Thanks for the well wishes :D

Kylie's dentist appointment went just fine, although she was pretty upset at first. But she sucked it up, and the tooth fairy brought her a shiny new twonie for her pain :) .

Auntie Sheri's Famous ITLAPD Party!

We had a blast...what a fantastic party. Auntie outdid herself, once again :D .




















This is my favourite picture...after the kids were done playing Pin the Treasure on the Map or whatever it was, all of the adults played. Auntie had her directions off by just a bit LOL...

Wish me luck, please!

Kylie has a dentist appointment today (just made it, she doesn't know yet). She has an adult molar coming in where the baby molar hasn't kicked out yet.

So I anticipate lots of screaming and crying...she hates the dentist with a passion anyway, and I'm not sure why. Up until now, the dentist visits have been 'fun'. And now it comes to a screeching halt LOL.

Oh my gosh, I hope I get through today in one piece!

Another open letter.

Dear Crazy Crack-Head Lady;



What the...????



Your's truly;

Kylie's Mom.

Summer Recap

Well, the summer is almost over and I didn't get any of my personal goals accomplished...oh well. I had planned on taping a few shows (Foster's Home, X-Weighted) so that I had full tapes of them to watch when I'm riding the bike during the cold winter and I think I managed to tape one episode of each show. Have I developed a sub-conscious aversion to TV? Maybe! I had planned on working on felt food while I watched TV...but I watched so little TV that barely any of that got done either. Maybe when House starts again in the fall. But I missed 90% of season 4, will I be able to get into season 5??? We didn't watch any of the movies that we wanted to, I just couldn't get into it. Oh well, maybe in the dead of winter when there's nothing on TV we will watch some movies.

I drove the kids and my mom all over creation, and come to think of it I haven't been alone all summer, except for two doctor appointments and one trip to Costco the other day. Even when I went to work I had at least one kid with me. A few times, Scott has watched the kids so that I could run to Safeway or something...but my mom was always with me. Not that it bothers me, not being alone, I just find it a bit weird now that I think of it. Even when I'm on the toilet, someone's standing outside the door waiting to ask me a question or for me to poor them a glass of milk LOL.

I did a lot of sewing this summer, but almost all of it was mending and tailoring. I've lost a little more than 18 lbs, which is almost 2 sizes I find, so I cut down 3 pairs of jeans (which is a lot of work!), took in a couple of my favourite t-shirts, and made capris out of a few pairs of pants. Usually by this point in the summer, I've made a few pairs of yoga pants for Kylie for school, but that didn't happen this year. I'm pretty sure she has enough to wear in her closet anyway.

I kept up with the cleaning, but when the kids are back to school I will wash walls and ceilings, I think. And inventory my pantry and freezers, I haven't done that in a bit. The only big thing that I did this summer was take apart the 3 ceiling fans to clean them. I didn't even do anything big in the yard, except for pick raspberries. I had to stretch that out over 3 days, because there were so many of them...and by the time I got to the end of the bushes, there were more ripe ones at the other end to be picked.

Oh, my soup!!! It turned out freakin' fantastic and we've already eaten half of the freezer stash. I surprised myself LOL.

So less than one week until the kids go back to school, and I'm a bit sad. Stone me if you will. I loved having them here and we did so many fun things together as a family. Even just the regular old picnics-at-the-playground were super fun. Next summer, I have a feeling that both big kids will think those picnics are lame :( . Oh well, I have one more little mind to mold and shape to my liking :D . There are still a few more summers of playground fun there :D .

This past week, I cleaned out a few storage closets and my closet, packing a few bags of too-big clothes to send to the Sally Ann. This weekend, I will go through the kids dressers and closets, getting out all the too-small things to send to the attic and finding all of the bigger clothes that I've socked away over the year.

Backpacks are cleaned out and ready to go, new shoes are waiting by the door, and the pantry is full of school snacks. Today I saw a flock of geese flying west (so not north or south, I guess that doesn't mean much) and this weekend, there is a possibility of frost. Fall's coming!!!!

Eek :)

I just realized that I have 29 blogs in my blog list, and that's after dumping a half-dozen that I don't read anymore (take too long to load, too long between updates, etc).

But I love the new blog list that Blogger has...I only have to check the ones that have been updated since I last read blogs. Cool :) .

It only took me 6 freakin' days to get all the blog addresses in there!!!

POM Monday

This is fun: go to Face Your Manga and do up a picture of yourself.

So here I am!



And here's Scott:



By the way, I found the manga maker at www.sarcasticmom.com , one of my favourite blogs lately.

Pics.

Only a couple of weeks until Auntie Sheri's famous Pirate Party! Can't wait!




Well, instead of a pink Sharpie, we found a purple Bic permanent marker at Gramma's...way more vivid colour, as you can see. Holy smokes, that's some purple hair. It washes out after a couple of shampoos. Oh, we went to get Kylie's hair fixed today and the stylist was so nice about it. It was just one of those Supercuts places...Kylie's hair looks so much better today. I'm really happy with it and so is she.






We found this really cool 3D puzzle at Dollarama, of all places. Jake had so much fun putting it together today, and then playing with it. So many little airplanes, and they all come off for play :D . We have to go back and get more, it was a lot of fun.

What we're listening to (or what we're watching, I suppose)

Haven't done this in a while...YouTube is wonky, a lot of stuff got pulled so we're spending more time at myspace videos. But here goes...


My favourite lately, Hold Me In Your Arms by the Trews. Now really, who uses a cowbell???

Metro Station
Sorry, I couldn't embed this one. Shake It by Metro Station is Kylie's favourite right now. I'd like to sit all of these boys down and comb their hair.


Jake's favourite, Holiday by Green Day.


And Sammy Sunshine's favourite, Big Comfy Couch. We watch it most nights with her...she waves at Molly and giggles, it's so much fun LOL.

Busy week!

Whew...I can't believe August is half over already. Unreal.

Jake has been at daycamps all of this week through his after-school program and he's having a blast. They have gone swimming, made ice cream and cookies at the John Walter Museum, played at different parks and today they discussed bike and skateboard safety. He gets to play with so many kids during the day and is super, super happy :D .

Kylie and I have been doing a few things together, like shopping mostly LOL, a few crafts, and she has been spending a lot of time with her friends. Yesterday we went to get her a haircut, where she chose a chin-length bob. I asked the stylist to layer the ends a bit so it wasn't so blunt, but Kylie flat-out refused!!! What do I know, right? Well, I should have put my foot down...now everyone is asking her if *I* cut her hair, it looks so awful. Today she is swimming with her BFF, but tomorrow we're going to get that mess fixed. Kylie wants pink streaks for school, so I'm going to look through my junk baskets for the pink Sharpie. Good thing that girl has blonde hair, streaking is easy and cheap :D .

Sammy has learned a new skill: how to shush people LOL. She lays her itty bitty index finger alongside of her nose (instead of over her mouth) and goes "kisssshhh" instead of "ssshhh" LOL. It's really funny. Sometimes her finger actually ends up in her nose while she's shushing me.

It was freakin' hot this week, the hottest it has ever been. Well, it felt like it anyway. Monday was like 35.7C or something...crazy hot. Unreal hot. We stayed inside all day long, except for when we had to go pick up Jake from his daycamp. Thank God for air conditioning. Now tomorrow is supposed to be something like 14C, and I heard that some areas of the province are at risk of frost already??? How can that be???

I'm going to make soup tomorrow if it kills me. Chicken broth I can do, but I'm talking ham and bean soup. With dry beans. Those buggers better cook tomorrow, I'm telling you. My mom has a pressure cooker, her dry beans are cooked in 20 minutes. With my luck, I could cook them for days and they would still be as hard as rocks. My mom and I went shopping today, and she showed me what bones to buy for soup. I hope this works...usually about this time of year, I go to Superstore and buy 4 flats of soup to last throughout the fall and winter. I don't want to buy prepared soups this year if I can avoid it.

Today is my sister's 49th birthday! Happy Birthday Sylvia!

Well, that's all for me. Scott is working late tonight so it is just me and the kids for supper. I think I'll have a salad with some chicken in it...Jacob wants corndogs. Ew.

Pieces of Me Monday

My hair...I actually really like my hair. It's been dark brown, chestnut brown, streaked blonde, straightened, etc. Now it's pretty close to natural, although I do throw a close-to-my-natural-colour rinse on once in a while to cover up those pesky greys that seem to be appearing lately. Sammy has my curls, and Jake has my colour. Kylie has *nothing* of mine LOL. She complains that she wishes she had curly hair, and I tell her that if she had curly she would wish for straight hair LOL.

Hmm...

What colour do you think these eyes will be? I thought that eye colour was generally sorted out by the time a baby was a year old...these eyes have me confused. They're brown in the middle and hazel around that. Kylie and Scott are blue-eyed, Jacob and I are brown-eyed and I just can't figure this one out.

I googled it the other day, and some sites say that it can take up to age 3 to determine permanent eye colour. Hmmm...

Oh, and Sammy still isn't crawling. She has figured out how to get from a sitting position to a crawling position...and then she will 'walk' her hands out so that she's laying down on her tummy. I guess that's a start.

And she's cutting 5 teeth, all at the same time. Last night she slept like an angel for 11 hours, but the night before she was up every hour screaming, even with a dose of Motrin. Poor girl, I hope those teeth cut quickly.

Some pics.

Wow, looks like a wild party in my basement. Kylie was supposed to be sleeping on the couch, but looks like she sorta fell off...and you can only see Megan's toe sticking out from under the blanket.


This is how Sammy falls asleep every night. But first she pretends she's sleeping and then she pokes her head up and yells "Hi!" and then lays down again, laughing LOL. She does it every single night.


Jacob fell asleep on nice, cool floor after a really hot day. Sammy just laid down beside him to watch TV.







The pirate dress, ready just in time for Auntie Sheri's Pirate Party. She throws a big shindig every year in honour of International Talk Like a Pirate Day for the kids, and it's so much fun. This year it will be held a bit early, in August, so that the kids can have some water fun outside :D .

Pieces of Me Monday

Today, you get a 2 for 1: pics that include both Sammy and me (that is my foot and my shin in the background). Because really, she looks exactly like me...except for that fact that I'm 35 years older and overweight.

Gawd, that living room floor is really a mess. I'm going to fire that cleaning woman if she ever has the nerve to show her face around here again LOL.

Huh???

OK, I just looked through Jake's baby book. He was 11 months and 1 day when he crawled for the first time. Sammy will be 11 months tomorrow, giving her 2 days to learn how to crawl!!!!! Although, I realize that once she starts crawling then I have to really be careful and make sure that Jake picks up his Lego, Kylie doesn't leave her precious books laying around, etc...it's just one of those milestones that lets you know that your child is developing properly.

Ack! She is pushing herself backwards, sliding all over the floor right now. I wonder how much longer this will take???

Miquelon Lake

Man, I love this beach. Today was 32C, and although it was deathly hot (blech), the breeze coming off of the lake was soooo nice :D .


My husband the rocker :D .


Scott is the best moat digger...all the kids at the beach knew it :D .




Dirtiest feet *ever* .




First feel of sand. Sammy would pinch a bit of sand then look at her fingers, not sure what to make of it. Then she would find a little rock on the blanket, pick it up and go, "Mmmmmmm...." and try to stuff it in her mouth before I could catch her LOL.


First dip in the lake. Looks like she likes it :D .

Thursday :D

Well, Scott's holidays are slowly coming to a close. We didn't quite do all the things that we wanted to do (World Waterpark is still on the list) but we came pretty close. Kylie complained that our holidays were too scheduled and she was missing her friends, so we spent a couple of days around the house. She has been pretty good at playing with Jacob, either video games or on the trampoline, so he hasn't been too bored. Man, I wish there were some little boys living around here. I know, I've said that far too many times this summer I'm sure.

Today we went to Chuck E. Cheese, our annual summer trip. Holy crap can that place be expensive. We had a couple of coupons, for cheap pizza and 2 for 1 tokens, so that eased the cost a bit. Still...$40 doesn't go very far there. Good thing it's only once a year. But the kids had a blast...my favourite is the sketch booth, for some reason I love getting those pictures of the kids. It just captures that moment in time when Chuck E. Cheese was so enthralling to them. I love having those sketches on my fridge :D .

The community health centre just called to tell me that someone turned in the diaper bag that was stolen out of our van last weekend...it was found in the alley one block over from our house. Whomever turned it in found Sammy's immunization record in the pocket (oops) with the health centre's address on it. They didn't leave their name or phone number so I can't thank them...that's too bad. It was really nice of them to take the bag to the health centre. Although I'm not sure I want the bag back after someone rooted through my baby's possessions :( .

Sammy is napping and when she wakes up, I will take the kids to the library and then I think we will take the van for a bath. It's supposed to get up to 32C today (yuk), but good thing the sun is going down earlier...makes for cooler evenings.

Later, tater.

New concept!!!

Okay, I have an idea. Monday 'round these parts will now be known as:

"PIECES OF ME MONDAY"

...where I will post a picture of a me, albeit one that will never truly give you a good idea of what I look like. Someday, with persistence on your part, you will be able to piece together all of the pictures and when you see me in the mall or whatever you will screech, "Oh my gosh, it's Kylie's Mom!". Of course, a couple of you have already seen me, but I'm fairly sure that it was very forgettable.

So the first installment in Pieces of Me Monday:

This picture is two-fold. First, it lets you know what my fingers and forehead look like. Then it points out the huge purse that I now carry...complete with a spare diaper, cheerios, wipes, re-usable shopping bag, wallet, etc. I didn't want to carry a diaper bag, so this does the job. My purse used to be fun and sassy...now it's dull and matronly. I think I'm going to draw some skulls and crossbones on it with a silver Sharpie.

Some pics.

Mini-golf at Whitemud Amusement Centre. It was really fun, although there were a lot of people there. I golfed the first nine holes with the big kids while Scott looked after Sammy and then we traded for the last nine holes.


Getting ready to go-kart. Kylie was having no part of it, so we sat out and watched while Scott and Jake went for a ride.


Library Lips. Kylie got to pick a noisy prize at Stop 7 for the library game (after you read every night for a week, you move your game piece on a giant game board at the library). You're supposed to read for 15 minutes per day, but Kylie hasn't taken her nose out of her book for 3 days. She got 5 books in one anime series and has been reading non-stop since Tuesday.

We've been swimming lots this week: O'Leary, Millwoods and ACT Pools. O'Leary is my favourite, lots of toys and fun for big kids and little ones. Millwoods is dirty and the kiddie pool is too small and not near enough toys to go around. I don't know how anyone keeps track of their little kids in that retarded wave pool...I was really disappointed. Especially because we drove all the way across town to go there.

Today is Sunday, and it's my MIL's birthday. I have to go get her a gift (because Scott knew about it all year and FORGOT until today LOL) and then Sammy and I will go walk the mall, I think. Scott has taken Jake to play tennis, and Kylie has gone with my mom to the Heritage Days Festival. I remember being dragged there as a kid...I hated it. Too many people, lineups for food and drink way too long, super boring...but Kylie enjoys it so she will keep my mom company today.

Have a good day, everyone :D .

Sunday.

Well, I just went to the van to take Kylie and my mom to the Burns lot where they will catch the shuttle to Heritage Days...and I realized that my van had been broken into overnight :( . But the jokes on them...I don't own anything of value so they didn't get anything good. Still, there was a back-up diaper bag hidden under the baby seat with a few diapers and a sleeper in it, they got that :( . And I realized that all 3 kids immunization records were in there. And they got my Superstore loonie from the ashtray }:( . Big dummies...like Jake would say. We've been having trouble with the electronic locks lately, every time it rains they short out and then they lock and unlock over and over again. So we never actually know when the stupid doors are locked.

Now Jake is scared to go in the basement because he's scared of the bad men (probably crack heads). A new hurdle for us to overcome.

I am trying to focus on all the things that I have and how lucky I was that these losers didn't try to steal my van or vandalize it in any way. Of course we have every insurance known to man, but we all know that I wouldn't get what the van was worth if something happened.

Still sucks.