bags for Christmas, and we will get together at the school on Wednesday to put those together.

It's all over but the crying, now!!!

Kylie's Kreations

Kylie has always liked working with beads, but has just lately really gotten into more adult beads...pretty glass ones, nice charms, etc. Luckily, Dollarama has a really nice selection of beads right now. That's a good thing, because I can see this hobby getting pretty expensive lol.

Kylie was inspired to make some beaded bookmarks after seeing them at a local store for more than $10. She is making them for Christmas gifts for her teachers and assorted aunties and Grammas.








This one is her favourite and she has decided to keep it...red beads on a black string, and the charm has some Asian characters on the bottom. I hope it's not a bad word lol...I wish I knew what it said.

Holy coldness, batman!

Eek, did I just see that?

High of -21C on Monday...yesterday was a high of +4C or something like that. There was mush everywhere lol.

I guess we had it too good for too long...I shouldn't complain.

But I'm gonna anyway! Holy crap that's cold!!!

I need to get my shopping done *now*...still on the lookout for a manga book that Kylie wants, I wish I would have thought to order it from Chapters last month! Doh!!!

Christmas Pics

The tree with our special angel on top :) . Scott put the tree together and put up the lights, I put on the garland, and then we sit back with our coffees while the big kids decorate it. I love me a crazy tree.


The stockings, hung by the chimney with care. Auntie Sheri made all of them, with pretty buttons and such tiny, careful stitches.


Santa heading over the bridge to deliver his presents. But wait! Does he know what lies on the other side of the bridge???


Eek, it's Halloween town! Poised to attack Santa and his sleigh full of gifts. I ask every year: who would win in a fight between Christmas Town and Halloween Town? I have my money on Halloween Town, I think they would fight dirty.





I talked to the kids about what charity we should donate to this Christmas, and we tossed around the idea of donating toys to the Stollery Children's Hospital and a couple of other places...but the kids thought that food was more important and that we should donate to the food bank, like we usually do. So we went through the pantry and pulled out a few things, talked about what the food bank needed and then purchased a few staples like pasta, tea and canned meats. Then I take a picture of each kid with their donation and put it in a card for their teacher, with this letter:

Dear Mrs. H.,

Thank you for a great school year so far! We wish you and your family a very
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

In the spirit of the season, our family has put together a parcel for the food bank, which we will donate in your honour.

Merry Christmas!

From,
The T Family

Traditionally, we only buy gifts for children and our parents at Christmas time, but we wanted to show our appreciation for the kid's teachers in some way...this is how we do it. More and more, I'm against buying 'stuff' just for the sake of buying 'stuff', and I think donating to a charity in a teacher's honour at Christmas teaches the children a little something, too. For the pictures, I just piled up half the food on the table...so there is twice as much food going to the food bank as shown.

...and a picture of my baby with chocolate all over her face, just because it's really cute :D .

Quick post...

I only have a minute before we run out the door, so I just wanted to pop in to prove that I haven't abandoned blogdom altogether...just busy with school stuff/Christmas stuff. So here's a super quick update:

Bake sale, crafts for teacher gifts, food bank shopping with kids, Christmas decorating, Christmas baking, co-hosting Christmas dinner, shopping (ugh), helping Auntie sew something pretty, Gramma is now on Facebook, Christmas cards, cleaning, Santa pictures, various other crafts, Parent Council stuff.

There, now you know lol.

Later, dudes!

Back from the land of the sick

Well, today feels like the first day where I didn't feel like complete poop when I rolled out of bed in the morning. Scott and I have been having sleeping issues...can get to sleep no problem, just can't stay asleep. I don't know if it has something to do with the flu that our family just experienced...or what. Last night was the first time that I slept right through the night in nearly 2 weeks. I wonder...could it possibly be that our mommy/daddy brains were turned 'on' all night long, expecting one of the three kids to wake up sick during the night??? I'll bet that's what it was.

Sammy still isn't herself, filling her diaper at the drop of a hat. I haven't used cloth diapers at all this week...it's just easier to toss it than to wash it (I know, Mother Nature is shaking her finger at me right about now). Sam hasn't had cow's milk in over a week, except for on Saturday, when I thought she could handle a bottle right after breakfast. She promptly taught Scott a lesson by barfing all over him.

Saturday night was Scott's Christmas party, so the kids went to Gramma's house. The party was at a golf course, with awesome spinach perogies and then blackjack and roulette with funny money for the entertainment (no dance). It was really fun...I've never gambled before, and I didn't really enjoy that part, but at least I can say that I learned something new. I recognized a few faces...Len and Bruce, but they're at every insurance gig it seems. There were a lot of people that I haven't met before, and a lot of faces that I recognized but that I can't remember their names. I'm horrible with names.

Did I finish the blouse that I was working on, you may ask? A resounding 'no' is what you get. I was too sick and too tired this week, and then got so pissed off at the slithery fabric that I filed the whole thing right in the garbage. I can't even rescue it now, because the next day Scott took out the trash. I swear, that is the last time I try to sew anything by way of clothing for myself. I don't enjoy it, and I sure don't save any money any time I try. I should know better by now.

Since I feel so much better today, I've already folded a week's worth of diapers, liners and wipes (washed last week), washed 2 more loads and folded them, cleaned the bathroom, filled and ran the dishwasher, and changed 3 horrible diapers...all before noon. Now Sam is in bed, and I'm going to have some lunch before I tackle cleaning the floors. Kylie washed and vacuumed the floors in the basement yesterday...and did such a horrible job that I think she will re-do it again after school. Part of me thinks I should just do it and get it over with, but that's not going to teach her anything is it??? I'm such a mean mom :) .

Friday

I'm sick. Blech.

Yesterday was Pizza Lunch day at school. It took 2 moms nearly an entire day to count money and sort the order forms, took me nearly 2 hours to roll all that coin, and then a student teacher had the *nerve* (more like lack-of-experience, I should say) to add the helpful hint, "You should get more parents to volunteer" AS SHE TOOK A SLICE OF PIZZA OUT OF THE KITCHEN, BELONGING TO A STUDENT, AND *ATE IT* .

What the...???

Actually, I wasn't there, as I was home sick with Jake. I got this info after the fact. I felt so rotten that one mom out of however many there are at that school had to sort through 170 pizza orders, 170 chocolate/white milks, 25 pizzas, and then make sure it was all in the classrooms before the lunch bell rang. Top it off with, this one mom had strep throat and a fever but didn't want the kids to miss lunch. And then this not-smart teacher comes up with that delicious piece of wit.

At the beginning of the year, we sent home forms asking for help throughout the year with various events: book fair, selling raffle tickets, pizza lunch. We received about 50 forms back, with phone numbers and email addresses, or people claiming that they wanted to help (evenings, weekends, whenever they could squeeze an hour in). So we emailed those 50 people asking for help on hot lunch day--sorting orders at home, taking their lunch hour to come to the school to help. You know how many answered this email? BIG FAT ZERO!!! How very rude. At least answer the freakin' email. Or don't send back the stupid form with your offer to help.

I know people work, that's a complete non-issue. I rolled $500 in change after the kids went to bed. My husband works 60+ hours per week and he puts together the student yearbook every single year in his free time (although he is now thinking that it's time that someone else steps up or the project just doesn't get done). Do you know some socialist countries requre that parents put in a set amount of volunteer hours at their kids' school? It's a requirement of the student's registration, and employers are expected to give their employees a morning or afternoon off once a month.

It has nothing to do with government money, and anyone that says that is copping out. It's sheer laziness, we're living in a society that thinks that raising their kids is everyone's responsibility but their own. That one person's comfort level is more important than their kids' well-being. Most people get 2 weeks holiday per year, but no way would they take even an hour of that time to make their kids' school a better place to be. It's all the fault of the governement, that they're not throwing enough money at the school system. What a load of crap. You can't tell me that not one out of 320 parents couldn't use their lunch hour to help out, or couldn't work a bit later that day so that they could take some personal time during the day. Never mind that our school doesn't do field trips anymore because no one will volunteer to chaperone.

And then: to hear parents sit in the playground after school complaining, "You know, at our old school, there was hot lunch every month and it was way better than Pizza Hut. And our old school had field trips all the time!"

I'm so pissed off right now...

My new favourite song :)

I can't find a video...

Flyleaf - Do You Hear What I Hear

I love that song no matter who sings it, but I really like this version.

Karma!

The other day, there was this little boy running all over my house yelling, "I'm the only one who's not sick! Ha ha, suckers!" and laughing his bum off at us...guess who was up all night puking??? Poor kid. So Jacob is at home with me today, but he's eating and drinking and everything is staying down. He cried during the night, because today is Pizza Day at school, and he didn't want to miss it :( . I told him that I would make sure to let the hot lunch moms know to wrap up the pizza for the kids who were sick today (I'm sure there are a few) and to stick them in the freezer for next week.

Our school had 7 teachers at home sick yesterday...lots of subs running around and lots of kids looking like walking zombies. This is one tough bug :( . I hope everyone is better by Saturday, that is the night of Scott's Christmas party.

Pics

Sam's Christmas shoes, made with this pattern: Mini Moc pattern
It's super, super easy and you can make it with just scraps you have laying around. Someone gave us a nice Christmas dress for Sam, and I wanted some shoes to go with it, but I wasn't interested in paying for them (cheapskate, remember?). I also wasn't interested in buying new fabric, and I was out of leather scraps...so I looked around and found an old pair of Jacob's sweatpants with a hole in the knee (it had been sitting in my mending pile for so long that he had outgrown them LOL). I also found some lace scraps in my stash. Put them together, and this is what you get. I went through my ribbon box and Kylie's bead box to embellish them a bit. They're sort of like Robeez, where there is elastic at the ankles and they are un-kickable. Great pattern.


The bottom of the shoes: now that Sam is walking around furniture, we needed a non-slip grip on the bottom. Again, I searched through my junk until I found some black fabric paint...works very well.


...and just a cute picture of my baby with blue candy all over her face :D .

Monday

This past Friday night, Kylie was feeling better so we left Sam at Scott's parent's house and trekked off to the theatre down the street. My God, there were so many people there! I had no idea that Twilight was opening the same day, and the theatre was wall-to-wall teen-aged girls! Unreal!

We were about 3/4 of the way through the movie when the call came in -- Sam had barfed all over Gramma, all over the floor, and all over the furniture :( . I stayed with the kids to finish the movie, while Scott went back to get our girl. She was a little wound-up, and clingy, but ok. Actually she hasn't barfed since, but I haven't given her any cow's milk, either. Just nursing and a bit of watered down apple juice (which she doesn't like anyway). Later that night, Kylie and I were betting each other, what time would Jacob throw up??? I took the 'between 10 and midnight' time frame while Kylie chose 'between midnight and 6 am' time frame. He never did get sick.

Saturday night, Kylie got sick again, and now it's Monday: Jacob is at school, Scott is in bed (couldn't get up this morning), Sam is hugging my leg and I'm a bit sore...but ok. This flu hit us like a ton of bricks. I have so much to do today: figure out the winner of the Grey Cup pool ticket raffle, count the hot lunch money and organize a deposit, roll the coin, and do up the monthly financial report for the Parent Council meeting on Thursday.

But I think I'll just lay around and convalesce instead...I've used up all of my energy in typing this.

Hope everyone else is having a good day.

Pics

Jacob's Halloween witch he made at school...he hates crafting now, so this is precious to me :) .


My goofball Jacob, making a Crabby Patty on the Lite Brite.


We woke up to a bit of snow this morning, but I don't think it will last. The weekend is forecast to be around 2C, and that is supposed to carry into most of next week.


Kylie wanted me to leave the pumpkins up...she likes it when they start to rot and their lips curl in, making them look like old people who forgot to put their teeth in lol.


Part of my squirt lid collection. I don't know why I felt the need to take a picture, but I did it anyway. Admit it, you were wondering why I haven't mentioned my collection in a while. Point of interest: my mom noticed that something in her cupboard had leaked onto her basket containing her own collection of squirt lids...while most *sane* people would just throw the lids away (she has 2 baskets full, so would she really miss a few?) she took them all out and carefully washed them and their basket, then lovingly put them all away.

I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself.

Now my mom is cursing me because she is reading this and doesn't know how to leave a nasty comment to get me back...rofl...

Friday

Today, Kyie is home from school, sick. It started around lunch time on Wednesday, when the principal called to tell me that poor Kiki was in the bathroom throwing up :( . I knew she didn't look good the night before, and she didn't want breakfast on Wednesday morning...she's back to eating now, but gets tired really easy so I've kept her home with me for just another day. I like having her here...even if she is just a big lump sleeping on the couch :) .

Jacob came home from school the other day, and burst into tears: his teacher wouldn't let his friend help him to tie his shoelaces, and the teacher wouldn't help either, so Jacob walked around all day with an untied shoelace and tripped quite a few times. I understand that the teacher has 20 other students that he needs to tend to, and that Jacob should learn to do it on his own (we've been practicing at home), but really...let Jacob and his friend have a few minutes to work on it, even if just for safety's sake. Sometimes I wonder about that teacher...

Today is just a day filled with washing diapers, sewing up some shoes for Sammy to wear with her Christmas dress, and then hopefully, if Kylie feels a bit better tonight, we are all going to see Madagascar 2. I ordered some passes with our Airmiles so it's free :D . That's just the way I like it :D .

Once again, time for:

Dear Crazy Crack-Head Lady;

Are you kidding me?

Yours truly;

Kylie's Mom.

Monday

I don't feel like blogging much lately...don't feel like doing much of anything (whoops, I said that in my last post, didn't I?). But, as with most things lately, I have to make myself do it, so here goes:

We didn't have a very eventful weekend, pretty boring actually. Friday night, we met Scott for supper at the BP's downtown. He was working late, and the kids think it's fun to meet Dad where he works. The service was so horrible and so slow that, for the first time in about 5 years, we didn't leave a tip. Not even a penny extra on our bill. I sort of feel bad about it, but this server was horrible. He stood around yakking with the female servers all evening. I had to go to the front desk to ask for crayons because he never returned after I asked him, I had to get Jake a glass of water myself from the nearby drink station, and Scott spilled some salsa that never got cleaned up. Ew. I found some extra napkins on another table and cleaned up the floor myself so that the kids didn't have to walk through it when we left. I know there's a labour shortage in Alberta, but at least do the job that you've taken, you know? It's one thing if you're running your bum off, doing the best you can when you're overworked because there aren't enough servers...quite another if someone is just lazy. I always leave a restaurant lately, thinking: why on earth did I pay so much for that little food? Ridiculous.

Saturday, I again sold Grey Cup pool tickets at a local Sobey's. It was fun, but a long day. My friend Kathy sat with me and we laughed about silly things in between sales. I'm not sure that this fundraiser was a success...I don't think we made more than the prizes that we will be paying out. Oh well, it was a learning experience and I'm glad I participated for that reason. We made a few bucks to do some fun things for the kids at school and that's what's important.

Sunday was a lazy day, not doing much of anything. Scott and Jacob played Wii for a while, and then Jacob's friend came to visit. Sam was asleep, so Scott and I had a little nap on the couch (maybe 10 minutes, but I slept so hard that it felt more like an hour. I think I'm coming down with something). That evening, we went to my mom's, where we made stromboli for supper...OMG, it was the best *ever*. My brother and his kids were there, so it was a full house. That night, Scott's good friend called and asked him to be a groomsman at his wedding this summer. He is the last of our friends to get married (at 41 years of age) and this, just after we learned that the last of our friends to get married in the mid 90's are getting divorced. This leaves Scott and I, the last couple standing of 6 couples. That's sad, but I guess it's just the way that it happens. The last 2 couples that we heard about were quite shocking...they were the kind of couples that you think were meant to be, you know? Sad. Anyway, I hope Neil and his fiance register somewhere...the frugal gift-giver in me wants to get my hands on the registry ASAP and keep my eye out for sales on whatever items they chose. Otherwise I'll buy a gift card for a restaurant with airmiles...they're living together and are building a house soon, so they have everything.

Sam is sleeping right now, and I'm going to go cut out a blouse for Scott's Christmas party in a couple of weeks. We've already taken Gramma to WalMart for a few things so now we are home for the day. Gosh, it's cold outside...no snow, but it sure feels like winter out there.

Holy smokes, that was a long post for someone who doesn't feel like blogging lately, hey lol?

Have a good day, everyone :D .

Meh.

I don't feel like blogging lately. All I feel like doing is sleeping, actually...not a good sign. I could so go for a nap right now.

Well, that's it. That's all you get. See you next week.

Possibly :D .

Our Trip to West Edmonton Mall

OK, I know these pictures are crap...something is screwy with my camera. I'm not a happy camper.


First off, we went for breakfast at McDonald's, the one in the west end with the giant playland (is it 3 stories tall or just 2??) Well, it's freakin' huge anyway.


Jacob, modelling in the Pocky aisle at T&T Supermarket. He picked chocolate Pocky while Kylie chose Brazillian Pudding Pocky (tasted like coconut).


World Water Park. Scott and I looked at all the girls in their super-teeny bikinis, sitting at the bar waiting for drinks, and wondered...who would wanna sit on that bar stool after those girls leave...and where on earth are they keeping their money??? I'm sure those teeny bikinis don't have any pockets.


Jacob, modelling in the theatre under the super-huge Batman and Yoda.


Again, Jake under the giant King Kong.


Every 22 minutes, this dragon lights up and breathes fire onto the people below...Kylie and I wondered if the emo girls with the giant beehive hairdos and with all the hairspray would instantly catch fire LOL. That wasn't very nice, was it...


Sammy enjoying the ball pit in the Galaxyland Playland.

The Weekend :) .

Well, lookit that...you get 2 posts for the price of one today :D .

Saturday, I spent the day with another mom from school selling Grey Cup Raffle Pool Tickets to raise money for the school. It was actually kind of fun, so I didn't miss having a day away from my family. We had originally set up at the Sobey's in Beverly, but business was so cruddy that we moved to the ACT Centre where they were having a really big craft sale. I wish we would have thought of that first...could have made a few more bucks in the morning. What was really surprising...there were so many senior ladies at the craft show, and a good portion of them knew a lot about football. They knew current stats on the Eskimos, who was playing in the game that day, etc. I was quite impressed. When I got home, Scott finally put away all of the Halloween yard decore. He has been working a lot lately, and just hasn't had time. I guess I could have done it, but Sam just won't sit in her stroller anymore...oh well, it still got done.

Sunday, Scott went to work for a while and then we went to West Edmonton Mall to play for a bit. It was the first time that they told us that Kylie was too big to play in the playland :( . She was a little bummed, but Scott took her to the arcade while Jake, Sam and I played in the play structure. Jake would have liked someone to play with, but he still had a good time. I took some pictures, but something is screwy with my camera and everything looks overexposed and stupid. I have to try and figure that out today while Sam is sleeping.

Today is Monday, and Jacob has 3 friends coming over to play today. It's all or nothing with that guy, I tell ya. Sunday night he was very upset that he had no one to play video games with and today we will have more kids than Gamecube controllers LOL. I'm going to send them all out to play on the trampoline anyway, it's still really unseasonably warm so they will enjoy it.

I have to work tonight, as well as pick up a few groceries.

A Sammy Sunshine Update

I thought I would do a post on what my baby is doing lately.

-Typing anything takes Mama twice as long lately, because one of Sam's favourite activities is pulling herself up to the keyboard tray and pounding on the keys. She does it so quickly!!!! Argh...little bugger LOL.

-She has four first-year molars coming in all at the same time. She doesn't really wake up at night due to teething, so I'm lucky in that way; instead she wakes up at around 6am screaming (an hour early). Poor kid, those molars feel like little rocks in her gums and by the time breakfast rolls around they've gone back down. I wish they would erupt already!!!

-Sam is 14 months today and is walking around furniture (slowly and cautiously). Jake didn't walk until 16 months, so I'm not really worried about the delay...it will happen in time, I'm sure. When she crawls, it's on one knee and one foot for some reason LOL. It's pretty funny to watch.

-She dances, sings, and can sign "more". She says "no", "da da" (Daddy), Kah-key (Kylie) and Ga-Ga (Gramma). If I won't give her something, like the phone that I'm talking on while she sits on my lap, she pulls my hair LOL. She eats whatever we eat, but seems to particularly like cheese, apples, bananas and lettuce with a touch of dressing on it (no, not all in the same bowl).

-We are still nursing, and first thing in the morning is absolutely a must for her. If Scott gets up with her, she whines and cries until she sees me...sometimes crawling to my bedroom door and sitting outside whining until I get out of bed.

My baby...why do they have to grow up so fast???

Ugh.

Some rules stink. They stink so much, that I wonder who on earth made them...and what exactly where they thinking??? They're stupid rules, not meant to protect anyone or anything...just put there to serve as road blocks, I think. Rules just put there because they can put them there.

I'm going to eat soup now.

Wednesday.

Last night we went to get our flu shots...waited nearly an hour!!! Holy smokes.

(by the way, I know the flu shot is controversial and I just want to take this opportunity to say...I don't care. Don't care what anybody thinks of it, don't care what your reasons are, and don't care if you like/dislike my reasons for getting it. Just don't care. In the words of the mother of my high-school BFF, "If you don't like what you see, you can kiss my Royal Canadian Behind". Ok, let's move on...)

This morning, we had a big family discussion as to why the media is so all over the election of a black president in the United States. Kylie said, "I thought that skin colour doesn't matter...why are they making such a big deal out of it?" So we had a talk about slavery and oppression and the right to vote , etc., and then we all agreed...Kylie was right, skin colour doesn't matter, so let's focus on President Elect Obama's good qualities as a person, just like we would anybody else. I hope our American friends are very happy with their decision...we wish them the very best :D .

Our treadmill is finally in! Yay! I just met Scott at the mall, where some lovely long-haired, greasy looking boys loaded it into my van. They wore their jeans around their bums, with their underwear showing. Nice. But at least it looked clean. I picked up a few poppy stickers for the kids to wear on their shirts for the Remembrance Day ceremony at school on Friday. I was surprised at the lack of poppies on people's coats this year...I hope people aren't balking at that tradition. Every year we pick up poppies for ourselves and for the kid's coats as well. I take off that dumb stick pin and stick a safety pin through the back. In fact, there were more people wearing cowboy hats at the mall today then there were people wearing poppies. Canadian Finals Rodeo is in town (yee-haw), so there were plenty of cowpokes around.

We bought Sammy some fries and laughed as she dunked them in the teeny dot of ketchup on her plate. Then she licked off the ketchup and put her soggy fry right back in the ketchup...and licked it off again. She worked on that same fry for a good 5 minutes before finally eating it LOL.

Scott is working late tonight, so dinner will most likely be KD for the kids and some turkey soup for me. Yum. I tell you, my soup turned out so good (if I do say so myself) that I wish I could eat it at every meal...but I must contain myself and throw some in the freezer for future suppers. I put garlic in it, which made it extra yummy...and just hearing about it made my mother gag LOL. She's not a garlic fan.

Sammy is sleeping right now, and when she wakes up it will be time to get the big kids from school. It's so grey and dismal out right now, and it really feels like snow is in the air. I wonder if today will be our first snow fall of the year???

Monday.

I can't believe the weather today, it's something like 9C right now and raining...usually there is snow on the ground by now. I have winter boots ready to go for both kids, replaced a zipper in a used snowsuit for Sam, and have all of our toques and mitts ready for snow. So I'm prepared LOL!

This past weekend was fun, I took Kylie shopping while Scott stayed at home with the 2 smaller kiddos. Kylie still holds my hand in the mall...I love it. She was on the hunt for 'skinnies', otherwise known as skinny jeans, which is funny...because at the beginning of the school year, she described skinnies as "gross and nasty". So it's 2 months later and skinnies are the bee's knees, apparently. We found a few pairs, but not within what I was willing to spend, so she chose a pair of greyish, tight-denim looking leggings with pockets painted on the bum. She also chose a long, fitted zebra-print t-shirt and a black hat. A girl definitely has to have a hat for those bad hair days that arise every once in a while...and Kylie was definitely having a bad hair day on Saturday LOL. She had so much hairspray in her hair from Halloween night, and a bad case of bedhead. I tried to get her into the shower before we left, but I really wanted to get back before Sam woke up from her nap so we had to go.

Sunday, I cooked a turkey! Well, half a turkey. When turkeys were so cheap around Thanksgiving, I bought one and had the butcher slice it in half. He was nice enough to wrap each half individually, so I just threw them in the freezer. I brined it, as well, so it was very tender and yummy. Lookit me go. My friend told me that she boils the carcass for 24 hours to make soup, so that's what I'm doing right now. Yum, the soup and sandwiches is the best part of any turkey dinner!

Today is Monday, and it's laundry day. I'm finding the laundry a bit overwhelming lately, and I've never really had a specific day set aside for laundry...so I'm going to give Monday Laundry Day a try. The plan is to wash 5 loads today (all the while, still checking the kids' clothes to see if they even need washing) plus diapers and have it all folded by the time I have to go to work tonight. Wish me luck.

Later, dudes :) .

Halloween

The weather was awesome!!! Something like +5, which we hardly ever get. Most kids didn't even wear a jacket, and there's some years we're up to our knees in snow!

Scott decided that he wanted to stay home with Sam to hand out candy, so I took Kylie, Jacob and K's friend M trick-or-treating. Not many houses participating this year...seemed like only every fourth or so house had a porch light on. And not many trick or treaters! Scott had one at 7...then we got two groups of teenagers near 9pm, then I shut off the light. But because there were so few kids out, my kids got handfuls and handfuls of candy at every door.

Kylie's friend M stayed over night, and Jake fell asleep on the couch watching TV. Scott and I were in bed by 9 LOL.




Both big kids were vampires this year. Kylie wanted a store-bought costume (I'm so sad she won't let me sew for her anymore) and Jacob wore a bunch of stuff we had lying around the house...like his Darth Vader black cape and Scott's old vest that I took in just a little bit. Kylie also had to throw a bit of Asian flare into her costume, so we stuck chopsticks in her hair and added a blood-red fan fron China town.


My sock monkey sat on the floor and played, eating Smarties with Scott all evening. Do you know what a baby's diaper looks like after a night of eating colourful chocolate??? Not pretty LOL.

Jack o'lanterns!

Jake was scared to touch the goo...he's such a girl sometimes LOL. I did the majority of the work, but he did some. I used a metal measuring cup to scrape a lot of the guts out and it worked really well. We had those pumpkins scraped out in no time.


Kylie de-gooing her pumpkin. She doesn't mind getting all gooey.


Carving the pumpkin. We used a pumpkin saw, it's safe enough for even Jacob to do on his own.




The finished product!

Monday.

Well, it was a pretty boring weekend. Hmm...

Friday night, Kylie stayed over at a friend's so we had a movie party at home, just the 4 of us. Scott took Jacob out to rent a few movies, and they came home with Robot Chicken Star Wars and Don't Mess with the Zohan. Was either movie suitable for Jacob to watch???? No, not really LOL...but we let him watch the Robot Chicken one, anyway. I know, bad mama. It was really funny though.

Saturday morning we went to Costco to get some meat and a few frozen items, and then Scott picked up Kylie from her friend's house. We mostly just farted around the house for the rest of the day. We were going to go swimming, but no one really felt like it so we just laid around and watched TV. Saturday night, Auntie Sheri came over to babysit while Scott and I went to a pub to attend our friend's 100 Pound Party...she had bariatric surgery and has lost 100lbs in something like 7 months. She looks great, but she can't eat more than a couple of bites of food at a time, no sugar, rarely carbs, etc. If she eats too much she gets really, really sick. She looks great though. The pub was airing a UFC fight, which was interesting...there was a lot of blood in some bouts. We stayed for a couple of hours and then we came home. You know, I haven't been to a bar in 7 years...and since then, smoking has been banned in city bars. I have to say, it was really nice to sit and chat without gagging on cigarette smoke...and my coat and hair didn't stink when I came home. Cool.

Sunday morning, we took Auntie out to breakfast to say 'thanks' for all that she's done for us. She's a great Auntie, always making the kids feel special by spending a bit of one-on-one time with them. Breakfast wasn't the greatest, but it was fun. Then we came home and I made a couple of pots of soup while Scott worked on some Halloween decor for the front yard...it was chilly out yesterday, about -3C. I hope Halloween is decent, I remember one year where it was about -35C during the day, and it was absolutely unbearable at night. I don't think it will be that cold this year.

So Today is Monday and Scott and I are meeting later today at Sears to look at some treadmills. There is one on sale that I have my eye on, and we have a bit of $$ kicking around...I don't like these big purchases, but I would really like something to do while I watch TV at night and I'm bored of my stationary bike. Besides, the seat hurts my bum LOL.

Later, dudes.

Some pics.

Jabba the Hutt, caught in mid-air as he is hurled down the laundry chute. Sammy's favourite activity while I'm in the bathroom.


Sammy's Halloween costume - she's a sock monkey. I saw the costume in a store and no way was I going to pay $20 for it...so this one is made out of fleece from the bargain section at WalMart (I think I paid $1.99 a metre). After Halloween, I'll take off the tail and she can wear it as pj's.


Jake, trying on Sammy's hat :) .