Christmas, is it over already?

A person spends over a month, if not more, baking, shopping, decorating for one day and then BOOM!! it is over in a blink of an eye.
We had a great Christmas this year. We were well prepared and had most of our shopping done by the first week in December. We still went out shopping lots but most days we didn't need to buy anything extra.
I was lucky enough to have holidays from work on the 20, 21 and 22. The kids last day from school was on the 22. It was very nice to have some day to myself. On the 20th, I spent the day visiting with friends which was really nice. On the Thursday, I cleaned house and did some baking. On the Friday, Shorty stayed home from school in the morning and then he and I went and picked up Boo and I took them to Burger King for lunch. Boo was worried because a lot of her friends bought her presents and she thought she had more time to do her shopping, so I took her out of school for the afternoon and we went shopping so she could buy her presents.
On the Saturday, Cor and I spent a lot of time shopping for groceries and odds and ends that we needed for Christmas supper. And then before I knew it, it was Christmas Eve. We spent the day cleaning house and boy did our house look clean. For the most part, we keep the place tidy but there always seems to be one or two rooms that we don't get to. Not this day! Excluding children's bedrooms, our house was clean from top to bottem.
Christmas Eve supper was of course at my mom and dads. There were 20 people there, from uncles to cousins that I don't see but once a year, to Cor's dad and my parents neighbour. It was enjoyable, but I was sure glad to come home at the end of the night. Then the having to wait until you are sure the kids are asleep before you bring out all the presents and stocking stuffers. We still didn't make it to bed until midnight.
Then it is up at the crack of dawn because Shorty is too excited to stay in bed. 6:15am and we are sitting on the couch drinking coffee while the kids open up all of their stocking stuffers. 7:00am and it is all over except for throwing all the wrapping paper away.
This year I had made up an excel file for the kids to add their Christmas wishes to whenever they thought of something. Each of them wanted one big thing and this year, we were able to get them what they wanted. Kat got a digital camera, Boo got a Nintendo DS and Shorty got a t.v. for his room. They were all tickled with their presents and had nothing to complain about at the end of the day.
I cooked Christmas supper for my parents and Cor's dad and it was a very laid back affair, with everyone in sweats and comfy clothes. Below you will see pics of everyone and of the tree the night before Christmas.
This is Christmas morning after all the presents were opened, breakfast eaten and the relaxing taking place before our parents showed up.

This is of course our Christmas tree. We bought a new one this year and are very happy with it. It seems like there are lots of presents under it, but we had to take some out when we went to my parents house for supper.
This is the present that Cor and I asked Santa for. Our parents went in together and got it for us. It is not staying in that spot, we plan to move it downstairs to our family room after Cor gets the flooring laid. We bought laminate to replace the really gross carpet that is down there.

This is Kat with her new digital camera. She has already burned out one set of batteries using the thing.

I actually had more pictures uploaded, but it never seems to work out for me. I guess I will have to add another post so that I can include the other two kids!

Christmas Outside Lights

Hello there,

I know, I know, it has been a very long time since I have posted. I can't believe it has been over a month since I last wrote anything. Where has the time gone?? I always think I am going to have time to post and then one thing leads to another and the day is gone.

By looking at the picture you can see how much snow we have already. Isn't that amazing? They said on the radio this morning that we haven't had this much snow at this time of the year in 60 years. I can believe it. The snow plows and city workers are putting in many long hours trying to get our city streets cleaned off.

I have been a busy girl. Between working at the clinic (40 hours a week), volunteering on the community association, selling my Epicure spices,scrapbooking and trying to get ready for Christmas, I am amazed that I haven't short circuited.

Work is going very well. We are in the busy season again, well at least for me. My list of clients that I schedule appointments for on a monthly basis is up to over 100 again. Last Wednesday I went to a course that was called "Managing your Emotions in the Work Place" It was a good course and I did learn quite a bit. The instructor was very knowledgable and had some very good tips and tricks on how to keep your emotions in check, from being angry, upset or snotty or rude. I am not normally the last 2 but the first 2 are sometimes a bit of an issue. But I am learning to be more patient and with that comes more calmness and the ability to let things go a lot easier. The really good news is that my Christmas holidays were approved. Since I got last year what I wanted, I had to give a bit, so I asked for the 20-22 off, which gives me a full 7 days off :) teehee, I am really looking forward to it, since the kids will still be in school when I am holidays, I will actually have 6 hours a day to myself!!

The community association is all right. We were supposed to have a craft/book fair in November that went bust when we couldn't get all the tables rented. Then we were thinking of doing a Breakfast with Santa but that fell through because we didn't get organized in time to do it. I just finished putting the newsletter to bed (wonderful newpaper jargon :) and it is now at the printers. It should be ready by the end of this week. If you would like to see it, I would be happy to email you the pdf format.

I am still selling my spices. Tomorrow night I have a fairly large party booked. It is going to be held at a school. My friend is the food coordinator at a school nearby and the people at the school have agreed to let her do this party since she uses a lot of the spices in her cooking. My goal is to have a $1000.00 party which would give me a good chunk of change to do the little bit of Christmas shopping I have left.

Tonight was to be my last scrapbooking class of the year. Unfortunately, I had to miss it so that I could get ready for my party tomorrow night. I am almost done getting ready, just have to get everything put in one place so it is easy to pack up and go tomorrow. I am still doing lots of scrapbooking and I have even branched into making cards. Card making is a great way to do a craft when you don't feel motivated enough to do a scrapbooking page. I should try and take a picture of a page and see if I can upload it to this site.

As for Christmas, I think I am getting close to being ready. We are almost done shopping for everyone and we were smart this year and wrapped most gifts as soon as they came into the house. The gifts are not labled this year, instead we put a little sticker in each corner that is numbered. On my palm pilot, I have the list of who gets each numbered package and what it is. This way no one my sweet, darling children are not able to snoop like they have done in the past. It will be wonderful for them to actually be surprised on Christmas morning.

I think I will do some holiday baking this year. It is not something that I normally enjoy doing but Boo loves to bake and I want to do some baking with her.

Well, that is my life right now in a nutshell. Not all that exciting but it is a busy one.

The Day After Halloween

Well, it is 7:06am and Kat is off to work with her dad. It is go to work with your parent day for grade 9 kids and she decided that she wanted to go with her dad. Which is just as well because I am sure at my work she would be bored to tears, even though she would have gotten to participate in more than just my job. She would have been able to hang out with a physiotherapist, an exercise therapist and an occupational therapist. But Nooooo, she decided to go and hang out with a bunch of male mechanics who I am sure are going to teach her new ways to swear. I just wonder how dirty she is going to be by the time she gets home.
Halloween here was very nice. Kat went to a friends house to watch movies and hang out, Boo had 5 friends that came here and made this home base for their trick or treating. Since they figure this is their last year, they would go out with a bang. I have pictures, but will wait and see about posting them, since it has their faces in it. Boo went as sort of a witch princess type thing. Her friends all had great costumes too. One girl had on a poodle skirt, so was sort of a girl from the 50's. Because of the windchill last night (about -15C), they were all bundled up in jackets, hats and mitts. At one house, the lady made some snotty comment about how this girl wasn't dressed up. How rude was that? At least she made an effort and it wasn't her fault that you couldnt tell what her costume was because of the all the extra layers they had to have on. But they still had fun. It is amazing how loud 6 girls can be. They made it around our crescent and came back with full bags. I made them all strawberry tea to warm up and then they were off to one other crescent to do some more trick or treating.
Shorty went as an army guy. I had yesterday aftenoon off so when I picked him up from school, I had to run to Walmart to drop off a prescription and so we were able to find him an army hat to go with his outfit. He was sooooo excited. His dad was to be home by 5 and by 4:00 and then 4:30 and then by 4:45, he was all dressed in his jacket, mitts, etc and ready to go. Each time I had to tell him to get undressed as he had to wait for his dad. He and his dad ended up doing three crescents in all and he has a huge stash of candy.
We only got about 50 kids this year, which I guess has been the norm for us for quite some time. We live on the inside part of the crescent. My best friend lives on the other side of the crescent but is on the outside. She got over 100 kids. Kids just seem to stay on one side and never cross over. We have quite a bit of candy left over and I think the weather yesterday had a lot to do with it. I didn't get any kids after 8:30pm at all.
So that was our Halloween. Cor took the camera to work with him so that he could get some shots of Kat. A before shot, where she is all nice and clean, and then an after shot where I am sure she will be all grease and grime covered. The pictures I took last night are still on the camera so I should be able to put them up all at the same time.

OUTDOOR HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS

Well, we finally got our front yard decorated last week. It was sooooo cold outside, let me tell you. The next day all of our hard work was covered by snow. It has since melted, but too bad the cold hasn't left us.
Usually Shorty wants to help with this kind of thing but he decided to go and play at a friends house, so we had Boo helping us instead. We were very happy with the results, but let me tell you when you are wearing gloves, fake spiderweb doesn't stick to anything except your gloves.

Canadian Thanksgiving

It is the first day of my three day weekend. Our weekend for turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie (which I don't like).
This is the weekend where we pull out all of dead plants and winterize our yard. I am actually quite amazed we have not had any snow yet. It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend with lots of sun. I am looking foward to getting my yard ready for winter and to get rid of all the dead plants.
My mom is giving me a ton of lily bulbs to plant as well so we should have lots of great flowers in the summer. Now I just have to figure out where to put them all. We are also going to cut down our clematis. The silly thing exploded this year and it is pulling down the metal fences we had put there for them to climb on. Unfortunately, the trellis were not tall enough since we didn't think the thing would go nuts on us. So we want to start fresh in the spring and train it a bit better.
I am also going to try and work on the community newsletter this weekend. I was voted in as director of publications on our community and I get to put out a newsletter 4 times a year. I am excited about it as I get to use Microsoft Publisher. One of my favorite programs. I am also working on learning how to use powerpoint and I have been making a presentation for Epicure Spices, the home based business that I have. That has also been fun. I never knew how easy it was to use it and have been a bit wary of trying it. I have had in on my computer for years but never tried it. My kids have used it and have actually done power point presentations for school. So I figured if they could do it, so could I.
So it should be a busy weekend. I also have to make appetizers to take to my parents house for thanksgiving supper tomorrow. My mom is cooking the turkey that I bought, so I don't feel too guilty about not cooking this year.

My Pets

I thought it would be nice to add some pics of my pets, since I haven't decided if I am going to post my kids, which I probably will at some point and time. This is Rosey. She is about 3 years old and we got her as a kitten from a friend of Boo's. She is the meanest cat you might ever meet. She looks so innocent sitting there. Which is true since no one is touching her. But wait, try and see if you will have any fingers left if you try and pet her.
This is Rosey's favorite thing to do. Lay wherever she feels like it. It doesn't matter what the surface is, it could be a hard floor, carpet, bag, shoe or one of Cor's shirts. It just doesn't matter.
This is Rosey and Georgia. Georgia is THE cat. We have had her since we moved into the house over 7 years ago. We are not sure how old she was when we got her because she came from a farm. That farm had about 20 cats and when we got her, we actually thought she was just very young cat. But she never grew. We think that the overpopulation of the cats at the farm caused the mothers to give birth too often, resulting in smaller babies. We love to have Georgia lay with us except when she sneezes, which is often. Unfortunately, when she sneezes, her whole body shakes and she has been known to slide across the laminate floor if she happens to be sitting there when she has one of her fits.
Have you ever seen a more comfortable cat? Neither Cor nor I can lay on the couch without having her for company. If we are each on a couch, she will jump between us because she can't decide who has a better lap to lay in.

As you can tell, we are a family of cat people. We did have a dog but we were unable to keep him due to the fact that we both work and it was very hard on him.
So we will remain a cat house. Shorty has always wanted a turtle or a hamster but I have tried to explain to him what would happen if we had those kind of pets if they came into our house. That they would end up like the salamander we tried to have last year.

Shorty found a salamander last year at the farm. He brought it home and we put it in a platic cage that was meant to hold bugs. It was quite a strudy cage though. Well, we left that poor salamander alone over night in the living room and when we got up,the cage was knocked off the table and there was nothing left. Both cats looked very innocent and to this day Shorty refuses to believe that the cats would have had a midnight snack.

So these are our two pets. Stay tuned for the next installment of our two legged pets, aka our children :)

Rain, Rain Go Away

It has been raining here for almost 2 weeks. We have had maybe 2 1/2 days of sunshine in that whole time. You know its bad when the weatherman comments that the yellow disk in the sky is actually the sun. Too bad we only get to see it for about 2 hours at a shot. We are becoming very bummed out here.
But at least I have lots of things going on that is keeping me busy. My scrapbooking class started last week. Every Monday night for 2 hours, I get to work on my pages. I am very into scrapbooking now. I have almost a full book done and still have only done about half of my previous pictures. I just finished picking about 70 pictures before the class started. The only downfall is the amount of stuff I take to class. But is worth it because I enjoy it so much.
I have also joined a womens self defense class. I had thought about taking it but decided against it for financial reasons. Then my best friend D offered to let me take it for free. She had joined it and since the instructor was already paid for and the class wasn't full, she thought it would be fine to let a few freebies in, me being one of them. It is a great class to take and I recomend anyone who lives in a city, to take the class if they have one available to them. But be warned, it is a painful class. You actually learn and execute the moves. My wrists and knees hurt so bad at the end of the class from falling and having my arms twisted a bunch of different ways. But I think it is a good class to take to learn at least a few moves so that you can be a little prepared if you are ever attacked. It also is a bit of exercise and I know for sure that is something that I can use.
We have already had a frost here so I am hoping that next weekend I will be able to pull up all my plants and get my beds ready for winter. I have a feeling the snow will be here earlier than normal this year, which will probably mean close to Thanksgiving. This is okay though, because since school started, I put myself in fall mode and basically ignore anything outdoors. I have so much other stuff on the go that I am happy with it.
Well, enough for now. More at a later date!!

Another week closer to fall

I got my new computer a couple of days ago. It is always amazing when I get a new computer, how much faster it is than the last one. My last one is on its last legs and hopefully Kat will get some use out of it before it completely dies. The a drive and the cd drive no longer work and I haven't decided if it is worth taking it in for someone to look at. The real crapper is that I can't get anything off of the old computer to put on my new computer because I can't burn a disk. All 900+ pics have to stay on it until I can figure out what to do. I am thinking of buying one of those little keychain dumahickies that will plug into a usb port and I can try and move all my stuff that way. I should have printed off my email addresses, so if you are reading this, send me a quick email and I can add you to my list again!!
So there won't be any pictures for a bit until I can get this all figured out.
But I will still get on and tell you what is going on.

Almost a whole month gone by already

Holy cow, I didn't think it had been that long since I had posted anything. The sad thing is that there is not that much to tell.
The kids have started back at school. Kat is now in grade nine. The first morning was just for the grade nine kids and it started off with a breakfast for the kids and the parents. The sheet said pancake breakfast (yuck) but I went anyway for Kat. I wanted to be there for her. Plus my boss at work let me start one hour later that morning so that I could do all of that stuff. We get there for the breakfast and we are one of the first families there. So we walk around a little bit and then we go to the cafeteria to get a table. When we walked in there, the first person we meet is the principle who happens to be my bosses' sister!! I knew that they were sisters before, I just thought there would be so many people there that not only would I not meet her, I didn't even think I would see her.
The breakfast turned out to not be pancakes, but a fabulous treat of fresh cut fruit, bagels and cream cheese, pastries, home made cinamon buns, yogurt and coffee and juice. I was in heaven. I never ever eat breakfast, but I had my fill of everything except the yogurt.
At this time I had left Boo and Shorty at home and they also had to register for school that morning. I was impressed that I had only gotten one phone call the whole time I was gone. So I get home, pick up the other two and off we go to school #2. Boo is in grade 8 this year and she has the new teacher to the school for grade 8. Mr. B was actually in Kat's class last year at a teacher in training and this is his first job. I am sure that he will be great. She seemed happy that all of her friends are in the same class as her. They always put all the kids together that are in band and of course most of her friends are in band the same as her. This is her third year playing the flute.
Shorty is in grade five this year and I am so happy about the teacher that he has. Mr. W has been there for several years and has always been so great to my kids. When Kat broke her foot in grade 3, he was the one who picked her up and carried her into the school. I have pics of Kat at her grade eight grad with him so that I can scrapbook it as him being her saviuor :)
So Kat has to take the bus to and from school. It is a city bus and each way is going to cost me $1.35. I bought 20 tickets the other night and it cost me 27 bucks!!! I am not at all happy about this. I have a phone call into the school board to complain. Not because the tickets are so much, although that is a kicker, but because the other school board sells the tickets to their students for half price. Of course I have not heard back from the school board giving me any kind of explanation as to why they cannot do the same.
But she is happy. I am happy for her. She has classes with some of her friends and she is taking classes that will help her decide what kind of classes she will want to take as she gets into higher grades. The only two classes that I pushed for were french and band. She has been playing the clarinet since grade 5 and is quite good at it. I have paid a lot for her clarinet and I am not ready for her to give it up yet. The french is more just to have the second language and since we are in Canada, might as well go with the other national language, eh? LOL
Well, I think my next step is going to be getting my pics off of my camera, finally.

More Holidays

Well I am now officially on my second round of holidays. And after the week I had at work, I am so ready for my week off.
Today we are going to the ex. The kids are very excited. Since it doesn't open until noon, this morning will be perfect time for everyone to pitch in and clean the house. The kids will have to help if they want to go and this way it will take way less time for the house to become clean.
On Monday morning we are off to the lake with my parents. We are going to Memorial Lake, which is a beautiful lake. Perfect for everyone. They have a fantastic beach and swimming area and there are lots of fish so my parents can go fishing. Our campsite that we have reserved is perfect for us because it is right next to the play area for the kids to play on, the beach is only 2 minutes away and the boat parking area is right there so we can keep an eye on the canoe and the motorboat.
I will take lots of pics and put them up when we get back.
Marian, in your question about using ice or heat, I would recomend using ice right after you have had a treatment. Ice reduces swelling and inflamation which will occur right after you have had a treatment. Then after that, do what you think feels right. Some say do ice for 10 minutes and then do heat for 10 minutes. But do whatever makes it feel better. On my back, I use ice to reduce the swelling when it is sore and then I lay in a hot bathtub after to make it feel better.
I would also ask the chiropractor if he thinks physiotherapy might help you out at all. I would be interested to hear what he thinks about that.

I can't believe it is Friday already and my holidays are soon to be over. Good thing I have another week after only having to work for 4 days.
This weeks we helped Corey's dad paint his decks, garage and all the window frames. I was so sick of painting by the 3rd day. But he paid us all which was so nice of him. The kids now all have spending money for the ex next Saturday.
Katie finished her babysitting job and made a ton of money. I am making her put 200 in the bank and then she can spend the rest.
Tomorrow we are going to Meeting Lake with friends. We have lots to do today to get ready. It is amazing how much stuff you have to take even though we are only going for 1 night.
I finally found my perennial book that I bought last year. I can go through it and plan what I want to buy more of now. It is a great reference book that is made for Canadian Prairies. It is a guide of the top 100 perennials for our area. Which to me is perfect. I have already learned the hard way about a few perennials and have lost some, but that was more from planting them in the wrong place. I now know the next time I buy an astilbe, it will go in the front of the house in the shade, not against the house on the south side where the last plant fried to death.

Holidays TeeHee

Well, I am on day 2 of my 10 day holidays. Hubby still had to work this weekend and then we are off together after this. Katie is babysitting for the her last week full time, her last day will be Friday. She is happy about all the money that she is making. I am making her put over half away in the bank account and then she is allowed to spend the rest of it on herself. She is having fun and she is a good babysitter so at least I know she will always have work while she is a teenager.
This week we are going to go and paint my father in law's deck and garage so that the other two kids can earn some extra cash. We are going to be going to the ex, so at least they will all have some spending money.
We also want to go to the Forrestry Farm as they have some new animals, including a tiger. Would love to see that. Then we are hoping to go with friends to the lake on Saturday for one night, just to get away. Hopefully the weather will be good.
We had a doozy of a thunderstorm last night. We even got some hail. will have to go out in a bit and see if any of my plants were damaged. The only thing that I am really worried about are my pepper plants which all have little peppers on them.

More Outdoor Pictures

This is my beebalm. One of the few perennials I bought last year that actually made it to this year. Beside it that you can hardly see is a weed perennial that I had gotten from a friend. As of yesterday, it is no longer there.
This is my small flower bed. The only perennial is the rosebush and it is a funky rosebush. There is one stem that likes to grow to four feet tall while the rest of it stays small like a bush. This flower bed is next to the deck and we are thinking that maybe by the end of this summer, we will be able to afford to put a pond in.
This is one of the three of my lilies. I am exited already about the fall because my mom has decided she doesn't want to keep any of her lilies and she is giving them all to me.
This is a broader view of the back flower bed, although not all of it, just the centre section. Like I said, as of yesterday, the flowering yellow plant is gone as well as the flowering white plants. My flowerbed looks so empty now.
This is a daylily that I got for Mother's Day. I am quite proud of the fact that it bloomed this year.

Backyard Pictures 2006

These are my morning glories that came back from last year. I didn't know that they were going to come back so I ended up planting others as well. I was able to transplant some to another area and they are coming there quite well too, although they look a little skimpy.

This is one of my lilies. We have a total of three different kinds right now. I am going to be getting some more from my mom in the fall, and she has some gorgeous ones. Although I kept the little cards that came with them, they didn't make it past the winter so I have no idea what the names are.

These are of the deck from the backyard. Corey built the trellis last year from scratch. We planted four clematis last year and only two survived. We didn't know that this kind of plant grew from last years stalks and were very lucky that we ran out of time and never got to cut them back. We also never expected it to get so out of control like it did. We are thinking that we will have to cut it back in the fall to start fresh next year.

Picture of the deck from the back yard.

Backyard Pictures 2005

I wanted to post my pictures from the backyard from last year because we were so proud of it. NOW we are not. Not many of my perennials came back from last year which was really disappointing, not to mention the money we had spent. I am going to post this years pictures and hopefully get some feedback about what I can do to change things.

These are my nasturtiums that I planted from seed. My friends said I planted them too late in the season and look what happened. I ended up with mutant plants

These are my morning glories. I put about five plants there and they covered up the gas meter perfectly by the end of the season. I loved them.

This a view of the deck from the backyard.

These are the morning glories I planted. Before there had been a wild rose bush that we cut out, you can see if coming back. Also there are my sundrops which never came back this year.

My First Blog

Wow! My first blog. My friend sent me her blog all about her garden. I knew there were blogs out there, but I didn't know they could be this cool. Now I can post my pictures for my friends to see as well. I am happy about this.